Week 87- 5/29/2017 I forgot What Week I'm At

Hello everybody! This was a pretty crazy week. I got transferred so now I'm in a new area. Or an old area I guess. I'm back in Urayasu. I like my new companion. His name is Elder Otani and he's from Osaka. 

I guess I'll go through my week. On Monday we received calls and had a party at the Adachis. I was the last one to sign a 40 year old scroll of missionaries. On Tuesday we biked around a ton and visited members so I could say goodbye. It was also devilishly hot that day. It was sad saying bye to the Oyama members but I was excited to come back. Very bittersweet.

On Wednesday I woke up freaking early because I had to sign the baptismal form for the sisters. We also met an investigator I found named Sora. He's from India and he was sad to see me go. I then hopped on a train that I found out was the wrong train about an hour later. But no worries, I am an expert at navigating tokyo, and I got to my destination about an hour late. We spent the day visiting old friends and members.

Thursday was spent visiting members and doing volunteer work at a center for people with mental disabilities. That was interesting to say the least. In all honestly a lot of my time has been visiting members and stuff. Friday was District Meeting and rain. Gotta love the rain. We walked way far on Friday. 

Saturday was a way busy day. We started the day by working out with our ward mission leader, who is a professional dancer and physical trainer. We got worked hard but I enjoyed it. Then we biked a good distance to play Futsal with the young men. By the end of that I was exhausted. We finished our night by eating Hamburg steak, a massive bowl of ice cream, and teaching mission school. 

Friday was probably the best day of the week. I saw ALL my old friends in Urayasu. Everybody was so happy to have me back. It also helped boost my rep when we got a huge miracle. Two kids just walked in from the street and wanted to learn who we were. We then ended the day with FHE at Illya's (our ward mission leader) house and then we ran home. 

That's pretty much my week. We're all way tired because we played basketball this morning and I got to meet all the old people I used to play ball with as well. I hope you all have a good week! 

Week 86- 5/22/2017 Happy News, Happy Week

Hello everybody. For those of you who are following the arithmetic of

transfers, you would be correct in assuming that this is the email I

announce transfer news.

And as always I will announce it at the end of the email.

This week was pretty great. I honestly don't remember a lot of it but

we certainly did stuff. On Monday we had a fun P-day. I called my mom

and we went to Tochigi to teach English.

Tuesday was a day of busy schedules. We woke up and found out

everything we scheduled fell through, and we received a new rule where

we had to be out the door by ten o clock everyday. So we went out and

passed out a couple English fliers. And hopped on ANOTHER train and

traveled far away. We visited the Ogawas and had a good time helping

Ruka with his homework. We actually managed to set a baptismal date

with him this week, which I will touch on later.

On Wednesday I had splits in Utsunomiya with Elder Mccune. Utsunomiya

is pretty much like little Tokyo. We had a good time and I ate Shabu

Shabu, which is boiling water or sauce and you throw a ton of veggies

and meat into it. Pretty much the same as yakiniku but without using

fire. I love Elder Mccune. He goes home on the same day as me so we'll

be on the same plane.

Thursday was awesome. We went to Indo curry with a youth in the ward

named Hiroya. It was all you can eat and this little Japanese kid ate

as much as we did. Then we helped him with his English. We had weekly

planning then when out and tried to find friends.

On Friday we had District Meeting and more splits. The zone leaders

came down and we used our giant Book of Mormon to do a big activity.

We passed out around 60 books in about two hours. We also pulled weeds

for Rob and found this way cool Indian kid named Sora who thinks we're

the Bees Knees. From there we had choir night and a Skype lesson with

Ruka. We set the baptismal date and it was awesome.

The next morning we had hour cooking activity. But before that we

found out that Rukas feather, who was previously very opposed, gave

him permission to be baptized on our proposed date. Big miracle. Then

I made around 50 pieces of Cheez-it Chicken for everybody and they all

loved it. Thanks mom for the Recipe.

Sunday was a wonderful day. I got to baptize the Sisters investigator

because she asked me to and it was awesome. The water was cold though.

Then we said bye to a departing sister who is going to the Laie,

Hawaii temple visitor center mission. After that was our normal Sunday

stuff.

Anyways, on to transfer news. This entire transfer I've had thoughts

and feelings about where I was going. I talked to President Nagano

about it and I got my transfer call today. I will be going back to

URAYASU!!! I get to go back to my favorite area

ever! My new companion is Elder Otani, who is my third Japanese

companion. I haven't have a Japanese comp since I was transfer 3. I'm

really looking forward to it. Anyways here's some pictures. Have a

good week!

 

Sister Fukayas baptism

District Lunch at yakiniku

Shabu Shabu

Eikaiwa

Week 85- 5/15/2017 Busy Busy But Beneficial

Hello everybody. We had a ton more miracles is week but I don't feel

like sharing a lot of them. This is going to be a relatively short

email but I figured I should write you all anyways.

I got to skype my family (and more specifically mother) for Mother's

Day! Next time you hear my voice it'll be in person!

We made a lot of progress this week. One of our investigators father

was really anti towards us and the church but we invited him to dinner

at a members and it went really well. He actually started dropping off

his family and picking them up from church this Sunday.

I wrote about this week in my journal but I honestly don't remember

too much. I think I'll just tell you all about it when I get home. A

little something I've been thinking about however. The meaning of

"forgive and forget" has been playing across my mind lately. A lot of

people think that to forget means to just push it from your mind and

don't do anything to ever stop that wrong doing again. Because of this

mentality I feel like a lot of people deny themselves of a better

life. To forgive and forget is to forgive completely. Don't let past

mistakes mar the face of those who are trying to improve for the

future. A lot of people say "I can forgive, but I won't forget."

That's not true forgiveness. Really none of us can judge others.

There's no point in being a sub-par person to everybody.

Anyways just something to think about. Have a good week!

Eikaiwa with Brother Oki. He's one of my favorite members here.

Skype with the fam!

Week 84- 5/8/2017 The Week Of Barbecues

Hello everybody sorry I'm late. Due to some scheduling within the

mission we had meetings on Monday and Tuesday so now we're taking our

p day on Wednesday. I'm sure you're curious about the title of my

email, so I'll explain.

On Monday we were invited over to the Satos for a massive barbecue.

That took a while but we ate a good amount of food.

Tuesday we went hunting for a ton of Less actives but found a new

investigator instead. Then we took the long haul waaaaaay out into the

rice fields to go do a lesson with a less active. That really took the

rest of our day but it was a great time. We were pretty tired by the

end of that.

Wednesday we went to the Adachi's house. They're wonderful members who

are helping fellowship our investigator Ruka. We hung with him and

actually went out and did visits with him. Then we went to go visit a

Peruvian family in the ward and we saw smoke rising from the house. As

we pulled up closer we saw they had a massive grill set up and BUCKETS

of meat. Long story short they actually made all that meat for us and

were about to call so we got sucked into a surprise BBQ. Again we ate

a lot of good food.

On Thursday we did planning. Nothing big to report there. Friday we

helped clean the Ito's car. He recently got a new car so we wanted to

help him wash it. He's the 1st counselor in the bishopric. We also

went over to our friend Robs house to de service but it was way hot so

we ended sitting in the shade and talking about beliefs. His father in

law gave me a cool hat. It's from the Japan Agricultural society.

Anyways we had a fun conversation. He really just likes to talk about

beliefs. He has a lot of weird beliefs though. He believes that he is

the father of King David in the Bible. But he also believes that King

David isn't real. He created King David spiritually I guess?? Way

weird but nice guy.

Saturday was a ward BBQ. That was fun. Played a lot of games and

frisbee. We had a competition on who could squat the longest. I won.

#thunderthighs. On Sunday we had a beautiful time worshipping at

church. I have to translate for all the English speakers though so I

don't really remember what was said. Now the reason I'm late for

emails this week is because President Nagano has to go to a Mission

President Seminar in Sapporo this week, which made him busy. So we had

to do Zone Conference in Takasaki on Monday which is the farthest

place away in our zone, then our interview time was changed from

Monday to Tuesday so we had to take another looooong train ride to

Maebashi, which is only 15 minutes away from Takasaki. Lots of trains.

There is no need to worry about my safety. If something terrible were

to happen to me, the mission would contact you immediately.

That's pretty much what happened this week. I have pictures!

zone conference

zone conference

Squat contest. You can see one of my teammates on the ground.

Week 83- 5/1/2017 A Fairly Good Amount of Miracles

愛されている家族、友人たちへ~

We had a pretty good week. There was no rain at all! We also had a ton

of miracles, most of which happened on Sunday. I'll explain all those

later though.

On Monday we had a good time enjoying the sun and biking around town a

bit. I found these way sick vintage aviator goggles at a recycle shop

for dirt cheap. Some members also gave us kimonos for free because

apparently they think we're doing a way good job and they love us.

They also just had a ton of extra kimonos so I'll send a picture of

mine.

Tuesday was a beautiful spring day. We decided to go out and walk and

visit a ton of less actives. It's really interesting that in Japan you

have a ton of first world features but people are still living in tiny

tin houses with sheet metal roofs. We knocked on doors and a lot of

these members didn't know who we were but we found them. Google maps

isn't very accurate in Japan so it points to a house and you have to

investigate the entire block. At least here in oyama.

Wednesday was a beautiful day of more contact and setting up stuff for

a Japanese class we started. The bishops wife here is a linguist and

is absolutely perfect in English so we asked if she could help us with

the materials. We also visited a LA member named Satou and every time

we knock on the door he stumbles out of his house like he's drunk

because we woke him up. Without fail every time. The guy almost

cracked his head on the door frame last time. We finished our day with

Eikaiwa.

Thursday was the day we went out and used the giant Book of Mormon we

made. We got a couple books out but the thing I realized is how taboo

people in Japan really are about the word "Christ." I can't tell you

how many times people saw the word, asked if we were Christian then

either sprinted away or laughed at us with their friends. It's really

sad because I'm out there just trying to give people a free book I

know will help them, but the pre-conceived notion they have of

Christianity that's been taught to them in school or by the more

superstitious older generation is quite upsetting. A lot of people

avoid us like the plague here. But every once in a while we get

someone who really just wants to change.

A good example of that is on Friday we were biking down to mamada to

visit a member when we saw a guy shooting an air soft gun at a target

in front of his house. Having an interest in this, I went over and

complimented his gun. He was a little scared at first because he knew

we were missionaries but while we were talking the whole attitude

changed and he told us that he's committed sins before, and he wants

to know if that's it for him. We ended up having a good lesson on

repentance and the hope that lit the guys eyes when he heard "no, you

can recover from you mistakes" was thrilling. He was a good guy.

On Saturday we went up to Kiryu, an old area of mine and had a sports

day. We brought a couple youth with us and played tug-o-war,

badminton, and ping-pong. We ended being one of the smallest wards

there but we had an unstoppable technique during tug-o-war. We

actually broke the rope in half so that was pretty cool. Then I got

slammed in ping pong but I put up a good fight.

Now Sunday was the miracle day. In the space of two hours we had like

5 miracles within the same half mile radius, sometimes in the same

intersection. We had a kid call out to us on the street and he said he

was Christian and wanted to learn. Then our next door neighbors said

they wanted to be baptized when we knocked on there door to invite

them to English class. So many more miracles happened but I don't want

to type them. I'll just tell them all when I get home. This week was a

pretty awesome week.

I don't have many pictures but I hope you all have a nice week!

kimono!

basic miso ramen picture