Fwd: Finding and Teaching Families

Hello. 

Monday

After our studies we packed our backpacks and headed to Costco! The closest one was an hour and a half away by train which was a bummer. When we arrived we had the intention of going to the food court first but they closed it off so you had to shop first. We bought our groceries and got the weirdest looks from various people. After we hauled all the food home, which was alright because I was able to nap on the train. Then we dropped off our stuff at the church, wrote/sent off the last of our emails, and finished with our various shopping in Kichijoji. My companion, Elder Choi really wanted a notebook so we spent 30 minutes attempting to find one. Thankfully he found one but we were unable to get any of the other things we wanted to which was a bummer. On the way back to the church we met a man who wanted to know about Eikaiwa! We were able to help him find the correct area to go to, and it turns out i knew him from Eikaiwa in Machida over a year ago! Pretty amazing! We then split with the Tech Staff Elders and Elder Belnap and I taught a lesson to Takikawa-San. He doesn't really have a strong desire to know right now which is kind of frustrating. We got a little heated mostly because he was trying to distract us with ambiguous questions that without having faith in Christ are kind of hard to understand. I learned a lot about how we can bring the Spirit unto people's hearts but we can't bring it into people's hearts. They have to make that decision for themselves. Afterwards we split back and Elder Choi and Sister Neff had to practice for a big musical number for Wednesday, so I ended my day in the chapel listening to hymns. It was a peaceful ending to a busy day. 

Tuesday

After studies we went into a mad frenzy cleaning the apart,met in case Elder Whiting came to visit it. It wasn't bad, it just needed a little perking up. Then Elder Choi and I went to the office so I could fix an app, then we tried to visit Michael but he wasn't home so we went around to a few less actives in the area however no one was home. We then returned to the church to Kubari which was fun. I talked to a man from Belgium which was pretty cool, he was nice but had no interest. We passed a few more out then went back to the church to help set up a little for the conference tomorrow and went home for dinner. After dinner we biked over to the Zhang Family's house! (I still have no earthly idea about how to spell his name.) they welcomed us right in and we had one of the most amazing lessons I have been apart of. On Sunday we taught the son the restoration because the parents weren't home, except this time the son taught the father in Chinese and translated for us! It was so amazing! It is really hard not being able to speak Chinese they have so much potential! We hope to set a date with the father and son soon! His biggest concern is not understanding church since he doesn't understand English or Japanese very well. It was another great ending to a day. 

Wednesday

We woke up early got ready and headed over to the church for a big Conference with half the mission! We were instructed by Elder Whiting for the morning session. It was good, he took questions from missionaries as well as talked a little about how the leadership of the church are doing and the future of the church as well. It was all very good. After lunch Sister Wada, President Wada and Sister Whiting all spoke. It was really good, it turns out that Sister Whiting was one of the missionaries president Wada knew when he was investigating the church as a 15 year old boy! Wow! Small world! After the conference, I had a neat opportunity to be interviewed by Elder Whiting. He is a nice man, I was able to learn a lot from the interview. We then went home had dinner and came back for Eikaiwa. As we were setting up we noticed that the Sisters seemed really nervous. Then we realized why, the assistants had left for the next conference tomorrow which meant their Bible class needed to be taught by someone else. So they got stuck teaching it, but the problem is there is only one native speaker and the other two are Japanese. We switched classes with the, which was great because I was able to convince a few of the advanced students to come to the class as well! We talked about Daniel from the old testament which was a lot of fun. It was by first time ever teaching bible class so that was neat. 

Thursday

After studies we went to the church and had our weekly planning session. It was good, we were able to plan effectively for a lot of our investigators, we even were able to set up an appointment with a family who is half Japanese half philapeno (I forgot how to spell what I am trying to write. It's the group of islands north of Australia). That was exciting! We made a lot of really good plans for the up and coming week. We are working really hard with our investigators. After that we helped Tech Staff with a few bugs then went and kubaried recently I have been mistaken as being from England I have no idea how but it's becoming more common. I enjoy kubaring because it really forces you to run off of your own Japanese skill because your companion is a few yards away passing out fliers. After that we walked over to the train station and found a man from Kansas named Abule (I can't spell his name right either). He was really friendly, but told us he wasn't interested and we wasted our time because he is apart of another church. To which I replied, "well sir, we believe we are all brothers, it doesn't matter what church we belong to." He replied, "amen to that, here's my phone number." We then met with a man by the name of Brian from America, we went out to eat with him and talked. He expressed a lot of interest. We focused on building from truth it worked great. We committed him to learn more and prepared him for more latter down the road, he even accepted a Book of Mormon. It was great! It is kind of weird teaching people in your native tongue from your home country. But it worked out wonderfully. I did realize I'm having a hard time expressing myself as easily in English now. 

Friday

Early in the morning Elder Livingston and I split! We went back home studied, then went to district meeting where the Wada's came! It was Presidents birthday so after district meeting we ate cake and brownies. It was delicious! Then we split back because the assistants had a meeting with President so Elder Choi and I went to Michaels. He is looking so much better! He got a haircut and is just turning everything around. Elder Choi did one of the most selfless things I have seen. Michael broke his glasses a while back so it is difficult to see for him. So Elder Choi gave him his glasses, they worked better for Michael which was great. Sadly Elder Choi is a little bit more blind, so it'll be slow truckin' for a little bit until his bags arrive. We went slowly back to the Honbu to resume splits and went out to dinner as a 4 man. We went to a tsukemen place that was really good! Then went to the church to meet up with our Chinese member for our lesson Zhou! He is awesome!! He was baptized in November and wants to serve a mission! So incredible, we went to the Zhangs and had an amazing experience. It felt like the MTC all over again, I had no idea what they were saying, but we could feel the spirit. Elder Livingston broke off and taught the son and I stayed in Chinatown trying to understand. I now understand "of course" "yes" "no" "church" "book of Mormon" "goodbye" "thank you" "hello" and "my name is elder Dunn". He is so prepared though. He was so excited for Chinese New Year, I love learning about their culture. It is so amazing. We were able to teach a good amount. Our member, Zhou, basically did everything we were just there to smile and nod our heads. What was cool was when he prayed, I knew exactly what he was saying, almost as if it were speaking to my heart. 

Saturday

We went to the church in the morning to split back and play so,e sports in the gym. We had extra balloons from president Wada's surprise in district meeting the day before so we used them in a form of Mario cart that we kind of made up. It was a creative way to exercise. We then came home and Elder Choi and I studied, after studies we went to the church to send a few emails to the district about follow up then. Went to various members houses. Sadly no one was really home so we left them notes and tried talking to people along the way. No one we talked to had a whole lot of interest, but we tried hard anyways. We walked through the park which had tons of people at it because on Saturdays a lot of people come to the park to see the street performers and flea market. We found a neat man who sells postcards, and another man who will read to you these giant comic books! It is pretty funny because you can hear him yell from the other side of the lake. After streeting we went to Seiyu so Elder Choi could buy a toothbrush and shampoo, and went to the house for dinner. After dinner we went to station and handed out fliers for an hour and a half, it was nice and busy.

Sunday

We arrived at the church early for DCS however our ward mission leader never showed up so we were kind of stuck. Church was great though we set up a lot of appointments for this upcoming week. After church we collected stats, wrote lesson reports and we figured out what we were going to teach the Chibas. We picked up the Chiba a Family at the Eki and walked with them to the church. The wife is from the philipeans (still can't spell it) and they have two young kids! Satoshi the husband is the one we contacted and he brought his whole family! It was great! We taught them an English lesson then taught them about the gospel! It was great! The whole family is so prepared. We will hopefully extend a baptismal commitment to them this week. After that we went home for dinner then went to Ueki Kyodais house for a short lesson about President Monson. It was really good, we also invited him to institute this next week. 

Well there went another week. 

Big Hearts! 

Elder Dunn

1. Some curry we found in an import store...yummy?
2. A view of Tokyo from an apartment, the clouds look so pretty.
3. Cho at his 60th Birthday party. I love this picture of him.
4. Pizza coupons for Dominos pizza....$38 for an American medium pizza? 
5. The last pictures are from around the eki and in the park. This is where we walk around talking to people.