Monday, May 4, 2015

Splits with the District Leader, a Japanese Barbecue, and a visit from President to remember.

こんにちは友達と家族!

月曜日
We woke up and studied. We then cleaned the apartment after studies
and ate lunch! After we went to the church to meet up with Ida for
ping pong and the lesson! It was a great lesson. During ping pong we
got to talking and invited him to Nakano for a giant BYU symphony
concert in a few weeks! It is in almost down town Tokyo! It'll be
awesome! We had a great lesson and talked about baptism and the gift
of the Holy Ghost, it was a really great lesson. He committed to
baptism but we didn't set a date yet. We then went home and got the
bikes to go shopping. I need some white shirts. Thankfully in Japan
you can get quality white shirts for inexpensive prices, I bought 3
new short sleeve shirts for 20 dollars! Talk about a deal! We then
went to a recycle shop so my companion could look around, I looked but
nothing fit me, even down to the shoes! Talk about feeling big. We
then went to giomes to buy groceries, they were way cheep which was
great. We then came home and my companion said he would make
hamburgers, I said great! And finished cleaning, when my companion
said dinner was ready I came in to find rice and hamburger
patties...he didn't lie, it was just a Japanese hamburger. It was
pretty funny, and quite delicious! We then went to D2 so my companion
could buy hair stuff and I wanted to look at buying a blender for the
apartment. After we went to the church and emailed home. After we came
back to the apartment and went on splits with the district leader. I
went with the district leader and my companion with Elder Clark.

火曜日
I was awakened by Elder Clark kicking my foot and saying "good morning
gorgeous, are you ready for our walk!" It startled me but woke me up.
We had a great walk, it wasn't too hot or too cold, but just right. We
then went back to our normal apartments to get ready then split back
for studies. After studies we had to call a bunch of people in the
mission asking to block a investigator from our phones for calling way
too much. Then Elder Sawyer and I went to a giant big park in our area
and talked to a few people. I love dendo with Americans, we call it
gaigen power, or in English foreigner power. There really is a
difference in the dendo. We were able to take some really pretty
pictures of the area too. We then went to sasekigoaka and streets
around, it was great. I have noticed a big leap in my Japanese since
the first time I went on splits with Elder Sawyer and this time. It
was awesome. Something is starting to click. We then came home for
dinner. We made spaghetti, well...it started as that but it ended up
as a lot is spices in spaghetti. After our spice excursion we went to
the bishops house to go dendo the surrounding area. Only she was home
so we prayed with her then went and housed. We met a few neat people
and were able to talk to a lot of people, overall it was a fantastic
day! We then came home and had splits review. Elder Sawyer is a great
man, I love going on splits with him. He is one of the people where
you can visibly see how his mission has changed him.

水曜日
We woke up got ready studied the. Went to the park with some Ward
members! Today is a national holiday in Japan it is the previous
emperors birthday. So it was basically the equivalent of Memorial Day.
It was an awesome picnic. If you are expecting an American barbecue,
don't. It is a lot different, we had grilled meet and noodles! It was
delicious! We brought Ida with us and the ward members talked to him a
lot! We played with all the little kids and talked to the members. It
was a great time. I was talking to one member and she thought this is
my last transfer of my mission because my Japanese is so good. It
threw me off way bad, she said I am loosing my American accent in my
Japanese! Looks like the Japanese companions are rubbing off on me!
One member has a daughter who is 7 months old, she was way cute and
smiley. She gave me a million high fives, and her mom was impressed at
the size difference between our hands so she had us take a picture. I
the. Went with Elder Aoki and Ida and we had a little lesson and
played with the primary kids there. One of them gave me a dragon ball
z card! It was overall a great barbecue, it did make me miss American
barbecues though. When we got home we got a call from tech staff, they
asked if I would make a redesigned portal and send it in in a week.
The portal is our missions website, they want me to write/draw it up
then send it off in a week. That'll be a neat opportunity! I wasn't
hungry for dinner, so my companion took a nap and I worked on some
plans for the website. We then went to Eaikiwa! It was a blast! I
enjoyed teaching the class. There weren't a whole lot of students
there since today was a holiday.

木曜日
We awoke, studied. Then went to indo curry as a district with one of
the investigators from the district. It was a fun time. The owner gave
us free chicken because we come so often! We then went to the church
to sync our area books. After we came home and I taught my companion
how to make banana bread, we made two loaves. We then did weekly
planning, during it we had the feeling to call yochiro one of our
investigators. He told us to come over to his apartment. He is a hard
core rocker, who lives with his parents, so we had no idea what to
expect. He gave us the address and we set off first to deliver the
bread to the sisters who were seeming to have a bad day, then to his
apartment. We arrived at a giant apartment complex with a bunch of
little kids playing. Then out walks yochiro in a The Who t-shirt, with
holes in his jeans and flip flops. He invites us inside and he brought
us to the elevator. Then pushed the top floor, the 18th floor! We
arrived at the top of the floor and you could see forever! You can see
down town Tokyo from the top! It was amazing! I took some great
pictures. We then went inside and had a great lesson, we invited him
to church, and he told us he actually wants to meet with the bishop
really badly! Whoa! Talk about a crazy miracle. He has a big desire to
change, what an awesome miracle! We then came home and ate, then
worked more on weekly planning. It was a quick day overall.

金曜日
The first day of short sleeves! We woke up at 5 so we could go to
seminary, there I was paired up with the other English speaker in the
class! He is from shira Lanka...we'll sort of, his dad is but he was
born in America and raised there until recently. After seminary we
came home and I made bread for district meeting. District meeting was
great, we have a ton of investigators in our district. We then went
out with a bunch of our investigators to an all you can eat pasta and
pizza shop. It was delicious, and Elder Clark and I played 20
questions with everyone there. It was a lot of fun. We then walked to
Fujinos apartment to have a lesson with him. He was doing great! I
love that old man, he is so much fun to be around. We then came home
and the walk that usually takes 15 minutes took an hour, everyone was
talking to us! It was awesome! We then came home and I slept because I
slept awfully the night before, and my companion ate. We then finished
planning, and went to the church to figure out if we are going bowling
on Monday. After we decided to go housing in the nearby area. We went
to a certain apartment complex and everyone rejected us, then it
happened again. But we kept going. Then on the top floor of one
apartment complex the woman opened the door and told us we could come
back! It was awesome! We then knocked on the door across the street
and a man came out and told us that we could come back later too! It
was awesome! We then continued to get rejected, only more and more
harshly, oh well. We then only had ten minutes, so we prayed, and I
felt we should go to the top floor of our apartment complex to a
specific door. We went, I knocked, and a young women opened the door
and I froze. I have noticed since not being allowed to talk to women
on the streets of Japan, I have a hard time talking to women now. It
was pretty embarrassing. So my companion jumped in and she turned out
to be really interested and we set a return appointment up with them
for the next night with the sisters.

土曜日
After studies we went on a giant Streeting/walking exhibition. We
walked all over Tama, with a bunch of rejections along the way. We ran
into the other elders at Tama Center and talked to them a little bit,
then went to the park to go street, no one would stop for us, but we
were able to see some neat things. We then housed a pm apartment
complex, then went to the church for sports afternoon. We played ping
pong. Well my companion played ping pong, he loves it, and has these
really expensive paddles, so he played king of the hill for the two
hours. After we ran to mashikos house and had dinner and a lesson with
them. Talking about foreign policy, radar waves, and college level
science in Japanese is hard! He likes to use very big words so I can
usually just get a good gist of what is happening. We had a good
lesson about eternal families, and we gave him Jesus the Christ. We
ended up being there for 3 and a half hours! When we arrived home the
other elders came to our apartment and told us that one of the elders
in their apartment suffered a really bad bike crash and was in the
hospital. They said he will be fine, however he is pretty scrapped up.

日曜日
We awoke and got ready then headed over to the other apartment to see
how Elder Kaesler was doing. He was asleep and the other elders were
all sitting in chairs exhausted, they got back from the hospital after
midnight. We went to go pick up Fujino then walked to the church.
Sacrement was great! Fujino kyodai passed the sacrament! After however
he disappeared, he slipped out and walked home. I think he was tired.
When we came home we were all pretty exhausted so we went and talked
to elder Kaesler, he was doing okay. Not to great though, he has a
hard time getting up, well actually he can't get up. We left him and
went to our apartment and contacted people then had a giant 6 man
curry rice dinner at the other apartment. Elder Hilton and I then went
on splits to go dendo while elder Aoki went on splits with elder
Kaesler. We went to Kurokawa and tried to find a referral from the
sisters, however we only found drunk people instead. When we came home
we had to plan, it was decided that I would take the split with elder
Kaesler tomorrow because according to the other missionaries I was the
only one with any medical knowledge. During conference call we got a
call. It was president wada...he said that him and sister Wada would
be at the apartment in 2 minutes....we freaked out and began running
around the apartment cleaning. The district leader was grabbing dishes
rinsing them and throwing them in cupboard and another elder was
grabbing the bottles and throwing them in the shower. If you have
elder seen the best two years it looked almost exactly like that. Then
president Wada showed up and we were all sitting again, they came to
check on Elder Kaelser and to bring him cookies. It was hilarious.
President Wada as he was leaving remarked toward Elder Hilton who was
wearing his white shirt and gym shorts, "elder Hilton" "yes president"
replied elder Hilton. "Nice pajamas". "Uhh thanks president". That
night as we were sleeping we felt a small earthquake which made for 3
that day.

月曜日
I awoke in the other apartment since I was on splits with Elder
Kaesler, I got ready in my apartment then went to the other apartment
for studies. After studies the other elders left for bowling with
investigators. So I cleaned the apartment, and cleaned, and cleaned. 8
hours later I was finished. Just as I was getting finished we received
a call from president Wada. Elder Kaeslers condition became really
serious when the mission doctor as well as 2 surgeons in salt lake had
never seen an injury like that before. So he was informed that he will
be going home within the next day and that his parents will be
notified. He took it pretty hard. We ended up sitting and talking for
a while. I have learned a lot about listening to others recently. We
then went to the church and told the sisters. Then came back and broke
it to all the other elders. It was pretty sad. But he will be allowed
to come back after he is healed in about 6 weeks. Elder Clark decided
to make a cake, it was delicious.


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