Japan 13 months-65 weeks

All of us

It was really hard to say goodbye to the Henmi family...

My favorite Tomita family. They cried when I left.

Hahahaha Nagano san was so funny. She kept trying to teach me how to look good in pictures. She kept saying that I look really ugly in pictures, but in real life I am normal. She would look at pictures of me and then laugh super hard. She is fantastic.

Last, but not least. The cutest old lady on the planet. Ogawa Shimai.

My favorite Chinese Ran san.

Abashiri 2.

Abashiri.

just doing some finding.

We are going to have a lot of fun.

I have been in one area for about 11 months of my mission. That area is the heart of Sapporo, and full of people. We got our transfer calls this last week and I knew that I was going to be transfering. If I stayed another week it would have been a year in one area... Transfer calls came in the middle of reading the scrirptures with a bunch of other missionaries, so it was dead silent while they all listened to me freak out. I am now in an area called Abashiri. It is a VERY small area. I think I could bike from one end to the other in 30 minutes. It is right next to the ocean near the North East part of Hokkaido. It is extremely pretty with lots of hills and famous for its prisons. The branch here has about 15 members maybe 20.. But only about 13 came yesterday. I moved from a ward of 130+ members to a branch of 13. It was a huge culture shock.

I was in Tomakomai before which was a branch, but is was full of families so it just felt like one giant happy family. Abashiri branch is one of the most interesting places on the planet. The youngest people in the branch were over 50 years old, until last month when 2 teenage girls were baptized. There is only one family is the branch and the kids dont like coming to church. So basically it is a bunch of old, sarcastic, fantastic people. They are way funny and way loving, which makes everything worth it.

The two recent converts are Kaho Shimai and Mizuho Shimai. They are best friends. They are 15 and 16 years old and love coming to church. Mizuho Shimai first came to eikaiwa and fell in love with the American, English speaking missionary and came to chruch for him. She then invited her friend Kaho Shimai and from then on they decided to join the church. Mizuho Shimiais family has no interest in religion, but were totally fine with her joining the church. Kaho Shimias family hates religion and her mother is suffering from severe depression. Kaho Shimia is 16 years old and has to run her home. Her dad doesnt know how to cook and gets home from work very late. Her mother gets angry and cant move due to the depression. She is a very very strong member and really fought to be able to join the church.

When I got to Abashiri on Thursday after a 7 hour bus ride, I looked at the area and the investigators they were currently teaching, and kind of freaked out. It is tiny. The investigators are young, but have no interest. (We have one investigator with interest, Higaki san, but she just doesnt like talking) Friday night we went to eikaiwa and there were only 2 people that showed up. I left an Eikaiwa of over 40 people a week to only 2 people a week, and one of the students is schziophrenic (there is no spell check on this computer...) Then Saturday we had an activity with Kaho Shimai, the branch president, and the Schzisophrenic Eikaiwa student. We played mini golf.

Sunday we went to church and Higaki san showed up, as well as the Schizophrenic Eikaiwa student. We didnt invite the eikaiwa student. I am still confused. Church was great. The members were so nice and excited to have another American. (secretly they wanted a Japanese missionary) They are also very good at singing and playing the piano, so that is why I think they liked me.

After church we went to go visit a lot of the investigators. I was really excited to meet all of them because of all of the amazing things I hear about them. We get to their doors and almost every single one of them looked confused and upset that we were visitng them. `Why are you here again? I dont have any interest and I think you would use your time better going somewhere else.` It was really hard, but I know that there are prepared people here in this little town full of quiet people. (I just quoted Beauty and the beast..... oh no.)

Abashiri is amazing. This is my first transfer as a Distric leader as well so I have no idea what is going on. A lot is changing, but I am loving it. If we keep working hard and praying a lot Higaki san should be getting baptized in 3 weeks!

There are times when life changes and we have huge `culture shocks` but I know that with Christ we can do anything.  I am ready to go out and find all of the prepared people waiting to hear this message. I love you all so very much. Be excellent to each other.

-Mecham Choro

Oh and my new companion is Elder Fujisaka ( a fourth Japanese )