Short and sweet

So this is your 3 minute update for this week. Sorry its not the long one dad was hoping for.

I keep forgetting to tell mother this. Awesome mother and this 5k!

Finally got the ward package and yes mother your signature was not there. Really did take a month without priority postage. Interesting.

Oaks choro was pretty awesome

So quick update.

"T"san came to church this week with her little boy. Super good. Really hopeful for them. Still a lot of work we need for them but yeah.

"H"san we did not meet with but her relationship is still good. Have another appointment this week.

Thats basically it for updates on investigators. It was kinda embarassing to show the ward council a progress record with 4 names and hadn:t met with all of them. Oh well.

Hopefully next weeks letter will be longer and better. I will know my new companion then. Although we may not have much time because Yamatani choro will have to pack.

Only time will tell. Love you.

Elder Oaks Visit

Meeting Sister Oaks

About to meet Elder Oaks

So what to say.

So we will get this out of the way. "H"san. Long story. Didn't meet this week and because of a misunderstanding, our referring member might have offended her.....sigh. Here's hoping that all is well. "T"san who we haven't met with for like a month, we were finally able to do a lesson although our member kinda went off and derailed the lesson but it all turned out ok. So that is all for investigators. Quite the week eh.

So Elder Oaks. Was pretty cool. We able to take a picture with him which apparently is a rare thing because when I talked to sister Rasmussen before she said headquarters said absolutely not. I think its due to asking Elder Oaks directly and him saying it was fine. Anyway. Cool. We all got to talk to him and all the other speakers. It was like a wedding line. He is super funny and we talked about Washington a little. The funny one was the Elder in from of me who is from "Sparkle, UT" I think. Elder Oaks then explained in freakish detail where that was and how to get there. President Rasmussen then mentioned that was impressive. Elder Oaks just responded. "Well not many people know where that is, but I do." Ha. It was a really cool meeting.

The theme seemed to be that the last year we have been helping these people physically but now is the time to focus on the spiritual. Super strong talks. Elder Oaks I don't even know if he had a talk planned because he just built off all the other speakers. Also it was super funny because he shared this super long scripture and ended it with, "so you may be asking how that relates to what I have been talking about...well it doesn't, this machine brought me to the wrong chapter" Then holds up his iPad. Struggles for a minute. Turns to his wife "Give me the REAL scriptures" Everyone laughs. "This is the good stuff, the paper. Elder Packer made me get the iPad. And when your quorum president tells you to get an iPad you get an iPad" Ha. I chuckled.

For his meeting with the members, we ended up staying in Sendai so were able to shake his hand again which was cool. It kind of reminded me of Finding Faith in Christ. This really old man who obviously had a physical problem and looked to be blind was led in by his wife. One of Elder Oaks translators (there were 5 translators for 4 english speakers....not sure why) was tapped by her. She said something to him then he walked up to Elder Oaks, told him that the man wanted to meet him so Elder Oaks went over and the lady just bawled. It was the most pitiful, touching thing you could see. The scary part was that she started talking really fast old woman Japanese and his translator had ditched him so he looks at me the closest American and then the thought hits me "what if he wants me to translate.....I can:t tell an apostle no" Thankfully a translator swept in and helped. Saved!

Anyway. Super cool week. But I:m taking too much time. Maybe more next week. Or the week after because next week I think we are doing a "district p day" which means I might not be able to email. Just warning you.

Love you all hope all is well for you.

Elder Oaks is coming

Dear Family

So what to write about.....

This week was super relaxed and nothing too special. After the police last week, nothing seems too exciting anymore. Didn't meet with Chiba san, hopefully this week we will be able to. "H"san:s lesson went well. Set a baptism date for 4/8 which is super far away (although Mandy had dates a year in the future so who knows). She is a hard one but she has a desire to learn so we have to help her turn the hope and desire to learn into faith . And at that point I think she will be perfectly awesome. "S"san our buddhist friend is getting better too. She told us she knows what we teach is good and if her son gets married she could pass her buddhist responsibilities onto him and she would be baptized. Sadly the son doesn't look like he will ever get married. Thats basically it for our close investigators. We have a lot of investigators but don't meet with them every week. Thats the simple update of the investigators. These emails are hard to talk about them because there is so much related to them. I think about these people 24/7 and it's kind of hard to condense a persons life down especially to a number. I kinda dislike key indicators. District Leader: "Did they progress?" "Yeah, she is really building faith I think." "Then why do you have zero progressing investigators?" "Well she didn't fit that specific requirement" Sigh.

So we taught a lesson to a recent convert at the request of the area presidency on temples and how to get there. It was a disaster. Yamatani choro, our ward mission leader, and I did not know what we were talking about. We know she has to wait a year but she is not married so can she get an endowment?

Also is baptisms for the dead after a year also? PMG wasn't clear on that. Couldn't find the temple interview questions anywhere. Sigh. At least she knows temples exist now.

Elder Oaks comes this week so prep for that should be fun. All of the Aomori zone is coming to stay the night; 8 more elders in our apartment, so yeah. Then practicing singing, traveling, other prep. All good stuff. Basically that's it for this week. Love you all. Talk to you next week.

Preaching to the police

So here we are at another email. And to be honest it doesn:t feel like I have a whole lot to say this week but I will say what I have.

So this week during personal study I found again my mission goal type thing that I had before I left that I borrowed from the USU ward mission leader. Alma 29:9.....I think. Check it out.

Ok so the fun experience from this week happened Tuesday. We were housing and we get to our 3rd door. I ring, man asks who we are from behind the door as sometimes happens. Anyway I introduce us, he says a lot of things I don:t really understand. So I just thank him for his time and say bye (he didn:t sound too happy either so I felt this was best). Anyway I'm halfway down the stairs when I hear him open the door. Sometimes this also happens with me when people don:t understand me and know that Yamatani choro is there. So Yamatani choro introduces himself but he gets the same angry response. The man asks what we are doing and why. We happily answer these. Then he picks up his phone and dials a number, I assumed what was happening at this point and confirmed when I heard the word 'keisatsu" (police). So he really hates us to the level that he won:t even wait for the police with us and goes inside. So we chillax there fore like 30 minutes. Get some stuff ready for them, ministerial certificate, my alien card, our business cards, etc. So the police car pulls by but starts to pull away. This man had already wasted like 30 minutes of our time, so we didn:t want to wait any longer so we ran the cop car down. We get the "You're wasting my time" look from him but he gets out of the car and asks what we want. Yamatani choro then explains that he probably had just gotten a call about two strange christian men and that we were them. His countenance completely changed. Ha. He just laughed and started filling out the report. Asked some business questions. Then started asking more not business questions. "Why are you doing this? Oh cool. You teach english too? Sweet. Its free?!" Ha. Turned into a miniature lesson. Kinda super fun. Shinno choro told me to dendo the police if they ever were called on me so thats what we did. They ended up with flyers, church map and worship time, and my business card.

Random japanese comment. I found out gray in japanese is *mouse color* weird

We had interviews with President Rasmussen this week. Pretty stressful but interesting. That man can get in your head and he does not mess around. Starts listing off names of members and investigators. "Tell me about them?" "What do they need? What are doing to help them? How could you improve working with them?" I about peed my pants. Also talked about home life which was much more chillaxed and kinda funny because we talked about Mandy and Steve for like 5 minutes. He also said one thing that has racked my mind. "You know why I took you out of Aizu and put you with Yamatani choro right?" .......I don:t know! Ha. He didn:t answer this question for me either. Yes I have learned a lot from being left to die at times by him but I really don:t think President Rasmussen wants to make people suffer. Also an interesting but terrifying thing. In the next two transfers They are replacing 1/4 of the missionaries in the mission. That means half our mission will be in some kind of training senario. Add to this that the MTC has decided that missionaries can learn Japanese faster in the field so they will be sending them 4 weeks sooner. This adds up to a bunch of beans coming in that know less Japanese! Ha. Terrifying.

Random comment. So the church here just got internet so yesterday they were trying to decide if we the missionaries could use the internet with an old computer they had here so we didn:t have to bother the members for their internet stick thing. So they show me the computer and its like a 10 year old Mac! Ha. Sweet. Super slow and it had a password that no one knew so I thought to myself. What would Jesus do? He created the earth right? So he doesn:t want us to throw away computers. So.....I decided it was ok to hack into it. Hence now I:m on it. Felt good to be back into the guts of a computer again. Also they want me to make a website homepage for an LA. Still torn over this. 1. Kinda against the rules ish. However President has been telling me to use my talents to help people so...... Maybe he will let me do it.

Anyway. This week with investigators was hard again. We talked to Chiba san today but he is busy until next week. Hoshi san is doing good. She felt the spirit in the lesson which was awesome and kinda funny to see her super confused of what was happening. Also another investigator is slowly opening up to us.

Also this week when housing I made my first like "all me" new investigator. Run the door bell introduced ourselves, did a short lesson, therefore she became an investigator. Kinda weak one but its was a first for me.

Random comment. Have you ever considered fedexing things? Maybe its more expensive but maybe its cheaper... I don:t know.

Ok super random but you should look up a Michael E from Las Vegas on facebook. If his facebook page is open you will be able to find a video, its the video of the Sendai mission Christmas video.... yeah.

Another random request. So if you ever have quick updates on the american election with Mitt Romney or Huntsman give them to me. I hate politics but it comes up a lot here.

I never knew you wanted to be a coach mother... a lot of things I don:t know about this whole volleyball business.

I know you feel a duty with these packages but still I would request you ok them by me first. Not a third world country, I can get stuff here and I do buy stuff here so when you send stuff I already have its not so helpful. Feel the love but we can be smarter about this.

Anyway. Kinda a poor email this week but between this slow computer and not a whole lot happening thats what happens.

Love you all. Hope all is well with you. Talk to you next week.

Biking in the snow stinks!!

Hi Friends and Family

So this week was the first week I wore my boots. Pretty nice but two problems. They take forever to get on and off which is not so good for Japan when you take your shoes on and off a lot. and riding a bike with them is super annoying. I would walk but Yamatani choro:s shoes are the usual end of mission shoes where they let any liquid up the bottom so if we walk he dies. Sigh.

Thanks for the package. Always nice to get fat american food. Ear warmers are nice and cozy. Kinda block my limited hearing with these quiet people so can:t really use them when out talking to people but still, when riding the bike its super nice. About this new package though. You do realize I:m not in a 3rd world country. I can buy all the stuff you send me at a cheaper price and without shipping so its really not necessary. I realize you don:t trust me to buy these things but really I would if I absolutely needed them. The stuff you are sending right now I already have so it will just make laundry easier.... Other than that it will be the same. Surprises are nice but yeah.

So we visited Miura san, our protestant friend. Before we could even say anything when she opened the door she just goes off. "I think I want to come to church again." That was nice. "I think I will bring my friend too."(then tells us the teachers need to talk slower and louder but whatever, she:s old) "Oh yeah, and I want to read that book you showed me the other day" (of course the book of mormon) "although I really don:t get how you guys pray" "We can teach you that now if you would like." "Yeah do that" So we did. "Ok so I will pray tonight....when else should I pray" "Uh.....anytime, meals, morning, night.." "Oh ok." "Ok so I will see you Sunday and lets talk about your church after" ...."we can do that" Slam. My head was spinning there for a minute but there was a spring in my step the rest of the day....until sunday when she didn:t show. Sigh.

So I still don:t know what was up with this but one day we did a role play with a member and afterwards she gave us these very authentic looking california roll type things. I start to each it and she gets all panicked and says today is special and we have to be facing north north west when we eat......I obeyed but I still have no idea what happened or why.

Biking in the snow stinks!!!! Ha. No only is it cold and your bike hates you but ruts build in the snow, under the snow that throws you around. Then you have to plow your way through the snow which is so tiring. Its basically impossible. But as explained above we can:t walk.....sigh.

The traffic lights here, when they turn green they announce it for the people walking. Nothing special there but when the light turns green (the color is very much green) the voice announces the light has now turned blue.....say what? Only this week did I understand that japanese. Dont: know why.

Ok so this comment might mean more to mandy but still. So there is a movie called "The district" that is just a bunch of missionaries filmed doing their thing and its used for training. I watched it with dad before I left. Anyway. I despise these people now. They are so super good at missionary work. I always thought they were so-so but now i realize that they are super good and it bothers me, why can:t I do that?

Anyway, lots of complaining in this letter. Nothing really worked this week. Half our planned lessons. None with investigators. All our investigators dropped their lessons. Companionship problems. Weather. It was rough. But I know you people worry. I happy, I:m healthy, don:t worry.

Love you all.

The interesting thoughts a Missionary gets to hear

Hello Friends and Family.

Let us begin. This week I should have enough time.

We shall start with investigators.

First "C"san. He is our farthest along. He has a baptism date for next sunday but thats impossible so we will probably change it to the last week of next month when we meet. He is doing good but his job is super busy so he can:t come to church which is his biggest problem. Also I would like him to have a little more desire to be baptized but hopefully that will just come as he keeps his commitments and stuff. We found him from a previous Furukawa elder that was in Yamatani choros old area. When he left said to look him up and we went from there. Basically taught him.

Really its probably impossible to update on all the investigators. We have a ridiculous amount. None of them are really really strong but still its good. "H"san is good. We had another 30 minute lesson this week. Basically said hello, turned on the Restoration DVD and then after it when I was in the middle of testifying she cut me off and said,"its over 30 minutes, lets end, you say the prayer." Ha. Not how I really wanted to end. Met a new investigator that Yamatani choro found on splits this week. She is super pregnant. Gave us a good thing to go off of. Hopefully she is good. Time will tell. Not much else happened with the Aizu grandma. We visited her again yesterday but it was super cold, she had a cold, and she felt the need to remind us that she is buddhist. Whatever.

Yesterday at church we had a big meal after. It was sweet. Brought me back the USU and our "linger longers" Also the other week (good english right?) we met this old lady that used to go to a protestant church and we asked if we could meet with her and share the message and she said she wanted to come to church first (normally that goes the other way but oh well) So she came yesterday (walked like 5 miles in the snow to get here, refused to get a ride). I think she was a little disappointed in church. "Where is your minister?" "Don:t really have one, all volunteers." "There is no cross". "Yeah in this church we don:t use the cross image" "You have different hymns" "....and the same ones" That kind of feeling the whole time. She was so opposite than normal. everyone always thinks we do super weird things in church and when they see it, it's not. We normally get something along the lines of "Well this is.....normalish. A bunch of people grouped together learning about something." But this lady wanted more ordinances and actions. Interesting.

After the food we had a concert. Interesting.

So I might have added this in my last email but I feel like my language skills are getting better than they have ever been but more than ever I get told by people they don:t understand me or they won:t tell me that, but they don:t understand like when I ask questions and they just nod, not a yes or no question. Whatever. I guess it will take time.

We had splits this week and last. It was good. I either hate or love splits.

Ok, you hear the strangest thoughts from people as a missionary and you also see prophesies fulfilled. For example: The other night we were housing(tracting) and met a protestant. Talked for a little bit and we asked what the her church's view of other christian churches was. "Oh we don:t really have a problem with other christian churches."' "So no problem with us?" "Well you have the Book of Mormon......that:s weird" Can you say "A bible, a bible we don:t need another bible?" Sigh. Also our wonderful Coffee feeding lady. We taught the first part of the plan of salvation the other day with her and when I asked her what she thought life before this life was like she gave me that she was an animal that was obedient. And because of this she became a human and then basically at the judgement she will get judged if she will live again on earth. If so as what, or if she will go to a kingdom of glory. I don:t know how to respond to some of these thoughts! Sigh.

So today was transfers. Lot of interesting things happened but of course I didn:t move. Another transfer here in Furukawa with Yamatani choro.

.So there you go. That shall do for this week. Love you all. Talk to you later.

New Investigators

At a member's birthday party

Hey peeps.

So I will start with investigators. So the farthest along one is the old Q who has the baptism date for the fifth (not going to make it because he won:t be coming to church this week and he still has to come at least one more time before). He is pretty solid. He is the reason I email later recently. We teach him lessons on Mondays. He is pretty good. He just needs more faith. This last week he followed the word of wisdom (although he didn:t think he did because he drank tea but it was ok tea (I can never be a senior companion for this reason, I don:t know which teas are ok and what aren:t)). He asks funny questions though, like does God speak Japanese. And he makes me pray in english to start lessons and to be honest I almost forgot how. He will make it.....I think. He is super busy which always scares me and he lives super far away. Never a good combination.

New investigator "H"san. She is a referral from the grandma like woman. She used to go to a catholic church and kinda missed christianity. she comes to eikaiwa(English class) each week. We were able to do a quick lesson this last week and after when we talked to the member that referred her she said she was super excited to hear more so it will go slowly, but things should go well with her.

Our other new investigator we taught last Sunday and set a more concrete appointment for yesterday but alas he wasn:t home. Sigh. I really had high hopes for him. Still do. Only time will tell. He is another once-a-weeker which is always annoying because you prep all week and then if they aren:t home its all for not.

Oh and we taught "T"san again! Yay. After a month of trying she was finally home. Again set a more concrete appointment.....we think. So that should be good.

Oh and we now have two children investigators that are the children of one of our members. The husband isn:t a member but it seems he says they can do what they want. He is super nice.

Anyway back to a bunch of random things.

Question, can you iron suits. Could be helpful for one of my suits since its always under my jacket and gets a little wrinkled.

Recently I have sewn strange things. Gloves, basically tights, etc. Still stink at it but my sewing holds well.

Ok so this branch is crazy. They had a ton of fun! All the time. Kinda not reverent but they are all the best of friends which is good and they do fun weird things. For example. To start sunday school they played this game where the teacher picked someone and then they would pick someone else and try to tempt them into doing something. It was super funny. Not sure what the objective was but still.

Oh I gave a talk in church. Everyone seemed asleep and I:m not sure if anyone understood but whatever.

What is American food? I dont really know what is actually just American food. I get asked a lot.

Its not a quite a scarf I wear and I received it from Shinno choro

Oh my goodness you picky people! I even like miso soup! Psh. Thats all I have to say about that, who's picky now?

~2/24 Elder Oaks comes

My ears are fine, I sent the stuff to alyssa so ask her.

You sent me stuff? This is why I can:t tell you people the truth. I say I:m cold and you start sending stuff. psh.

Ok so yesterday we were housing and we hit this house and it was this old lady so I start to introduce myself. *Are you Christians?* Nothing good ever starts this way. *Well yes we are* *My daughter is Christian* Well good for her I think. *She goes to a Christian church in Aizuwakamatsu* Hm. Well at least I have something to connect with this women with (I imagine its the same other places but everyone here thinks all christian churches are the same). *Oh thats cool, actually about a month ago I lived in Aizu* *Oh really. Yeah she:s part of the .....matsu.....jitsu* (Latter day) I about jumped out of my skin. *What is her name?* Yep it turns out I knew them very well and ate dinner with them a couple of times! Ha. Super awesome but it gets better. So we get back to the apartment and Yamatani choro says *I want to find more out about this family.....lets see if the AP's will let us call Aizu* I:m not going to fight that. So 5 minutes later I:m talking to my daddy! (Shinno choro) Ha. I won:t lie it was as good if not better than the christmas call. (sorry). So quick run down.
New missionaries Japanese sucks, its killing Shinno choro, made me laugh.
Sakkai san is a crazy strong member throwing referals out like candy.
"Y"san is still having some issues
So we had this potential investigator that Shinno choro always felt like we should visit but he was always busy. They finally got a lesson with him and when they extended the baptism commitment he says, *Oh I was already baptized into your church* What!? Ha yep. Super funny although it gets cooler. His daughter now wants to meet the missionaries.

Ok so Yamatani choro just told me we have a lesson in like 10 minutes. He doesn:t tell me a lot of things. Peace out. Sorry I:m not including a lot of stuff. More later.