Thinking in Japanese

Whazzzzaaah?!

On the Tsunami Wall

So ya, I'm a trainer again. It's kind of crazy, because my new companion is Elder Suzuki from Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo. That's right, folks, I got me a real, live Nihonjin bean-chan. He is super fun and loves being a missionary. When he came out of President Baird's office to meet me, he ran and jumped onto me. We have been having some good adventures this week. And I speak 99% Japanese everyday, so sometimes I think in Japanese. It's pretty different having a Japanese companion. And Elder Suzuki is a new missionary, so we learn a lot together. But it's a ton of fun. We went and played down by the tsunami wall and water breaks yesterday. See attached picture.

I am already sure Elder Suzuki is needed in Fuji. We had a lesson with Inaba-san on Saturday. We haven't met with Inaba-san for a long time. Now that a native speaker has come to Fuji, Inaba-san has changed a lot. He definitely feels that the Gospel is important and I think that Elder Suzuki and can be a big instrument in Inaba-san coming to the Gospel. We also had a lesson with Brother and Sister Uematsu who are both less-active. We committed them to live the Word of Wisdom and they put a sticky note defining their commitment on top of the coffee can to help them not drink it. We asked to take the coffee from them, but they were worried about what to do when company comes.

Elders Suzuki and Sanderson

We got a new investigator this week! We had an FHE with the Yamawaki Family who are all members except the father. We told him that we want to share the love, joy, and peace that comes from the Gospel with him and he said it would be alright, we got a return appointment and had a prayer, and now he's a new investigator.

I was riding my bike yesterday to got to the Yamawaki's house and I saw a Japanese guy that looked exactly like Robert De Niro. I thought he was gonna turn to me and say, "You talking to me?" when I said "Konnichiwa" but no such luck.

We have a spike of 45 missionaries coming into our mission this summer, so we have leadership training on Tuesday. Basically anyone who is transfer 6 or higher and all the sisters are going to become trainers if they aren't already or if they're filling a leadership position. Actually, that doesn't even disqualify them. Right now two Zone Leaders in the same area are both training. Crazy.

Well that's kind of it for this week. Good night and good luck.

Love,

Elder Sanderson