04/19/2015
Hey everyone. What a week. I'll just describe it day by day.
Monday.
P-Day. We went to an Iceberg museum, which actually turned out to be really lame, but I got a cool souvenir so it worked out just fine. Then we went and did some shopping for the apartment. On the way to the shopping areas we saw this big slide in a park, and of course we just had to go down it, so we did. It was fun. Yes I still am a child. Deal with it. Kids have more fun in life anyway. So then we went and got our shopping done, and came home to drop stuff of and go start Dendo, but we get to the door and lo and behold, my keys are gone. I have my keys on a keychain that has a zipline, and the line had busted at the slide. We didn't realize until it was to late. So we dropped our stuff off, and hopped on our bikes to try to find the keys before it got dark. We got up to the slide and they weren't there. We went and checked all the other places we had gone to, but they weren't there either, I decided we should go to the police station and see if anyone had turned some keys in. We went, and there hadn't been (at this time we were also in a hurry to try to catch the train to Kitami) but we did get a description of the keys written down, and left our contact info with the officer, who turned out to be really cool. As we were leaving, he of course asked us what we were doing in abashiri, so we talked, and somehow the topic got changed to Football, and then this women came up (I didn't see her) and scared the crap out of me. In being startled, I started to fall down, I kicked the door, almost hit her, ran into our bikes, knocked them over, and fell onto the ground next to the bikes. This lady was probably wondering why these drunk Americans were being let out of the police station. So I'm on the ground, and the cop starts talking to her, and she says "hey I found these keys...." He gets them, looks at them, and goes "woah" shows them to me, and Elder Francis, and then takes us all back in. We start to fill out a ton of paper work, Elder Francis says a quick prayer of gratitude, and we get my keys back. Then we proceed to teach the cop about priesthood blessings. My oil vial was on the key chain, and he asked about it, so we taught him. Then he started asking us other questions, and we wound up teaching him about the word of wisdom. So yup. We missed our train, but I got my keys back. So that was my miracle for this week.
Tuesday.
We went to Kitami, and did splits this day. I went with Elder Kojima, and we visited this crazy guy named Fujino San. He was really funny. He believes in a religion called "S Sensei" they believe that Jesus Christ wasn't really "Jesus Christ" he was a good person, but the real Savior, and prophet is S Sensei, who is currently living in Okinawa. Basically we didn't even get to teach a lesson. We sat there while he told us all these things about S Sensei. He had 6 or 7 notebooks, all full of quotes fro, S Sensei. I'll admit, while sitting there listening to him, I actually fell asleep. Oops. The best part is though that he didn't even notice. Lol.
Anyway after that we came back and went to teach English class in Kitami.
Wednesday.
We went to Obihiro this day for Zone Training Meeting (ZTM) we left from Kitami, on a local bus, and went to Rikubetsu. Come to find out, Rikubetsu is the coldest place in Hokkaido, making it the coldest place in Japan. We then went from Rikubetsu to Obihiro. It was not a fun ride at all. Several hours in local buses. Not nice traveling buses like we take to Sapporo, but awful, cramped, regular buses. But we did make it to Obihiro safe and sound. It was down pouring however, so we were running to and from buildings. Apparently in Obihiro there is a place that sells famous "Butadon" (A Japanese dish that is basically pork on rice) so we decided to try to get that. We wound up going to this place that was very fairy like. We all got expensive Butadon that was small, and while it didn't taste bad, it was pretty normal. Nothing special about it. So disappointed, we headed to the Obihiro apartment.
Thursday.
We went to Obihiro Church for ZTM. We learned how to Dendo better, and received iPads. YAY!!!!
Already they are so useful. So many books that are just not needed anymore. We don't have to carry around scriptures nearly as often anymore. We also have several videos and other things at our disposal. Including an amazing Japanese tool called Imiwa. It is an app that helps with study so much. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to learn Japanese. After ZTM we went to a restaurant called baby face planet. We all ordered Omlet Rice, that turned out to be HUGE!! It was so hard to finish it. So much rice....
Then we headed back to Kitami in the same awful buses.
Friday.
We came back to Abashiri, and did weekly planning. Once again we have a week where we will be in Kitami most of the week. It makes me sad, because there is a chance that I will transfer out of Abashiri this transfer , and I really really don't want to. If I do, I only have a few days left in Abashiri, because we are working nonstop in Kitami, because of splits. Anyway we also did English class in Abashiri that night. That was fun
Saturday.
We went out to a an area called Shari today. We met with a cool family that had met the missionaries several times before. Sadly enough it seems like the last missionaries that went there weren't really teaching them, so they don't have much interest in the church. The good news is that they do have a really good relationship with the missionaries, and we were able to become there friends, so it could turn into something. For now, Shari is a pretty ways out of Abashiri so we aren't going there to often, especially since we aren't going to be in our area to many more days. We then tried to visit some less actives, but wound up not being able to find any, so we went to our branch presidents house to see if he could help us find some, and he wasn't home. So we started to head back when his wife pulled up to us on the street. She told us to go back to her house, so we did, and he got home, and then they took us out to dinner, and gave us a ride home. They are very nice. I really don't want to leave Abashiri. Everything here is so awesome. The members, the apartment, the area, the investigators. I love it all.
Sunday.
We had church today. We had a member of the mission presidency come to church, as well as a family that was visiting from Obihiro. Lots of fun getting to meet new people. We then went to try to visit some of our investigators after church, but none of them were home so we just pinged some doors. Not a lot came out of it, but that night we got to go have dinner with a family in the branch. They made us pizza and Takoyaki (with Kia instead of tako) and it was really yummy then we shared this video with them.
This is a really good video to just help remind us all of what Jesus Christ did for us. You should check it out. It is a very simple video, but I can feel the spirit testifying to me when I watch it. Along with what I said last week pertaining to finding the strong point of your testimony, try to now make the strong point of your testimony. With something to fall back on just in case, try to gain more faith in Jesus Christ. He is our savior, and we need but look to him to be saved. That brings me comfort in this fallen world that I live in.
Well that's about it. I hope everyone else had a wonderful week. Please pray for me and Elder Francis, and the area of Abashiri. We aren't going to be here that much this week either so we are going to work hard the few days that we are here. Your prayers could go a long way in helping us.
Remember that God loves all of you. He is your Heavenly Father and he wants to help you. All you have to do is ask.
愛しています
エリオット長老より
Sent from my iPad
