Dante Choro in Japan: Dominoes, Austrians, and a Biker Gang

Hello everyone!

         So this week was pretty fantastic and quite a bit less rainy! On Monday, as you well know, while we were emailing, we had a ping pong tournament for the Gift of Tongues. I did not win, my ping pong skills are definitely not up to par. I was the first to lose the loser's bracket in the tournament; however, Elder Tallent (in the Numazu area) once again won the right to be called Senpai. Then we went for sushi and it was a lot of fun! Then we went home, (we were in Numazu) and we went shopping and stuff. Usual. Before dinner we cleaned the apartment. It needed a little help, but then it was way good after. It wasn't too bad to begin with. Then we got to go out and work for the night! We went to visit a guy that Elder Hansen and Elder Delis (the missionary that was in Fuji with Elder Hansen before) found while they were housing. He is Catholic and so they gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read it and they went back before and he said that he read some, but didn't want to hear the message. They asked him to pray and so we were going to follow up on that. We went and he didn't want to talk to us, so that's that. Oh well. Then we went and visited a
woman that we have been talking to about the gospel that was also found while housing, and we don't know her name so that is number 1 on the list, but she wasn't home. So we were like, well now what? Two things that we planned to take a little longer but then they were both kind of shot down by the forces of evil, namely "uninterestedness" and "probably still at work." So we went...housing! And then it was late and we couldn't house any more, so we got to go do some family history!

         Then on Tuesday, we had a visit from Ishii Kaicho and Ishii Shimai! We got to do some interviews and then they came and inspected our apartment! Good thing we took a little time to clean on P-day. While we were in interviews, Ishii Shimai talked to us about family history. She is a wizard! I feel like I know quite a bit about it, but I can't do it in Japanese. Those records are too hard to read! So she shared with us little ways that we could still do some Japanese people's records without having to decipher Japanese cursive. It was awesome! Then we went to the post office and sent out some mail, then went to go visit a member who is in a care center. He is awesome! We didn't know anything him before we went to go meet him and the ward just said that he is less active, so we were like oh, this might be interesting. But this was the second time and he is reading the Book of Mormon now, (because he didn't have one before and we gave him one last visit), and he prays just like normal, he likes listening to the conference talks, and he is always really happy that we visit him and that we talk about church. So we found out that he is literally only less active because he can't physically get to church. So we are visiting him every week now.

         And then we had sports night which was a blast! We played badminton and it was fun, I love it. And I am decent, I wasn't the best but I can sometimes hit the birdie. But it was way fun and there was a guy there that came because we invited him and he is going to be in the badminton club at school! So he was really good!

         Then on Wednesday, we went housing and stuff, so you know just good ol' housing. And our appointment ended up being cancelled, so that was a bummer. And we also went and ate an ice cream bar outside in the rain in front of Lawson. (Which is a conbini).

         On Thursday, we had a koukan! That's three Thursdays in a row!!! But this time I was in Fuji and with the legendary Elder Tallent! He is super cool and really funny! So we went to Indo curry for lunch and then we came back to Fuji and dendoed! But before that story, on the way to numazu to start the koukan, we had to get on a train, so we were waiting on a platform and we look at the bench and there is a white guy there so we were like, "Dude! Let's go sitting by him!" So we did, and it turns out that he speaks English! And is from Austria! He was super nice and we never found out his name, but he is traveling around the world for about six months. He started off in Japan, and he said that he would go to Korea next. And then he would end up over in the Americas and things. It was great, so he asked us if we knew any good food places in Numazu and, unfortunately, we didn't really know any. But it was really a good time.

         Then we had our koukan experiences. Elder Tallent and I went and visited a member and had a good little message. Then, since we were close, we went to the coast. Of course! We rode up the walkway for a little bit and then since we were just finding a way out for a little bit, we decided to ride on the sand for a little, it was fun, but I am really bad at it still. So when we got tired of that, we found a way up to the walkway again and there was this young guy that was going up the same way! So we talked to him and...nothing, he wasn't interested in the gospel or eikaiwa. So then we just went on our merry way. It was really slow on Thursday, and then we had to have dinner a little earlier so we could get ready for eikaiwa. So we went to sushi, I didn't know this, but apparently there is a sushi place right by our apartment. So Elder Tallent showed to be the secret of Fuji. So we had sushi and then we taught eikaiwa. It was really great! We played charades after it and the people were getting into it pretty well.

         We had for Friday DTM of course! And it was the last DTM for Uchimura Shimai. She is going home! Wow! It really ends! But anyway, it was a good DTM, we talked about the spirit and so we played a little game of "blindfolded obstacle course." It was awesome! We wouldn't let anyone that was going through see it so it was completely unknown to them! It was funny! Then afterward, we had to do DKK, or weekly planning. Then for dinner, because it was the last week of the transfer and just in case one of us was leaving, we went to Dominoes to get pizza. They had put three flyers in our mailbox over time throughout the week. So we were craving it. And then when we got there, we realized that if you do takeout it's buy one get one free! So we were excited. We had ordered and then a guy came in and said, "Hey Elders!" Then he asked if we had just payed and told the cashier to give us our money back and he paid for it. It was so nice, we insisted that he didn't, but he insisted harder and in better Japanese that he did. Then we talked to him, of course, and he is from Seattle but lives in Tokyo with his family. Awesome, and he works for dominoes. He is the kind of go between guy for America and Japan. And he audits the Japanese stores. So pretty cool. So we had two pizzas and it was a good time. Then we had a lot of pizza, so we gave some to a member who is super cool and we love visiting, and we were planning on visiting him anyway so it was really good. He said on Sunday that it was delicious and that he had never had any before, so we were glad that we had decided to give it to him.

         So then on Saturday, we went to the park to talk to people there and the first two guys we talked to were awesome, they were there to play badminton and so, since their other friends weren't there yet, we played with them for a little bit. The wind made it really hard, but they had a good time and so did we. And they ended up winning the match... But oh well. Then we walked around for a little bit more and we talked to a soccer guy and he started talking about all these conspiracies, so it was like, "what???" But he had some interest in the gospel so we are maybe going back to talk to him next Saturday. Then we went to a store where all the young people hang out, because we want to teach young people. Then on the way back we met some bikers that we had met last week, which I think I forgot to mention, but last week we were going housing and then we passed by a train station and
there were these kids on motorcycles there so we stopped and introduced ourselves and told them that we were sharing a message about the gospel and about God. One of them was like, "ok, I will give
you three minutes" and he said that in English, so we gave a quick overview of who God is and why he loves them. Then we asked them if they could talk God, what would they ask him and they gave various answers about the future and about life and such and then they were getting ready to go so we gave them eikaiwa flyers and then they left.

         But anyway, on Saturday, we met these same bikers again. And they were by a canal and we were like, "Hey what's up?" And then one of them said that he lost his shoe in the canal and it was there floating. Then he said that he would listen to our message if we could get his shoe out for him. So we thought about it, and we can't swim or climb the thing that was next to it because of rules so we were thinking about what to do. Then over in one of the parking lots they had some flags that were advertising something and we both felt that we needed to get the shoe for him and then we both were thinking of the flag, but taking that is probably illegal. So we just said, "we have an idea but is probably bad, we could get one of those flags and then we could get it out." So then the bikers ran and got the flag. And then got it ready to get the shoe out, we ended up getting it out and so we gave the one that lost his shoe a card with our number on it and then left. We were then biking down the road and they passed us and they honked and revved and waved, so it was awesome! Really good
relationship being built!

         Then on Sunday it was just normal church, which was awesome! And then we had a pancake party after because Uchimura Shimai is leaving. So that was way fun! And it was delicious! But it was really sad! She was a lot of fun to have around!

         Then later that night we had a lesson with one of our Chinese investigators Sai! And we told him about who God is and about the Book of Mormon and prayer. He has no religious background so we have to start with the beginning, but it is really good because then he won't argue with us and say, well my church says... And he has no preconceptions about our church. So that is really good. And he played the guitar for us and sang in Chinese! It was really good. And when we told him that God loves him, he was a little concerned and asked if God loved his girlfriend. We were like yes! And he said, "but she believes in Buddha and not Christ. Does he really love her?" So we got to tell him that God really loves everyone no matter what they believe. He loves us all no matter what we do. Just as it was said in conference. "(God) knows all the things we don't want anyone else to know about us--and loves us still." It is so cool to see how much conference really testifies to worries and thoughts of everyday people.

         But yeah that was this week! It was fun and we saw lots of miracles! I hope you all have a fun time, a great time, and a splendid week!

         Richardson Churro