Christmas for Japanese Missionary

Hi Family!
I miss all of the Christmas spirit that goes on in America. Most of the people here either don't celebrate Christmas, or just give presents without realizing why we give presents on Christmas.
Anyways, I had a busy, slightly stressful week. On Saturday we had a music fireside after Zone Conference (which was great). Leading up to the fireside, I had tried to put together a Christmas song. After practicing Silent Night for a few days, I was told that the missionaries and YSA would be singing that, so it got axed from my plan. So then I put together a cool arrangement of O Little Town of Bethlehem and thought "No one will do this number. It certainly won't get stolen." Well, on Friday afternoon I found out that a couple other elders were playing that! Because I had no time to rearrange another Christmas song, I had to resort to Be Still My Soul. After Zone Conference I got to practice it twice, and then I performed it. So after having not played that song for three months, I had to perform it. I guess it was alright, but not nearly as good as I had hoped for.
Also, during lunch at Zone Conference, President Daniels told me "Elder Christensen, we need you to accompany Lauren tonight, ok?" (Lauren is their daughter that just got home on Friday from the Hong Kong mission.). So after Zone Conference they gave me the piano music to an Amy Grant song named Breath Of Heaven. I don't know if you have heard of it, but I certainly hadn't! Luckily, they let me listen to it once on President's iPod. Then I figured out how to play it, practiced it a few times, and then the performance. It was weird to perform a piece that, up until two hours before, I had never heard of. But it went well and I was happy to help out.
Another unexpected event from this week happened Sunday at church. While on the train to Asahikawa on Saturday morning, we got a call from a member of the branch presidency. Elder Thurber picked it up and was assigned to give a talk the next day in Sacrament Meeting. Well, it turns out that the member assumed that he was talking with me, and had meant to assign me to speak. So the next day at Sacrament Meeting, Elder Thurber and I were very surprised when my name, not his, was called as the first speaker. So I had no time to prepare a talk. I didn't even really have time to be nervous about the talk. I just had the 10 seconds before I was at the podium, and from there I just spoke. It actually went alright and I got one compliment afterwards, but it sure wasn't an experience that I would like to repeat.
On Sunday, Sister Iwane (the recent convert) and her daughter Jurina came to church. Jurina, usually pretty loud and hard to get still, was super reverant and seemed like an angel! We were so happy, as was the rest of the branch. She adds so much life to the branch. Besides a 6-month old baby, she is the only person under the age of 17 that comes to church. But we love having her come.
The last few days it has snowed quite a bit, so now we have nearly a foot everywhere. All of the roads are covered in a couple of inches of packed snow. For some odd reason they don't believe in plowing roads or using salt on roads in Hokkaido. So the roads have basically turned into ice, and Elder Thurber and I have had a few good wrecks. But don't worry, nothing was harmed. We have a few bruises, but that is it.
This morning I made Goldenrod Eggs for breakfast and it was super delicious. Thank you Mom for sending the recipe!
Well, that is about it. I don't know if I will email on (my) Christmas day because we will be talking the very next day (your Christmas day). So if I don't, have a great week and a half and I will talk with you on Christmas. I love you all so much. Merry Christmas.

Elder Christensen

Remember Kojima in Your Prayers!

Anways, it has been an up and down week for Elder Thurber and I. Basically we have had a ton of awesome experiences and some really good lessons. We found a ton of good people....But, Satan has been working really hard against us and we were sort of a little depressed on Sunday. We had two people that were going to come to church (really strong commitments), but one got sick and the other just didn't show up. We also met a nice older man, had an awesome first lesson were he felt the Spirit, but now he won't answer his phone or his door. So that is the jist of things this past week: have something awesome happen, and then have something terrible happen the next day that negates all of our positive work. We have so many good investigators now, but none of them have time to meet with us! It is pretty frustrating, but we are still working hard and still finding lots of good people.
On Friday we are going to meet with Fujine san (I think I wrote about him a couple of weeks ago). Well, he just finished reading the Book of Mormon, and it took a whole of three weeks! I have never had an investigator read the Book of Mormon all the way through before! We are pretty excited to meet with him again.
We had an awesome experience the past few days. On Monday night I was looking at an old Potential Investigators list (old missionaries write down phone #s and addresses of people that they find and such). This particular list was from 2004 or 2005, and there was one person named Kojima that had the comment "He is really golden! Please meet with him and teach him!". So Elder Thurber called the number, but got no answer, and we sort of just shrugged it off. The next morning (Tuesday) we got a call, and it was Kojima! We asked if we could meet with him, and he said "Sure, how about this afternoon?". So we met him in the afternoon and had a good lesson. I don't think he truely is golden, but he is probably the coolest Japanese person I have ever met, and one of the nicest, too.
He is 41, but back when he was in his 20s, he was a professional snowboarder! K2 (probably the biggest snowboarding company in the world) sponsored him and he competed in contests all around the world. When he first heard my name he said "Isn't that name Scandanavian?". Anyways, I had a fun time talking about snowboarding with him. I showed him my pictures and asked if he could do a backflip. He replied "Actually, that was my forte." Awesome! He mostly specialized in halfpipe. After my mission he has promised to take me to all of the good snowboarding spots in Hokkaido if I return in the winter.
But besides his awesome past (snowboarding, surfing, paragliding, etc.) he is a way motivated guy. He runs a rest home and is way busy. This morning he gave us a tour of the place and it is way nice. He is busy every day because he lives on the top floor of the building in which the rest home is, so he works 24/7, 365. But, he committed to coming to church tomorrow, and it was a strong commitment! He put a note in his phone, and he told us he would "take time out" of his schedule in order to come. We are way excited because he could make a way strong member. Plus, he has a wife and 3 kids. If that family got baptized, it would do wonders for the branch. Right now, only about 25 members come each week, so a family of 5 would be amazing.
Well, that is about it. I love you all. Thanks for your prayers.

White Thanksgiving!

Hi Family,
It sounds like everybody had a good Thanksgiving week, including BYU football. Over here we also had a great week.
The highlight was......Iwane san got baptized!!! Miracles truely do happen, and Elder Thurber and I were so blessed to be a part of this one. The branch here is so excited to have a new member. The last time there was a baptism in Iwamizawa was February 2006, so everyone helped out to see that the baptism happened. Sister Iwane is already friends with most of the women in the branch and she loves coming to church. The branch welcomed her by giving her a really nice bouquet of roses (probably two dozen of assorted colors - purple, pink, yellow, orange, and green).
I was the lucky one that got to do the baptizing, and it was the coldest baptism ever! Right before the baptismal service we checked the water and were horrified to see that at least a quarter (if not half) of the water had somehow drained! So Elder Thurber and I went into the baptismal service and left the water in the hands of a member. Well, apparently the water heater wouldn't be fast enough, so they filled up the remainder of the font with cold water. It was cold, the kind of cold that makes you take in a big breath when your foot hits the water. Sister Iwane waited as long as she could before getting in.
Unfortunately, my one-dunk baptism streak came to an end because Sister Iwane's toe somehow found its way out of the water. So I had to do it again. I felt sorry that she had to go into that cold water a second time, but it all worked out. At least it didn't take me 6 tries like what happened at the last baptism I saw.
Besides the baptism, we had a pretty good week. We had a delicious Thanksgiving lunch (thanks to Elder Thurber's mom) of mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey jerkey, and gravy. It was so good!
The pictures that Sister Daniels sent your way were probably from when they came up on Friday so that President Daniels could interview Sister Iwane. They took us out to eat with President and Sister Otahara afterwards. They even let us get dessert! Unfortunately, Elder Thurber didn't fully read the list of things contained in the dessert he ordered, and I decided I would just get the same thing as him. To our horror (and embarassment), there was coffee jelley in our parfaits! We, of course, didn't eat the jelley, but I don't think that President Daniels will ever let us forget that experience. I am pretty sure that every time I see him from now till the end of my mission, he will ask "Elder Christensen, how has the Word of Wisdom been recently? Has any coffee jelley found its way into your desserts?" Ugh...Oh well. It made for a fun journal entry.
For the month of December, our mission is "giving" a present to Jesus - we are going to invite at least one person a day to get baptized. We are also going to read at least one (if not all) of the four gospels. It should be an interesting month. Hopefully, we can get a few more miracles to come our way and see a few more baptisms this transfer.
Well, that is about it. I love you all. Thank you so much for the emails and letters.

Elder Christensen

PS - I was thinking that I wanted to make Golden Rod Eggs for Christmas, but I have no clue how to make the white sauce. Can you send me that recipe? Thanks. Hopefully we can find the ingredients in Japan.

Birthdays for Elder C. and Elder Thurber Oct/ Nov 24, 2009

To their dismay, as Elder Christensen and his Orem, Utah companion Elder Thurber got to get a treat for their birthdays, they discovered that the jello was coffee flavor. Yum. The Daniels took the Branch President and his wife and their investigator along with the missionaries out to eat. Here is what Sister Daniels wrote about the Branch President and the Branch:
I just saw you son today and he translated for me during a fireside. He also spoke at church and passed the sacrament. He will keep very busy in this little branch. He is doing so well. When ever I see him he has that very cute smile of his always. He looks happy and him and Elder Thurber seem so be doing great. My regret as I am sitting here writing to you is that we did not get our camera out and take a picture of this branch for you. The branch president and his wife are just this young couple. They do speak english and they are wonderful. President Otahara and his wife look like they could be models and are warm and wonderful. I think there maybe were 25 people at church and mostly women. I wish we could figure out how to share this wonderful gospel and keep them active once we have baptized them. It is a big problem here, as in many other places.

Oh Happy Day!!!

Hi Family,
Sorry about no email last week. Pday was crazy! Being in Asahikawa for interviews was great. On Wednesday night they had a baptismal services and they had all of the missionaries work during the afternoon so that we could attend the service. Thus, I had 2 less hours of pday time than usual (plus the 3 or so hours of travel time). But the baptism was great. Brother Sato performed the baptism - his first ever! In fact, the last time I saw someone got baptized in that font, it was him. So it was way cool for me to see him being the one baptizing this time. He didn't quite understand the whole immersion principle, so he ended up having to do the baptism 6 times before he finally got the girl completely under the water. Everyone felt really sorry for her, and I am pretty sure that she shed a few tears, but she won't have a hard time remembering her baptism!
So here is the news of the day: Elder Thurber and I get to stay together for another 6 weeks! We are both way excited, especially since Iwane san should be getting baptized this Sunday! (Explanation about "san": you just add it after the person's last name to make it polite. It doesn't really translate into English.) Something interesting about our companionship that President Daniels told us when he came to church on Sunday is that we are the only companionship in the mission where both companions are from Utah. There are actually only about 7 or 8 Utah missionaries in this mission.
Iwane san is progressing a ton and should be ready for baptism on Sunday. She has had quite a few spiritual experiences and answers to prayers. She really feels God's love for her and is excited to get baptized. And she is already friends with nearly every woman in Relief Society and they all love her. When she comes to church, everybody flocks to her and makes her feel really welcome.
Elder Thurber and I are so grateful to be serving in Iwamizawa right now. And we are so grateful that we get to have a baptism here. The branch has been a long time without a new member to befriend, so we are grateful that we can help a little. Hopefully we can keep the trend up and get a few more baptisms in the weeks to come. We have a couple strong investigators that we will probably set baptismal dates with soon.
One guy is named Fujine san, and we had an awesome lesson with him last night. We met him way back on the 13th and taught him lesson one in his genkan (the front part of Japanese houses where you take off your shoes). At that time he said he would read the Book of Mormon, and he didn't want to meet us until he had read it all. He said he could probably read it by the 24th, so that was the plan. Well, he got through the first 470 pages (out of 745 in the Japanese Book of Mormon). He is reading the BoM faster than most members! And he is really soaking it up. He said that as he reads, he makes images in his mind and it is like he is watching a movie.
He had us turn to Alma 29:2 and said that he could relate with the "voice of thunder" that it talks about there. Once he was in a car accident and was hospitalized. While in his bed, he had a dream where he went to the spirit world. He loved it there and it was really peaceful, but then he heard a "voice of thunder" come from the sky that told him "You still have work to do. Return to earth. You need to write a book." And then he came back to consiousness. Well, he ended up going back to school and eventually got a book published.
He is so cool and he loves the Book of Mormon. We think that he could certainly get baptized this transfer. We are way excited to meet with him again. By that time, he'll probably be done with the Book of Mormon.
Well, I hit my one year mark on Thursday. It feels way weird to think that I have been a missionary for a year. And tomorrow will be my second (of three) Thanksgivings as a missionary. Elder Thurber's mom sent him an awesome package for his birthday: mashed potatoes mix, stuffing, gravy mix, and turkey jerkey. So we will have an American Thanksgiving meal tomorrow!
For his birthday I made Elder Thurber what I thought was going to be brownies (Thanks for the mix Brooke!). I was surprised that it used 3 eggs and over a cup of water. But I was even more surprised when it came out as a cake instead of brownies. But the cake was delicious and we enjoyed celebrating his birthday together. President and Sister Otahara came by at night and brought him a present (cookies and American soda pop).
I hope that this super long email makes up for the lack of email last week. I love you all. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Elder Christensen

Email from Dallin's Mission Mom

Wynette,

I just saw you son today and he translated for me during a fireside. He also spoke at church and passed the sacrament. He will keep very busy in this little branch. He is doing so well. When ever I see him he has that very cute smile of his always. He looks happy and him and Elder Thurber seem so be doing great. My regret as I am sitting here writing to you is that we did not get our camera out and take a picture of this branch for you. The branch president and his wife are just this young couple. They do speak english and they are wonderful. President Otahara and his wife look like they could be models and are warm and wonderful. I think there maybe were 25 people at church and mostly women. I wish we could figure out how to share this wonderful gospel and keep them active once we have baptized them. It is a big problem here, as in many other places.
I love being here and serving. What a blessing it is to be surrounded my missionaries. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sister Daniels

Elder Thurber Fills in the Blanks

After being disappointed at the email received from Elder C. this week, I was happy that Elder Thurber his companion came through and his mom forwarded this email:
DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS,
> IT WAS AN EXCITING WEEK. ELDER CHRISTENSEN AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING OUR HEARTS OUT THIS TRANSFER TO SEE A MIRACLE- A BAPTISM IN THE IWAMIZAWA AREA. USING MANY DIFFERENT MEMBERS FOR "TEAM-UPS", AND INCORPORATING THE DAILY CONTACT SYSTEM WITH OUR INVESTIGATOR, IWANE SAN, SHE LOOKS GOOD TO RECEIVE BAPTISM THIS SUNDAY! WE TAUGHT HER A LOT TO MAKE SURE SHE WAS READY FOR THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULED ON FRIDAY ALL LAST NIGHT INCLUDING ALL OF LESSON 3, TITHING, THE OTHER SMALLER COMMANDMENTS AND THE BAPTISMAL PREP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. SHE GOT A LITTLE OVERWHELMED BUT IT WAS THE ONLY WAY WE COULD DO IT TO HAVE HER READY. SHE IS EXCITED TO BE BAPTIZED AND LOOKING PRETTY SHARP. MY FAVORITE PART OF YESTERDAY`S LESSON WAS WHEN I SAID THE WORDS "WORD OF WISDOM"(IN JAPANESE) HER FACE LIT UP AND AS I FOLLOWED UP ON IT AGAIN- SHE LOOKED AT EVERYONE IN THE EYE AND SAID WITH SOME ZEAL- I`M DOING IT! SMOKING, COFFEE, TEA, EVERYTHING- I`M DOING IT! SHE WAS REALLY PROUD OF HERSELF AND WORKING HARD TO KEEP ALL OF THE COMMANDMENTS :) IT MADE ME SOO HAPPY INSIDE. SHE ALSO HAS RECOGNIZED THE SPIRIT- ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE COMES TO CHURCH. ELDER TASHIRO- MY BELOVED ZONE LEADER WILL COME DOWN WITH US AFTER INTERVIEWS ON THURSDAY SO HE CAN INTERVIEW HER ON FRIDAY. ALL THINGS ARE COMING TOGETHER AND IT LOOKS AS IF A MIRACLE WILL FINALLY HAPPEN IN IWAMIZAWA-- AFTER 3 YEARS OF WAITING. :)
> THE LORD IS TRULY BLESSING US AND MY STRENGTH IS IN HIM. I LOVE YOU ALL- HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
> LOVE,
> ELDER THURBER

Computers Not Working type email...bummer type

Hi Family,
Computers aren't working for me today, so no email. Sorry. I will try to write a letter, but today is going to be super busy. We have to go to Asahikawa for a Zone Activity, so about half of our pday time is going to be used up traveling.
But I still love you all. Thank you for your prayers and letters.

One Year AGo Nov. 18, 2008

One year ago today, Dallin, his brother Bryce and his mom were home wondering what to do on this last day before Dallin was to take off for the MTC. He had been packing and wanted a break. It was a beautiful fall day and so we piled in the car and went to Hobble Creek. Bryce wore his flip flops and told us not to walk so fast. We had fun talking and taking pictures of the beautiful fall day. Both Dallin and Bryce were bummed because they didn't get to get in one day of snowboarding together. That evening, Brooke, McKay, Bryce, Dallin and his parents went up to the Stake Center where they met Bishop Cope in the Stake President's office and Dallin became Elder Christensen.
Today I ( Dallin's mom) went to Hobble Creek again. There was snow on the ground everywhere. It was still a beautiful fall day but I think those two boys would have been much more excited today than a year ago to see white, cold snow.
Tomorrow will be the one year mark for Elder Christensen. Hurray for missionaries!

More Than Enough

It was another great week for me here in Imawizawa. Last night it snowed a little bit, and it is supposed to snow a little every day for the rest of the week. Last Thursday was Zone Conference in Asahikawa and it was great. President Daniels talked a lot about the Great Apostasy and he actually talked about a few things that Elder Thurber and I have discussed in the past few weeks. So I felt very doctrinally prepared for President's talk, and that made it even better. After Zone Conference I got to talk with Brother Hotta and Brother Sato, two of my favorite members from Asahikawa. They came to the church just to say hi to all of the missionaries, and I had a fun time talking with them.
On Saturday night, one of the members called us up and then brought by some food for us. She had bought us pork, beef, and ice cream! So on Sunday we ate beef steak with baked potatoes and ice cream for dessert. We felt like we were back in America. It was so good!
And yesterday we had an older lady team-up for a lesson that we had. After the lesson, we were riding our bikes down the road when she flagged us down from a grocery store parking lot. She said "I have been meaning to put something in the missionaries' fruit basket the past few weeks, but never got around to it. Is it alright if I get something for you right now?" That made us happy, and we said alright. Well, then she pulled out a shopping cart! We thought she was just going to get us a snack. But nope, she wanted to get us a lot. We tried to tell her that our fridge is already full and that we didn't need anything, but she kept picking stuff out. She ended up buying us some really expensive, delicious meat called Jingisu Kan (it is named after Ghengis Khan). It was about $13 for 1 kilo of meat! In all, she spent about $24 on groceries and then handed them over to us. We were so happy, but we really didn't need any of it, so we felt bad. We love this branch so much! Every member that is active has a really strong testimony and they love the missionaries so much.
On Saturday we found an apartment full of foreigners! There were a few Americans, an English girl, a guy from New Zealand, and a guy from South Africa. We only got to talk with the guy from South Africa, but he was way cool. He is from Johannesburg, but he has a lot of family in Cape Town. While we talked to him, I heard in the background that he was listening to Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven". I thought that the music was a good reminder of Bryce, and I know that he would have loved talking with that guy.
Our investigator Iwane san is still on track to getting baptized on November 22, but I still think it will be a miracle if she makes it. But Elder Thurber and I pray every day that we can see miracles happen here in Iwamizawa. We found another young mom this past week named Oketa san that seems like she could potentially be a good investigator.
We are working like crazy. Some days we have a ton of success, and other days we have no success. The Lord really is strengthening us in the refiner's fire. I love working with Elder Thurber and we are serving with all of our hearts.
Thank you everyone for your support. I love you all.

Elder Christensen

Cold and Getting Colder

I had an interesting week that was good. On Thursday we had a really spiritual lesson with a 17 year old named Wakabayashi. We watched the Restoration DVD and he really felt the Spirit. After watching it he told us that he "came to know of the actuality that Joseph Smith met God and Jesus Christ". It was awesome! Unfortunately, the next day when we called him he told us that his parents are opposed to him meeting with us, so we will probably never get to meet with him again. Bummer.
But on Friday we had a great lesson with Iwane san (a young mother) and we were able to set a baptismal date with her for the 22nd of November. She couldn't come to church this past week, but is coming this week. She is turning into a really solid investigator and we are excited to keep meeting with her and helping her prepare to get baptized.
On Monday we got snow in Iwamizawa! It was only about an inch, but on Tuesday morning we woke up to a foot of snow! But throughout the day on Tuesday, the sun came out and started melting the snow. So we rode our bikes through slush and had a difficult time getting from A to B. We both had a couple good crashes, but we just laughed about them. The snow kept melting, and now there are just traces of it on the ground. It was good while it lasted.
Well, that is about it. We get to go to Asahikawa for Zone Conference tomorrow, so that is exciting. I love you all. Have a great week.

Happy Birthday Dallin!!

This is a Whopper Burger they are selling in Japan for a limited time to celebrate the "Windows 7" release. Holy Cow!
So unfortunately the library is closed today, and I only have a few minutes on a computer near the train station.
I haven't been cutting anyone else's hair because we don't have the trimmers. In Asahikawa I cut my hair once, but that was it. In Higashi there was a member that owned a beauty salon that would cut the missionaries hair for free.
So, to clear up the confusion: yes, both Elder Thurber and I are senior. And we are both new seniors. So this transfer is full of a lot of new experiences and growing for both of us. But we are having a blast together. I think that right now is the funnest time in my mission. We get along so great and every day we have funny experiences.
This week we found a really good young mother (with a 4 year old daughter), taught her the Restoration lesson, and then she came to church on Sunday. Unfortunately she left before Sacrament Meeting because her daughter was all over the place and she was getting tired. But we are meeting her tomorrow and have high hopes that we can get her back to church this week.
On Saturday I had a great birthday! We were stood up by 3 lessons, which was a bummer, but the Lord blessed us to be able to make 10 appointments! To put that in perspective, usually making 4 appointments is a good day for us and 3 is about average. When we got back to the apartment I put my 16 candles (yes Mom, you only sent 16) on Melon Bread, a delicious Japanese pastry. After blowing out my candles and eating the bread, our Branch President and his wife came buy with a present for me! They brought me A&W root beer, 7UP, and Tim-Tams (Australian/New Zealand cookies). So Elder Thurber and I "Tim-Tam-slammed": basically you drink hot chocolate through a Tim-Tam and then eat the soggy Tim-Tam. It was way good, and it made my birthday awesome.
The next day some other members gave me some SPAM for my birthday. I love the branch here. All of the members are so great.
Well, I am about out of time. I love you all. Have a great Halloween. I will probably forget about Halloween by the time Saturday rolls around.
We were able to read Dallin's companion's letter home and he mentioned to his family that the Branch President and his wife drove 1 1/2 hours to get the Tim-Tam for Dallin. Wow. He also related an experience that Dallin did not include:
Also yesterday we went to a grandma`s house for our appointment to teach her. We started with teaching her how to pray and I offered a simple prayer including a blessing on the grandma. When we opened her eyes, she held hers closed for a few seconds longer and when they opened they were filled with tears. She said thank- you many times in the 1000s of ways that the Japanese language has in it and when I told her what she was feeling was God`s love for her, the tears started streaming. I couldn`t help myself- tears came down my cheeks as well. This was a choice, softened spirit. It`s unfortunate that she has really bad health and is not so good at focusing....I`m sure that she`ll accept the gospel in the Spirit world if not before she`s baptized. Missionary Work is wonderful!

Co=companions and Working Together

Anyways, life is great here in Iwamizawa! It has rained on and off for the past few days, but it doesn't affect our missionary work too much because we mostly just house. Iwamizawa has about the same population as Spanish Fork, but is a lot more spread out. Plus there are a few nearby towns (Bibai and Misawa) that are also part of our area. My companion has never been to the faraway places, so we may try getting out there before it snows and becomes impossible to get there on bike.
My companion (Elder Thurber) and I get along really well. It is fun to talk about the MTC and BYU and all of the missionaries that we both know (we were in the MTC together for 5 weeks). He is a good missionary, and I feel that he is a better teacher than me. Since he knows the area well and I don't, he has sort of assumed the role of senior for the time being. But we are very united and work together well. Since neither of us has stellar Japanese, we are struggling and growing together.
Iwamizawa is a small branch of about 25 active members, but it used to be quite a bit bigger. In fact, there used to be 4 elders and 2 sisters in this area, but now it is just 2 elders. In the past 10 years or so, everything seems to have declined: members, activity, and baptisms. There hasn't been a baptism in Iwamizawa for over 3 years now, but we are pretty sure that we can see a baptism or two this transfer (and three if we are really blessed). There are a few good investigators here, so we have a pretty good base to work from.
Even though the branch is small, the members are all way good. The missionary fruit basket each week is way good! It is probably the best in the mission. Every week we get eggs, milk, bread, fruit, more fruit, vegetables, and more (lots of good stuff), all from a few members of the branch! They really love the missionaries, and I am pretty sure that this will be one of my favorite areas of my mission. So Mom, I am eating my fruits and veggies.
I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and was easily able to fill up over 10 minutes. Speaking in Japanese makes my talks go a lot longer. But even though I have no problem filling up 10 minutes with a talk, I still don't think that my talks are any better than before my mission. Maybe they are, I can't tell.

Good Bye Atsubetsu and Elder Yoneda

Transfers!!!!!!!!! Watch Out Iwamizawa

Hi Family!
General Conference this past week was really good. We had some technical difficulties and missed half of the Sunday Morning session, so I am excited to get the Liahona next month.
Now, for some exciting news: I am transferring! I am going to a relatively small town called Iwamizawa. It is just a little north of Sapporo, and I am going to be back in the Asahikawa Zone. So I will get to return to Asahikawa for Zone Conference and interviews. My companion is going to be Elder Thurber from Orem (my first Utah companion!). He is one transfer younger than me, but we are both becoming seniors. I don't know how a co-seniorship is going to work out, and it seems that neither does anyone else. I think we are just going to rock-paper-scissors for every decision.
So I am going to have a lot of new experiences this transfer. I am excited and scared, but I know that I can do it. Elder Thurber is a way good missionary, and I am excited to work with him. Iwamizawa hasn't had a baptism since I came to Hokkaido 8 months ago, so we have our work cut out for us.
Well, that is about it. I love you all. Thank you for all of your love and letters. Have a great week.

Spam in Japan

It sounds like a good week in Utah. The leaves still haven't started changing colors in Sapporo yet, but it should soon. Apparently it is going to get really cold really fast.
There actually isn't a whole lot to write about this week, so I will tell you about the pictures I sent.
The first is us playing my improvised version of Bocce Ball. Every Friday we have a small activity that Elder Yoneda and I plan so that we can get investigators to have a good time at church, in hopes that they will feel comfortable enough to come to Sunday services. Usually we play ping-pong or card games. This week I was in charge of it and I decided we would play Bocce Ball. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any decent balls to play with, so we used ping-pong balls instead. The activity went pretty well, and everyone seemed to have a fun time.
The other picture is us with Sister Ogura, her daughter, and Brother Tashibu. Brother Tashibu just finished up his mission in Nagoya, and it was his first Sunday back in Sapporo. Sister Ogura and her daughter fed all of us dinner. It was sushi, and was way good. After eating, she pulled out her photo album and showed us pictures of various things. She went on a trip to Utah about 20 years ago, and I loved seeing those pictures. They all reminded me of good times. On one page there was a place that looked familiar to me, but Sister Ogura couldn't remember where it was. After thinking for a while I realized where it was - the Pioneer Cemetary in Spanish Fork! What clued me in were the mountains in the background. It was so nice to see Spanish Fork and crazy that an old Japanese member has been so close to our house.
Well, that is about it. I ate SPAM yesterday and it is still way delicious. It is actually pretty pricey in Japan, so I doubt that I'll get to eat it again any time soon.
I love you all. Have a great week.

Room with a View

BYU and Dying

We had a great Zone Conference yesterday and a music fireside on Saturday. (Mom, I wasn't next to my companion. He sang tenor and I sang bass. I was standing next to Elder Allen, a half-Japanese elder from Mapleton.) I am pretty sure that President Daniels took videos of all the performances, but I am not quite sure if he got a video of me playing Be Still My Soul. I was first up, so everyone that was late missed me. I really wanted to take videos and pictures at the music fireside, but it is sort of hard to do when you are sitting on the stand. So hopefully President Daniels posts all of those videos. It was a really good fireside and everyone felt the Spirit.
I was very sad to hear that BYU got pummelled this past week. But in all reality, it is a good thing for me: if BYU had gone undefeated this year and won a national championship I would have gone crazy and died because I missed it all. But still, the news was hard to take.
( check out Musical Fireside at Japansapporomission.blogspot.com)

One Big Cougar Fan...in Japan

Happy Reunions!

This week was so-so for me, but it had some great highlights. On Friday we found a guy that was "led by God" to us! That is very rare in Japan. The story goes like this:
The day before he met us, his friend told him that if he gave a donation to a certain restaurant, that good things would happen to him. So he gave the donation, and the next morning he ran into an old friend that he really likes. She is "his type". Later that day, he ran into us, missionaries sharing a message of happiness. So yeah, he is really golden.On Sunday we had Stake Conference in Asahikawa. It was awesome! It is sort of weird to think that I have spent my entire mission thus far in two wards, both of which are in the Asahikawa Stake. At conference I got to see Sister Ishikawa, the old woman that I baptized back in April. She is still way active and way happy. It made both me and her so happy to see each other. Better yet, Elder Lottermoser was there too because he is Assistant to the President. There were quite a few members that I got to talk with and it was so fun. It really is amazing to see the fruits of your labors. Seriously, if I went home today I would be a happy missionary.
It was especially nice to be able to carry on normal conversations with all of the members from Asahikawa. Most of them made some comment or another about my Japanese being much better.
Well, that is about it. The temperature in Sapporo has recently cooled down quite a bit and I am back to wearing my suit coat.
PS - BYU is awesome! Go Cougars, beat the Seminoles!