38th Week in Japan, 46 Weeks

How is everyone doing this fine day? So this week the temperature here dropped... a lot. The cold in Kushiro and the cold in Sapporo is way different. The wind blows through you here and freezes you. No joke. We rode past some puddles on our bikes to an appointment and on the way back five min later, they were frozen. Thankfully, after this week we wont be using our bikes. Tomorrow we head for Sapporo for Zone conference and will be gone for half of the week. But the cool things is we will have some time to dendo in my old area of Moiwa so I want to stop by some investigators!

This last week on monday a member took us to this place called Akan, the most beautiful and ideal place for camping! I really want to go back there someday and do some stream fishing, but we went for a different purpose...(; Onsens!(Hotsprings!) Japanese people love onsens so they have them at hotels and other places. So our ward mission leader took us there and we went onsen hopping! We went to 2 onsens and just relaxed in pools and in saunas all day. It was the best thing ever. Plus at this place they have an Ainu village. Ainu are the natives for Japan. They have white skin, different color eyes and speak a different dialect of ancient Japanese. They are a dying race but we got to go and see one of their little tourist villages. It was really awesome. I am pretty sure Elder Israelsen was super spoiled on his first Pday.

We didn`t get to teach any of our investigators until last night. Kadowaki san is a 17 year old highschool student who met the missionaries and had a baptismal date, but the missionaries dropped him and we dont know why. Nothing was written on his teaching record or anything. It is like the missionaries just stopped visiting him because they did not write anything down on the teaching record. Mendokusai! So Elder Brown and I picked him up and taught him a few times. Last night we visited him and taught him about God`s love and how he could feel that love if he read from the Book of Mormon. It really suprised him and he said he would read from the beginning.  I was soooososos happy! Besides that we have been finding this week.

Being a trainer is so different than being any other kind of missionary. It gives you the opportunity to focus on someone else besides yourself and to really have a point of view from the savior. Doing things so they can grow and become a better missionary, person, and companion. Japanese is still rough but I am getting along alright. 

Love you all and remember send me your Christmas cards\photos!