梅雨 (rainy season) (June 5, 2011)

It sounds like everyone is having a great time and preparing for summer...actually us too. We are preparing for the hot and rainy summer that we have ahead of us but it should be fun. We also finally got a ward mission leader so that is very exciting and a 2nd counselor in our branch presidency so it was a very succesful week.

Well usually I like talking about interesting food so this week I want to say I had the best sandwich in the world. It had bread, lettuce, onion and bacon (No, Not real bacon!! it was fake. I could see through it and when I cooked it, it didn't smell awesome so it wasn't bacon but the closest I could get, My imagination had to do the rest but still) chicken (marinated in chipotle(sent from my parents)) egg ( yes, I cooked the egg) salsa (I found a 16 oz bottle at the store and it was so good I ate it all last week....kind of sad) and mayonaise. It was so good. It was kind of expensive and I don't want to get sick of it so I don't have it for every meal......It was so good. So basically I'm not always suffering from eating tenticles of octupus that I swear were moving 2 minutes before I ate it but I actually have "edible" food every once in a while.

This week was actually a really great week. It was awesome. We had an open house at our church. And we have been preparing for it for a month trying to get members to bring their friends. Now what ever happened none of their friends came...sad. But we got 6 people to come. One was an investigator. She is 15 and comes to our english class twice a week. She really wants to learn english and live in America when she graduates high school so we help her with that but she is very busy so we have a hard time meeting her. She came to the open house and loved it. She took every pamphlet and looked at every picture in detail. She said when she gets time she'd love to come to church...it was awesome.

We also had another english student come to church yesterday...it was pretty cool. He is a senior in high school and isn't very good at english but he is getting better. He came to church and loved it. He said he was going to come to church next week as well. That was pretty cool.

So we went to a museum last p day and found someone whose daughter is a museum worker so that was cool. We went back on Friday and talked to him for a long time so it was really good. He has read a little but says it is too hard to believe but it's ok. We will continue to talk with him and I think he will see that it is not that hard to believe.

My companion and I have been learning a lot about the two main religions here in Japan recently; Shinto and Buddhism...it is very interesting. They both definately come from ancient times and testify of Christ...it has just been changed very much. There are ancient writings that only monks can understand but the common people can't understand but a lot of these stories have resemblence with our stories and the Bible. For example there is a red arch outside of the temple and shrines. What can that represent...maybe the passover. And you have to wash your unclean body before you can enter the temple. There is also an ancient story that talks about how the Deity of the sun was hidden in a cave for three days and the whole world was dark and then after 3 days the rock was removed from in front of the cave and the Deity came out. There really are so many things that relate. It really helps my testimony and is a great way to be able to relate to the Japanese people.

I know this church is true and love Japan... have a great week. And wish the best to Nicole because she is starting down the scary path...marriage. No Just kidding but seriously good luck...

Love
Elder Riley Nelson