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
