Monday, October 28, 2013

Japan week #12

Konnichiwa minasan!! 
     I trust everyone is well and supa genki? :) I certainly hope so, and pray so. This week has been a blast, and it's like, almost guaranteed my last transfer with Elder Harper. :( Transfers are tomorrow, and boy is that a crazy feeling. This is like my first 'real' transfer. For training you almost always stay with you trainer and same area for two, so I wasn't so anxious about it then. But now that I'm 'done' training, ;) ANYTHING can happen. I could move, stay, get a new comp, stay with Elder Harper, who knows, I DON'T! So that's way exciting. And you won't know what happens till next week! Haha!! ;) It's gonna be great, whatever happens. I'm excited. I am WAY sad that this is likely my last couple days with Elder Harper. We've grown so close together, and I can't believe how much we've BOTH grown these last two transfers together. Our last weekly planning session got way real. He was giving me some last second advice, things he wanted me to remember, and it turned into quite the bromance session. It was great, we really do love each other. I'm gonna be WAY sad when he goes home and I'm still here! It's crazy how close you get to other missionaries out here. Even some of the guys in my zone that I've only seen twice I'm way attached to, we're all brothers in the faith and that really binds us together, it's really special. 
 So you may have heard, but there was a typhoon coming about the northern asian areas, and we got hit with some crazy weather this week. It's been mad, rain, and slight flooding, and other crazies, and we've been having to adapt to it. We had a whole day of work go because of the intense weather, it's nuts!! It should be past us now though, so hopefully we get back to normal weather. It's been getting much colder now too. It's way surprising to me because it's only Ooctober!! Got me some epic blue/black riding gloves for the bike to keep my hands warm and dry. My big winter gloves are too big really to ride, so I scored big finding those gloves for like 2 bucks. :D 
  So this week we couldn't meet with our investigators, everything was coming up so they couldn't see us, we were way bummed, but after this week, with hindsight, I think that was planned from up high. We've had some way cool non attending miracles this week that I don't think would've happened if we were riding way out every day to reach our investigators. So the first one was meeting a Brother Ogasawara. That's a CRAZY Japanese name by the way. Most names are way short. His is like, 4 kanji long. O.O Most are 2. It's crazy! He's an 80 year old man who was baptized in his teens, moved away from home, and hasn't seen anyone from, or had any contact with the church until we met him this week. For 60 years he lost contact with the church, and he long since went inactive because of that, and just us finding him was a miracle. We were looking for a different na (non-attending) in that area, and we just couldn't for the life of us find them. So we decided to just start housing, and we found him. :O CRAZY right? And his English is way good, and he loves missionaries, especially gaijins, (me) ;), so we had a great visit with him. Turns out his health has been declining a lot recently, and he's been very lonely, and our visiting him was way timely. He has been thinking about the church again and wants to come back, and then we show up on his door step to fellowship him!! :D Was way cool, and he LOVES ME. Contrast that to my gaijin powers scaring poor innocent women. ;) Haha!!
   Our other big na miracle this week was visiting a Sister Shagotsu. We were having a rough day, we were late getting out the door, Harper crashed, broke his light, had to run to a nearby store to buy a new bike light, we were WAY behind schedule, and feeling way bad about it. But it turns out, that as we were going to this sister's house, that she got home at the EXACT time we showed up. So if we hadn't have had a crazy day, we would've missed her, and she had been praying for the missionaries to come visit her. She has had a crazy few years, her husband fell asleep while driving, while she was in the car, and ended up crashing and killing the mother of a young family, leaving the father and child alone, and she has been feeling a lot of guilt about it. Her husband had to do a year in prison because of it. And so she's been having some bouts of depression, and recently she was feeling very bad about it, and our showing up was way timely, because the spirit we felt together was way powerful, and she was a different person when we left. :) She has an AMAZING testimony still, we have no idea why she isn't active. She's in a part member family, that might be why.
    Our halloween party was awesome as well. :) We had a great turn out, great food, and a great time. Had quite a few non members come, and the ward invited lots of their friends, and we had a blast. :) I dressed up as Santa Claus, and one of my favorite members, Isago Kyodai, dressed up as a member of kiss. Hence the epic Kiss picture together. ;) It was a way fun time. I think it was way successful. Mie san, one of the shimai's investigators came, and I think it was way good for her to associate with the members. It's weird having shimai, but they're way good, and Muroran is so ready for shimai again. 
  But yeah, thsoe are the more notable parts of this week. It's been a great one. :) 
    Today for p day, the bishop invited us to go to the onsen (hot springs) with him, his treat! So we called President Evans, and he said normally since we went last transfer, he'd say no, wait a bit longer, but because the bishop invited us, he said yes! So I get to go to the onsen again!! :D:D:D STOKED!! So yeah, great way to end this transfer. ;) You can't fully understand just the magicalness of the onsen until you experience. It's wonderful, I highly recommend it. ;) 
   OK! Some business, I need socks. :P My old socks that I took, I've destroyed. My toenails, EVEN SHORT, have cut through them all. I only have like 6 pairs of black socks. :P So maybe could you get me some black calf length athletic socks or something? Not dress socks? I just need something more durable. I could go for another pair or two of those thorlo socks as well momma! I have a list of things I've been thinking about asking for, but I don't have it on me so I can give you those next week. Some of those aren't super pressing too, so it's no big deal. OH! The music is EPIC!!"! I LOVE IT! Elder Harper does too, it's way epic. Thank you so much! OH! I could go for another pair of nylon garments, that'd be nice. And I'm WAY good on hygiene stuff, I don't think I'll ever run out. ;) I'll let you know when I need stuff! Thanks guys! I love you all so much, have a great week!1

      Love, Mike

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