Perspective is Everything

This week so much happened that I can't do a day to day breakdown. I
literally don't have enough time to do so. That being said, I'm going
to attempt to describe the best parts of my week. Might be all over
the place, and if it is I apologize. I always rush these emails, but
give a good amount of thought beforehand.

So we visited a guy named (nosaka San) who my companion found on
splits last week. He was a younger guy and was way chill. He let me
play his guitar, and I even made a baptismal invite before we left. He
said he wasn't ready yet, and he has a lot going on. He seemed really
stressed, so we didn't force anything right then.

Funny story of the week: so the light saber chopsticks are the sickest
things ever. I can't even describe how much I act like a Jedi. For our
English class on both Wednesday and Thursday, we were going over
pronunciation. Basically we have a list of 10 words and we say them to
the class, and then the class repeats them. This continues 3 or 4
times per word. After that, we jump all around with the word order. We
wrote the word "star" and the word "wars" pretty distant from each
other. When the time came to jump around my companion went to star and
then wars and then star and then wars over and over reinforcing the
idea. That's when I hit the lights and yelled out "I am your father."
(I was behind everyone in the class next to the light switch so it was
pretty surprising) All us missionaries, (4 because the sisters had
some too) pulled out our light sabers and we pretend fought. Then we
all grabbed a teammate from the English class and teamed up. Way
freaking fun! Good way to help them learn important English. Who needs
to know what a car is when you have Star Wars ya feel?

Friday, was the longest day of my entire life. We planned to go out the
the northern most part of our are, which is an hour bike ride from the
church, and 1 1/2 hours from our apartment. We're trying to work
better with members and create more relationships, and all the members
live in that northern area. We went to one house and ate lunch with
some members who we are good friends with. Just a good bonding
experience. From there we visited a less active and that meeting went
really well. We then wanted to "heart attack" our favorite family in
the ward. A heart attack is where you cut out a bunch of paper hearts
and attack their door with them without them knowing. From the less
actives house, we thought we had a general idea where to go for the
heart attack. Ended up getting lost in some parking lot 30 minutes
away.

This is where the journey begins.

Elder birch and I had a different idea of where this house was. Him
being the older experienced missionary, I stayed quiet and let him
lead. We went around this huge peninsula. HUGE! It was a big circle
and ended up being an hour + bike ride. He kept stopping to look at
the map, and I just figured he knew where we were going. At this point
I knew we had been biking for too long, but I didn't want to argue or
anything, so I remained quiet. We then proceeded to get disoriented
and travel north for another hour. We pulled over at a seicomart and
asked for directions. Turned out we were 2 hours too far north of the
house. I asked elder birch to let me see the map, and oh boy we were
so far. I'll attach a picture. Where I thought the house was located,
was spot on. Nailed it! 10/10 baby! On the other hand, where we were
was exactly where elder birch thought the house was ( 2 hours north )
The bike ride back to the apartment was 3-4 hours away and it was
already 7 o clock. We have to be back by 9 so we started freaking out,
and called the APs and explained the situation. We suggested we stay
in another area called shinoro, which was about an hour 1/2 bike ride
from where we were. Ended up getting to that apartment around 9 and
stayed with the elders in that area (actually our good friends :))
In total the bike ride was about 6 hours almost non stop, and that
next morning we got up at 6:30, left at 6:45 and biked back to our
apartment for 1 1/2. My body was legit wasted.

Still haven't quite recovered tbh hahah. 
Sorry that story was way scrambled, but that was my whole Friday, for
you. I hate biking lol. 

We taught a lot of less actives and actually got one to come to church
for the second time in 3-4 months, so I feel really accomplished.

The work is great. Still not quite used to some cultural things. The
driving on the opposite side of the rode is unreal. I always feel like
I'm going to get in an accident when I'm in a car. The bowing every
time you meet some one is fun. The chopsticks are still impossible to
use.

I'm having a blast out here. Weird to think in less than 3 weeks I
won't be training anymore. I become a big boy! Sweet.

Hope everyone is killing it. Love you all

敬具 (sincerely yours)
ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

Blue dot is where we were
And the purple is near the church
The word Sapporo is where our apartment complex is

Yes we went all the way around that big loop next to the river. The
house was actually right next to the red pin :)

 When I first saw the map

Companionship in a Nutshell