I'm Staying in Hirosaki

March 15, 2015: Week 21
Area: Hirosaki

Companions: Dowdy Choro and Canapari Choro

Hey Everyone!! I can't believe it's pday again; this week went by really fast. And I can't believe I'm in my third transfer already, hitting my five month mark yesterday! Time is flying.

This week was pretty fun and we got a bunch of crazy news. So first of all, I'm staying in Hirosaki for another transfer! I get to see Sakara! (cherry blossom festival)  Also, since there are so many missionaries going home and no one to replace them, all of the sisters got transferred out of Hirosaki and we are gonna move into their apartment this week *a much nicer and newer apartment*! In other news, I'm staying in a trio. Its gonna still be me and Canepari Choro, and Larsen Choro from Salt Lake. He's the same transfer as me so it will be two missionaries fresh out of bean hood and a 12th transfer missionary. We are gonna be so busy this transfer. Hirosaki is a big area for only one companionship! It's gonna be crazy.

So this week, Japan decided it wasn't done with winter so it dumped snow on us for about three days at the start of the week. It was soo cold. All of the progress in melting snow started all over again. It was freezing though. For example, on Wednesday, we walked in a straight up blizzard for about two miles to a members house. It was so cold, soo much snow.

So the highlight of the week was on Saturday. First we had Ekaiwa. Dowdy Choro normally teaches the kids class but since it was his last Eikaiwa, he wanted to go to the advance class. That means I had to teach the kids class with the Japanese sisters. Let me tell ya, its pretty difficult teaching a crazy 3 year old Japanese girl. I was just chasing her around trying to get her to calm down. It was actually pretty fun though. After that, we had a talent show where a bunch of the members came and performed random stuff. Me and Dowdy Choro attempted to sing "Good Riddance/Time of your Life" by Green Day on the ukulele. It was good until the end when we tried to harmonize; we slaughtered it. It sounded so bad! It was hilarious though. A little bit later, Narita San wanted to sing a Beatles song; he and the elders sang "Its been a hard days night" by the Beatles. It was pretty bad, but we had fun. The coolest part was when we did a dance called Otage. Takaya Kyodai wanted to do it with the missionaries. It is kinda like in America when you tape glow sticks to yourself and then the lights turn off; it looks you are a stick figure. So we did a dance with glow sticks in the dark and everyone loved it! It was pretty awesome. It was a way good activity and a lot of people showed up. It was a ton of fun.

Yesterday, after church, the branch did a huge lunch for Dowdy Choro and other members that are leaving. It was delicious! Later that night, we went to the church to watch a devotional. Elder Evans and Russell M. Nelson came to do a devotional in Tokyo and we got to watch it. They spoke in English too with Japanese translators so I got to understand everything, which was great. At one point in the talk, Elder Nelson told all of the missionaries wherever they were watching to stand up, and talked about how awesome missionaries were. I felt like a boss. It was a little awkward standing there, but it was cool.

Well those are the highlights of my week. A lot of our investigators were a little busy this week so we weren't able to teach a ton of lessons. They are doing great though and they are all awesome. Akimotto San is doing well. He is reading from the Book of Mormon and is asking a lot of questions.

Erin!

Darn, I totally forgot about pie day! I love Pi day! No, Japanese people don't celebrate St Patrick's day. They have no idea what it is. So yeah. And we are definitely going to see the new Zoolander movie! I'm excited. Thanks for your quote and advice.

Todd!

That's so cool you got to see the Jazz so close!! Man I miss basketball and watching the Jazz. It sounds like Gobert is turning into a monster! They will be fun to watch when I get home. Hopefully all of the those guys are around when I get home. And we definitely will teach Daxton basketball and you will teach him football. Then he will go to high school and play sports and get girls. That's the plan.

Matthew!

Those tunnels sound awesome. We should go up there when I'm home. Climbing up those towers sounds pretty sketchy though. Thanks for your example.

Mom and Dad,

Thanks for all of the support you give me. I wouldn't be able to do this without you guys. I love you so much. I miss you and I can't wait to see you again, but being here is an awesome opportunity to grow and to also learn to love the people and serve them. Yesterday, after Sacrament meeting, all of the sisters in the ward sang a Japanese hymn that is kinda like God Be With You Till we Meet Again. It was beautiful. I couldn't understand the words, but the spirit was so strong and I realized how much I love the people here. The Japanese people are so friendly and caring and loving towards everyone. They are a great example to me. And their singing isn't too shabby either! So this is an awesome opportunity for me.

Anyway, thanks for all that you do for me! I love all you guys! Have a great week! Talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Nathan Didericksen

Here is one of the talents from Saturday. A bunch of Japanese people dancing around in mustaches. I'll send you more with me in them next week.

Well that was awkward...

March 8, 2015: Week 20
Area: Hirosaki

Companions: Dowdy Choro and Canapari Choro

Hey Everyone! Its crazy I'm already emailing again; this week kinda flew by. Our week was pretty good. It wasn't near as crazy as last week, but we were still pretty busy.

On Tuesday, we visited our American investigator named Nick. He's in another Christian church, but has some questions about our church. He is a really nice guy and his faith is really strong. We talked about how he came to know God and Jesus Christ was real and we related it to how we can know the Book of Mormon is true. We shared Moroni's promise and asked if he would try it. I don't know how interested he actually is, but hopefully the spirit works on him. After that, we were posting some ekaiwa  posters in stores around the city which was pretty fun. I like doing that kind of Dendo. It was a little dangerous though cause it was graduation or something for a big girls school, so there was a bunch of newly graduated teenage girls walking around wanting to get pictures of us.

The next morning, our Japanese class had a cooking class. We made different kinds of fried shrimp, okanomiaki, and other stuff which was really good. While we were eating, they were asking us why we were in Japan and we were able to tell them our purpose and talk a little bit about the church. Later that day, we visited "Japanese John Williams" This guy is awesome. He lives in this massive, way nice house. He was telling us stories of him playing and directing music and things like that. I guess he was on a homestay in Sacramento around twenty years ago, and had stayed at a bishop's house. He even went to church in Canepari Choros stake, so he knows a little bit about the church already. The funniest part was when he was telling us about his old fancy container that held tobacco powder. He poured some on his hand to show us. We thought he would just brush it off when he was done, but he ended up snorting it right in front of us! So basically, I saw Japanese John Williams do drugs right in front of us.....We should probably teach the Word of Wisdom some time huh?

Thursday, we went to Aomori again for zone training meeting. It was a good meeting, but it wasn't all that spiritual; they just had a bunch of business to go over. The STLs did share a pretty good song about how God is just a prayer away and then they linked it with Elder Uchtdor'fs talk when he said that God doesn't wait for us to overcome our imperfections and our faults before he will love us. He always loves us no matter what. After the meeting, we went to an Indian Curry place run by people from India. It was good while you ate it, but it ended up destroying us and making us all sick later. I think I'm gonna stay away from Indian curry from now on.

Now this is probably the most awkward moment of my life. On Saturday, our Japanese grandpa wanted to take the district out for lunch cause Dowdy Choro is leaving. When we showed up to the restaurant, he had these four women there who are probably twenty years younger than him. Apparently, he is quite the bachelor. He told me to sit at his end of the table, so I did. Turns out all of the women were sitting there too, so I ended sitting by myself with all of these Japanese ladies while the other missionaries were all the way on the other end of the table. I felt like I was on a four way date with the ladies. Man it was sooooo awkward. All of the other missionaries were laughing at me the whole time. It was pretty weird. I had to talk to all of them by myself for an hour while watching them flirt with our investigator. It was a weird, bad situation. I was so happy when it was over.

Things are kinda slow with our investigators. Most of them are eternal investigators. They have received all of the lessons and they will still meet with us, but they won't progress, so we are a little stuck with them. We are just trying to pray and know what is best for them. Wish us luck!

Well that was our week. It was a pretty good week with a lot to do. And the weather is getting really good. We are able to ride our bikes and do a lot more, which is awesome. I can't believe this is the last week of my second transfer!! I'm almost done being a bean! It went by fast. Hopefully, I start to improve quickly cause I'm gonna have to do a lot more now that Dowdy Choro is leaving. Pray for me!

I love you guys! I miss you guys a ton and I love hearing what is going on in your lives. Sounds like things are going great. Have a great week! Read Your scriptures!

Love Elder Nathan Didericksen

    We saw a bunch of the big floats for the Neputa Festival they have in August. 

                                                                                         
                                   

                                                            They are HUGE!

    

                                                             My hand was eaten!                    

We were at McDonald's and Japanese Ronald McDonald came in. 

It was pretty weird.

Beef Jerky and Secret Planets

March 1, 2015: Week 19
Area: Hirosaki

Companion: Dowdy Choro and Canapari Choro

Matthew that if his date is who I think it is, she is really cute. Our week was super tiring and crazy, but the good part it.......we hit the standard of excellence! We taught 21 lessons! It was pretty hard and we were riding our bikes all over the place at the speed of light, but we did it! I'll now tell you what happened.

On Tuesday, we started the day visiting the member who is breaking a ton of commandments but I don't think he's realized it yet. Instead of chastising him about commandments, we decided to talk about the blessings he's received from the gospel. We all shared the blessings we have realized from the gospel. It was pretty good. After that, we visited an old woman that Dowdy Choro met on splits. We talked to her for a while about God and her beliefs. She was really nice, but wasn't really interested. She said a couple of way weird things though. She told us when she looks at us she sees Jesus. We thought that was kinda cool, but then she told us when she was young back in the day, she had "a lot of fun of guys when she was young." That was pretty awkward, little bit funny. Anyway...

The next day, we went to go visit our investigator from Ghana. We rode a while to his house and we tried knocking on his door, but no one answered. Right as were about to leave, he came to the door wearing a Muslim Toga or robe or something. He said he was doing one of his daily prayers. He invited us in while he finished praying. So we sat there in awkward silence while he recited his prayers. After he finished, we shared the restoration. After I recited the first vision, the spirit entered the room. Every time we share the restoration that happens. It's pretty cool. After we finished, he asked us some questions and told us about his beliefs. It was good; hopefully he will gain some interest in the gospel. After his lesson, we rode way fast to another investigator's house. She is an old woman, so we as elders can't teach her in her house, only in the Genkan. We had one of the members to come join with us, but she ended up talking the entire time for like an hour so it was kind of a disaster. Oh well.

Thursday, Canepari Choro had splits with the Zone Leaders so it was just me and Dowdy Choro for a day again. We taught our Japanese grandpa about repentance. We showed him a Mormon message about God's love for us; it definitely invited the spirit. We don't really know exactly what he needs to get over the hump, but every time he reads in the scriptures, he tells us it makes sense and that it will make him a better person. After his lesson, we didn't have a ton of time to dendo cause we had another appointment we had to go to that night, so we decided to hurry to visit one of our PIs who works at a store. We went into his store and he was blasting Def Leppard over the speakers. It was fantastic, I love that band. We talked to him for a little bit but he's not interested in the gospel that much which is too bad.

The next day was filled with appointments too. We were tired all of the time cause we were everywhere all week. We went to go visit our friend who is the Kendo Sensei. We were sitting in his house and were about to start a lesson when his friend came over. After that, we couldn't really bring up the gospel. 

Now for the highlight of the week. We were going to teach one of our referrals Saturday night. Hanada Kyodai brought his friend to the church to have a lesson. And let me tell ya, if this guy isn't a good example of why not to do drugs, I don't know what is. Holy Crap this dude was fried. Basically a vegetable. And he smelled like beef jerky and some weird drug. He was telling us his beliefs and they were crazy. He said he reads a bunch of Science Fiction books and that is where his beliefs come from. He pulled out this paper giving a diagram on where we came from and where we are going. Apparently, Africans came from reptiles, and after we die, we go to a secret planet that is hidden behind the sun which no one knows about. It was probably the weirdest experience I've ever had. It was hilarious though. After the lesson, me and other two were just dying of how crazy that dude was. Don't do drugs.

Last night, we went to the Fujita family's house. They are so nice. They have three daughters who are absolutely hilarious. It was a pretty fun night.

Well those were the highlights of our very busy week. It was tiring and difficult, but we did accomplish our goal. We actually rewarded ourselves by going to that burger place for lunch today..

The food looked great at the party!! I had gyoza the other day, I'm sure yours was better; mine wasn't that good. That is kinda crazy in all of the sports news. I would have never thought Lone Peak would lose in the first couple rounds. Layton is a pretty good team though so props to them. It's crazy to think that its already been a year since the state tournament. I think a lot about those days and how much I miss it. I'm very grateful I was able to have those experiences. I'm very grateful for this one as well. 

Dad, thanks for the excerpt from that letter, 'cause I'm gonna be honest, this is pretty hard. The level of inadequacy that I feel sometimes is pretty high. The thing I heard before my mission was right; it will exceed your expectations. It will be harder than you think, but more rewarding than you think. I still feel inadequate in the language a lot of the time, but there are way awesome moments too and a lot more awesome moments to come. Like you said, just relax, breathe it in, and have faith. 

It was great to hear from you guys! I hope you all of a great week. You are all in my prayers. Love you!

Elder Didericksen

Summer is on its way!

February 22, 2015: Week 18
Area: Hirosaki

Companion: Dowdy Choro and Canapari Choro

Hey Everyone! I cant believe its already pday again. Sometimes, time flies by in the mission. It was great to hear from all of you guys; it sounds like you are doing well. We had a pretty crazy, weird week this week.

So I'll just start with the big news, I am in a trio companionship with Canapari Choro and Dowdy Choro. Basically, the other elder in Hirosaki left so its just us three. We are actually pretty excited to work together for the rest of the transfer. We all get along and have a really fun time. Its gonna be a little hard to figure out how to teach in a trio. I hope this doesn't really hurt my development as a brand new missionary; it will probably be okay. It will be fun to work together for the last couple weeks of this transfer.

On Thursday, we had a zone taikai in Aomori where the whole zone gathers together and President and Sister smith come as well and we have one big training meeting. It was pretty good. President Smith talked about Lynn G Robbins talk from Octobers conference titled *which way do we face*. It talked about how we need to focus on pleasing God more than man. Sometimes we face a lot of peer pressure and are pushed to turn towards man and please them instead of God. We need to always remember who we face and what we stand for. It was a pretty good talk and training.

The day after the zone meeting, and our first day as a trio, we had two lessons in the morning. We taught Handa Kyodai and Hanada Shimai. They are a less active couple. Its kinda creepy teaching them because his wife is deaf and is creepily obsessed with foreigners, especially Dowdy Choro. She just stares at us and giggles, It's kinda weird. After that, we taught Akimotto San. He is such an awesome guy, my Japanese grandpa. He told us that missions would be more fun if we were allowed to get girlfriends in each area and then dump them when we transfer. It was hilarious. It makes sense to him; he's a lifelong bachelor.

Japanese wise, this week was a little hard. I made a lot of mistakes and said some dumb stuff on accident. Its just embarrassing sometimes.I know its supposed to be hard and take a long time. I just lack patience sometimes, but I'll get there eventually.

The sisters recent convert who just got baptized hasn't been to church since she was confirmed which is kinda worrisome. The sisters need to get on top of that. Akimotto San came to church yesterday which was great!! We haven't met with Japanese Jwill, We will visit him this week cause we just got his information. This week we set a goal to get the Standard of Excellence and one of those ways is to teach over twenty lessons in a week. Its pretty tough to do, but I think we can do it! 

So, the snow is starting to melt and spring is approaching! We are pretty excited cause we are sick of walking in blizzards all day. In answer to your question, there were a few earthquakes reported but we didn't feel them in Hirosaki. Usually, you don't feel them very much when you are in Aomori prefecture; as you get closer to Sendai you feel them stronger and more often.

Well other than the drama that happened within my district all week, not a lot happened. Sorry this is kinda of an uneventful email.

Erin, Avery sounds like she is aiming for the stars for her future. She can come to Japan to be a mailman; they are pretty funny. They all ride on little mopeds, no matter the weather. They are troopers.  

Matthew, I just want to say it's awesome that you served a mission and say thanks for your example. Cause they are pretty hard sometimes, investigators not progressing, learning a difficult language,etc. Thanks for always giving me your advice. I hope to become as good of a missionary as you were! I started riding bikes today and it really made me miss biking with you! When I get home, the first thing we are doing is going to bike slick rock! 

Dad, Thanks for the usual sports update! That is one thing that is hard to miss is the sports season. I really miss it. Go PG! I love it when I hear that we bring down Lone Peak. That is awesome! 

Mom, It's crazy to think I'm approaching my third transfer and my fifth month mark. Its going by pretty fast and I heard time only gets faster. I miss you guys a lot and I'm excited to see you guys in nineteen months or so, but I have a lot to do here. Thanks for everything you do for me and the rest of our family. 

Well sorry that it's an uneventful email. Its been kinda a weird week. Have a great week everyone! Read the scriptures!! *There's my missionary side* Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Nathan Didericksen

p.s. This week's word:  Shitakaburi. It means *know it all* So when you are talking to someone who thinks they are the smartest and its bugging you, just say Shitakaburi.

The trio with Akimotto San, my Japanese Grandpa.

Japanese John Williams lives in Hirosaki......and I hate ice.

February 15, 2015: Week 17
Area: Hirosaki

Companion: Dowdy Choro

Hey everyone! It was so great to hear from you. It sounds like you had a fun week of valentines celebrations! Its crazy that its been a year since we beat Lone Peak! Ahhh, I wish I could live that day over again. This week was pretty good; there were some funny things that happened.

I'll start out with Tuesday. On Tuesday, probably one of the more embarrassing/funny moments happened to me. I was on splits with Butler Choro and we were walking in this neighborhood to go visit a less active. We were approaching these two Japanese high school girls and Butler Choro tells me to start talking to them and invite them to Ekaiwa. (English class) So i say *Alright I got this*, then I turned my head and took a step towards them and slipped on the ice so bad right as I walked by them. My legs flew up in the air and I landed on my back soooo hard, throwing my umbrella as I did it! I sat there on my back while the two girls just stared at me in confusion. They then handed me my umbrella and ran away. It was soo funny. Me and Butler Choro were laughing for like 20 minutes straight. It was pretty embarrassing.

Later that night, we went to the Hirosaki snow festival with our mission leader in Hirosaki Park. It was pretty cool, but it was absolutely freezing cause a blizzard decided to roll in when we got there. It was pretty cool though, there were lots of cool sculptures with lights and things like that. I didn't get too many cool pictures though cause my camera died when we got there unfortunately.

The next day, we went to a kendo tournament that was pretty close to our apartment. One of the other elder's investigators is a famous Kendo sensei. He is pretty well known in the Aomori perfecture so we all went to it because he was a judge at it. It was pretty cool. Its like extreme fencing with bamboo sticks while you are dressed as a samurai. They were yelling like ninjas the whole time; it was pretty awesome. Then later that night, we got invited to go see a production of Handels Messiah. One of the members of the branch was in the ensemble and a bunch of the Branch was going so they invited our district to go. It was pretty cool/a little boring. It was all in English too which was nice. But the best part was their conductor. I swear, he is a Japanese version of John Williams, which is very fitting because he is a conductor/composer. After the concert, the woman in the branch talked to us and told us that Japanese John Williams had actually met missionaries while he was in America. She is going to give us his contact information and we are going to go visit him! We got Japanese John Williams as a referral!

Then on Sunday after church, we decided to walk around and help people with snow shoveling. We found this lady and she asked us to get on her roof and shovel snow off it. It was pretty scary cause I'm not a fan of heights and it was slippery, but we managed to do it. She kept laughing in disbelief cause she had two white teenagers on her roof doing snow shoveling. After we were done, she tried to pay us money. We told her we wouldn't accept it but she wouldn't take no for an answer! She even tried to shove it in my pocket! It was pretty funny.

None of our investigators came to church today unfortunately. It is really difficult to get them to church; it's just not their number one priority right now. We are still gonna work with them. We did get a bunch of referrals this week though that we are gonna try to contact, which will be good.

Things are going good though; we just can't wait for it to stop snowing though. One more month! And, I hit my four month mark yesterday!! That;s crazy; it's going by fast. I won't be a new missionary in just a few weeks!

Thanks for sharing what has been said at church. It's cool to see other people's points of view and how the gospel has affected their lives. I miss our ward! Congrats Dad on being in the Stake Sunday School Presidency! That should be fun.

Well that is about it! It was a fun week, but the missionary work was a little slow; a lot of our appointments fell through. And it's still pretty hard cause I still don't understand much and feel clueless a lot of the time. Not understanding gets a little old after two months, but I guess that's how it is for everyone who learns Japanese. It's still fun though and I'm having awesome experiences! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Didericksen

 Snow Festival

 Kendo Tournament

 Blizzard!

District

We had a baptism in Hirosaki

February 8, 2015: Week 16
Area: Hirosaki

Companion: Dowdy Choro

Hey Everyone!! I can't believe it's already pday, the weeks are kinda going by pretty fast right now. Its sounds like you all had a pretty good week with the amazing weather and such. I wish you could share it with me over in Hirosaki because it is snowing so hard right now with freezing cold wind! Walking to the church is definitely not fun for sure. My week was good, not a ton happened.

We started this week of with a bang however! Since it was Igawa Choros last night in Hirosaki, we found this American burger place and so we decided we would try it out. Oh man it was soo good! I felt like I was in America again! It was a glorious time.

On Wednesday, we were going to meet with one of our investigators named NIck. He lives a good 45 minutes away by foot. We went to his house and he said he was busy unfortunately. So we decided to go house for a little bit because we walked all the way out there. The first three houses weren't home but the next one, a man answered the door who is probably in his sixties or somewhere around there. I didn't understand much of the conversation going on, but we told him we are missionaries and we are sharing a message that can strengthen families. He said he was buddhist but he said he was okay if we came back later to share a message! It was cool, even though I couldn't understand what was going on at all! We are going back tomorrow I think and we are going to share the restoration!

The next day, we met with Akimotto san at the church. I love that guy! He is so funny! HE really wants to learn english so he always tries to talk to us in broken english and its hilarious! We taught him about how he can feel the spirit and what it feels like. It was a really good lesson. When we were walking to his car, I started to talk to him, and when I started talking, he got real close to me and grabbed my arm and put is other around me. It was so cute; he's like my little Japanese grandpa!

 After that, he took us out for some Yaku Niku. Its a restaurant where you go pile as much raw meat as you want and go cook on a grill that is built into your table. It was soo good. I didn't really do the smartest thing, however. When I got in there, I was so pumped to eat food so I just started stacking whatever I could find on my plate. When I got back, I realized that I mixed all my sushi with raw meat...So I couldn't eat the sushi. I bet when all of the people saw me mixing food with raw meat, they were thinking *What is this stupid foreigner doing?* Oh well.

Saturday, we had Kimura Sans baptism! It was soo great. She is the first convert baptism in Hirosaki in about three years. It was awesome to see her come out of the water and to know that she was completely clean, ready to start her new life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. While she was getting ready, the people who came to the baptism were watching a few mormon messages that the missionaries chose. The first one was *Because of Him*. I love that one. It lets us know that because of Christ and his sacrifice, anything is possible and we are never alone. The second one was *Mountains to Climb* by Henry B Eyring. It is kinda about the same thing. It is my favorite Mormon Message. Those two videos really invited the spirit. I was way cool to see my first baptism as a missionary. Hopefully there are many more! Also, it was awesome because Narita San came to it! He is really starting to come along now and desiring to come unto Christ. We were so excited to see him walk through the door to see the baptism!

Well that is about it. It was a good week. In answering some of your questions:

The new elder in our district is Elder Canapari from Sacramento. The dude is hilarious. He is an absolute Star wars Fanatic. I can ask him any trivial question about star wars and he will know it. Its hilarious!

Also, the day after Dowdy Choro leaves, we have a zone conference with Aomori zone and Morioka zone about IPads! Im pretty excited to get those soon! They will be a great use!

Mom and Dad, I'm glad you guys are still going to games! Jake Harris said that he was allowed to go watch them play in Palm springs cause it was in his area. I'm jealous. Yeah, I'm way excited for the snow festival! It looks way cool. We are going with one of investigators tomorrow! I love you guys so much and I miss you a ton! You guys are the best parents ever and you are definitely my heroes.

Love you guys! Have a great week! Talk to you soon!

Love

Elder Didericksen

 Us at the burger place. Thats an oreo shake and it changed my life.

 Us with Kimura San!

We found a pickachu costume and Canapari slept in it cause he loves pokemon

We found a miracle!

February 1, 2015: Week 15
Area: Hirosaki

Companion: Dowdy Choro

Hey everyone!! It was so nice to hear from all of you!! Sounds like it was a great week for all of you! My week was pretty awesome and we experienced a pretty cool miracle in a way.

Tuesday was my split with Igawa Choro. It was my first full day working with just a Nihonjin. I was so nervous for it but it ended up being way fun! At the start of comp study, it was pretty hard to get across what I wanted to say and to understand what he was saying, but as we got into the flow of things, it wasn't that bad. After our morning studies, we walked around 30 minutes to go visit one of the member's houses. HIs name is Ishikawa Kyodai and he's an old dude who lives alone. We have been suspecting for the last couple weeks that he has been smoking so we went to go check up on him. His apartment is pretty sketchy and tiny, but that is kinda what most apartments here are. We talked to him a little bit about the prophets and apostles. I was able to testify that they are called of God and if we follow their teachings, we will be protected and blessed. It was a good time. After that, we went to do a *role play* lesson with a less active that he has been working with. He speaks a ton of tsugaruban with is the super impossible to understand slang that they use here. We taught him about faith but it was kinda pointless cause he wasn't really paying attention the whole time.

It was actually pretty fun to talk to Igawa Choro all day. I hadn't really talked to him that much until that day. It definitely was challenging to speak in Japanese all day, but it was actually pretty enjoyable.

Later that night, while our district was dong Chirashi Kubari *english class flyers*, we found a kid who might become an investigator. He is in High School and an aspiring DJ. His DJ name is DJminimumShark. Is that not the coolest name of an investigator or what?! At the end of the day, I was way exhausted! Thinking and struggling in Japanese all day is pretty tiring, but it was a great day. Igawa Choro later told Dowdy Choro that my Japanese was pretty good for being a first transfer missionary, and that I could actually teach pretty well for my limited language capabilities. It was a good confidence booster for me. I just want to step it up and improve a ton this second transfer cause I want to be well on my way when Dowdy leaves. I will keep working!!

The next day, we experienced something pretty cool. We were walking quite a ways to find an old investigators house. After going to the address, the apartment we were looking for wasn't there. It was getting late and so we decided to start heading back. After walking for like 5 to 10 minutes, me and Dowdy Choro both had a feeling we should turn around and go back and knock a few of the doors at the apartments, so we followed what we felt. We knocked the first three and no one answered the door. We went to the next one and knocked and the person who answered the door was not expected. Remember that guy from Ghana named Abul I told you about 3 weeks ago? We got his information but we haven't been able to get a hold of him and we thought he was gone. Well when we knocked on the door, it was Abdul who answered it! We somehow stumbled across his apartment! It was pretty crazy. He invited us in and we talked to him for about an hour. We got to know him and learned his beliefs and what's important to him. He is a Muslim and has very strong faith. And then we talked a little about how we believe in the same sort of things and we would love to teach him more. He said he is busy with school until the semester ends on the 9th, and then we can teach him. He said he will introduce us to his Japanese friends too! It was a pretty cool miracle. We are hoping this leads to something really awesome. It was a great experience, especially since it was my first time on the mission where we followed a prompting and found a miracle!

On Friday, we went to Aomori again to go to another zone meeting. It is pretty fun to see and talk to the other missionaries in the zone and see how they are doing. It kinda feels like a big family. One of the elders in Misawa *the area with the american air base* brought me Poptarts from the air base, which was awesome. We learned how we can teach more like Christ taught. They challenged us to try our best to live what we teach, and do whatever we can to be that light and example that people need. It was a pretty good training.

Last night, we went to the Mikami family's house. Mikami Kyodai is the branch president here. They were having us over cause we received transfer calls and two missionaries are going to Morioka, Igawa Choro and Gallagher Shimai. Igawa is being replaced with an American so we will only have Americans in our apartment which isn't that good cause its always nice to have someone completely fluent there. And he's a way good cook too, meaning I need to learn how to actually make food besides eggs.

It was a pretty awesome week. We worked really hard and were able to see some miracles. Great things are happening in Hirosaki. Kimura San is being baptized on Saturday, and we just found a woman through Eikaiwa who wants to be baptized as well. It's difficult at times, especially since its really hard to get investigators to church, but we are starting to see some progression out of them. Missionary work is awesome. I just can't wait till I can speak the language, then it will be way fun!

Well that's about it! Crazy that I'm already done with my first transfer. It's kinda going by fast in a way, and I heard it only gets faster! I love you guys so much! I miss you, but I know I'm supposed to be here! Ill keep working hard! Love you! Have a great week!

Love, Didericksen Choro

 Way good Ramen Shop in Aomori. The type of ramen we are eating is called tsukemen. It was soooo good!

mikami Kazoku