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| Metting Brother Van Houton, fellow Idahoan This was totally random! |
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| Climbing Mt. Takao |
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| Noodles are sent down the slide and then you eat them. |
exploits in Japan, even if had to pass through several people and
thousands of miles! Brother Van Houten was a great guy, and he didn't
even judge me too much after meeting me under those circumstances. It
was quite a surprise to find out that he was from Idaho, even more so
to learn that he was from Boise, and I was "exceedingly astonished"
when I heard that he knew the Wolfe's and that his mother apparently
was in church for my farewell talk! I can honestly say that I wasn't
expecting any of those things, but if you ever see him again, tell him
hi! I took some pictures with him so enjoy!
I'm glad that you finally had the legendary food fight, even if it had
to be when I'm on my mission, but keep in mind that we should probably
have another when I return.
Good luck to everyone as the new school year has begun and remember to
enjoy the experience because it goes by fast! There are many days
where I look back and remember the first day of 中学校 and 高校, or junior
and senior high school, and wonder what in the world just happened!
This week was one of the most busy weeks that I've had up to this
point, and it was great!
As always, we had a lot of street contacting to do (about 5 or 6 hours
every day), but we had exciting exchanges that shook thing up a bit
and gave me some new insight into good methods of finding new people
to teach. I bought a new bike, and I know it's kind of late, but we
had a hard time finding a good shop and then trying to learn about the
bikes in Japanese. When they started explaining insurance, I was
really nervous because that's pretty important stuff!
For the first time in a while, we have a solid list of potential
investigators, which makes things a lot busier! Most of the time, they
don't have much interest in learning about the church, but were always
hoping that, with time and effort, they will come to see the joy that
it can bring into their lives!
We had another missionary blitz in Kofu, and we traveled the city
talking about family history for about 3 hours before returning to
Hachioji. All in all, we talked with around 350 people by the end, and
hopefully, we helped people understand a little bit of the joy that
eternal families can have!
We had an investigator come to church on Sunday, and while it wasn't
perfect because he is from Sri Lanka and doesn't speak Japanese very
well and his English is hard to understand, he said that he would be
interested in coming again. He works every day for pretty much the
whole day, which is fairly common in Japan, so there aren't many
opportunities to teach, but I'm hoping that everything will work out.
He is the first real investigator that we've been able to meet with,
and although I'm always worried that a mistake could cause a lot of
harm to his progress, I'm just taking it one day at a time.
I've been studying the importance of "laying up treasures in heaven"
in Matthew 6 the last few days, and I really believe that true
happiness lies in spiritual things because things of this world are
temporary and always subject to change. The blessings of God and the
joy that comes from living the principles of the gospel are eternal
and won't fade with time or during difficult circumstances. Treasure
the blessings that you have received and remember that there is always
something to be grateful for.
I love all of you and keep being wonderful!
Elder Christensen
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| Kofu from a hill |
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