First, on Monday, we found a little
import store that one of our doctor friends told us about. And we found
TimTams. *Video 1* That night we went to Brother Nakamura's house and talked to
him about life and asked him to come to church.
Next, on Tuesday, we went and got
to change sheets at the hospital and it was good. Then we went housing, and had
a lesson with Brother Yazaki. He has been doing the Duty to God program (he's
21, but you know) and that was really great. Also he wanted to write a letter
to Santa (21) and so we helped him with that. We made him write in English, so
it was awesome (I spell checked most of it, but let him say whatever still)!
And then we had dinner and went home. *Video 2*
On Wednesday, I got to go to
Kanazawa for a companion exchange. It was super fun and we had a good time. We
went out to Stamina Taro, which is an all you can eat meat place, and it has
been so long since I had gone there! Then we went to a ton of Less Active
Member's houses and invited them to Kanazawa Ward's Christmas Party. Also, it
was the Stake President's birthday, so we went to visit him. Then we did more
TimTam things there (they are from Australia like Elder Adams...so he had them
too) *Mystery Video* (It wasn't on my iPad, so I will see if I can get it.)
Also we learned some fun facts with Elder Adams that day. *Videos 3-4*
Then on Thursday, we went back to
Nanao, and got to do some weekly planning. Yay. And we got to go to the
hospital and teach some English there. It was good. Then we went to the church
and taught institute. We talked about the First Vision and how to get answers
from our prayers. That's one thing that I learned this week, again, prayers are
hard. If you really do them right, they can take a really long time. That is probably
why in the scriptures, it always talks about crying to the Lord the whole day
and night. I think it is really cool that God will bless us if we talk to Him
and ask, but He will bless us more if we ask right. We talked about praying and
how to have actual deep prayers. It was a really good lesson. I learned a lot,
even as I taught.
Then on Friday, we had DTM in the
morning in Nanao. After that time, we were all supposed to go make OYM videos
as a mission, so we went to the only place with people...the eki. And we made
videos, during a lightning/hail storm. *Videos 5-7*
Then we saw a little miracle. So,
first it was raining, so we didn't think there were going to be any people out.
We weren't going to go do a video, we were just thinking of them going back and
us continuing. We then decided to do what we were told. We started walking and
it stopped raining. Then we got to the eki and there were a few people there,
we saw our good friend/investigator Nishikawa and had a good chat with him.
Then we saw our recent convert Brother Yazaki. Then we did a few great OYMs it
was time for their train to leave, and the Lord was wise enough to make it
start really hailing and have lots of lightning. So we went into the conbini in
the eki and got some food and met...Brother Nakamura! We were able to invite
him to the Christmas Party and to come to church on Christmas and he said that
he might come. It was pretty great. Then when we walked out of the eki, it had
completely stopped raining. It was a miracle.
Then Saturday was transfer calls
(well texts). And...we are both going to the most remote little place ever.
Nanao. Yep, we are staying. And because YOLO *Videos 8-9*
We also had a great lesson with
Brother Yamamoto and shared about trials and the story of Alma and his people
being persecuted by Amulon (Mosiah 24:8-21). He is working so hard to be able
to quit smoking by the end of the year. Super cool! And we came up
with this random idea to list all of the commandments we could think of on the
whiteboard (and it was a lot) and we asked which ones he was following. Pretty
deep and he really liked it. He realized that God gives us lots of rules, but
that he gives them to us so that we can be blessed. Some of the things that we
said are commandments, he didn't even realize was a thing (like coveting in the
10 commandments from Moses). Well, he is following that one without knowing it,
so he is being blessed. He thought that was super cool! I did too. God really
wants us to succeed, to quote a recent conference talk: "The God of heaven
is not a heartless referee looking for any excuse to throw us out of the game.
He is our perfectly loving Father, who yearns more than anything else to have
all of His children come back home and live with Him as families forever."
(Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It?-Elder J. Devn Cornish-October 2016) I
absolutely love that doctrine.
Then later that day, we were
invited to this thing that we thought was a service activity, but it turned out
to be even better! We got to meet a whole community of people that do service
and things and many of the gaijin in the community of Nanao! And our good
buddies Mario and Ookawa were there. It was way good. We were doing flower
arrangements for New Years, and that was fun, but the best part was that we were
assimilated into this group that hangs out and talks together about different
things, a great way to share the gospel with people. And we already knew two of
them so it wasn't awkward at all. (Well we showed up a tiny bit late so that
was awkward).
Then on Sunday, we decided to go
visit a family that hasn't been getting out to church for a little while, so we
biked for a long time in freezing rain, the result of which is that my throat
hurts today. However, even though they weren't home, we were able to leave a
note that now they know that we will come visit them and hopefully we can start
meeting with them. (Hopefully at the church or something).
Then at night we went housing and a
man asked me if I would join his religion. I told him that I would love to
learn and then if I received a witness of some kind that it was true and mine
was not, I would be dumb not to join and I asked that he do the same with our
religion. He promptly hung up on me. (^-^)
Well, I hope that you all have a
fabulous week and that you always remember to leave something behind, this
isn't the Boy Scouts.
With that said, to the reader I bid
farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, adieu.
Elder Richardson
The Santa Letter
Our Flower Arrangement
Group 1
Group 2
Mario and his flower arrangement
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