Area: Furukawa
Companion: Hill Choro
Hey everyone! It was great to hear from you guys. Well it's another new week and the start of a new transfer! And to my great surprise, after only 6 weeks in Furukawa, I'm transferring again! The area is going down to 2 missionaries so me and Elder Hill are transferring, Elder Olsen is going home, and Elder Hanson is staying. I'm going to Izumi which is about an hour away from Furukawa. It's right outside of downtown Sendai, so I'm in more of the suburban part of Sendai. I've driven through it once and it looks way pretty and like a fun area. Elder Hanson served there when he came to Japan and he loved it, so I'm pretty excited. Also, I'm getting my first Japanese companion! His named is Elder Hirano and I think he is about 5 transfers ahead of me. So it looks like I'll be throwing away English for a while. I'm a little nervous, but I'm also way excited; it'll help me a lot I think.
Man with all that happened this weekend, I can't really remember what happened the rest of the week, but I'll try my best.
Tuesday, we met with Chiba Yuya San. We are getting the feel that he's nervous to come to church because most of the members are pretty old and he is in his thirties, so we got Brother Iwabuchi, who is his age, to joint. It went surprisingly well. We taught about the priesthood and the sacrament and he testified really well. Chiba Yuya told us he would come to church this week, but he didn't show up, so that was kind of a bummer. All he needs to do to get baptized is go to church, but he hasn't been so I don't know when that would happen. I was hoping we could get it done before I left, but oh well.
After that, we taught Kanno San. We decided to be a little bold with him because he told us he believes in the Book of Mormon, but he still won't come to church, even though he lives across the street from it. We shared the scripture in Mosiah saying "if ye believe in these things, see that you do them" and talked about the blessings of obedience. We then invited him to church and he said no again. We pretty much begged him to try coming, but he said he won't, so I don't know what's up with that.
Thursday was good. We went to teach a less active named Ujie Shimai, but when we got there, she wasn't home so we housed around for a while until she got back. We tried helping this way old grandma doing stuff in her yard, but she turned out to be a crazy lady so that was kind of fun. Then we went back to teach the less active. She went off asking why we keep the word of wisdom and why us young people keep commandments. There's a rule that if there is only one female in the house, elders can't go past the genkan. We told her that but she kept insisting that it was fine, that she was a grandma and not a temptation! We taught her about the plan of salvation.
After that lesson, we went to the Eki to hand out Books of Mormon. It went pretty well; we only had three and we got them all out in like 10 minutes. One guy who I talked to said he was kind of interested, so hopefully, something happens with that.
Friday, we had zone training meeting in Sendai. We heard some awesome trainings on goal setting, pride, and teaching to needs. I learned I'm awful at setting goals and focusing on goals, so I decided to recommit myself and use goals to help me grow. It was a good conference. I also realized that I'm not using PMG enough and I haven't been reading it as much as I should, so I'm getting back to studying it everyday.
Saturday, we taught Uno San with Yamauchi Kyoudai as a joint. We taught the last half of the plan of salvation and it went well. It was kind of hard for him to understand, but he was asking good, even some pretty deep questions. Uno San is doing really well.
Sunday was our last Sunday in Furukawa. It was kind of a crazy day. A family who lives in Lehi came to church. The mom grew up here, married an American missionary and they came with their sons to visit their grandma. One of the sons leaves next month on his mission to Fukuoka. Since the mom, after living in American for more than 10 years, can't speak English all that well, the kids are basically fluent in Japanese. They were way cool though. But then me and the other two were able to bear our testimonies. We didn't really have a ton of time so they were really short and simple, but they went well.
Furukawa was fun, but it is a pretty tiny, run down area with not a lot going on. I'm pretty sad to leave our few investigators, especially Uno San. He came to church yesterday and he's starting to progress a lot; hopefully he'll continue to progress while we are gone. It's pretty weird leaving already; I barely even know Furukawa or even the members that well, but they're good people. It nuts I'm leaving so fast but I'm way excited for my new area and the new experiences I'll have. I love you guys! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Nathan Didericksen
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