I Go Back to December Once a Year!!

IT`S DECEMBER (at least as I write this it is in Japan, I am not quite sure about the rest of you all)!!!  The tourist part of town in Takayama is full with Christmas decorations to please the Europeans and some of the Japanese.  Christmas has actually come up in a couple of conversations with people on the street when we ask what their opinion about Christ is.  They all say Illumination (which is what the Japanese call Christmas lights) and Christmas cake is the best.  I am hoping Christmas cake has a lot of frosting and is pretty big and that a member might delight us with some.

It hasn`t snowed quite yet but I am waiting very carefully for it.  Vaughn Choro says that once it snows we will do what we call `Snow Dendo` and go outside, find someone shoveling snow and say, `Hey, can we help you` and then spread the gospel that way.  I`m hoping some people will let us in their house to warm us up by the fire so that we can get into a proper lesson but, then again, I would rather not have snow in the first place.  So, I am dreaming of a brown/black/green Christmas.  Maybe one P-day I will make a snowman!

This week was, well, transfer calls but nothing changed in our four person district so it was really not that big of a deal this time around.  It will be good that we will all be here for Christmas, just the four of us because Elder Williams has quite the selection of Christmas music.  Other than that, this week has kind of been rough.  Our Filipino friend/investigator talked to his Mom about us and wanting to be baptized and she told him he couldn`t meet with us again.  Jay has agreed to meet us one more time because he is rebellious and likes us a lot!  We are going to go over and talk to his Mom this next Fast Sunday with our Branch President so we can have all of the branch prayers and fasts going our way.  Hopefully we can soften her heart and Jay can continue preparing for baptism on Christmas but if we can`t at least Jay has taken steps closer to Christ.

We did this week, however, get an appointment with a former investigator that elders long ago contacted.  The coffee and beer cans outside the house has given us some worry but I think it is about time I practice my teaching the Word of Wisdom skills again.  `Don`t don`t drink, no don`t even think about it, Drinking stinks, stinky drink no doubt about`.  We went with Lisa a recent RM who served in Tokyo after we ate out at her new work called Lotterria (Vaughn calls it the Wendy`s of Japan, not as cheap as McDonalds but not as good and pricey as In-N-Out).  She won`t be able to help us teach lessons but we can still talk a little English with her before she heads off to the BYU English Learning Center next April.

I almost forget to say but this Thanksgiving we had, well, the most traditional Thanksgiving dinner ever, all you can eat SUSHI!!!  I tried to get Eel sushi so I could have the same food as the Pilgrims and my BFF ancestor William Brewster had at the First Thanksgiving but I settled with Duck with Black Pepper which was just as good.  And I had Taco sushi... but taco in Japanese is octopus so I was thinking I could find a Taco Bell in Japan but instead of Mexican food it would be octopus.  That was for lunch and for dinner we had the first meal we made in Takayama with no rice, mashed potatoes and fried chicken!  I also tried to make vanilla pudding but I accidentally burnt it and spilled a bunch of the powder before I made it.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Turkey Bowls, football, and good `ole `Merican turkey and that everyone enjoys the start of Christmas season!  

Thanks again for all the letters and e-mails!  Have a dandy of a week!

Barely Surviving and Thankful for it!!

So this past month there has been a problem here in Takayama and it is now safe to announce because my Mom has heard the news from an Elder Mueller`s Mom on Facebook.  So, bears in the surronding mountains have been coming into my city in order to get food because there is a scarceness of food in the mountains this year.  All of the school kids have bells to scare the bears off and there have been five attacks so far.  Luckily God is on our side or else I would just have to grin and bare it but, no need to worry about me.

This upcoming Thursday is a day us Americans like to call Thanksgivings!  Sadly, in Japan, they call it, just the 27th of November but, our plan is to go pig out somewhere and get super fat and lazy.  Maybe we will do that after we pay our tithing so that the storehouse will be full.  But, we are probably going to have a themed Eikaiwa class tonight for fun as well.  We learned last week in Eikaiwa that one student had a friend who shot three monkeys here in Japan and that they were going to eat them.  So, maybe he will give us some monkey meat for Thanksgiving but I am pretty sure shooting Monkeys is highly illegal here.  But, I shouldn`t judge I guess!

This week we had something to be grateful for.  We have a Filipino investigator Jameson who has a pretty interesting story.  We first met him outside a 7/11 that was opening and in order to talk to everyone we see, Vaughn Choro asked him `Hey, is this 7\11 open now?`  There were signs everywhere that said open in English and Japanese but it worked and he invited us to a get together their school was having.  We went, ate, said hi and left.  Then we played ping pong at the church a couple of weeks later and gave him the `we are missionaries` talk.  Then he came to church and we taught him the first lesson duringSunday school when we weren`t expecting him to come.  Then yesterday, we played Uno at the church (which he had never played before) and after we finished a game, he started telling us about how he was going to the Phillipines to see he Dad`s grave.  This random topic quickly changed to the Plan of Salvation, to the Gospel of Christ, and then to Baptism Invitation.  He kept switching back and forth between Japanese and English so I got about 3\4ths of the conversation and I talked a bit too.  It was really weird because we hadn`t planned it at all and were just planning on giving him an intro to the Book of Mormon.  But, the Spirit took over and he has a baptismal date on Christmas Eve!  Basically when talking and teaching to Jameson, I learn about how the Spirit really does everything and we just happen to be trying our best.  We have to get permission from his Mom still but he told us he has faith in Christ and wants to follow him.

So, for Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and help change people`s eternities.  I might not be with my family this Thanksgiving or Christmas but I am helping others be with their families for eternity.  I am grateful for being able to build myself and my testimony here out in Japan and for having the Spirit guide me even when I feel lost.  Even though I can`t write much to all of you, know that I am grateful for you and that I love you.  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and can be able to be grateful for all the blessings that God has given us in our lives.  And start playing that Christmas music!!!

That Guy Really Needs a Book of Mormon

So this week was pretty good but it has been slightly getting colder, and colder, and colder.  First 15 degrees, than 10 degrees, now we are hovering around four degrees Celsius of course.  The question before the week was sweater or no sweater and now the question is, should I put on my rain gear on top of my sweater, jacket, touche (Canadian word for beanie), gloves, and thermal underwear or is it not going to rain?  It hasn`t snowed quite just yet but the key word in that sentence is quite.

My companion sometimes says that the people are as cold as the weather, which is actually pretty accurate.  I want to start recording the temperature next to my daily stats in my planner to see if there is a direct correlation with the temperature and how many people we get to talk to in the street and have become new investigators.  People just are less inclined to talk about the gospel or quite frankly anything when it starts dropping into the single digits.

Once this week on a cold day we did have a good talk with someone!  Like usually, my e-mail consists of talking with a gaigen (someone not Japanese) that speaks English because that language I don`t have to read between the lines.  But, we do the usual if someone is in front of us... we start braking and saying `Konichiwa!` and get them to start.  So, we start the whole Japanese thing but the guy speaks English and is only slighty tan and from Australia.  We said we were missionaries and he was like "Well I actually moved to Japan to this small place so I could study out the truth."  (*Nice, nice, and we are here to give the truth!*) 

"`80 percent of what you have been told is propaganda and only 20 percent is truth." 

(*Wait, what?*)  "On my own I am trying to filter out the lies and get to the truth.  Basically I want to find the time before science and religion and find the truth from the beginning."  So I was kind of confused.  Should I go into the whole `We have no beginning...` and quote `If You Could Hie to Kolob` or just be like we have the truth!  Vaughn Choro handled it well and talked about the Book of Mormon and the full gospel.  We talked a bit, and then invited him to go on Mormon.org and read the BOM.  He said thanks and we rode away.

So then, after a couple minutes of biking in the opposite direction of him we got to a stoplight and Vaughn said "That guy really needs a Book of Mormon."  Then it clicked in my brain, I had brought a English Book of Mormon with me in my bag the night before to seminary (which is held every Wednesday night and the missionaries come to support the youth) and I still had it on me.  "Wait a minute", I muttered, as the light turned green ahead, "I have one I brought to seminary!"  So we raced back, hoping he hadn`t turned off the same street.  We catch up to him after a couple minutes of swerving in and out of the sidewalk and road and say, "`We forgot we had a English Book of Mormon."  We are panting and trying to catch our breath and still in the moment.  Then Vaughn very smoothly says, "If you read it, you will find your truth."  The guy got really happy when we stopped by and I think he felt loved.  The first time we stopped him, he probably thought, `Oh it is just their job to talk to people about their church`  but then when we chased him down a few minutes later, I think he felt really loved.  So, now we have the Australian Grant Laurie on our board with no contact information in the apartment and hope that he will find the truth for himself in the Book of Mormon and give us a call.

Also this week, our Filipino friend came to church!  We taught him lesson one with all the four of us missionaries and two 17 year old youth in the branch.  We finally found a Book of Mormon in Tagalog for him too so we hope that he can be progressing soon.

Also I have my first Baptism Date Set!  It is with an 11 year old in a less active family that has some mild form of Autism mixed with ADHD so the parents felt like they needed more time.  But, we started lessons with him and while he is easily distracted, Casey is really fun.  He is half Japanese so his Dad is an American who served in this mission twenty or so years ago and his wife and Casey speak some English.  And, the family invited us over for some gyoza next Sunday.  That makes my fourth dinner appointment in Japan!

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week and mark on their calendar BYU`s bowl game in Florida.  I would probably go, but, it might be a little ways out of the mission.  

Love you all and have a great week!

Less Active Work, In Our Church and Others!

So, like most weeks, this one was again quite interesting for two white folk running around the streets of Japan.  First off, we did what they call here `McDonalds` Dendo.  We met a guy we had OYMed to (or basically Opened Our Mouths to on the street) a couple of weeks back who had asked to be our friend.  So, we went to McD`s to meet him but we didn`t eat there because he didn`t want to.  We had known he was a bit socially awkward, but from the first meeting on the street we deemed him fully capable of hearing the glad message.

Now, in Japan, McDonalds have a really nice second floor with a bunch of tables that it is cool for people to meet people and talk to people instead of a disgusting ball pit full of diapers that they won`t let me go in anymore because I am too old in America.  There are usually adults sitting up there doing work on their computer or kids doing homework or teenagers playing Pokemon.  So, we meet him there and start talking, building the relationship.  He shows us pictures of his Star Wars action figures which were pretty cool and he had a Bane action figure with him he let us hold.  He even gave us a picture of one of his action figures for safe keeping!  So, this 27 year old who actually had a girlfriend was kind of nerdy in the extreme told us half his money from his job goes to action figures and he lives with his parents.  So a failure to launch kind of guy.  This meeting was already great e-mail material but then we transitioned to the gospel.  'We'd like to share a message with you.  What do you think about religion?'  'Oh, I am Mahikari.'  AAAAHHH!  Mahikari is a really creepy religion that is actually ran out of Takayama but is in most parts of Japan and they are this religion that believes in some really weird stuff and describes their God like we see Satan.  And their symbol is a weird star of David thing but they don't have anything to do with Jews.  He only said he was a member because his Mom was so he was a less active Mahikari but he didn't want anything to do with the gospel, so we said goodbye, thanked him for the picture and went on our way.

Later in the week we visited a less active member of our church.  The branch here is doing this massive To the Rescue program and they want the missionaries to visit all of the less actives in the ward (which is like 70 or so) to see how we can help them.  We went to one on Sunday night and he answered the door which was pretty good and we got talking.  He said that he was baptized two years ago and that he really loves missionaries because the ones who taught him were his friend when he needed one the most.  We asked him his current views about the church and he said he wants to come back but has work.  So, we asked him to see if he could get if off to come to church.  He was really happy to see us and seems like someone who was waiting for a gentle push back into the church.  And we are planning on doing a Family Home Evening with his non-member wife and two daughters.  It is amazing to see how the Lord directs us as missionaries to find the people, whether active, non-members or less active, who really need our help the most.  Hope the Lord can direct everyone this week to help someone in need. 

 Have a great week and enjoy the Fall weather everyone!  

Love you all!

Las Vegas sign in Numazu

View from Apartment in Takayama

Halloween Themed English Class