Cherry blossom photo for mom! Ichinomiya

Very good food in Ichinomiya!

Preparation day!

March 22,2014 Ichinomiya, Japan

March 22, 2014. Ichinomiya, Japan

Williams Choro has survived his first transfer.  He did not get transferred and did not receive a new companion and he is happy!  He and Ahuna Choro are having great success!  They have a baptism scheduled each week for the next 5 weeks.  They are so excited!  Steven says the work is going so great!  The people are so awesome!  Every morning when he wakes up he tells his companion how wonderful their mission is and what a great companion he is and that they are going to work hard and get a baptism this week!  And they are! They are a great companionship.  He sends home short little videos on an sd card and it is awesome to see how well these two missionaries work together and love each other.  The language is coming along.  He is learning more and more every day and he loves it! He says that they are so busy all the time.  They have an investigator who is from Nigeria, one from Napal, and one from Zimbabwe.  The rest are from Japan. He says that lately people have been approaching them in stores or on the street, asking if they are Mormon missionaries and asking about the church. He says it is a great blessing. He is loving meeting new people and learning about different parts of the world.  He says, "I wear the name of Jesus Christ on my tag every day.  I am a representative of Him and I  will work hard every day to help others come to know Him. This mission is awesome! It is the best! Surprisingly I have not been homesick one single day. It feels like home, just mom, dad and Sheri are not physically here.  I feel them with me though.  The Gospel is true. Share it with someone every day! You will be blessed!  I sure am!" 

Ferris wheel. Looks like so much fun!

March in Ichinomiya ....2014

I am doing great!!  I love it here!  The weather is different every day.  One day it will be rainy, then turn to snow, then the next day sunny.  It is crazy.  The wind is amazing though.  Yesterday while we were in sacrament meeting it sounded like a jet was taking off!  I have not got into any bike accidents, but the wind is so strong that we have to lean way over to go around corners.  It is fun!

Sumesh is getting baptized on April 5.  We are very excited for him.  We also have 3 more baptisms scheduled in the next couple of weeks.  It is awesome to see people change and want to learn the truth. 

I am having trouble with the English language.  I have difficulty reading and writing it.  When I hear others speak it, it sounds funny to me now.  I read and write everything in Nihongo.  I am learning kanji at a really fast rate.  It is awesome.  I can understand and speak well.  

Last week we had a district meeting and pday.  We went to a big mall and got this picture taken.  It was fun.  We also saw this Ferris wheel.  It is on a building that is about 9 stories tall and the wheel is on the 3rd story.  I really wanted to ride it, but we didn't have enough time.  Some things I have seen are some really cool shrines.  One had a fountain in it that was a dragon.  Also, I have seen the bullet train, but my companion says that it costs about 100$ to ride it just once!  It is really cool.  I will get a picture of it.

Sakura begins this week.  The cherry blossoms are just barely beginning to pop out. I will get photos for you mom when they are more in bloom!  After Sakura is bug season!  I guess they get pretty bad here.  Then it becomes the rainy season.  They say it gets about 90 degrees F and rains.  I don't look forward to that.  They also have told me that members often lose their apartments due to the rain and we will be serving to help them. That is sad, but I am glad we can help. It happens every year here.  I ripped my rain pants the other day getting off my bike.  I was able to patch it with duct tape and clear tape.  

We had a neat thing happen the other day.  Elder Ahuna had a flat tire on his bike.  We stopped to fill it up, but a piece that he needed to fill the tire was missing.  We figured that we would have to walk home and miss our appointment to fix his tire.  We happened to find the piece that he needed just laying there in the parking lot.  We were able to fix his bike and get to our appointment.  We feel that it was a miracle.  

The Gospel is true.  I wear the name of Jesus Christ on my name tag and I am so grateful to be a representative of Him.  I tell my companion every day that our mission is GREAT!  Serving The Lord is awesome!  I tell him before we begin our study that I am so happy to be here and that he is a great companion!  I tell him we will get a baptism if not this week, the next!  And we are!!  We are working hard!  I love it!  I am so happy!

See you all soon!!!  I am almost at my 6 month mark!  I think it comes around in May!  Time is flying! I cannot believe it.  Have a great day!

Love,  Elder Williams