Week 84 - Practice for Polynesian Night in Takao, Japan

The gospel is the best. 

Week 84 - May 7, 2017 - Polynesian Night

I have no time at all cause we had practice for the Polynesian night so here's pics love you all!

Transfer 15 Has Begun! Shinkou Station, Machida Stake, Takao

Week 83 - April 30, 2017 -  This is another crazy week so I'll try to remember everything.

So on Tuesday we tried to go over near where the docks are in our area. That turned out to be a really interesting time. We had five hours so we were like "oh we can just walk there." So we start walking and try and talk to some people. We started getting towards the docks, we passed beer village and kept going. Once we got there, however, all we found was a big freeway road going over it, factories everywhere and nowhere to talk to people. So we get three hours out there and we are like this is pretty useless and we should turn around, ha ha. But then we saw a sign that said, "Shinkou station."

Shinkou in Japanese means faith -- even though it was a different character so it didn't mean that -- we saw it and we were determined to keep going! But then we kept walking for a while and got nowhere and had to escape by bus lol. So that was a good adventure. After that we found one high school kid who said he's down to meet again. Also we got a college student's e-mail so that was cool after we went through 4 hours of craziness. 

We did service at the special needs place again. This time was kinda funny because they had us join in with a cheerleading activity. They do fun activities with the people and one of them was cheerleading, so Elder Hemi and I are now experts of shaking Pom poms. It was fun to see the people have fun and it's really nice that people help people with disabilities for their job. 

I kind of went crazy during weekly planning. I got really bored so it ended with me wearing my jacket like a lava lava and a bandana over my eyes. Needless to say we still got a lot of planning and good things done. 

We were able to find a cool kid this week as well. He is pretty honest on the fact that he doesn't want to join our church but that he would meet with us. We aren't worried about that 'cause the spirit can change all hearts. He's super nice though and I think that if he meets and feels the spirit he could do great!

On Saturday we had transfer calls!! So I am finally going to one of the stakes I've never been to. I'm going to Machida stake but my area is called Takao. It is a smaller area as far as city goes 'cause it's not Yokohama but there's also some nature so I'm excited for that.

My new companion will be Elder Dowdle. It's crazy 'cause this transfer is my second to last so I have to work extra hard and do everything I can. Elder Hemi is staying here in Kanagawa.

After that we decided to go to a big park to see who we could talk to. When we got there though there was a huge track meet at least region level so there were tons of people, but we couldn't really talk to them so that was a bummer. We tried that for a little then headed back towards the church area. We had to prepare for a takoyaki party that the Kohoku elders were putting on so we helped with that. At first like nobody was showing up so it looked like a big flop but one of our investigators came as well as the bishop's family. It was pretty fun and everyone had a good time. 

Sunday was kind of sad to be leaving Yokohama again but I'm excited to see somewhere else as well. As we were trying to talk to people we found a dad and his son tossing an American football  around and I just had to talk to them. So I asked if I could throw it with them and they said absolutely. We talked to them for a while and they were super cool! We told them who we were and what we do and then gave them the free family English program so we are hoping to get in contact with them again. Then at night we had dinner with the Itou Family but we wanted to bring an investigator. We tried a few and they couldn't come but then this super cool kid said that he could come and we shouted for joy. So we went over there with him and he totally hit it off with the family. He is the same age as one of their sons and they just talked the whole time which was awesome 'cause now when he comes to church and he can be fellowshipped way easy. We had to leave to be back at our apartment so we couldn't walk back with him but the family was like "we got this, no worries." So we left and he texted us later saying thanks so much for inviting him 'cause he had a really good time. That was a great miracle.

Now is the first day of May so we can wear short sleeves again and this week's is gonna be busy.

God and Jesus Christ are in every part of our lives. They help us in ways that we see and don't see. Sometimes we need patience and sometimes it comes right away. Either way they love us and they prepared the way for us to walk, and what a joyful walk it is. Until next week everyone! Love you!

Last P-Day Before Transfer Calls! Spiders, spiders and more spiders!

Week 82 - April 23, 2017

It's kind of nuts how fast this transfer already went. I'm excited for whatever comes next though.

Wednesday:  Ok, it was ridiculous. I told a recent convert who has been struggling that we would come over to his house for service and help clean up. We got to do just that. Two Elders were outside cleaning the front and two elders were inside. I was elected for inside and it was way worse than I expected. The house was way filthy and looked like a huge challenge so we were like "oh no." But then it got worse. We looked around and noticed there were big spiders and webs everywhere. We asked him and he said "ya we have lots of friends hanging out." I was kinda worried at that point. When we went upstairs I looked around and there were spiders and webs like crazy!! We had to clear all those out as well as up where the loft was. I killed at least 50 spiders and we had enough webs to decorate for Halloween, not even kidding. It looked like a haunted house. We cleared out tons of them and it was pretty gross. It was good to help him out though. At night we tried to find a member's house but my maps led me the wrong way so we were a bit lost and our time kinda disappeared.

Thursday was pretty normal. We had a lot of planning for the next week and Ekaiwa. One good thing was that after Ekaiwa, two people stayed for a gospel lesson so that was awesome. We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how he is the way. He walked the path first now we just have to follow and he can help us.
We went to district meetings most of the day talking about how everyone was doing and what we are gonna do about the many plans we have. We are gonna go blitz in Kawasaki on Saturday of this week so that was something we had to plan around. After the meetings we went to visit a member who has had a lot of health problems so he couldn't come to church. He was super nice and just a great old man. We want to do anything we can for him so we will let the ward know and figure out what we can do.

On Saturday we went to play basketball with a recent convert named Lee. I've talked about him before but he's Chinese and he's way chill. We went to my beloved Yamate and played there. It was good to go back and see everything again. We had a fun time balling it up but had to leave a little early 'cause we had lunch with an investigator after that. We went and got some ramen and talked about then BoM a bit. He seems like he's pretty interested but he didn't have time to talk very much so we just gave him a restoration pamphlet and told him we'll talk about it the next time we meet. After that, we streeted around and were able to find one cold kid that we might be able to meet in the future. At night we had stake conference which was actually really good cause a member of the seventy was there and he was pretty funny. After that meeting we met with R--- for dinner at a Chinese place. It was his birthday a few days ago, so we congratulated him and gave him some stuff. We talked about happiness and the purpose of life. He doesn't know what to think right now but as soon as he starts reading the BoM and stuff like that I think he will be great.
Sunday was stake conference as well so we had a good time there and I got to see all the members from Yamate, Kohoku, and Kanagawa. Basically everyone in Yokohama knows me 'cause I have been chilling here for so long.

After church and stuff we went to go talk to people in Tsurumi. We wanted to find a new investigator really bad but nobody was stopping! So we kept trying really hard and after a long time we finally found a way chill 22 year old kid! He was super cool and he wanted to meet us another time so that was way sick! He has been to California and is swaggin' for days. We are excited to see where he goes. At night we visited a referral who doesn't seem too interested at the moment but we keep visiting, being nice and praying with him.

I think that's it for this week but I just want to let you know that if you have faith anything is possible! I have miracles happen many times just by having a little bit of faith. So keep trying and don't give up!! Until next week. Love you all! Here's some casual pics from Elder Brown and I's photo shoot when we got bored.

Tokyo Temple - Three Years of Renovation

Week 81 - April 18, 2017 - This week is special! Because I don't have a lot of time .

So this week we were able to find a lot of new potential investigators and we can't wait to follow up with them and see where we can go. We found a new investigator again right outside the church and he's 19. He is interested in religion and we are meeting with him on Saturday so that's way sick.
Our investigator who said he would come to church actually wasn't able to so that was sad. Also the guy who Elder Hemi and I thought was golden got a little slippery and now we haven't met him in a while. So that was another bummer BUT we found a bunch of other young college students who are chill so it'll be good.  Being a missionary is pretty awesome being able to preach the word every day. I just wish people could understand how much better life is with the gospel. They just don't know what it's like and are afraid to take a step so they don't receive the blessings. I guess that's why I'm here right? Gotta do all I can to help me reach the tree of life.

Today we had temple p-day which was way awesome. Also the Tokyo temple is going down for 3 years for renovations in October so if any of y'all wanna go you better hurry.  Anyways, I love this gospel, the Savior, and all of you. Until next week!
The gospel is the best!

Sakura is Finally Here!

Week 80 - April 9, 2017   Sakura is finally here!  But it might die cause it's raining so much :( lol.

So this week has just been meetings like crazy and we have had absolutely no time to do things.

Tuesday:  We had interviews on Tuesday which was really good talking to president. Also Elder Hemi is planning a Polynesian culture event to invite people to so we got to talk about that a little bit as well.

Wednesday:  We had zone meeting on Wednesday as well as one district meeting. It wasn't anything too spectacular. We just followed up on what we learned at MLC and we are trying to pump up the zone still. They don't seem to be too genki right now and we are not sure if they really have the faith to find investigators. So we are trying to change that.

Thursday:  We fixed Elder Hemi's bike cause it randomly popped one day. Then we had weekly planning and Ekaiwa the rest of the day. We started sharing a gospel message after Ekaiwa for people who want to stay so we are hoping to get a bigger attendance as we go along. 

Friday: We had zone meeting which was all about following the Spirit. I really liked learning more about following the Spirit because if we are always striving to follow that, then it's pretty hard to go wrong.  At night we had a meal appointment with a member which was awesome!  She made us basically the Japanese version of tacos. You get seaweed, put rice and sushi on it, then wrap it up and eat it! It was way good. 

Saturday and Sunday: got totally taken over by General Conference. But that's ok 'cause it was

awesome! I noticed they focused about God being our father, doing the basic gospel principles and following the spirit. It was way good to hear even more about the spirit at conference. I can definitely follow my first promptings more often. I also loved Elder Eyring's talk in priesthood session.

Here's the miracles for this week! On Tuesday we met an investigator that we met 3 days before. He read some of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and we got to talk with him more about it. He was super interested and had a really strong desire to learn. We really felt that he could progress to baptism if he commits. We invited him to General Conference but sadly he wasn't able to make it so we will keep trying. Either way, we testified to him about living prophets and it was way sick!

Another miracle was after zone conference we walked out of the church and the first guy we talked to was a college student. He was way chill and we had a good conversation. We then asked him if he would want to take a tour of the church and he said he would love that! So we gave him a tour of the whole thing and showed him the baptismal font. He said it felt petty 神聖 which is like sacred. We explained to him the meaning of it and he said that would have been so cool if he learned about that since he was a kid. We also invited him to general conference but he couldn't come either. He agreed to meet us again though so we are still very hopeful! Anyway that's the miracles.

Anyway, I know his church is guided by living prophets and it's the only true church out there. So be grateful you are in it. That's all for now. Talk to y'all next week! Love ya,