Hello Everyone,
I hope everything is going well. Things here in the pacific are cooling down. Literally. Its so cold here in Fussa Japan. But its almost Sakura season. I'm sure the cherry blossoms in Tokyo will more than make up for this cold windy season. As for my week, its been rather exciting. This week was New Years or Shogatsu in Japanese. Shogatsu is a week long thing which actually ended today. Most people are heading back to work and most of the shops are finally open again.
On the 1st I woke up extra early and ran several miles with Elder Merrill along this large river that cuts through Fussa. It was rally pretty and very very cold. There were so many old men and women just walking along at the crack of dawn. The Japanese are very very healthy people. After our run we studied a bit and went to our Ward mission leader's house in Hamura (羽村) city which is about a 5 minute drive from our apartment. We ate a traditional Japanese new years dinner with tons of interesting food. I had some beef in raw egg as one of the courses. It actually wasn't half bad! I was a big fan. We eat out of this huge bento box several small items each of which represent a different thing for the new year.We as well ate metric ton of sushi. There were a lot of people there and most of them spoke English but none of them would speak to us in English, they would help us with words here and there but pretty much it was all in Japanese. We taught the restoration from the pamphlet after dinner.
We taught Emo the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his home this week. We had a Chinese member come and help us out and explain things in Emo's native language. We made plans to climb a mountain together later this week with the sister missionaries so that Emo's girlfriend could get some exposure to the church. Were teaching Dillan the Gospel tomorrow.
This week marks the start of my third transfer in Japan. And also a new companion, Elder Ford! Hes from Salt Lake City, Utah (Big surprise right?) and he is a really good cook. Were going to be eating well this transfer. I guess all that I can do to thank him is the dishes! His Japanese isn't very good and neither is mine. Which is good for both of us. We will have to stretch ourselves in the language and step up to the challenge. I read with him message to Garcia the other day and told him how it relates to Missionary work. Were going to do great work in Fussa this transfer.
There are now 4 missionaries in our apartment so space is pretty cramped. Our futons are all interlocked like a puzzle and its hard to study since we don't have enough space for books and what not. Hopefully we get a new apartment soon!
Elder Soto is the new missionary straight from the MTC. He is really full of energy and ready to preach the gospel to all the people of Japan. Unfortunately he is still very very young and right out of the MTC and has no clue how to accomplish that. I like to think that I wasn't as clueless as he is right out of the MTC but who knows? All we can do is help train him to be a great missionary!
This last Sunday at church was fast and testimony meeting. All EIGHT of the missionaries in Fussa bore their testimonies in the Yokota Ward. You could feel the spirit so strongly when each of them went up to speak. I'm sure the rest of the ward could feel it as well. I'm going to try and bare my testimony each fast Sunday until I go home and keep that up afterwards!
Things are going great in 福生東京日本. Hopefully everyone is having just as much fun back in the states!
愛、
ファー長老
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