Tomakomai has a new face!

Hello! How goes everyone. So today and this week was a pretty crazy and a pretty fun week. So the transfer was this week and it turns out that I'm not transfering. Turns out that I'm staying in Tomakomai and I became a trainer. My new companion is Elder Benson. He is from Georgia, Atlanta, but for 10 years of his life he spent it in Hong Kong. He doesn't know Chinese though. He's pretty cool. Another really cool thing is that he doesn't know Japan at all! He doesn't know the culture or the food, or the language...so it's a little bit of a struggle, but he's doing way good. He tried Natto for the first time the other day and it was way funny. Turns out he doesn't like it. He is not a very picky eater, is what he told me, but turns out that he doesn't like Natto. Also, we went at ate Yakiniku today and it was delicious! I ate like 4 plates of it. I love Yakiniku. It's pretty much meat that you put on the grill. It's pretty awesome! But yeah, Anyways...a little off the subject...this week was great! I don't have my journal with me today, because the place where we were emailing at closed, and we were going to search for a new place today, and we happened to find a place, but I didn't think we were actually going to get to email today, so I didn't bring it. But the start of the week was pretty good. Huefner choro got the call that he was transfering and he got all panicky cause he's never transferred before, so that was a pretty funny experience. Then on about Wednesday we got the call to go down to Sapporo and then on Wednesday, I got to sit in a bunch of meetings about being a new missionary with my new companion, and then on Thursday we got to go back to Tomakomai, and that night we had an appointment set up with this one guy. Murayama-san, and for Benson choro's first missionary lesson out in the field we set a baptism date, so that was a pretty big miracle! It was very very good. We are actually planning on meeting him tonight so we'll see where it goes. This week we also met with Endo-san, and he is still doing ok...he needs to have more faith for a better world. This week was pretty much shot, because of transfers, so we didn't have too many lessons, but we did a ton of finding, and we talking to many a people. Benson choro did his best to talk to some people too. We also had a wonderful experience a few weeks ago, with Huefner choro, we found this one mom, Sato-san, and she was just like any other mother, told us she was busy and that we could come back to share a message about families. So when we went back to the house Huefner choro was saying that "ohh, just wait, when we meet the dad, he's going to be totally against us", and then I told him to have a little faith...the dad is going to be a golden, just wait! And then sure enough when we visited them the 2nd time, the dad came to the door, and totally wanted to hear the message. So we set up another appointment, and FINALLY, Benson choro and I got to go visit them, and sure enough, it was like a golden family. The mother had heard the bible and got taught the bible before and the dad was totally like "Yeah, if it will help my family, I want to listen!" So it was a way good lesson. The Spirit was there in abundance, and it was a way way way good lesson! The little girl in the family was telling her dad that she wanted to go to church and it really seemed like they were going to come, but the dad said that he couldn't make any promises cause he wasn't sure if he could wake up. But it was one of the best family lessons I've ever had! And we are suppose to go visit them next Saturday so I'm stoked! But one thing that we could've done that might have been a little rude...so the mom put some coffee on the table, and we told her before hand that we were just fine with water, so we didn't drink the coffee, and just left in there sitting in front of us, and so when we left, it might have been a little rude in their eyes, so we'll have to remember to apologize.

Ohh, I also just wanted to add in here, that I totally got hit by a car today!!! It was a pretty awesome experience. We were on our way back from shopping, and the car came out of the parking lot and hit me...and I fell over into the puddles on the street. It was a good time. Nothing really happened. All the eggs in my backpack broke. The lady was telling me that I should go to the hospital, but yeah, What an adventure! But it's been a good go down here in Tomakomai. We are having a good time! We're working so hard on Benson choro's Japanese, so hopefully he improves a lot! Hope all is well elsewhere. I hear that they might be opening Sendai mission back up sometime soon. Obviously not the whole of it, but little cities on the outskirts here and there, so maybe we'll be able to go back. But who knows when that will be. It's tough to say. Hope everyone had a good Easter and Mother's day...I think...I'm not exactly sure when holidays are here in Japan.

1st Regular week in a while, I'd say...

So this week was pretty good. This is a weird picture of us shaving...yeah. Last week we went to the tourists center in Tomakomai and the lady gave us a bunch of cool things to look at. It was interesting. There's not really much here in Tomakomai, but there is a bunch of cool stuff in the other citys around. The old Indians of Japan...called Ainu, have this little museum thing over in the next city. And apparently there is like a super crazy beautiful lake up north in the next city. So we got the shaft here in Tomakomai I guess...ohh well! But last week on Monday there was a pretty cool expirience. So me and Huefner choro were dendoing in a big apartment complex and we were on the bottom floor of the complex and as soon as we were done with one of the last doors, this guy comes in from outside and starts chewing us out...big time! He is like yelling at us and telling us that we shouldn't be trying to spread our religon and telling us that if we keep trying to dendo, the people in the apartments are going to get annoyed and call the police and he just went on and on and on...but I have no idea what happened, but within the next 15 minutes of us talking to him and him yelling at us...it ended up that he was cool with what we were doing and as he went up the elevator he was telling us to keep up the good work! How cool is that? What a miracle! He went from totally angry to way cool with everything. Didn't care to listen to our message, but he wasn't fuming anymore. That my friends is totally the Spirit, and the power and authority of a missionary. Our calling is from God.

Tuesday...yeah, today wasn't as productive as it could've been. We had two lessons spoke on us, so during the time we could've been teaching, we talked with one of the couples in the branch and their conversion story and it was pretty cool. Sister Saito had been waiting pretty much her whole life for her husband to get baptized, and he finally did! Pretty cool story. The members in Japan have crazy conversion stories.

Wednesday...we had a lesson with our Sasaki-san. (We thought he was a golden...) But on Wednesday we set a Baptism Date with him and it was a good lesson. We also met with Endo-san. He is the brother of the former Branch President. Endo-san is a pretty good guy...we have been working with him for some time now...he is finally praying and reading. Next on the list is getting him to church, but he (like almost all the japanese investigators) has problems being in big groups...so we'll just have to keep working with him. Then I dendoed a little bit with Takei choro, and we went and visited some less actives and one of their investigators. Kanenishi Family is like 30 year old less actives...so they might come back to see the new church building. Then there is Kimura-san, who we visited and we pretty much talked to her about God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost and what the differences are. But I can't stand when people smoke in their houses. It just kills me! I can't breath and then I come out smelling disgusting, but that's life.

Thursday...Today we had a good Weekly Planning Session. Then we went to teach Endo-san. I want to help this man so much....he has so much potential! But yeah, the lesson, I believe, was on Prayer. He didn't really understand why we would pray and so we explained it to him and told him to pray before he goes to bed. But Thursday night we visited Ipposhi-san. He is a pretty cool guy. He drives like this wicked awesome sports car and he is a business man. He is about 26 I think. But we met him before...like a long time ago, and we recently bumped into him again and we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and about the Word of Wisdom. He didn't think he could quit smoking, but we promised him that if he kept meeting with us, he could. But I just love his lessons. He is an outspoken guy so it's so funny to hear him be hesitant and deny the things we're saying, but then have that spark of intrest. I don't know how to explain his lessons, but I love them!

Friday...Today was Zone Conference. It was a pretty good time. We learned a lot! Short bold contacts, Member lessons, and President Daniels always does this deep dive stuff that is always pretty interesting. This week he talked about how the Book of Mormon is true, and we went into what Intelligence is, and what the Soul consists of, and stuff like that. We also talked about how Joseph Smith's background, and the 3 witnesses, and like Book of Mormon chiasmus'. It was pretty cool I guess. Then after Zone conference...we played Dodgeball...how weird is that? So yeah...I ran around in my suit for a little bit. It was exciting.

Saturday...We met with Sasaki-san today, the one with the Baptism Date, and he pretty much dropped out on us. So we are one investigator/baptism date short. It was too bad, but hopefully he will meet the missionaries again some day. Had another lesson with Endo-san, and then with Suzuki-san...he is like 20's and he came for the first time to the church and we did a little tour and did a lesson. It was pretty cool. He was a pretty cool kid. We're planning on meeting with him again in like a week. I also thought about thoughts today...interesting statment isn't it?...what are thoughts made of? Why do we have to watch our thoughts, words, deeds? It was a good time.

Sunday...We had a good time at church today, just like everyweek. The Tomakomai Branch is so awesome! I love them all so much! The other Elders got one of their Investigators to church. Ito-san. He seemed pretty cool with church. He also got to hear a talk on Tithing...haha. He now doesn't think that tithing is a good thing, but at least he thought church was good. So we ended this week with 10 scheduled lessons which is way good, I hear. The rest of the day on Sunday, we pretty much rode all over town to invite people to come to the Branch FHE tomorrow, so that should be pretty fun. I'm excited. Hopefully someone comes! I'm counting on it!

Well that's the extent of my week this week. We had a pretty fun week, and the weeks, from here on out, are going to start getting faster and faster. This week already went by crazy fast! It's incredible how fast weeks go by. It's because as missionaries we're trained to use pretty much every second of our day effectively. I really want to keep that principle in action after the mission. But I hope everyone else's week's were good! Keep up the good work!

New Address

By the way...this is my new address!

 

Lay Choro

Sapporo-shi, Chuo-ku, Kita-2 Jo-Nishi 24-1-25

064-0822

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Tomakomai!!

This is my companion holding a spatula! Anyways I'm running out of time today, so I'll get right to it

This week we saw a ton of miracles! Last week on Monday for P-day I bought myself some fresh shoes! They are pretty cool...I don't have a picture of them...so I guess they're not that cool, but yeah. But while I was getting a hair cut, the barber was telling me a little about where she was from and what she did before and stuff. And I told her I was a missionary and she got all excited, cause she has seen tv shows where churchs sing hymns and stuff. and I told her that our church sings hymns!! And invited her to come...she still hasn't come, but I thought it was the start to a great week! Later that day, we tryed visiting a former Kinjin (golden) and we found his friend, and he said he was kind of interested, which was pretty good. We haven't talked to him since, but yeah, we are waiting for his other friend to get home from China so that we can teach them both.

Tuesday, yeah, my companion was having a bad time this day, I think, and we weren't really teaching with the spirit and some of the things I was doing was getting on his nerves, but Tuesday we had English class and during it, I didn't feel the spirit at all. But in terms of days, it wasn't horrible. It was a so-so day.

Wednesday, So today we had some guy, Onishi-san, talk to us, and he said that he has been meeting with the Jehovahs Witnesses and they can't answer his questions and he didn't really understand the bible very much, so we decided to talk to him about some things. We brought him to the church to try and find one of our bibles, but alas, as inprepared as we were...the church didn't have a bible!!!! ahhhh! How could this be! But we set up another appointment and brought our bibles. But yeah, that was not a very good day in terms of preparedness. We also met with the Ogasawara family and talked to them a little about FHE and families and such. I pretty much got aquainted with the little girl while my companion was talking to the mom. It was fun, but they don't seem like they have any interest at all. Hopefully a Branch FHE will change that! Ohh, and we also met this guy Yoshida-san. we met him at a crosswalk and he told us that his parents met us a while ago when he was younger. And he said he was going to go eat food, so he invited us to go with him. I was hesitant, but decided we could go. Right before we arived at the place we were going, he told me that recently his son committed suicide, and then asked if we wanted to go in to eat. The place kind of looked like a bar, but I wasn't sure...but I just felt like we needed to talk to him a little more. So we went in and yes...it happened to be a bar...but to make things less awkward...(or more awkward..) I can't decide...I started talking to the waiter and the people sitting at the bar about Jesus, and we had a group conversation about our Savior and about God and it was way funny! I'm pretty much 100% sure that everyone thought it was the most awkward thing Ever! But yeah, so while I was taking on the rest of the people, my companion tried to teach Yoshida-san about the plan of salvation. We got his number and his address, and we got out of there within like 15 minutes. I probably wouldn't suggest doing this to anyone, but I thought it was pretty cool. Everyone was too drunk to understand what I was saying, but at least we talked to EVERYONE in the bar about Christ.

Thursday, we met with Sasaki-san. He was this one guy that I met at the bus stop a week or so ago, and I asked him if he believes in God, he said that he did, but God wasn't helping him recently. So I asked him if he'd like to know why and then we set up an appointment, and I thought nothing of it. So when we met him today, he was totally a Golden. He told us that he has been looking for a Christian church recently, and he doesn't like the "traditions of his fathers" because he can't feel anything with Buddhism. So yeah, he is still in the works, but What a Miracle, right!? So later that day we met with the above mentioned Onishi san again, and he was ok. He just had a bunch of questions from the Bible that we answered. Then later that day, while we were contacting, I told this lady that we were sent from God to her house to give her a message, and she seemed stunned out of her mind! It also made the situation better, because it was like 8:30 at night...and she was just freaked out! It was kind of funny.

Friday, we visited a Less Active and taught him about temples and he got excited, which was good. Then later that night we visited a Part Member family to talk to the Son. He wasn't really paying any attention, but it was a good lesson...maybe. He's still in the works.

Saturday....Conference! Yay! Also the Jehovah's Witnesses came to our door today...it was pretty funny. Ohh and during the one our break we had between sessions, we found another Golden! he is the brother of this branches former Branch President. So hope we can get him moving too. He actually came to church for an hour on Sunday which was way good!

Sunday...Conference! Yay! We visited this one family we set up an appointment with about 2 weeks ago, and we were hoping that this mother didn't talk to her husband and her husband to be against the message, but I gathered up my faith and hope and I told Huefner choro that the father is going to have interest too. Turns out that when we visited them, the father had a lot of interest and told us that we could come back next week. So that was another miracle! Crazy! We also were reaquainted with one of our former PI's this week. Ipposhi-san. He is a hipster...haha. he rides a crazy nice car, and last time we met with him we told him that he can recieve revelation from God and the whole time he was like "No way!" So he is still in the works too, but yeah!

Crazy awesome week right? I love this work! I could do it all the time! The miracles are coming and it's crazy! I hope we can get these people closer to our Lord. They are definatly prepared people! Well I gotta go, but thanks for everything!

Mountain...

Someone told me they wanted a picture of the mountains so here is one. I didn't take the picture, but...yeah

Zone Conference in Hakkodate!

This is the Zone...I have a little extra time so I might as well put this one up here. Haha...Sis Yoshida is scratching her face...or something...I don't know what shes doing...

Tomakomai

This is the apartment and my district. Yes...everyone in the apartment makes 1 district...

Hakkodate...

This is the Beautiful Hakkodate...actually this picture is not very good...but it's way pretty in real life!

Train ride

This was on the way to the airport! Last times with Pres Tateoka and Sis Tateoka. My hair is discheveled...

This was the day we got our call to go to Sapporo!

I was so freaked out! haha...

Baptism

This was our Baptism and my companion. This is Saito Kyodai and thats the person who baptised him and then my companion Elder Ruefenacht!

Hakkodate Zone in Sapporo!

Hey all! Well this week I finally have some time to put something on this website! I finally got a breath! Well since it's been like 2 weeks since I've said anything...I'm going to try to attempt to sum up all of the last two weeks. So starting in my journal entry for the 15th of March. So we get this call from the Honbu that all of the missionaries in the zone that was affected by the earthquake are going to be transferred to the outer areas. So that didn't really effect me and my comp since we were all the way out in the boonies. But we were kinda getting excited about the transfers that were coming up. Dendo at this time was really hard. We couldn't focus or anything. Taking to people about their families and thinking about the people in Sendai was really focus-wrentching...but we did our best. The 16th, we get a call from our Zone Leaders telling us that Tateoka President is riding his car up to your apartment to pick you up! So me and my companion freaked out a little bit and we started packing and going crazy and then about 4ish we call the president and ask him when hes going to get there and he tells us that he doesn't know, but to get all our stuff packed up cause we are going to Sapporo! Ohh goodness...So we packed all of our stuff in the space of like 1 hour and then just sat and waited for the President to come pick us up. So the president got to our apartment the next day and we had to carry our luggage on our laps for like 3 hours down to Niigata. My bag weighed like 200kgs...mind you. It was a horrible ride, but my legs got over it! So after we get to Niigata, we get on the shinkansen down to Tokyo and then take the plane to Sapporo. And on that plane, President Chea was there. The area president's 1st councilor for East Asia. He spoke in conference like last year or so...(I didn't know that...haha) But then we get to Sapporo and are greeted warmly by all of our Sendai missionaries and then some of the Sapporo missionaries that were mingled in there.

The next day we went to a big mission-wide meeting and we had talks from Pres. Chea and Tateoka, and Sis Tateoka and it was one of the most legendary meetings of my life! We as LDS-ians have lots of meetings, but this one was legendary. Tateoka President is most honored and respected by us all now. He was before, but...ohh that meeting was legendary. It was just about what we were suppose to do and how we were suppose to do it for the rest of our mission. So good! We were all pumped up like crazy! Then the next day we had a meeting with all of Sapporo and all the Sendai missionaries. There was a ton of people at that metting, but it was a way good meeting non-the-less. Daniels Pres and Sis Daniels spoke and told us the rules and helped up get a little bit more comfortable. We got our new companions and my new comp is Elder Huefner. I still ended up being a district leader. and pretty much every area in Sapporo mission got a 4 man apartment. So we went back to our apartment in Tomakomai, and Huefner choro was the only one in this area that knew the area. The 4 of us in the apartment are all from Sendai and he was the only one from Sapporo and he is only on his 2nd transfer...so it was really frusterating for the 3 of us for the first little while, because we didn't know what we were doing and my comp didn't really either. Luckly that is now not the case, so we can just forget about that.

After getting settled in, I was a bit stressed out for the 1st week...maybe. Way difficult! My comp was stressed too cause he was trying to do everything for us...but yeah. We finally got used to it and everything is back to normal now, so thats good! Well that was my transfer! Crazy, right?? Was crazy, but it was an adventure!

So then our first or second P-day...I cant remember, but one of them...we had a Zone P-day...and we went to Hakkodate Tower...or something like that. It is supposeably the 2nd most beautiful sight in the world. You pretty much ride up a gondola and then look out off of the tower and look at the lights! It was incredible! It makes it even cooler because Hakkodate is an island and you can see the edges of the sea and stuff. But that was my P-day for the first week and why I couldn't email, and this week I finally get a regular P-day. It turns out that people in Sapporo actually use their P-day for cool stuff...haha. We always just dendo'd on P-day back in Sendai...haha. But this past week has been really good! We've just been hitting the streets and dendoing our tails off! It's been really good. We still don't have anyone strong yet...but we are really close with some people. The way they count numbers and stuff in Sapporo is a little different, so it took some getting used to, but we are all pretty ok with it now. umm...yeah, I actually have some pictures I want to put up, so I guess I want to end this email. But yeah. One thing I do want to say about Tomakomai is that the Branch here is SOOOOOO awesome! I love the Branch here! Especially the little ones at church. They are so cute! They run around and cause havoc and it reminds me that "ahhh...this is how church is suppose to be..." haha...well anyways...hope everyone is doing good! Good luck with everything!