Dante Choro in Japan: A Missionary's Lament

Well, once again, I will transfer. Truly it is a bittersweet feeling to leave Nanao. I have learned so many things here and have really grown to know the people here (there weren't very many of them so it wasn't too difficult). Like the areas before, I am ready to leave when I do, but I don't want to go. Also, like the areas before, when the work starts to pick up a little bit, I leave. Such is the curse of
Elder Richardson.

However there is some rather exciting news. I get to go to the wonderful land of Ichinomiya! I am opening a second set of Elders there with the Legendary Elder Whited (the only person that you will
ever meet from North Dakota). I am really excited! We will be in the same district as my beloved Gifu! My bean-chan area!

Well, this last week in Nanao (king of areas), was rather exciting. We got to go visit an unknown member. By unknown I mean that we only had the last name, phone number, and address. We tried to go last week, but she was not there and later she mailed us and we got to set up an appointment. On Sunday, the Branch President was really surprised because not many missionaries can get in the house apparently. Well we got in and got a promise that she will come to eikaiwa from now on.

Also another thing that happened this week was that our eikaiwa class was super awesome! By that I mean that many people came and it was a great way to start the new course that we are changing to.

Then on Saturday we had a super awesome thing happen! We had transfer calls (texts), and then we had to catch a train to Anamizu to meet our good buddy Hiro. He was super excited to see us again (he had been traveling since the end of December, so it had been a while) and we were excited as well! He said that if we didn't have plans then we should go up to his school and meet some of his friends. So we went up and at first we went into the teacher's lounge (he is an assistant in the main office so we could do that) and met a lot of the teachers. And they were all fluent in English. Then Hiro wanted to take us to lunch and then come back and so we went out and right as we were
leaving one of his friends came up and Hiro introduced us. His name is Yusuke. He is also nearly fluent in English. And one of the first things he said to us is that he is really interested in Christianity
and actually wants to convert. So needless to say, we gave him a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon. Then we went to this awesome, really out of the way, restaurant. There will be a video of one of the
amazing things that we discovered there. Well later, we ended up back at the school and we had a mini eikaiwa that involved a lot of card games and magic. Yusuke and Hiro essentially invited a few of their friends to come and speak English with us. A few people came and then people had to do things and it ended up being us and only a few people. It was super fun!

Then church was kind of sad and they even played "God be with you till we meet again" for the closing hymn. Pretty funny. Then packing and cleaning really got going and it was a lot harder to pack this time because instead of having a box that I could ship, I have to ship the guitar so I had to figure out how to fit all of my books and such in my suitcases with my clothes. It wasn't too hard. I just am leaving some extra sweaters that I acquired and some coats that I never wear. (>_<)

Well thats about all that happened this week. And if I missed anything, it will be in a video probably.

See you next week from the paradise city.

Elder Richardson