2 Weeks Worth

APRIL 14, 2013

Well, this past week was pretty interesting. Its actually only been 6 days since I last wrote you, but some pretty interesting things have happened. Remember that guy I told you we met in the Shoutengai after our long weekly planning session. Well, he's way cool, and he's actually working to baptized on Mother's Day! And I have to say, I really believe that he's going to be baptized on that day. He is a way strong investigator. We taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and it turned out that that day, he was putting in his schedule for work for the next week. I guess they write what days they would prefer to have off. He decided right there to ask for Sundays off. The day we taught him was actually really crazy. He likes bike riding, so to help strengthen him and build a good relationship with him, we went with him in the morning to go biking. We came back to the church and taught him about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He really understood it all. After we were done, as we were walking to the entrance, he stopped and said "I feel a crazy strong power right now. Its so hard to explain. Can you feel it?" and we were like "That's God telling you that this is right." It was way cool. He left, and then we rode our bikes across town for a lesson, back for a second one, and then across town again for a third lesson. Then we had a baptismal interview in Akashi! It was way packed.

Well, we don't have any time today, because Elder Waterbury is packing and stuff. He leaves next week, so that's pretty sad. Oh, before I forget, we had an earthquake on Thursday! It was pretty crazy! It woke me up. Our cell phone went off because I guess they have some system that sends a cmail to all cell phones where there is an earthquake. there was no real damage though, so don't worry. Our microwave fell into our sink, but that's about it. I took a picture, so I'll have to send that next week. Well, we really are pretty busy today!  Love you all! See you next week.

APRIL 21, 2013

Well, thanks for the email! I realized that you were in New York as soon as I got Dad's letter, so its all alright. That's way awesome about singing in Carnegie Hall! Did you record it or anything? I'm glad that you had fun there.

Well, as I learned today, for transfer 3 I will remain in Kakogawa, but of course with a new companion. Elder Hayward. Waterbury Choro says that he's awesome, so I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a party.

This last week, we did a lot of stuff. Waterbury Choro and I bought a lot of food and have been making real Japanese meals, so that's pretty fun! Although he'll be in Utah soon, so I guess you can just ask him about all sorts of things.

I'm pretty thankful for your letter, Dad. It means a lot to me. :) I'll definitely try to open my mouth and talk to people. It's kind of hard sometimes, because I am pretty scared. That's what I've been trying to overcome lately. But I'll try my best, and I know the Lord will help with the parts that I can't do.

Today, we met our yakusokusha for 母の日, and he's way awesome. We gave him a Book of Mormon today, and then we went together to eat some Indo Curry. After that, Waterbury Choro and I went to get our hair cut at his dad's barber shop. He is way cool and he's progressing really well. He actually brought a friend to one of our last meetings, and that friend became a new investigator! pretty cool stuff!

Fun fact, in the backyard of our church building is Kakogawa Castle Ruins, and like, a cemetery and stuff. Pretty interesting. We passed it on the way to the church. Maybe you can find it on Google Earth or something.

So, I heard about the Boston Marathon thing. That's pretty scary! One of our investigators told us about it. What other crazy things are going on in the world?

Hmm.... I'm kind of at a loss of things to say. I'm glad that everyone enjoyed conference and such. The work here in Japan is definitely progressing. Sure, it might not be as fast as other places around the world, but we're doing pretty good as a mission. this past week, we had an average of about 6.4 lessons per companionship, which is cool because Waterbury Choro never saw it about 5 until just a few weeks ago.

Like I said, thanks for the package. I haven't gotten around to making any of the pasta yet though. You don't need to send any ramen though. It's waay better here in Japan. Even just the instant ramen is way good. ;) So, don't worry about that.

Hey, check out this smiley attack! Our cell phone does smilies like this! Because in Japan, they don't have text messages. They use emails, and cmails. Cmails are pretty much text messages, but way smaller, and emails are emails, but to a cell phone email thing... I'm not entirely sure about it, but yeah, there is that. Well, I guess I'll just leave it at that! I love you so much! Don't worry about me, I'm just working hard in Japan! well, I'll just leave it at that. Love you! See you! :D 

LEAPING FROM THE BOAT

Well, first off, I just barely got the package that you sent me today, so I suppose its a good thing that we were delayed by a day because it made it so I could reply to all of that! thanks so much for all the food! SOOOO MUCH CANDY! And I'm glad to have that pasta stuff! Now I just have to go buy some butter for it. Food here is pretty expensive sometimes. So I buy pretty cheap stuff, but things like meat and cheese, and possibly butter get pretty crazy. I love all the pictures, especially the one that has all of my friends and me in it! But I also love that you included my baptismal pictures, and the picture of Dad when he was in Japan. Pretty sweet stuff! I have to go buy a convenient photo album for them, but that should be pretty fine, because the hyaku en stores (100 yen ($1) store) here are pretty awesome. You can buy anything there! So, I'll be sure to get something for that.

Well, this week was pretty interesting. Waterbury Choro and I were working really hard, but you know, some stuff just doesn't work out. Our one other yakusokusha ended up dropping us, asking us not to come to visit him anymore, so that was a big bummer. But we really saw tons of miracles this week. Like, for example, Thursday after our weekly planning session. Every Thursday, we have a big planning meeting for our next week, and its supposed to be 2-3 hours long. Well, this week, nagaku natte shimaimashita. :( It went way too long. By the time that it was over, we had only 30 minutes to go out and proselyte. But we went out in faith, knowing that we could find God's elect if He wanted us to. We went to the local Shoutengai to talk to people. The first few people that we talked to rejected us, but then we stopped one person that we talked to for a while. He agreed to meet with us the very next day, and now he's one of our investigators! In fact, we found 7 new investigators this last week!!! That's pretty crazy stuff. One of our investigators is from Cuba, and so we teach him in English. He speaks Spanish, alright English, and not very much Japanese, but he's married to someone from Kakogawa. Actually, his wife became an investigator too! It was pretty crazy, because when we were teaching in English, his wife didn't understand, when we talked in Japanese, he didn't understand, and when they talked to each other in spanish, we didn't understand. Which was pretty funny.

I just wrote a letter for my mission president, but here, you can have it too!

"We talked about really doubling our faith and just trusting that the Lord will help us. I figured that I really need help, but that if I just trust and go to work, He'll help me. So while we were waiting for the train at the Akashi eki, there was a young man that was waiting in front of us. I felt like I should talk to him, but I started to justify not talking to him. But then I remembered about what we talked about and just made up my mind to go talk to him. So I went, and I don't know what happened, but it wasn't me. I was able to have an actual normal conversation with him, which is pretty crazy because I'm not good enough for that. We talked to him all the way from Akashi to Kakogawa, but he was headed to Himeji. In the end, he wasn't interested, but it showed to me once again that the Lord will give aid to those that trust him and work for him. And then, that same day, we found a small family that was once interested in hearing about the gospel, and they're coming to Eikaiwa tonight! Really, miracles are happening right now. It wasn't until Peter lept from the boat that the miracle of him walking on water was able to happen. I think too often, I like staying in my little safe boat, too afraid to show the faith to give it all the Lord. But we can't see miracles until it's all in His hands. We cant just ease away from out boat into the water. We need to just jump. I think I'm coming to understand this, and about what you were saying about doubling our faith. I'm really going to work hard for this, because it makes so much sense. I need to trust in the Lord completely, and just leap from my boat. Like you said yesterday, He won't let me fail."

There, now I don't have to type that twice. Well, thanks so much for all you've done for me! There are going to be some sweet miracles going on here in Kakogawa, and even here in Japan! Thanks for the package! One day, I'll have to send you guys a package, but I'm still getting the hang of everything here in Japan. Well, I'm going to send this message now. Love you!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) simple smiley attack this week. O______o

605 DAYS AND COUNTING - MINUS 2 WEEKS :)

Well, alrighty. Its been another week here in beautiful kakogawa! I'm going to have to type fast, because there are some things I want to say, but not a whole lot of time to write it all in because today, we're going to go to Himeji and see the awesome castle and stuff there. That's going to be exciting because all the Sakura are in full bloom now! Its pretty awesome to see all the cherry blossoms everywhere. I guess in Japan, spring is huge. Right now its Haru Yasumi, which is spring break, so lots of kids are out of school... I think. I'm generally a little confused on everything that's happening. Waterbury 長老 and I try and speak Japanese all the time, so I miss out on a few things. Haha

Well, some unfortunate news I have to share is that the investigator we had for mothers day dropped us. Well, basically he lives with his mom, and his mom is super against religion. She said not to ever go back again, and she also said that he actually hated us going there, and we don't really have any way of disproving that. So for the time being, it looks like missionaries wont be able to go back there and visit him. But don't worry! We're going to work hard to find someone else for mothers day!!

One of our investigators, Nakajima Kyodai (中島兄弟) is doing pretty good. He came to church yesterday, and actually brought his girlfriend too! It was pretty interesting. He's part of another religion that believes in Christ's teachings but isn't christian. He likes coming to church, which is apparent because he invited his girlfriend to come! He said that he wasn't interested in converting, but who knows? It was kind of awkward at church because the lesson that the teacher taught to the class after sacrament meeting was about the word of wisdom, and Nakajima Kyodai likes smoking and stuff, but he seemed alright at the lesson.

Speaking of church, I was asked by surprise to give a talk yesterday. I had no time to prepare, so it was kind of rough, but I'm happy to say that I was able to piece together somewhat of a coherent thing. Mostly it was just a testimony, but that's alright.

Funny stuff, two days ago, we went out to leave for an appointment, but found out that my tire was flat. We had to run so that we weren't late. then yesterday, on our way to a members house, Elder Waterburys tire popped. We just got it fixed before this email.

Well, have fun listening to general conference this week. We get it a week late because it has to be translated into Japanese, but don't worry, I get to watch it in English. But I'm excited. Well, I'll have to write more next week! And send pictures! Woohoo!

By the way, what could you put in a package to make it weigh that much? hahaha. Oh well, thank you! Love you! BYE!!!

:D :D:D:d :)　：）：） Smiley attacks are a lot harder on Japanese keyboards