Rice Fields

Rice Fields

Knocking Doors

Another week. First full week of Chipman choro missionary work. So let us begin. Another slower week. We have been really focusing on trying to find new people so that has turned into a few 8 hour days knocking doors. Also a contributing factor was service. It was nice to be able to go do service again although it sounds like things with these organized groupings of services might be dying off because from what I heard the church has been fighting hard to get us into these services. Not sure why its so hard but I have heard they might just give up. Same old service as always. Picking up garbage. Nice to get together with all the other missionaries though. Always interesting to see how far you have come seeing all the "beans" being trained. I have heard it a lot but I'm starting to see it. This mission humbles people and shows you how prideful you are. Anyway. Heard from our member who referred H. san. H. san has continued to come to Eiakai so apparently after this few week break she called Sister Murata and said "Elder Carters Japanese is good enough now for me to start listening again....." What the what? I have improved that much?. Especially in that short time. Oh well whatever works. T. san. Where would we be without her. So on last Sunday one of our members apparently walked up to her and said, "So are you going to get baptized?" and she said "Yes" "Well in that case we should talk more about the church" "Ok" So she set an appointment with her without us there......thats weird. Anyway apparently T. san really liked it. Ha. Oh well. Then we had a lesson the next day and beat the subject of Baptism again. I'll be honest I almost feel like we talk about it too much. Set a new date for 6/16 so hopefully we can get everything in line for that. It was kinda funny at church though. In our pre-church meeting someone said she might not get baptized on that date and our branch president who jointed the last lesson just basically said, "No. She is getting baptized on that date yo." And then we had a person from the stake presidency there and he said something along the same lines and the member that visted her herself came over and said he was wrong and that she would be baptized. She really wants too. Just two more commandments and we are there. Companionship is going good. He's really sad about leaving Misawa with the air force base but soon we will persuade him into liking Furukawa. Ok so you didn't tell me about the triplets call to every part of Mexico. Thats way funny. The rice fields are pretty cool here. We have taken a lot of pictures with them. Yay for Rumple eventually coming out....maybe. Funny that that is the thing you talked about today father. We have talked a lot about asking questions in teaching lately. Well love you all. Talk to you next week.

New companion

Hey family! Whats up? It was good to hear from you all last week. As everyone mentioned the time went by fast. Kinda felt like I didn't talk about anything of substance, they always tell us to plan what we are going to say and to share experiences but I'll be honest I just share them all in the emails so yeah. Nothing left for the calls. So we had splits this week and I got a chance to meet Steve Howells old investigator but she was too busy so we only got a chance to talk for like 3 minutes. It was really too bad, hopefully I get another chance to go talk to her in the future with splits. Oh and happy birthday mother. Ok just because this basically all that happened this week might as well get on with it. So Mead choro got suddenly transferred to Hachinohe and my new companion is also my old MTC kohai his name is Elder Chipman and he is from Apple Valley. Crazy eh? Back to your lives. Holy cow freaky to see mandy in a wedding dress. Just going to say that much. Thanks for the package, some good stuff. Spiffy tie. I wll be sure to wear it. Takahashi san came to church again. yay! She never showed for our appointment this week. To be honest we didn't teach anyone this week. Sad. Oh well hopefully Takahashi san can do it. Kinda super short today but yeah. Thats all for today.

Rain, Rain

District Training Meeting

District Training Meeting with Elder Mead Hello family. Sounds like life is going pretty crazy for people at home and to be honest your week may have been more exiting than mine. This week just seemed to pass without getting a whole lot accomplished. Sigh. Our only investigator lesson this week was with "H"San. We started to get more bold with her that meeting with us is a waste of everyone:s time if she won:t keep commitments. I:m not sure she completely got the point but still she finally took a book of Mormon which is a step, now lets she if she reads any. "T"san. Sigh. This is why I don:t like people that have baptismal dates. They just seem to fall off the face of the earth. We have been trying really hard to contact her a lot but its been hard. She is like never home. Too busy for lessons this week and when we visited her before church she said she would come but didn't. So basically this baptismal date has basically become impossible. Sigh. Definitely can happen, just not on the 20th. Sorry mom. Random comment. So we had our crazy drunk investigator this week and as we were leaving he told Mead choro that he looked like Audrey Hepburn (Don:t know how to spell) but he kinda is right. We had our member look it up. On Saturday we went to the Ishinomaki branch:s BBQ. Talk about a pain in the rear. We had to go through our district leader, then zone leader, then get permission directly from President Rasmussen. We were there to meet an old investigator that moved to Furukawa because their house got destroyed in Ishnomaki. Anyway. We get there and no explains anything so we were quite confused the whole time waiting for this investigator to show up. Finally I hear someone call to the person that is running the activity "Ishikawa san" Wait, thats the name of the referral. "Where do you live?" "Furukawa" Talk about a surprise. I thought he was part of the branch presidency or something. Looked and acted exactly like a member. Anyway. Couldn't get their contact information then but said they would like to meet again so heres hoping. Anyway to answer your question mother. Looking back it feels like time has gone by fast but forward it still seems like a long time. Bridal shower sounded like a good success. Good job to Kris and everyone else that did good work there. I love these stories of little A. He is such a little stinker. Ha. We did get told about suit coats. President is all about being professional so he said when the business men in our area take off their jackets we can too. Kinda weird so not yet. The Eikaiwa posters were not my idea. But I will take credit. Ok so recently the rain has been ridiculous! Two of the rivers in the Sendai city area flooded. Didn't really cause that big of a problem but still. Even the Japanese people were taken off guard how much rain there was. We got double a regular months worth of rain in one day. The telephone number for the mothers day call is the same as Christmas so whatever worked then use the same one. the last numbers will be 80-2149-6399. Anyway. Apparently my instructions didn't work out so well last time but you did it so just do what you did last time. Well that:s all for today I think. Talk to you next week. Can tell lots of stories then I guess although I have no stories. Oh well. Love you. Talk to you soon. Do you ever hear from any of the B2 brethren? Written back and forth with Orlando a few times but other that that no.

Progress

Hey peeps! What up? So today has been super busy. Spent most of the day in Kamimachi for a members Organ concert. She is super good. She seemed happy that we came. Also was fun to spend a day with members just chillaxing. Then got invited over to one of our (kinda la (because he is busy as the mayor))members house and chillaxed. "H"san even came. Good but kinda tiring day. Anyway onto the weeks report. First "T"san. Finally were able to do a lesson with "T"san with our member present again. To be honest it was a pretty rough lesson for the first half. Then she started asking questions (to our member) and things started turning up. Which led to something we had briefly talked about the morning before. Committing her to baptism. We told her the date and she walked up to the calendar kinda nodded then said, "Well I don:t have anything planned that day so I think we are good" Ha. Wow. Not sure she completely understands but even after clearing up what that meant she still seemed for it. Also just looked at us and said, "If I understand todays scriptures right I need to start reading this book and praying a lot" Ha. I had to bite my lip and not laugh. Just mustered out the, "Yeah I think that would be good too" So time is looking up for her. 5/20 is her date. Super fast, we:ll see if she can do it but the important thing is she is looking toward it. Nevertheless she didn't come to church on Sunday and haven:t been able to contact her since. doh! Getting a little worried. But heres hoping. Next so a little while ago we met a lady named "K"san. This week we were able to do a lesson with her. It was actually really cool. She had met with the Jehovah Witnesses before so she knows a little bit about the bible but we were able to teach her pretty good I think. Always know someone is pretty good when they deal with you mistakes of japanese and such. Really hopeful for her. She kinda freaked out a little when I offered baptism but that wasn't too much of a surprise. Just trying to obey the rules of offering the first lesson. But we invited her to church and guess what, she came! She was late but she called before and told us. That was a first for me. Investigators never call me! Ha. Oh well. The members really took a hold of her. She already feels like a member! Somewhat concerningly our lesson this week in Sunday school was about getting more people baptized so we can build a church. Ha. Not the best lesson with an investigator. Oh well. Don:t have a lesson this week but next week have an appointment. Ok this one is randomish and a little hard to explain but every transfer we have a mission newspaper like thing that gets sent to us. Lots of good stuff is in it but a big section is just parts from letters to the president that were inspiring or taught something good. Its always been my hope to make it. And I did this last transfer! Ha. I made it! Yay! We had splits this week. Super fun. Got to visit an American family. Its been a long time since that. She gave me tortillas (impossible to find in Japan). Lots could be said about that but no time. Eikaiwa (English lessons) some goodness new things happening. Finally had a new person come which is a first for me in my mission. Also lately we have been bringing eikaiwa posters around to schools to see if we can get younger people. Talk about feeling like a terrorist. Just walking into these schools branding religious propaganda with huge back packs and two foreigners. Its still terrifies me. But we were able to post them at one school so hopefully that helps. Mothers day. I was thinking you would call at 11 my time. Which I think is 8pm mothers day for you. Plan B. Keep calling till it works. Its p^day so it should work. Random question. A little while ago you said President Wilstead was called as a mission president but never told me where. Where is he going? The weather is good. Still haven:t got the ok to take off our suits yet so thats annoying but oh well. We have 1 youth. He is a boy and we do seminary with him. Very lonely. We have 1 single adult too.

Leadership Training

And just like that another transfer has come and its onto number 6! Today was transfer calls (or for us, lack thereof) so another transfer in Furukawa. The next one is when it gets "dangerous" for me. Chance I could be out of here after this transfer. It will have been a little more than 6 months then. This week was rough with investigators. Met with none of our big ones. For a variety of reasons, some weren't home for appointments, others were our fault of having meetings only time they could meet. Sigh. Although the old woman "M"san came to church yesterday without us even asking. Its was cool. She really didn't pay attention while I was teaching Gospel principles but just read the gospel principles book and then asked if she could borrow it. Ha. She ended up leaving it but whatever. We did get a new investigator this week being the man that doesn't think prayers can make it to heaven on an empty stomach. His name is "M"san. He is a nice man. He bought us sashimi (what Americans think of sushi (raw fish)). We weren't able to do much of a lesson only about God and then he went off with the Japanese belief that there is a God in everything. Oh well. Also he might only have interest in Americans.....I wonder. Only time will tell. We have one old investigator like that. Whenever I call him to invite him to activities he tried to set appointments with us, super backwards but he just wastes our time so I have to avoid them. 2 Dresses? Really? Thats ridiculous. Thats all I have to say about. We bike quite a bit. 25-50 miles a day? I actually don't know at all. So three cool things this week. 1. We had leadership training from President. Normally I wouldn't attend such a meeting only district leaders, zone leaders, and trainers but President invited us all so we come and he explained his reasoning. "This mission is super young. Not all of you are leaders now but you are going to have to be soon so I figured I would have everyone attend" Also everyone had already cleared their schedules because we were suppose to have our Area President come talke to us but....he is now the Presiding Bishop. Funny thing that President showed us is that there are 5 or 6 high up in the church people that super close connections to japan. Elder Evans, over the missionary department......President Rasmussen was his Zone leader....ha. Super funny. Anyway. Tons of good stuff there. 2. So as I have said our branch president has been sharing his crazy vision the last little while with us but we never really have time to talk about it so called him up and asked if he could just meet with us and share his vision of how missionaries will fit into it. It was one of the cooler meetings I have attended with this man. I expected to have to ask a lot of questions but all I asked was "what is your vision for Furukawa" and he went off, first about the history of this branch, getting shut down, his fighting against the church because he wanted his branch back. ha. Definitely could feel the mans love for the branch and for these people. Then he just dug into us. Listing off what we needed to change. It was humbling because they were all good things. Sigh. Just have to put even a little more effort in. 6 months in this area no baptisms, people moving backwards....not good. 3. We had a BBQ as a branch. It was fun. Well I have already taken up too much time so that shall be all for now. Love you all. Talk to you next week.

Matsushima

What to say about this week? Hm. So I normally have a list of things to tell you about but this week I forgot to write it down. Oh well. Here it goes from memory.

Met with "H"san again. Same old same old. Although she gave us a referral.....kind of, she gave it to our referring member so we should hopefully get it from her soon. Oh well. She still is the same. Super talkative until we start teaching and then shuts off and tunes out. Not sure why. Also this week she finally told us that she lost her Book of Mormon before she even met Yamatani choro and I and therefore impossible every commitment we have told her to read which she said she would read. Therefore of course I offer a new one but no matter what we did she would not take it. Sigh. She asked me after the lesson and after Eikaiwa when she would be done with the lessons......horrible question. Maybe we just need to explain why were are here a little bit more. I don't get it. Anyway. Oh yeah dad she is in her 50s

"S"san we taught awhile ago. I swear I mentioned her. She had the husband that was buried in a Buddhist grave therefore became Buddhist. Said she would get baptized if her son got married. Anyway. Didn't meet this week hopefully next week.

"T"san is still pretty good. Couldn't get the joint with her this week again so that was too bad. He's really trying to be there though. She told us she would come to church but didn't so that was too bad but she did read about half the chapter we gave her to read. I about jumped up and down. Its been since Aizu since I've had a Q(investigator) read the Book of Mormon. Only time will tell. They all are moving so slowly if moving at all. We had one of our new Qs tell us after 5 or 10 years she could maybe feel it was the right thing to do to join the church. Grr. With that attitude no amount of time will work. As you said father they need to act.

Ok random story from a man we have met twice but still hasn't become a Q. Anyway. We call him up one night and he says we can come over. So we go over and we start just chatting and he is telling us about his job turning trash into energy and about the corrupt politics in places. I won't lie, it was fascinating. Anyway. That took a bit of time so we ran out of time and couldn't do a lesson but I was dead set on at least doing a prayer with him. So I ask if that would be ok and he said it would be BUT, he follows it up with, "What are you doing after this" "Going home and eating" "Therefore you are hungry" "A little yeah" "Well don't you know that prayers don't make it to heaven when you are hungry?" A bite of the lip supresses the laughter. Then he starts acting out my prayer going to heaven and falling out of steam. I lost it. Way too funny. The man loves to drink and I'm pretty sure little by little was getting drunk through our time together. Hilarious though! I didn't even fight it.

Anyway what else this week. Oh. We were riding out bikes this week and Mead choro's totally exploaded! So how do I explain this. So there are the back gears and there is a little gear hanging off the gears that when you change gears it moves and changes the gears. Well for some reason when he shifted this little wheel/gear assembly went inside his spokes. At this point at our cruising speed it has no chance and BOOM snaps in half. If you look at a mountain bike you might be able to see what happened. This is the third bike out of the missionaries that this has happened to. I'm worried for my bike.

So this one is for you father. So you always ask if we go anywhere fun. Well as a zone today we went to Matsushima. One of the top 3 most beautiful places in Japan! It was really cool. A lot of cool old stuff. Sent you some pictures so hopefully you enjoy them. Twas a lot of fun. Did lots of cool stuff etc. But one random story from it. So to save time we really didn't eat lunch but we bought what is called Curry bread. Basically bread with curry inside. Super good, probably super unhealthy. Anyway I'm enjoying my curry bread and waiting for the light to turn green when I feel what feels like someone slapping my hand. It was this big fat devil seagull. He knocked the bread out of my hands and his friends swooped out of no where and devoured it in 3 seconds flat. Then they flew off. By the end of it I was still in shock from the fact that I just got jumped by seagulls. It was so beautifully run by them. I was angry but also impressed. Anyway. Just saying. Japanese seagulls are crazy!

I got Beth's wedding announcement. First one to make it to my fridge. Crazy! Everyone is just getting married!

Yes there is a costco in Tohoku.....I think. There is also one in Tokyo area therefore the couple missionaries get to get it. They say its looks exactly like Costco but has all japanese stuff......except kirkland signature.

Congratulations to Kreigh! That is awesome!!!!!! Little Atreyu hopefully got some screen time in the credits! Glad he was able to do that. Sweet!

So I think that is it for this week. Love you all. Goodbye from tomorrow!