Sherwood Chourou - Week 12 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

I repented this week and took a few pictures (they're comparatively menial, but it's fine.) I gave a talk yesterday, so I'm sending that too.

Anyways, this was a pretty good week. The lady from last week, Koshiyama san is now officially a shinyuu (we are now calling investigators this because it can mean either "best friend" or "God's friend" >w<), and we met a kid who happend to be Hibiki's neighbor, and he is also a new shinyuu! Fun san has a new baptismal date in 2 weeks, so that'll be exciting! Outside of that, not much has been going on, but it's been great nonetheless.

Hope you all are still doing well. Matte ne!

Talk:

Konnichiwa Mina-san! It has been almost 3 months since I came to Japan, and I am loving it here. It's been difficult for me to understand Japanese, sometimes, but as I've been studying Japanese, I've been able to enjoy talking with everyone.

Since I got here, I feel like I've learned a lot more about the gospel and God than I ever could before. Among the many things I've learned, I would like to share 2 truths. 1: Everyone can experience miracles. In the past, I felt like I couldn't see God's help in my life. I felt like I couldn't hear him answer my prayers. But in these last 3 months, I have gotten to see God's help in my own life as well as the lives of my friends here. God led Fun san to us, and even though we can't understand each other, we have been able to help him learn about and come unto Christ. God led us to Hibiki kun, and prepared his mind and heart to recieve his gospel. God has been helping everyone we've met, and he's blessed me to be able to see his miracles.

2: Everyone can do something to bring God's children home. I'm not a very social person. Even when I can understand someone perfectly, I like to just listen quietly. Because of this, it has always been hard for me to share the gospel with others, especially people I don't know. As I've been out serving the Lord, though, I have been able to recieve courage and speak with hundreds of people about Jesus and our loving Heavenly Father. I have also been able to see how many simple ways I can invite others to come unto Christ. From this, I learned that everyone, member or missionary, can do something to bring souls unto Christ. You don't have to stand on a mountain, shouting out the gospel to everyone you see. It could be as simple as inviting your friends over for dinner and family home evening. All you have to do is love your neighbor.

I am grateful for the many blessings God has given me. I thank Him for all the wonderful people here in Iwamizawa. I know that God loves us, that He performs miracles, and that he can help us all to do His work. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Pictures:

-Assorted bugs.

-I made a reconstructed-deconstructed french toast. T'was yummy. Added bananas for prettiness

-My shoes have seen war.

-Pretty flower garden.

Sherwood Chourou - Week 11 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

This week is zone conference, but we haven't had much of note happen recently, so I'll just run down our current teaching situation:

Fun san is almost ready for baptism, but he feels like he needs to learn more before he makes the final decision. Hopefully he's comfortable enough to ask us whatever questions he has.

Hibiki san is coming along well. His parents aren't sure they want him to join a church until after college, so we're trying to find a time to meet them and resolve their concerns.

We met a cool lady named Koiyama san last week. We taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. We'll be visiting her again this week.

That's about it. We didn't have anything to take a pic of, so I'll just send a pic of me with a pair of reading glasses I got (for funsies). Hope everyone's having fun back home! Matte ne!

(mom is attaching some additional pix from zone conference that were posted by the mission president's wife)

Sherwood Chourou - Week 10 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

I've had yet another good week this last week. It was brought to our attention, last Thursday, that the Pocatello kids couldn't come to church because they had to spend one of their 2 Sundays with thekr host families, so they had valid excuse. This week, however, only 2 of the 8 or so members of the group came to church! They left today, so we never got a chance to call them to repentance. We saw them at a little festival on Friday, though.

The festival consisted of pretty much just dancing in a line walking around the streets. I couldn't get much in the way of pictures due to rain, put I did manage to take a photo of a group of Power Rangers in the line. On Saturday, we went to a BBQ at someone's farm and met a bunch of Americans! It was wild. I ate my first clam there, too. Twas tasty.

Today, we went to a rose garden, which was pretty cool all things considered. I think my favorite part was looking at all the names, most of which were either really appropriate or just ridiculous. I also saw a sign post that was losing its letters. I'm including pictures of that and some noteworthy roses we saw.

Anyways, that's about all worth mentioning over here. Hope everyone's doing well! Matte ne!

Pictures included:

- Go Go Power Rangers!

- Piano phone (yes, that is a phone)

- P Old Rose

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- Fabulous! Rose (indeed)

- Lavaglut Rose (very appropriate)

- Dream Come True Rose (Disney Princess tier naming)

- Prince of Peace Rose (Jesus!)

Sherwood Chourou - Week 9 in Japan

Konnichiwa mina-san!

It's been another good week over here. Since Iwamizawa is a sister city to Pocatello Idaho, a bunch of kids from Pocatello are spending about 2 weeks here, many of which are lds. Unfortunately none of them came to church yesterday, but they still have a chance to repent next week.

Burton長老 and I found a very simple yet amusing little toy at Hard Off (basically Japanese Goodwill) last Wednesday, a video of which is included in this email. It kind of reminds me of how small and simple things can bring great joy (the best example of this being springy door stops, in my personal opinion), both in a temporal and spiritual sense.

I forgot to mention this last week, but recently, the Japan Sendai mission split, part of it going to the Tokyo mission and the rest joining us in the Sapporo mission! I haven't met any of the new missionaries yet, but it's exciting nonetheless. 

That's about all I can think to talk about, but I hope everyone's doing well. Have a good week, everyone! Matte ne! 

Sherwood Chourou - Week 8 in Japan

Konnichiwa once again, mina-san!

As today was temple pday, I was unable to email everyone last Monday, so sorry for the lack of a warning before then. On a different note, we got a Konnichiwa once again, mina-san!

As today was temple pday, I was unable to email everyone last Monday, so sorry for the lack of a warning before then. On a different note, we got a new baptismal date set for Funさん! This time it should be a lot more reasonably achievable. We also managed to get an appointment with Hibikiさん, although it ended up being over video chat instead of in person like we intended, but it's still good.

Unfortunately, that's about all that's happened of note over here, though I did get one picture of the heavens opening and showering goodness upon the world off into the distance (aka the sun peeked through the clouds way away while it was overcast). Sorry for the shortage on stuff!

Anyways, that about sums up this last week. Hope everyone's alive and well, and have a good week!new baptismal date set for Funさん! This time it should be a lot more reasonably achievable. We also managed to get an appointment with Hibikiさん, although it ended up being over video chat instead of in person like we intended, but it's still good.

Unfortunately, that's about all that's happened of note over here, though I did get one picture of the heavens opening and showering goodness upon the world off into the distance (aka the sun peeked through the clouds way away while it was overcast). Sorry for the shortage on stuff!

Anyways, that about sums up this last week. Hope everyone's alive and well, and have a good week!

Sherwood Chourou - Transfer 2! (Week 7 in Japan)

1st transfer is officially over! I feel like these first few weeks have gone fairly decently for transfer 1.

Anyways, with the transfer, I have been paired with a new companion, Burton長老, but I'm still in Iwamizawa. It's been a little awkward getting back into the groove, but I think we're all set now.

Family Home Evening is tonight and we've invited a mom from kids eikaiwa (english class) to join us! Hope we all have fun!

I recently got myself some origami paper and have made quick work of figuring out how to make stuff. So far, I've figured out 2 ways to make a girl in a kimono, one more convoluted than the other, and I intend to figure out even more stuff to potentially use for dendou (maybe like little invitation card kinda stuff). Photos shall be included.

Funさん is unfortunately having his baptismal date pushed back because we didn't have enough time to get all the lessons done, but we should be able to set a new one and get back on track. As for Hibikiさん, we're still trying to figure out how to next meet with him, but we should be able to that out soon.

That's pretty much all for this week. Hope everyone's alive and well back home! Matte ne!

Pics:

- I used pokemon for kids eikaiwa

- we found a disney princess house

- origamis

- Burton長老

Sherwood Chourou - Week 6 in Japan

Konnichiwa!

Sorry I missed last week's email, gomennasai! It was Zone P-day and our schedule was absolutely packed! With that in mind, I'll do my best to redeem myself this week.

It's the end of the 1st transfer! It feels like hardly any time has passed since getting here, somehow, but this whole month and a half has been awesome. Our friends Funさん and Hibikiさん both came to church yesterday and had a great time! Hopefully, we'll be able to commit Hibikiさん to a baptismal date soon and get to see both of them come back into Christ's fold.

Last week, we had a lunch party at the church. There was so much good food, I'm amazed I was able to restrain myself to only 2 plates! I'm including a pic of the party (not the greatest photo I could've taken, but oh well).

Anyways, hope everyone's doing well! Unfortunately, I don't have many photos to send, gommenasai. I got a pretty good pic of a cool building we pass every so often, though (it's probably something related to Buddhism, but that's fine). I'll try to be better about not forgetting to email in the future. Matte ne!