Tsuruoka!

Hey, so my emails from now on will probably be really short and stuff...cause there is no place to email here except at the electronics store...haha, so im in a store emailing from one of the really nice display computers...they are way cool computers, at any rate...my comp is pretty good. He is an Idahoian and he has been here for like a year, so im learning a lot form him...Tsuruoka is pretty awesome...there are tons of foreigners here and I haven`t actually taught a lesson in Japanese since I`ve been here, which is pretty weird. We have been teaching chinese and jamacian and african people...so its pretty cool. but i decided that my japanese is going to fall pretty bad cause of the area and the companion. but ohh well...sorry for grammatical errors...i cant really see the screen cause its in an unpleasent place. But I:ve just been moved in and the apartment is way small but we are working pretty hard. It seems like the members here are really in need of some help. There are like 40 members and thats like it...and it seems like none of them are really strong so hopefully we will do good here in this area. Anyways, this place is starting to feel kinda kimazui, so thats all today, maybe we can find a better computer next week. But comp is good and the area is ripe for harvest whether it be foriegners or japanese people...there are people really close to baptism here so well let you know how it goes next week. For mom, letters can go to honbu still, so no worries...microfiber blankets are great, but its only gotten a little chilly lately...so aynytime...thanks bai bai!

Atonement is Amazing! (The picture is not suppose to be related to the atonement in any way...haha)

Hey! Sorry I couldn't post anything last week. I was just busy...no really huge excuse, but guess what! This week I'm getting transferred...I'm not suppose to know that yet, but President told me yesterday, so I'm going to be going to Tsuruoka, and I have a gaijin companion (not japanese). So I dunno...it's going to be totally different! Well this week has been great, and last week was too, but I don't have a ton of time, cause Transfer week is crazy! Well for the most part, we have been focusing on the Atonement this week and teaching everybody about the Atonement, so that's been real fun. So last week I watched the Testament...i guess it's an "again", but it was really great! That movie was really good, I thought...I watched it in Japanese when we were teaching Inoue about Christ. I studyed a bunch about the Millenium last week too, so that was fun. The end is at hand! Last week Takaki choro was sick and Sis Tateoka made him Dendo anyways...haha, funny stuff. He was totally out of it when we were dendoing. There is this Kinjin less active that always calls us and wants to do mogi lessons with us and we finally met with him the other day...it was pretty cool. He got baptized when he was in his teens and he hasn't been going to church for like 15 years, but he always calls occationally and wants to hear some lessons. I went to Miyako last week I think it was...good times. One of our investigators is Shikama and he is pretty awesome. He can't open his left eye and he has a cane, but his clothes are always osshare! He talks slang all the time and it's great. I can't ever understand what he's saying cause he smokes and some of his teeth are missing, plus he speaks Sendai-ben, but at first he didn't believe in God, but now we're getting him to the point where he says there could be a God. But zan-nen nagara, we are transfering, so who knows what will happen to him. Umm...k, this week we got Standard! Good times...we actually found 3 investigators by thursday or something like that, so it was a way fast week! I'm glad we got to get the Standard on our last week here in good ol Nagamachi. It's so great here! There is so many people to find and teach. So awesome! On Saturday, we went to a Halloween party thing for one of the members who teaches English, to help them out with English stuff, and it was great! Just like back in US. Everyone was wearing costumes and they even went trick-or-treating!....it was only two houses though...and at the houses they got a bag of candy with their name...so that wasn't even the same at all, but haha...They don't do Halloween here at all, besides acknowlege that it exists...so Enjoy it! There was also this clip that President had me listen to before I went out to Tsuruoka that was about Planning and becoming a Master Planner. Planning is really super important even in regular life, so if you have Preach My Gospel then by all means read chapter 8, if not then consider learning how to be a better planner and in setting goals! Cause it's super important! Planning is the part of the work where you show the Lord that you can be trusted. It's the part of the day when you get to use your accountability and agency to decide how well you are going to use your time and what accomplishments you want to show the Lord you can do. But it was a good clip...very cool. Anyways so the Atonement is pretty awesome! Have you ever thought about the Atonement deeply? If it wasn't for the Atonement then our existance here would be useless! Think about how the Fall of Adam and the Atonement relate. Then when you think you're done with that think about the crazy pain the Lord had to suffer for our petty mistakes. God doesn't allow the slightest degree of sin to enter into the Kingdom, so he gave us a way!!!! Why don't we just take it! He gave us a way back and some people don't take the help. We're all stuck in a pit and God put's a rope in front of our foolish eyes to help us out of the pit, so why in the world don't we grab it!? What are we thinking! We decide that maybe we can get out of the hole ourselfs, but MURI...you can't do it alone. There are too many Sins on the sin list for anyone in the world to not have one. How many drops of blood did the Saviour have to spill for you? Think about that sometime. It's great stuff! Zehi, everybody think about the Atonement really deeply and ponder about How many He spilt for you...and just maybe it'll influence you for the better. Anyways, Sorry, thats about it. The only picture I've got is one of my feet, so I'll post those! Haha...Bai-bai!

Conference Weekend!!

Picture: Me at Furukawa...

Hello everyone again! Welcome to another fantastic day! Thanks for EVERYTHING! Thank you for the encouragement and thanks for the trees and the electricity and thank you for Prophets that guide our souls to eternal welfare! Thank you! And if you haven't taken advantage of the internet or your TV, and you didn't watch this recent General Conference you better do it. I loved it so much! And I know that this is like 1 week old for the rest of you, but Japan gets conference a week after America does. We get to watch it off of a DVD. I really loved them all! Some of my favorites were Elder Christofferson: Concecration, Pres. Uchtdorf: Simplify our Lives, Elder Anderson: Never Leave Christ, Elder Uchtdorf: Pride, Pres. Monson: Agency & Consequences, Pres. Monson: Gratitude!. They were way good! I also decided that if you don't watch the Saturday Sessions most of the time you miss out on the most important talks! Anyways, How was everyone else's conference!? So this week was pretty good. Not much to write cause we were on spilts and it was conference weekend, so we only had like a day to do any dendoing. So I guess you knew that already. k, I think I left on on Thursday. Ohh and Thanks Morgan! Your encouragement is invigorating!

Thursday, I got to split with Shaw choro again! It was great! He came to Nagamachi and we taught two After Baptism lessons and then did some housing. We didn't find anyone, but the lessons were so great! Me and Elder Shaw have such good unity! Yeah, all the district leaders came today so it was crazy. But way fun! I'm going to be sad, when I'm not in the middle of all the action.

Friday, So there is this investigator that the Shimai's passed to us and he is a little bit seishinbyo (mentally handicapped) but you know...we teach him anyways. We're not really sure what his motives are though, because everytime he prays he ALWAYS says that we wants a ton of friends and a girlfriend....hahaha, so it's kinda awkward, and we're not really sure if he's meeting with us for the right reasons...haha, but I guess we'll just keep on teaching him...maybe he'll get the right motive. But today I've just noticed that because we talk with so many people that have a strong opinion about religion I'm starting to get to the point where no ones opinion makes sense to me...but I love them anyways! <3 There are a ton of Jehovah's Witness's here too, and we were going to trade our Book of Mormon for their Bible sometime soon!

Saturday, Amazing...it's conference, what more can you say! But I really do appreciate it more as a missionary! You really do learn so much more as one! Big theme this year was Following the Prophets or pretty much spiritually die...haha...but seriously. Pres. Monson really cracked down on Repenting this time didn't he!?! We must be doing something wrong.

Sunday, Amazing...again. But after conference we did a lesson with Shikama-san and it was a really good lesson. Our testimonies were ridiculous right after General Conference. We showed him the Restoration video and then pretty much akashi-punched (testified to) him so hard that there was no way you couldn't believe that the restoration was true....but alas he was drunk that night when we taught him the lesson...haha! So we don't know if he even remembers meeting with us or not...haha, but it was none-the-less an amazing lesson, for me anyways...haha.

Today, we went to Imano Families home for an AMAZING meal! So good! And we did a cool lesson, not a lame one like other missionaries might do, but a cool and entertaining lesson! Then we ate Guratan, and Rice and some other stuff, and it's ridiculous that everyone thinks it's amazing that I can eat anything! They're always like "What you're gaijin, you shouldn't be able to eat that..." etc...it's kinda annoying...I might just have to start saying I don't like stuff, just to PLEASE them all! Anyways, hahaha...well dendo is great! Hope school is going good for everyone and in the pictures you sent me (Mom) it looks like Cody and Kami don't love each other or something...haha, they are standing like really really far away from each other. What's up with that? I wanna see a picture where they are hugging each other! That's your commitment! But South looks WAY suteki! Atarashi poi! Ii ne! Domo domo! That's great that Cody is in the Chess Club. It's too bad I quit...I would've loved to keep going! Do a good job Brotha! Yes, Aiura choro's teeth are doing good...kinda. The one on the bottom is still out, but they fixed the chips in his top teeth. No I don't need the microfiber sheets yet. Yeah, it's getting cold, but I can barely sleep with just a regular sheet on me. I get really hot at night...sometimes I don't even put 1 sheet over me. I'll let you know if I need them. Thanks! Bai-bai! Ohh I got the package you sent me on October 7th...4 days ago...and the cookies were delicious! Thank you! I don't know what the purpose of the notepad and the taffys and the cotton candy and the popcorn ball were, but Thank you! I Love you all! Kami's cookies are pretty much gone. Anyways, Bai-bai!

Picture: Me and Takaki in the office!

Hello hello! Hope everyone is doing great! I'm doing just wonderfully! It's been great! Japanese food is the worst! It's so good that you have to eat and eat and eat and then you suffer the consequences...it's a horrible cycle...haha.

On Tuesday I went to Furukawa and did splits with my good buddy Shaw Choro. He was my MTC companion, so it was a good time! His Doryo, Aiura Choro was with Takaki Choro and it was really bad. At about 10pm they came back to the apartment and Aiura Choro was in an accedent and he lost one of his bottom teeth and the front two teeth on the top were chipped way bad. So he was in bad shape. He hit one of those block things on the side of the sidewalk and since it was really dark he couldn't see it, plus there was a car coming the other way, so the lights were making it too bright to see and boom! So it was disgusting, and I decided that I don't want to loose teeth...EVER! I actually starting feeling sick in the stomach just thinking about loosing teeth. But other then that, Furukawa was way fun! We taught English to a bunch of little Elementary school kids and entertained them for a while.

Wednesday, Not much...just came back from Furukawa and then did another Eikaiwa class, English class, and it was pretty good. Not amazing though. This week is going to be amazing...FYI.

Thursday, Hahaha...ok so when we were out finding, there was this High School Girl that I think I totally changed her life plans...and it's not a good thing. So we stopped her and come to find out, she wanted to be an English Teacher and so I was all excited, you know, cause she must like English! Come to find out she has been to Guam and so I was like, ok I'm talking to her in English for sure, and so I ask her what her name is, in English, and she says her name, and I was like ok your English might be pretty good, so we talk for a bit, and I eventually ask her to do a jikoshokai, introduction, for me and she went all quite and we waited and waited and then I was like "c'mon, your going to be an English Teacher, right?" and after countless minutes of silence I was like, ok you don't have to do a jikoshokai, and then it was all awkward and then I'm pretty sure she left with the impression that she didn't like English anymore...hahaha, so yeah, I felt guilty for the rest of the night, because I shattered someones dreams or becoming an English Teacher.

Friday, Today we met a really strange mom on the streets...I didn't understand her very much, but she was really "touchy", one of those people...and it was just funny cause she was like correcting us, and she seemed like she was drunk, but it didn't smell like it, so I'm not sure. Anyways, Inoue kyodai bonded with the rest of the recent converts, and it turned out pretty good I think they did a little Akashikai, testimony meeting, and Inoue kyodai's testimony was pretty strong...rashii (so I heard).

Saturday, today for some reason I totally lost the spirit, and while we were doing a mogi lesson with Somea kyodai, for some reason I couldn't talk at all, so I just sat quiet and let Takaki choro do the talking. I think it was because we had an appointment with one of our investigators and he really really likes to talk, so we saw him by accident earlier in the day and didn't want to stop and talk to him because he really really loves talking and we didn't have time to waste, so we didn't stop him and later on in the day when we had our appointment with him, he didn't show, and I felt guilty for not wanting to stop and talk to him, so I was overcome with guilt that day.

Sunday, Fast Sunday is always wonderful! We get to ride our bikes up a ridiculous hill with no food in our stomachs! Haha, no, it wasn't that bad today. But we taught Inoue kyodai about Temples and Family History, and it was a good lesson. If you haven't read this months edition of the Ensign I would strongly suggest you do! It's amazing! I especially love the pictures! So today I talked with one of the return missionaries that came back from Nagoya a while back and he told me a bunch of new ways to find people. They are pretty cool ideas, and hopefully they work out.

Monday, P-day, I actually got an hour to write some letters, I also printed out a talk by someone...don't remember his name, but it was about the Atonement and it was pretty fukai (deep)! A good talk, and really fukai, so I loved it...all I remember was that it's about the Atonement, so yeah, it's pretty cool.

Tuesday, we went on splits again today in Kitakami and did splits with Kaneshiro and Ohira choro. It's only a branch in Kitakami, but the members are ridiculous, so it's all good. They are all so strong! They say that on Sundays there is only like 25 people that come to church, so it's pretty small, but yeah, the members have dendo-fire like crazy! So that's where I was yesterday. There was a weird O-bachan on the streets that would like walk a few steps and then crouch down, and then get up and walk a few steps and crouch down again...I think she is a little seishinbyo, but she would just do that all day, up and down the streets. We decided to talk to her and give her a chirashi (flyer) and she didn't say anything to us...just kept doing her thing...so it was a grand time in Kitakami!

Next week were going on spilts again somewhere, not sure, but yeah, it's been awesome! I'm kinda excited and scared for when I transfer...hopefully my next companion is good, and the area is awesome! Ohh, wait, it's Japan, it's awesome all the time! Haha. Mother: I am probably not going to be here in Thanksgiving... definitely going to get transfered. Yes I can read Kami's blog comments! It sends me an email with the same message in it. Thanks for the English ideas! I love you! Bai-bai!

First week we came to Honbu!