17th Week in Japan - 25 Weeks

I am now 19. How am I going to BRT now?

Thanks everyone for the happy birthday wishes! I had a really busy and fun birthday! I went to Matsuriya (The best sushi in Hokkaido, but that is debatable and Hokkaido has the best sushi in the world so yeah:) and ate my heart out. I have decided that raw fish tastes way better than cooked fish. And fish eggs are way good. Next we went to the Henmi family and we were goached with pasta, potatoes and other food. Next I went on splits with Elder Denisen and ate at a cafe with an investigator family, Nanako family. After that we went and Shizen Dendo'ed (natural contacting) at Don Quijote's! I talked to a couple of seniors in highschool and they helped me choose a way cool backpack for my Birthday:p Plus I told them about Eikaiwa (English Class) and they might come! Ran san once more, didnt meet with us!

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we have to change his baptism date again. If only I could speak Chinese, it would make things a lot easier:/ Speaking of foreign languages, I met a Russian Lady this week! She was also very drunk....but still spoke great english!  Our investigator pool is wearing thin. We have a lot of eternal investigators, and the good investigators we have actually live in different areas of dendo, so we will have to pass them:( Young san is doing really well. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, but I dont think she understands the difference between our church and her old protestant church. So we will have to teach or review the Restoration. Soda san read the 34th chapter from Alma and wanted to know how he could improve and grow. So we told him about the Atonement and read with him from Ether 12:27. The spirit was way strong and he wants to learn more! He is a perfect human being I swear!

This week it rained a lot unfortunately. And that made everyone grumpy and not a lot of people would talk to us. SO we were wet, getting no contacts, and my scriptures almost got wet!:O But it is all ok. I have learned that the missionary purpose is not only to Invite people unto Christ, but to also warn the people. If they dont want to listen, they dont have to. It will just catch them in the next life. But it is really nice when they listen though! Another thing I learned, the deepest desires of my heart. I had never really thought about it before until this week and I found out what they were. I encourage all of you to write down your deepest desire and ponder about it. Well I am going to go on a Zone activity to a huge huge park! I hope you all have fun!

Elder Swenson

My Birthday Box!

Sushi!

 This was a Buddhist festival and this is what about half the people wear....

Here is a live Octopus and they show it and cut it up alive starting from the legs and they cut it up till it dies of pain. Mean. I didnt eat it.

16th Week in Japan - 24 Weeks

SO this transfer is only 5 weeks and time is flying by so fast! I only have 3 more weeks with my companion!:o Elder Yoshikawa is a way cool missionary who knows Japanese thoughts and cultures (because he is Japanese.)  My language skills are getting way better! I have to speak in 60% or more Japanese all the time know so it is really forcing me to learn the language! But the great thing is, I am finally understanding things at church and in natural conversation! It is really the best feeling in the world when you can understand people! 

Our investigators couldn't meet with us too much this week so we did a lot of housing and housing and more housing. Our finding efforts brought us a couple of new possible investigators and hopefully they will recognize who they are and what they can become.

Cool things that have happened this week! I bought some cool Japanese dress shoes! They like the light tan black tipped shoes. So at first I really hated them, but they have really grown on me:) And the coolest thing about Japanese shoes is that they are designed to slide on and off really easily because no one in japan wears shoes in the house. So it is nice not having to tie my shoes all the time:p Plus they were only $20:p Go Macklemore:p Next, I am now the Beginners English class teacher! It is so much fun teaching english! Especially Japanese people, because they try to say everything in katakana pronunciation and it is hilarious:p Plus the next day I helped to teach Kids English! It was like being in a kindergarten class all over again! ABC's, colors, and games! After that it has been raining, and raining, and raining. I hate rain. You cant street, people are grumpy, and there are only so many people you can call. So yeah. I cant live in Japan after the mission:p 

This work is becoming so much fun. Everytime we meet with people and teach them the gospel, the more I want to serve them.I love hearing all of your stories! They help me do my work, so write back!

Elder Swenson

Oh yeah by the way I had my first experience with Nato this week.

 It is beans in a mucus like substance and it smells terrible:)
 I highly recommend trying it:)

These are my new shoes! They are really expensive new, 

but I bought them at 2nd street for $20, and they are way cool:) 

15th Week in Japan - 23 Weeks

Hey mina san!

  So this week was my last week with Mecham Choro and I now have a Japanese companion! His name is Elder Yoshikawa. He cant speak english and I can kinda speak Japanese so its been really fun trying to figure each other out:p So this week went by really fast. We visited a bunch of investigators and re assessed if we should drop them or not. It really is a hard and sad thing to try and see if you should drop someone. But we have to do it. So up until now we havent decided to drop anyone yet, and now that I have a Japanese comp. we will be able to find our investigators desires and needs a lot faster. 

    Tomita san is doing ok. She unfortunately does not want to do anything with our message right now so we tried to commit her to pray and read the book of mormon again. Nagano San took a book of mormon this week and said she would read it. Ono san has a few concerns about forgiveness, but I think he just wants to talk more with us:p Soda san read the Alma 31 and felt the Spirit and freaked out a little bit. When we called him he said he felt something funny and warm inside when he read form the book of mormon. We had to explain the spirit again, but it made me so happy! Ran san was doing really well but he didnt show up to church yesterday and we couldnt get a hold of him:/ So we are gonna have to push back his baptism day:/ The rest of our investigators couldnt meet with us. 

  Today we are having a double Zone BBQ with our mission president cause they are leaving on the 30th and President Nakatsuka will be coming in. So we get to wear normal clothes all P day:)  Sorry today is a little short today. I cant think of anything else to say. I love this gospel and I cant wait till I can speak Japanese!

I now have a Japanese companion! His name is Elder Yoshikawa.

14th Week in Japan - 22 Weeks

I cannot believe that two transfers have gone by! It all goes by too fast. This week Elder Christofferson spoke to us! He is so amazing! He is really nice and has the scriptures memorized. I even was able to ask him a question and I got a really good answer. I was able to see my MTC district again and that was really kool! We also were able to go to a real American Sandwich shop that had Sloppy Joes!:o It was the best thing ever. 

     This week we werent able to meet with a lot of our normal investigators, but we were able to meet with Ando san and Young san. We teach Young san in english, so I was able to really step forward and testify and participate more in the lesson. We taught all of lesson 1 and gave her a Book of Mormon. But the interesting thing was she wanted the english version, even though she really is Japanese. Ando san didnt come to the door when we rang the door bell the first time. So we were about to leave but we pinged the door bell again and we taught her about Joseph Smith and committed her to prayer. This week we also recieved a new investigator named Ran san. He is actually Chinese and is studying Japanese here. So fortunately one of the english teachers from BYU who is only here for 3 months, also knows Chinese and is our translator. Ran san is the most Kinjin (golden person) we have ever taught. He is almost LDS already. He wasnt allowed to join a christian religion in China so he wanted to join one here and he chose us.  That is all the major dendo (mission) news.

     This week I had my first mexican food given to us by a member! I was so excited and happy I dropped the first taco on my foot:p We also had a wedding on wednesday and that was a blast. The wards here really treat you right when you get married. All of the young men and young women made a dance routines, skits and other stuff just for the wedding. Even the old people did skits. It was awesome! Today we climbed Mountain Moiwa and the place was beautiful. It was our district activity and it was way fun. 

  Well I hope everyone is doing well and the Lord is preparing people in your area where you live to hear the gospel from you! Their is definitely a reason why we are teaching in english. (I dont know Japanese yet:p) Ok I love you all and miss you!

Elder Swenson