March 7th- Sickness!

Hey family! I'm gonna try and share some great things while also not taking too much time!

So the first thing was I got sick, which sucked!  Sister Nagano made me stay home and recover and it was absolutely awful. Luckily I was able to get fairly well recovered, at least enough to work outside the rest of the week by resting that day.

We had a really cool contact with a college kid who is moving to Osaka soon.  We simply told him who we were and what we do and he ended up having interest.  He just graduated from college and is moving to Osaka to find a job, but will be here for another week.  We gave him a Book of Mormon, got his info, and then set up another appointment for the next day. Unfortunately, when we met he said he wanted to learn more and was cool with prayer and coming to church, but that he had to get a lot of things ready for the move.  Anyway it was nice to be able to have a good contact and first lesson in less than twenty four hours. 

This past Saturday I did a split with the elders in the district. I took the day to work with Harrison Choro.  He is my sempai (senior) and I knew him in the MTC so it's funny working for him as a district leader now.  Anyway, he is the best.  We gave him the nickname "Momma Bear" way back because of how much he loves and cares for us.  We had a good day working together. We met with a referral for his area and he turned into a new investigator.  He's a really good college kid who believes in God, wants to know about Christ, and is willing to act.  Hopefully he helps get their area going.  After that we booked it to the opposite side of the area to meet the Minami family.  They are simply the best people and Minami Shimai has become one of my best friends.  She teaches me Kansai Ben--a dialect from Osaka.  We had good food and taught them a recent convert lesson.

Sunday was wonderful. I'm sorry to say this but I hadn't borne my testimony in a long time of my own free will. The bishops here always ask us to introduce ourselves and bear testimony our first Sunday in a new area.  Anyway I just felt very prompted to share my feelings.  It's difficult to feel as though you are channeling the spirit in another language sometimes.  It doesn't seem to work the same way as your native tongue, but I have noticed a very big change in that lately.  I am sensing the power behind the language of the gospel in Japanese and this Sunday as I bore my testimony I felt stronger than I ever had before.  It seemed like the words just poured out of my mouth with the help of the Holy Ghost.  It was a very special experience for me and I was grateful to share my love for the Lord and the members, as well as bear testimony of Christ and the Atonement.  That night we had a lesson and meal with a member named Kawaguchi Shimai.  A few other members came and our investigator Fujieda came.  It was a great meal and good lesson.

Sunday night turned into a nightmare.  My companion started getting stomach pain that had him huddled on his side almost shouting in pain.  It was about ten thirty when we called the mission mom, and also a member to take us to the hospital.  It was pretty ugly.  Banks Choro was in so much pain I felt horrible for him.  We went to the hospital with a member named Kim Kyodai who is from Korea, but lives here with his family now.  We waited for the emergency room to get to us until about eleven thirty when president and sister Nagano came so the member could go home.  THAT was a surprise, hahaha.  I felt so bad.  After the pepper incident with Elder Harrison I hated calling her again to say that my companion had stomach problems right after I called her about being sick myself at the beginning of the week.  She just laughed and talked about how funny it all was so I relaxed some.  They tested Elder Banks and said it may be appendicitis so I waited with president and sister Nagano and chatted until he came out.  They soon came back with the X-rays and basically said that his body was just full of food.  Saturday we ate a king size meal from a restaurant with Mae.  It was a giant bowl of rice, meat, and veggies.  Banks Choro ate it in nine minutes...size of a water melon.  Then he fasted, then he ate a ton at Kawaguchi Shimai's house, so his body freaked out at the amount of food and different eating habits, hahaha.  They gave him some medicine and we got home at two in the morning.  We slept in today.

We need to find new investigators who are ready to act!  Please keep praying that we can!  Also pray for Shouda San that he can make time to meet us and find out if the gospel is true!

Love you all,

Elder Viehweg

Yakima Truck

At Minami's