Elder Bryson Viehweg's Mission: August 30th, 2015

Hey guys,

This new transfer is bringing some big and terrifying changes. We got the call from assistant Chugg this morning and found out Tsuchida Choro is transferring to a place called Abiko to be the district leader and follow up train a greenie, and I will be taking over Kamagaya in a threesome as well as training a new missionary. I almost threw up when I heard that, but then I heard that the third missionary will be a transfer sixteen and he is half Japanese, so between the two of us the new missionary shouldn't have any lasting, permanent effects...

To be honest I don't know why the president felt this way about this transfer. I can't even talk on the phone with a native and understand them hahaha. It's going to be a really tough experience, but I know I will learn and grow a lot as well. So we have today and tomorrow we go to the mission home to pick up our new missionaries. So weird. Tsuchida Choro and I have gotten really close through this last transfer. We spent our companion study time on Sunday just talking about the transfer. We Both agreed that it has been one of the hardest experiences yet, and that we learned A LOT. I sure am going to miss him, he has been the perfect trainer for what I needed to start off here in Nihon. Definitely an inspired companionship. So needless to say I need to start thinking about the district vision and spend A LOT more time on my knees.

This week had some really good experiences. Earlier in the week, Sunday and Monday actually, we had exchanges, which I told you all about already. From there we had an old investigator from the other elder's area book call and say he had time to meet. He is about sixty and is a baseball fanatic. He plays every Sunday and travels to follow his favorite team. Anyway he has a background in Christianity and was really glad to meet with us. We taught about the plan of salvation and the atonement. I'm not sure if he really has interest in what we teach, but he said we could come teach him again, which has not happened yet in the past six weeks with any other investigator haha. So that was a good experience.

On Wednesday night we had our weekly English class. The week before I mentioned to this tiny older lady named Noboko San that I thought it was awesome she did kendo. Kendo is basically sword fighting with bamboo swords and armor. It's fencing without all the tights and fancy talk. Anyway this next class she decided to bring her entire kendo outfit, sword, and also some of her umis, super huge longbows native to Japan. After eikaiwa we were eating candy with the students, and she waved me over and before I could say anything started throwing on all these clothing items. Before I knew it I was fully dressed in a kendo uniform and every single student was crowded around me snapping photo after photo while Tsuchida Choro and the sisters just watched and laughed at me haha. It was really cool, she kept wanting me to make all these poses and things. I was a little embarrassed, but it really was so sweet haha. After that she gave me a bunch of super complicated origami and two picture frames with these tiny, beautiful hand sewn kimonos in them. So Shannon and Natalie looks like you have some cool souvenirs coming your way. I'll send a few pics if they are any good. Most are blurry. It was fun though haha.

Weekly planning was a little tough this week. I really do hate sitting in the apartment for five hours calling people and talking, but I know how important it is for our week. This last week we dropped a bunch more people who were not interested and unavailable. Doing that is always rough. I t's like ripping off bandaid after bandaid for several hours. We both were a little frustrated, but we have come to accept that our job this last transfer was to clean up the area book. So many people who were labeled as 'investigator' really had no idea away what we did or who we were. So while it didn't exactly boost our self confidence, we recognized it was important to set the tone for future missionaries.

Friday was a really good day. We biked super far away, forty five minutes, to a town to visit a man from Nepal who owns an Indian curry restaurant there. He has met with a lot of other missionaries, probably because they always eat his food, but we just had a lesson with him that day. We talked about prayer. He seemed to understand, but the language barrier is sooooo thick. His nihongo is really bad haha. There currently is not a Nepalese Book of Mormon, so he reads from the Hindu one, but really doesn't understand it. He was super nice and prayed very roughly to close the lesson. We don't know what to do, because he can hardly understand us and the gospel vocabulary, but he can't read about what we teach either...tough. After that we got a really great phone call. We had been calling this previous investigator who's teaching record had every indication that he should have been baptized. He is a really young guy who is going to school. Anyway we had called him several times in previous weeks and never got an answer, but he messaged us and said he could meet us at the church all the way back in Kamagaya. So we booked it back while also trying to make our goal for Morumon shos, which we just barely did, and made it to the church. We chatted with him for a long time and set up some really good expectations. Apparently the reason he met with us is because from our voicemails he had found out that the missionaries had changed. The other elders had really pressured him in the past. So we just tried to reassure him, but also promise him that everything we taught was true. His schedule was insane, so who knows if we will meet again, but it was an answer to prayer. That day as we were biking out to Shiroi, I prayed the whole time that we could REALLY help someone that day, not just give them a book, or a pamphlet, but really help them come closer to Christ. This young man, Kikuchi San, was the answer. The spirit was very strong as we talked, and he asked such deep questions for a college student. He has a desire, but needs patience. I have come to learn that here, missionary work is not lessons, or having people at church. It's small, almost unnoticeable things. So small the people who we help come closer to Christ often don't even realize it is happening.

The next several days were really rough. Pretty much ignored the whole time by a lot of people haha. We were yelled at by a few old grandpas for ping ponging their houses after seven at night...whatever, man. Hahaha, we tried to just laugh it off.

So today was awesome. Three weeks ago a Filipino girl called Tsuchida Choro and I, she spoke English so I talked to her. She mentioned having a pamphlet and wanting to know where the church was in Kamagaya and saying she really wanted to come. She lived in Chiba, which is over an hour away, but insisted on coming here since she received a Kamagaya flyer. We explained the place and all the times and then referred her to the sisters. When she came to church the next week, Tsuchida Choro recognized her. She had approached him three months ago and asked for a pamphlet. Apparently in the Philippines she had gone to church with her friends, and has been looking for a Mormon church in Tokyo for along time. Anyway she met with the sisters here twice, accepted baptism, and then THEY referred her to the Chiba sisters again haha. Yesterday the sisters went to her baptism and said it was wonderful. Her journey to the gospel was so crazy, random, and long, but God used all of us according our faith collectively to help her get to where she needed to be. Really cool. Tsuchida has a gift for referring women. This is the third or fourth woman who has approached him, heard him talk about the gospel, be referred to sisters, then accepted baptism. I sure hope he realizes that he is just as crucial to their conversion as the sisters who teach them. Really great story.

I ate nasshi. (Large Japanese pears) It was soooooo gooood I think it may have been one of the fruits in the garden of Eden. Anyway, I've learned that no matter what I eat, or how much, I'm always hungry. Life of a senkyoshi I'm sure. Sorry super random, but I don't have anything else really to talk about. I sure do love you all. I am absolutely terrified of being a trainer and a district leader. I keep thinking about he New Testament scripture...not sure how it goes, but it's something like,"God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." I'll try to go back to that and not let the spirit of fear get to me.

I love you all very much. I can't tell you how thankful I am to each and every one of you.

Viehweg 長老