Japan Ebetsu 22 months -4 weeks- 104 LAST ONE!!!!!!!!

Our district activity. We played Call of Duty. 

Mimura Eikaiwa. These are the funniest grandmas ever. 

The Ikeda family! 

The people that came to the concert. 

The Ikeda Family. I love them so much. 

Mimura san! I will miss her. 

Ikeda Raiki! I love him

Tada Shimai! She was in the MTC with me! 


Return with Honor

I can't believe how quickly it came. My last email. There is a lot I want to share, but I am going to keep it very simple. But before that my Mother will be SUPER angry with me if I don't talk about the concert we had this week. 

The concert was March 14th Saturday night. March 14th in Japan is White Day. White day is like Valentines day. The guys give chocolate and presents to the girls. Because in Japan, Valentines day is where the girls give presents to the guys. We were nervous for the turn out because a lot of our investigators said they might not be able to make it. Members said they were busy, and we only had about 10 people committed to coming. The whole week we went crazy inviting EVERYONE to come to the concert. We pinged a house and this lady comes out, probably in her 80's "do you like music?" "I LOVE MUSIC!!! I LOVE ELVIS!!!!!!!!! I AM COMING TO THE CONCERT!!!!" It was so funny. In the end she didn't make it to the concert, but a lot of people did! 5 minutes before the concert started there were about 10 people there. It was sooo sad. We then went up on the stage and started to get ready. 7:05 and people start flooding in. We say the opening prayer, open our eyes and the room is full. Everyone showed up on Mormon time, just in time to say Amen.

The concert was great. We stressed out so hard for it. The mics didn't sound good, we didn't know our music, we all sounded so flat, it looked like we were doing Karaoke, and we forgot a lot of our music. BUT it was a great concert. We had 2 members testify during the concert. Their testimonies were beautiful and non members in the crowd really felt the spirit. We sang a lot of fun songs, like a version of Poker Face that we made, some Avril Lagvine (spellcheck) and then we had a lot of serious songs, like Where love is, Love one another, and Come thou Fount. My favorite songs were a Japanese song "Ue o Muite, arukou" and Come Thou Fount. We had the whole crowd sing with us and it sounded sooo good. The spirit was really strong and some of the non-members REALLY felt it. Don't worry the ward members filmed all of it and are giving us cds, so there will be a way to see it. :) The best part of the concert were all my friends that came! The Ikeda family showed up! They came to surprise me! They drove about 2 hours from Tomakomai to come to see me! They walked in half-way into the concert and I almost cried. It was the greatest.

These last 2 years were truly the best two years of my life. 

I have grown so much. When I first started the mission, I thought that I would be companions with my trainer for the next 2 years. I thought that I never left my area and I would go to the mission home often. I though I would be teaching everyday and I would have tons of opportunities to talk to people. I thought I would be lucky if I came home seeing at least one baptism. I thought I would never be able to speak Japanese. These thoughts began to change as time went on. After my first transfer I learned that there are a thing called transfers and your companions leave you and you can leave you area! After my 4th transfer I learned that you don't go to the mission home often, and that teaching is a great opportunity but you have to find investigators to teach. Around my 6th or 7th transfer I learned that I can get around with my Japanese and kind of say what I want to say. 1 year in and I saw my first baptism. I thought this was going to be the only baptism I saw. I was happy with all I have done and was ready to keep working. My testimony was getting stronger but still had so much room to grow. 10th and 11th transfer. I worked and worked. Investigators kept getting close to baptism but just couldn't quite make it. 12th and 13th. My testimony was at its peak. The trials kept coming and coming and Heavenly Father blessed me with the greatest blessing ever, a family baptism. This family changed my life forever. They taught me so much. Teaching them and being apart of their life taught me what I came on my mission to learn.

I came here to learn what is most important. I talked about it awhile ago in my email, but in the end it comes right back to that. Returning to live with Heavenly Father. That is my goal. That is all I want. To be with Him, and my family for forever. Everything I have learned over these 2 years will help prepare me to return. To be a better, son, brother, husband and father. 

My ward mission leader shared with me yesterday how when I come home, the leader I become will be my gift to my mission president. That will be how my mission president knows that he was successful. Not only will my mission president know that he was successful, my parents will know. They have prepared me more that anyone. They have taught me everything I needed to know and their prayers carried me the whole way. 

I am so ready to come home and become a better person everyday. I am so not ready to leave. But I know that no matter what, no matter where I am, I know that Heavenly Father loves me and will help me. I know I am a Child of God. I know what is most important. I know this church is true. 

I love you all. Thank you so much for these 2 years. Be excellent to each other.

-Mecham Choro.