Saturday, August 8, 2015

Fwd: A Temple Trip, a black man in the Park, and MLC

> こんにちは皆さん!
>
> Hey look everyone I wrote more this week! Enjoy!
>
> 土曜日
> We awoke and went on a great run! Then studied, then we went out into
> the humidity and went to Seiyu to buy groceries. We planned to take
> the office couple to Yokohama but we had lessons and other people so
> we couldn't take them. We were going to teach them how to use the
> trains. After the store we came home and ate lunch, I made some
> delicious Mac and cheese. Time to cook has been rare since coming here
> so I take advantage of it when I can. Then we began emailing...well I
> didn't...since Elder Adamson and Sister Adamson were staying for
> Questions of the Soul later that day they were in the office. So I
> asked him about ROTC and National Guard, and which path is better for
> someone interested in medicine. He pointed me in a pretty good
> direction, and gave me a lot to think about. Then I began emailing.
> After emailing Elder Moua and I walked around Kichijoji for a little
> bit then came back and Elder Nishidome and I went to Questions of the
> Soul. President Wada takes a movie and relates it to the gospel. We
> went with one of our investigators. The movie was the Departure, which
> I am guessing all you Americans have never heard of. And that would be
> because it is a Japanese movie about a mortician. It was really good
> and I liked how president was able to relate it to the gospel.
> Afterwards we talked with everyone and had lemon bars! Then we cleaned
> up and I called some people back.
>
> 日曜日
> We woke up and I made a Facebook post (I realized that Tech has to
> lead by example, which for someone who has never been super active
> with social networking before it a little weird). We then went to DCS.
> It was good, I wonder what the Ward mission leader thinks of the
> office staff because are stats are always really low. I think we
> should just start reporting on how many problems we fix in a week.
> Because that has to be an impressive number. Church was great,
> spiritually filling. Then we came home, split up the good from the
> food basket, and then went out into the humid, hot world. Elder Moua
> and I talked to a few people, we found out a lot about the park where
> Elder Bates and I usually run, it has a track, a museum, a zoo, a
> lake, and a bunch of trails! It is huge, it's probably the equivalent
> of center all park in New York (granted I have never been there
> soo...there is that). We then came home ate some mobadofu (it's hard
> to describe) then had our weekly planning. It was exhaustive! But we
> got it finished. The Nehongen and I ganged up on Elder Moua and all
> said the same thing for his good point in companionship inventory. We
> all agreed he looks like one of the small bears from Star Wars an
> Ewok. Elder Naganuma thought it was particularly funny.
>
> 月曜日
> We awoke, went running, and studied. For language study I read for an
> hour straight which hurt my brain so much. So I decided to lay down
> for a second. Then Elder Bates came in and said we were going to sushi
> for lunch... Ugh. But it was fun, I had a great miso soup (probably my
> favorite soup in Japan). Then back to the office, I worked on the same
> project non-stop, it was exhausting, but, we got pretty close! We were
> just missing a few things. Then Elder Moua and I worked on finding
> pictures for president Wada. And that was effectively our day.
>
> 火曜日
> We awoke and went for a great run, I am getting faster slowly but
> surely. Then we got ready and went to the temple! It was so great to
> go! If you go with the mindset of a student your attitude changes a
> lot. So that was a neat experience. Then we ate in the cafeteria, with
> the Adamsons. The Adamson couple is the Mission Office Couple. We have
> gotten really close to them since being here. We were waiting outside
> and could smell the curry inside. Deciding to play a little prank on
> Elder Adamson we told him that the painting smelled like curry, it
> went a little something like this. "Hey Elder Adamson this paining
> smells like curry" "what? There is no way" "I'm pretty sure it does
> come, look" [Elder Adamson puts his nose to the painting and smells]
> "you are right Elders this does smell like something, I wonder what it
> is" "oh, it's the cafeteria they are serving curry for lunch!" We then
> took the trains back to Kichijoji, I worked on my Australian accent
> with one of the sisters from Australia, she said I am starting to
> sound pretty good. I like to try out different accents when calling
> people around the mission (we make so many calls in a day). We then
> were in the office for the rest of the day catching up on work and
> missed calls. We found out that we will be adding a new person to the
> office....drum roll please...Elder Ford! Really quick about Elder
> Ford, I met him at the last church dance I went to the day after I
> received my mission call. He came in at about 11:30 so we helped him
> get settled in. Elder Ford will be the new Recorder, and Elder
> Murakami will become the new assistant with Elder Bates.
>
> 水曜日
> Since Elder Bates was on splits with some missionaries Elder Ford and
> I went running. When we got to the park we saw a police car with the
> lights on. Elder Ford turned to me and asked if that was normal.
> Uh..no. So we continued the run and found 5 police officers
> surrounding a black man. And this man was irate. He was screaming at
> the police officers in English about listening to his music and
> singing in the park. The expression on the police officers faces was
> priceless. We ran over to see if we could translate for him, and he
> just kept yelling and there was a Japanese man who spoke English there
> so we left. After our run, we had studies then had our big office
> meeting for the upcoming transfer. I guess I can spill the beans about
> me this upcoming transfer. I'm staying...yay, well kind of...I'd
> rather be in the field life is so much simpler out there. When we were
> discussing if I could make bread President was all for it but sister
> Wada was hesitant, then President Wada leaned over to me and said,
> "make it" so I get to use to mission wife's kitchen wahoo! After we
> ate udon then went to yodabashi camera for a flash drive, so try and
> download some software to reset Sister Adamson's computer. We ended up
> having to call salt lake to see if we could buy a program, thankfully
> they already owned a better one and walked Sister Adamson through the
> steps needed. She must have thought we had been the ones to fix it
> because she came to our eakaiwa class! We did improv! It was
> hilarious! We have one student who loves Led Zeppelin, so when there
> was a skit about a dead dog, he said "oh yes, your dog is on the
> stairway to heaven!" It was hilarious and really creative!
>
> 木曜日
> Elder Bates, Elder Ford and I went running then we began getting
> ready, halfway through Elder Bates needed to go to the church to
> practice singing for MLC (mission leadership conference), so I went
> with him and took a laptop to do some office work. Then back to the
> office to fix a few things President needed, then upstairs to go and
> clean. Then I hid for a half hour so I could read my scriptures. After
> I prepared a training to give at MLC, regarding Facebook. Elder Moua
> went to the dentist with one of the Nehongen so I was with Elder
> Naganuma. When lunch time came around I began making a sandwich but
> Elder Naganuma insisted on going to McDonalds, when I asked him why he
> said it was so he could gain 7 kilos so he can beat me in arm
> wrestling....haha good luck. On our way there we saw a big camera crew
> filming two people, when in asked him what it was he said it was a
> really famous actor in japan. So I saw a really famous actor who I
> literally have no idea who they are. We came back, ate, then I went up
> do do my training. We discussed Facebook and how we can use it better
> as a mission. Then I stayed for the next section of discussion items,
> after we went back to the office to find that an App was completely
> broken..the best part is the app was built by a missionary in the
> mission so we spent an hour working on that then after MLC everything
> broke loose and we had a million things coming in for us. Lost iPads,
> scratched screens, and various other problems. When that died down we
> had district meeting, the sports night. At sports night we played ping
> pong, and socialized with investigators. And that summed up out day.
>
> 金曜日
> We woke up and didn't go running! I did push ups! Then we had studies,
> after we ate, I made a wonderful sand which. Then I worked on fixing a
> dumb app...which was frustrating. But then the creator of the app
> came! Sadly... He want much help at all...I guess the former tech
> staffs all have some sort of love hate relationship...then there is me
> who is running around plugging holes in a giant bucket... But that is
> life and it keeps things interesting. It was a busy time after working
> in the office we went to sushi. I fell asleep, I was so tired. I only
> had three plates which isn't a whole lot at all. After we went out and
> did missionary work (I forget the word in English)! We met a really
> great man and set up a return appointment for the following week! We
> then ran into a few couples and invited them. We met a Russian! He was
> really cool and had an awesome Russian name! We then found a boxing
> gym! That was fun to watch. After we met a few teenagers and then came
> back home to finish out the day!
>
> Sorry this letter may seem abrupt... My week has been really busy!
>
> Love you all!
>
> Elder Dunn

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