Baptism!!! Sorry...no picture...yet!

Well well...another week and another transfer has gone by with a flash! And Good news, we saw a baptism on the 26th of February!!!! Wooo! Haha...that was the secret from last time, but yeah, so Saito-san got Baptised and it was way good! I've got the pictures, but I don't have the adapter, so yeah...I really need to get one somewhere.

Tuesday...we had a lesson with Daigo-san. He's a pretty cool guy. We teach him for 30 minutes at 3:30 everyday we can. No more than 30, no less than 30...it's pretty awesome. He is slowly reading the Book of Mormon...I think he's on chapter 3, but yeah it's going well! Today we are planning on teaching him the Word of Wisdom, which is usually EVERYONE'S problem! Haha...who knew it was for "weakest of saints"! But that statement is SO true! If you can't even get over the Word of Wisdom, then you're in for an adventure with the rest of the stuff. And we finally got in touch with someone we just about Baptised last month. Ko shimai!

Wednesday...we had 4 lessons in the space of like 5 hours...it was crazy! On wednesday we did a lesson with Ko and she miraculously remembered all of the commandments! Unfortunatly...she wasn't keeping them, but SHE REMEMBERED THEM! After 2 months of No-contact, she remembered everything and Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon and stuff! Awesome! Hope we can meet with her some more and progress her futher. She's still hesitant about Baptism. Taught a lesson to Saito-san and to Daigo and to a guy that knew the missionaries years ago. (There are tons of those kinds of people here.) Then we went to Yamagata city because we were going to get training from Tateoka Kaicho.

Thursday...Today we had a little district meeting and then heard from Pres. Tateoka. We talked about applying Baptism to everything we teach and especially the first lesson. It's pretty cool how missionaries do it now-a-days. But then half-way through the president's training, Sis. Tateoka pulls out the new youth DVD and had us watch a part of it on Dendo and it was SO COOL! I want to watch the rest of it SOO bad! It was about this one kid who was the only one in his youth quorum and from that it went to a chain-link reaction and there ended up being like 26 kids in the quorum and it all started from one person sharing the gospel. Crazy! But way awesome!

Friday...we got back from Yamagata on Thursday and then friday, we went to Sakata to visit the Less-Actives out there. We got some good times. Shibuya kyodai is crazy! He is studying the Book of Mormon in 3 different languages other then his own. English, German, and Chinese. And he's going through the verses one by one and finding the different nuances and stuff...he's crazy. In his house he has the most church material stuff I've ever seen in my life. He has pictures of the temples lined up along his ceiling. I have NO idea why he's less-active, but he's just crazy...So cool. Then we met with Miyuki-san and we did her lesson on Baptism and it was way good. Spirit was ridiculous. Hope she gets baptised.

Saturday...Today was the Baptism! Yay! Saito kyodai's Baptism was way funny. So in Tsuruoka they don't have a font, so we do it in a pool, and we were rushing to fill up the pool as fast as possible...we had like 10 people thowing pails of water into the pool so that he could be immersed completely...turns out that we had to do the baptism like 3 times...me and ruefenacht choro were the witnesses. A member baptised Saito kyodai. We asked him about it later and he said it was a good expirience. Then to celebrate, me and Ruefenacht choro had peach pancakes. T'was delish. We didn't realize it, but we've eaten Apple, Banana and Peach now...haha! Anyways...the Baptism was great!

Sunday...Church! Ohh, we helped some people break up chuncks of ice on the side of the road and then when we were done they fed us cake and apple juice...cause everyone here tries to give us coffee and tea on the first whim...haha. They said they might have some intrest, so we'll see how it goes. Saito kyodai also had his Gift of the Holy Ghost confired on him...it was good. I think he had a good expirience.

Monday...did another lesson with Daigo and Saito kyodai. We gave Saito kyodai his triple combination as a present, and we almost got Daigo-san to say yes to coming to church. Then we dendo'd the rest of the night. Found some people, but nothing Amazeingly special...of course, finding people is awesome, but ya know...

Tuesday...Today we have just taught a lesson to Mizuguchi san and he I think forgot how to pray again, so we taught him how to pray again...we might just drop him. He's too old...and forgets everything...I've decided that my theory for why really old Japanese people get alzheimers easier is because they drink tea for everything! I think tea might have something to do with mental nerves breaking down or something, cause it's ridiculous. Anyways...we'll see how the rest of the day goes...

And tomorrow is Transfers! I'm not sure if I'm transfering or not, but we'll see tomorrow morning. It will be a surprise. But until then, we will talk to ya'll later! Hope everyone is doing good in school/work/whatever your doing....and...I'm out...Peace!

How do you get rid of rice cheeks?

So yeah, the Sun is out and it's going to be a fun day I suppose. The snow is all melting and you can finally start seeing the disgusting roads of Tohoku Japan!!! haha...kidding, but seriously, winter destroys the beauty of stuff...But then Spring brings it all back in. To every time there's a season. Or something like that...I can't remember the verse. This week was also filled with plenty of good experiences.

So last Tuesday...not much happened. We taught this guy Saito Toru-san, I'm not sure if I mentioned him or not, but he's pretty cool. He is a refferal from his Aunt and Uncle who go to our branch. Yeah, and so that was fun. We also taught Mizuguchi-san, he is the 30 year old Investigator. Email is out by his house anyways, so we teach him on Tuesdays.

Wednesday...ohhh yeah...that day...this day was strait up Finding for 8 hours. We had no lessons planned for that day, which is rare. But we found a bunch of Potentials, so we'll see where they go from here.

Thursday...this day we had District Meeting again and we had splits with the Yamagata choro's so it was pretty fun. We did the split in Tsuruoka and we got a lot of lessons done and found a lot of potentials. Pretty good day. I pretty much did finding all day, but the rest of the Elders got to teach and find and stuff, so it was good. And yes, I planned it that way.

Friday...we met with this guy named Daigo. He is a pretty cool guy. He is kinda odd though. Everytime we go to his house he looks like he is going to fall over with tiredness. He seems tired all the time! But he's pretty cool. He is reading the Book of Mormon for us a little bit, and he said he prayed, so that's good. We are meeting with him today again, so we'll see how it goes. Ohh yeah, and we ate the rest of my Funfetti cake present! Yay! It was muy delicioso!

Saturday...ohh yeah, I got a hair cut again...it's kinda funny this time. Well it's funny everytime, but yeah. We trying to meet with more people but they are "too busy" or they won't answer their phones, so yeah, but we had Eikaiwa today and one person came...(we are thinking about closing it...) But yeah, english class is way boring, especially when only one person comes.

Sunday...Church was good. Everyone was happy, and one of the youth drew a picture of my face and gave it to me, and it was Way awesome! Plus she drew an anime version of what I would look like, and I was way stoked! It was awesome...and it is still awesome! I look at it everyday cause of it's awesomeness....haha. But later on Sunday we had a Nabe party thing...that I had no idea that was going on, but me and Ruefenacht tried to make the most out of it and we Dendoed with nabe in hand. It was kinda funny. Nabe is this really good Japanese dish. It's really good. and we tried getting people on the street to come and eat Nabe, but it was kinda dark and no one was really out, but the people we DID talk to were "busy". So that's too bad for them, I guess.

Monday...I was going to fix my bike today, but turns out that the bike stores are closed on Monday, so we pretty much just wrote letters the whole day. There really isn't much to do in Tsuruoka, and there is even less when you don't have bikes. We also had to drop Sugawara-san, but it was a good drop. Our time with him was a good one. He just wouldn't keep our commitments, because we couldn't give him anymore that he would accept to do. So we had to drop him, but as a final farewell, he accepted to take the Book of Mormon home with him, which is a plus! So I hope he reads it and finds that the Liberation he is looking for is in the Book of Mormon. He believes that what is written in the Book of Mormon is all truth, but at this point he is taking a little bit of a different route to Liberation, but we'll see where he ends up. He respects Jesus Christ and Buddha, and think that they both reached a point of liberation that no normal human could do, and he knows he probably can't reach that state, but that's what he's aiming for. He knows that if he aim's high then he'll land somewhere good. So we'll see what happens. I put my address in the Book so that just in case he finds a way to apply the truths in the book and needs to tell someone, that he could tell me. But it was a good go with him. Pretty much everything that came out of that man's mouth was truth, Way smart, but is looking at life from a different standpoint. If he was standing where I am standing, everything that he said would make 100% sense, but until then his search for salvation is on...

And so Ruefenacht choro and I decided that we are probably getting rice cheeks and so we are going on a rice diet...I hope I can make it! Oh oh!! And we ran this morning! It was way fun! I haven't gone running in forever! We also ran with the 5 finger Vibrum's...they are way cool shoes. But I think I perfer running barefoot still...maybe...we'll see tomorrow. We are running again tomorrow. Plus we had apple pancakes with the Funfetti frosting on them last night and this morning...it was way good! haha...maybe that is also contributing to the rice cheek delema...well hope everyone has a good week! Until next time...I have a secret that I haven't told yet...but you'll find out next week what it is...See you!

20 is a weird number...kimo!

"Hello. How are you? I'm fine thank you. And you?"....that's right. The tipicle japanese/english introduction. Do you know how many times I've heard that??? That EXACT phrase! haha...Anyways...Everything is going pretty good. I'm still in Tsuruoka for those of you that don't know. It's like 3 hours away from EVERYTHING else...next to the Sea of Japan, which is the Super cold side...but yeah, this week was Great!

On Tuesday we met with Saito-san...dunno if I mentioned him, but he's a pretty cool guy. His aunt and uncle refferred us to him and for the first few lessons it felt like he was being forced to listen to our lessons, but its getting way better, so thats good.

Wednesday, we met with Tadokoro-san. She is a 50 year old lady that always talks about how shes going to the hospital in and out, but everytime we see her she is always super happy to see us. So it's kinda hard to believe that she is going in and out of the hospital. We also went down to a place called Shinmei to visit this old grandma that is like 60 years old, and she thought we were the Catholic missionaries...it was kinda awkward, but yeah...haha. We also got super cool pens. The coleto pen...0.3mm lead. Japanese pens are the best, btw...just in case you didn't know...haha.

Thursday...so today was my first District Meeting...and I had my paps there! In japan, your trainer is your Dendo dad, and you are born in a certain place...mine was Nagamachi...and then you die in a certain place. But my trainer, dad, is the Zone Leader and they came for to see my Meeting and then we did splits. It was fun. I think the meeting went pretty well too, cause the zone leaders were surprised at it, but yeah, the Zone leaders are dieing soon so when that group dies, I think my group will be one of the oldest ones. So Sendai mission is changing drastically.

Friday...yay by birthday! We actually had 4 lessons that day...and no time do do weekly planning. We visited Kaneko-san, his a pretty cool old guy. He works at the airport and his lesson went pretty good I think. Then we had one with Tadokoro and we commited her to obey the Word of Wisdom. I think that the Word of Wisdom is the hardest commandment for Japanese people to follow. Cause if they are not addicted to Coffee, then they are addicted to Tea...and then they tell us that there is nothing else to drink cause...blah, blah...the excuses go on and on....I'm pretty sure it's the same all around the world, but yeah...I can almost expect the person to say something about coffee 100% guarentee that they will say something about coffee...seriously, I think coffee has taken over the world. There is Coffee everywhere here! But anyways....Then we had another lesson with Saito-san and his lesson went pretty good. We got a Baptism Date for him and for Tadokoro-san. We'll see how it goes. Then Friday night, we had a lesson with the Sugawara family. and we showed up and they bought this elaborate sushi thing...it had soba and sushi and like a salad and tempura...it was pretty good. And then I busted out the Double Stuffed Oreos and milk and we had a good birthday dinner. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I taught them lesson 2 in like 15 minutes...for those of you that know what Lesson 2 is...it's really hard to teach in 15 minues...but we were kinda running out of time, so I had to do it. But that night was a pretty good one.

Saturday...I got my package from home! I was pretty excited. But that day...we just taught Eikaiwa and visited a bunch of people and then did weekly planning that night...which is not good. Don't do weekly planning on Saturday night...I felt zaiakukan all night! (Guilt) But yeah, the Youth in our ward came and Heart-attacked us for Valentines day...it was kinda funny. Me and Ruefenacht choro heard something outside the door, but we just thought it was the neighbor and his college buddies, but then when the Youth were done decorating they rang the door-bell for some reason and they didn't run away...haha, I guess they didn't think we were home. But it was sure nice of them...sounds like something I'd do...haha.

Sunday! Tadokoro-san came to church! Yay! It was super blizzardy and she still came which was way good, but after sacrament meeting she left cause I didn't think she remembered that it was 3 hours. But afterwards, we did another lesson with Saito-san, and then we visited this one lady...Toyota-san, and the only reason that she wont meet with us is because she saw some movie a long time ago that had Jesus Christ in it and Jesus Christ killed some boy...so she kind of has a bad image of Christ, but we met her daughter and grandson, so maybe they'll give in, eventually, and here our message of LOVE!

Monday...ohhhh yeah, We busted out the cake mix, I got from the Migliori's and we made 2 pans of Funfetti cake and me and my comp ate a whole one each! Plus I blew out candles...(unfortunatly it was only 18, but that's the reason we made 2 cakes...haha) It was a good time! Then we just wrote letters and stuff, but did you know that Funfetti cake was that easy to make??? Who knew? It seriously took us like 20 minutes TOTAL to make 1 cake from the box...then for the second one it took like 10 minutes. Crazy! I felt like a professional baker. We also took pictures, so once I can find a SD to USB reader here then I will post some more picts, but until then...I'm Sorry! But yeah, then we had a lesson with Sugawara-san and then went to the Abe families(a member) for dinner, and that was fun fun. Not really much to report on, but everyone is slowly moving along.

Then today we have only just begun the day...we taught Mizuguchi kyodai, but he can't remember anything! I taught him how to pray again for the 2nd time in a row...and I'm pretty sure I will have to teach him how to pray a 3rd time too. But yeah, then we ate some lunch earlier with Tanaka kyodai! He has been looking for a job forever and finally found one, so he's been busy doing that. He doesn't get payed much though...he has to put fliers in 800 mailbox's and he doesn't have a working bike...so it's crazy...Anyways yeah, it's been a good week, I enjoyed my birthday, thank you everyone that told me to have a happy one. I had a happy one. Hope all is well with you!

Btw...thanks Oldemar! I am doing very good! How's you?

Thanks a lot Aja! I had a happy one! Hope school is going good!

Kami...weirdo...haha...peace out hippsta.

What's the purpose of Religon?

Well...Good Afternoon! This week was pretty good. On Tuesday last week we got one lesson in with the recent convert who was baptized like 8 months ago...(This Branch needs another baptism...it's ridiculous...) 8 months is too long.

Then Wednesday...we had a lesson with Saito-san. He is a member-refferal/(forced into meeting us...haha) By some of the members that live like 45 minutes away. He's pretty cool. I'm not sure if I mentioned him earlier or not, but yeah, he's pretty cool. He doesn't mind the church, but he just doesn't know why it's important to him. Lately I've been learning a ton of ridiculous stuff from all of the investigators ridiculous questions. For example...How many of you know the meaning of religon? Why do we as humans have religon? It's an interesting question. I've been pondering that one for many days now. I think I've come up with an answer, but yeah, it's a tough one. There is another one...What is real happiness? This one is an especially hard one. How do you find happiness in the normal human hustle&bustle? How do you actually separate yourself from the normal "society" mindset that controls 99% of the human race? What does dependance mean? Etc...etc...etc...Goodness!!! I'm getting so worn out by these questions and by others, but I can totally tell that by the time I get off my mission, I'm going to have "legit" answers to many of these questions. So I'm looking forward to that, but as for now, I sit and ponder and sit and pray and ponder and sit, and wait...

Thursday...We went to Sendai today for a Zone Conference...it was a blast! I love hearing Tateoka Kaicho talk to us...it's awesome! And the Zone Leaders are way good at energizing us, so it was a way good expirience. Umm...I don't really have my journal with me today, so I am going off of my Planner...so yeah. After Zone Conference, the Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and AP's met with Tateoka Kaicho and we talked about the word unity. Who do we have to be United to? How do we change our dependancy to God more? How do we have one mind with the Bretheren? Goodness! I am starting to LOVE these ridiculously hard questions!!!! Anyways that's all that happened.

Friday...we did another weekly planning session and talked about all our investigators and so on and so on...it was a good time.

Saturday...we pretty much dendo'd like we always do. It was a good time...like it always is...

Sunday...Church! Twas good. We had a new person come to church today. She came and we gave her a tour of the church and then did a lesson and it was pretty good. I made Rufenacht choro lead it...and it was funny cause she was one of those people that likes talking a lot, and when you first know no japanese it's hard to control those situations, but Rufenacht choro did it pretty well. Turned out like a good lesson.

Monday...P-day! We pretty much went to Off-house...a recycle store...(cause they are the BEST in Japan!!!) But unfortunatly they had no 3$ 3-piece suits...sad day. Rufenacht choro, in his first area, bought 2, 3-piece suits for 3 bucks each. And they are legit! But I guess Tsuruoka's recycle shops are pretty bad...at least according to his desciption, I am judging Tsuruoka as "pretty bad"...haha. But we taught the Famous Sugawara-san, and he SUPRISINGLY didn't pray. His reason was that he has more then one personality and the personality that said he would pray, got over-run by a different personality...dang Satan...I'm getting sick of him. And to make things better, the lesson was a complete waste of time. He pretty much told us a bunch of "truths" and I pretty much said that "Yes, we agree to everything you said. Your point is?" And thats what kind of lesson it was. Not very good. But he AGAIN asked tons of ridiculous questions and I'm not even going to add to the list that's already there (see above!).

Today...we got to teach Mizuguchi! He has been an Investigator for 30 years now...he is old and he forgets everything we say. Within like 5 minutes of talking. But his lesson went ok. I had to teach him how to pray again and I'm still not sure he will do it, only because he forgets so often. It's ridiculous! But yeah, his lesson was ok...he kept feeding us these little snacks and now I'm super full of snacks. But yeah, then who knows what will happen tonight! It's an adventure EVERYDAY!

But that's my week so far! Thank you thank you! Hope everyone has a good February the 11th! Cause that is the day that Japan was Born! Not to mention, I was born too! Yay! So have a good February the 11th! I wish for everyone to see a miracle on that day!