February 15th, 2016- Transfers!

Hey minna San!

We had a pretty good week here in Koshigaya to finish out the transfer. Our calls came in and elder Burch and elder Lloyd are both transferring. I am getting a very young missionary to follow up train, and will still be the district leader in Koshigaya for at least one more transfer. I'm pretty excited considering this last week, but I'll miss my Boise brother for sure.

I have discovered an amazing new food that I have fallen in love with. We have started making a soup like food called nabe. It's basically stew with all kinds of Japanese veggies, some fish paste tubes, and a really good spicy kimchi broth. You eat the food and slurp up the broth through the fish paste tube, eat the tube, then eat all the leftover broth and veggies with some rice set aside for after the soup. You mix a raw egg in with it all and eat it with a spoon to finish off. It makes a ton of food and is perfect for cold winter days. Love it.

So this past week we decided as a companionship to show God our faith and make a goal to hit all the standards of excellence in our mission. There is a lot of talk about not becoming stats bandits, but what people don't understand is how the good stats feed your whole area. As you find, retrieve referrals, invite, and work harder, the area begins to filter out those ready to act, AND it shows the Lord you have the faith and diligence to accomplish what he has said is possible in your specific mission. So we decided to do so. 

We had several lessons on Monday and Tuesday with some less actives and investigators, and on Tuesday I planned a split with the other elders. It turned out being really great. I was impressed with the elder I worked with and we had a good day together. Elder Burch's trainer called saying he was going home for some health reasons which was a bummer, but that he had a referral to introduce us to before leaving that day!  So he and elder Harrison went out and met him. He turned into a new investigator. He went to a church in America over his home stay and really liked it, so he wants to know more. We found three investigators and taught a bunch of lessons that day. It was a really good one.

We had an amazing day at ping pong this past week. The other Sunday we were on the train with an investigator on our way to a member's apartment to make takoyaki and teach a lesson when a man walks in the doors and says "Choro!"  He was an old investigator of past elders and just happened to run into us. We invited him to come to an activity and got his phone number. We totally forgot about him...  BUT he came to ping pong and brought a referral for us. We sat there while he explained the church, how he was able to quit alcohol and cut down on smoking, and how much he liked the Book of Mormon, and THEN gave his friend one to take home with him.  Elder Burch and I were kind of blown away.   All we did was watch.  They are both investigators now.  Before that I had a great talk with an older man named Shoda San. He was taught a few times before Christmas, but then went out to Cambodia to do volunteer work for two months!  He does volunteer work like that each year, and teaches refugees Japanese during the week. He's pretty golden and I guess he came to church one day after hearing about it at eikaiwa (English class).  Anyway, we became buddies and he basically told me he wants to meet with us and learn more. He's pretty busy, but has the desire so we will work with him too. That was a really good day.

On Saturday we had our Bible study class we do weekly in Japanese. The bible is SO hard in Japanese, but we use that time to teach from the Book of Mormon as well and help explain doctrine. It works out pretty well.  Mae was the only one who came, but we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was of course very interested. He always is, but has turned into an eternal investigator. Anyway, this time he seemed really touched and impressed so maybe there will be some progress soon.

Sunday was good. The stake president visited and he is American so he spoke in English with an interpreter. Unfortunately only Kunio came to church, but that makes four weeks in a row, so he is doing good on his own I suppose. We have a lot of work to do to get these other people baptized, but there is fruit all around us. I am so thankful for all the lord does for me each and every day. Everyone go refer a friend to the missionaries!

Deborah I am sorry you have been sick lately. I will pray for you and hope you get back up soon. Rachel I am excited for your baby and hope all is well with you! 

Love you all so very much.

Elder Viehweg

The whole Zone!