Another Week in the MTC Down! Here is the recap of my week;

Thursday

At the temple we met Jon Heder's grandfather!! Jon Heder was Napoleon Dynamite in the movie, and even better he served his mission in Tokyo, Japan too! That was pretty awesome!

Friday

I met two elders going to none other than the Columbus Ohio mission! We had a fantastic lesson this past week on why we are here. The video they showed was  http://easter.mormon.org/ it was entitled #BecuaseofHim. I am so thankful to have this opportunity to serve in this capacity. I also had a meeting with one of my teachers who related learning Japanese with me in a great way. He said that the language will come a lot quicker once I get to the field. 

Saturday

My companion and I taught a lesson in Japanese and the investigator asked us to share a experience. So with more frantic flipping through dictionaries we were able to convey what we wanted to say. It was nothing short of a tender mercy. Law Choro, who is from Hong Kong, had is sister send him some Japanese Candy which was amazing! I have never had candy and snacks taste so good. I WILL NOT STARVE IN JAPAN! I was even able to read the packaging! That was pretty cool too. 

Sunday

Someone in the room forgot to set the alarm so we woke up 45 minutes late, and frantically got dressed and ran to class. Where upon my arrival the Branch President was there waiting for me...he called me into a classroom and said nothing about being late. In fact he called me to be the new district leader. It was a big surprise. Within an hour of being called I took the district by the reigns. We went from 0 goals to 8 goals, and I had assigned everyone a job to help the district. WE instituted a district prayer as a dorm along with a spiritual thought. That alone has made a huge impact. It is amazing to see the growth that has come about in only the 4 days since establishing goals. That night we had Michelle and Chad Lewis come and speak. They were excellent she was a volleyball player for BYU and he was a NFL football player, he spoke about letting our light shine forth, and not being afraid. He is currently the NFL ambassador for China. It happens to turn out that Andy Reed who is the head coach for the KC Chiefs is also a member! Chad Lewis met him just the other week and shared some of the insight of the great coach. In fact the day after 9/11 he gave the football team he was coaching at the time a talk, which a lot of the players quoted in the news. It turns out that Andy Reed printed out one of Bruce R. McConkies old talks and memorized it, then gave it to the team. 

Monday

Grandma and Grandpa Townsley sent me cinnamon rolls which were amazing! They have to be the best thing I have eaten since arriving. The sempai (elders and sisters above us) left at 2 in the morning for Japan! They were all really excited they had been here since August 20th!

Tuesday

I sung in the choir again! We sung Prayer of our Fathers. It was a good arrangement. The speaker was Elder Godoy who spoke this past general conference in his native tongue of Portuguese. He spoke to us however in English, which was awesome. He kept turning to his tutor and asking him for words. He said "If i am 54 years old and am struggling with english feel no problem learning your language." Those were very comforting words to hear. He also spoke of become a tool in the Lord's hands. The scripture he shared was Alma 26:22 which is "Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forthgood works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such itis given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall begiven to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and itshall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance,even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance." IT was an excellent sripture of what we as missionaries must do in  order to help others. 

Wednesday

Grandpa Dunn sent me peppers in the mail! It was hilarious watching other people scream as they ate peppers. I think we went through an entire batch of chocolate milk...I will try to attach the videos to my blog. We got our new name tags! My new name is DAN CHORO. ダンチョレオ that is how you write it in katakana. We hosted the new missionaries coming in. It was bitter sweet watching them say goodbye to there families. WE SAW DAVID ARCHULETA! He works at the MTC! 

That is about it for this week!

love you all!

 ダンチョレオ