Japan Tokyo South Mission: Wild Week

Ayyyyyo waddup!

This week was pretty physically demanding, but I am sleeping really well because of it :) We had a temple trip this week, that's why I am emailing on Tuesday. While I was there I got to see Elder Judd who is serving in that area (Shibuya). He is wayyy lucky. I was stoked to see him. Love that kid.

This last Saturday we went with some members and friends and hiked Tounotake mountain. Little did we know it was a monster hike.... Everyone was sore the next day and day after. One of the sisters in our district still can't walk normal. I will send pictures. It was so pretty we had a great view of Mount Fuji. Though we were way tired this week because we got sunburnt and tired.

My first Sunday here in Atsugi was so great. The members are the best! So nice. I'll send a pic but one example, I complimented one of their ties and he took it off his neck and just gave it to me... I felt kinda bad but he insisted. So dope. I bore my testimony and I guess I said a Japanese word that was apparently way weird for the context everyone laughed hard haha. Later I was tripping over a word and they all simultaneously helped me with it out loud. Hahah I started laughing, so bizarre but that's normal here, I guess.

Last night we went finding with one of the members here who wants to go on a mission. Man he has mission fire!! At the end of the night we found this guy who has a bible and lived in the Philippines and America before but is Japanese. We taught him a lesson and we are meeting with him and his family in the future. A FAMILY! I hope that doesn't fall through.

So in our area and especially our zone there are a lot of foreigners, especially Hispanics. We met with a recent convert here name Javier. He's Cuban and seriously the sickest dude, I got a picture with him. His faith is soo strong. He is so proud to be a Mormon. He wants a temple recommend so bad because "that's the real deal, then he can prove to anyone he is the Mormon anywhere in the world" haha. Makes me think... For those of you that are lds and glad you are, how proud of it are you? I know before the mission if someone asked if I was Mormon I would kind of quietly admit I was. That's sad. I hope I never do that again. This has changed my life and will be a factor in the decisions and direction I take the rest of my life, without it I would be pretty lost. I think we need to be very proud to call ourselves Mormons. My name is Brett Spackman and I'm a Mormon?.. Cancel

Anyways after we met with Javier we just kinda walked around and eventually ended up at a small apartment complex. The last door we knocked on I actually started to leave cause I thought there wasn't anyone home. Thank goodness Elder Brown hung around cause a woman came to the door. She was from Brazil and spoke English! She is Catholic but stopped going to church, prays every day, reads the bible but believes it may be missing something... Whaaaat?! So prepared. We explained the Book of Mormon, got her hooked up with a Portuguese one. I shared my strong experience of prayer. She committed to reading and praying about it. If she keeps her word I know she'll finna get an answer. We referred her to a sister who speaks Portuguese in a close by area. Way stoked about it. I really felt the Spirit guiding the conversation cause we seemed to say all the right things. I am really thankful for that guidance and that I could be a part of that experience.

So we usually go streeting here (walking around and talking to random people). Recently we have been doing a lot more door knocking. I am actually starting to really like it. Even though you rarely actually see anyone. Everyone here has door bells with a camera on them and they just say no over it (in there super polite "if I have time" way). I like it because the people that do talk to you are actually interested in the message, not just a tall white foreigner or because they feel like they have to "be nice" and listen. It reminds me a lot of selling door to door. Every door is something new and you get to really rock your own style. I am finding myself say a lot of things I used to selling alarms. For example when they say they are too busy eating I say "is it cool if we eat together"? Haha I love joking with people here.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators, Kobayashi, he loves reading the Book of Mormon. Though he won't pray or go to church. That will change tho :) He has a ton of good questions about the Book of Mormon so it was tough to actually teach a lesson but it was good. He is way more prepared for the gospel than we thought and definitely more than he realizes.

I am pretty excited to be with Elder Brown, he's pretty different but we work hard. He tends to get way stressed out about things out of his control. It's good we are together for that reason cause I don't trip about things that we can't control and therefore calm him down.

Well that's about all. Not a lot of preaching in this one sorry guys :) Just remember doing the little things like reading your scriptures & praying daily as well as going to church weekly will keep you on the straight and narrow.

Love you guys :)

Spackman 長老

Pictures

1. Here's Shingo the member that gave the tie in this pic :)