Hot as Valhalla

みんなさん、おはようございます！

According to Viking lore heaven was a location know as Valhalla, which was a place of intense heat and fire. This visual is a stark contrast to what many Christians believe due to the fact that the Viking version of Heaven is our Hell. I have no idea how the Vikings could ever consider melting in the flipping sun heaven because it sure ain't.

Not much in the way of super exciting stories happened this week, but I did have some cool experiences.  On Wednesday we had interviews with President Ishii here in 松本. It was good to meet him again and get know him better. It's really strange to have a change of Mission Presidents because you have to readjust to a completely new person and their vision. It hasn't been to hard, but it has just been different. It's just a new tempo to adjust to.

After interviews I got permission to do a 48 hour exchange with Elder Crippen in 諏訪(Suwa) because we had DTM in 松本 on Friday so we didn't want to go back and forth and spend all our money on trains. It was a good experience. Elder Crippen is an extremely obedient missionary and follows every letter of the law, which is good, but needs to loosen up a little bit. He is a young missionary (Transfer 3) so I tried to help coach and train him with planning and teaching. On Thursday we followed his plan and went out into the blazing sun for six hours to go to less active members' homes and go teach one investigator. It was by far the hottest day I have had so far. One kind LA gave us each a bottle of Aquarius (the Japanese version of Gatorade) which was a life saver. The night ended at a Brazilian member's home where they gave us my newfound summer time weakness... ice cream.

On Friday we switched back and Klein and I had a lot of teaching appointments (3 actually which is a lot in a day for us). It ended when a teaching experience Klein and I had never had before. We found a lady named Ichihashi 一橋 housing an apartment building on Sunday and she was unusual in the fact that she was Protestant. She had met missionaries several years before and had read a pamphlet from them and when I asked if she had read the Book of Mormon she said no and was interested so we set a next advent. Anyways Friday was our return appointment and she opened the door and told us she couldn't talk to the Mormons because she loves coffee and I started talking to her and told her that we don't drink coffee because it's a commandment from living prophets. We got into a little discussion about prophets and the Book of Mormon and she didn't know what to think of prophets living on the Earth today. I felt prompted to ask her if prophets lived in a long time ago in the Bible and Book of Mormon times, then why should there not be prophets today? She said she didn't know and we shared the message of the Restoration of Christ's church through Joseph Smith and how the Book of Mormon contains the pure message of Christ and how it with the Bible makes a strong, unbreakable testimony of Christ. We read Moroni 10:3-4 with her and challenged her to read the introduction and Moroni 10 and and pray to know if our message is true. She accepted and we promised she would receive an answer. We have a next appointment so we'll see what happens from there.

This experience was special to me in several ways:  Firstly it was my first time teaching a Japanese Christian allowing me the opportunity to bear strong testimony about the Restoration of the gospel. It was also one of the most Spirit directed teaching experiences I've had. We had no plan but to teach about the Book of Mormon and we ended up teaching a lot of things clearly and simply without a plan. We also testified a lot in the lesson. This stuff is true folks. My invitation is the same as is written on the introduction to the Book of Mormon:  "We [I] invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true." If you do follow the invitation to read, ponder, and pray then you will receive an answer that the things which are written are true. If you are seeking for truth, then you'll find it there.

The week ended with the 松本ぼんぼん祭り (Bon Bon Matsuri)!  This is a huge festival on August 1 where there is a massive parade of people from different clubs, companies, and organizations perform the Matsumoto Bon Bon dance in the streets going in both directions from 1700-2200. We got to participate with the 松本 Barbers Association because a member of the branch is a barber and invited the branch to participate with them. It was a cool once in a lifetime experience. Each time you dance the Bon Bon song blasts on loud speakers throughout the city for sets of 30 minutes. We did two set and then decided to go look around. It was crazy with how many people were out on the streets. It was packed with people in kimonos, yutakas, normal clothes, hardly any clothes, and street vendors trying to sell you high priced food and beer. We walked around just making our presence known and found some of our friends who we have talked to on the streets before. It was an awesome experience I will probably never have again. Missions are cool.

I got to get ready to go to the castle again today. I am taking my district over these and then going to get Indo curry! I hope you all have a great week folks and enjoy the heat. 気をつけてね！めちゃ暑いから.

スピードと天使

堅城長老

Barber Club

Work Hard, Play Hard

There And Back And There And Back Again

Evening Sports Fans,

One long day.  We spent the whole day going up to a famous/popular mountain called 美ヶ原 (Utsukushigahara).  We biked a solid, brutal 13 miles uphill and then hiked another two miles to the top, but it was all worth it.  On the way down one of our ZLs had a gnarly crash while going 25 mph downhill while trying to break.  We are all ok so I guess our prayer of safety and the beginning of the journey really worked.  It shouldn`t have taken us all day, but the member who took us up is a rather chubby guy and he was absolutely dying.  

Last weeks P-Day adventure was pretty fun too, but only Elder Hobdy (a ZL) and I went.  We biked 35 miles south to a town called 木曽福島 (Kiso-Fukushima).  It was a super fun ride and saw a lot of the area.  We rode the train back to 松本 and realized we were fried.  We both had 2nd degree burns on our arms and we have been rather uncomfortably blistered throughout the week, but now we are OK.  

The other adventure for myself this week was going on exchanges with Elder Jones in Suwa/Ina.  He was with me in the MTC and is a super fun guy.  We went into Tommy/Butters old area Ina that got shut down back in January.  No missionaries have really been there to do any work since it was closed.  Since I heard so many stories from my good friends Tommy Eadie and Anthony Butters, I begged Jones to let us go to Ina and give it a shot to visit some less actives and former investigators.  I got permission to call Tommy and learn who to visit and then we were good to go.  While we were there we didnt`t manage to meet anyone, but had a ton of good experiences talking with people on the train there and back and I can see the area being re-opened again within six months to a year.  I would really like to serve there.  It is very similar Cache Valley and it is gorgeous.  It`s super peaceful and I would love to give it another shot.  We didn`t have much time there and had to race to catch a late train out to get back to the Suwa apartment by 2130.

Other than those adventures not too much happened this week.  We couldn`t really meet with our current investigators, so we went out and found new ones!  Our area has become really successful on the finding/teaching side.  The member side of the area is a story for another day, but let`s just say it`s just as bad as when I got to Toyota and things need to be changed again.

Alrighty folks, stay cool out there.  We`re about to die of heat stroke it`s so hot and humid.  Take care and thanks for the prayers!

スピードと天使

堅城長老

 美ヶ原

三線　(Sanshin) It`s a banjo from Okinawa

Two of these bad boys landed on the base next to the church

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)