Hiyah!!

G'day,

Kid at Heart

We got two new investigators this week. When Elder Wilcox was on a kokan with Elder Ahuna a man named Shirakawa san was riding toward them on his bike and he said, "Seisho no kata desu ka?" (Are you a Bible person?) They stopped and talked to him and found out he had met with missionaries before. He gave us his phone number and this week we were able to meet him at the Denny's for a chat. When we showed up, he told us that he brought his girlfriend which concerned me at first. When we sat down with them they both started talking about how it was the hand of God that led us to meet. They have both recently stopped drinking alcohol, and they are very prepared for the Gospel. They have a lot of potential to progress very quickly. Unfortunately we were unable to meet with other investigators, but we're working hard.

We had a sick adventure to Gifu this week. We had a companionship split in Gifu and we got to do service at an Elementary school. It was way fun and the kids were really funny. We also got to party at a Matsuri (festival) and I got to heave a huge, million-pound thing called Mikoshi on my shoulder. The result was a bruised shoulder and a back ache that would floor Schwarzenneger, but it was a once in a lifetime event. Worth it.

Matsuri Festival

This week was interviews with the mission president and now I have a Japanese Temple recommend. Cool, eh?

We also had Stake Conference this weekend and it was great. Our Stake Presidency changed, so we had Elder Whiting of the Seventy come and learn us sum Gospel. I received a lot of revelation regarding what kind of missionary and what kind of person I want to become. I was impressed with President Yamashita's talk on Saturday evening and Elder Whiting gave us inspiring counsel about how to be powerful member missionaries. I feel a big responsibility to continue the Lord's work after my mission.

That's it for now. Love ya.

Love,

Elder Sanderson

Laughing All the Way

We are low on time so get ready for some thought vomit. My comp is hilarious and a beast at Japanese. The ward here is way awesome too. We had normal church yesterday, so we got to meet everyone and had a really good reception from all of them. Investigator count here is low, but Elder Wilcox and I are working on it. We are teaching some people, one in particular is from Congo. His name is Lumbe and he thinks very deeply about everything. He's a pretty cool guy.

On Friday we had a companion exchange with the Ichinomiya Elders. I was with Elder Naylor in Ichinomiya and we had a lot of great finding opportunities. Elder Ahuna and Elder Wilcox met with Chen, an investigator, on the exchange and they had a good lesson.

This week will be a lot of fun. We have started doing service and a boys' orphanage and we played soccer with them. They are way funny. Yesterday we went into McD's to use the bathroom and I asked a kid if he spoke English and we began talking. It was way fun to talk to them and we are gonna go hang out with them some time soon. That's kind of the biz.

Things are good here. Love you. Sorry for the short letter.

Love,

Elder Sanderson

"Heavenly Father has been good to me"

Hey,

That's one of my favorite quotes from conference. I don't mean to make me trunky, but I have no more General Conference on my mission... Shoot. I really enjoyed Conference. I noticed how Elder Perry mentioned using technology in spreading the Gospel. I hope iPads are on there way to the mission field soon. There were a lot of good talks like President Uchtdorf on Saturday morning when he talked about people coming to join us.  Elder Oaks' talk about the commandments dictating our worship and priorities was impressive as well. Conference is awesome.

In other news, I think this has been the busiest week of my mission so far. Transfers on Tuesday, Elder Wilcox and I planned all day on Wednesday, we had Leadership Council on Thursday, then ZTM and service for the Fukutoku ward on Friday, and we ended with a great weekend of General Conference. Wow.

We did manage to visit with an investigator this week. Our current investigator pool has four investigators, Chen, Kenji, Lumbe, and Wellington. We found Chen this week when we were putting our bikes together near the eki. Chen parked his bike and asked if we had a flat tire or something. We told him we had just come to the area and found out he is from China and has lived in Japan for about thirty years. We got to talking about the Gospel and he said he had interest. We called him on Thursday and set an appointment. Boom! New investigator.

We met Lumbe on Saturday who is from Congo. He is Christian but likes deep doctrine. It was just our first meeting with him, so we got to know him and then set a next appointment. We left a commitment with him to read Moroni 10 so we can talk about it next time. We plan to visit a lot of members this week to get to know them more. We also have a handful of less-active members we are working with too.

I love Fukutoku. It's like it's own little mission. The ward is divided geographically into four zones with Ward Missionary Zone Leaders and each zone does one activity per month. Everyone has been encouraged by the bishop to do F&F with the missionaries as well in order to prepare their friends to receive the Gospel. The Ward Mission Leader and the Bishop have great dendo fire and were super helpful as Elder Wilcox and I were getting our bearings here this week.

The area is pretty cool too. It's on the north end of Nagoya city, so there are some more rural areas as you go north. We also have a golf course next to the river only about ten minutes away from the church. Maybe I can go hit nine with President Yamashita sometime. We also have some really cool members here. One is the Hall family. I met Brother Hall in Kasugai over a year ago when I worked in his junkyard. Now I'm in his ward. Small world.

I'm looking forward to another good week. I hope you guys have a great one too. Love you all.

Love,

Elder Sanderson

Game Changer

Olo,

Well I mentioned that we had transfer calls coming up. I'll get to that eventually. This week was great. We had a lot of meetings with investigators including our yakusokushas. Weijing Xuan came back from China and called us to meet so he can prepare for his baptism. When we met, he said that he wants to make sure to do things right because he is making a covenant with God. We were able to talk to him and teach him about the Doctrine of Christ and the Plan of Salvation. He understood it all really well, too.

This week we got a referral from the Meito Elders (another part of Nagoya) and then the referral called us. His name is Rishi, he's from Nepal, and he deliberately said, "I have interest in learning Christianity." You don't need to twist my arm when a guy says that.

He met us on Sunday at the subway station and we walked together to the church from there. We gave him a church tour and stopped in the chapel for our lesson. We sat on the benches and talked about the Sacrament, Atonement, and prayer. He said he felt very peaceful and said an incredible prayer at the end of the lesson.

The Game Changer. So on Thursday I went on a companion exchange with Elder Richard in Takabata, yet another part of Nagoya. That afternoon Elder Ludlow called me from Gokiso and said that President Yamashita called. I could tell something was going down then Elder Ludlow told me he was called to be the next AP! We definitely didn't see that coming.

So Elder Ludlow went to the Mission HQ on the next day, which cut our comp exchange really short and left Me, Elder Shimbashi, and Elder Dowe here in Gokiso as a power tri-force. We had the three of us to cover both companionship's' appointments this weekend, so we were sooo busy. But we ended up having a great week.

On Saturday we had the transfer calls. I found out that I am transferring to Fukutoku ward, in another part of Nagoya. It's only a twenty minute train ride from Gokiso. The Nagoya Zone got cut in half and Elder Wilcox and I will be companions and Zone Leaders over the Fukutoku Zone. Sister Brady, Jill's dance friend, will be in my area as well. I am super excited to go there because I already know some members there and it's still the same stake as Gokiso, so I will get to see the ward from time to time. Elder Wilcox was in the MTC with me. He is a great guy and a great missionary. He definitely loves dendo. I think he and I will do well together in Fukutoku. We are white washing the area, but I have no doubt that it's gonna be fantastic.

Oh, here's a picture of us at our Ward Mission Leader's house for dinner. They are the Nakajima family and their kids are stupid cute.

Well that's it for ya. Love you all.

Love,

Elder Sanderson