Japan Tokyo South Mission: Written on Monday, forgot to send it

First of all HUGE shoutout to my sister Amber + family on the new baby. I'm really sad I can't see my first nephew Ashton Porter Jones (seriously one of the sickest names I have heard). Not sure if I will call him AP, Ash, or Port? :) We'll see.

Transfer calls came! I am staying in Atsugi for my 3rd transfer with a new companion, Elder Busteed! I am so so excited for a fresh start with him here in Atsugi. You have no idea. These last two transfers (3 months) have been really hard, I'm willing to admit it now because things should be getting better :) I have heard a lot of good things about Busteed, he's a fellow USU Aggie so that should tell us enough ;) He is definitely the oldest missionary companion I've had, he's in the last 4th of his mission. I said goodbye to Elder Stevens this morning :( Definitely was my best friend here. Life is just one big goodbye. Our ward had a baptism this last weekend, a Hispanic lady named Marta. Elder Stevens got to baptize her literally right before he went home. His first baptism on the mission!

This week I had the opportunity of giving Elder Brown a priesthood blessing, my first one, wow I felt the Spirit so strong. I defiantly feel like I was speaking the things God wanted him to hear and feel. We also gave one of the sister missionaries here a blessing, yesterday confirmed Marta and gave her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I am so thankful for the priesthood and I know it's real through my experiences this week and because I have felt the power on the receiving end as well.

I feel dumb telling these stories of people we meet then never talking about them again because we loose contact. We see miracles every day but a lot of times don't see anything come out of it, I know no work is wasted though. One of those people is Kohei, our friend who came outside of his house, was ready to go wherever, gave us both big hugs and said a great prayer. We tried to visit him after a long, hard day and he didn't come out.. Not knowing what to do afterwords because it was getting late, Elder Brown decided we should visit an old friend of his. This friend answers in just his boxers and Elder Brown said, "oh sorry if it's a bad time we don't want to bother you." He said, "No! Come in, I have been avoiding you." I later realized this is a guy we had tried calling many times. Elder Brown met him here about 6 months ago, he came to church and they were teaching him but lost contact. His name is Kenji, Japanese but went to College in LA and is so sick. One of his greatest qualities is he is just painfully honest like I am sometimes. Elder Brown was dying to get us together because he knew we would hit it off, we like a lot of the same music and he loves basketball! He was very open with us about his depression and struggles with his wife. He was crying as he said he didn't want to marry her but she wanted to soo bad and he couldn't say no. They are having a really hard time. She later came home though and they are a dope couple and have the cutest little boy, oh man. I love this family so much! I'll send a pic. We are playing basketball with him tomorrow! I'm so excited. Kenji really feels like one of the people I was destined to meet out here! I really hope I can help him out :)

Shimizu is still just stalling. The air got pretty heavy in our last lesson as Shimizu was asked what he is waiting for to get baptized. He got really quiet, uncomfortable, and tried to bail. He said he wanted to go sleep in his bed.. It was quiet for about 5 minutes straight and I thought Elder Brown was going to blow up on him. Shimizu was pretty much squirming in his chair. Today we are just going to play ping pong with him and have some fun, we think we should show more love because he has been pretty frustrating.

I am really tight with one of the members here named Ishii and realized he hasn't been through the temple nor gotten his patriarchal blessing, we talked for hours about it and I challenged him to do both and he wouldn't. He couldn't give me a good reason and I gave him a hard time cause we are homies, but really what is it? Why can't we commit to things if we know they are good and we can't think of a legitimate reason not to? (or we at least know the positives outweigh the negatives) I can only think of fear, which shouldn't be a concern when we know God is by our side :)

I love you all and I know you have a Father in Heaven who does too <3

スパックマン長老

Pics & Vids

1-2. The homie Kenji and his fam! :)