I am Elder Brett Moore, an LDS Missionary serving in the Japan Tokyo Mission from September 2015 - September 2017. I can be emailed while on the mission at: brett.moore@myldsmail.net

Elder Brett Moore

Elder Brett Moore

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Week 11- 12/13/15 Lots of Biking, Lots of Walking

What's up 皆さん!!!

Yes it's me, and it's my email time again.  Mom, thank you for my Christmas package! It's good to have good American candy. We don't have an oven though so we just ate the cookie dough. Nobody listens to raw egg warnings here. Raw egg is just a part of the culture. It's really good on meat and rice.

It's so nice be able to get good curry whenever. There's a little shop that reminds me of Cheese roll but it's even smaller, about a 3 minute bike ride from the church. It's run by two old lady's. On Saturdays they sell they're curry at a 50% discount which is really good because we teach English on Saturday at the church, so we just bike on over after class and eat. 

My P-days are interesting. So we get everything done within the first 3 hours after study, but Saitama is kind of lame when it comes to tourism so we usually nap. We still have to wear proselyting get clothes all day though.

This week was a little slow, but some cool things happened as well. Let's touch on that.

Let's start with a tender mercy. Last Wednesday was pretty cold (for Tokyo). We got to English class early, but we didn't have the key to the church. Instead of sitting around in the cold we decided to go to the station nearby and do some streeting. Now, it's cold and we're freaking, but we knew something good would happen. The last person we contacted was awesome. We gave him a BoM. We also exchanged numbers. He was a really fun person to taught to and we had a lot in common. To make it better, a member saw us working and talking with him, but I didn't know he was a member. He went inside the closest 7-11 and bought us some hot lemonade (it's a Japanese thing). He then cam over and tapped me on the shoulder and said thank you for all you do, I'm in the ward. It's really cold today, so I bought you some lemonade. I was pretty surprised. That lemonade was really warm. The lord cares about his missionaries. As long as we just go out and work, something will happen.

Now let's talk about teaching. We don't teach much here. A lot of our time is finding new investigators. I've actually given more lessons in English than in Japanese. On the same night as our tender mercy, we met a man named Kip at Eikaiwa (English class). He teaches English in Japan and has lived here for 5 years. We actually live near the same station. Now we invited kip to help teach at our English class and he accepted. Last class, we invited him to church but he said he might not come because he's not religious. He's met plenty of missionaries before and by his words "I'm like a magnet for missionaries." We told him that's fine, if you want to come, church starts at 10. 

While waiting for our investigator Tonagi (he's being baptized soon) we saw Kip roll up to the church. He said how he liked that we just extended the offer, and didn't rub it in his face. He told us too many churches here try to trick or coerce him to come to church. But it didn't stop at Kip. None of our investigators showed up. But, two young men during second hour just walked in from the street. They said they received pass along cards at miyahara ( the station near or apartment) and wanted to learn more. By the end of second hour, they had Book of Mormons and Christmas party invitations. We were stretched pretty thin, trying to teach three investigators about what we do here, when a fourth walks in. What an amazing miracle. Never before has it been seen. That's when our amazing members came in clutch. They have such 伝道火 (dendo Fire or enthusiasm for missionary work). 

We also set up a few teaching appointments with Nao, and taught a less active member name Satou. We also had a Zone Blitz in Yanasegawa, where we met a bunch of people. A Zone Blitz is when the entire zone gathers in one area and we just go out and do missionary work. After a filling lunch of Chashudon, which is smoked pork slices over rice (probably one of my favorite meals now) we went to work. I went on Splits with Elder Law, the district leader in the kawagoe area and we went to a place called Shiki. It was pretty packed and we did a lot of Christmas stuff.

We have another zone blitz this Friday in Okegawa, so I won't have to go to far. It's also on MY BIRTHDAY. How nice, everybody gathering to do missionary work in my area for my birthday. I told them I want new investigators for a gift.

Well that's really it people. This area is about to explode soon I just know it. We keep getting new contacts and people who've met us or previous missionaries before. I'll make sure to update you on that progress, but until then I'll email you next week!

Photos:
1- the Zone conference we had on Tuesday 
2-Christmas decor
3- some Yummy curry
4- Elder Yoshino and I got some traditional food




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