I love this! I don't want this to ever end.

So this week has been pretty grand.
We got the transfer call last night, and to be honest, it was probably the
most boring transfer call I've received.
Hoops Choro answers, he puts it on speaker, and the President tells Olsen
Choro he's going to Kitakami, and Hoops Choro that he's getting a pretty
young missionary.
Then he turns to us (the conversation to us... not literally turning...)
"Elder Wheelwright, Elder Boden, can you both here?"
"Yes President!"
"You're going to stay the same."
Boden Choro and I look at each other, and smile.
"Sounds good."
"Alright! Take care!"

Six more weeks. Man. I'm actually really happy. I love my companion, and I
love Tsuruoka. I love the people we have, and things were just starting to
pick up.
So it was our turn this week to head down to Sakata. We taught
Kimura-Shimai's sister Nagoiya-San. She came to church last week and this
week as well. She's so amazing. She made us egg sandwiches and we taught
her about the Spirit. She's amazing. Her husband recently died so
everything has been been a little more difficult for her. But she loves to
study, and makes the thirty minute drive every Sunday. Amazing.
WO! so some snow just fell off the roof which reminds me of what one of the
members told me:
"Be careful walking around this week. Two people have died this week in
Tsuruoka because of the snow."
"What?! How? Did they freeze?"
"No. Snow from the roofs of buildings fell on them and crushed them."

Alright, back to Sakata. We visited and taught the Honda family after.
(Yes, Honda. Like the car.) There's 4 generations of mother-daughters. The
great-grandma, the grandma, the mother and the daughter all live under the
same roof. The mom has two little daughters around 4 and 2 years old. Sora,
and Toa. They're usually super quiet and scared of us, but we started
playing with some of their toys with them and they warmed up to us. In to
time Toa was screaming and jumping up and down and Sora was making giving
us plastic food for our tea party. Little kid Japanese is the cutest. It's
so much shorter because you don't have to be polite. It was so simple to
speak.
I got to teach Murokoshi (Muro, not ra) San twice this week. Once on a
split with Hoops Choro, and the second time yesterday I was praying like
crazy before Hoops and I went over. I was a little frightened. Last time
we'd talked about the Atonement just a little, and she told us "I'm not so
sure if I can believe this."
Boden Choro and I decided that we had to teach her about Christ before we
could move on. But how do you teach a devout Buddhist that some far away
Man, know and loves her, and suffered for her sins? ... Well... You pray...
a lot.
So we headed over. We rang, slid the door open and walked in to her Genkan.
We talked about ささいな things and then I gave an opening pray, pleading that
the Spirit would help her to learn, and us to teach.
I asked her if she'd read third Nephi 11 like we'd asked. She ran into the
other room and came back with her Book of Mormon, with tabs sticking out
every where. She said she read some (and I later learned that 'some' was
her being humble. She read it all and reread and pondered the scriptures
we'd shared last time) and she read us a question from her study journal.
"Who is 'I' in verse 11? The person who said that they are "the light and
life of the world"? And who is the Father it talks about?"
I responded "That is the Savior, Jesus Christ. And the Father is our
Heavenly Father, who is also called God."
She stood silent for a second, and then I light came across her face, and
she looked happy.
"Oooh. He suffered for us. So we wouldn't have to. Alright. I understand."
I was shocked. "Murokoshi-san," I asked slowly "Do you believe that Jesus
Christ is your Savior?"
"...Yes. I do."
I almost passed out, bust up laughing, and cried at the same time. But
luckily I did none of those three. Then she continued.
"Isn't it wonderful that He did that for us, that He took our sins? No
wonder you want to share it with everyone. Think of all of the people who
don't know this."
It was one of those moments when I couldn't stop smiling.
We expounded on the Atonement and told her we'd come back next time and
teach her about the Gospel of Christ, the way we can be saved. She said
she'd study more to be prepared.
GAH!!! I love her. She's perfect! Once we rounded the street corner I
screamed and started laughing "AHHH!!! She believes in Christ! She believes
in our Savior!!" We were laughing almost all the way home.

So, we helped Takuo-san shovel for the third time. He's this skinny little
60 year old man. We scraped, broke ice, shoveled, and dumped it in the
river until he said (in English) "Enough. You have done enough."
We helped him put away the shovels and I told him that I'd like to hear him
play the piano. He said (in Japanese) "Why not now?"
He invited us in. He had a REAL piano. Only the second one I'd seen.
(Hanzawa-San's was the first) And he had an electric as well. He had shelves
full of music. His wife brought out rice crackers and lemonade. He started
playing after putting heaters right in-front of both of us. It was
beautiful. He played us a bunch of classics.
"Where did you learn to play?" I asked. "How long did you have to take lessons?"
He laughed. "I never took a lesson. I learned by myself."
It was amazing. I brought up religion, as the topic turned towards it.
"What religion are you?"
"Well, I've got a Buddhist shrine on the first floor, and on the
second floor I've got a Shinto shrine, then if you look behind you," I
did. There was a nativity and a statue of the virgin Mary. "I've got
that as well."
He dodged the question very well. He said he went to a Catholic church
when he was little even though he was Buddhist, and he said he was
volunteered by one of the Buddhist priests to be a worker at the
temple/ shrine.
I told him we'd come by again and I'd bring some of my music (Hymns)
to play for him, and that we'd bring our guitars and visit him again.
He said okay. Boden Choro had us finish up with a prayer. He got
confused despite Boden Choro's explanation. He didn't close his eyes,
or bow despite how Elder Boden taught him. Meh. We'll see how that
goes.
We visited another PI. The young couple Ryotaro and Mami. He invited
us in and we ate dinner with them. Boden Choro told him about
transfers and he got a little worried. He gave us each a photo album-
"In case you leave." He told us. Then he gave us both soccer jerseys
as a present, and told us to come and play soccer again with him and
his friends on Saturday if we didn't get transferred. When we called
them and told them that we weren't getting transferred they got way
excited. Mami requested me as a friend on facebook. I told her my mom
would probably accept the request. They said they'd come and visit us
in America in five years when they finally got enough money. They're
amazing. They said they'd told their friends about us and they all
wanted to meet us. They invited them to come to our English Class and
our Ping-Pong night. So we're hoping.
We then taught Murokoshi-San again.
She accepted repentance in a second. She talked about how wonderful it
was, that our sins could be taken from us. We then taught about
Baptism.
We showed her a picture and Boden Choro started asking her (and I
don't blame him) why Christ had to get baptized if He was perfect. She
looked confused. I asked:
"Murokoshi-san, Have you ever heard of baptism before?"
"... never."
We explained about how it was a symbol, and how it washed our sins
away from us. She got confused. "Isn't repentance enough?" We read the
section about baptism in the pamphlet. She got even more confused.
"Forgive me... I just don't understand."
I spoke "There are a lot of difficult words, so it's..."
"I understand all of the words, but I just don't understand why."
We said we'd think of a better way to explain it. She said she'd study
the pamphlet some more, and we gave her Mosiah 18 to study. Whew...
Pray for her to understand, and for us to be able to teach in this
language. gah.. I love her. She needs this.
I love this! I love my mission. There's nothing I'd rather be doing.
I had a dream that I got sick and had to go home, and it probably was
the scariest dream I've had. Shutter. (No offence family. But I've got
work to do)
I don't want this to ever end. :)
I love you all! (If you Email me I'll email you... I'll try my best to
email you!)