The wild fish ran loose in the city...

皆さんへ：

        I hope you all had splendid week and did many spectacular things. For me, this week was hard. We, once again, had to go to Nagoya for a training. This time however, we got to give the training. So this week again was looking like last week at the start. Then it started to pick up after we got home and did some finding. If you ever have a rough day, I would suggest knocking on doors for a couple hours. And then riding around looking for people for an hour. Then repeat.

        Well we had some great lessons this week and we taught one of our investigators the word of wisdom. He was a little worried that he would not be able to follow this commandment in time for his baptism. We had a great member there to help us out and he shared his personal experience when he was taught from the missionaries and they asked him to follow the word of wisdom. At the end of the lesson, he agreed to stop alcohol and do it one step at a time.

        We met with him a few days later, and he said that he had researched the church online to see if there were any other rules that we had. Unfortunately, the website he found didn't give much information, and not all of it was true. After helping with his questions about which were real and which weren't, we talked about the commandments. He decided that he didn't want to follow all of them and that he would not like to receive baptism at this time. He promised that if he got an answer from the Book of Mormon, he would talked to the missionaries again. So we were really sad to see him go.

        Anyway, this week we got to do a lot of finding and meet a lot of people. We gave a lot of people copies of the Book of Mormon and hopefully some good will come from that. We also met a guy while we were knocking on doors that isn't really interested in religion, but wants to learn English and said that we could share what our church thinks about things with him.

        Well, I'm sorry this one was short, but you can all deal with it. Hahaha! I love you guys and hope you get to do some cool things this week!

 

リチャードソン長老より


Pictures!!!

We played with the camera features on Elder Mendel's camera for a little while.

 

 

 

 

I decide that I don't like trains. . .

Well, I used to. But after this week, I'm not sure I really do like them or not. Anyway, all in all we spent about 13 hours on a train, which doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it was annoying. And
we are going to spend about 10 hours this week.

Anyway, that's enough of my ranting. This week was way fun! We got to go to trainer's training on Wednesday and that absorbed a lot of time, but it was fun for Elder Mendel to be able to see all of his bean friends and I got to see all of the other trainers who are some of my favorites! Then the next day we got to have a special training with the zone and President Ishii! It was way super fun! On Saturday, we got to have a lesson with Mizusawa! He is thinking about joining the church for the long run, not just a thing to do! Aawesome! He asked us about funerals and how it works if his wife is a different religion and stuff! He also straight told us he wants to be a Mormon! Then that night there was the cultural celebration for the Sapporo temple! It was way cool and we got ot hear Elder Stevenson speak in Japanese, Elder Whiting (he's the area president) also spoke in Jjapanese and President Nelson said "konbanwa" which means good evening. pretty great!

Then we had the dedication yesterday and it was amazing! I'm glad for the chance to be able to watch and participate in such great event!

Anyway, this week we had some fun and we spent most of our time on trains, so recently I've been reading the teachings of President Hhinckley book and want to share a quote with you....

 

"With gratitude in our hearts, let us not dwell upon the few problems we have. Let us rather count our blessings and in a great spirit of gratitude, motivated by a great faith, go forth to build the kingdom of God in the earth."

 

I think that it is so good to be here in Japan, even when we have some struggles, we can stop focusing on those few things and just work really hard and the lord will do the rest! such a great thing.
I
love you all and hope you have a great week!

Remember Proverbs 16:32

32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

Focus on yourself, and do all you can to help others, but overall your salvation only relies on you. so learn to work on it.

Elder Richardson

We went to the emperor's garden house in Numazu last Monday for district activity

Staying in Shizuoka apartment for one night after the cultural celebration

 

The Sapporo temple

Mission Olympics, we got a gold in Mountains...

Dear Family, Friends, and the rest of you,

        This week was great. And by great I mean that it was sooooo hot! And by hot I mean I think I'm going to die. And by die I mean overcome my challenges and work despite of the struggle that the Lord puts in my path. And by that I mean that working in Fuji was really, truly great this week.

        First off, we had a great time with our investigators and with members. We had a couple of great lessons with members present to investigators on Tuesday and the feeling afterward was great. We got to teach Tezuka at the Mochizuki's house and she told us that she really liked church last week! Sha had the image that it would be really strict and stuff, and I don't know if you have ever been to
church, but it's just not that. we have the primary in the back, and it was fast Sunday, so the testimonies weren't prepared or anything and in our ward everyone in just hilarious.

        Then that night we went with Kikuchi Kyodai up to the Nakajima's house and had a lesson with Keitarou. We talked about the plan of salvation and he agreed to be baptized on the 20th! That's next
Saturday!

        We also had some fun with Members this week, we got to go to the Satou FHE on Monday and they were a blast. We also got to do a little fun picture with a sparkler type thing. It will be included.

        Our bean chans had a great miracle on Thursday (we had exchanges) and they invited one of our investigators to baptism! And he said yes! We are excited his name is Mizusawa (or at least that's his Japanese name) and he is from Iran. He is super cool and probably one of the funniest people ever. So now we have three people getting baptized in Fuji! So we are pretty excited.

        We have been going HAM with the Book of Mormon this week. We got a bunch of members (really only about 20) to write their testimonies in a Book of Mormon and then we are giving them out like nuts. From that we are seeing so many miracles, really small ones, but miracles nonetheless!

        Anyway, this week was great and we had a great time. I hope that you all are doing great things wherever you are and that you always remember to knock at the door, don't just ring the bell, sometimes it doesn't work. So knock. And it shall be opened unto you.

        Elder Richardson

 

Tike stole my nametag at Eikawa

Found Godzilla on the way to somewhere

We made awesome smoothies

Fun with fire

One of my idols...if I can be his age and be that ripped, life is good.

 

Best English mistake of the week.

 

Love to you all (even if you aren't one of the family or friends lol)

 

Again from Elder Richardson

 

 

"We're gonna have a good lunch tomorrow... (August 8, 2016)

And then we'll hate ourselves afterward"
-Elder Richardson August 3, 2016 9:35 PM

        Well, this week went by fast, like all the other weeks recently. But this was different because my companion noticed it too. We are more than halfway done with the transfer and it feels like we have only been together for a few days or so. But it feels like we have done quite a bit, so that's good.

        Last Monday, our biggest celebration was that we got to take a little nap. Elder Mendel is way 疲れたed and so he needed, I just wanted it. Hahaha! But then we were all ready to go and even had a member FHE planned for that night! But then we went and...the members forgot and the husband wasn't there. So we shared a quick message with the wife and then left. Mochizuki Kyodai, the member that we had the appointment with, called later and said, "I'm sorry desu kedo, senior dakara." Hahaha! For those of you who don't speak this crazy mix of Japanglish, pretty much it means: I'm sorry, but it's because I'm a senior. so again, hahahaha! But we got to talk to a few cool people that night so it was ok.

        Then on Tuesday, we got to have a member lesson in the morning so our studies got a little skewompus. (Spelling? Also is that even a real word?) we got to cut out early from our companionship study and go to the train station. We had an awesome lesson with the Fukatsu Family!
Then that night we got to fine tune our badminton skills. I love having sports night! It was super fun and this week a bunch of people came. It was way good!

        Then on Wedensday, we did our weekly planning because we had an exchange on Thursday, which is when we usually do it. So we got to plan and then go visit Watanabe Kyodai! It was really fun and he seemed to enjoy us coming to visit him.

        Then on Thursday was our companion exchange with the Numazu Elders. I got to stay in Fuji with Elder 大津. We had a great time and the best part, of course, was eikaiwa! I got to teach in Fuji again! It's been so long. But it was great!

        On Friday we had an amazing training by Edler Bauer about flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon. So after that, Elder Mendel and I switched all we talk about to only the Book of Mormon. So this week we gave out seven! And four of them were on Friday after the DTM.

        Then on Satruuday, we had a lesson with the Itou family planned, but then the Paulsens from the mission home came and wanted to check our apartment, etc. so we pushed back our appointment with them from three to four and decided we would take a train instead of biking up there. And the Paulsens were hungry and wanted to go out to lunch with us and we got to be the ones to introduce them to Udon! Which, yes is just a soup, but a really good soup! And they also got tempura. Then we had a great lesson with the Itous and talked about the Book of Mormon...shocker! And we came up with the idea to have everyone in the ward write their testimony in the cover so we can give it out and the person can have someone other than us telling them that it is true. Well us and the people in the Book of Mormon that say that it is true over and over again. Hahaha!

        Then on Sunday Tezuka came to church! It was fast Sunday so she didn't seem to know what to think about the testimony meeting, but then everyone started to greet her afterward and at first she thought that was cool, but it started to go sour so we went to class right then. In the investigator class, the normal teacher want there so we had Nishiie Shimai teach and it was great! Since it was the first
time, not much of a lesson was done from the book, but we just talked about missionary work and fasting and all the questions that Tezuka had. Then when she came down from Relief Society at the end of church she had a big smile on her face, so we think that she might come back. Or maybe she was just happy that it is over.

        Well this week we worked our tails off, literally, we no longer have tails. Hahaha! But we got to meet some great people and we have started flooding Fuji with the Book of Mormon. So life is good, it's still really, really hot outside, but it's good. I hope that you all have a great week. And for those of you in America, enjoy the fact you have garbage cans everywhere, your recycling system isn't really hard to use, you have air conditioning in entire buildings for the most part, you can read traffic signs, and you can buy chicken broth at the store.

        Anyway, I hope you all do some great and fun things this week!

Elder Richardson

 

That's all mayo.

It literally took forever and three hints to get this word. Even for our "native speakers."

The Plan in "cute" form.

 

Japanese missionaries in action, we were trying to play with two balls at once.

 

"You look like you are melting"

Hello Everyone! This week was great! Really short and fast, but great and fun nonetheless. We did quite a lot, but first on Sunday, something happened that is awesome! Our investigator Sai, said that he wants to be baptized! We've been teaching him since I was with Elder  Hansen (which is a really long time ago) and he is really doing good! He said that he wants to follow Jesus so we can all live in the 高榮 and be happy together. (That's Celestial Kingdom in Chinese). He's going to go on a trip for about a week, but he promised to read the Book of Mormon everyday and to pray. So we should be good. But pray for him! He is going to be baptized on the 24 of September!

        So that was a big miracle and on Saturday, (I guess I'm going backward this week), we had a little miracle too! We were going around making a "member book" so that we can know stuff about the members in the ward, and we were going to go to these people's house that are super awesome! But then as we passed the KFC, I was like, "let's go visit this less active that lives over here who is never home!" So we did. And he was home! Which is crazy, because he said that we came at the perfect time because he hasn't been home during the time that missionaries are out for about two weeks! Like leaving at five and coming home at eleven! Crazy! (He's a doctor).

        Then our Friday Miracle was that we got to experience the Karate Kid! We went and painted a less actives house and, no joke, he told us to paint side to side not up and down. We almost died. But it was way fun because they have been really hard to meet with recently and also painting is way fun.

        On Thursday, our big miracle was that we got to go to Numazu's eikaiwa again! And we got to meet some new people! Also, in Fuji that night there was a lady that asked the sisters to teach her the gospel sometime after eikaiwa!

        On Wednesday, we got to teach three lessons rapid fire! We went and housed a big building and found a guy that was interested in the Book of Mormon and said we could come teach him about it. Also he has read the bible! Which is pretty rare for Japanese people! And he's got the coolest looking tattoo sleeves ever! Pretty cool dude! Then we went and visited our investigator Tezuka! And it was great, she mentioned a thing that a member said in the last lesson we had. She said something like, when I was baptized, I didn't know 100% that it was true. Still I don't think I know 100% that it is true, but I believe it enough that it makes up for what I don't know. Tezuka really liked that. She
thought that in order to be a member of the church you have to know for sure 100% that it is true, but it's just not like that. You only have to know what you know and then believe enough to make up for the rest. And then we went and played basketball with Mirai and had a great lesson afterwards. He was really involved. When we were talking about the great apostasy, he looked at me and said, "God called another prophet right?" It was perfect. Because God did call another prophet!!! It was a really great atmosphere in the lesson.


        Then on Tuesday, our miracle was that we finally got our key for our apartment fixed! So now we can lock it! From the outside! Small thing but it was a really nice thing to have.

        Last Monday, miracles abounded! We received revelation to clean our apartment really well and we had an apartment inspection on Friday. Not that ours was messy or anything. But they were really impressed. Also we got the miracle of rest. It was needed. And we went and got crepes for lunch at this place at the bottom of our store that we buy our food at. It was good!

        Well I hope you all have a great time and look for all the small miracles in your week! I would love to hear them if you have the time!

Elder リチャードソン

Half Vampire and Half Ninja...and Stronger than Both!!!

       Hello everyone! First off, I just wanted to say how awesome my companion is! I can't say that enough. He is the best. The only thing is that he underestimates himself. His Japanese is so good and he always can say the things that he wants to say, and he can understand everyone really well!  He is flawless in teaching and everyone thinks he is hilarious. I love my little bean chan.

        Anyway, we did a lot of good work this week. On Monday, we had lunch with a member and it was really fun! They are so awesome and we had a good time. Then that day we went and talked to a lot of people on the street that night. Normally we have a lesson with Tezuka on Monday nights, but recently she has been out of town. It is a little frustrating sometimes. But it is ok because we now have time to find someone new that we can also teach.

        Then on Tuesday, we helped Elder Mendel learn where things are by biking around a lot. Unfortunately the people we wanted to visit were not home, so we had to make up a little bit of what to do.

        Then on Wednesday, we went and visited Kinya Kyodai! It was awesome and he is doing a lot better! And he was really excited because that morning he got to go outside for his exercise time.  Then we were really hot so on the way down, we stopped to get ice cream and it was totally revelation! We met up with a member there and she was super excited to see us and then we talked to a bunch of kids that are willing to meet and we got their numbers!

        On Thursday, we got to go help with Numazu's eikaiwa and that was way fun! When Elder Bauer introduced Tike (a man that goes to eikaiwa that is super funny) it went as follows:

        Elder Bauer: "And this is Tike, who is half vampire and half ninja."

        Tike (without a second's pause): "and stronger than both."

It was great! We laughed so hard! And we had a good time at Eikiawa.

        Then on Friday, we had ZTM and had to go to Shizuoka! It was way fun and we got Burger King for lunch! It was a really good training and was really fun to see all the new and old faces in the zone. I realized that I have been here a long time. And I looks like it will be even longer. But it's ok because Fuji is the best area in the best zone. So you know, I've got it going on. Then that night we went and visited with Ookii Kyodai! He is doing awesome and in order to help him prepare to enter the temple, we are starting to introduce him to family history work! He is a little bit nervous about doing it but we said that it will be ok and we will help him. It will be awesome!

        Then on Saturday, we had a BBQ at the Nakajima's house! It was fantastic and a lot of people came and we did some service of pulling weeds. Which was super hard. The weeds were like eight feet tall and as wide as a broom handle. So it was some hard work! All of us were happy though because we all helped each other. And the food was great! It wasn't like an American BBQ but we had some great Japanese food. And that night we had ping pong and Sai came! We were able to play
with him, do the Forrest Gump thing with hitting the balls into the box and have a short lesson.

        Then the next day he came to church! It was awesome and he said that when he prays he feels his heart get quiet and bad feelings go away! That was super great to hear! He is feeling the spirit! So we are going to be teaching the rest of the commandments from here on out and we are praying for him really hard! He is progressing so well and he is willing to obey the Lord!

        Then on Sunday night there was a matsuri! Which is like a Buddhist festival, but not really so we went! And we found five new investigators! At the same time! They are awesome and we are going to meet on Saturday and teach all of them at the same time! Then there was a firework show that night to end the matsuri and Sai asked if we would go watch with him. So we were there and he was there, but even with calling and texting each other, there were just too many people there and we couldn't find each other. But it was fun and nice that he wanted to watch with us.

        But this was a really good week! At the beginning it was a little slow, but we endured with patience in our afflictions and at the end of the week we were able to find five people. It was all worth it!

 

        I hope you all have a great week and enjoyed Pioneer Day, because even in Japan they celebrate that Utah holiday with fireworks!!! Jk.

Farewell my friends and see you next week!

 

The epic story of the bean chan...

    Once upon a time there was a bean chan named Mendel. He liked to watch movies. One day while in Sandy, Utah, he got a letter that would change his life forever...this is his story.

        He was told by a living prophet (much like Moses in the old days) to go out and work, but he told him to go out and work in Japan. So good old Mendel became ELDER MENDEL, SLAYER OF KINGS and packed his handy dandy notebook and his toothbrush, got all of his visa requirements
and went to Japan. There, he had to deal with his first real foe and hinderance of his divine calling: the deadly foe of JET LAG. While still battling this enemy, he was brought into a room where he was to be assigned a guide through the mystical realm of Nagoya Japan. He was told he would be assigned for his first quest in the small town of Fuji where he would slay all of the things. He said, like Nephi of old, "I will go and do the stuff that I should." Or something like that...

  Anyway, hello everyone and welcome to this week of hearing Elder Richardson ramble on about absolutely nothing. Well...here we go.

        On Monday, it was so long! We had to get up early (at 6:15 instead of 6:30) and send Elder Day to the Honbu. I had to go with him all the way to Hamamatsu. Which is why I was there last week. Then we had a lunch appointments there with a less active member and an investigator. It was way fun and we also went out for ice cream. Life is good. Then that night we had a dinner appointment with investigators that are from Peru. So the whole time it was in Spanish. Good thing I mastered that a little while back otherwise I wouldn't have done as well. It was really weird because they called us our first names because it was easier for them to say. We were for the night Lucien, Raphael, and...Dante. Hahaha! It was great because they were excited that they didn't have to translate my name. It was a really fun time. Then that next morning, we shipped off Elder Dijkwel's stuff up to Matsumoto. Then we waited and then I had to get on a bus and then a train to the Honbu. It was long but, unlike was planned. I didn't have to go alone. But my companions were sisters! It was weird. They were going to present some training in the meeting I was going to so it was really fun.

        Tuesday was spent, as stated before, mostly on trains. But then we had a training and were sent to spend the night in an area that was close to the Honbu. I got to have my temporary companion Elder Ence. Who was in the MTC with me. It was way fun and super awesome! We went out and dendoed hard in Meito (the area that the Honbu is in) and got them a couple of referrals. I was a little bummed because the other trainers got to stay in Gifu, my last area. But it was good anyway.

        Then on Wednesday morning, we went to the church to practice singing for when the bean chans come in and we practiced our little hearts out from about 10:30 to 12. Then in came the beans!!!  Elder Laumatia should be proud to be a Grandfather and also that I did what he asked and put a lei around my bean chan's neck when it was announced that I was to be his trainer. Then we got money, bought a helmet and his sheets and things set up his iPad and left for Fuji. Also important note: Elder Paulson (the financial secretary) gave us Costco muffins!!! Then we spent the rest of the night on the train. It was...fun I guess. We got to talk a lot, not as much as normal, I let him fall asleep a couple of times, but he was trying really hard not to. But we went and made it home in time for going home for the night! Yay!

     Then on Thursday, we went and bought his bike, got some food for the rest of the week and then went out and did some dendo. It was good. Then we had eikaiwa that night and it was awesome! We played hangman at the end and they were all getting into it a little bit. Whenever someone would miss a letter, they would do the wah wah wah thing! It was awesome! Also we did our weekly planning that day.

        Then on Friday, we worked our tails off and talked to a ton of people. We are trying to get Elder Mendel as much practice as possible. Then we had a great lesson about the temple with Ooki Kyodai
and he is really trying hard to be ready to go!

        On Saturday, we had ping pong night and no one showed up! It was lame. But we had to be there because we told people that we would until seven so we got pretty good at ping pong. And we then had a lesson with Keitarou kun and he is good! He said he doesn't know if God is there but wants to so he will do the things we tell him. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray every day this week! And we told his mom so she said that she'll hold him to that.

        Then on Sunday Elder Mendel had a talk! And he nailed it! It was perfect and everyone was impressed with his Japanese! And Sai came to church too! He was great and he participated in the lesson and everything! And he said that he will come next week! That night we also had a lesson with Sai and he even asked if we would eat dinner at his house. It was good! His girlfriend came over and cooked Thai food for us and it was really spicy but really good! And we taught about the Ten Commandments so he said that he will follow them and he will come to church every week if he can. And he was worried about when he didn't follow the commandments before so we reviews that we can repent and that we can always work to improve! It was a great lesson!

     Well I hope you have a great week and stay fabulous! I love being able to share the gospel and I suggest that you all read D&C 15:6! It's great!

Lots of love and stuff!
Elder Richardson

Our food plan for the week.

Elder Mendel, the Bean Chan

 

Mission mash-up. Where's Dante??

 

My planner