week 13

This week has been one to remember for sure!

I:m sorry I didn:t have much time to tell you about the baptism that we had last Saturday. Takahiro Menoru San got baptized and it was an amazing experience to be a part of. When I got to Saga, my companion and his old companion met him on the street and started to teach him. They taught him for about a month before I got here and we have been teaching him ever since I got here. He is so faithful and was so excited to be baptized. He was so prepared for this gospel and it was amazing to take part in watching him progress!

Unfortunately, he got a new job near Tokyo and moved yesterday. The timing was perfect though! We plan on staying in touch with him and helping to encourage him to continue to live this gospel.

On a different note, I had the best haircut of my life right after emailing last Monday. Japanese customer service is amazing and this haircut, if you were to get the same quality in america, would probably be at least a 50 dollar haircut. There was no hair out of place and they even strait razor-ed around my ears and the back of my neck for less than 15 dollars! It was amazing. Amazing enough to mention to everyone.

The picture that my companion gave to me was when I was having my worst day on the mission. I just felt so inadequate and un-successful and was not proud of myself and did not think that anyone could be proud of me. I struggled most of the day really bad. However, God was aware of my situation and changed my attitude and frame of mind really fast! Honestly, this worst day turned into the best day that I have had in Japan so far. In a nutshell, we went out to Dendo (do missionary work) and we met so many wonderful people and they were from all different places and they all spoke english! We met a man from mexico who wanted help learning Japanese so we told him to come to English class and we would have one of the Nihonjin elders help him. We shared a short message with him and he was interested and wanted to know more. Also, we talked to many more people who were generally interested in our message. And at the end of the night, the last people we talked to were from Egypt and wanted to know more about Christians and what we believe. They were really amazing happy people and it was his birthday and she just barely finished her last test for her Masters degree. The timing was perfect and we found an Arabic Book of Mormon for them and we plan on meeting with them this week. Also, we were going through our area book that day and decided to call a man that had met with missionaries a while ago and he said "Hey, long time no see! When can we meet? How about next monday at 10?" When does that ever happen?! It was an amazing day and it was a little testimony builder for me to have and as I keep trying my best, I know that God is proud of me for what I am doing here. My biggest weakness is that I forget these things.

Lastly, this morning was when our appointment was with that gentleman and when we showed up at the church, he was here and ready to learn! He had questions about resurrection and how we know and believe in Christ and this gospel specifically. He is self taught in English and loves to learn about Religion. He prayed during the lesson and we have future appointments set up with him. He was a wonderful man, please pray for Ted (Furukawa) San that he may feel that this is more than just an interesting subject to learn about but something that you can feel and know that it is true.

We have had some amazing experiences this week and we are striving to do our best so that they can continue.

Love you all!

Brower Choro

Sorry this one is so dark but this is a crazy tree that we saw that looks like it grew the wrong way

Saw this in the Liahona magazine and thought it was really funny. This is definitely what happened when the age change for sister missionaries happened!

And this is one of the funniest looking cars i:ve seen here. It:s a Toyota and looks so refined! I think the crazy old dalmatian lady drives one of these.

This is a picture of one of the hardiest breakfasts I have had here. This is a normal morning breakfast though besides the sweet roll. Delicious!

I found the culprit the other day! This is the cat that sits outside our apartment and just makes tons of scary noises... He is a nice cat but super annoying

This is a picture of some of the ward members here in Saga. In total, there are probably 30 or so members. They are all such wonderful people!!

This is a picture that my companion gave me on one of my worst days on the mission so far. Its really been a big help sitting on my desk because that is definitely how I feel sometimes!

The last one is a picture of what we did in the English class that I taught this week. We teach English every Wednesday and it is a lot of fun! Pronunciation is really hard for Japanese people but they do their best and English class is super fun!