Monday, March 30, 2015

Wrong trains and crazy intense lessons

March 30, 2015: Week 23
Area: Hirosaki

Companions:  Canepari Choro and Larsen Choro

Hey everyone! It was so good to hear from all of you! I can't believe it's pday again; this week went by so fast! I have some crazy stuff to tell you guys about what happened this week. Some crazy stuff went down. So I'll get on with it.

So last Monday was probably the worst pday I've experienced on my mission. After we emailed, Anderson Choro from the hombu came up to Hirosaki to help us move apartments. We thought it would be a couple of hours but it ended up taking till 9 o clock. There was so much stuff at our apartment that we had to take to the church to store and throw away. It took a ton of loads cause he only brought a mini van and we couldn't fit a whole lot. One dumb thing happened too. I was loading a gas heater into the car. I asked if it was completely empty and they said it was, so I stacked it on top of all of the other stuff into the van. Well, when they were driving over to the church, the heater tipped over and spilled gasoline on the carpet. He was kinda mad at me and said he would charge me money out of my msf account. I'll find out in a couple days if he did that. I'm hoping that he forgot. So basically our whole pday was robbed.....it was unfortunate.

The next couple of days were spent cleaning and organizing everything and a bunch of planning because we just got all of the sisters investigators plus our investigators, so we have a lot to do. I think we have around 14 investigators which is crazy for this mission. We will be very busy this transfer.

On Thursday, we had district meeting. Because they are only three missionaries in Hirosaki right now, our district is combined with Odate, so we had to go to Odate by train Thursday morning. We were a little late to the train station, but we barely made it to our train on time (or so we thought). The first red light, we started going north instead of south, but we figured it would eventually turn and go towards Odate. But then, I began to recognize all of the commuters we see on the train when we go to Aomori. Our concerns were made certain when we pulled into Aomori station. We had boarded the wrong train!!! It was a pretty funny phone call to the district leader when Canepari Choro says,"So yeah.... We have some bad news... We are in Aomori right now." It was pretty funny. So we had to board another train and go back to Hirosaki for about an hour, and then board another train to Odate which takes another hour. After all of that, we finally arrived in Odate. Let me tell ya, this town is in the middle of nowhere!! It is the tiniest down I've seen in Japan. I'd compare it to a Japanese version of Granstville or Tremonton. It's tiny and the only people who live there are super old. I don't think I saw one person there under 85 years old. We walked to the church and had a district meeting and then we headed our separate ways for splits. I was with Elder Anderson from West Valley. He is a cool guy and it was fun to work with him. He goes home in three transfers so he is a veteran. He planned a pretty sketchy day for us. We had to teach an Eikaiwa class in some sketchy town that neither of us had been to before. So we had to ride a twenty minute train to this town, and then some sketchy dude picked us up at the Eiki., and drove us to the building to teach Eikaiwa. Neither of us had been to that town before so we had no idea what we were doing. This town was basically Japanese Kamas. It was tiny and in the middle of nowhere as well. The class was fun to teach. About 6 ten year old girls showed up and we taught them some English.

The next day, we returned to Hirosaki and did weekly for the rest of the day. The next day, we had to go back to Odate for the iPad training with President and Sister Smith (we actually got on the right train that time). We had a really good training on the iPads and then they gave them to us. It is really interesting to learn the church's purpose behind the iPads. Of course we will use them for dendo, but they have a bigger purpose. They said if we can learn to have good habits using technology now, we can carry those habits after our missions and stay safe from the evils that technology can bring. It's very interesting, the training was not just about how to use the iPads, it was about the importance of families. It was a great training. But here is the crazy part. After the training, President Smith drove us down to Hirosaki. The day before, he called us saying after his morning prayer, he felt a strong impression that he needed to visit someone in Hirosaki. He asked to think and pray about it to know who it is. We did so and we three felt it was the same investigator. So when we arrived in Hirosaki, we did a joint with President Smith. It was the most intense and spiritual lesson I have ever been apart of. This guy has been an investigator for years, so we thought we should be a little bold in the lesson, and boy was it bold. We talked about baptism and the Book of Mormon, and how Christ is our Savior. My comp was crying, I was almost crying and it was just crazy. And when President Smith testified, I felt like the building was going to collapse because it was so powerful. It was crazy! We invited him to be baptized and he said he has a couple of concerns but he won't tell us. We invited him to pray about it to see if it was the right thing to do. He said he would. President Smith invited him to church too, but he kind of laughed and scoffed it off which kind of disappointed  me. He still refuses to come to church. We don't know what to do with him. If he won't progress after feeling the spirit in that lesson, we don't know how to help him. Hopefully, his heart will soften.

Well it was a crazy week. Not many missionaries get to do a lesson with their mission president. It was a way cool experience. It was a testimony to me that he really is called from God and he receives revelation for this mission. It was awesome! Well that was my week.

Lots of crazy stuff, but it was a lot of fun! I love you guys! Have a great week!! Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Nathan Didericksen

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