Girl Hungry

What's good guys!

Lots of Interactions with people this week. Elder Busteed and I have a good friendship and really joke around and mess with a lot of people here in Atsugi. Whether it's our friends who come to activities, ones we meet with/teach, or members we just have a lot of great convos with a lot of people because of our different style I guess? I love it. I really feel like I am myself this transfer because Busteed and I are really similar and he's so laid back. So I'll give the run down on all our friends from this week. It may be hard to keep them straight but I guess that just shows how busy and a little overwhelmed we have been lately haha.

I'll start with this really dope kid Elder Brown and I met that I think I mentioned in my last email, Kohei. He is so busy but we were finally able to meet him this week and play basketball. He is 17 and soo good. His life is basketball, he loves it so much. He went to America for a couple weeks to play and study basketball. Literally study it. So of course we get along. He really loves English and wants to learn from us. We taught him about God and prayer and I told him why we're sharing these things and he was like "good I really want to learn about God and church." He later prayed then messaged us on Facebook and said he really learned how important God is. Really excited about this kid. We ran into Kenji (our depressed, married, super chill friend who went to school in LA and is married and we played basketball with) in the middle of the city when we were going to a Jazz Festival, really good to see him.

There is our friend Issei who we take the funny photo booth photos with. We started teaching him a little. This last Friday at the end of a sick game night (where a member brought wii dance, a lot of our friends came and Elder Busteed and I shared Moroni's promise with everyone from the BoM) I had a really good talk with him and we really think we can get him to start getting more involved with the church. After our message two of our Vietnamese friends (Vu and Hai) who come to Eikaiwa said they want to start reading the BoM and are now investigators with the other Elders. We played soccer with them the next day which was really fun. Then of course we taught Hirose and Keiko at Bible & BoM study on Saturday. 

Girl Hungry: Then there is Hari our Indian friend who we spent a lot of time with this week. We teach him Japanese on Sunday's and run with him sometimes in the mornings. This week we started teaching him lessons. He is very humbled because it looks like his "girlfriend" in India is engaged, he is destroyed and a little mentally unstable. India has the weirdest dating system, it blows my mind. He has a strong accent and is just so much fun to mess around with. Though he won't stop talking about this girl. There are a lot of lonely, desperate people here (hence the subject line). It really sounds like Hari has convinced himself that he has been dating this girl when he hasn't told us a single good experience he has actually had with her face to face. Then there is our investigator Shimizu who sees his "girlfriend" once a month at work and he really likes her but she doesn't know he does and he doesn't know if she likes him and they have never been on a date. Yet he is still concerned what she will think if he gets baptized.... Then there is our new Chinese friend Chou. He came to church last week and is way chill and is now a new investigator. We ate some Chinese food with him and talked a lot about prayer. He is super outgoing but says he can't talk to girls because it's so hard in Japan so his biggest concern and question for us is how he can get a girlfriend, and the member who hooked us up with him us has the same concern. Just so many people here with girl issues (or I guess, lack of girl issues haha) and want girlfriends so bad some have tricked themselves into thinking they have one. Haha it's ridiculous. So many struggle socially here.. 

Ok sorry last person... Brother Kesh. A while back we went on a hike with him, he is such a cool guy. Him and his family have been through a ton of terrible things, fallen away from the church and haven't been to church in about 10 years. Really sad stuff, the ward is very concerned and always talking about them. We had a feeling we should visit him last night. I swear he is never home but last night he was. We planned on trying to create more of a friendship, just show love, and not really talk about church.. That didn't happen. He calls us in and we just sit down and have a crazy deep talk and he confesses that he wants to become active again but he wants to come back with his family and his wife so that it doesn't create contention. We are hopefully going to be able to help him do so, man it was so great. So thankful for that opportunity to hear that and start helping him. He kept saying that he is so thankful for the Atsugi ward, the missionaries and the UNCONDITIONAL love he's felt from them. Members learned about him not keeping the commandments and saw him fall away from church but all the members continued to love him the same and never judged. I really wish I could see a stat on how many members have fallen away from church because of judgement from others. Brother Kesh and his family are a perfect example of the opposite, what happens if we love others unconditionally. It's because of that love that he still has good feelings towards the gospel and a desire to come back. 

It's been stated that missionary work is the most important work here on earth. If that's true then what is judgement that hurts membership and causes others to go inactive, reversing missionary work? Think about it... Churches are where we come to be healed not come to judge others for being imperfect. What we say, do and even think has such a large impact, let's all love a little more. I know I need to.

So many interactions this week, it's really fun because we are so busy but it's a little overwhelming! Love you guys :)

スパックマン長老

Pics

1. Way sick owl out on the street

2. Some people here are obsessed with trains and ride in the front and just get so excited. Here is my impersonation... What's funny is a train obsessed kid comes running out of no where to look out the window next to me and is so stoked... The perfect example. Busteed stopped the video too early but you can hear him coming and see his reflection at the end.

3. **Punny** Chourou's (長老's) eating churros (ft. Elder Belnap!)