It's that time again...

Well it's transfer day again. I'm not transferring, but Farnsworth Choro is. He will be going to Yokkaichi in the Nagoya zone. It's a pretty big area in a big city. He will also be district leader there. My new companion is....I don't know yet. Because I'm becoming a TRAINER!! What? Remember how I was a bean just a second ago? I talked to President Baird and he gave me some great encouragement and counsel. I'm really excited to see who I get to train. I will miss Elder Farnsworth for sure, but he will be a great district leader in Yokkaichi. He has done a lot in Nakatsugawa for the Lord and I have a lot to thank him for.

As you may know, the email time has been limited to 30-45 minutes, so emails may become short and I may not respond to your individual emails. If I don't respond to your individual email, however, I will print it out, read it, and write you a letter.

By way of food this week, we had a pizza party yesterday. We went to Jindo Kaicho's and made the pizza, then took it to another member's house for eating. It was really good. We also had torikatsu. It's just pan-fried chicken breast. Needless to say, it's tasty. Throw it over some rice and eat it with some cabbage and goma (sesame seed) dressing and you're ready to rock.

This week was another great one. We had our weekly appointment at Tachiki-san's house on Monday and our FHE with the Mizuno family was great. We were able to commit Tachiki-san to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We just had another lesson with her and she has committed to pray about the Book of Mormon and whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet.

We have found some new potential investigators in Ochiai and we plan to visit them. One family would definitely benefit from an FHE. Another man, Taguchi-san, agreed to meet with us, too. We weren't able to visit them again, yet. We are going to soon, however.

Ito-san has been in the hospital for the last few days. She has had some health problems lately. Hopefully, she can get well and we can continue teaching her.

Other than that, there's not much else. Oh, just kidding. I had another comp exchange this week. I went to Seto and dendo'd with Dunn Choro from Heber, UT. I love Dunn Choro. He's the funniest guy ever and he is such a strong missionary. He has been out for nine months, so his Nihongo is pretty good. He and I are a little insane together. We had to stop riding our bikes up a hill while we were laughing, so we didn't hyperventilate and die. Fun stuff. 

Well, I think that's it for this week. I'll put the SD card in the mail soon.

Loves,

Sanderson Choro

Six Months

Hey all!

I guess this marks six months for me. It's not officially til Wednesday, but I don't email on Wednesday. Anywho, the matsuri last Monday got rained out, so there was no parade. We did get to go to the little booths and stuff, though. I ate a beastie crepe roll-up fruit thing and a choco covered banana. It was tasty. 

We got two potential investigators and a new investigator this week! We biked a couple Kilometers near a less-active member we were going to visit and did some housing there. The neighbors are really nice and it was blistering hot, so they gave us fruit and drinks. Farnsworth Choro was saying it's like that part in D&C where the missionaries will be provided for. It was pretty cool. We also met with a woman named Kojima-san. She is a friend of Jindo Kaicho's and we taught part of lesson 1 to her and now she is an investigator! Woohoo! Hard work + faith = miracles. Remember that one, kids.

That day was full of dendo with Jindo Kaicho. We visited two less-active members and had two investigator lessons with him.

On Thursday, we got to work in Abe Shimai's field. She has a plantation of tomatoes, watermelons, strawberries, pumpkins, and more. We were mowing the grass around the fields, but not with your average mower. In Japan they use a device similar to a lawn trimmer with the vinyl thread, but instead of the thread, it has a saw blade. Like a circular saw blade that brings doom to any frog that decides to jump out of the grass at the wrong time. We got a pretty good sunburn that day.

This week there was an emergency transfer in my district. Our district leader got transferred to Ogaki, so Elder Burnett, who used to be in Nakatsugawa, took his place in Seto. Since our district leader got transferred, my companion is the new district leader for the rest of the transfer. This week at District Meeting, President Baird came. It was so fun to have him there and participate.

Saturday was awesome! We had kids English class in the morning and in the afternoon we visited Ito-san. She is an investigator who we haven't been able to visit in a long time because of her husband had some health problems. Well he passed away this week, so that's kind of sad. But now it opens up Ito-san's schedule and she wants to meet a lot. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Saturday afternoon/ evening we had a BBQ! It was fun and we had some good food. We also played basketball with some kids at the park. They wanted to play us two verses the 8 of them. We won. I think we had the foreigner fear factor on our side, though. Later, we played soccer with some of them too. The Fuchinos came to the barbecue and so did some other less-active members.

This week we went to an imported goods store. Guess what I found. Taco Seasoning! I looked at my companion and he said, "We need that!" So this week we whipped up some super good taco rice. Lettuce, cheese, tomato, the whole nine delicious yards.

Well that's pretty much it for this week. I can't believe it's been six months already. This is the last week of this transfer too. Holy moley time flies! Hope you are all livin' it up in the good light of the Gospel. Love you all.

Love,

Sanderson Choro

Partyin' partyin' partyin' YEAH!

Heh anyone know that one ^^?

We visited the Mizuno family this week again. We talked about following the example of Jesus Christ and living to be worthy of the Holy Ghost. We don't have an FHE with them tonight because they are out of town. On that same Monday we visited the Mizuno family, we also visited Ito-san. We haven't been able to teach her for a while because of medical problems that her husband is having. It was nice to meet her and also go over there with Watanabe Shimai and Jindo Kaicho. They expressed their love and concern for Ito-san. We hope we can meet with her again this week.

On Tuesday, we went to Takayama to teach some Boy Scouts at the Camporee there. We talked to about 150 scouts. Jindo Kaicho came with us and he was feeling the dendo fire as he testified of truths to those people. It was a great opportunity to plant seeds in the hearts of those people. Thursday, at Priesthood Executive Commitee meeting, we made a large list of less-active and part-member families we are going to help. Jindo Kaicho began immediately the following Friday after we visited Tachiki-san. We visited two members on Friday to talk about bringing their family members to church and helping them receive the gospel.

We also visited our newest investigator, Tachiki-san. It was our second visit with her. We taught about the Savior's Earthly Ministry and The Great Apostasy. We had a lot of help from Jindo Kaicho clarifying the things we were saying and the things that apply to her. We tried really hard to help her see how Christ's teachings can help her.

When we visited Tachiki-san on Friday, Farnsworth Choro was praying that she would understand what we taught. He meant to say "rikai suru" which means "comprehend." Instead he said "rikon suru" which mean "to divorce." So we accidently prayed for our investigator to get a divorce. Oops. She still agreed to meet with us, so I think she got what we meant. Funny stuff though.

On Saturday, we were able to contact a nearby less-active family, the Hosoe family. They are very nice and we talked to them for about twenty minutes and invited them back to church. That night we had a Gyoza Party with the Fuchino family. (Gyoza are pot-stickers, they're called jozu in Chinese) It was way fun because Wu Ying invited her Chinese friends over to teach us how to make them. They were really good. Afterward, we played around with their son, Tatsuyuki-kun. He is an only child, so it's really fun for him to hang out with us. We were fighting with the pillows on the couch and he would try and block the pillows, but with the two of us he just would start laughing too hard. Then he would just lay on the couch and we would still be wailing on him with the pillows. It was really fun.

This week we made a Banana cake three different times. It's a way easy recipe and it cooks in a rice cooker! Perfect! We made it once for us, once for the scouts, and once for the Fuchino family. It's tasty. In other food news, I made burgers again this week. Oh, man, were they good. On Friday one of the members we visited gave us each a watermelon. We cut a hole in the top and hollowed them out like pumpkins. We have eaten a lot of watermelon this weekend. But yesterday, we carved faces into them and now they are sitting in front of our appartment. They are actually a good way to strike up a conversation with some one, too.

Yesterday, Farnsworth Choro caught a cicada and stuck it in the fridge until it fell asleep. Then he tied a string to it and stuck it on our balcony to fly. Once it warmed up enough it tried to fly away and just hit the end of the string and stopped. It did it a couple of times but then I think it tore off it's legs and got free...

Well there's your big weekly report to make up for the shorty last week. Oh one more thing. It's Nakatsugawa's matsuri this week! (That means festival) Yesterday we watched fireworks and tonight we're gonna watch the parade and go have some fun. I'll make sure to send pics next week.

The Gospel is true, The Book is blue, and I love you.

Love,


Elder Sanderson

Well, Here we go!

This might be short. I'm low on time. Most likely like a bulleted list, but lots to cover.

Tuesday we had interviews. I had a great opportunity to receive counsel from President Baird. I love him so much.

Wednesday I got the package. Thanks! Jill, I ate one bag of those taffies in like two hours. My jaw was sore the next day. The CDs were a good addition too. I also was looking thru a book of past missionaries in Nakatsugawa. Guess who I found? Elder Pulley! From our stake. Cool, huh? I wonder where else he served.

Friday was Hideki-kun's birthday, so we made a pineapple upside-down cake at Jindo Kaicho's house. It was fun and the cake was tasty. I also gave a Kanji lesson to a Japanese guy. Weird. I want to tell you about Jindo Kaicho's mom. She is ninety-four and hilariously cute. She can never remember who we are and she always asks what to do when the sacrament is passed to her. Funny.

If anyone can get me Elder Taylor Smith's address (I think he's in Frankfurt, Germany) it would be much appreciated. I wanna know how he is.

Yesterday we got two lessons. One with the Lucero family and one with a new investigator! It was really good.

Sorry for the shortness, but the pic is a door we found whilst housing.

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Sanderson