Sweating Like a Dog

Good morning Sports Fans,

This has been one of our best weeks up here in Matsumoto. We saw a lot
of cool stuff happen up here in the Japanese Alps.  We taught more
lessons this week than in weeks previous and I have fulfilled my
mission dream of teaching a family! Also the whole mission besides my
zone and Kanazawa Zone got shut down because a typhoon! Here's how it
went down:

On Tuesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders (who also live here
in 松本) and I went with Elder Hobdy in his area and Elder Tuakoi went
with Klein in our area. While in our area Tuakoi went through our
phone and called a whole bunch of former investigators and one said
they'd called back and one said they'd come to church. All of this is
happening with Klein. Hobdy and I had two canceled appointments and
visited some PIs.

The next day (Wednesday) in the morning the phone rings and it was one
of the FIs who Tuakoi and Klein called so I tossed the phone over to
Klein to see if he could get an appointment. In the end we scored a
30/30 English teaching appointment at the church on Saturday where we
teach 30 minutes of English and 30 minutes of Gospel. The person
was Chinese by the name of Enny and Klein told me she could speak
really good English. Now we just had to wait for Saturday. On Saturday
in the morning Enny called and changed the location of the appointment
from the church to her home. She told us to wait in a park and her
husband Ken would pick us up. It all sounded like a big spy movie of
meeting people we never met before to guide us to places we've never
been. Anyways, Ken meets us and we go over to their home. It was so
much fun! They have three little kids and they asked if we we could
stay for lunch and we said yes and while Enny was cooking we practiced
English with them. They are both very good at English and are perfect
in Japanese. After we ate we didn't want to take too much more time,
but they wanted to keep us there and wanted to speak more English. We
did so and then Kelin and I shared a lesson on prayer in Japanese and
it was so good! I was a little worried that Ken wouldn't be super
interested, but he was engaged and told us he believed that praying
every night is a super good idea and they want to try it! We gave them
a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and Enny pointed to it and said, "I want
to learn 30 minutes of English from you and 30 minutes of this!" They
are so golden! When we left their little kids were chasing us down the
road. I have never felt such an outpouring of love from an
investigator before.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We taught the Plan of
Salvation three times to our investigator 吉野(Yoshino). He has his
baptismal date for the 9th of August and we are trying to finish all
the lessons with him. It's going to be a bit of a squeeze, but we are
confident we can make the date. He's a really shy guy and has great
interest in the Gospel and we are trying to be his friend. Last P-Day we
went with 吉野 and the ZLs and their investigator to eat some
ridiculously spicy ramen. 吉野 didn't eat it, the rest of us did. I only
got a level 2 and it was still crazy hot. They make the broth out of
what is called Death Sauce (imported from the U.S.) and it sears your
lips. The ZLs investigator got a level 20 (the highest) and was told
by the chef that he would get sick if he ate it. He still got it and ate
the whole thing and was miserable the rest of the night and, from what
we heard, next day.

Speaking of heat I am tired of the humidity and sweating all the time.
I am so glad I am not in Aichi Prefecture anymore because I know it's
worse down there. Luckily I'm in Nagano Prefecture, but I hate waking
up in the morning feeling like I just worked out. Stay cool where
you're at please!

That's about it for this week folks. Elder Hobdy and I are going to
try a 6 hour long bike ride today, but we don't know if it will work out
based off of safety and other factors, but we'll be safe!

Thanks for everything! Love y'all!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

The night of the Typhoon. We didn't get rain but the sky was nuts!

Super Red

塩尻! Shiojiri

One More Year!

Good afternoon folks,

Well as seen in the subject line I have about a year left until I come
home from the Land of the Rising Sun. You all may be wondering, "How
can this be since the wee lad left in August of last year?" Well, with
full faith that I will get reaccepted back to USAFA I will have to
come home six weeks early from this adventure, thus coming home in
about one year. This knowledge, however, is not slowing the 松本 boys
down. Here's the download:

This week went by super fast. We had a great conference with our new
mission president, President Ishii. He and his wife seem a little
nervous for this tremendous calling, but they are really nice people.
At the conference he talked a lot about unity and working together as
companionships, districts, zones, and as a mission. I got to hang with
Tommy and he gave me some of the download from his last couple
transfers. It was a good little reunion.

We had a lot of good first lessons taught this week. We have been able
to set up a good little teaching pool and are trying to help them
progress towards Christ. We invited one of our investigators, Yoshino
(吉野) to baptism and he said yes! If all goes well he should be
baptized on the last Sunday of the transfer. He is 21 and kind of shy
but is super nice and polite and interested in our lessons.

The rest of the week was a lot of housing. We knocked on about 180
doors and found only one new investigator. This week we're planning on
heading to a different city to work in for a change again.

I'm sorry I don't have any unique, exciting things happen this week.
It just went by really fast and saw some good results.

Hope you all have another fantastic week! I put videos on the D-Box! 愛しているよ！

Hello From Gokiso

Hello Sports Fans,

No you all must be bamboozled due to the fact that I am not in
Matsumoto right now. I am actually in the heart of Nagoya in an area
known as Gokiso. This all must be very confusing to you back home,
but don't you worry it's temporary. We (the Matsumoto elders) are in
Gokiso for the day and night so we can be on time to a conference we
have tomorrow welcoming our new mission president in an area called
Fukutoku. President Ishii entered the mission last week on Tuesday. It
has been really difficult to see President Yamashita go, but life
moves on. President Ishii is actually super rare because he is from
inside our mission boundaries in Toyohashi. It's a city that was in my
last zone. This conference is our opportunity to get to be in a
different area and meet the new president. I will also get to see Tommy
for the first time in several months.

It's been a long week but we managed to get some of the good work
done. Monday after emailing we went to 松本城 which was super cool. It is
the oldest castle in its original form in Japan. Afterwards Klein and
I finally found a new investigator by visiting someone who used to
meet with the missionaries several months ago. On Tuesday we went to a
different city called 塩尻 (Shiojiri) to dendo. The city's name is
actually kind of funny because the separate kanji means "salt butt",
but the kanji together means cone. Anyways, we spent the whole time walking
because we didn't have bikes. We ended the day housing and the one
small apartment building we found two new investigators! Finally!

The rest of the week was more finding and visiting less active
members.  One less active wanted to go out to lunch with us so we met
up and went to an Indo-curry place. It was good, but we had a slight
problem in the end. I made the mistake of assuming the guy who made
the appointment would pay for us. I hadn't had any time to pull money
out of the bank (Japan is a cash only system) so I had zero money in my
wallet and hoped Klein could spot me some money. Well, Klein forgot
his wallet so neither of us had money so when it came time to pay the
guy who took us out to eat just stared at us when we finished. We had
to ask the shop owner if we could go to the bank and pull money. To my
surprise he let us (only in Japan would they trust you to do that) but
it was super embarrassing.

For the Fourth of July we had a BBQ with the ZLs at their apartment. We
did it 焼肉 style, but it was still super tasty eating nothing but steak,
chicken, and some pork. Or barbecue was a decent enough replacement
for making barbecue but I hope you all had fun back in the states and
shot lots of guns and watched fireworks for me. On Sunday, a member and
friend from Toyota came to the  Matsumoto ward because his family
lives there. That night we had dinner together and his mother made 200
gyoza for us. We ate so much food it was ridiculous. It was really
good to see some friends from Toyota again.

Well that's about it for this week folks. I hope you have a great week
back home and I hope you're staying cool. Best of luck! I love you
all!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

おはようございます！

It's been a long week here in 松本.  I got here on Tuesday after a three hour long train ride from Nagoya Station.  The ride was beautiful through the mountains and it was good to catch up with Jones and Klein.  When we arrived in 松本 we spent most of the day getting me up to date on the area and the few investigators we have.  Looks like we have a lot of work in store for us here.  

We only have five...now four investigators here and it seems like not a ton of work has been done here for the last couple of transfers.  Elder Klein and I hit off the week with big hopes to find and build our teaching pool up, but it turned out to be harder than expected.  Despite working harder to find than I have for the last transfer we have seen zero results from our efforts.  Our ZLs have been rocking it this week, but for us things are starting off slow.  We have faith that we can find and we are making plans to try some other cities in the area.  The 松本 area is huge, about 3x that of 豊田.  Missionaries have mostly stuck to the big city, but we want to try some of the undisturbed waters. 

So as you can see we are having a hard time finding our battle rhythm for 松本.  We just have to try and try, over and over, until the results start coming in.  We are hoping to try different things and we'll see what works.  We are promised to be blessed for our efforts.  It`s just kind of weird leaving a city that I knew really well and that had been pretty successful to an area I don`t know that hasn't had much success for a while.  Looks like we are going to have to fix this town.  

In all reality nothing super exciting has happened this week.  It's just been a lot of talking to people on the streets and a lot of doors knocked on.  We teach a lot of Eikaiwa here.  On Sunday after church we teach at a community building in town to a group of students who are going to none other than Salt Lake City in July.  松本 and SLC are sister cities and every year they do a program for students to go to Utah.  I am the only missionary from Utah in the area so it's fun to make comments and tell them where to go and what to see while they are there.  They showed a powerpoint of an "Average Utah House" and "Normal Utah Food" which was kind of funny from their perspective.  They think we live in gigantic houses and all we eat is Mexican food and burgers.  That was a good laugh and I got to make corrections.  I also crashed on my bike, but that wasn't any problem.  Both the bike and I are ok.  I just got a little close to a low retaining wall and my handle bar caught and I went down.  

That's about it folks.  Stay cool wherever you're at.  It's the 4th of July this week so get your BBQ ready and go shoot some guns for me to celebrate the greatest nation in the world's birthday!

Love you all!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Vid on the D-box

Also the Mission President just told us church computers are  off limits for missionaries and we are supposed to e-mail from our iPads only.  This means I may not be able to use the dropbox anymore.  I am trying to figure out a solution to this dilemma.  I might have to make an iCloud and post onto that.  I will keep you updated.

-HJH

Moving out of 豊田

松本城　Matsumoto Castle (I am going there today)

1200 Miles of Blood Sweat and Tears

Well this is it Sports Fans,

  Life just took a huge turn as of Saturday.  On Saturday morning I received a phone call during transfer calls.  Your boy Elder Hardcastle DL 様 is getting transferred to none other than the area he most desired of anywhere else.  MATSUMOTO 松本!!  My next companion is someone I happen to know fairly well because we have lived together before.  My new companion is none other than my MTC companion Elder Klein!  I will remain district leader for the Matsumoto/Suwa District.  I have one of the largest districts in the mission with 11 people in it. In my district I have four people from my group that came to Japan with me.  Elder Klein, Jones, Sister Uchimura, and myself.  I am super excited!  It`s funny because three weeks ago I guessed my area and companion exactly.  It`s funny because my investigator and great friend 森村 had been praying all week for me to go to Matusmoto.  Never doubt the faith of investigator prayers.  Now I am dealing with all of the stresses of getting all my gear shipped up north.  It`s crazy to think that I am leaving 豊田. 

Yesterday was a pretty sad day actually.  A lot of members I think honestly thought I would never leave the area.  The Bishop and Second Councilor both choked up talking in Sacrament Meeting.  One of our members of whom I adore, Sister Yamaguchi, was profusely sobbing.  I have pretty much become a member of the ward.  It was hard in the beginning and I didn't have all that much love for these members, but they have progressed with me and now I love them to death!  I feel almost like I am going on a second mission.  I am leaving my Japanese home ward to go to my new mission in northern Japan. 

I've learned a ton here in Toyota.  I went from Bean-Chan to District leader in 6 transfers (8 months) and had fantastic learning experiences from my companions, district leaders, zone leaders, and fellow missionaries.  I have biked 1200 miles since Christmas and I don`t even want to count the train miles. I could write a book about my experiences that I have had here.  In all, I`ll be honest, I`m gonna miss this.

This week was two companionship exchanges and quite a few member appointments.  It was a long week looking back on it.  Nothing too exciting happened except on an exchange with Elder Lehman we found a family to teach 30/30 Program while housing...a real house!  交換 Magic! We had a sports activity after transfer calls which was pretty successful where we played volleyball and badminton.  It was a pretty good end to my reign here in Toyota.

Today in the US is Father`s Day.  Yesterday was 父の日in Japan, which is the same thing.  I just wanted to shout out to my father who has been my biggest hero.  He has supported me through everything and has helped shaped me into who I am now.  I know more about cows than anyone my age and it is all due to spending treasured hours traveling around with Dad on dairy calls.  Thanks for everything Dad.

Happy Father's Day out there and have a great week.  You`ll be hearing from me next week from Matsumoto!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

I knocked down all the doors in this danchi.

Yeah I went paragliding with an investigator this week. 

The District (without the ZLs)

Where Does the Time Go?

Holy crap the time flies.  This e-mail is being sent late because we had a District BBQ here in 豊田 today by the stadium.  We bought a BBQ and meat and we had some fun together.  The sisters didn`t come, but that was fine.  We kind of struggled with the charcoal, but we still managed to grill up some good steaks and meaty chunks of goodness.  I love my district to death! 

We had like no time this week to get things done it seemed.  We had a lot of appointments, meetings, and a companionship exchange.  It was lots of fun and this week is going to be busy too.

Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Pennington in 岡崎.  It was a lot of fun.  Several of you may remember Elder Pennington as the missionary who ran away several transfers ago.  Elder Pennington is actually turning into a really good missionary.  I really enjoyed getting to work with him and see the change that occurred in him. 

Wednesday was kind of a sad day.  We had a Zone Conference and it was our last time having the opportunity to see President Yamashita and receiving training from him.  He finishes his service as mission president on the 1st of July.  It just seems like yesterday I met him for the first time.  He is one of Japan`s greatest church leaders and he will be sorely missed by everyone.  Him and Sister Yamashita have been such good examples to us missionaries and all the members here in the mission.  That night after Eikaiwa, Sister Ichikawa (the mother of the missionary who just go home from Temple Square) asked me to give a blessing due to some pain she was having in her jaw that the dentists couldn`t find a solution to.  She wanted to go to Tokyo to the temple with her recently returned daughter and didn`t want to be hindered with pain.  I have never given a priesthood blessing in Japanese and was trying to prepare to do so, but they had me do it in English and the daughter translated later.  On Thursday morning we received a text that her pain was gone.  On Sunday she told us that the pain had only been absent for the duration of their trip, exactly what I promised her in her blessing.  Just a little testimony builder that blessings and miracles are truly around us.

On Friday I had DTM and that evening we biked out to visit a Filipino member out in Miyoshi city.  We were there a little long and we had to bike really fast to get back to the apartment before 2130.  I am faster than Coleman and at a light I turn and look back and he is not behind me.  I wait but he doesn`t come.  So I bike all the way back to where I last saw him and never saw him the whole way.  I called the Zone Leaders and told them I was missing a companion and then was told to pray for some inspiration and then call them back in 5-10 minutes.  I follow the instructions and called the other Toyota missionaries and tell them to check my apartment to see if Coleman made it home.  After 15 minutes they told me he was back in the apartment much to my joy.  As missionaries we are never supposed to be with out our comp.  By losing him I was not fulfilling my duty as a companion.  That`s why it was spooky for me.

This week we had a lot of member visits.  I have grown to really love this ward.  I know it sounds crazy for me to say it, but they really have grown on me.  It feels like my knew home ward.  This ward has grown so much!  It is also interesting to see their change their in view of me.  In the beginning I definitely felt like they didn`t trust us or the missionaries, but now they ask me for updates on how dendo is and they give me referrals.  It`s weird because the other companionship are older missionaries, but the ward leadership communicate through me.  This week on Saturday we have transfer calls again and members are tellling me that they don`t want me to transfer.  I have no idea what will happen this weekend, but if I do it will be sad to go.

Alight I`ll bring this long e-mail to a close.  A big shout out to my little bro, Brock, who is entering the MTC this week to begin his journey.  Best of luck kid.

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Grillin` like a villain

Party Peeps

Good-bye Yamashita 会長姉妹

The Six Pack

Alrighty Sports Fans,

Here`s the SITREP:

We had a decent week out here in Toyota this week.  The week started out great last P-Day when we gave a a church tour to an investigator we found on the street two weeks ago.  The guy actually showed up and we showed him around the building and then watched the Restoration video with him and then gave him a Book of Mormon.  It was our first time doing a tour and it turned out great!  We are meeting him again tonight.  After that lesson last week a member named Chiba (a former Nagoya missionary) to us out to Yaki Niku King and paid for us!  What a great guy. 

A lot of the week was looking for less active members on the record and trying to see if they even still live here in Toyota anymore.  I started cleaning up the record two transfers ago and a lot of people have moved.  It`s like playing hide and go seek, but it`s a project to fill in the days.

I had my first companionship exchange as District Leader this week.  Part of being a District Leader means that I have to go on exchanges with the other elders in my district to see how their area is doing, give training, and give them a break from their companion for 24 hours.  I stayed in Toyota with a Japanese elder named Horio.  He`s a really fun guy and has lots of energy and he is one of the few Japanese people who understands sarcasm.  It was a fun time, but the dendo kind of sucked. One of our investigators dropped us and the less actives we tried visiting weren`t home.  It was still a fun time to hang with another missionary and it was great practice to talk in Japanese.

On Friday I gave my first DTM (District Training Meeting).  The theme I was given by the APs was becoming a Full-Purpose Missionary.  The way I took that was by asking questions that applied aspects of missionary life to an aircraft`s six main instruments known as the ``Six Pack``.  Here were the Six:

Speed Indicator: MAX Effective Power?

Attitude Indicator: Attitude?

Altitude Indicator: Spiritually High?

Turn and Bank Coordinator: Coordinated Companionship?

Heading Indicator: Where are You Heading?

Vertical Speed Indicator: How are You Handling the Ups & Downs

The idea is that if you are in the affirmative to these questions then you are a successful, full-purpose missionary.  We then listened to a couple of missionaries share some of their experiences with missionaries who were fulfilling their purpose and went over the six pack and assessed if they had met all six.  I hope DTM went well and that it was received well.  I figured I needed to try to make it authentic so I wanted to connect it to flying.

We also just barely committed Rei Takami to be baptized today!  The date is in September so I probably won`t be able to see it.  We are super excited for her. Being here in Toyota for so long is allowing me to see lots of fruits from my past companions and my labors.  It`s a long journey, but there`s progress.

I hope you all have a great week!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

The field is WHITE!

Check Out My Six Pack