Week 20- 2/15/16 End Of Transfer Two!

皆さん！おはようございます！

Yes it's that time of the week again. I'm happy to grace your inboxes

with my presence. This last week was quite the special week. The

reason for that is it was the last week of the transfer! I'm

officially not a trainee anymore! I also have some news regarding my

transfer.

I am officially......................................................staying

in Okegawa!

My new companion will be Elder Sato, the current commissarian. He

helped us move last week and we all had a blast.

So about this week. It started kind of slow. We had dinner at

Kazuhisa's house as usual. He fed us hamburger. An interest thing

about Japan, is that they just eat hamburger. They don't necessarily

have to put it on buns.

The day after that we went down to Urawa for splits with the Zone

Leaders. I worked with Elder Broberg. We walked around 20 km in a few

hours and found a ton of people. Urawa area is about 1/3 the size of

Okegawa, so we walked pretty far. We also stayed at their apartment

that night.

The next few days consisted of us trying to make appointments and

lessons happen. Thankfully, we were fed pretty often this week. On

Thursday we went to the Kokai family's house and had yakiniku. I also

tried cow tongue for the first time and I must say it was very good.

Nice and firm with a good flavor. It was a little weird tasting

something that normally does the tasting though. The next day we had a

zone meeting down in Urawa, where we received training on lots of

stuff. We also had a lesson set with a college student named

Kozutsumi. He's pretty much the miracle of the week. We met him on the

train at the beginning of this transfer. He said he was interested but

very busy because he was studying for the college entrance exam, which

is a HUGE deal here. Instead, he gave us his number and said to call

him in February. Literally on the first of the month we called him up

asking to meet for lunch. We met near our old apartment for tsukemen,

which is ramen but the noodles sit outside of the soup so you dip them

in. After talking and getting to know home we asked if he was reading

the Book of Mormon we gave him. He said yes and wanted to meet more to

talk about it. Every week on Friday we will meet him and hold lessons

but that's not all. We invited him to church. Despite it being far, he

had interest and decided to come. He stayed for the whole 3 hours. He

said that it want what he expected, and that he liked it and will

continue to come every week! He's pretty much golden. Big thanks to

our members who did a lot of the fellow shipping themselves.

Oh so yesterday was Valentine's Day. I actually got stuff. I think

it's sad that as a missionary I got more valentines than before I left

on my mission but oh well. Japanese valentines is a little backward.

Because men are shy, the girl buys chocolate and gives to her

prospective Valentine. If the guys accepts, he buys her chocolate

back. If not, he eats the chocolate and the girl never gets any. Super

easy in my opinion.

Thanks for tuning in this week. I'm glad to be spending another

transfer (hopefully) in Okegawa. I'll update you all with my progress!

Here are some pictures.

Picture 1: Saitama zone- not really current anymore because transfers

but oh well

Picture 2: dinner with the Kokai family

Picture 3: picture with Elder Yoshinos "bouquet"- Hiroki is wearing

the blue in the middle. He's Kodas son

Picture 4: Eikaiwa!

Picture 5: dinner last night at the sugawara's- we had Japanese

kimchi, which was very good

Week 19- 2/8/16 We Moved Apartments

19 週

It's official, we finally moved! We will keep the same mailing address because our mail all goes to the mission office. I'm just gonna say it right now, the

apartment is wonderful. It's pretty big and probably the best part is

we have a heated toilet seat now, which is really good since we wake

up to snow sometimes. The only downside is we are literally right next

to other houses, so when we hang up laundry it gets kind of awkward.

It's an interesting way to meet the neighbors but missionaries are

weird anyways. I'll start my account from the top I guess.

Last Monday we didn't really do much. We had a Saitama zone p day and

did bowling but other than that it was a nice day to chill, which was

greatly appreciated. On Tuesday I went on splits with one of the

elders in the apartment. Since Elder Yoshino is the district leader,

he has to do splits with every elder in the district at least once per

transfer. This time I went with Elder Jensen. We taught a pretty good

lesson to a recent convert about 2 Nephi chapters 1 and 2. I strongly

recommend you read them. Chapter one is about strengthening ourselves

against trials and temptations, and chapter two is pretty much Lehi's

testimony of the plan of salvation. Read it!

Wednesday was a pretty basic missionary day. We walked a ton since we

knew we weren't going to get much missionary work done in the next few

days. We walked all over Ageo. Not much success but we did have a

bunch of contacts, and found a guy who met missionaries before, and

said he might contact us later, so that's something!

Thursday was the start to the madness. Our Thursday's are usually

pretty boring since they are also our weekly planning day. After

planning, we started the process of packing ourselves, and the

apartment. We cleaned, we scrubbed, we swept, we dusted, we packed.

However, Elder Yoshino and I took a break and met with an old

investigator from two years ago named Sugino. He's pretty much 金人

(kinjin, or golden investigator). We taught him about the spirit and

prayer and got to know him. Apparently we lived in the same prefecture

about an hour away! Crazy! He was so receptive and said he'd meet us

again!

Friday and Saturday was packing, moving, and unpacking. Really not

much happened there so I don't think I need to cover it. A couple

elder from the 本部 (head quarters) came down with cars to help. All in

all it took about 8 hours to get everything to the new apartment but

we all had a good time. Still no oven. We have a fish

oven but I didn't know how to use it. All the instructions are in

Japanese and I don't have time to study those terms

Also, our investigators are doing well. We haven't been able to

contact Tonagi directly but we call him everyday. We still need to

reset his baptismal date. Also, Koda is doing amazing. We've been

getting him and Hiroki introduced to the ward members. Brother Kakiki

is our ward mission leader and he's honestly amazing. He talked to

Koda for a bit after church and told us he's pretty much ready to be a

member. We just need to set a date. I really hope I don't transfer

this week. I really want to see this family through. I've grown to

love them so much. They're so honest and want to improve. They have

that desire. Anyways that's pretty much it. I've got pictures from our

last district meeting and from last night. Brother Kakiki invited us

to dinner. The Japanese really know how to make good fried chicken.

Best stuff I've ever had. And it's all home-fried! anyways I'll attach

those below. Maybe some pictures of the apartment in a seperate email.

We had an earthquake last night. We were at a dinner

appointment with the ward mission leader (picture attached). It actual happened as we were taking the picture. His family

is great.

Transfers are next week. I'll be getting a new companion for sure,

maybe transferring to a new area. I really don't want to leave though.

Our area is about to explode with baptisms. Combined, we have 4

serious investigators with tons of interest.

Thanks for reading everybody! まった来週！

Also please do read 2 Nephi 1-2. They're really good chapters

モア長老

My bed

My bed

Tiny kitchen

My study area

Ward mission leader Brother Kakiki and family

Picture from our last district meeting

Week 18- 2/1/16 We're Finally Moving

Week 18

皆さん、こんにちは！

This week was a very busy week for us. The weather was also pretty

weird. It was above 50 degrees for the first few days but then it

rained for two days in a row and now the weather is back to the low

30's. I guess I'll start on this weeks events!

On Monday we went to Kazuhisa's house for dinner. He's not a member,

and doesn't want to be one, but he likes the church because he stayed

with an lads family as a home stay student. Now he feeds the

missionaries every Monday.

On Tuesday, we had splits. I went on a split with Elder Murakami who

is one of the other elders in the apartment. We had a lot of fun. We

visited with a recent convert in the ward and helped him plan his

Sunday school lesson at Mister Donut. It's been a long time since I've

had Mister Donut and I was quite happy to visit. After, we did some

street contacting at Ōmiya station (大宮駅), the biggest station in our

area. I handled a contact by myself and felt pretty proud afterwards.

We also ate ramen for dinner. It was massive. The bowl was bigger than

my head. I didn't have to eat until lunch the next day.

On Wednesday we taught Hiroki English, and Eikaiwa. Not much happens

on the days in the middle of the week. So I'll skip to Saturday and

Sunday. We usually teach Hiroki English before or after Eikaiwa.

Hiroki is one of Kodas sons. We actually spend a lot of time with them

on Saturdays, and they always bring us tuna onigiri and some delicious

bread. On Saturdays we also have ping pong night- which Koda and his

family always come to. We also taught a lesson to Koda with help from

Brother Minami, one of the English speakers in the ward. The lesson

went well. We tried to set a baptismal date for February 14 but Koda

said that was a little too sudden, but he'll think about it. I

personally think he can do it if he really worked for it. Hiroki has

also suddenly taken an interest in Christ. He wanted to know more

about baptism and Christs resurrection so we showed him the bible

videos for each topic. He was absolutely amazed that not only could

Christ bring people back from the dead, but himself as well. Win him,

he already knows Christ exists. He has no doubt. It's just a matter of

him believing, which I believe the whole family is ready to do. If you

haven't seen the new bible videos, I recommend you watch them. They're

pretty awesome.

Oh we also finally got to watch the missionary broadcast. It was

amazing. I absolutely loved it. Especially Elder Andersons talk on

always having a testimony of the savior ready to bear. This week was

pretty fulfilling. Weird to think this transfer is nearly over. We

finally got the call to move. We change apartments this Friday. It's a

nice ten minute walk to the church instead of a 40 minute bike ride.

It's nice because we waste so much time going to and from the church.

Well that's all for this week. If you have any questions about the

minor details of my days feel free to email me! Thanks for tuning in

everyone!

愛しています！

モア長老

Pictures:

Picture 1- the big bowl of ramen

Picture 2- rush hour at 8:30 a.m. At 大宮

Picture 3- More ramen with the Zone Leaders and Okegawa Elders A

Week 17- 1/25/16 More Souls!

Hey it's that time of the week again 皆さん! Let me fill you in on everything.

So this week was kind of slow until the weekend but I'll tell you what

happened. We taught and contacted. We've been trying to extend more

baptismal commitments recently, and it's actually really helped us

gauge where our investigators are and what they need help with. We met

with out investigator Nao on Wednesday. We talked a bit about he Book

of Mormon and why it's important to receive answers. We extended the

invitation and he didn't say no. He said he needs to know if this

church is true or not before he says yes. So now we're trying to help

him on the path to do that.

Another pretty amazing thing happened. We extended another baptismal

commitment this week. We've been teaching a father and his children

for the past like 3 weeks. The father is interested in us and wants to

feel the spirit more, because through its influence, he quit alcohol

and smoking, and wants to strengthen his family and wants his kids to

have the spirit. We teach his two oldest English after Eikaiwa and

teach him after we teach his children. This last Saturday, we were

teaching the Gospel of Christ with an emphasis on baptism and the gift

of the Holy Ghost. After testifying strongly, and knowing he felt the

spirit, we extended the invitation to be baptized. Before we even

finished our sentence he said yes. The Lord has been preparing him and

I'm super excited because this is my first time getting a yes to

baptism. We now have two investigators lined up to be baptized (which

is amazing in Japan). We've been working so hard lately and the Lord

came through as always.

To make things better, we had a baptism in the ward yesterday! The

sisters investigator Namatame was baptized!  It was awesome because

Elder Yoshino and I worked with the sisters to make sure everything

was as needed to be. But, things get better. Koda (the father of the

family I was talking about) came to the baptism. We were so blessed in

the final days of this week. Missionary work is hard but just seeing

one person make those necessary changes and steps to eternal life

makes it worth it. I'll attach a picture of us at the baptism! Thanks

for tuning in this week!

モア長老