Mitch's english is beginnig to fade..present tense instead of past,ing instead of ed....hahaha

Hello Family! I don't have a lot of time because it's actually 8 oclock at night and I need to get biking back home, but I have interesting news this week.

There were two missionaries that went home this week because of sickness and there were a couple emergency transfers because of it. An elder in our apartment got moved to a new area and our companionship became a threesome with the other Elder (Onishi) in our apartment. He is now the 3rd ZL of Oodori. He is 17th transfer, Elder Kudo is 12, and I'm 11...its really awesome and interesting haha.

 

Elder Onishi was my ZL while I was in Kitami, so it's nice to have someone with experience helping us out :)

...I know there were a lot of other good things this week, but I can't think of many specifics.

We have been trying to work together well in everything we do as a companionship and we've been meeting a lot of people that are willing to meet with us. This week has been great!

 

Actually, I remember an experience!

 

We contacted a young college kid on his way to work and made an appointment to meet with him again, but he started to act a little wierd towards the end of the contact. Then we he started to bike away he fell over on his bike and we went to help him. He almost seems to be having a stroke or something. We talked to him and sat him down in the shade and bought him a waterbottle from a nearby Vending Machine. He got really light heading I guess (it was a really hot day) and he started to sweat a lot and had a pain around his heart, but we asked him if we could pray with him for his health and he let us! After the prayer we talked a little more and he felt better and left again to head off to his job.

Had we not stopped him and contacted him he probably would've fell over by himself and wouldn't have anyone to help him. It was a miracle! God works in mysterious ways.

 

Alright, I better go. I love you all sooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

Talk to you later!

Mata ne! Bye Bye!!!

 

Elder Sotto

And for the awkward moment of the week. Being bold and saying " hey!

Dear family...Happy July! I love you!

I got to watch that video as well and it made me really want to talk to all my friends that I could have invited to church or an activity or something. I have so many friends who would have come had I just opened my mouth! But I still have chances when I get back I guess. So I'll wait and pray! I know this is where I need to be right now :)

I've noticed that sometimes the best way to invite people to things is by just doing it. Being bold and saying " hey! I have a church activity this week and I'd love it if you come!" The Lord really does bless us when we try our best though.

Well, for my week, I have some fun news!

My companion got transfered to Kushiro and I got a new one named Elder Kudo from Kanagawa Ken! And what's even better is...we are the New Oodori Zone Leaders! Yay! 

I'm really excited for the next transfer. We are planning and talking about the Zone and its needs all the time. It's way fun!

My companion and I have really been focusing on dendoing (doing missionary work) together and really getting involved and bearing testimony together, and it has been amazing! We talked to one nice lady who didn't seem very interested at first but then we introduced the Book of Mormon and testified together and her heart started to open slowly. She let us know about her desires to know about Christianity and we let her know that we would be there to help her. It was great! and we hope to see her again soon!

Also we were able to go visit a bunch of less active missionaries with a member in the ward and it was a great experience. It helped us know where we needed to focus in the ward and we got to build a good relationship with the member and it was just wonderful :)

And for the awkward moment of the week.

When you're biking at full speed for 40 minutes after church to go to the Stake Center for the World Training Video Broadcast and another elder's tire pops so you walk to the Honbu with him to get a new bike. 

When you get to the Honbu (main office) you meet the mission President and another American with him and introduce yourself. He introduces himself as the roommate of your mission president when they were at Harvard University before your mission president left on a mission.

Then you ask him where he served his mission and he says, "I'm actually not a member."... ... ...then you hurry up and bike to the stake center with everyone as fast as you can and you make it 2 minutes before the broadcast starts...then 5 minutes later you are told that the English version isn't working...so you do an emergency split and go with 6 foreign elders back to the Honbu (by car) to watch the English Video online. 

About halfway through the Japanese Elders return to the Honbu by bike and let you know that they had to cancel the video halfway through and still haven't seen the last half...so you finish it in English and the end result is that you watch the rest of it in Japanese another day when you get the DVD. :P 

My companion will finish watching it another day I guess.

That's about all I have for this week, but I'll talk to you again next week! Love you!

Bye Bye!!!

Elder Mitchell (as grandpa Perry says =P)

the fact that he is starting to love studying is kimochiwarui (a disgusting thought :P). He's so funny!

Hey family! I love you!

And Happy Birthday Kellie!!!! I love you so much and I miss you! Everyone says that you are a Bijin (beautiful girl) when they see your picture :)

Starting from the bottom, Go ahead and add the Yuichi Sakamoto san person to facebook. I met him at eikaiwa in Kotoni.

That's so cool that you're going to memorize a scripture a day! Good luck!

What! Boise is getting huge! That's awesome! We're about to break 100 in Sapporo and I'm way excited :) I guess sisters will go from 15 to 40 soon. It's so cool that everyone is going out to serve the Lord!

I'm really excited to see the growth of the ward as well when I get back :)

That Yosokoi song is really interesting haha. I got to go see Yosokoi and it was so cool! I got a lot of recordings and I'll send my memory card when it gets a little more filled up!.

I love love love love! Hearing about camp =D It makes me really excited to see how everything is changing. I remember I didn't like working at camp at first but that's because I regretted being away from my friends. Then I made friends and camp and I didn't want to return home :P

The mission is so similar. I've made so many good friends and memories here that I don't want to leave. I love it! It's pretty hard, but very rewarding :)

I got to see the training video as well this last Sunday as well and it made me really excited to fulfill my duties and made me want to be the best I can in any position I may be called to fill. Good stuff :)

As I've been reading the scriptures lately I've noticed a lot more connections in the Bible and Book of Mormon and it's so interesting! I love reading the Scriptures! My companion from Okinawa and I talk all the time about cool stuff from the scriptures. He is discovering his love of the scriptures for the first time right now. It's fun to watch. He said in a testimony recently that the fact that he is starting to love studying is kimochiwarui (a disgusting thought :P). He's so funny!

Well, a little bit about my week. And transfer.

We've been looking for investigators for a long time now and we finally are starting to see some people who are interested in the gospel :) That is a miracle. I can't remember any big specifics this week, but there are miracles everyday and answered prayers all the time.

I did have a good experience with following the Spirit. I had a feeling that we should visit a guy we met on the street a couple weeks ago and so when we visited him he let us in his garage. It was really cool! He is 80 and has a lot of Model cars and trains and guns and airplanes. We talked about lots of fun stuff and then naturally got into a conversation about how he wishes his body wasn't so frail. We then shared scriptures about the resurrection and testified of it's truth. He said he wants it to be true. He said he would read some of the Book of Mormon and we are going to go visit him again soon :)

That experience helped me learn to follow the impressions that come to my heart and mind.

Well I'm off to hike Maruyama mountain with my district now! Talk to you next week!

I love you!!!

Bye Bye!!!!

Elder Sotto

no time!

I love you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!! Just thought I'd let you know...you know just in case you forgot ;P

 

Today was crazy!

We had a zone activity whereeveryone would go to Maruyama Koen (park) and play sports, but the AP Elder Hansen wanted to go running up to Maruyama mountain so we went running up the mountain for an hour before the sports. It was somuch fun!!! It was way beautiful looking over the whole city! Then we played ultimate frisbee! It was so much fun!

 

Wow, you are all really busy. It's way fun to hear about everyone! I gotta go back and take a shower cuz I'm a little sweaty and bloody :P

 

But for this week, the sisters have been teaching a lady we found and she's getting baptized this weekend! yay!!!

 

Alright...that's about it! sorry its so short! talk to you next week!

 

Bye Bye!!!

I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish, but I can't forget to love others

 I think back on the week when I write my letter to the Mission President (which I forgot to write...after :P) and I can't rememeber anything I've done! It"s terrible :P

I would die if I didn't have a planner to write things in.

 

Oyaji gyagu haha. There was a ward member in Hakodate that really loved Oyaji gyagu. He was a pro at making them. I find them sometimes and laugh to myself but not too often. 

 

It's cool to hear about Grandpa and the Book of Mormon! My friend has also decided to read the Book of Mormon and I'm way excited for him! You can't read it and not know that it is truly another Testimony of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. I love Elder Holland's quote from his grandpa, "No wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would, unless he were commanded of God to do so." The Book of Mormon is such a precious tool the Lord uses to help the world see that He is still reaching His hand out to us in Mercy :)

 

As for the questions:

 

My companion is the 4th of 6 children in his family. He came from Futenma, Okinawa and he is awesome. He used to ride Motorcycles and stuff a lot before his mission and he is a way hard worker. It's a lot of fun finishing up his training here in Moiwa :)

I keep learning this every transfer, but i learned that it's ok to have fun and be goofy every once and a while. I keep getting reminded of that if I get to serious. I get humbled or something :P I've really learned how to be a lot more observant of my surroundings with him. He can tell you who is home or not and what kind of people live in the house by looking around outside at the things they have in their yard and genkan (entrance to the house). He is really observant of things like that.

 

The principle of loving others and desiring their happiness has stuck out to me a lot this week. I find that when i get frustrated it's because I'm focusing too much on myself or my goals. When I take time to think about my investigators and ask them about themselves then they open up and an environment is created where the Spirit can dwell. I tend to work really fast and really hard and I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish, but I can't forget to love others as I try to do my best out here.

I've also seen the power of a testimony a lot lately. We have an investigator that has questions and concerns up the wazoo. Whenever we try to answer by proving things to him it turns out really bad, but whenever we bear our testimonies it turns out so much better.

 

We met what we call a kinjin (literally Golden Person) about a week ago and passed her to the sisters. I was praying all week that she would keep the passionate desire to find out if this is true and that she would come to church and she did! Simple, but I know that God answered my prayers :)

Also, it is so interesting to talk with her. She is really quiet and really humble. She wants to be taught. When she talks with me and my companion she is so polite and really respects us. One of the members says that she felt a special something about us when we first talked to her and it really built my testimony of living worthy of the Spirit. We don't convert people here. People feel the Spirit in us and the Spirit helps them to change their hearts. I really felt that I needed to become more Christlike and work on those attributes. In PMG it says, "It's not just about what we do as missionaries, it's about who we are." I want to become someone that radiates the light of Christ and is always worthy of the Spirit.

 

Alright, well I better get going! I think I'm going to the Chocolate Factory in Kotoni today! Have fun at camp dad!

I'll talk to you later!

 

Bye Bye!!!