Area: Hirosaki
Companions: Canepari Choro and Larsen Choro
Hey everyone! It was great to hear from all of you guys! This week flew by once again! It seems like I was just here writing!
We finally were able to watch General Conference on Saturday and Sunday! It was awesome! There were so many great talks! I don't know if it is just because I'm a missionary this time, but it was one of my favorites that I can remember. It's probably because I paid the most attention this time around than ever before. I sure wish I took conference way more seriously as a younger teenager because it really is an awesome thing. I learned so much. I'll get to more about conference later!
Too be honest, not a ton really happened this week. Most of our investigators aren't really all that strong right now. One really frustrating thing about Japan is that most people won't let you into their house. That's kind of the case with the majority of our investigators. They won't let us in their house when we visit, so we just have to do a short lesson in the Genkan. So it's pretty hard to have legit lessons while you are standing on their porch basically and you only have 10 minutes at max. We are trying our best though. But for the most part, most of our investigators couldn't meet this week; either they were busy or we couldn't get a hold of them. So, a lot of the time we were biking from house to house, but no one was really home. So that aspect of this week was pretty disappointing.
I don't know if I have told you about a great thing that Japan does. Dad will probably love this. It's called yaki niku. There is this restaurant pretty close to our apartment that does yaki niku, which basically is an hour and a half long buffet where you go through this line and pick out as many different kinds of raw meat as you want, and then go back to your table and grill it right at your table. Its fantastic! All you can eat self grilled meat, sushi, and ice cream is nothing short of heaven. That restaurant is probably the reason I've gained ten pounds. On Tuesday, two older sisters in the branch took us out to eat there, then on Thursday, Akimoto San called us and said he wanted to take us out to yaki niku cause Larsen Choro is new. It was amazing, especially going twice in a week. But now, since conference is over, I'm going to try to eat healthy and exercise better. I need to get into shape for rec ball at BYU when I'm home!!
Hmm.... what else?? Oh yeah, I almost got hit by a car again!! I was riding down this big hill, so I was going kinda fast. I was passing this gas station, so I started to slow down a little bit because there were cars and stuff. There was a car that was leaving the parking lot, inching its way into the road. Right as I was about to pass it, the guy decided to back up without looking, totally cutting me off. I was still going kinda fast so I had to slam on my brakes pretty quickly and abruptly. My back tire flew in the air, sending my bag way high. I almost went over my handlebars but I managed to bail off the bike in time. It was pretty crazy. The guy came out of his car and apologized to me and I just said it was okay. It wasn't bad, but I was very close to slamming into his car. I swear, my luck with cars just isn't that great. Oh well. Elder Evans of the Seventy said that we will all be hit by a car eventually in Japan! Hopefully I already have mine out of the way!
And lastly, we had a good lesson with Sakamoto San in his Genkan last night. So, he has been an investigator for years and even had a baptism date a while back, but he backed out. So we wanted to be a little bold with him and see what's up. We asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon, the church, and the entire gospel was true. He said he knew it was true and that it made him happy. So we asked him to be baptized. He said he was too busy. So we told him that if he knew the Book of Mormon and the church was true, then he knew that he needed to be baptized, but he still avoided it. We found out that he is just straight up scared to be baptized. He's scared of the water and probably of the commitment. It was the best lesson we have had with him. So we will try to help him overcome his fears.
So back to conference. The Saturday morning session was great. And Narita San came!! But he insisted on watching it in English and didn't understand anything. He was asleep for about half of it so that kind of backfired. But the talks were great. My favorites were probably Elder Eyring's about fasting, Choose to Believe by Elder Clayton, The Music of the Gospel by Elder Andersen, and Latter-day Saints who Keep Trying by Elder Renlund. Basically, I loved all of them! I learned so much on how I can be better and become a better disciple of Jesus Christ. I learned that the gospel is not just for sinners. It's for imperfect people and the church makes us better. We wouldn't be saints if we stopped trying. I'm very exited to go back and reread them and study them here on out.
Sorry this is kind of a short email. Not a ton happened this week, It was a slower one. Next week will be better though. I think I'm going on splits to Odate tomorrow, and then we are all going down to Morioka for two days for a big Aomori/Morioka Zone conference, so we are all exited about that. I'm glad you guys had a great time in Oakley. Have a good week this week! I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Nathan Didericksen
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| Yaki Niku! Comparable to the Celestial Kingdom |
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| More deliciousness. |
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