Happy Easter!! (4/17/17)

Hey Everyone! I hope you all had a great Easter this weekend! It was a great Easter for me and the people in the area I am in! Oh, and this week was transfer week! And I actually transferred. Elder Seki stayed in Iwamizawa and is training a new missionary that he actually knew from before the mission. We found out while we were doing a Yakiniku (grilled meat dishes) party for dinner at our apartment. Trainer calls actually come earlier than other transfer calls. They come in on Monday night so we were celebrating what we thought was going to be our last P-day together...we were right! ;) I also found out where I was being transferred to as well. I transferred back to Sapporo!! But, I am in the "countryside" of the city. I am in an area called Shinoro. It's pretty much just all houses and a college. Well after we got that call it was already 10:00 so we had to get ready for bed because we had DTM (district training meeting) the next day.

Notable thing about DTM was that we all had lunch at a hole in the wall ramen place - really fun! I also made arrangements to go to Shinoro the next day because Elder Seki had to pick up his bean (new trainee) which was gonna take all day anyway. So I started making a bunch of phone calls to investigators and members to let them all know that I was going to be leaving Iwamizawa. We also had a lesson/goach (dinner) by a member and their home-stay referral. It was a ton of fun! I taught English and then we had an awesome lesson and finally dinner. I was shocked to find out that no missionaries had ever visited them at their house before. Then we headed back and I had to pack everything to leave the next day.

Wednesday: We started out waking up early so we could meet with Masaki San for one last time. It was really sad saying goodbye but I know that he is in good hands. Then we were off and on a train. The funny thing is though I had to stop at Ebetsu first (city between Iwamizawa and Sapporo). In the short time I was there we had 2 lessons and a sushi goach by a part-member family. We 3 elders sat with the Non-member husband who is about 70 years old. He kept commanding me to eat more which was really funny. He also started to order things just to force it on another Elder hahaha. It was really funny to talk with him and eat together. Then after that I was on another train down to my new area. I arrived and dropped off my stuff to go to an appointment with an investigator which was really fun. To get to know me he wanted to arm wrestle. He also accepted the word of wisdom pretty well. He has already quit smoking 10 cigarettes a day down to 4.

Thursday: Don't really remember a whole lot. We had DKK (Doryo (companion) Keikaku (plan(ing)) Kai (meeting)), it was blizzarding again and we went out and froze one last time before spring really got here.

Fri: We had to prepare for an Easter party for the next day. It gave me a chance to get to know the sisters in my area so that was really nice. Then we went out to meet a bunch of NA's (non-active members) and I was in charge of finding the way there which is always fun. :) We also found a KINJIN ("gold person" - golden investigator) at the last house we knocked on.

Sat: EASTER PARTY! It was really great to get to know a few of the members and to talk with a bunch of non-members. There was one youth there who is absolutely awesome! After the party we went streeting out side an outlet mall like thing and their family saw once again. We continued to street (I used gaijin (foreigner) power to the max and handed out a lot of Eikawa (English class) flyers) and this youth comes riding in on a bike to give us some caramel corn. I swear this youth (his first name is Ken which is actually a common name) is a boss. We also had a great lesson with an investigator that I met for the first time. It was great and it was really easy to break the ice seeing as he had an anime towel and a lot of video games. We also had a really great lesson on the plan of salvation with him.

Sun: Went to church for the first time. This Ward is huge! I introduced myself to all the members which actually went pretty well.  The Bishop accidentally called me Sister Harvey so that was a great way to get everyone to laugh in my introduction. I also shared a testimony of Easter and the importance of the sacrament. Then after church we went around with a member and visited a bunch of NA's but almost nobody was home. :( 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and I know that Jesus really did live again so that one day we too can rise up from the grave to be able to live with him and our families for all eternity.

LOVE,

Elder Harvey

PS  Oh and I forgot to mention my new companion is JAPANESE!! His name is Elder Tamioka. This is actually his last transfer and he just finished being ZL (zone leader) for our zone.