Typhoons, rain and stuff

August 29, 2016: Week 96

Area: Izumi

Companion: Bruce Choro

Hello everyone! I can't believe I'm back emailing again; this week seemed super fast for some reason. This email is gonna be fairly short I think; this week wasn't too eventful. This transfer is winding down pretty quickly though; only two more weeks left,

Like I said, this week wasn't too eventful. We didn't have any appointments and our only investigator won't answer our phone calls or texts. He is the British guy we started teaching a few weeks ago. But he has been talking to ex-Mormons and reading anti-stuff online so he might be avoiding us now. I don't know, but it's kind of a bummer. So, we spent the whole week finding (knocking on doors or streeting,) but we couldn't really find anyone who wanted meet again so that's why I don't have a ton to report. 

One thing is that I experienced my first typhoon! That was pretty nuts. I don't think we got the full brunt of it, but on Monday night, it rained sideways really hard for like 4 hours. It was pretty nuts. Supposedly, another typhoon, a much bigger and slower moving one, is headed to Sendai and should hit tomorrow morning. We just heard that we aren't supposed to go outside for most of the day tomorrow so it should be pretty nuts. I'm kinda stoked. 

Tuesday was super rainy as well, just not crazy typhoon rainy. But we did get stuck in a pretty big rainstorm and got soaking wet. So for most of the day we walked around in the pouring rain housing and trying to talk to people. Most people weren't too excited about stopping in the rain. I don't blame them too much; I mean it was raining pretty hard. But yeah, that is the basic jist of Tuesday through Friday, so I will just leave it at that. 

Saturday was pretty cool. Furukawa had another baptism. The guy who got baptized is the husband of a member and he finally did it! So we rode down with our mission leader to Furukawa and saw the baptism. It was awesome to be able to see a baptism again, especially in one of my old areas. Also, because the branch in Furukawa is tiny, all of the members get so excited when there is a baptism. That was cool to see. 

But yeah, by Sunday night, I was feeling pretty bummed and discouraged with the really rough week I had. It seemed like no one was ever going to listen to us so I was getting down again. We had some time before reporting to work so we went out to try to talk to people at a huge park by the apartment. We were trying to talk to people, but no one was really giving us the time of day. So, I was still kind of down and dejected, but I then I saw a man just chilling on a bench next to a pond, so I went to talk to him and he was super nice. He had just sat down to feed ducks. Apparently it's a huge hobby of his, and he is way good at it. He was doing these duck calls and ducks from everywhere were responding to it and coming to him. So yeah, I got to talk to him for like 45 minutes; I got to learn how to feed ducks, learned about his family, etc. Eventually, we got to talking about the gospel. He said he was Buddhist, but really respected Christians. We talked about how following religion and having faith in something helps you be a better a person. I was able to give him a Book of Mormon and he was really happy to get it and said he wanted to read it. He didn't have a cell phone, but he said he is always there feeding ducks so if we see him, he would love to talk to us some more. It wasn't a new investigator, but it was a little tender mercy I got at the end of a trying week, so I was really grateful for that. I hope we can see him again. It felt way good to just have a normal conversation with someone. It felt so natural and flowed really nice so that was cool.

But yeah, that is about it! This coming week should be good. We have splits, a typhoon, my last interview with President Smith (except for the exit interview), and zone training meeting. Also, a super rich, groovy grandma member in Izumi is taking us out for steak on Thursday so that should be legit! I hope you have a good week! Love you all! Till next week!

Love, Elder Nathan Didericksen