Hearing from Iwamizawa

Hi Family!

Thanks for the great updates this week. I am so glad that BYU won. And that they're going independent.

Thanks for looking into Japanese housing. Maybe I can take the spot left open by Elder Lottermoser once he gets married. If I couldn't get into Japanese housing, I think I would rather live at home than anywhere else. We'll just have to see what happens.

Thanks for the heads up on the itinerary for when you come. I am sad that Dad won't get to see Hong Kong. Maybe we'll have to somehow get another trip set up for the near future. As far as hotels, I have no clue. I don't even know if Japanese hotels are like American hotels. Are you going to have a car when you come or are we going to be on public transportation? As far as church on Sunday goes, I would certainly like to visit the Iwamizawa Branch. That is about a 40 minute train ride from Sapporo, or an hour drive (I think).

Speaking of Iwamizawa, I got to talk with a couple members from Iwamizawa this past week. A new missionary arrived to the mission this week and he will be with his trainer in Iwamizawa. So Elder Kobayashi (the trainer) came in to Sapporo to pick up his bean, and I got to work with him for a day. He had to call Sister Iwane (I baptized her) and he let me talk with her. It was great and she sounds like she is still strong in the gospel. And then Elder Kobayashi called another member and let me talk with them. It was way good, and it made me miss Iwamizawa.

This week we had a lot of blessings and a lot of trials. For example, I got a flat tire (front tire) on Thursday, and then again (back tire) on Friday. And yesterday we had our best investigator not show up to church. We can't get a hold of him, so we don't know what's up.

But on the flip side, we found some really good people yesterday. And we had a really good music fireside on Saturday. I played a piano solo and did a couple accompaniments. One of those went really well, and one was really rough. But all in all it was a really good time.

Our investigator that didn't show up to church, Doi, was doing really good. He is praying daily and says that through prayer his life plans are becoming clearer to him. And he reads 5 pages of the BoM every day. Hopefully yesterday wasn't an indicator of anything.

We had Zone Leader council on Friday and it was great. Sister Daniels made some amazing enchiladas. Elder Tuttle got to go on exchanges with another bean, and it sounded like they had a rough time, but a good learning experience.

Well, that it about it. I love you. Have a great week.     Elder Christensen