Dante Choro in Japan: Whoah, we're halfway there...

Whoah, livin' on a prayer

Well I go home in one year from today. Weird. How time truly flies. I'm sure that time has gone a little differently for others, example: mom. At the same time, though the time has taken a really long time. I almost feel like I haven't been home in years. After all, it feels like I have been in Fuji for about a century. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome, but it has just been a long time.

This week we got to see a lot of miracles. It was great. On Monday, we had an awesome lesson with Mizusawa, who's real name is Masoud Hejazi (he's from Iran), and Matsumoto Kyodai came and helped out. It was a great lesson and we got to talk about God's plan for us. So cool that we know exactly why we are here and what we are supposed to do. At the end of the lesson Mizusawa San had a ton of questions about funerals and things as a member of the church in Japan. So we were glad that there was a member there that could answer those types of questions.

Then on Tuesday, we had a good ol' time and got to teach the Uematsu family. They were happy to see us, as always, and even though they weren't coming to church on Sunday, they agreed to fast with us for fast Sunday! That day we were on fire! We would teach and in the middle of the lesson they would say something and we would switch and talk about that and then at the end of the ressun we even had a reading assignment for them that we had agreed on without saying anything. It was really cool to see the spirit guide us when we taught that day. While we were on the way to teach that great family, we stopped a high school student that was walking home from his club. He was great! We talked about the Book of Mormon, and he even took a copy and made a next appointment with us to meet the next day and he gave us his phone number! We were pretty excited! Unfortunately, he called later that day and said that his mom wanted us to erase his number from our phone and didn't want him to meet with us. #momblocked

The next day, we went down to Mersy Shimai's house! It was awesome! Her husband was there and everything! We got to talk to them and we shared a message about fasting and how it can help us. We committed Mersy Shimai to fast and to share her testimony at church. She was a little worried to do that because she thinks that her Japanese isn't good enough. So we told her that she could just do it in Spanish if she wanted and if she did, we would go up and do it in English. We told her that even though people won't understand the words, the cool thing is that they will understand the spirit that they feel. So that was a great experience on Wednesday.

Then on Thursday, we had to go to Numazu again to help with their eikaiwa class. We went to Indo curry and found out that you should never go for dinner time. It is expensive and they don't have the set we like for dinner, it's a lunch only one. So we got the lady's set and all felt bad that we couldn't finish it. Then we got to teach eikaiwa! I love teaching people English, and it really nice because it free, so people don't have much of expectation for it. Just that we speak English and so they will get better than they were before.

Then on Friday, we got to go to a great training in Shizuoka and they talked about our commitment and consecration to the work. It was a really good meeting and the spirit was really strong. It was cool to see how our goals for the zone this transfer came from us individually
(as companionships of course) and how huge of a goal it can become if we all do the things that we are trying to do for our own areas. That day was also one year from when I entered the MTC so it was super weird to think of that. So we went and got pizza. I know, super Japanese.

Then on Saturday, we did a less active member blitz! We just made a route and visited a bunch of people! It was way fun, a lot of biking, but super fun! And we got to meet with a less active member that we haven't been able to get a hold of forever! And on the way, naturally, we were talking to people and met a guy that was interested! He lives really far, but maybe we can get someone to drive us! Hahaha!

On Sunday, it was fast Sunday and it was great! We had Mizusawa come to church and also Mirai! And a lot of people shared their testimony in sacrament meeting and Mersy Shimai got up and bore her testimony! In Japanese, I was excited to hear the Spanish, but Japanese is good too. It was really great and our investigators said that it was really good and they could definitely feel the spirit. That night we got to go housing for a long time and we found a person to teach! She was way excited to see us and at first thought we were Jehovah's Witness, but then we said we were a little different and so she wanted to listen to us. We told her about eternal families and we have an appointment for
today and we are hoping we can teaching her family! That would be so great!

So in other words, this week was fantastic! There was one point that some guys from the nichiren sect of Buddhism told us that Jesus had no power because he died and that only from their religion we can be happy. It was pretty similar to what we say, except we don't yell at people when we are telling them about our church. It was interesting to see the scriptures about still small voice and loud voice being fulfilled. It was really interesting to see as well the perception that they really had of Christ. For one thing they were misinformed and thought that he had his head cut off. So we got to explain that that was a different prophet named John the Baptist. So in other words, Matthew 16:14 is still true. We had a great week and got to testify about Christ's power many times and feel it in our lives. After all, we are here and speaking Japanese. If that's not Christ's power, I don't know what is.

I hope you all have a great time this week and remember that the most important part of Language Study, and any other study for that matter, is prayer.

Elder Richardson

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