Sherwood Chourou in DC - Weeks 9 & 10

 Konnichiwa again!

We have a wonderful announcement this week: we're getting a new companion! This time it's an reassigned Elder from Japan (language study buddy!) We're picking him up tomorrow, so the Limited Edition Fun Times (tm) will soon begin!

Also! We talked with Greg this week about the commandments after sending him the pamphlet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In hindsight, we haven't been able to properly teach him up to this point, as our lessons have just been Q&A sessions in all honesty. However, he has made it known to us that he wants to have faith like we do, and inviting him to keep the commandments put us in a unique position to greatly help him grow his faith! Hopefully, this means he will really start to progress in the coming weeks!

That's all I have to share for now, I guess. Hope you all are staying healthy and have a good week! Please keep Greg in your prayers, and matta ne!

Pic

 - Squirrel!... Hi there!

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Weeks 7 & 8

 Konnichiwa!

We're back again! This week has been pretty busy. I've been training Elder Schneider for the last two weeks thereabouts, and I think I've been doing it right! Probably. Hopefully. He seems like he's doing well, so I can't be doing anything that wrong, right?

We've done a decent amount of work these two weeks, as well. Not long after my second email, we were moved out of the Isolation Phase into Phase 1 of reopening, meaning we can meet some people in person now! We got to teach a family who moved in recently in person just last week, which was a great experience for Elder Schneider! Since then, we had many other lessons over phone and text messaging, and some of the people we taught show great progress! In summary, it's been pretty good lately.

Lastly, we got our transfer calls, announcing that Elder Mousser will be transferring out... and that apparently I'm about to be the new district leader!? I'm getting whiplash from the escalation of responsibility here, especially considering we're probably getting another companion in a couple weeks! We'll be seeing how this'll go over the next few weeks.

Anyways, that's me for now. Hope you all had a good two weeks, and wish you all another good round! Matta ne!

Photos

 - I've got 3 names now.

 - Elder Schneider, some weirdo, and Elder Mousser.

 - 3 trios of weirdos in our district.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Weeks 5 & 6

 Konnichiwa, Mina-san!

I have returned with another semi-weekly email. We've been doing some good work lately, as far as I can tell. Our teaching has been steadily growing and progressing as the days have gone by, so we're starting to really fill up our daily schedules! We actually just got 2 referrals yesterday, and one of them already made an appointment with us! I think I can safely say that exciting tines are coming my way.

In other news, I'm about to become a trainer! We're getting a brand-new missionary this Wednesday, fresh out of the online MTC! I don't know how I'm going to do it, but it seems God has finally deemed me competent enough to prepare another of His servants for the work ahead. Hope I don't screw up!

And that's about it. I've thrown a couple more cartoons onto my page, with more to come of course, but that's everything. I hope you're all still doing well, and have a good week! Matta ne!

Photo:

So Elder Mousser and I did a trust fall vido for a Facebook post. He caught me. With his knee. I still have the bruise.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Transfer 2 (Weeks 3 & 4)

 Konnichiwa Mina-san!

So unfortunately, as I anticipated, it took 2 weeks to get enough to talk about for an email, but here I am.

As the subject says, this is my 2nd transfer in DC, as I got here 4 weeks into the previous transfer. Elder Longhurst has left to another area while Elder Mousser and I remain in Bethesda. Things got just a little quieter overall, now that there's only the two of us, but the work is going along just fine.

We actually started finding a good handful of people to talk to on Facebook, so the work is picking up a bit! I have gotten a couple opportunities to realize how rusty I am with teaching, what with self isolation and my two month break from service. Hopefully I'll be back in shape by the time we get some real lessons going!

That's pretty much all I've got to share these two weeks. As some of you may have noticed, I put up my complete cartoon I showed off last time on my Facebook page. I'll be putting up another one tomorrow (if nothing gets in the way), and I'll try to make it a weekly thing. Please check them out and share them; it just might help us reach someone in need! Besides that, I hope you all have a good week! Matta ne!

Pictures:

So there's this dessert in Japan called a bonbon (if I remember correctly), which is essentially just a balloon filled with ice cream. After some struggling and make-shift tool building, we managed to make one. These pics should give you a basic idea of what they're like.

Sherwood Chourou in DC - Week 2

 Konnichiwa!

Unfortunately, this week has gone roughly as expected: low in events or excitement in general. Some people responded to our friend requests, which means potential invedtigators, and 2 of our friends joined our sacrament meeting zoom call! Besides that, though, there's not a lot to talk about. I'm thinking I may switch to doing emails every other week to make sure I have some semblance of content each time. Anyways, I hope y'all are doing great back home! Matta ne!

Photo:

 - I'm probably going to start making little cartoons and posting them on Facebook. This is a sample of what they'll probably look like, though I intend to color them. Please share your thoughts on this idea!

 - I made some yakisoba (noodle stir fry), but ran out of lunch time, so I had to store it as leftovers. This is the result. (It was still tasty)