Last week before transfers:o
Ethan - Mission
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Herro! (Japanese hello:p)
How is everyone doing this fine week!? We have been having lots of fun! This week our investigators weren't progressing very much at all, or couldnt meet with us, so we did a lot of finding. We found 2 families! The Ando family and the Young family. In japan everyone has their family kanji in front of their door or on their house somewhere. So when we were housing we were in a super duper rich area and found a completely American looking house. When we rode past it, their name plate said the Young family and the plate was a horse drawn wagon. So I really wanted to ping the house and find out that they were distant relatives of Brigham Young. Mecham Choro on the other hand, did not. He doesnt like to ping gaijing (foreigners) house because things get really akward in english. But I insisted. So we pinged it, and the family is a half family. The dad is american, the mom japanese, and they all speak Japanese and English. It was really different talking in english but it was a good experience. They said we could come back:) The other family, when we pinged them, the wife said she would come to the gen kan (the inside patio where everyone puts their shoes) which is like every missionaries dream:p So she came opened the door wide open for us and talked to us for 20 min. She had friends in college who were LDS and had been visited by the missionaries. She was very interested in learning about the church. We will also go back and teach them.
This week Elder Christofferson is coming! Wednesday we will go to Atsubestu church, near where the temple is being built and hear him speak! This will be the 4th apostle that I will have seen slash heard from in the 6 months I have been a missionary:) And this is also the last week I will have with my trainer, Elder Mecham. The 3rd of June is when we will get the transfer calls, but I will most likely be staying in Moiwa and I will also probably get a Nihonjin (Japanese) companion.
Yesterday, we had a big dinner given to us again by the Nagano family. We had a Jingusu Kan (mutton) party! We literally grilled food for like 2 hours and it was way good! Plus I got to try horumon (intestine) and it was way good!....just a little chewy:) After the grilling we went inside and we tried to teach everyone a quick lesson. (This family wanted me to speak in english so I did all of this in english.) Mecham choro asked all of them what they thought if families could be together forever. The response was that they like how our church focuses on families and how we werent trying to force the bible on them or other stuff that is popular for other religions to do here. Then I testified in english how the Gospel has blessed us with the opportunity to be together forever and that I would see my grandpa again. When I started testifying the little kids were being a bit noisy and playful, but the farther into the lesson we got, it suddenly got silent, and the Holy Ghost filled the room. It was way cool. And Shingo san, the son to the Nagano "older couple" started to tear up. He asked what our purpose was. And I told him that our purpose was to help families like his, to be able to become strong and to have eternal life after we leave this life. He was very happy and said that he believed that there were a lot of false religions, but he believed that ours may be right. He wants us to teach his family the gospel. And it was a real miracle considering he only knows a little bit of english and the rest of the family doesnt. So that was a huge miracle.
I love you all and keep in touch with me! Send me pictures!(Pretty please)
P.S. We hiked a mountain last P Day and yeah you get it:)
Elder Swenson
This is the area where we serve.
So here are pictures of the food and adventures this week! They celebrated my birthday was early at English class! That is Kuroki Shimai, she is the Sister Training Leader for Sapporo! And that is soup curry! They only have it in Hokkaido and no where else in the world!
these are fried squid tentacles. They are cheap and delicious!
