What's up Sendai?

So this week on Monday we had Takeshi-san's first AB Lesson. It was pretty good. We talked about the Pioneers of the church. Talked about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail and about the seagulls that saved the pioneers in Utah, and it was a way good lesson. Lately we have been just trying to find people all over the place. All of our Investigators dropped us. Way sad, but yeah, so we are pretty much starting at 0 again. So all of our time consists of trying to find people. On Wednesday we had Eikaiwa again, and after it we had a party for Takeshi-san because it was his birthday! So we made a cake and presented it to him. So then this week we also went to Furukawa and did splits with them there. Ellsworth choro and his new missionary are working way hard down there and we just went to help them out a little bit. On Friday we came back from Furukawa and right after we came back we had a lesson with a girl named Mei, and we passed her to the shimais. She's way good though. Too bad we didn't keep her...haha. Ohh well. After Mei's lesson we had another activity and it was pretty awesome. My baptism from a year ago was there at the activity and he was doing way good. It's the first time I've seen him for a really long time. Ohh and then the other day me and Mizuochi choro were on splits in Kamisugi and we got attacked by a drunk man. It was pretty retarded, but whatever. So I stopped him in the street and he started to get fired up at me because I am a foriegner and so then I started walking away and before I knew it he was running after me, so I figured I could either put him down right there or try not to make a fuss of things, so I kinda just jog/ran away...he was way old...haha. Then Mizuochi choro stayed afterwards at tryed to talk him out of coming to the church. and during all that we got spilt up a little bit, but I kind of went back to see what was going on with Mizuochi choro and him and before I knew it the guy grabbed his tie and tryed to beat him up but he ran away...(the opposite way) So we got split up and we have no idea what happened to the drunk old man, but it was pretty intense. Anyways this week was pretty good. So hopefully it will be a ton better next week. We kind of need investigators...but other than that everything it great!

Castle

This is the castle from last year...

Takeshi's Baptism

This is Takeshi's Baptism

Toilet

yeah, we did the same thing as a year ago! Awesome stuff.

Baptism!

Well I guess this week was pretty good...seeing as we got a baptism. We have been working with Takeshi-san a ton and he is progressing way good. He got baptised the other day and then got confirmed yesterday. Now we are just trying to make him the best member in the branch. He is so pure and he pretty much absorbs everything we teach him. He is pretty awesome! Also we had his little sister come to the baptism and it was a way good time. Also the Stake President, Sugawara Kaicho give a huge talk on the gospel. He pretty much spilled out the whole entire gospel in like 30 minutes, going from the Fall of Adam up to Heavenly Mother, and like Purpose of Life and Space and a lot of weird stuff, it was awesome...kind of, it was kind of hard for the missionaries to understand so guarentee that it was hard for the recent converts. Anyways, we met with Takeshi-san's little sister for a little bit, and we got her to be interested in our message and what not, and then the day that Takeshi-san got baptised, we went to the Sato Bishop's house to eat some dinner and we invited the Baptism-ee and his sister. So it was pretty awesome! She had a blast, I'm pretty sure, and I think it was a way good thing for Takeshi-san to see a real LDS family in action!

So we also did a good Takoyaki party the other day and we invited everyone that we could and we got about 8 non-members at the party. It was pretty good. From here on out we are going to do Activity Dendo. And its going to be great! So yeah, for those of you that don't takoyaki...it's octopus in a ball, and you eat it. And it's delicious, but anyways, today we went somewhere for P-day. We went to the Aoba Castle and we looked around. I've been there before, so all of the same pictures that I got a year ago with my trainer, I got again with Page choro. It was pretty fun. We got a bunch of people to come with us.

Well, sorry this is so short. But that's pretty much all I can think of for the week. I'm sure there was a ton of other things, but I just can't seem to remember them, and I'm running out of time, and I haven't written in my journal for like a week, and it's crazy. But I guess that's all. I will for sure put a picture of the Baptism next week, so Yoroshiku!

Takeshi-san, story of a kinjin.

So since last time...we have been meeting with Takeshi-san every day for the past week and he is going really well. We have just been strengthening his faith and getting him to stop smoking, but he is doing awesome. We got this really cool non-smoking program that we have been getting Takeshi-san working on. It deals with brushing your teeth every morning the second you wake up, and drinking grapefruits juice and a bunch of other funny stuff, but it actually works! Anyways, just yesterday we actually got to meet his little sister. We have been planning on meeting his family for a few days now and we finally got to meet his little sister. She was way awesome. We did a lesson with her and Takeshi, and then afterwards we went to eat some lunch with them. And she told us during the lesson that she was going to come to his baptism. So from that, hopefully she will have to desire to do the same thing as her older brother. It would be pretty cool to see something like that happen. Brother and Sister getting baptized...So as of now, we will have Takeshi-san's baptism on the 20th of this month. He goes around telling everyone that coming in contact with Page choro and I was a miracle from God, and he goes on and on...it's pretty awesome to see his testimony grow.

We have also been meeting with Mariko-san for a while, and this week we had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom...and she has a big problem with it, so we'll see how she goes. Her fellowshiping in the ward is amazing though...she has so many friends in the ward it's way awesome. I think they are all going out to eat in a few weeks together.

Anyways...as for funny stories...we went to a members house the other day, Furukawa couple, and they are known for feeding the missionaries tons of food. So we had 8 missionaries and a few members there, and we couldn't even get 1/4 of the food off the table. It's always a battle when missionaries go there. Apparantly there have been a number of missionaries that throw it all up before they leave the house. Ellis choro and Mizuochi choro had a ton of food, they didn't throw up, but they were sick for a few days...pretty funny.

On the same day that we went to the Furukawa's we had service, and this time we went to Natori city to make lamps for the city festival...pretty weird, but whatever. We made a ton of the lanterns and then we got to watch the Waseda University's orchestra play some stuff for us...it was kind of not normal, but yeah pretty awesome. The lanterns are for the deceased spirits to find there way safely back to heaven...or something along those lines. It's a festival that they do every year, I think.

Other than that we have had a Zone Leader council to figure out more about what all the rules are going to be for the mission and etc., and we also did a meeting with the mission president and the stake president to talk about all the missionary's and missionary work going on in the stake. Hopefully these meetings will be put to good use. On the way back from one of the meetings President Rasmussen told us all the transfers that are going to happen in the Zone and told us to get ready for them. Next transfer hopefully we don't have any problems in the zone, but it sounds like it's going to be another good transfer. So hopefully it will be! We are staying in Kamisugi for another transfer, and we are probably going to be here for a few more after that too, so this is where I'll be. Peace!

PS. Thanks Hailey and Grandma & Grandpa! I Love you guys!

Baptism Interviews...what is up?

So this week we had another pretty good week. We've been working a lot with Takeshi-san, and also with Mariko-san, and with Rei shimai. Yes, in Japanese we have the same name, but she is the bishops daughter and she is Less-Active. So we have been doing things with them to get her back and such...the other day we made a bunch of little things for the ward with a scripture on it, it was pretty much just to say thanks and pretty much just came up with an activity in order to get Rei to do something with us, so we could keep working on getting her back. Pretty intense, but yeah, so on Wednesday we had a crazy good day! We had like 7 lessons in a row and it was way good. Also Page choro and I are getting way awesome at teaching Eikaiwa...we are rocking it now-a-days. We play a bunch of different games and are just super excited and it always turns out awesome! There have been people that come to Eikaiwa that came up to us afterwards and told us that they didn't really want to come but they were so glad that they did, cause it made them laugh and they had a blast! So then on Thursday we went down to one of the University's, and pretty much walked right on campus (which is kinda sketchy here in Japan), but we did it anyways, and all the sudden one of the lady's that worked at the school came up to us and asked us if we were missionaries, and we told her that we were, and asked her if she knew where we could get a map of the school, and she was like "Ok, just wait here for a second...it's a secret" Then she came running back and gave us this crazy awesome map of the school, and apparently she quit being a Mormon a long time ago, but she keeps in contact with her missionaries over facebook. Funny stuff. She was stoked on Facebook. So then we also thought that we were going to have a Baptism this weekend, but turns out that it didn't happen. So on the day of the Baptism interview, Takeshi-san had a crazy bad day apparently. He showed up to the appointment an hour-half late and by that time we couldn't do the interview and it turns out that he smoked 60 cigarettes in that day! Crazy! That's 3 packs of cigarettes...in a single day...so that was a crazy shocker...Satan's power is real. I can't even freakin' believe it. The last "almost" baptism was ridiculous! This one is getting even crazier...so we were way bummed out, and it was pretty bad, but yeah, but we got him on repentance and stuff...so I'm pretty sure he'll get over it and then be baptized next week. Hopefully! So yeah, it's been a good/bad week...like all weeks, but yeah...keep it up in America! Peace!

Finding, Teaching, Baptizing.

So Hey again. It's another week here in the outskirts of the East. But Sendai is the best! So I got a new planner for the week, but I think I can remember a bunch of things that I've done recently. So the first thing to say of worth is that Page choro and I have been teaching this guy named Takeshi-san, and he is just blossoming like a flower. We actually really really wanted to move his baptism date up to the 6th of this month, but instead I guess we'll just leave it at the 13th. We originally thought that he could be baptized on the 13th, but turns out that we keep meeting him and meeting him and turns out that he could've been baptized on the 6th. But we had a lesson with him on Sunday...yesterday, and we had the Stake President joint for us, and Takeshi-san was hardcore testifying to the stake president that this church was true and all that, even though he probably has no idea who he was testifying too. It was pretty cool. He is definitely going to be a crazy good member. He is actually chillin' with us right now...but yeah. So then apparently there is going to be a Huge EFY session that is happening in Tokyo and Kyoto in a week or two, but all the people from the Sendai stake are going to go and they had this practice session to get the kids psyched for the event, and Page choro got to bear his testimony in front of all the kids that were going to EFY because Page choro is from North Carolina and he is pretty much in the same boat as them. Grew up with only a few Members in his school, and such...so he really felt a crazy close bond with them and testified that through EFY you can know if the church is true. It was pretty awesome. We have also been focusing on Goal setting lately...and you have to really know what you're doing when you plan goals and stuff. I have been learning tons about how to set goals and execute them. So hopefully it will be a good thing to take with me from here on out. But yeah we've also been thinking a ton about how to find people, cause in the mission right now that is the main problem...so me and Page choro have been trying to come up with a ton of ways to find some new people, and i'm pretty sure we are going to go intense mode on Japan over here. We're planning on taking on businesses and stuff...so I don't know what's going to happen, but hopefully it's something awesome! Anyways...the last thing I want to say is there is another person that we are teaching whose name is Mariko-san...she is a way good. Tonight we are planning on teaching her again, and she is way prone to feeling the Spirit, it's crazy! She is definitely going to get Baptized sometime soon, so that should be way good. It's people like Takeshi, and Mariko that make dendo totally worth it. It's awesome out here, and sorry to everyone that wrote me a letter and I didn't send anything back. I'm way busy, but I know that's no excuse...plus transfers made me lose some of my letters and stuff, so....yeah that's another excuse, but yeah. I'm sorry! Keep up the good summer! Have an awesome summer!