Area: Kitakami
Companion: Kurihara Choro
Hey everybody!! Wow this week kind of flew by! It was great reading about your week! Good job on the diet everybody! Get me on that thing. Elder Kurihara and I went running the other day and I'm still sore; its pretty sad. Oh well!
This week there was some anticipation with a typhoon headed for the Tohoku area. On Friday morning, we got a text from the city saying there was going to be heavy rains and a huge storm coming. It didn't really come, however; it kind of died down by the time it got to Kitakami. I heard that further south in the mission, it got hit pretty bad, including one of my old areas Furukawa. I was a little disappointed it didn't come. I really wanted to be in a typhoon. Haha! I thought it would be exciting. (Just kidding!) Oh well.
This week there was some anticipation with a typhoon headed for the Tohoku area. On Friday morning, we got a text from the city saying there was going to be heavy rains and a huge storm coming. It didn't really come, however; it kind of died down by the time it got to Kitakami. I heard that further south in the mission, it got hit pretty bad, including one of my old areas Furukawa. I was a little disappointed it didn't come. I really wanted to be in a typhoon. Haha! I thought it would be exciting. (Just kidding!) Oh well.
Also, fall is here in Japan. The temperature has cooled off a lot and the rice fields are turning gold and starting to be harvested. It will be dumping loads of snow in no time!
My week was pretty good. It was a rougher week in regards to meeting with investigators. We couldn't meet with any of them. They all say they're too busy and things like that, so it was a harder one. However, some cool things happened this week.
On Tuesday, we rode out to visit a lady that we met last transfer that we have been trying to turn into an investigator. We knocked on her door and no one answered, but as we were about to leave, she pulled into the driveway. We got to talk to her a little bit and it was really fun. She is way nice. She actually has been to Salt Lake a few times, which was way surprising. She is a hair dresser and has a beauty salon business and apparently there was some meeting or convention for that in Salt Lake, so she's been there a few times. She saw the Salt Lake Temple too so I was able to talk with her about that a little bit. Since she is actually going back pretty soon, she wants us to teach her English, so I set up an appointment for Tuesday where we will teach English and then teach her a lesson! We also gave her a Book of Mormon! We are pretty excited about the prospects with her. I mean, to find her the way we found her a few weeks ago, plus, the fact that she has been to Utah a bunch has to lead to something right?! What are the odds of finding a lady who has been to Utah from middle of nowhere in northern Japan?
After that, we visited with a family. We weren't able to teach a lesson, but the mom told us that her husband really has been wanting to meet with us and is showing a lot of interest. She told us to come back the next day because he had a day off from work. We went back the next day and talked to him for a bit. He is really interested that young boys like us would come to a foreign country and teach religious things. He thinks it's way cool that people as young as us have a firm belief in something and then would go out and share it. He said we couldn't teach him because he had to leave, but he wants us to teach him and his family sometime! I got his number and hopefully we will be able to set up an appointment with him and his family. That would be awesome because I've yet to teach a family on my mission. It's usually just single people on the doorstep of their house, but if i could teach a lesson to a family in someone's house, that would be super awesome!
After that, I had one of the sketchier moments on my mission. We visited a less active. Now that I think of it, we probably shouldn't visit her. We visited her apartment building and it's one of the sketchiest places I've ever been. She answered the door and Elder Kurihara and I got just a way weird feeling that made us really uncomfortable. She was kind of creepy when she answered the door, but kind of calmed down as she talked. She rambled for like twenty minutes; I honestly don't really know exactly what she was saying. I finally just told her we had to leave and then we left. It was a super weird thing. Probably a weird experience for my bean as well in his first week!
Friday was pretty solid. We had Zone Training Meeting in Morioka. It was way stressful getting there though. We got to the train station and for some reason, it said our train wasn't leaving until 40 minutes later than it was supposed to. I guess the typhoon knocked out some of the tracks with landslides or something, so it caused a big delay. We finally got on the right train and then had to catch a bus and sprint to the meeting. We barely made it right as it was starting. It sure was stressful trying to read the street signs and bus stops in a big city. I learned my lesson to prepare for those moments just in case you become a leader and you are in charge of getting you and your companion somewhere. Before, I just followed my Japanese companion around because he knew what he was doing. From now on, I'll pay more attention! The meeting was way good. We learned a lot about charity, the importance of joint lessons with members, and being united in prayer.
Saturday was pretty crazy. There was a big festival in a neighboring town called Hanamaki, so we decided to try to do some contacting at the festival. When we were walking down the street in the middle of the masses of people, we were passing a TV film crew. I saw the reporter look at me and I knew what was coming....she walked over to me and asked if I could speak Japanese. I said I could to a certain extent and she asked if I could do a TV interview! I was like, uhhh sure...... So she interviewed me in front of a camera in Japanese! It was nuts. I never expected to get interviewed on TV on my mission! She asked me what I was doing in Japan and what I liked about the festival. It was definitely an experience. My comp was filming it so I'll send a picture. It was super scary, but it was pretty cool! That is one for the journal. We also got to see this way cool dance they were doing all down the street. They were wearing these cool dragon heads and pounding drums. It was pretty cool. We tried talking to people, but they were more interested in the festival, so we decided to head back to Kitakami.
After that, we visited with a family. We weren't able to teach a lesson, but the mom told us that her husband really has been wanting to meet with us and is showing a lot of interest. She told us to come back the next day because he had a day off from work. We went back the next day and talked to him for a bit. He is really interested that young boys like us would come to a foreign country and teach religious things. He thinks it's way cool that people as young as us have a firm belief in something and then would go out and share it. He said we couldn't teach him because he had to leave, but he wants us to teach him and his family sometime! I got his number and hopefully we will be able to set up an appointment with him and his family. That would be awesome because I've yet to teach a family on my mission. It's usually just single people on the doorstep of their house, but if i could teach a lesson to a family in someone's house, that would be super awesome!
After that, I had one of the sketchier moments on my mission. We visited a less active. Now that I think of it, we probably shouldn't visit her. We visited her apartment building and it's one of the sketchiest places I've ever been. She answered the door and Elder Kurihara and I got just a way weird feeling that made us really uncomfortable. She was kind of creepy when she answered the door, but kind of calmed down as she talked. She rambled for like twenty minutes; I honestly don't really know exactly what she was saying. I finally just told her we had to leave and then we left. It was a super weird thing. Probably a weird experience for my bean as well in his first week!
Friday was pretty solid. We had Zone Training Meeting in Morioka. It was way stressful getting there though. We got to the train station and for some reason, it said our train wasn't leaving until 40 minutes later than it was supposed to. I guess the typhoon knocked out some of the tracks with landslides or something, so it caused a big delay. We finally got on the right train and then had to catch a bus and sprint to the meeting. We barely made it right as it was starting. It sure was stressful trying to read the street signs and bus stops in a big city. I learned my lesson to prepare for those moments just in case you become a leader and you are in charge of getting you and your companion somewhere. Before, I just followed my Japanese companion around because he knew what he was doing. From now on, I'll pay more attention! The meeting was way good. We learned a lot about charity, the importance of joint lessons with members, and being united in prayer.
Saturday was pretty crazy. There was a big festival in a neighboring town called Hanamaki, so we decided to try to do some contacting at the festival. When we were walking down the street in the middle of the masses of people, we were passing a TV film crew. I saw the reporter look at me and I knew what was coming....she walked over to me and asked if I could speak Japanese. I said I could to a certain extent and she asked if I could do a TV interview! I was like, uhhh sure...... So she interviewed me in front of a camera in Japanese! It was nuts. I never expected to get interviewed on TV on my mission! She asked me what I was doing in Japan and what I liked about the festival. It was definitely an experience. My comp was filming it so I'll send a picture. It was super scary, but it was pretty cool! That is one for the journal. We also got to see this way cool dance they were doing all down the street. They were wearing these cool dragon heads and pounding drums. It was pretty cool. We tried talking to people, but they were more interested in the festival, so we decided to head back to Kitakami.
Elder Kurihara and I were feeling kind of down and a bit defeated. We both prayed that we could find someone that would at least listen to us so it could pick our spirits up. After both praying personally, we saw a high school student looking at us from down the isle of the train. We pulled into the station and got off and decided to go talk to the kid. We started talking to him and were able to give him a Book of Mormon. I don't know if we will see him again, but it was a sweet tender mercy from the Lord after a week full of rejection. I learned that even though it is really hard sometimes out here and finding people who want to talk to us is pretty hard, that God is aware of us and our efforts and he will bless us for it.
That is about it for the week. It was a slower week with investigators, but we were able to get out, talk with people, and try our best in sharing the gospel and that is all that we are asked to do! Hopefully, this week will be a little different. I hope you all have a great week this week! I love you guys! I hit 11 months in the mission tomorrow too! It's kind of weird to think about. Anyway, talk to you next week! You are all in my prayers!
That is about it for the week. It was a slower week with investigators, but we were able to get out, talk with people, and try our best in sharing the gospel and that is all that we are asked to do! Hopefully, this week will be a little different. I hope you all have a great week this week! I love you guys! I hit 11 months in the mission tomorrow too! It's kind of weird to think about. Anyway, talk to you next week! You are all in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Nathan Didericksen
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| Elder Kurihara and I at the festival |
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| Temple built into the side of a cliff we went to a few weeks ago |
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| View from the temple |
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Really cool staircase we found in Ichinoseki.
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| Festival at Hanamaki |
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