Harvey Choro: Sushi, Splits & Shinden

For those who are wondering what the best acronym is, here you go SSS (sushi, splits and Shinden). Now for those who are wondering what Shinden means, it means Temple. As in the Sapporo Temple. Sorry for forgetting to mention that last week. Especially because there was an Earthquake and Tsunami down in the mainland of Japan. Anyway I don't have any time today so I will try to be quick.

Tue: We found out one of our Sisters had to go home due to health reasons. A sad day.

Wed: I went on Splits with Satou Choro. He is the Nihonjin (Japanese person) who is in our apartment. It was a ton of fun. We did a lot of Streeting and housing and had one investigator visit who we had to drop :( But towards the end of our day we found a KINJIN (literally Gold Person translation: golden investigator.)

Thur: Another very apparent miracle. The very first thing we did this day was go to see some investigators we have been wanting to see. We decided to visit them one last time. First person not home. Second person, I prayed in very gaijinpoi (Gaijin is foreigner and adding poi to a noun basically means like a noun) Japanese to make this person be home if He (Heavenly Father) wants us to teach him. Elder Larson explained to me what I said and then added "besides if he's not here it's not like Heavenly Father can just make him appear." So we knock on his door, no answer. We stand there for a little while and then the elevator opens. It was the guy. We found out his name and set up a return appointment.

Fri: This day we had Zone Conference. One of the many things I learned was how to make a good tasting salad. Then we went back, I packed my stuff and we went housing for an hour while I was carrying a duffle bag full of stuff. I got a few strange looks and a lot more people saying hello back to me. Probably because they think they can outrun me. Anyway the reason I had the bag is because I was going on splits for Saturday with one of our ZL's (Zone Leaders)

Sat: A lot of walking around finding less-active members and housing/Streeting. It was really fun though because we had a lot of time to talk. I heard a lot of stories this day.

Sun: Stake Conference! Once again strange looks because of the duffle bag. Our area authority was here and so was our dendo Kaichou (mission president). It was a really good meeting. Also the two kids sitting next to me made me 4 paper airplanes, an origami fox head, table, cherries, and this thing you blow on and it spins and looks cool. They were pretty cute kids. Then dendo wise we found another KINJIN! We were on our way to an appointment when we almost passed this guy but decided to talk to him. Long story short he accepted a Book of Mormon and invited us back.

Mon: NOT P-DAY! Instead this was another split. This time I went with Murdock Choro my other apartment mate. I guess to make a very long story short. We walked 12 miles, visited 3 LA's (less actives) found 4 PI's, housed a former investigator who invited us back, got a thing of pineapple, 2 apple juice boxes, 2 persimmons, an imported pear, and bought my first onigiri (a rice ball usually wrapped in nori/seaweed and filled with something). We also found this incredible park that screamed VERMONT! Made me a little thanksgiving sick (we won't have one ;( ).

Tue: Now this is where I get to sushi. So many miracles this day but before that - sushi. After our DTM (district training meeting) we went to sushi together for district lunch. Sushi is SOO good. I got 5 plates of sushi and one of fried chicken because it's amazing here in Japan (literally everyone bought it, and I may or may not have gotten all the left overs :) ). Just to put in perspective how cheap it is too I got all of my food for exactly $11. The winner for most number of plates though was Elder Murdock at 10 plates of sushi. His was just under 30 dollars. Ok, Miracles. We went to visit the KINJIN we found my first day. He was finally home. We talked with him a while, committed him to read the Joseph Smith experience with his family and made a return appointment. Then as we were walking down the street this old lady stops to talk to us. Turns out she is a less active. She was baptized 40 years ago, fell away from the church, and then moved to Sapporo (she used to live in Hakodate). She said she has been looking for the missionaries for years. She saved up on a rewards card for a grocery store money so she could buy missionaries food. She wanted to buy us lunch at first but we told her we ate a little so we could keep talking to her. She took us to a bakery bought us breads and then drinks. Then we had about a 40 min conversation on a bench in the store. We gave her a Book of Mormon and got her phone number. She is totally going to become active again!

Wed: So Elder Larson's Temple Recommend actually expired this month and literally everyone from honbu (headquarters/mission home) was out. Luckily though Elder Murdock said I could go with Elder Satou to the Temple. It is such a gorgeous building. Sorry I'm out of time but something interesting about the temple is you have to take off your shoes at the entrance. They even have a huge closet for shoes and coats in the lobby.

I Love you all,

Harvey Choro

Orangina - all is well