Japan 6 months 1 week-36

We fed ducks at this pond and then the crows came and tried to eat us. 

They followed us... 

It was cold so we got ice cream. 

Selfie. 

A slide I went down this week.
So this week we had splits with the Muroran Elders. They are in an area that is about 45 minutes away by a fast train. In their area they had 4 inches of snow fall in one day, while here we have no snow and it is just cold and windy. I went on split with Elder Lee. The funny part of that day was when we went to go visit Nakao san. Nakao san hasn't been able to make any friends since moving to Tomakomai last year. She tells us almost every time that she really wants to make friends but doesn't know how. We tell her that if she comes to church she will make TONS of friends, but she never came. So we brought a member with us. Kotani Shimai is the one that takes us everywhere and buys us everything. She loves the missionaries almost too much. Well we went to go teach Nakao san with Kotani Shimai. The first thing Kotani Shimai does when she sees Nakao san is say, "we are friends now. I love you." Well.. It was definitely a bold way of becoming friends. Somehow I think it worked and right before we left Kotani Shimai ran up and hugged Nakao san before we left. Hugging is not normal for Japanese people. I even got a little freaked out. It was an attack not a hug. BUT the awesome part was it was exactly what Nakao san needed. 

The day before this we went out to lunch with Kotani Shimai, her friend and Tamori Shimai. Tamori shimai is a less active member and did not want the missionaries visiting her. Kotani Shimai somehow worked her magic and scheduled a lunch with all of us. We went out to eat literally a 20 second walk away from Tamori Shimai's apartment. The food was taking forever to cook so we had a lot of time to talk. Kotani Shimai just sat there and Kotani Shimai's friend did a lot of talking. She would ask us the weirdest questions and say the weirdest things. Tamori Shimai was the reason we were there and she kinda just zoned out for a bit and sat there. We eventually we able to get us all talking about something we all liked, food. Tamori Shimai was talking a lot and it was really good. Then out of nowhere Kotani Shimai says, "Oh yeah! When we used to work together making underwear!".... It was quiet for about 20 seconds then Kotani Shimai's friend said, "Yeah... Isn't that a little weird to say..." It totally made the day for Tamori Shimai. She thought it was so funny. Kotani Shimai's crazy attitude saved us once again. 

There were a lot of little 'crazy' things that happened this week that turned out to be exactly what we needed. But I learned something really awesome yesterday that helped me understand why we had these 'crazy things' #challenges happen so much. We were talking about missionary work at church and a return missionary in the ward said, " If you want your mission to be easy, don't work hard. If you work hard it shows you want to improve, you want to be more like Christ. When you work hard you get trials and you work through those trials. That is when you feel the most joy." This is so true. Lately missionary work has been a little rough for me. I felt like I wasn't fully there or what I was trying to say wasn't coming out right. I blamed it on my Japanese and kinda slacked off for a little bit. Then I kicked right back in and changed my mind. It was really hard to work through it and to get over myself. It didn't make everything easier or funner, but it made it worth it. Then I was happy. 

I love you all so much. I hope you have a great week. Be excellent to each other! 

-Mecham Choro.