Japan week #29

Hey!! So...First things first... I'm SOOOO sorry about last week. Blame Riku Kun, my investigator!! He had a HUGE English test coming up, that he took just this last Sunday, and since I kinda sorta happen to be a native English speaker, I was helping him practice for it. And I didn't watch the time. :( SOOO SORRY!! But this week I have properly managed my time, and have time to write. ;)

    So, last week's big even was music night. We caught a ride to Sapporo with the AP's in their big van Friday afternoon and arrived in Sapporo at around 8:00 pm. And it was a blast. Never thought I'd road trip as a missionary. ;) It was a blast hanging out with the elders, listening to motab, telling Asai Choro to crank the electronic kid songs...great times. :) And Music Night was FLIPPING AMAZING!! Like, it was amazing. We spent all Saturday doing rehearsals, and then had the performance that night. And we rocked it. Everyone's music was superb, everyone was having a great time, and after the performance was over I spent the night in the mission home again. We went to church in Sapporo, and everyone in the ward was saying how this year was the best music night of them all, so we were happy to hear that. ;) And then we caught a train home and went to sleep. ;)

   This week has been pretty normal. Just lots of finding, teaching, and having fun. Nothing really too special or what not happened. Riku Kun is progressing well though. Our first lesson with him was crazy. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he was asking some DEEP questions, and just lots of questions that have no relevance to being saved. But our second lesson with him when we taught the restoration, was VASTLY different. He didn't ask as many questions, and he was really reflective. I think he went home, prayed or read the BoM, or something, and felt something. Because he acted like he was really thinking about how this is relevant to him, so he's really coming along. Plus he still has yet to miss a week of church since the beginning of January, so that's FLIPPING awesome. :)

  We also got to meet with Sato San again. She is incredibly amazing, and is so prepared. She's what we call a 'kinjin' out here. A golden person. SUPER prepared. But this time we met with her, talked about church, because she still hasn't been, and she ended up just basically bearing testimony to us for the next hour. She was talking about how when she thinks that if Joseph Smith didn't do what he didn't, no one would know this gospel, and missionaries wouldn't exist, and she wouldn't have what she haves now, and she gets SO GRATEFUL that he did that. She was also talking about she loves Christ, and how he's always there to protect us and love us. It was incredible. I told her that since we're missionaries that we're the ones who are supposed to do the teaching, but that this time I was taught from her. My testimony really grew, especially about Christ's love. It was such a special hour crammed in her 2x3 foot Genkan. I will never forget the impact she's had on me, and I am so blessed to have been a part of her conversion. Her problem now though is that she can't come to church. She really wants to, but she has to go and help her invalid mother every Sunday during church. And we can't tell her to not do that...So we need a miracle there. But that was our week! Transfers are next week! NUTS, right?? Love you all!

 Love, Mike.

 P.S. The mail man here all ride mopeds. ALL YEAR ROUND. No matter the conditions. And walking to the church we saw one EAT IT HARD on the street, cars flying everywhere to avoid him, it was NUTS. No one got hurt though! 

Japan week #27

Haha!!  SO! I'm SO sorry about the late emails! I HATE emailing late, but sometimes we can't help it. Plus this transfer is crazy and what not with all our traveling, so I'm very sorry for emailing late! I don't think it should happen again soon! BUT! Just so ya know, if you don't get an email for me when you are supposed to, and you don't get an email from President Evan's, you can know that I'm just having lots of fun, and working way hard, and having a wonderful experience, and you can expect an email soon. ;) Haha!! 

  So, I was trying to think of something to do for Dad's birthday...but then I though, I'm on the other side of the world, I can't do nothing!! ;) So I thought I'd just say LOVE YOU DAD!!! Hope you had too much fun and ate too much! ;) 

  Crazy that you guys have been getting so much snow this year! It seems like I leave and then it all comes! It doesn't beat Hokkaido though! ;) It's only famous for having WAY too much snow. ;) This week we got to go to Sapporo for zone conference, and we also got to go to the yuki matsuri! The world famous snow festival! :D Zone Conference was CRAZY. It was a 3 zone combined gig, so we got to see TONS of missionaries, which is ALWAYS fun! :D I got to hang out with Elder Lee the whole time. :) He and I are attached at the hip it feels like when we meet each other at big events. It's crazy. :P Zone Conference was crazy fun. President Evans gave a sweet workshop on faith, balanced dendo efforts, and new member retention, it was way great. :) And we had the mental health and physical health Elders come from Tokyo to do workshops. The physical health workshop was dull. :P But I got to meet the doctor who helped me when I was WAY sick in Muroran. He said he was way worried about me because I was so sick for so long, plus I was complaining about a sore neck, so he was way concerned that it was very serious, so we had a fun chat. :) But the mental health workshop was fun. ;) Let's not go crazy! It was great. :) 

  The snow festival was AMAZING. Like, MIND BLOWING EPIC. I wish you guys could ahve been there. I have never seen such better use of snow in my life. Some of this structures were HUNDREDS of feet tall, like complete buildings made of snow. It was insane. And they had epic light shows on some of the sculptures that made it look like other stuff was happening and what not, it was flipping intense. :) And we got to meet a guy from Oregon who is working on a sculpture for the big contest. He was an old guy, Grandpa's age, and he was SUCH a farm guy, it was great. ;) Talking to a crazy old man playing in the snow asking us if we're making any headway on the heathens. ;) WAY funny. And that was basically our week this week, we didn't get much regular dendo done because we were in Sapporo this week. 

  What I've realized this week though is that I have REALLY fallen in love with Japan and the people. I was watching one of our deacons give a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday, and I was just SO happy, and then I realized that all too soon it'll be gone! I just about died in Sacrament meeting. :P Missions are nuts. Just saying. ;) 

  I love you all, and pray for you all the time! Have a great week!

   Love, Mike

Japan week #26

Hello!

    Sorry this is late, again. :P Sometimes craziness happens on our pdays, and so we push back our emailing time. BUT! I still have it, so that's nice. ;)

    Thank you so much for getting me mah ukulele chords and what not! :D I'm very excited to start slaying it! I know a couple of simple songs and what not, and I want to broaden what I know, so thanks so much!

Very excited! :) So, I made a video that talks about the cheese, but it's only the SD card I'm currently using, so you won't see it for a bit. :P Sorry! BUT! The cheese was amazing. My mind was blown, and when Elder Lee found out those bricks in my package was cheese, he was like, 'AWWW MAN!! You should have opened it in Muroran so I could have eaten it!!' But yeah, it was flipping amazing. I'm just about done with the pepper jack, the last brick of cheese left, and then it's all gone. :( But boy has it lit up my world. I eat a bit every morning with my eggs. :)

    Last week was a blast. :) We didn't have too much happen, but it was still good. Now that I think about it, nothing really special happened. We just did lots of dendo! We did find the most HIPSTER cafe in all of Obihiro though, it's great. One of our investigators, Yamamoto San, has some friends that own this cafe. And since Yamamoto San is a counselor, she goes to their cafe once a week for a few hours to provide free counseling for people that come that want it. Way nice of her, desho? But so we occasionally go when she's there because she isn't crazy busy doing counseling, and it turns into a good opportunity to teach her, and the people that work at this cafe. The owners are way, how do you describe them...They're way nice people, and they're way like, deep thinkers, I guess might be one way to say it. But they love learning about people, and talking, and so they always like to hear about what we do and about our religion. So it's way cool. But yeah, this cafe is nuts. It's small, and the hipster vibes are CRAZY. Everything in it is hand made I'm sure, an d it just has that feel of being a low key underground kind of no one knows it place. :P It's great. Haha!!!

    So this transfer is going to be CRAZY. In just about an hour from now we're catching a bus to Sapporo for Zone Conference. It's a three zone combined deal, so it's going to be a mad house. And we're not coming back home till Friday morning! So we have effectively three days of dendo this week wiped out!! :O OH! In Sapporo though, tonight, or tomorrow after zone conference, we're going to the Yuki Matsuri in Sapporo. The really famous snow festival every year!! :D :D STUUUUUPID excited, I'll take lots of pictures and video for you all. :) And then next we have a zone training meeting in Kushiro that we have to travel to, and then that weekend we have to go to Sapporo AGAIN for Sister Evans's music night, and we won't be back till Sunday night probably.

     We're missing church in our ward, which is like, CRAZY NO NO for missionaries, but we've got the ok because of the music night. The week after that will be normal, but then the following week is music night again, AND transfers... We're going to be running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and it's going to make this transfer fly by SO FAST. Not sure if I'm excited for that or not. I was thinking a lot this morning about the fact that I've been here for over 6 months now, and that I'm already a quarter done, and that scares me!! I don't wanna be done! I don't even wanna be close to done! Japan has stolen mah heart! ;) Haha!!

  I'm very glad to hear that everyone is doing well. :) Sounds like everyone is having a grand time, which I love to hear! Know that I'm doing fantastic, I'm being blessed everyday, and that I am loving this work. :)

  I love you all! Can't wait to hear from you all again! LOVES YOU!

      Mike