Day 7 - Otofuke/Obihiro - June 18

Today we were in Mike’s second area of Otofuke. He first took us to a curry restaurant for lunch that he went to several times while serving here. It was next to a grocery store, so we stocked up on more drinks and snacks. Dave loves a melon cream soda here. We then drove by Mike’s apartment he lived in here and noticed the Elder’s bikes were there. We knocked on the door and talked with them on the porch for awhile. Dave wanted to see the red couch that Mike found on the street and carried back to the apartment for 2 miles. So the boys went inside and I waited for them outside in the car. Then we drove into Obihiro and stopped at a park. This park has the world’s longest bench in it, ¼ mile long. It was a large and beautiful park and we spent over an hour here walking around. Mike really wanted to visit an investigator here that he calls his ice cream grandma. When he lived here he would stop by her ice cream shop a couple times a week. She loved him and his companion and always gave them free ice cream. We stopped at her shop and she was so happy to see Mike she cried almost the whole 2 hours we were there. Mike was thrilled to see her and hear how good she was progressing in the gospel. She told him that she prays for him every night. Mike called another friend of his here, the ward mission leader, and he invited us over to his home and offered us dinner. It was really cool to be in a Japanese house with a Japanese family and having a Japanese dinner. They served us shabu-shabu and it was delicious. We really enjoyed our time in their home.