Happy Birthday to Maegen
The whole KitKat thing is ignoble. I just wanted a 3rd thing to write in
the subject line and that was the first thing I saw.
So, We have had transfers!!!!!! I am now officially on my 13th transfer,
and I only have 6 months left... Not quite sure how that happened, but I guess I
am half way down the down hill now... dang it...
Anyway, we did have transfers, and now the situation here is different. I am
still in Kitami, but Elder Vanishi has left. Sad day. This time I am no longer
with a bean. Whooooooooo Hooooooooo. Not that I don't love all my son's (all 3
of them...), but It feels like it's been forever since I've been with a
missionary that isn't a bean (new missionary). All though, I am still with someone that is
working hard on there Japanese, It still feels different, and different is what I
was looking for. I am now with none other than the Elder Thurston. It is THE
Elder Thurston. None of you have heard of him... oh. Well he is from Colombia.
Yeah not even America. He if from South America. Even though he had lived in
Utah for the last 10 years... lol. He was born, and lived in Columbia until he
was 9 years old, and then they moved to Utah, and as he puts it "They had the
pool waiting for me to get baptized right off the plane." He is really cool. He
is currently on his 5th transfer. That means he was in the MTC with Elder Pace.
They were in the same district, so I have heard lot's of stories. For those of
you that know Elder Stone, (Mitchell Stone) who is also out here, he was
companions with him in the MTC. He is way chill, and I've loved getting to work
with him these past few days, and am looking forward to the rest of the
transfer. He has spent his mission so far in 2 area's. His last one was Ebetsu,
down near Sapporo, and his first one was in Arcadia California. They had
problems with him getting his Visa, so he had to hang out in Cali for 2
transfers. Because of that, he forgot a lot of the Japanese that he learned at
the MTC, but he is working to get it back, and is fearless in talking to people.
He is a lot of fun.
Elder Vanishi went down to Kushiro (not to far away) to hang out with my
old comp Elder Thompson. They should have a good time. Update on some others,
Elder Bailey is still hanging out with Elder Santos in Muroran. They are
wrecking it over there (this is a good thing), and I'm really proud of him. And then Elder Pace, moved
from his area up north, down into the city. He is in an area called Shiroishi
(white rock) with 2 elders that I haven't met yet... Yeah I'm getting to that
point... anyway he is with Elder's Tamura, and Straghn. One is (mission wise)
older, and the other is younger. I think he's still Junior though... Not quite
sure how all that works. He killed it up in his old area though (another good thing), so much so,
that they decided to send a bean up there with him. My only other companion that
is still in the mission, is Elder Birch... dang it... he is now Zone Leader in
Moiwa.
So the cool miracle that occurred this week. On Tuesday, after we had gotten
our transfer calls, and after we had finished District Training Meeting, we went
out to eat with Elder Tokuzawa, who was going home. We were going to got to a
delicious sushi place called Toriton, but it was almost an hour wait, and so we
went to some weird random place across the street. While we were sitting there
eating, a man comes up to our table, and starts speaking to his daughter who is
coming up to him. My thought at this point, was that it was someone Elder Tait
had contacted. But Elder Tait was thinking the opposite. Turns out, it is a
family of 5. They just returned to Japan from America 2 weeks ago. They were
living there for 3 years, while the Dad taught at this school for Japanese
children that were going to go back to Japan eventually. His kids are 9, 7, and
4, and they all speak English just like a native speaker would. He told us, that
he saw us at Toriton, and was going to come say hey, but then we were gone. He
was disappointed, but he saw us walk into the place across the street, and so
he drove over, just to walk in and say hi. They came to Eikaiwa (English Class) that night, and
then to church just yesterday. We had a lesson with them after church, and now
they have baptismal dates. They have been super prepared to receive the gospel,
and I'm confident that the prompting to say hi to us was from the spirit. They
currently have dates for the 30th of this month. I'm excited to watch them
progress. It was such a miracle, and I am so grateful. I look at it, and think,
they had been prepared, but their English wasn't good enough to listen to the
lessons in English. However the second they got back to Japan God sent them to
us. I feel such responsibility. I'm glad that I can be here to take it, and that
God trusts me to do it. It's so cool to see all the miracles he sends us
everyday. I can't wait for another week full of them. We get to go down to
Kushiro this week, and learn from our zone leaders. Then this week we get to see General Conference. Way excited. I love these opportunities to learn from our
leaders.
Challenge for all. I have not yet seen conference, but we did have an
interesting lesson last Sunday about penguins. There once was a group of
penguins. These penguins all decided to have a big conference. They all walked
to the gathering point, and once they were there, they saw 1 penguin come flying
in. He flew right into the middle of all of them, and they were all amazed.
"teach us how to fly" they said, he then proceeded to show them how to take off,
fly, land, etc. They were all able to do it, and had fun flying around together.
At the end of the conference, they all began WALKING home. Moral of the story. You
have just been to "conference" you have just listened to talks that were prepared
by the leaders of the church, whilst praying for revelation for every member of
the church both collectively and personally. Don't just through away the things
you've learned. You just learned how to fly. Don't be satisfied with walking
home. I'll try my best not to either.
Well I think that about sums up the week. Thanks to everyone for reading
these everyweek, and dealing with some of the annoying things that I may say. I
love you all and pray for you every day. I guess we'll see you all soon.
愛しているよ
エリオット長老より
