Sunday, July 10, 2016

Dear everyone,

        This week was rather interesting. We had a lot of "lasts" for Elder Day.  But before we get into all of those...it's time for a quote!!!

                "Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost enthusiastically...You can do it. Be brave. Pluck up your courage. If you are brave, brave brings confidence."

        This was in one email from President Ishii to all the missionaries from a while back. Recently I was thinking about the spirit and I wonder, do we seek enthusiastically to have the spirit? Or do we seek it but only just to have it? If we were enthusiastic about it, we would always do anything and everything to have it. Then the second part is my favorite. Be Brave. That's sometimes a really hard thing to do. But as Ishii Kaicho stated, being brave brings confidence. If we want faith, we have to act on it. Bravery is just faith in action. Once you take that little step, you will be able to take another. You can't ask the Lord for more than you can handle. You have to wait and He will give it to you at your pace. Not at the pace you want, but at your REAL pace.

        I learned so much this transfer from Elder Day. I am really grateful for his great example of missionary service and especially his humility and patience. He is a great guy. And he's pretty good looking too! :) But today, he went to the Mission Office and tomorrow, he will go to America. These past six weeks have gone by so very fast. But we saw many great miracles and met many people.

        So in other words, today I am in a place called Hamamatsu. Not that it really changes anything for any of you...but I am. Or at least, I think I am.

        But let's get started! On Monday, we had a really weird pday! We didn't go shopping except to get milk and bread. We had enough food and meal appointments that we didn't need to buy much food. (We still didn't eat it all we have an extra loaf of bread). Also we went and hiked up as far in Mount Fuji as we are allowed to go, but that's not that important. I already sent out about that last week anyway, because we emailed when we finally got home. Then, we had a great lesson with Tezuka San at the Mochizuki's house! We talked more about church and she set a date that she can come to church! It's not that big of a thing, but one step at a time.

        Then on Tuesday, we ate at McDonald's for Eid al-fitr (which we really don't know what it is but its on our calendar so we looked it up and it said that they have a feast). But we went to Mackers and ate for dinner that night (we were going to meet an investigator there, but he missed his train so we rescheduled). And that night we had sports night! I am getting a lot better at badminton. Still not great, but I did win a match.

        On Wednesday, we broke down and did a little bit of deep cleaning in our apartment. Then we went with a member and visited a guy form his work that said he would listen to the message! #referral and it was great! The member really wants to go on a couple mission and so he is super dendo fired up! So when we were talking to the guy about what missionaries do, the member brought up every single lesson and we pretty much shared an overview of the entire gospel. Then that night
we went to the same member's house for dinner. It was really fun, and he is now even more super dendo fired up.

        On Thursday, we had the last DKK of Elder Day! We planned like the Dickens! Not that Dickens was really famous for planning or anything, but we did! Then we had eikaiwa that night as well! I love teaching English to people. We had the last eikaiwa of Elder Day!

        Friday, we had the last DTM of Elder Day! And for the closing hymn we sang "God be with you til we meet again" it was great! Then right after that we went to Indo curry for district activity, the last
district activity of Elder Day! Are you getting the idea yet? Then we had to pack up all of his stuff and call the shipping company. That night we went and visited Ooki Kyodai! It was awesome and he had read a lot in the preparing to enter the temple pamphlet. He is really excited and even though it will be a little while, it's really good to have a goal to work to.

        Then on Saturday, we had a great lesson with Yatomi San, and Nonaka Kyodai came and helped us with that! It was awesome! This week we had three lessons with a member present! I've never had that many in one week before! Then we sent off Elder Day's luggage to the airport, and then went to the bike shop and they took it to recycle it. Then that night we started doing ping pong right before seminary. This was the first time, but hopefully lots of people can come and then all the young people can just stay for seminary. Then after that was transfer calls! Even though we knew we were definitely getting a call, it didn't make it any better. Usually there's suspense of if a call comes or not, but this time we were both just looking at the phone waiting. And I got the best call ever! I get to stay in Fuji!!! But they didn't tell me my companion's new name...because I'm training!!! I'm getting a bean chan! So this should be fun. I'm pretty stoked, but also a little nervous. Like what if I break him? Hahaha!

        Then on Sunday, Mizusawa came to church! And it was awesome, we could finally give him the Persian Book of Mormon that we had ordered, but then he was job hunting so we haven't been able to meet with him for a long time. (Yesterday was actually the first time Elder Day met him...and the last). Then we had a YSA activity and watched "Meet the Mormons" and it was great! Then we had a lesson that night with Nakajima Keitarou kun. It was great and so now we should be able to do one every week.

        But that's about all that happened this week. We had a lot of member appointments as well, but mainly just to say goodbye to Elder Day. And we ate way too much food. Overall, I'd say that killing a missionary (that means being his last companion) is a really weird experience and now I have one notch on my name tag. Hahaha!

       I love you all tons and stuff and hope you have a great week! I should know my companions name by next week (I hope) haha! I will receive him in two days. #TheSuspenseIsKillingMe

Enjoy your lives this week...and every week, but you know...
Elder Dante C. Richardson


 Elder Day and Dante sporting new ties in Simona's wedding colors!


 Our fabulous DTM pictures...
RIght to left: (back row) The Late Sister Rogers (Fuji), Sister Talbot
(Fuji), Elder Bauer (Numazu), Featuring Elder Burns (Shizuoka Zone
Leader), Elder Otsu (Numazu), The Late Elder Day (Fuji), Elder Yuasa
(The Japanese James Bond), Sister Yuasa (secret English Master)
Front row: Me, Elder Tom Cruise/McClellan (The other Shizuoka Zone Leader)

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