Playin' with the big boys now...

So, hello everyone. I hope you are doing well this week was really fun! Of course, it was also really, really, really hot. And so, of course, we biked everywhere.

 Anyway, this week was good and we learned a lot of cool things, but if I told you what they are, you wouldn't get to learn them by yourself. So I will give you a hypothetical question, and then you
think about it and then you will learn.

 When

Well anyway, this week we did a lot of fun things. The beginning of the week was pretty slow, but the weekend was really busy. On Monday, we did a lot to prepare for our music night that was on Saturday. And that kind of led our dendo for the week. We made some pretty cool flyers and made a program, but by the end of the week, the program had changed so much we had to just have the announcer have a handwritten list and just tell us what was going on. That was not fun for the
performers, because we didn't know when we were going to be up and he kind of jumped around from how we write it anyway. But it kept us on edge. Hahaha. But anyway, pretty much Monday was printing out the flyers and then going and giving them to members.

Then Tuesday was pretty much going and giving flyers to members and having lessons with them. Only, not a lot of people were home so it was a little bit of a struggle. And I had music but no way to practice at this point... no instrument.

Then Wednesday was planning, because normally we would plan on Thursday, but on Thursday we were having a koukan with Numazu. So we weren't going to have time then. So we decided it would be better to plan on Wednesday. Then the sisters wanted to practice the musical number we were all doing together...it was just the primary song "child's prayer". So we had about half an hour before that so we just stood at an intersection by the church that high school and junior high school kids pass a lot and just handed out eikaiwa flyers.

Then that night we had a lesson with the Itou family and it was fun. It was funny because Itou Shimai told us specifically that it was not dinner and so we ate before we went. But at the end of the lesson, suddenly there were six pieces of KFC right in front of us. And then there was juice. And then there was some soup. And then came the main course of pesto. It was a great meal...but it was a meal we were unprepared for. Then, as tradition  requires, Itou Kyodai brought out a bunch of cool old coins and gave one to the new missionary. I received one when I first got here. And then it was time to leave and Itou Kyodai pulled out...the instrument. Yay!

But then on Thursday, we had the koukan, so I had no time to practice. But we found a new investigator at the college in Mishima, which is in the numazu area. And I improved my ping pong skills greatly. That's about all that happened that day. And of course...we went to Indo curry.

On Friday, we came back from our koukan and visited our favorite less active member...Kinya Kyodai! We talked about stuff and he looked at me and asked, can you read? Which, considering Japanese, isn't that weird of a question. And then he wanted me to read something and so we asked what his favorite scripture was. 1 Nephi 1:1. Pretty great. Unfortunately, we were a little later than normal so he had to go and take a bath to get ready for bed. Oh well. It was still good.

Then Saturday was the day of the concert! Well, music night. And I had practiced once! Ahhhhh! That morning we had zone conference and President Ishii was there! It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot. Then after that, we went with one of our investigators to a monastery and learned about his specific sect of Buddhism. It was pretty cool.  Lots of incense. And everyone wore a mantle. It was very cool. Then right after that we went with another investigator and celebrated his birthday and went out to dinner. Then we went with him to the music night. It was a ton of fun! Everyone did really well, except me, and everyone had a great time. And we had a lot of people show up. (Videos
will be included)

Then on Sunday, it was ward conference, which is usually boring, but since I had no idea what was going on, it was great! Haha! But seriously on of the speakers uses really hard Japanese. And then we
had shokujikai, which is like a potluck kind of. It is always fun. And that night we had a lesson with Sai and he is doing great. We invited him to baptism and he said that he would but that he wants to wait until he is a little more prepared to make a promise like that with God. So that was really great. Our big worry with him would be that he would just do it because we asked him to and not really understand what a big commitment it is. So that was a great lesson!

Well I hope you all have a great week and spend lots of time doing great and fun things. But, as President Ishii always says, have fun but not just fun, also have the spirit.
 

Pictures are included...but batteries are not.

皆様はお元気でいらしゃいますか？

 

 今週は本当に楽しい時間でございました。私共は沢山御方々をお会い致しました。そして、イエス・キリスト様の御教えについて申す機会がございました。神様のおかげで沢山奇跡を拝見致しました。

   Well this week, as I said above, was fun. We had a god time and talked to a lot of people. We also were able to talk a lot about Christ and His teachings this week and, because of that, and through
God's grace, we were able to see many small miracles.

   But before I get to that, let me tell you all the other stuff we did this week! Hahahaha! On Monday, we were able to have a good pday. We emailed and then went out for lunch and had shabu shabu. It was pretty good, and then we put in too much stuff and the two different boiling sauces kinda mixed into one, but that was still good. And then we ordered a type of meat that came with a bowl of leek and we didn't  realized it so we ordered six. And so we got six bowls of leek as well. And now I'm never going to eat leek again. Hahaha! And then we went shopping for food! Yay.

   That night, we went with Mochizuki Kyodai and visited Tezuka-San and had a great lesson! Then we went and visited a member and had a good little message that involved...magic! It was fun and we had a good time.

   Then on Tuesday, we had a service opportunity! We got to go trim the trees of one of the less-active members that we visit and it was a good time. And then we had a service night that night and went up to the Nakajima family and taught the son! He is going to learn about the church now, because he wants to be baptized. So cool!

   On Wednesday, we went to visit our favorite guy, Watanabe Kyodai! We shared a little message with him and then did a magic trick. Unfortunately, I asked him to not say anything if he saw his card and when I payed it face up with a bunch of other cards, he told Elder Day which one it was. I had to just pretend like I didn't hear and keep going. Later he pointed to his card and things, but then when I chose a card and asked if it was his card, he was still like, "that was really cool." And then he looked at us and said, "you two are really good at magic." I love old people.

   On Thursday, we had a great lesson with the Fukatsu family and a great lunch, except that Elder Day is allergic to cats a little bit and they have four. That was a struggle. Good thing we are in Japan
and there was a face mask handy. Then that night we got to go help with Numazu's eikaiwa class again. It was fun, I still miss ours, but I still like teaching no matter where I go.

   Then on Friday, we had to do some planning because we didn't have time on Thursday. Then we had a meeting with the High Priest Group Leader and that was good. I like working with the different
auxiliaries in the ward. 

   On Saturday, we biked up to visit a less active member that usually comes to eikaiwa, but hasn't been coming recently. Also we had found a name card from a past Elder with a message to her when we were cleaning our apartment. So we biked up to visit her and it was far! Not as far as we've biked recently, but it was uphill and really hot! She was really happy to see us, we just barely caught her in time. It was pretty good! Then we had a lesson with Ooki Kyodai that night and we were talking and he asked us to help him prepare to enter the temple! So cool! He is such a strong member and he has an amazing testimony! I can't wait to see him be able to go! So we now have a goal to work with him every week.

   Also that day, we got to have a church tour and a great lesson with Yatomi and he was really into it. And when we introduced the Book of Mormon and asked if we could give it to him. He was really excited and was like, "really? I can have this?" And he said he was excited to read it. Next week with him, we are going to go to his otera and learn about what they do there. It's awesome, because he doesn't want to tell us we are wrong and that Buddhism is correct, just he wants to share with us so we can know about it too.

   Then on Sunday, we had stake conference and it was super special because we watched a satellite broadcast of Elder Bednar and other General Authorities and also we had the Asia North Area President speak! It was a great experience. And after church we tried to visit some people with a member, but they weren't home...oh well. And we had a lesson that a guy didn't show up to, but we got to use that time to update all of our records. So that was good at least. And at night, we
had a great lesson with Sai! It was awesome, we talked about faith and feeling the spirit and he said he will pray and read the Book of Mormon every day this week! And he played guitar for us and taught me a song! So we invited him to the music night we are having on Saturday and since we are in charge, we told him if he wants to bring his guitar he can play a song there too!

  So overall, it was a pretty good week! We had lots of good experiences and learned a lot! I'm glad I got to work so hard in Fuji this week, even though it was hot ;)

 

 Beautiful sunset and the top of my mountain!

 

My favorite part of the children's bible videos

Sorry that's actually all the pictures I have this week!

Love Elder Richardson... Not as an ending, I'm telling you to. Haha

Sometimes, you just can't give life a title...

Well this week went by really fast, last Monday we went to a place called Aokigahara with some members and to couple of little lakes up there and to a group of waterfalls. it was pretty fun, the only downer for that was that you couldn't see the mountain while we were up there, it was too cloudy. But we still got some pretty good pictures. That night we did a bunch of visits, but only one person was home. It was really good though because we finally found an opportunity for service! He wants us to come over and either trim his trees, or cut them down. Not really sure which. But something about trees and the word cut.

Then on Tuesday, we tried to visit a couple more people because it was their birthday recently and so that was fun. But it turned out that for one of the people, we were misinformed. Her birthday was not on the first of this month, it was the first of last month. So it was a little awkward and we gave her a little gift anyway. It was really good though, because I don't think that she gets visited very much.
Then, we had sports night that night. I have almost gotten spinning a basketball on my finger down! It is really hard, but after a lot of practice, I can get it for about three seconds now. Also, I am getting
better at badminton. So that's good. And we all had a really fun time, and so that's what is the important thing.

Then on Wednesday, we visited another member for his birthday! It was fun, he was a little sick, so that was too bad, but he was happy that we came. Then we were biking around and Elder Day was like, didn't Mirai (who was an old investigator) live over here? So we3 decided to go to his house and see if he was a home and...Bang! Miracle! He was home and his mom was just coming home from work but had to leave and she asked us to teach him a lesson right then because he wasn't busy.
We talked and found out that he has his basketball club everyday except Wednesdays. So that was cool and we were able to pick him up again. We were talking and found out when his birthday is and we made plans to go eat with him and it is on a Sunday, so we got to explain Keep the Sabbath Day Holy! And we were talking a little bit about Moses and prophets with that too. Seeing as he is like thirteen, after we reached a little break in the lesson he asked, "can you teach me some math?" So we were just like, "sure, why not?" Haha! Awesome. And so we helped him understand more about prophets, the Book of Mormon, church, and fractions. Then we had the Uematsu family Mogi that night and that was awesome as ever.

On Thursday, we had to go to Numazu's Eikiawa because they have three classes and Elder Bauer is training a Japanese companion, so he doesn't speak English and they don't have enough teachers. So we went over to help them out and the sisters taught Fuji's eikaiwa class. It was fun and we got to hang out with the Numazu elders...It was good!

On Friday, we had a great DTM and we also got to celebrate Elder Otsu's birthday! (He's Elder Bauer's Bean-chan). It was way fun and we had a Skype thing going on with the rest of the zone to go over goals and it was pretty cool! And President Ishii was in Fukuroi! Lucky Ducks! Then, since it was a less active member's son's birthday on Friday, we biked about 30 kilometers there and it took about four hours. Then we gave him some candy, talked for a minute and had to bike back. That was a little less distance than the way there, because we found a road that leads pretty much straight home. And it only took an hour and a half. #Hills

Then on Saturday, we were sore. Hahahaha! But seriously, we were. And we went to a matsuri that Mirai said he and his buddies were going to. Unfortunately, we didn't see him there, but we still talked to a ton of people and passed out a lot of eikaiwa chirashi. Then we had a lesson with the ward mission leader and his family and that was a lot of fun! They are super cool, and their kids are nuts! Hahaha! Then we had a lesson with a guy that we met housing last Sunday and we talked about the Plan! And we also got a lot of good information about Buddhism. He is sharing with us just to help himself try to understand and so we might be able to help him better. It is great, actually learning about Buddhism without being told that you are wrong just straight up. And he is good, because he doesn't know everything, but is willing to learn and find out for us if we have a question.

The on Sunday, we had a great sacrament meeting and the speakers were great! There was this white guy that talked and his named started with...I think it was an...Elder something. Elder...R something.
Hahaha! But then we had a great lesson from the teachings of Howard W Hunter about becoming great. "Giving consistent effort in the little things in day-to-day life leads to true greatness." It was really awesome! And then last night we had a FHE at the Mochizuki house with a lot of ward members. It was really fun and we learned a lot. We played the "Who am I?" game. And it was pretty easy for the most part, but there were some questions that were pretty hard. And under favorite word, mine was GLUM not GWAR. They cannot read my English handwriting. Hahaha! I couldn't think of what my favorite word was in Japanese.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great week and that you go the distance....hahaha!

Lots of love and other stuff!

Elder Richardson

The life of an everyday missionary

Well, it's that time again, email time. So in other words, the time where I bore you all with my boring life and you get bored.

So let's get started...

On Monday, we did what felt like nothing. We didn't have to go shopping because Elder Hansen was transferring out and so we came home after we were done emailing and we took a nap and then we cleaned some. Then afterward we had a lesson appointment with Tezuka San and Mochizuki Kyodai was going to tachiai for that. But she wasn't there when we had made the appointment for and so we were like oh, what should we do? So Mochizuki Kyodai asked if we would come over to his house and have a short FHE. It was really good and we got to talk about the Book of Mormon and different ways to study it. It was really good.

On Tuesday, we had transfers, so I had to say goodbye to my companion, who was in missionary terminology, my mother. It was pretty sad but oh well, then I got to go stay with the Shizuoka Elders for that day until my companion came. It was really fun, Elders Burns and McClellan are a blast! Then, at about 15:00, Elder Day came and we went together to Fuji. Then of course, it being the 31st of the month we had a member appointment with "Brother Robbins". Hahaha! Then we went shopping to get food. Then after that we had to plan out our week and we had a planning meeting so that we could coordinate with the sisters more. It was pretty good. Then that night we went out with a member to do some visits. He was very excited that Elder Day is here.

The Reason: Elder Day's father served in Fuji about 31 years ago. For about 9 months. We aren't sure on the actual count of the months, but that is what the most members here believe. But another thing that is possible, and what many people have told us is that he served here for 3 months and then later came back for 9 months and ended his mission here. Either way he was here a crazy long time and ended his mission here. AND THE MEMBERS WORSHIP HIM!!! It is hilarious! We are enjoying
it very much right now.

Then on Wednesday, we wanted Elder Day to be able to go and meet the ward leadership, so we did a ton of member visits! It was really good. And then we did some housing and went to the adult institute class. It was really fun and we all had a good time. And on the way home for dinner that day, we met some really cool high school students! They were really fun and they were having fun trying to speak English. One of them wants to be a rapper and he does some freestyle competitions sometimes. I don't really like rap that much, but it does sound cool in Japanese. His rapper name is MC Nobu!! Haha! He was pretty good.

When Thursday came around,  it was the day for real weekly planning and so that took most of our day because we had to not only plan for this week but for the rest of this transfer. And then that night we got to teach eikaiwa and two new people came! It was awesome! We all had a pretty good time and everyone is getting really good at English. Of course, it could be that I'm just getting worse. Then we played the time old classic, MAGICAL BANANA! It was fun and we hadn't played it in a while.

On Friday, we decided to bike up to Fujinomia. And that wasn't as long as we thought, it only took about an hour. We spent some good time finding up there and met some cool people. Also we found a tailor! We want to see how much it is next time, because they were closed, and if it's cheap we might get tailored suits! Hahaha! That would be cool! Then we visited a few more members that night.

On Saturday, it was hot! And when we tried to visit people, no one was home! We biked far and it was just a no go. But Mersy Shimai's (one of the members we tried to visit) husband was home and it was a good relationship builder with him. He has always had a good relationship with the missionaries and so we want to teach him, because he is really cool!

On Sunday was the best! It was fast Sunday and so everyone got to go up and bare their testimony. It was also the first Sunday that Elder Day was here. Many members got up to bare their testimony, and they all talked about the same thing. Elder Day. Hahahaha! There was even a lady that hadn't been to church since Elder Day's dad left Japan or so and she came because she heard that his son was here. And she got up and bore her testimony of how she doesn't think the church is true or that God exists, but she believes in Elder Day. It was really an interesting experience. Then after church we had a couple of really good lessons, one with our investigator named Alexi and Takanori Kyodai tachiaied for us and it was really good, he asked questions that really showed interest in what we were teaching. And then we had a good lesson with another investigator named Sai at night. He was awesome, but unfortunately he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. He said he will make sure to read it this week though.

That's about all that happened this week. It was a good week, even though we didn't really get too much done, what matters is that we were trying to get it done and that we spent as much time as possible outside the apartment. We are looking forward to a great transfer and know that we can see many miracles if we put the trust in the Lord.

I hope you all have a great time this week!

Utah?

My heart are thirsting for a good feeling of place...

Are your heart are thirsting for a good feeling of place???

Hello!
        This week we had quite a few adventures... But I won't bore you with those. But first, something important is happening tomorrow.  Tomorrow is transfer day, and as many of you know, it is also the 31st. That means Baskin Robbins is 31% off! So everyone make sure to go with your new companions, old companions, etc.

        But anyway, lest the swarms of angry butterflies overtake our journey, let us begin.

        On Monday, the main thing that happened was that we got to meet with Tezuka, who we thought we were going to meet with last week, but then realized she said to come back in two weeks and not one. So we met with her and it was a great lesson! Well we didn't really have to teach too much, but it was still great. We had given her a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet and asked her to read. Last week she went to Saitama but didn't take the Book of Mormon. But she had the pamphlet. She told us that she had read it twice and when we would explain something, she would then put it into her own words and say what she needs to do because of it. Then she said , or course if I really want to know if it's true, I have to read the Book of Mormon. So that was pretty awesome. And we are going to go meet with her again tonight. That was probably the biggest thing on Monday.

        Then on Tuesday, we had a koukan! It was great, I got to be in Fuji with Elder Bauer from Numazu. He is great! And from Australia, so he has a great accent. So we met at the Indo curry place and had lunch, went home and we had a great day. The main thing we did was at night. We went with Kikuchi Kyodai and visited a less active member named Nakajima Shimai! She is way awesome and only less active because she can't really get to church on time. She works on a farm that is sooooo
far away from where we live. But it is always fun when we get to go visit her. And we got to pet her cows... Not all of them of course, she has about a hundred! But we got to try to milk one and then she
had us squirt some of the milk into our mouth! Not something that I figured I would be doing when I was called to Japan.

        On Wednesday, we planned, because we knew that we wouldn't have time on Thursday. So that was pretty much the biggest thing that happened. Because the Uematsu family canceled their appointment on us. That happened a lot this week. Most of our appointments fell through. Oh well.

        Then on Thursday, the reason we wouldn't have time to plan was because we had interviews with President Ishii!!! It was great! We had to travel to Shizuoka for it, but it wasn't that far. It was really good to see him and the other people that we their for their interviews. It was a good time. But as always it ran a little late. We had to hurry back because we had eikaiwa. Unfortunately, that didn't
happen...we got on the wrong train because we were trying to hurry too much. It was going the wrong direction. And we hadn't realized it until is said something that sounded like Fuji, but then had a little
bit at the end...FUJIEDA. That is a whole other area and we were already late for eikaiwa at this point. So we hopped off the train and had to wait for the next one back. We called the eikaiwa coordinator and told her what was going on. Then she called us back and said that the people still wanted to do eikaiwa. We showed up an hour late and had a really short lesson. But they were pretty happy with that.

 

        Another thing that happened that day when we were in a hurry to get home, was we know that we wouldn't have time for dinner and had to eat on the train. Also the train left in half an hour. So we went to McDonald's. I ordered two of the dollar sandwiches (the crispy chicken) and a five piece chicken McNuggets.  The lady asked me what kind of sauce I want and then told me I get five of them, I was confused but got the mustard sauce and we were getting it to go. My total was just as expected, about 500 yen. But my food took forever to come. And we were really getting anxious because we needed to get on the next train. Then it came and we had to hurry. For some reason my
food came in a big bag. When we got on the train, we pulled out our food, because we had to eat there because we wouldn't have any time. This is when I look and realized the lady gave me 5 boxes of 5 piece chicken McNuggets. Huge mistake. I looked at my exempt and it only said one and so the whole thing was confusing, but it was way too late for that. I ended up with 25 nuggets and 2 chicken sandwiches. Needless to say, I had lunch for Friday.

        Speaking of Friday, it was our last DTM for this transfer, and it was a great one. We were all supposed to choose someone in the Book of Mormon and list their attributes and how we can apply it. Of course I chose Captain Moroni. He is super rad. But that was a good DTM and really hard to translate into Japanese. People use a lot of really weird words that are hard. Of course when it was my turn, Elder Hansen had to figure out a word for stratagem. Hahaha! Then afterward, we were getting ready for a lesson with these less active members that we meet every week. But they cancelled on us! Oh no! What do we do? So we went to the back up plan! Which happened to be dumb. We had planned to go bike by this park that is by the ocean and see if there were any
people there on a weekday. They aren't.  But there was one guy and we talked to him and he had no interest and we were on this road that there was nothing on and so we decide to see if it would lead us to the main road and we got under the freeway and there was this guy that we know that skateboards at a park that we talk to sometimes. And he was skateboarding there! It was awesome! Then pretty much nothing else cool happened that day.

        On Saturday morning was transfer calls! And...Elder Hansen is transferring, he is going to Yokkaichi and he is a new zone leader. Pretty cool. I am staying here and my new companion is Elder Day!! This is going to be his last transfer, in missionary terms I am going to get to "kill" him. It is pretty cool because his dad served in Fuji for his last area as well! So he's keepin' on the traditions of his father! Hahaha!

        Then Sunday we had church and Mizusawa came again and we had a lesson with him! And we asked why he comes to our church and talked to us about it and he replied, "because I want to find the truth." That is so awesome! And the things that he believes are what we believe too. He was just talking about some other churches and what he didn't like about them. And he really doesn't like the Protestant faith for some reason, but he wouldn't say why. Maybe he had a bad experience. But he
likes Christianity the most so far he said. And he likes that we can pray in whatever language we want. (Apparently in Islam you have to pray with the right inflections and in Arabic and stuff, he didn't like that very much).

        But that is about everything big that happened this week, I hope that you weren't too bored with it. Have a great week everyone and don't forget, tomorrow, Baskin Robbins!

-Elder Richardson

 

 

When at first you don't succeed. . .

Stop. Just stop right now. Succeed.



Beloved peoples... What's up!?!?!

This week was fantastically short! But that is also really sad because it is now the end of the transfer and a little bird told us pretty much that Elder Hansen is transferring. (Insert tear here). But that's
ok, because we will party it up before that time!!! Haha! Let's starting off with a couple of highlights!

        On Monday, we had an appointment that night and it was going to be awesome...until we realized that he appointment was for the next week! Bwahahaha!  And then our other appointment fell through so we had a lot of time...so naturally we prayed and asked for a miracle and where
to go. And Elder Hansen had the thought that was really weird to go to Mini Stop. Which is like a gas station with out the gas pumps... So we went and there was only one guy in front of it. So, of course, we talked to him... And it was a guy that Elder Hansen had met in the post office when I was mailing something!! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and set a next appointment!!!

        Then on Tuesday, it rained!!! So we biked really, really far and visited a member. But, we realized when she answered the door that it was the wrong member. Problem: we have two Sugiyama families in our ward and they are even related, but they don't live together. We were trying to visit the older one (the dad of the husband of the house that we did visit) so that we could find out his  schedule and go home teaching with him. Turns out he lives really close...but we went and visited the other Sugiyama's house and only the wife was home so we shared a message with her on the doorstep. She was happy and surprised that we came. But it was a really good visit, even though we didn't mean to visit her. Haha! Solution: next time look at the first name!!!

        Then on Wednesday the big thing that happened was that we got to go visit the Uematsu family that we do mogi lessons with!! It was awesome and we were teaching tithing and so naturally the best way to teach that is to just throw candy at people. Because that is essentially tithing. But it was sad because we only are going to have 3 more lessons with them and then we have to drop them unless they have interest in the message.

        Then we got to do DKK (our weekly planning) on Thursday and it was a success! It didn't take all day long this time! It was about and hour and a half shorter than normal! Then we were going to have a lesson with someone before eikaiwa, but he ended up having to go to Yokohama. So that was just a little frustrating. Then we had Eikaiwa!!!

        On Friday, we had DTM and it was a special one! A whole other district came to ours! So we had about fourteen people here! Awesome! And I didn't have to translate because Elder McClellan (one of our zone leaders) was willing to do it! The reason they came was because right now the zone leaders are also the district leaders for one of our districts and we were going to having a koukan so the zone leaders had to come to us. So they thought it would just be easier to have everyone come here instead of figuring out what to do for them. But it was fun! And it was a good lesson about how we should be using PMG more. We learned a lot from each other about how we use it and what is
effective and what is not. Then Elder Hansen went with Elder Burns to Shizuoka and Elder McClellan came with me! So we went out to lunch! Yay! We had sushi and I learned something that I didn't know before! At Kappazushi (a sushi restaurant) if it has a pink plate, it has wasabi on it. If it have a yellow plate, it doesn't! Haha! I've never really gone to Kappazushi before. I always go to the other ones. And we had a great lesson with some less actives!

        Then on Saturday, we biked really far again! We went and visited the Itou family and shared a message with them! Then we were talking and we ended up asking them to pray with us and to tell us where they think we should go to find a new investigator. So Itou Shimai said that we should go to Mini Stop! Haha! Another Mini Stop! So we went and talked to everyone there and lo and behold!!! We found a new investigator! Miracle! And so then we got to tell them at church!

        Speaking of Church! There were so many people there. It was a baptism day, one of the member's eight year old son got baptized. And also we had a shokujikai for a couple that recently got married. So there were a ton of people there! And an Elder that served here about six years ago came a visited with his family! Haha! And Uchimura Shimai, a sister that just finished her mission in this area, came!  So church was really good! We had a good time! And the baptism was great!

        Well anyway this week was on fire, we started really working hard to help the member's faith to grow and to help them do member missionary work. We were worried at the first that we wouldn't have enough time to find new investigators and it was not good because at the beginning of the week we dropped a lot of people. But since we did what we were told and worked with the members, by the end of the week we found six new, solid investigators. We were amazed because pretty much any time we went finding, we found someone. And now the members are going to invite people too, so this ward is going to get huge!

        That's about it for my weekly rant, I hope you've enjoyed it. Peace out to you my homies! Go eat some good sushi!

Sister, Elder Richardson Brother for President! Bwahahaha

They did fast and pray oft...

Well everyone this is it, the moment you've all been waiting for...That's right, my email for the week.

First I would like to start with a question: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Now with the email!

        At the beginning of the week, it felt really slow (just like every week). But then at the end of the week, it felt like the beginning of the week was at least two weeks ago! So me telling these stories is
like just remembering them! So sometimes I might leave things out and I might change a few things on accident. So after that little disclaimer, let's begin!

        At the beginning of the week, after we emailed on pday, we went shopping. It was awesome! And we both had a little hankering for ice cream and the shopping center that we normally go to had a Baskin Robbins on the bottom floor. So we got some ice cream, and when we were done shopping it was a sure good thing that we went when we did. On the way out, the line was wrapped all the way around the bottom floor and it just wasn't moving very quickly. That day, they were doing appreciation day and so from that 15:00 until 17:00 the regular cone was only 100 yen, which is about a dollar. So we were lucky with that. Unfortunately we we not able to get the discount because of the time and also we bought a double! Why would you buy just one scoop of ice cream?!?!?! Then we did some other stuff. Like housing! Yay!

        Then on Tuesday, we visited with a lot of members. Or at least it felt like a lot. It was only 3 but still. We have been sharing the talk by M. Russell Ballard in October 1984 because he challenged us
all to go out and be member missionaries. I would recommend reading the talk, it was really good. And so we have been giving his challenge of praying about and setting a date to find someone for the
missionaries to teach. And that lesson pretty much describes our entire week, we have been sharing that talk and some scriptures and parts of PMG with members all week, and they have all committed that they will choose a date and work to it! Awesome! And we had talked about it on Monday and had decided to fast every other day this week because we were looking at our investigator pool and decided if we needed help ever, it was then. So we fasted on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Satruday. It was a really great experience. And we saw a lot of small miracles this week.

        Then we went on Wednesday to the Uematsu family and it was. Awesome! We talked about the Ten Commandments and they already knew a lot of them! It was really fun and they are always so nice. And the rest of the day, we had our weekly planning and that's about it. But it was good to be able to plan for the week!

        On Thursday, we had a koukan! And it was really fun, I got to be with the legendary Elder Tallent in Numazu! We had a good time and talked to a homeless guy that is Brazilian and his name is Georgie. He doesn't want to be in Japan anymore and can't find a job to go home. That really is too bad. And they keep extending his visa because he doesn't have enough money to be deported even. So he is in a really tough place. And we got to teach eikaiwa and it was really fun! But it was a little weird to teach a different area's eikaiwa class.

        Then on Friday we had DTM taught by our lovely district leader: Elder Hansen! And it was a good one, but it was really hard because he asked me to translate the meeting for the Yuasa Couple and so I had to figure out how to say all sorts of words that we just don't use and I had to talk really fast. There were a couple times that I had to ask them to stop talking for a second. But that's ok I guess. Then we went over to a member's house for lunch and we shared a message about member missionary work with him. And it went great! He was really willing to try it and said that he has tried before but didn't really follow through with it so he will try again and that he will follow through this time. Then we went to a park and visited a family and their friends and I did a magic trick for them, because you know, I'm a magician. Hahahaha! And we shared a message with them and played red
light, green light with the kids! It was awesome! Then we had an appointment that fell through so we biked around talking to people for a little bit before our other appointment with some members. And we met a guy from England! He was super cool and his name was Graham. We talked to him for a little while and then he even accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon! Unfortunately he is going  home to England next month so we won't get to be the ones to teach him, but we at least got to meet him! He is awesome! Then we went to the Baba's house for dinner and a family home evening! It was super fun. We talked to them for a while and we had sushi! Which we had to make... I'm definitely
not pro at that yet. But it was still great! And they also accepted the challenge to pick a date and to find someone. It was a really fun time and we did some magic and played some games with them and it was a great FHE.

        Then on Saturday, we went to a Kendo meet. The Uematsu family invited us because Kokoro was competing! So we went and stayed for a little bit and it was really a cool thing to watch. Then we went home and did our regular studies! Yay!then we went out and tried to visit the person that we had an appointment with the day before, but he wasn't home. So we went housing and there were a few people that said that we could come back. And then we had dinner at McDonald's! It was good and
there were a ton of people there! Mostly high school students, but we didn't really get to talk to any of them. Then we visited with the Nonaka Fufu and Ooki Kyodai. We shared with them the message of member dendo and they all said they would try it too. So there are three more people who were added to our Army of Helaman.

        Then on Sunday, we had a great Sacrament Meeting! And one of our New investigators came! He is called Mizusawa, but that's not his real name. I can't remember his real name because it is in Persian. He is from Iran and is super funny! He comes to eikaiwa and he told us that he wanted to learn about Christianity and so we have started lessons. He came and even wore a suit! He looked pretty spiffy. Then that night we went and visited the Nasu family and shared a message with the
sisters about Christlike attributes. It was really good, the one that I got (we drew them out of a bowl) was Knowledge. So I guess that's a sign that I have to study harder. Or just better.

        But that's about it for this week! I hope you all had a good time and that you take advantage of the opportunities around you...but not the people!! Haha!

Have a great week!

Richerrun 長老

 Games with Baba family. 

 Kendo competition.

 Kokoro at Kendo.

 Magic tricks.  I had to do it twice because the kids didn't watch the first time.

 Part 1 with the Nasu family.

 Part 2.

 Part 3.

 Graham.

 Mizusawa came to church!

 Sports night!