Japan Tokyo South Mission: dis week went 0-100 REAL QUICK

Hey everyone :)

I had thoughts halfway through my week that this letter was going to be super negative. The first half of this week was one of the hardest of my life (zero). Turned out to be a great week tho (one hundred). I have been praying a lot for Jordan, when I should visit him and what I should teach him. I have also been praying to follow the Spirit better. We don't have communication and he doesn't have a perfectly set schedule. I had a strong prompting after prayer the Sunday of last week that I needed to visit him the next day at 6:30. When I put it on the iPad planner, no matter where I put the event it jumped to 6:30. I knew this was an answer to my prayers. Next day was p day. Got caught up in the day and kinda lazy. Didn't get to Jordan's until about 7:30. His sister answered. He happened to have work off that day and had been home all day but had just left. I won't take a spiritual promoting of that strength lightly ever again. At least I hope I don't.

Then the next three days were so bad. My companion speaks very minimal English. Not enough for me to really understand at least. My Japanese is still pretty rough. He and I were getting so frustrated I just about lost it a few times. I was basically pissed off for those three days at him and the world and became so exhausted. My companion was doing and saying some things that seemed to communicate "your Japanese sucks and you're a bad missionary." Which would have been ok (cause I know it's not true) if I wasn't already struggling. There is more details but it's all irrelevant now because we figured it all out and it was all just a bunch of misunderstandings. He wasn't saying anything close to what I thought. Thank goodness I have 2 elders in my apartment who can clear up confusion through translation. It turned the week around completely.

Despite those misunderstandings, I love the crap out of Inumaki he is so funny and just loves to have a good time. He also is a beast in lessons. More than just simply knowing the language. We work well together. He is nice and loving and definitely wasn't trying upset me.

This week we saw some funny things. The crows here are giant and there beaks are so freaking big. They like to torture people too. I have had one fly at my head and had to duck, after words he just stared at me and squawked until I was gone. If you stare at them too long they will do that. They seem to be heavily under Satan's control. They really need the gospel lol. We saw one fly over our heads, swoop down and softly grab at this old mans hair as it flew by. The old man turned around at us and was so confused. Then he saw the bird, which of course was just sitting there squawking. Those two definitely had some beef. I would strongly encourage all of you to kill as many crows on the road as possible haha.

Later in the week I had one of the craziest/best days on the mish. I decided to try a new drink. Didn't realize it was loaded with caffeine haha. It's been a while. I was super happy and energetic the rest of the day. We dropped into a suit store for a little. They had the sickest suites I've ever seen all 200-400 dollars. 2-3 emails ago I talked about the new trend I want to start, jogger dress pants? I sent a picture. As we are walking around... GUESS WHAT THIS STORE HAD-- JOGGER DRESS PANTS!!! I was freaking out. Wanted to buy some but they were 100 bucks.

After that we saw a bunch of people we know. Which is very rare with so many people in Japan and so many places. We first saw brother Hirai from the ward. As we were talking to him a man tapped my shoulder and it was Carlos. (Who stopped coming to church a while back after he disrupted class super bad and was super rude. Nagano and I talked to him about it and he freaked out on us and started crying. Long story.) Inumaki and I went to McDonalds and found a new investigator and taught him the restoration. It was super cool. We will see if we can meet again. At this point I was just stoked on life (and caffeine) just riding around high fiving random people on my bike. I said hi to this lady as I passed and she jumped and screamed. I am pretty sure she pooped herself, didn't mean to, but scared the crap out of her haha. I was starting to realize how crazy the day was and thought, "man I wouldn't be surprised if I saw the crazy old guy who is in love with me." We are riding to the store and I hear this man yelling "konichiwa!" I look and sure enough... it's him. Then inside of the store we ran into this other crazy old guy who the other elders are teaching. He always calls me "ikemen" and just looses it laughing and repeats this over and over. Man we know some crazy people.

Later that day we had a lesson with Iwasawa. Which aren't going anywhere. It was probably one of the best lessons I have had but he just doesn't really get it I don't think. Brother Watanabe was there. The three of us have concluded that he has some sort of mental issue and just can't really think deeply, feel, or express himself. He just repeats whatever we say. We think that's why he still lives at home and hasn't ever really progressed with the missionaries. Probably why his parents are so against him getting baptized cause they are worried he is being tricked into something bad. It's sad.

All in all a great week as usual. This one flew by quicker than any week in my life. I am sure of that. Things are hard with the language but it's pushing me. I love and pray for you daily.

Elder Spackman

Pictures:

1. Jogger dress pants!!!