Should I Stay or Should I Go

Well Sports Fans, here`s your transfer update:

In the words of Jeff from the TV show Survivor, ``The votes are in and the decision is final; those voted out will be asked to leave the tribal council area immediately.  I`ll tally the votes.``  I will be transferred to.......Nowhere!  Yes that`s right ladies and germs I am staying another five weeks here in Toyota.  I am the last one in my group that came to Japan to transfer.  Luckily this transfer is short and it`s only five weeks instead of six (because President Yamashita will finish being mission president).  At transfers I was informed that I am now the District Leader of the Okazaki/Toyota District.  So now I have some more respondsibilities including going on exchanges with the elders in my district, running District Training Meeting everyweek, and being an example to other missionaries.  It should be a great experience.  I am really excited to work with a district again and have the opportunity to lead.

This week was kind of crazy.  I thought I was transferring so I said good bye to a lot of investigators and now it`s going to be awkward to go back and still be around.  But we still had cool experiences.

On Monday we had a district activity in Okazaki and got to go to Okazaki Castle.  It was my first time going to a castle in Japan.  It was fun but the castle is kind of sad.  The origianl was destroyed in the late 1800s after the samurai were banned by the government.  Since the the castle was a symbol of fuedal Japan, it was flattened.  Similar things happened across the country.  Part of the castle was rebuilt in the 1960s and that is what we went to.  It was just sad that is wasn`t the original because from the models they had it was beautiful.

My bike has been an issue this week.  I have been trying to take care of it, but alas this city has beat it up.  My back tire frame has been bent and has been getting progressively worse and worse.  The tire is scraping against the brake and destroying the tire.  I took it in to get it looked at, but they said I`d need to order a new tire, but since I thought I was transferring I didn`t order one.  Then I was biking out in in a city five miles away and my front tire went flat.  I had to buy a repair kit and pump and fix it.  Then after transfer calls my back tire finally died and I took it into the shop and it will be there for a week while the new tire comes in.

The main benefit I guess that came with not transferring is that I think that the ward actually likes me.  It was weird to see members genuinely happy that I am staying.  One member calls me ``The Legend`` because I`ve been here for so long.  It`s been cool to see the changes that have occurred here in the last 71/2 months.  I guess Toyota still needs our help.

Anyways, I hope ya`lls week has been super exciting.  Remember patience is a virtue.  Imagine if you were stuck somewhere for 7 months?  :) I hope you all are staying cool, because I am sweating like a dog here.  Thanks for all your love and support!

スピードと天使
堅城長老

Pictures:

Pic 1- Pretty much a samurai

Pic 2- Shot of Okazaki castle

Happy Mother's Day!

Good Morning Folks,

Happy Mother`s Day to all of the mums out there.  I love my mom.  she`s tougher than some men I`ve met.  She is about to have two sons on missions thousands of miles away from eachother.  She is going to reap in all the blessings.  I had a great phone call yesterday morning with the family.  Everyone seems to be doing alright at home.  Sometimes I wish I could just get a one hour phone call everyweek, but alas, that is not how real life is. 

A lot of cool stuff happened this week though.  It was Coleman`s Senpai week so he was in charge of all the palnning and appointments for the week.  He did an ok job.  He is not the best of planners in the world, but that`s ok because he did get us some good appointments.  On Cinco de Mayo we got to have a BBQ with our Brazilian investigator Fabricio and his family.  It was really fun and we made a ton of meat!  I haven`t had that much beef in a long time. 

I got to go to Okazaki this week on exchanges with my District Leader Elder Orellana.  I haven`t gotten to leave Toyota and work in another area for over a transfer, so I was really happy to get a break from my city.  I got to meet some people I have met there before and they were really surprised that I was still here.  I mean who isn`t surprised that I am still here?  It was a good time. 

Yesterday was a big deal for Toyota 2.  We had a baptism!  Our investigator Takahashi got baptized and it was an awesome experience.  I remember the words to the ordinance and the Spirit was super strong.  It was a super special experience.  The ward is fellowshipping him really well and I see a bright future for Takahashi in the gospel.

It`s the last week of the transfer and I will find out on Saturday if I finally leave the area or not.  I hope all goes well.

Best of luck this week on all your adventures.  Take Luck!  I appreciate all of the prayers.

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Picture: Baptism!

Senpai Week #round2

Good afternoon sports fans,

It is now the middle of Golden Week here in Japan. It started last Wednesday and goes to this Wednesday. They have a bunch of little holidays like Green Day and Kid`s Day. It`s mostly just a time where the busy Japanese people get a week off from work. It`s getting hot here in flippin` 豊田. We actually had a really productive week and a lot happened. So who wants to hear about it?

The week started off last P-Day before a member appointment at the Ichikawa family`s home. The four of us were going to visit a recent convert on the way there, but plans changed when we saw a bunch of young guys playing basketball. In order to decide what to we played a game of ``jan ken po`` (Japanese version of rock, paper, scissors). In the end playing B-ball one and we crashed a 14 year olds B-Day party and played four missionaries vs 9 kids. It was tons of fun, but we showed up kind of sweaty and dirty to our member appointment. The member appointment was super fun. I love the 市川 family.

We had another fanatastic lesson this week with our Brazilian investigator Fabricio. He started reading The Book of Mormon and told us that since he has work off due to it being Golden Week this week he wants to ``catch up`` on reading it. Awesome! He is such a cool guy and we love having the opportunity to teach him.

We had a super sketchy experience this week. We found a new investigator last week through housing and had an appointment on Wednesday. When we showed up to the appointment a different guy answered the door. We were supposed to teach a young father and his wife. The guy who answered the door was not our man. We started asking the guy about what happened to the people inside the apartment. ``Did they move?`` ``Do you know them?`` ``Are you related?`` To all of these questions he answered, ``No.`` We had one more question up our sleeve. By the door was a name plaque of our investigator so we asked him about it. When we did he tried taking the name plaque off! Weird right? Turns out out our investigator had magic powers because he seems to have disappeared into thin air.

We housed that same danshi later that week and found another investigator and had a great first lesson with her this afternoon. It was probably one of the best first lessons I have ever taught. She had lots of questions and her kids were in and out of the lesson and it was fantastic. I love teaching families! We also had another miracle with a small familiy this week on the street. A young father was walking towards us with a little baby in his papoose on his chest and I thought to myself, ``If I want to teach families I need to talk to this young father.`` I was about to say こんにちは but then he stopped and talked to us about coming to church. He said it is close to his house and always wanted to see what we do in there. We invited him to church since we couldn`t get a next appointment. On Sunday after church he CAME! We ended up teaching him about Christ and the beginning of the Plan of Salvation. Where are the miracles coming from? Heaven... Probably...

Last but not least, it looks like we`ll be having a baptism on Sunday. We taugth our investigator Takahashi about tithing this week which was difficult because it was my first time teaching it. So we did an object lesson I learned from Elder Moretti. We bought 10 candy bars and gave them to him and said it was because he was so awesome and was following commitments. He was shocked at the blessings, but then we asked if we could have one back. He said of course because he just got 10 from us. When he gave it back we dumped three more bags of chocolate as ``blessings from heaven`` on him. It was pretty fun. He said tithing would be hard, but he`ll try to keep it. He has his baptismal interview on Friday so hopefully all goes well.

Sorry this is a long e-mail, but a lot of cool stuff went down this past week. I hope that you are all doing great wherever you are in this world. This e-mail is getting sent to the US, Bahrain, New Zealand, and England. I thank all of you.

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Pictures!!

Pic 1- Everyone flies fish kites for Golden Week and Kids Day. One fish for every member of the family.

Pic 2- Cinco de Mayo in Japan

Half Way

Good Afternoon Sports Fans,

Well we are now half way through the transfer. Flip. I think I need to transfer. I think... Anyways it was a pretty good week I guess, so who wants to here about it?

So the big event for the missionaries in the zone for the week was getting iPads. On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference and we receieved our iPads from the Mission President. They are pretty slick tools, but we don`t really know how we are going to use them in our dendo. I am kind of traditional and I don`t want the iPad to be a necessicity. Also a lot of stuff isn`t translated to Japanese so we are learning on our own how to incorporate it into our dendo. The mission is now in a new phase and everyone is working on the best solution on how to use them. As of yet, no I do not have Facebook. We should get it in about 12 weeks. And yes, I can receive e-mails during the week and read them now. I am only at the church on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays so if you feel inclined to send an e-mail to the Eternal Toyota Elder, please do.

President Yamashita came to our ward here in Toyota yesterday. It was a super great experience. He is an awesome leader and the people in Japan really look up to him a lot. He speaks and teaches very slowly and plainly so that all can understand. He is coming back to Toyota tomorrow to do some practice lessons and training with the four Toyota missionaries. It should be a really good experience.

Nothing super exciting is planned for this week. Big struggle here is getting keeping our investigators. They are disappearing and are getting hard to contact. We ride the highs and trudge back uphill from the lows. Lots of work ahead it seems.

I just want to let you all know that I know that we all have a Father in Heaven who loves each and everyone of us. I have felt His love. Because of this I can testify to these people that He loves us.

Thank you for all your love and support and prayers. It is felt and dearly appreciated.

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Picture- A guy we talked to OYMing. He gave us eacha bamboo plate so I gave him a Book of Mormon in exchange. Too bad he didn`t want anything to do with us.

The Grind

Good afternoon sports fans,

Another week has been checked off the calender.  It started off pouring this week and I thought I was never going to see the sun ever again.  We rode 20 kms in the rain on Tuesday going out to another city.  It was crazy the amount of water we biked through.  At USAFA we had a massive rain storm roll in similar to the one here and people died in landslides.  It was just crazy all of the water.

This was a terrible week to meet investigators.  We only met with three of them, but at least we were able to contact all of them.  The times we did teach were awesome.  The first really good lesson of the week was with a Brazilian named Fabricio who comes to our Eikaiwa class.  We teach him in English which is a super cool opportunity.  We taught him the whole Plan of Salvation (using Ralph, thanks Dad).  Fabricio has a lot of interest and wants to find truth. 

We taught our 約束者(investigator with a baptismal date).  He is on track to be baptized.  His name is Takahashi and we taught him the 10 Commandments and Word of Wisdom.  He committed to both of them even though he knew they were hard.  He is really trying to be prepared for baptism and he came to church and got fellowshipped really well.  The ward he has done a good job helping him out.

We also taught a lesson to our Chinese investigator Rei on Sunday about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon.  It was an awesome lesson and we had a returned missionary sit in with us.  He bore such strong testimony on the Book of Mormon (being a convert himself).  I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it`s true and that it brings us closer to God.

I`m sorry.  Not too many super great adventure stories from this week.  Just a lot of finding and working.  Coleman and I are getting better at working together.  I had a great convesation with a guy that started by me telling him that his scooter looked cool.  That conversation got us to be good friends.  He didn`t really take interest in our message, but he respected us a lot.  I really appreciate guys like that rather than jerks who will ignore me on the street.

Well that`s about it folks.  Have a great week because we`ll definitely try.

Love all of you!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Pic 1: The kanji says ``God Horse``

Pic 2: Rocking Training

豆ちゃん

Good afternoon from a very rainy Toyota City.

No joke, it has been rainy everyday for a week.  It`s been a long week here and everything here has changed.  The sakura is gone, everyone has transferred, but me, and I have a bean.  It`s been pretty crazy.  I have had to get the three new guys adjusted to the area and help everyone learn where everything is.  It`s been a long week of briefing people and getting them all up to speed.

My bean`s name is Elder Coleman.  He is from Gilbert, AZ and he has more dendo fire than the whole mission.  He is very obedient to all the mission rules and it kind of shocks me.  My previous comps were pretty chill guys.  We followed the rules and all, but my bean is the next level.  It`s a good thing, just a bit of an adjustment.  He came from a rather successful area up north in Toyama so it kind of shocked me this week when he started giving ME all sorts of advice on how I need to change my area even though I have been here for six months.  It has frustrated me a lot, but it`s teaching me humility to learn how to except new ideas and turn down others.

This weekend was our General Conference and what I got to watch was awesome.  I watched all of the Saturday Session and I loved Elder Renlunds talk and what he said about being a saint.  That`s been something that I struggled with last transfer.  I felt like all of my talents and abilities haven`t really prepared me to be a saint.  I am far from perfect and am not the best teacher of the gospel.  Elder Renlund shared this quote that I think qualifies my now as a saint.  ``A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying`` -Nelson Mendella.  If this is a saint then I think I can qualify.

Yesterday was crazy busy for me.  We were making phone calls all day, waiting for investigators to show up, and I messed up a investigator meeting by not understanding a phone call.  I was smoked at the end of the day.  I still have five more weeks of craziness of training.  We are going to hopefully have a great week ahead of us and I hope I don`t screw up too much. 

I am so grateful for all of your prayers, e-mails, and love.  I really do appreciate it and it lifts up my spirit.

スーピドと天使

堅城長老

Here Comes the BEAN!!

おはよフリキングございます！

Today is the start of Transfer 5!  Holy crap a lot of stuff happened this week and has guaranteed that next transfer will be a super busy one for me. 

Today Elder Correa and I said good-bye to the trail weary Australian, Elder Tramacchi.  He got on the train this morning and will be heading home to Australia tomorrow.  It`s crazy to think that both Tramacchi and Butters are going home tomorrow.  Their group of missionaries was one of the best in the mission.  They will all be missed.

So this week we committed two people to be baptized!  Both have dates in May.  One is a lady that Elder Butters and I found together named Tsuzuki (she made us fudge last transfer) and the other is a hand off from the other elders because their area is getting ``white washed`` (both elders are getting transferred).  The second guy`s name is Junpei Takahashi.  was found on a companion exchange last transfer with Elder Correa and I.  He is super cool and really wants to prepare for baptism.  We have a lot of work to be able to meet the dates that have been set.

This week has also been the best time for 花見 (flower viewing).  The Sakura (cherry blossoms).  The spring time in Japan is absolutely gorgeous.  The flowers are really beautiful, but they only last about a week.  Right now it is snowing sakura petals.  Our ward had a 花見 BBQ that was super fun on Saturday.  One of our investigators came with her mother and she seemed to have had a good time. 

Tomorrow Elder Correa and I head to Nagoya Eki to get our new companions.  I pick up my bean, Elder Coleman, from a USAFA Prep-schooler, who became Tommy`s companion.  I then have to go to trainer`s training and help the two new elders who are taking Correa`s area back to Toyota.  Should be an exciting time.  It`s super weird being the only missionary staying in Toyota.  This week is 6 months in this area.  I am the ``zone senpai`` meaning I have been in the zone longer than anyone else.  That`s cool I guess...  I just need to do awesome this transfer and not worry that I am in the same area.

Alrighty folks you all have a good week out there.  I just want to do a shout out to Major Kano and say best of luck on your deployment.  You will be in our prayers.

スピードと天使

堅城長老

 

 

Pic 1- Me with sakura

Pic 2- I am an artist

Pic 3- The last one standing