June 14, 2015

Well this week was great! I got my new companion and his name is Elder

L from a place called Kelso Washington which is closer to

Portland Oregon than it is to Seattle, but since Seattle is still

Washington, he just says he's from Seattle cause no one knows Kelso!

;) But he's super nice, pretty funny, and excited to work hard out

here!

But Monday, we had our District activity and we did a Shuji(Japanese

Calligraphy) activity, where we got the Shuji stuff, and then did it

at the church, and went to a All-you-can-eat Buffet which was way fun!

I ate a ton, and we actually went to the same one the previous

friday(see last week's email), and then had Dinner with the S

family for their Family Home Evening. We taught a lesson on Jesus

Christ.   They were sad to hear that my companion would be leaving, 

but we made it a really fun night.

Tuesday we partied at Eikaiwa with the students for Elder S's and

Sister K's last time in the ward. We got to have some good snacks

and have some good conversations with everyone. We also had Zone

Training Meeting in Atsubetsu, which actually went a lot better than

we thought it would. We didn't have any time to really prepare either

of our workshops, so we just planned the best we could and did it by

the Spirit But it was great!

Wednesday I went to Honbu to pick up my new companion and get some

training with him. I spent the training translating from Japanese to

English cause he was the only Gaijin bean this transfer! So that was

kinda cool! Then we had dinner at the Nakatsuka's which was delicious,

and then the Bean's first testimony meeting in the mission. Then I

said goodbye to Elder S and Elder T for the last time in a

long time, cause they're both training and it's not likely I'll see

them again until long after the mission, so that was kinda sad, but it

was good to get to say bye!

Thursday we did companion planning and taught O-san! It was great! He's been

doing well lately, and we committed him to read the Book of Mormon

more, so we're hoping it'll help him out. We also went with M

Kyodai to a sushi place for lunch which was way nice of him and was

super good!

Friday we went a few places, including visiting the I family

because they are going on a couples mission to the Tokyo temple,

well…today, so we talked with them and then housed for a little bit

and saw some cool success!

Saturday we tried to visit a bunch of people in Tobetsu but they weren't

home, and then went to the ward to start planning a Music night for

hopefully before I leave... After that, we ran to a member's house to

have dinner with them which was super nice of them. The member has a

cool conversion story where he was drinking like 2 liters of

alcohol a day, and was just able to quit it without any problems! It

was way cool!

Sunday we had church, and my companion gave his testimony, which was

good. Then we talked a ton with the members, and actually had Ward

Council. But that went good, and then we had lunch, went home, and had

our study time. Because Elder L is in training right now, we have

a lot longer study time so it's been long, but good!

But that was the week! I hope everyone's doing great, and I'll talk to you soon!

Love you tons!

Elder Bickel