Transfer to Yokote

Hey family! So where are we this week? Not a whole lot different but oh well. Lets give the updates. A little less all day knocking doors and actually taught some people and we were able to follow up on some of the work we have done in the the last little while so a little goodness but still so so. "T"san is doing good, I think. We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday. We couldn't get a joint(member) for the lesson so it was just us standing at her door teaching which is never the best way of doing it but oh well. So the Japanese people always have a problem with tea normally so I'm prepared for that one. But we give her the pamplet and she reads the first paragraph that says what you can't partake of and she hits coffee. I felt like I was in America. That was her problem. (Note for Mandy: It really was like Jynx:s reaction on the district (Yes I apply most of my life to the district)). She actually had no problem with tea, said she doesn't even like it anyway. Which is straight crazy but yes she has quite a problem with coffee. Drinks a lot every day. I think we taught pretty well and she understood but it's still hard. She seemed to understand that she would have to go to heaven for the help, she just kept saying, "I am going to have to pray a lot. Oh man this is going to be rough. I'll do my best. Oh man. Sigh." I really thinks she is trying but the problem comes in that she would have to be keeping it from last Saturday to be baptized on the 16th but we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then. Sigh. Didn't come to church either. Anyway. The branch is going full speed with the preparations for the baptism. They pulled out the font after church yesterday and it was this big blow up pool. Kinda cool kinda super weird. Ha. We were talking to the branch president and he was telling us all the places they have done baptisms. He was baptized in the missionaries bath, there have been some in the river, Izumi has a real font, this blow up one, and even a Onsen (Hot spring (super expensive to get in and actually are like vacation spots, we aren:t allowed there as missionaries)). Japan is weird. Other than that not a whole lot new with investigators. Just the usual. "H"san was so-so, and I don't think we were able to meet with anyone else last week. Although we had 4 or 5 LAs(less actives) come to church randomly. We hadn't talked to any of them in the last week. Got Mandy's wedding announcement. That was a little crazy to see. Chipman choro decided that we are going to the reception though. I guess we would kinda have to since it says to RSVP if you can't go and we can't tell them we aren't going to, so we have to go. Perfect logic right? Anyway they looked like a cute little couple. Sidenote+ Japanese wedding announcment pictures are the best. They are SUPER awkward looking all the time. Maybe because this country thinks kissing is like up there with Chastity but they are the best when you see them posted in the churches. Ok now for the part everyone wants to hear about. Transfers. They call of all calls came. I'm to be shipped off to Yokote in Akita ken. Not only that but I am going to be the District leader there. Talk about about peeing your pants. So that means I'll be over 2 or 4 elders in Kitakami and 4 sisters in Akita city. My companion is Elder Miyaki so again to the Japanese companions. He is on his third transfer this next transfer so he is pretty new little guy. Shall be a nice stretching experience. Kinda bummed to be missing Takahashi san's baptism but maybe this is just how the mission will go for me. Oh well, as long as she gets baptized. Thats all I really know. Oh Yokote is even more countryside than here. I have heard there are 10 active members there......wow. Thats all I can say about that. Scary and a half. Life changes again on Thursday when we start all over again. Shall be fun though, I'm excited. So I think that is it. Hope all is well with the final preparations. Love you all. Talk to you later.

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.