Thursday-Sat: I had more classes. On my last day of
classes we had a sub in our class. We had all of our goodbye pics and such
which was really nice. But I don't have time to go into detail.
Sun: This day was awesome. Daniels-Kaichou (President
Daniels) taught us a lot of cool things this day, we went to the temple on a
walk for the last time, and more. During Sacrament Meeting we had three amazing
musical numbers. One was by us leaving, one was a tribute by a few of our
Kouhai (junior or less experienced missionaries) to us who were leaving, and
then the really cool musical by like 10 guys in our branch which I sent a few
weeks ago. Then we had an amazing devotional by Elder Ballard (one of the
Twelve Apostles). It was an amazing final devotional. Then we got to watch the
three new segments of Meet the Mormons for the video. It was so amazing because
the very last one (of course they always save the best for last) was of a
Japanese band called Bless4. Their story was truly a roller coaster. A lot of
our shimai-tachi (sisters) (and a few of the choro-tachi [elders]) were in
tears. It made us all soooo pumped to go to Japan. Then as a district we had a
short final testimony meeting together which I feel I will remember my whole
life.
Mon/Tue: SO stressful, We had like 5 minutes to get
everyone's (roughly 50 people so about 150 bags) luggage off a bus and onto a
train and then 2 minutes to get all that luggage off of the train. That was 1000x worse than the 13 hour plane
ride. So then we went through the airport and got on a plane to Portland. As
soon as we landed we had to bolt to the next plane because we were late and
everyone else was already boarded. Then we flew 13 hours to Japan. Sitting next
to me was one elder and a Nihonjin (Japanese). I had the aisle seat but
switched with this other elder, Elder Kim. So I got talking with this guy named
Kyotaro. Long story short Me some shimai tachi and one other choro talked with
him and placed a Book of Mormon and gave him Tokyo Honbu's phone number. Then
we got off the plane and went through customs, met the Tokyo mission leader and
said bye to everyone and 9 of us (Me, Maloy, Cook, Detemple, Kim, and Smith -
choro and Lafayelle, Rigby, and Watabe -Shimai) went checked our bags and
waited for the next plane. We actually had to take a bus to the plane, got off
on the runway and boarded the plane which was interesting. Eventually I woke up
and we were at Sapporo. We met our Mission President who is an awesome guy, his
wife, the APS, and the other few elders working at Honbu (headquarters, or
mission home). We got our luggage, packed them into cars and then got on the
subway. We made our way over to Honbu which was great because when we got there
the first thing we saw was the beautiful Sapporo temple all lit up. It was
awesome. Then we ate rice, egg and spam sushi. Then went to bed.
Wed: We had an amazing breakfast made by Nakatsuka-shimai
(Sister Nakatsuka, the mission president’s wife). It was absolutely delicious.
Then we had a bunch of training, had an interview with Nakatsuka-Kaichou (President
Nakatsuka, the mission president) ("I wish I could have him by my side my
whole mission. He is so great at encouraging people. I feel so excited to be in
Japan" Maloy-choro 2016) This statement is so true. Then we got to meet
our trainers and found out where we are going. My trainer’s name is Elder
Larson, he is from Portland, Oregon, He has been out about a year and a half
and he kind of reminds me of Ken. Everyday he talks about getting big. Also he
is the only person other than Ken to really push me to push myself. Working out
and biking with him is almost as fun as it was with Ken. He has a family of 10.
He is the Oldest child out of 8. The area I was called to serve in is the Moiwa
Ward inside Sapporo. (I bet dad is surprised about that) Then we went to the
area, we picked up our temporary 3rd comp and dropped off my bags. This 3rd
elder is named Elder Seki. He's Nihonjin
but I only knew him for 2 days. Then we went housing and the very first house I
knocked the person was interested. We set up to meet with him sometime
Saturday.
Then I had my first sushi experience at a place called
Matsuria with my comps and Maloy choro and Isobe choro his trainer. They missed
the bus so they took the one on Thursday with Seki choro.
Thursday: We said bye to Elder Seki and Elder Maloy, did
planning and some housing. I also got to see the Church here.
Fri: We rode around everywhere (right now I am using
Larson-choro's old bike.) and didn't have much success. The road/sidewalks here
are so bumpy. Like REALLY bumpy. I got to have a church tour which was nice. We
also had lunch at the Church with an investigator, the sister missionaries and
a bunch of Obaa-chan (older people)
Sat: more dendoing, we taught a few lessons and went up
some pretty large hills. We had to go to a party (which we didn't know about
until 2 hours before) which was nice. We were on the other side of town so it
was a 50 min bike ride which was fun. So bumpy. But I can definitely see
blessings of physical strength and balance. I tried Calpis for the first time
which tastes really interesting. It is yogurt thinned down into a liquid like
legit liquid. I made friends with some of the members here too. Especially
these three high school kids (Koyama, yudie, and Isato Kyodai). Then we headed
to do some more dendo.
Sun: An awesome day where we taught a lesson at the
temple and met some people from Indonesia. I'll try to talk more about this
next week.
Love you all,
Minasan Ai shitemasu
Harvey Choro
Hanging with some of the locals.
Eating sushi in Japan!!
My new peeps!
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