December 6th, 2015

Greetings family and friends,

Dad thank you very much for the advice you sent me. It is worth more than you think and I am very grateful for the example you have always set for all of us. I love you very much. You are exactly right in saying that the Christmas here will be very different. It already is. There isn't that warm hum of Christmas spirit in the air that you feel in America, but we have it in our hearts. 

Dad I want to ask if you have been saving all the photos I have sent home. If not it is okay, but it would be nice to have a nice little cache of them for later in life. As for meals, we cook lunch and dinner together. Breakfast is on our own. I normally eat cereal, Japanese cereal is sooooo good, and a fruit smoothie or natto. I actually like natto now hahaha. Lunch is Japanese curry and rice, mabudofu(Chinese) and rice, rice, yakisoba, or we go out. Dinner is usually ramen that Koyama Choro makes which is really good, soba, somen, udon, or spaghetti. I am learning how to cook a few Japanese style things, but it is all very simple haha. Nothing really great. We like a lot of the same food so it works out really well. It is rare that we eat with members. Maybe once every three or four weeks we get invited to dinner, but that's okay because they always want us to stay for two hours which is not very effective for our work.

This week has been a fairly good one. We climbed above the average for total lessons which was really good to look back on when reporting stats to the district leader. Of course Shannon has more lessons in a day than I do in a week, but it still felt good to see a little result after all the planning and work. 

Monday night we had a lesson with an inactive member, Yamagata Kyodai. He works on Sunday's and I have talked about him a lot I'm sure, but we watched the restoration video with him and discussed his conversion. His story is actually very sweet. From the time he was a middle school student he had an urge and a desire to be a Christian. In school learning about the religious history only fed into that. He met the missionaries one day at the grocery store where he worked and was invited to come to eikaiwa. From there he received the lessons and learned all about the church. He said that one night he had a dream where the Savior told him to trust in what he has learned and follow his desires. From there he was baptized as a member of the church. It was a really cool story and we all felt the spirit very strongly. Unfortunately he still lacks the courage to find a new job. When we challenged him he said that he is working even more right now so he can become a manager and then make his own work schedule. All we can really do is love him and keep giving him opportunities to feel the spirit.

Tuesday we had splits with the Matsudo elders. I worked here with Chou Choro from Taiwan, and Koyama Choro went to Matsudou. It was a pretty good day. We did a lot of finding and streeting which turned out better than usual due to the warm weather I think. That night we attended seminary and helped the one youth who showed up to study from the Doctrine and Covenants. He is a very special kid named Takun. He loves missionaries and comes to all of our activities. I have really been able to get close to him which has been really cool for me. He feels like a younger brother which is something I always wanted, BUT I was blessed with two beautiful darling younger sisters. After that we set up and played ping pong with some members and friends which is always fun. The next day as we went to Kashiwa, the middle point between us and them, we found a new investigator. The kid was a high school aged boy who said he had interest in learning, it was a really good contact and he lived in Kamagaya so we were excited about that. However when we called his mom answered the phone and after a few minutes of hushed talking, the boy got on and apologized saying his parents were strict and wouldn't let him learn. It was sad but we encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon we gave him on his own. Every single day we talk to people who stop to chat because I am a helpless American, but as soon as they see Jesus Christ on my name tag they throw their hand up in our face and walk off. Dad probably can imagine what I am talking about. It really is sad how a name that has brought me so much happiness can cause people to act in that way. If only they knew. But that's why we are here!

Wednesday night we had a great lesson with Yuuta. We started off with watching the video finding faith in Christ since he has a really strong desire to learn about him. After the video, Natalie we took your advice and showed him the new holiday video. He was pretty quiet for a moment then started talking about how he wants to change. He wants to stop smoking, and he wants to quit working at the pachinko parlor (gambling machine house), and he wants to learn more about the church. He is being influenced the by the spirit and doesn't even know why. We are really working with him to help him recognize that influence more, but he is still struggling to realize it. So thank you for offering that small piece of revelation Natalie. You should be a missionary.

Thursday we had district meeting in Matsudou and I gave a training on setting goals. It seems like I always get asked to share on some kind of topic, but sometimes I just wish I could sit back and soak in all of the thoughts everyone else shares. It was a good meeting and I had to cut my training short due to time which was fine by me! After that we did weekly planning.

Friday was another lesson with Yuuta. We met at the church and taught him a big one. The law of chastity. He actually took it a lot better than I thought he would. He has so much love and respect for people around him it only made sense that there would be a commandment protecting families and relationships. However he still thought it was a little difficult for him. He said he would need to repent of a lot, and change a few things in his life to get on track with the commandment. At the end of the lesson he said he would do his best to live the law of chastity, but doesn't seem very confident. We need to encourage him and support him more, but we are not sure how. Either way he has a desire to keep the commandments which means he is feeling the spirit. Again we just need to help him recognize that. Another cool thing that happened was we pulled out the gospel library and watched a bible video to start off the lesson. To help his faith in Christ grow we have decided to watch one at the start of each lesson. Anyway, we explained that all the videos were on the gospel library app, and he downloaded it right on the spot! Pretty cool. He also said he could come to church this Sunday AND that he wanted to go to the mission Christmas concert in Nakano with us. He is progressing well but the mission has a goal for every companionship to see a baptism before Christmas. He needs a lot of prayer and faith to make that happen!

Saturday we did eikaiwa, and met with Yoshida Kyodai, the very poor recent convert. He has some mental illnesses like severe depression so the lesson was very difficult. As in it was three minutes long. Poor guy. He has nothing except the gospel. We do our best to love him, but he still really struggles. The good thing is he is a die hard. He is at every activity, and comes to church every week.

Sunday was awesome. Yuuta came to all three hours of church!! It was so great. That was the first time the Kamagaya elders have had an investigator at church in the past four or five months. He absolutely loved it. His expectation was a little skewed and he was surprised at the crying and laughing children, the relaxed atmosphere, and the love everyone had for each other. It felt so good to finally have an investigator come to church with us. After the last hour he said that from now on he wanted to come every opportunity he could to get to know people and learn more. Unfortunately that is determined by his job, but he has the desire. We set up a next appointment for tomorrow and will commit him to a new baptismal date. As I said before he really needs to be able to recognize the spirit so please pray for him. Sunday night we were invited over to eat dinner at an eternal investigators house. He made us sukiyaki and steak which wa so good, but as soon as we started to introduce the lesson he suddenly remembered he had a business call to make. We think he is lonely and needs some love, but we aren't sure how best to help him. He has been meeting with the missionaries for three years now. Good man though, and very generous.

That's about all for this week. I am being taught and am humbled each day having Japanese companion. I don't know anything! Enjoy the Christmas season and help the missionaries see miracles. I love and miss you all but do NOT want to come home.

Love,

Viehweg Choro