Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 16 months 3 weeks-80

TENSION

The Japan Sapporo mission had a goal this week to have 60 investigators come to church. We have had an average of 80 progressing investigators, but only 20 of those investigators have been coming to church. So we made it a goal to increase our faith and help others come to church.

I transferred to Chitose.Eniwa about 2 months ago and I have not seen a single investigator come to church, so I was very nervous about this goal. I REALLY prayed and fasted for this goal and it was a great faith building experience.

We invited all of our investigators to church. Here are some of the excuses we got: "My daughter is coming home so we have to go drink wine. Sorry." "I am affriad of groups of people so it is impossible for me to go." "Church is scary" Then we asked Haramai san. He said, "Yes. I have no plans. I will be there." AH!!!!! Eternal Families!

Haramai san put us on a wave of tension this whole week. First we call on Monday to follow up on baptism. He said he will be baptized "eventually" but was really skeptical about it. So we called Sister Haramai (His wife) and she told us this, "I woke up in the morning and my husband looked at me and said, I can tell that I will eventually be baptized. If that is where it is going, I want to be baptized with my daughter when she turns 8." WHAA?! This was Monday.

Tuesday there was no change.

Wednesday we call and find out that he can't come to church anymore. He has to go to a festival with his daughter. WHAT?! His oldest daughter is 10 years old and baptized! She wants her dad to be baptized more than anything and understands that he needs to come to church, yet she wants to go to a festival? We were so confused.

Thursday we call. Haramai san can't come at all still. Nodoka Chan (His daughter) won't change her mind.

Friday we can and make an appointment to go over on Saturday and have a family council with them so they can come to church.

Saturday. "OH! Sorry my husband was called into work and won't be home today. So... it probably won't work anymore..." NO!!!! We prayed SOO hard, and decided to go visit anyway. About 5 minutes after getting there Haramai san walks in the door coming home from work! He was happy to see us and invited us in for dinner. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and talked about church. Nodoka Chan REALLY wanted to go to the festival. She has ADHD so when she is committed to something she will not change her mind. She ended with, "FINE! Sacrament meeting only!" YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is not the 3 hours, but at least it is the most important hour.

Sunday. The sacrament hymn starts. They are not here yet. I am bouncing in my chair about to freak out. We had a huge miracle. The Sacrament Hymn was 6 verses long and they come walking in on the end of the 5th verse! AH!!!!!!!!! So much tension, yet so much relief.

We talked with Haramai san about baptism after church and he strongly committed to being baptized, he just needs to think about it. I am so excited for this family to become eternal.

To end with even more tension we find out that in our mission we had 84 investigators come to church! We exceeded our goal by 24! All we needed was faith. And mine was definitely strengthened this week.

Wow this is all about the Haramai family, but really it was a Haramai family week.

We also met with Narita san and she fed us pulled pork! AMAZING!!! I forgot how amazing that stuff tastes. It has been almost 2 years since I have eaten it.

We had a taco party with Matsuda san and she fed us Macarroon cream puffs. I died and went to heaven.

We met with the Suzuki family and talked about baptism with them. They want to learn a little bit more about it before they say yes, but they are very strong and want to learn.

It was an amazing week. Thank you so much for all of your love and prayers. I feel it often.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. Be excellent to each other!

 

-Mecham choro.

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 16 months 2 weeks-79

HI!!!!!!

Where's my baseball?

Last P-Day I had the email that every missionary dreads they will get on the mission. The one that ends with them leaving the room crying. There were some family "things" that happened, which helped me learn and grow so much this week.

I was off all day Monday. My thoughts were somewhere else and every time I was alone, I was trying not to cry. It was hard, but when P-Day ended I somehow was able to focus. The worries I had for my family all left, and all I thought about was going out and saving souls. Interestingly enough, the people were a lot colder and less happy than normal. I just kept smiling and moving forward. 

The rest of the week was just like that. I focused, I had fun and we saw a lot of miracles. But the Comeback was Sunday.

We had a lesson after church with Haramai san. His family has been working SO hard with us to help him come to church and to be baptized. His daughter says to him every time she sees him "Dad, get baptized." We were teaching the Plan of Salvation. We were testifying about eternal families and how badly his daughters want to live with him forever. They do there best to be obedient and to help him come to the light, but in the end it is his free agency. The lesson was going great and we invite him to baptism. The spirit was so strong. He looked up and said he needed time, but he will come to church this next sunday for the full 3 hours. He said about 5 times that he will come.

That was when it hit me. I know that families are forever and that no matter what happens that wont change. Haramai Shimai, the mom kept saying over and over that a family doesn't change. It will stay with you forever. Sure there are hard things that happen within families, but if we do our best and stay obedient, everything will be alright. My worries for my family went away and I know that everything will be All Right. It was a very emotional lesson and I am so grateful for it.

I am all out of time, SORRY! I wanted to tell more.

-We met with Narita san, she is doing great, and gave us grapefruit jelly.

-We had a BBQ with Matsuda san and I ate so much meat it hurt.

- I got go to to Hakodate, The California of Hokkaido and it was so much fun.

-I LOVE YOU ALL!

Be excellent to each other.

 

 

-Mecham Choro.

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 16 months 1 week-78

Caroline and Elder Campbell.  Great Miracle!!!!

Poster of recent missionaries in the Chitose-Eniwa ward.  Compliments of a ward member. 

Ohhh Ame.

I woke up probably 5 times in the middle of the night to a crazy loud lightning storm. Usually I would be so excited for it, but it was 3 in the morning, so I was angry. The alarm goes off at 6:30 and I look out side to see rain EVERYWHERE. It is pouring. Most of the noise was coming from the rain hitting our apartment. We call the weather phone and they tell us that it is OHH Ame. (Ame means rain and Ohh means big) I really wanted to run outside and go play in it, but we get a phone call from the mission home telling us not to leave our apartment. Aparently it was so bad that they were having people evacuate their homes. I heard America was hit pretty hard with rain as well, but I don't know if they over-reacted as well as the Japanese people did. In the end there was no damage. I saw no houses harmed and nothing was flooded. The rivers got really scary and high, but it never got too high or flooded. It was a huge blessing. BUT....

 

Because of the Ohhh Ame, all of our investigators disappeared. They got sick, or ran away. So we did a lot of "Nooooo!" screaming moments this week. It was pretty hard to be honest. Because there were times when we would go to the house of the appointment and SEE the person sitting on their couch, wave to them, and they don't come out. BUT it is just a sign that we are needed somewhere else.

On Saturday we had a great lesson with the Haramai family. The Father is not a member but the rest of the family is. (One soon to be, she is 7) The oldest daughter has pretty severe ADHD and she is my favorite person ever. Throughout the lesson she would randomly yell, "DAD GET BAPTIZED!" but she also said one of the most fantastic things ever in the lesson. We were talking about coming to church and working with him to see why he would not come with his family. We started to teach the atonement and the importance of the sacrament. The daughter with ADHD says, "So it is like a reset? Right now you are in play game and on Sunday you get to reset. Say your sorry and try again. WOW! That is so cool." They weren't able to come to church that Sunday because they had plans so the daughter then got upset that she doesn't have her weekly reset. It was super cute. "DAD you have to come next week with us to get your reset. Then get baptized." It is so fun to have her teach with us. (She is only 10 by the way.)

 

I realized something this week as well.... an investigator pointed it out to me. 6 months..... I only have 6 months left. Brothers and Sisters I am going to go crazy hard from here on out. Look out.

Love you all so very very very very very very very very much. Be excellent to each other.

 

-Mecham Choro.

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 16 months 78 weeks

An eikaiwa student brought a hat with crocodile #spellcheck teeth on it.

                       This is how japanese people cook#yolo

We went to a Matsuri! Japanese festival

my companion got his hair cut and it looked very bad hahahahah we had to fix it

This was the last picture I got on my camera before it broke. I decided to take an artsy close your eyes girl picture because I got a macaroon#spellcheck and it backfired and broke my camera. The lens wont open anymore hahaha

So now all of my pictures look like this. hahahaha My finger holding open the lens, But no worries it will be fixed by next week!

Gyaru and Ireland Miracles.

I have a fantastic curse that I have kept with me from the beginning of my mission. This curse is that I can only find women to teach. This week I only found Gyaru women.

Gyaru is a type of people in Japan who are kind of.... "Swag"... They don't really wear the nicest clothing and they love dying their hair. Japanese people have a hard time dying their hair because it is black, so most of the time it just comes out orange. My companion and I found two great new really strong investigators. They are both women in their 20's and have children.... and getting divorced... The youngest one is 21 years old with 2 kids! She also really likes church and pictures of Jesus. We taught both of these young mothers (who are our age....) about the peace that comes through the gospel. How we can be clean and don't have to live with regret. They were very willing to listen and now just waiting to be taught by the sister missionaries, because they are a little too dangerous for Elders.

I want to tell you all about the most amazing thing ever though. I am out of time because I spent most of my time freaking out about the most amazing miracle ever.

One of my great friends, Caroline is the coolest and went up to the missionaries by herself and told them that she has a friend serving in Japan and promised him that she would talk to the missionaries if she ever saw them. From there she went to church a few times and met with the missionaries. She then had to leave to go to Ireland for study abroad.   Flash back to America. Sarah Campbell #penthousepals is saying goodbye to her little brother Josh as he gets ready to leave for his mission. Flash forward to Ireland. Caroline and her friends decide to go to a burrito shop in Ireland. That itself is a miracle. Well along the path to burritos Caroline sees the missionaries and thought, I haven't talked to them in Ireland yet, so why not now? She goes up to them and tells them about me. The Elder then asks what my name is. Caroline met Sarah Campbell's little brother Josh. It was a huge miracle and just another way to show that God knows every single one of his children and will do anything He can to show them the way back home.

I am so grateful for this church and I know that it is true! I love you all so very much.

Be excellent to each other!

-Mecham Choro

Japan Eniwa. Chitose. 15 months 3vweek-77

We heart attacked our sick investigators!

We like the high waist style.

 

HOW DO YOU SPELL!?!?!  Waist? Weighst? Waishst.... ahhhh.. Im over it.

We gave this picture to the mission presidents wife for her birthday and we put a picture of her face in the light. Hahahah too good.

We also got to use the sisters bikes this week. that was fun.

I MADE THIS GREAT FOOD! I will teach you all some day. It is AMAZING. Soup Curry.

All we take are ugly pictures... I need to be serious...

"I'm worried about your future"

I had a very terrific opportunity this week. I had the opportunity to have an interview with a member of the Seventy. Elder Whiting and his lovely wife came up from Tokyo (He is seriving in the Asian Area presidency so he lives in Tokyo right now) to teach all of us great Sapporo Missionaries. Elder Whiting gave 2 workshops on Power and Authority, and one on the Character of Christ. I learned sooooo much. He told us some crazy stories that really got me excited to go out and spread the great word to the great people. But then he said something that scared me. "We are obviously concerned for you missionaries. We love you and we pray for you every day. We know you will be fine on your missions, but, I'm worried about your future." I felt like nobody else heard him because most of the missionaries were just smiling. I looked terrified and didn't understand what he was talking about.

After the workshops and the meeting ended, Elder Whiting picked 6 missionaries that he wanted to interview. And naturally, I was last... I was so excited for the opportunity to meet with him. A one on one with a member of the Seventy. It doesn't happen that often. I went into the room and we said a prayer. He asked me some simple questions about my family and my mission and we had a great talk. Then he explained why he said he is worried about our futures.

As missionaries we are constantly surrounded by good. Even if you try to be disobedient, you still have somebody with you 24/7 to help you stay in shape. We have the amazing privilige to testify to the children of God everyday and feel the spirit with us at all times. We get to serve every second of the day for 2 whole years. Then we come home and all of that goes away.

Elder Whiting made absolute sure that I would not lose what I have now. That my testimony will not go away. He warned me of specific things and gave me some great advice. But that interview was a huge eye opener for me. I have not been thinking about the future that much. I still have 6 months left! But.... I only have 6 months left....

With that in mind I worked SUPER hard this week. My cousin, Sister Snow, just recently returned from serving her mission. She talked about how hard she worked everyday, how much the mission changed her and how crazy bold she got every day. I tried to be like that this week.

We were walking past a house that looked like nobody lived in it. It was old and creepy, but we heard crazy loud metal music coming from it.  Of course we decided to go ping it. We pinged the door (which was upstairs too.. kinda weird) and out came exactly what we thought would come out.  A young guy with tons of tatoos and wearing all black. The first thing he tells us is how much he loves Jesus Christ. Then he shows us all of this tatoos and the cross is has on his right hand. He really likes the teaching of Christ, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth." Well.... He has his doctrine mixed up, but he still really loves Christ. We were actually able to teach him a great lesson and made an appointment with him. That was one of the great chances I had to be bold.

We had a lot of finding time this week because our investigators got sick... But during that finding time we worked way hard and found lots of great people. I love you all so very much.

Be excellent to each other!

 

-Mecham Choro.