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

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Week 65- 12/26/16 Merry Christmas

Hey well if it isn't your favorite Christmas present. I'm thankful for
the opportunity to be an entire day ahead of most of you so I can
grace your inboxes with my email just in time for this special day.

You wanna know what we did this week? Well it was pretty much the same
as last week. It is STILL raining. Like we're almost done with
December and it's still going. The nagaoka snow legend is full of
bologna I've decided. We did have some luck with meeting a few
investigators, and talking to some interesting people.

We had the opportunity to meet one of our potential investigators at
an illumination festival. He's from India and invited us with his
friends. We ended up crashing a birthday party of like 20 Indians (2
were Nepalese secretly) and they all apparently don't like us do to
some stuff with their religion and Mormonism a few years back. That
was way awkward but now I know like 20 Indians. Our potential
investigator was really cool though.

This week while on splits with Elder Broberg our district leader, it
was 60 degrees outside. We went and did a little housing. We ended
bumping into this old couple towards the end of our time (as it
usually happens) and they invited us in. The husband opened the door
and and was like "woah the Mormon missionaries" and told his wife to
start cooking food. We sat in their house for a bit and talked
religion. The husband was like "yeah I've pretty much decided there's
nothing after this" but the wife seemed to have interest. They
wouldn't accept our Book of Mormon but they did invite us back
"whenever we want."

We also had Christmas this week. The members got us presents. Pretty
much food and candy which I'm thankful for. Then Elder McIlrath and I
had a nerf gun war before bed (thanks mom). You'd think for an army
national guardsman he would have been better. That's pretty much our
week. Oh I also Skyped my family. Only have one more of those left.

It's supposed to snow a ton this week. We'll see though. Hope
everybody has a good week!



Presents

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Week 64- 12/19/16 It Snowed! And Now It's Gone

Hello everybody! Yes according to my email title it did snow. Pretty
hard for about 2-3 days actually. We had to walk everywhere. But now
he temperature is back up tot he 50s for some reason so I'm still
doubtful of the claims about how this place is crazy in the winter. I
guess we'll see huh?

This week we pretty much just walked everywhere. I've got a good
picture of the snow just starting. We had pretty much nothing going on
for as us as well so there was plenty of time to walk. Unfortunately
it takes us a good amount of time to get ANYWHERE on foot so that's
where our week went. You'd think it would be fine because we can just
talk to people on the street but once there's actually precipitation
the Japanese people scatter and nobody goes outside. They don't even
come answer their doors here.

We did have a super cool and rad time this weekend though. The 16th
was Elder McIlraths birthday so we celebrated, then the 17th was a
huge Christmas party that president Nagano supervised. He came down
and everything. It was the culmination of all our guitar classes so
far. We rocked the house and had a good time. Lots of people showed
up. Then on the 18th it was my birthday so we had a little party after
church and ate the left over sandwiches from the Christmas party. The
branch president gave me an assignment to speak in sacrament meeting
because it was birthday so I did pretty good on that.

This email is honestly pretty hard to write. We really didn't do much
this week except for the Christmas part at the end of the week. Also
thank you all for the bridal wishes! I'm a day ahead so they're all
late but I still feel your love. Hope everybody has a great week this
week! Here are pictures!

What we woke up to

There's actually a mountain behind me. The snow was that thick

We decided to make a Christmas card. Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Week 63- 12/12/16 Just Trying to Figure Out How to Keep My Feet Continuously Warm

Hey everybody! How has your week been? Well I'll tell you about mine. 
This week was one where I didn't take my rain suit off for practically the whole week except for Saturday. It's really trying to snow here. It actually happened on Saturday though and I'm stoked. We were slipping down sliding everywhere on the way home from our ping pong night which nobody came to. 

This week was pretty much a scramble of trying to contact our investigators. All of them have stopped talking to us. Even Nitta, and he's supposed to have a baptism. He read the Word of Wisdom pamphlet and that's the last we've heard from him. He won't talk it out or anything. Looks like he's a cancel. It wouldn't be too bad if we could still meet our other progressing investigator but he's not talk in either. So this week was just a lot of walking around in the cold and rain telling people about our Christmas party. I'm actually pretty excited for the party because president is coming and he singing a bunch of talented missionaries with him. 

So yeah our investigators don't like us anymore. But we'll find more I guess. Since winter is coming and it started snowing nobody is talking to us or even outside anymore. We're pretty much out of ideas so we're going to start taking the train out to visit less actives who haven't been visited in forever because the train is reimbursable in Niigata zone in the winter. Warm toes here we come!

Other than that this was a way challenging first week of transfer ten. But hey it snowed. It's supposed to start raining again though. It was fun while it lasted. We've also been trying to kick the branch into action with missionary work. They just kind of complain and shoot us down every time but what they don't realize is in 10 years if nothing happens Nagaoka branch won't even exist anymore. Everybody reading this better be helping your missionaries. I'm not just talking bout feeding them. SHARE THE GOSPEL. Be the light of the world! That's pretty much our big focus. 

Other than that this week wasn't very eventful. It's what happens when your entire area decides to take a belly flop. We had zone meeting! Played some wicked frisbee in the freezing cold. Speaking of cold I have a cold. We've been dealing with that as well. Have a good week everybody and enjoy my pictures! 

Zone Meeting

Oguro wanted a picture

the band

We found these sick shirts from the 70s for 2 bucks. Mine has elephants and giraffes on it

Mega Gundam Elder

Friday, December 9, 2016

Week 62- 12/5/16 When Will Winter Come?

Well hello again family, it's another episode of "Where the heck is Elder Moore?" Transfer nine is done and I'm now officially a transfer ten missionary. DOUBLE DIGITS. Anyways let's get started.

Last Monday was way cold. It still hasn't snowed here yet. Everybody else got snow except us. I'm starting to think this whole "nagaoka gets a lot of snow" stuff is just a bunch of lies because it's only been freezing rain. We got hail twice though. Anyways, we went about our normal day and went bowling with our investigator Miyajima. I was doing way good until I broke my finger nail. I was bowling nines or strikes until the 5th frame of the second game. We then went out to eat ramen and then he ran away because he's an enigma. We then raced home, grabbed our stuff, packed our bikes, and got on a train to Joetsu for splits. 

Tuesday was splits in Joetsu. I went with Elder Broberg. I've known him for my entire mission so that was fun. He was my zone leader when I was a bean in Okegawa. We biked around in the wind a cold and rain all day because really nothing happens in Joetsu. But we did find a new investigator by using the new Christmas video, which I suggest y'all check out. We also ate at a huge buffet with a racist Japanese less-active who thinks he's American. He kept ranting about how Japans economy is bad and they need to invest in gold. I ate several plates of pancakes.

Wednesday was more splits except this time with the zone leaders in our own area. I went with Elder Burch, who I replaced in Abiko. Then I followed him to Niigata zone 4 weeks later. We reminisced and walked around a lot. We had a way good lesson with Takeshi and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He wants to be baptized but his parents won't let him. Darn.

Thursday was a day of more spooky clouds and service. We made Christmas decorations for old people at an old folks home. I made a new friend. The old lady I was helping called me a "good boy" and kept saying that my skin looked so soft. That's one happens when you're exposed to constant moisture. We also met our Investigator Nitta who is getting baptized on the 17th. Everything is going well so far.

Friday was a pretty much spent doing weekly planning and guitar night. I got kicked out of the band. Feels way bad. But I won a spot back because there's just not enough bass in the song and the guy who's playing the bass line can't play guitar, so I got put on bass line which is okay I guess. Just curious why I got kicked you know? Maybe I'll start my own rival band. 
Saturday was way weird and I don't remember it much. We planned this huge activity with the members to advertise for the Christmas party we have but only like two showed up. I know they don't have anything to do because they're all old and retired and bedsides the missionaries the youngest person in the branch is like 48 or something. But hey we slammed it. Sunday was Sunday.

Now about transfer news. I'm officially not going anywhere and finishing elder Mcilraths training. This is like the first time since transfer 5 nothing has happened to me during transfers. I was way nervous. Anyways I hope everybody is good and I'll let you know how next week goes. It's supposed to snow tomorrow so we'll see. It'll probably just be more rain. Enjoy the pictures!


Thanksgiving at Mcdonalds

"God sees the heart"

"Those who believe in me have eternal life"

"Believe in the true God"

"Repent of your sins"


Friday, December 2, 2016

Week 61- 11/28/16 When It Snowed Everywhere except Niigata

Hey everybody. Another week has flown by here in my own piece of
Winter Wonderland. You may have heard it snowed in Tokyo. Well it did
pretty much everywhere except here, the place that in famous (or
infamous) for its snow. I'm actually way confused when it's supposed
to start and Elder McIlrath and I are waiting in nervous anticipation.

This week started off way good. We had so many lessons planned and we
were way excited but by the time Thursday rolled around we only had
like 3 lessons. Literally 3/4 of our investigators canceled on us last
minute. At times like that the only thing you can do is suck it up,
put on your coat, and start hitting the streets. We put a huge focus
on the Book of Mormon this week, and we're able to hand out 5 in one
day,  and 3 in the next. That's pretty good for Niigata!

At the end of Thursday we took the train to Niigata for Zone
Conference the next day. Since it was thanksgiving we wanted to eat at
KFC because that's the closest it gets here to real turkey. We want in
and it's like 10 dollars for a 2 piece set and 20 dollars for a 9
piece so we were just like "ヤバッ、マックに行こう。" and went to mcdonalds. The
teriyaki burger is top notch.

We had Zone conference on Friday. It was way good. One of our focuses
was just "the gospel." What is it, why we have it, how can I teach it
better, how am I a successful missionary? It was really refreshing
because it was just a large testimony meeting. Saturday was new
missionary training. Then we took the train home and did ping pong
night. Then Sunday was Sunday.

I have good news. We set a baptismal date with our investigator Nitta
for December 10! He's a way good guy and we're all super excited.

Anyways I hope y'all had a good week. Thank you parents for sending me
pictures! I enjoyed them. Now here's my pictures.


custom truck we found

Niigata zone conference

decorated for Christmas (thanks mom!)


Monday, November 21, 2016

Week 60- 11/21/16 I Don't Think The Rainy Season Ever Really Ends

Well howdy hey how's your day?
I can't believe another week has come and gone. These weeks are going
so fast. Before we know it it's Friday and we start freaking out. Better fast than slow and boring I guess. Life has shown down a bit here. We're still rocking the investigator pool but we just need to set more times to meet them. This week we're going to hit it strong, especially since we'll be out of the area for zone conference on Friday.

It's getting colder up in Nagaoka. The rain certainly doesn't help. Sometimes I just wish it would turn into snow and we can get this party started. It's easier to stay dry in the snow. We found out this week that it snows enough to collapse houses if you're not careful enough. ヤバイ!

So I'll let you in on what happened. We met some new investigators
this week and they look good. After I finished emailing y'all last
week we went to look for some cool things to do. We ended up bumping
into a guy we know and he turned into a new investigator. Then we went
to Stamina taro with another investigator. Stamina taro is an all you
can eat meat grill. We had two hours to eat as much as we could.
Really our week was pretty normal. We had splits up here in Nagaoka
this week. The Joetsu elders came up and we had a good time. I was
with another bean named Elder Anderson. He's way short and looks like
he's in elementary school.
We had guitar class on Friday. Our ward mission leader loves guitars
so he brings a ton to the church and teaches us how to play guitar. We
bring our investigators and it's just a good time all around. I
already know some basic stuff so he relies on me to help teach.
Because I also know a little bit about guitars, I get to pick the cool
ones.
That's pretty much it for our week. It's getting colder, that's all I
can really say. Hope everybody has a good thanksgiving. We're throwing
a party here on Wednesday. Remember to actually be thankful for stuff.
Living in a land that doesn't have any turkey makes you really miss
Thanksgiving. Maybe we'll pick up some KFC that night. See you all
next week and of course PICTURES. Oh and feel free to send me pictures
as well. I love that stuff.



Stamina taro with Miyajima

after all the negative comments lately, we should all just
appreciate the great things America has done.

guitar class

how the Japanese prepare for snow.