Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: Transfers Episode III Revenge of the Smith

All 3 of my Doryos!

My grandpa, father, and me!

Brown and I

TuAkoi and I at transfers.

First of all, thanks for skyping with me yesterday family! It was so great to see you all before church!

On Monday we had our last pday with TuAkoi and Avarell Shimai. We Had a sort of campfire party except at the church and no fire. We sang hymns, told stories, and ate bugs. Yep. Avarell Shimai and I ate soy sauce covered grasshoppers as Nagano tradition. Not sure if I'm up for that again.

The next day was the big day for the whole mission, one long train ride and bam! Army of missionaries so large, it looked like the Clone Army from Star Wars, And once again, I reunited with my doki! All of them where there except for my boy Tanner Choro who's transferring from one desk to another in his same apartment. Omoshiroi desho? I also saw some of my MTC DaiSempai and some of the Kokohai from the MTC too. And my bud from Ueda Vaughn Choro. I saw my grandfather, Tsukamoto Choro, brother of Tsukamoto Sensei. And many other friends I did see. How great it was! All of us united in the cause of the Lord!

    Sunday after church the Branch did Shuon Dendo for the first time. Basically it was an operation. A bunch of the members gathered under direction of the Branch Mission Leader and split into 4 groups, each with one of us missionaries, and visited a bunch of less actives. We talked with them and invited them to come to Branch Conference next week. It went very well and was way fun. I would like to see this done in America too. It is really great.

   This week was also my first week with Chiba Choro. He is way chill. He works hard and plays hard and makes good food. He speaks no English, mostly, so neither do I. I am starting to think in Japanese even. Its so strange. Haha. I'll tell you tho, I really miss TuAkoi and Avarell. Things just aren't the same. But I will get to see them again. Its more the time that I miss. I treasure the time I have and take photos to catch part of it for a memory. Memories are very powerful to me. Its like time travel in your mind. But its also important to make new memories. Thus today for pday all 4 of us visited Zenkoji once again. Way fun!

    Yamashita Kaicho once told me, and you can see it in my bean video, that we will see many eternal friends here. I believe that's true. The people I've met out here don't, for the most part, feel like new people to me, rather I get this feeling as though we've met before. Its like finding long lost relatives. I feel this for all the members and missionaries I've met so far.

Well time for some photos. Until next week, matta ne!

Love,
"Wat-chan", new nick name from Nielson Shimai and the Branch President