Dante Choro in Japan: Hello, I'm Sister Richardson!

¡Hola! Cómo estás ? I had a little extra time one day, so as you can see, I have now mastered Spanish.

So this week went by extremely quickly. We worked like normal on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Thursday, we had to go to another area to stay the night for a mission conference that we had on Friday. And then on Friday we had the conference all day and made it home at about 22:15. The train rides were really long. But it was ok, because the conference was super great! We learned a ton! It was from Elder Choi of the Asia North Area Presidency and he is hilarious, but also
he really shared a good message.

But before I get into that, let me tell about the other days of this week. On Monday, we had pday, then at night we had a lesson! We found a guy while we were housing and he is actually interested in what we have to say. We talked to him about God and who He is and who we are because of that. He had a couple of really good questions and so we know that he is actually thinking about what we are telling him.

Then on Tuesday we went and visited a less active and then a former investigator and that was good. Then on the way home for dinner, we saw Inoue, the guy we had a lesson with the day before, and talked to him on the street. It is awesome because we learned a lot. He said that he wants to change his life right now and he is looking for a job and we asked if there was anything we could do to help and he was excited and asked if we would really help him. So we are trying to help him find something and then we are going to deal with his apartment. He is one of those guys that just stays inside all day and reads manga. And he is a NEET (young person who is not in education, employment or training). But it is ok. He really wants to change, so we are going to find a way to ask him if he needs help cleaning his apartment. Then we will have even more of the Spirit in the lessons with him.

Then on Wednesday, we wore pink. LOL. But anyway, we were told to make sure our "Go-Bag" is ready for an emergency. It is a yellow bag that has emergency supplies, or at least it is supposed to. And so that afternoon we went and updated it and then Elder Hansen wanted to go over some first aid with me and so I got to feel like I was a scout camp again, but this time I was teaching someone who cared and who wasn't twelve. Yay. But it was good because it was the stuff we need to know in case of a real disaster.

Then all of Thursday was spent on a train pretty much. We went to Okazaki with Elders Klein, Tsuru, and Yamada! It was way fun! They are really funny. And Elder Klein was Elder Hansen's trainer, (or in missionary terms "Father") and since Elder Hansen is technically my follow-up trainer, (the companion after you finish training completely, and in missionary terms "Mother") Elder Klein is my Grandpa! Family trees are weird. But it was really good! And there was a new sandwich at McDonald's! And when we were walking home from the mall where we ate and talked to people we passed a Starbucks and we saw the Sisters' Bikes so we walked in and it was... Sister Thompson and Sister Thomas! When I was in Gifu, Sister Thompson was one of the sisters there the whole time! So that was cool. And I accidentally introduced myself to sister Thomas as Sister Richardson. So you
know...whatever.

Then Friday was more trains to Nagoya for the conference and the conference. Boy we learned a lot. He talked to us about how we can be more successful and what we need to change. One of the things he encouraged us to do, which at first sounds weird, is to sing in the shower room. And also throughout the day. Also we were told to raise our bar, just because things have been a certain way in the past, we don't need to live that anymore. We are here to preach repentance to people and help them to receive baptism so if they are not willing to do those things, we have to move on. So Elder Hansen and I realized that we need to give our investigators (well some of them) only one more chance and then move on so that we can find the people that are ready to receive the gospel. So we are going pretty heavy on keeping and making commitments.

We learned a lot more about things but I don't want to type it all, so sorry, maybe later I will share more. Then that night we rode trains home and it took a long time. We were so tired of it by the end.

On Saturday, since we couldn't on Thursday, we did Weekly planning. It was good and we think that it was better to do it after the conference anyway because then we can immediately implement all of what Elder Choi told us to do. So we had some good planning and then we worked.

Yesterday on Sunday, we had stake conference and it was really good! We had a guy named Mayama show up and we taught him a lesson. Elder Hansen had taught him before but he wasn't very responsive. But this time he was great! We told him that he is a child of God. So he was like, does that make me a heavenly being? And we said, well not yet, we aren't perfect yet right and he was like, true. So he was really interested in that and had a lot of really good questions like "if there is a Heavenly Father, is there a Heavenly Mother?" So that was really interesting. He really wants to know about the things that we can teach now, but he won't give us his address and has no phone, so
it is hard.

Anyway, that's about it for my life this week, sorry, it was short and boring. But oh well, at least you all didn't have to live it! Hahaha.

Sister Richardson 長老