A Consecrated Missionary

Hey peeps!

A busier week this week which was good.

Starting off, Hoshi san. We met with her again this week and really wanted to hit the importance of baptism and explain it a lot more this time. Normally our joint is way to bold and so we had kinda planned to pull her back but we got into the lesson and its completely opposite. She is going against everything we said. Sigh. We probably could have prepared her more for the lesson but it just blindsided us. *So hoshi san what do you know about the Holy Ghost? Have you ever heard that word before(one word in Japanese)?* Joint,*(scoffs) You two are Americans that grew up in this church of course she doesn't know about it.* (She has been to a catholic church before anyway and I don:t really care if the answer is no) *You can know for yourself that these things are true, but in order to do that you need to try it out and test it and ask God which can include setting a baptism date wit the help of God* Joint,*You are going way too fast! Give her some time* Hoshi san,*Oh....yeah yeah I think that would be good.* Us,*The book of mormon is evidence of this truth, we would like to invite you to read this chapter before our next visit and pray if baptism is right* Joint*Or just flip the book open and read* (really frustrated at this point) Me,*Or read what we invited you to read because it will be easier to understand* Sigh. I love you members but yeah.... Anyway that was really the only investigator we met with this week.

We also had zone conference this week. Awesome! Full of lots of events! So every zone conference there is a spontaneous role play. All the names of missionaries are put in a hat and then randomly pulled out and they role play with one of the APs in front of everyone. Well you can probably guess since I:m explaining this who got chosen. Yours truly! Also to put this in perspective again. The sendai zone which I:m a part of is 38 people. That is more than half the mission! I about peed my pants. Sister Rasmussen just started laughing when she pulled our names. Nevertheless we did it. and it was really good. We got papers with feedback from every missionary which has been invaluable this last week. Mead choro got a little scared I think so I taught about 95% of the lesson but he testified really good at the end which was good. Also I just stopped after 15 minutes because I had thought it was suppose to be 10 minutes and our zone leader just looks at me laughs and says, *5 more minutes* Oh well. Still good. Also its always great to hear from President Rasmussen. He talked about a few really cool things. 1. There is this thing called the Eyering Prophesy. So apparently like 12 years ago Elder Eyering came to the Japan MTC and in the middle of his talk just kinda stops and starts talking about how the work in Japan has stalled and that the next generations children are going to change all that. Then starts promising that a change will happen in the members hearts and basically they will turn into referral machine and the church will bloom in Japan. Then it ends with him also promising if the members don:t step up the word of God will be retarded. Super bold. But also inspring. Next thing. Keeping time in 3 ways. 1. Wake up and leave your bed at 6;30. 2. Leaving the apartment at 12. 3. Only having 1 hour meals....our members have been known for 3 hour dinners. Oh my talk about guilt! Even had the point more driven home with the testimony meeting after zone conference where one of the returning sisters just broke down crying and then told the story of her wanting to go home right after President Rasmussen came to the mission and the conversation they had with his not being able to speak Japanese and how even though it was a good thing she didn't feel much change until the end when they are saying their goodbyes and he asks *Sister, are you waking up at 6;30* *no president* and from there things changed. Crazy. Finally. there was a talk called *the consecrated missionary* you could probably look it up. Basically we were all challenged to give up stuff for the next 40 days and become consecrated. Not sure what I need to give up. Time will tell.

Anyway. Taken way too much time already.

We have met some goodish people this week, quite sweet.

My bike tire popped again last night. Sigh.

We watch general conference next week so super excited about that. Super jealous you have already seen it.

Love you all, hope things are going well. Talk to you next week.

Sitting in council

Another week in still cold old Furukawa.

So this week with investigators was rough. Because of Spring equinox we couldn't meet with H"san (really, who celebrates spring equinox?) and also we had an appointment with "T"san but that fell through because of her husbands job. So there went our two strongest lessons for the week. Also a few LAs (less actives) and other investigators fell through. So a lot of finding (tracting) time but still found no one. Hopefully there will be more to report on the actual proselyting front next week because we actually have lessons planned this week. They all can't cancel right?

So Japanese people aren't as crazy over TimTams as Americans are so now that I'm with an American we have eaten TimTams 3 times this week. Super unhealthy but still they are delicious.

So this week I had another first experience. My tire went flat on Thursday. Of course they changed from Japanese bikes to American bikes when President Rasmussen came, so the pump at the apartment doesn't work for my bike. So we call the Elder over like our needs and he says that we shouldn't go and buy one but he will send us one because they have a lot at the home base so thats cool. So we got a pump from our branch president and used it to blow up my tire and that worked good on Saturday and then yesterday the tire was blown and we still don't have a pump so I can't fix it. Sigh. Walking is annoying especially on p-day.

It is still not warm but it rains now which of course is worse than snow. Sigh. I don:t like being wet. Also I carry a lot of stuff that if it gets wet I'm in trouble. But I feel like I've ranted about this before.

This last week I've even ran more into the "I don:t know what to do with my time" conc

ern. Even a bigger problem because I'm the senior companion. Just don't know what to do ever. Its killing me.

So every week before church we have a meeting with all the priesthood holders in the branch (yes we all fit in the bishops office). Anyway we report on our stuff and usually thats basically the end of it. But this week after we end President Sato (branch president) went into this discussion he had with the stake president last week. Basically the stake president thinks that because recently the view of religion has gone down in Japan, so going house to house is not going to work anymore. Then he pauses there and talks about his vision of building a church building. A real church building. Right now we are in the first floor of an apartment. In order to build a church we need 50 people to come every week. Right now we usually have about 25 (yesterday 21). Then he said he wants to start building it in 2 years. Then he gets back to finding. He starts talking about working with members which I agree with. Our two strongest investigators right now are referrals. Then he turns away from that and starts talking about our investigators that are weak and how we need to just throw them to the side and find prepared people. I'll be honest it was kinda frustrating. He was telling us everything we are doing is wrong but gave no alternatives. At the same time though it was cool. I think it might have been the most recent conference were President Eyring talked about "sitting in council" with priesthood quorums. I have never seen it so well executed until then. President Sato really cared what people thought in this priesthood group. Everyone got a turn to speak. He would listen. Shared what he liked, asked for clarification about things he didn't understand, then moved on. We really didn't come up with a solution but we all have the same vision now. Very interesting. Its been racking my brain for the last day trying to figure out what we can do.

Anyway. That was quite the rant. Shall be interesting to see where Furukawa dendo goes. Hopefully some exciting things start happening. Love you all. Good luck with the wedding plans. Peace out.

Work with my new companion

Busy week. A lot has happened but still yeah we will see how much I can write.

So I figure you would be interested in this because you are always asking if I:m writing in my journal I finished my journal this week. So onto number two!

Ok so in Japan they separate their garbage a ridiculous amount. They are big into recycling. So the other day I go to take out the garbage (which you have to put a ridiculous far ways away) and I put it there and as I place it there I realize we put it in the wrong bag. The bag says its burnable but its full of plastics. Oh well, its plastic day so in the end all will be well. So I get half way home and I hear this lady yelling at me. Finally I realize she is talking to me. Rips into me for putting the wrong trash there. I explain that the bag is wrong. after a little discussion I give up. This whole having to keep the churches image good thing is a little annoying at times to be honest. Sigh.

So it sounds like you got access to Sis. Rassmusen's blog, you are welcome. ;-) We were at the honbu for final interviews for Yamatani choro and I threw that into the conversation and she let me invite you to it. She apparently is super surprised with how everyone is finding out about it. She didn't even know missionary moms existed. She also had me fix some things on her computer. It was like being back at home with mom again. ;-)

So this week we have this LA(less active), part member family (kids aren:t members) that we always visit the "M"s. The little boy really doesn't like us but loves soccer and so does Yamatai choro so finally we were able to play soccer together. It was super good I think. The kids love us now. Granted the whole time all his friends were laughing at me saying that the american can't play soccer but I haven't played in forever and super hard in a suit. Also annoying because they don:t have real fields here, just sand fields.

Also we participated every morning this last week with seminary. Holy cow is that rough. Its a good thing I didn't have early morning seminary, I would have never gone. 1 week killed me. Also its super hard because they spend the whole time reading really hard japanese. For some reason the teacher expects us to know it. Not sure why. We didn't go today though. Not sure how often we will go. I think Mead choro and I would just become obstacles with our can:t speak japanese state.

Ok as for investigators. So "H"san we met with this week. We didn't have a joint member but her friend that she stays with when she comes to Furukawa said we could teach her there as long as we understood he had no interest. So when we get there we are surprised to find our referring member there too. She then gets chatting with this man and there goes our lesson. Sigh. Members kill me sometimes. She wants to meet with "H"san the same way again too. Sigh. Also apparently "H"san was kinda mad that we had set the baptism date before so we will probably have to move slower with her. Met with "T"san. That was good. Really sounded like she was going to come to church but didn't. Also this week she can only meet once and our usual referring member joints are not here so that is annoying. "M"san came to church after sacrament meeting yesterday. She always wants to study with everyone in the normal classes and will never let us do a lesson so that is super annoying because she just gets frustrated I think. Sigh. I don:t know what to do with these people.

Mead choro is cool. Its interesting to be with an American. His Japanese is quite good so that is good. He lived in Price. He knows Celsie and Lauren (lived in Logan too). Super strange there. Yeah. Still pretty early in our companionship. still learning lots of stuff. Yeah you are going to probably hate that much of a explanation but still thats all I've got now.

I think that will do it for now. Hope all is well with home. Good luck with the wedding plans. Oh yeah, holy cow Mandy is getting married. I had had this thought already in my head but still. Kinda stinks to know that I won:t be there for the wedding and still have never met this man but everyone seems to like him (especially mandy) and seems like a good guy so I guess thats just one of the sacrifices of a mission. Sigh. Happy for Mandy though. Getting so old! Ha. Love you all. Talk to you next week.

One year since the tsunami

Ok so much to write from not writing last week but I have already forgotten all the stuff from two weeks ago so oh well. This week had enough in it I think to fill up an email.

So lets see. Monday and Tuesday were splits in Izumi (like a suburb of Sendai thats where my district is *based* (Izumi district)). Not a whole lot got done. It was our District leader trying to be efficient but kinda ended up being a waste of a split. Oh well. life goes on.

Side note here. So those stupid missionary mall gloves when they got soaked released all their blackness which got on my white shirt. Stain sticked the crap out of it but just turned the black blue. Not sure what to do at this point. Sigh.

Then on Thursday President Rasmussen came and dendoed (tracted) with us. I wasn't sure how it was going to work. Walk everywhere? Drive us to appointments? Who knows. Anyway we were out knocking doors when he finally came and told us to come to the church. When we get there he was pulling a bike off the back of his van. I never knew he had a bike! Ha. And apparently it was actually one of the new missionarie:s bikes that he was using for the day. Funny. So the three of us took off on our bikes. Quite the sight. Visited out 19 member and did a lesson in English. President had way too much fun with this. Ending up making one of the ladies play her saxophone for us.

And also something we don't actually do but should that he did really skillfully was every member we met that day we asked for referrals. Actually got one from one of the members. It ended up being a old investigator though but still cool. Then went to eat with a member that feeds us a ton and she jumped for joy and begged us to bring President when she knew he was coming. Pulled out a lot of good information from them too. Found out about a daughter that we didn't know about and met her (long story). Finally we met a member that President had interviewed for baptism so that was neat for him to see I think. Fun stuff.

Anyway when we first started biking he bikes up next to me and says, "Elder Carter I want to tell you about transfers....you are getting a new companion." Then he laughs for like 5 minutes. "Thanks president" Then he bikes up next to me again, "Ok I'll let you know something real, you will be the senior companion" ......again don't I know that since I have been in the area longer? "That only makes you area senpai (senior) you are also more experienced senapi" "Oh..." (FYI one of my MTC kohai (group after me) or I go trainer.) "So that means you will get one of your kohai." So I'm not a trainer. Anyway this was very different. Oh yeah and he threw out, "He's American too." Oh dear! Ha.

So this morning we patiently await the transfer call. Finally we get a call from the APs. Lazy president won't even make the call himself I think. But no the AP just wants to talk to Yamatani choro about sending his stuff home. He:s about to hang up and I tell him he is forgetting something. "What" "Who:s my new companion?" "You haven't got your call yet?" "Ha. No" (in the background)"Hey Presient you haven:t called Furukawa yet? (muffled noises)" "He told you when he dendoed with you right?" "No, not the name just that he was my kohai" "Oh well its Mead choro, well got to go" Ha. Well that was uneventful! Anyway yes his name is Mead choro. He has been in Yamagata since he came to Japan. That is all I know about him. Ha. Sorry I don't have more. Also my district got destroyed. Only 2 members are left from before. In Izumi 3 elders moved out and 3 new came in out of 4. Crazy stuff.

Anyway I:m kinda freaking out. Had kinda been hoping to go trainer but now I'm freaking out that I'm senior with an American! I'm not ready for this! Ha. Freaking out!!!!! Ha. Time will tell. I have a feeling I'm going to have to start learning really fast again. My teaching and language skills are not where they need to be right now. As President left on Thursday he pulled me aside and told me this next transfer was going to be amazing for me and things were going to go much more how I want them too. Yay, I like this said promises from President. Then almost as an after thought he adds. And probably the hardest thing you have ever done. Well that put out the fire pretty fast. We shall see though.

Moving on. Basically met with two investigators this week. "H"san. Taught her about faith. She still isn't keeping most her commitments and I'm just not sure what she needs. Still in the same state as when we met her. Hm. "T"san we just met today. Didn't come to church but looks like she might come this week. She is super busy so her commitments are falling through too. Sigh. Shall be interesting to see how things change with Mead choro and I too. Teaching style is going to completely change. Yamatani choro just wings everything and its freakishly good lessons. I can't do that at all so yeah. Poor investigators are going to get whiplash from how fast everything changes.

As for if we did anything for the anniversary of tsunami. Really is that a question? On Saturday we started service again and instead of the usual we made lanterns that were going to be set all throughout the coast of sendai the next day to commemorate (can:t spell) the event. Made thousands of them. They are like the ones on Tangled except they don't float in the air. Super cool also because the "windows" (place where the light shines through) were donated and made from people all over the world and sent so they were in all different languages ranging from little kids with crayons drawing the japanese flag and smiling people, to like beautiful artwork with extremely heartfelt messages and like poem type things. Many were in languages I didn't know.

Anyway we did this service in what used to be a middle school. One of the time times we were walking in I noticed out front a bunch of beat up desks with like soft drinks sitting on them. Weird. Why did they leave that stuff there after cleaning all the rest up? Why are the drinks there? Then I saw the flowers too. Aw man! So we go over and as I then realized it was a memorial to the students of the school. Messages were written on the desk and I didn't count but I think there were 15 soft drinks. 14 childrens bodies were found in the school after the tsunami and 1 was never found. Sometimes when you see these broken buildings you kinda think its cool but then you realize people were in these buildings when this happened. A lot of children were on the coast. One story I heard that just killed me was there was this gym type place that was an emergency evacuation area. Earthquake happened so a ton of people ran and went into this building. ....Then the tsunami came. From what I heard it sounds like they just sealed it up and are calling it a cemetery. I mean really what is this! As Sister Oaks put it, "Why Japan!? Why Tohoku? (Basically the name of the area where my mission is) Why the most humble, simple people?" I don:t know the answer, Sister Oaks's answer was something like "Because they can handle it" It was eerie coming back into Furukawa Saturday night and seeing thousands of candles line the streets. In church a minute of silent prayer. The stake had a book made of a all the adult members of the stakes testimonies from things they learned from the earthquake. I can't read this book yet but I cherish it. Even more eerie is being in the car with our branch president driving to a hometeaching house and he has the radio on low then he gets this look on his face and just kinda whispers to himself "1 minute" parks the car outside the members house. Then the announcer comes on after this Japanese music and says. "1 year ago to this minute the earthquake happened" You almost expect something big to happen but we got out of the car and just went back to work. Thats what these people are doing. A lot of things changed completely for these people but they are still going and that makes all the difference.

Well spent a lot of time on that. Love you all. Will be able to update more next week. Have a good spring break.

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.