Wednesday, April 7, 2010

More Transfer News from Snail Mail !

2010 March 31st Letter from Dallin
I hope all is going well at home.  Things have really started to roll here in Iwamizawa--we have found a lot of young people recently and they are doing good. For example--There is a guy named Numata san that is about 25 years old.  I think I told you a little about him when we found him at the train station a couple of weeks back.  Well, we met him past Thursday.  One of the first things we talked about was the Book of Mormon and I asked him if he had any questions from stuff that he read.  He replied "No question, but I had a few spots that I really liked." So I thought "Awesome! He likes the Book of Mormon!"  Then he flipped open to the Book of Mormon.  We asked him why he was flipping there and he said, " I had a lot of time recently so I read it all.  It is a really good book!"   He read the entire Book of Mormon in under 9 days!  His favorite scripture was Mormon 9:15.  It's a good one, look it up.  After Elder Willis and I shared our favorite scriptures, we talked about baptism and were able to commit him to be baptized on April 25th. 
On Saturday we met a 15 year old guy named Yashima Sasuke.  He let us in and we taught him about God, Prophets, the Book of Mormon, and baptism. He wants to get baptized, but we were unable to set a date with him because he doesn't know how busy he will be once he starts high school next week.  But on Sunday he came to church!  And he really enjoyed it.  Luckily it was Branch Conference and we had a ton of visitors from all throughout our stake (even youth!).  Our average Sacrament meeting attendance (about 28-30) was more than doubled as we had over 70 people there!  Then we had a potluck lunch after church.  Yashima san really liked that, especially when the Relief Society gave us bags and started filling them up with the leftover food.
On Monday we had a lesson with a college kid that is exactly one week younger than me ( Oct. 31, 1989 is his birthday).  He is very fun and has tons of interest in the Book of Mormon.
So, all in all, this past week was great.  Our investigator pool is the youngest it has ever been.   It is really nice to meet with young people.  We have been really blessed. 
Which brings me to the sole downside of this all:  I am transferring!  I have to leave wonderful Iwamizawa, after spending a fast 5 1/2 months here.  Seriously, my time in Iwamizawa flew by super quick.  So now I am headed to Obihiro, a decent sized ciy in the middle of Hokkaido.  It is slightly smaller than Asahikawa, but still big enough that it will be a big change from Iwamizawa.
I heard a ton of good things about the area and the ward ( 80 active members!)   My companion will be Elder Nagata from Osaka.  He is on his final transfer.
 Oh, and no cherry blossoms are out here.  Hokkaido is usually 2-3 months behind the rest of Japan.  Remember, we still have two feet of snow covering the ground. 
   Elder Christensen

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