January 17th, 2016- Koshigaya

Hey family!

This week has been insane. We have been beyond blessed in Koshigaya. Unfortunately, all the companionships are not seeing the numbers right now, which makes it rough being the district leader, but we still have so many wonderful things happening. 

Again we had a temple Pday this week and have two lessons tonight so I don't have time to write at the church. This letter is probably going to be a shorter or less detailed one. I'm sorry if you all are confused by the end of this, haha.

So last week we saw a drop in the numbers after Hughes Choro went home, but we decided to set our goals higher and show our faith regardless. I suppose the Lord saw that and decided to give us small miracles right and left. This week every plan we made was scrapped due to some kind of event or last minute needed thing, so we were not super effective or organized, but we did what we could. 

Wednesday we had zone meeting which was really great. I discovered that my previous district leader from Matsudou and Kamagaya is now in our  zone. I wrote about him earlier and his name is elder Lee from Hong Kong. The most loving missionary ever. Anyway, it was good to see him and hear what the zone leaders are planning for this transfer. The first presidency has decided to change our splits to where the junior missionaries will all go to the senior missionaries' area. We won't be exchanging areas anymore which complicates things because we now need bikes and futons at all these random places. 

Thursday we had interviews with president and sister Nagano. They were both absolutely wonderful. I can't describe how much I love those two people. They truly feel like a mother and father to me and I value their trust and relationship so much. Nagano Kaicho had some really good things for me that gave me much more confidence and trust that I am doing what he and the Lord expect of me, which was nice. Nagano Shimai told me I need to train the missionaries around me to be cleaner, hahaha.  She gave us a daily chart with jobs written on it to break the bad cycle of filthiness. It's funny that we actually need those, but there are not many clean missionaries.

The next days were filled with lessons with our baptismal date and other investigators. Kunio San is more and more happy each time we see him, and it is so inspiring. We literally have no idea how to handle someone with schizophrenia, but we feel that the spirit is blessing his mind with clarity and peace and he is progressing. He came to church this week and loved every minute of it. Dad we too studied finding peace and it was perfect for our investigator. He has trouble finding peace and hearing all the members talk about it as well gave him hope and comfort.  We found one man named Vincent on Saturday night. As we were walking past Burger King we looked in the window looking for students who may be studying, when two giant black guys walk out and shout,"Hello!" at us. They both are from Ghana and had met with missionaries a few years ago and learned a bunch. One gave us contact info and came to church the next day!  I translated for him....it was awful, hahaha.  I don't think I spoke any false doctrine.  We have a member lined up for him who is fluent in English for next time.  He is super awesome and about as golden as they get.

We also found four other investigators this week. Today we found one more on the way to the temple. So far only two have been able to be contacted since, but that's just a matter of weeding out those who are ready. 

We had one inspiring visit to a lady in the hospital. We took her the sacrament on Sunday and she has been doing missionary work all over the hospital. I think all the missionaries in Japan could come here and be trained by her. She also told me tons of cool stuff about how a lot of the culture surrounding the emperor has roots in Judaism and Hebrew language.  All of katakana (Japanese phonetic alphabet for foreign words) was derived from Hebrew characters. She is incredible and had us give the woman next to her a Book of Mormon on our way out, hahaha. I think we will go next week too.

Yesterday morning Burch Choro and I went to Urawa for our split with the zone leaders. It was fun working with my kohai from the MTC elder Broberg. He's an absolute animal and I learned a ton from him. We had a crazy day working together. We found three new investigators and met up with an investigator from long ago. During the lesson we taught one hundred percent by the spirit.  We didn't even have a plan going in, but we had an awesome member present and trusted in the Lord to show us what we needed to do.  I think it was one of the best lessons I have ever had.  We taught from scripture and answered specific questions he had. The scriptures would just come to mind as we talked and fed perfectly into what he needed. He is a super young guy who is simply as kin (golden) as they get. We set a baptismal date with him for February seventh and have no doubt he can make it. It was a day full of blessings from the Lord. I had soooo much fun.  At the end of the day Broberg Choro and I just looked at each other and said this is why we came on a mission, for the joy we feel right now.  So wonderful.

We had a lesson with Mae San as well. We played him in ping pong because he said that if we win he will come to church. We never win. He is SO GOOD.  Anyway, his business is failing so he needs prayers to help him turn to God. Pray for Kunio as well.

We did so many more things but I have to plan district meeting and take care of some other things so I do not have time to write. I am doing great and learning so much being a district leader again, it's humbling and so dang fun I love it.  This week we had twenty or so lessons, I can't remember, but the Lord is blessing us so much we don't have time to get to it all. It's simply all so humbling I don't know how to put it into an email. 

Elder Burch is my favorite and we have so much fun together even though we can hardly communicate with people. Sorry for the bad letter. I love you all!

Investigator Riki

Train station at the end of splits

Photos:  Investigator we found this morning, Riki

End of our splits. We had to pack our bikes and take them on the train. It was so crowded and the trains were so late from snow and rain we had to ram them into the train and people hahaha.  Video of cleaning a nice, fresh squid.