This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us!

It seems like ten minutes ago I was writing to you about last week. Time sure flies when you're doing the Lord's work!


This week we had a baptism! Hiromi-chan got baptized on Saturday evening and confirmed on Sunday. We also had a party for her after the baptismal service. We made a video for her that I will need to send home, so you can see it. She was excited about her baptism. She has begun to be really good friends with the other kids her age and her mom now has visiting teachers. We are grateful we are able to help them. Hiromi's mom, Ella, is a convert of four years from the Philippines. She lost the church when she came to Japan. She bumped into the missionaries one day on a street corner and invited them over. We helped Ella-san get back to church and Hiromi-chan got baptized! Her baptism was done by Duarte Choro and her confirmation was done by Bishop Ishikawa and he also gave her some scriptures and a Bible picture book. The ward has seamlessly stepped in to take their family into the fellowship and support of the gospel.

While I was at Hiromi's baptism, I realized what I am a part of. I am helping people return to Heavenly Father. It's very humbling and powerful that Heavenly Father trusts us enough to help his children learn about Him and enter the path back to Him. I am so glad to be a part of it. These people's eternal reward is hanging in the balance. I am glad that I can help them find it. As of right now, my language and teaching isn't perfect and probably never will be. But that's why I'm so glad to have the Spirit to testify of the truth of the gospel and to convey the message to the hearts of the people.

We served a member named Brother Hall this week. He is from Canada and owns a Junkyard here in Kasugai. We helped him clear debris and fix up the place in order for a container to come in today. He is a very strong member in the church and I am glad to have been able to help him. Brother Hall was telling me that Obama-care passed and was saying that the world is running out of heroes. I told him that at least we can always count on God. He replied with, "The Lord never fails a test, but sometimes we fail to test Him." Duarte Choro and I were like whoa. I told Brother Hall that I had to write that down. So there ya go. The gospel truth I learned while clearing out a pit in a junkyard in Kasugai for a Canadian. Brother Hall is super cool.

We had a short companion split with the Toyota Zone Leaders on Friday while we were doing Hiromi-chan's interview. I went with Pedersen Choro to help Aoyama Kyodai home teach the Hisaka Family. Aoyama Kyodai's home teaching companion is also our dendoshunin, Nishimura Kyodai. Nishimura Kyodai had to go to the interview with Bardzinski Choro and Duarte Choro, so Pedersen Choro and I went home teaching. Aoyama Kyodai shared a message from the Liahona about sustaining our leaders. Pedersen Choro related it to helping our ward with dendo as well. Hisaka Shimai told us that she has been praying for her fish. Then she reached into the fish tank and grabbed the fish! She said, "He's sick." and then threw him back in the water. I watched a seventy-year-old woman pull a fish out of her fish tank with her hands. Pedersen Choro turned to me and said, "Having fun?" It was quite memorable.

Jill, I forgot to tell you something. I played Cat's Cradle with an eleven-year-old Japanese girl. Her name is Lilika and she speaks better English than I did when I was 11. Cat's Cradle is called "Futari Ayatori" in Japanese. Lilika is super good at it and can do it by herself! She just shuffles the strings on her fingers! It's mind-blowing. She also taught me some new ways to play it. It was fun and it reminded me of when I play with you.

It's hot! July is crankin' up the heat. It's humid too so it feels like you're riding your bike (at an average of 25 mph) through a sauna. Woo doggies! Some days it rains, so we get a little cooler, but it's still humid. I feel like I'm melting sometimes.

I've been dendo-ing so much that I get a slight sun burn like twice a week. It's good though. Everybody needs a little cancer and it's for the Lord. We finally got in contact with our newest investigator again. Furuya-san is meeting us tomorrow and we got her phone number, so we can contact her easier. We also saw her at McDonalds (Makudonarudo) today. We got in contact with Naomi-san again. She is super busy lately, so we haven't heard from her in a while. She is scheduled to be baptized tomorrow, but she hasn't come to church. We will reschedule her baptism soon.

We made pancakes for breakfast this morning. They were tasty. We also made Sister Baird's homemade syrup. It was even tastier. I had to improvise for the buttermilk (the recipe suggested putting lemon juice with milk and let it sour for a bit) but we didn't have lemon juice. I cut up an orange and used 100% OJ instead. It turned out fine. We have some syrup left over too, so we'll probably do those again soon. Last week I made burgers. They were soooooo good. I put salt and pepper and finely diced onions in the hamburger and made the patties. I then wrapped them up and stuck them in the fridge to "marinate" for a few hours. I fried them in a pan and put cheese and bacon on top. We had em with the works, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc. They were so good and so tender. We are gonna have those again sometime too.

Well, I hope your week was fantastic, cuz mine was biest! Love you all. Thanks for the support!

Love,

Elder Sanderson

Engrish funnuy