Japan Tokyo South Mission: Hachioji Fire

Such an eventful week! We had some big typhoons hit here yesterday and had to stay inside all day so our email time was moved to today. I heard from people that 3 typhoons hit here at once, some others said 5, some 6, one said 9? Haha. All I know is we got hit by multiple typhoons. The mission is about to get flipped upside down. A lot of missionaries just went home (24) and 22 new missionaries are coming to the mission. The transfer after this one will be about the same, so they have split up zone leaders to be with younger companions and a ton of people are training. I'm transferring & am way disappointed about it because of the amazing people we are working with here in Hachioji (more about them later). I am going to Hibarigaoka, pretty close my first area when I came to Japan, Tokorozawa. I'll be a zone leader there and follow up training Elder Elsmore. Lots of responsibility but that's where everyone is at in the mission right now haha.

One of the most disappointing things about leaving is Jack. Since last week he has continued to shock us with his progression towards God. On our way home Monday night we started talking to this pretty hard hearted guy. He would ask amazing questions and then just throw everything we would say out the window. On his way home from work Jack saw us and just came up and hopped in the conversation. Jack starts telling this guy that if he doesn't believe what we say now it's ok because that's how he felt when he first met us. Then he starts answering fairly hard questions and telling this guy about the peace he has found since he started studying with us. The guy asked how he found it, Jack said, "I started praying." The guy was like, "yeah... I can't believe that." Jack said, "that's ok man, I know exactly how you feel, I felt that exact same way 2 weeks ago." We had only started lessons with Jack a week before that and he is already testifying and teaching people he doesn't know on the street! A few days later we had a lesson and as soon as we sat down Jack said, "hey soo can we do the baptism on the 10th?" Just so awesome to see his desire and willingness to follow Christ. He already asked his boss for the day off and is looking so solid. In that same lesson he asked if he could say the opening prayer and right after that just started telling us about how Choyo told him about the commandments and how he wants to keep them but they might be a little hard. Keep in mind we started lessons with him 2 weeks before this, we hadn't even taught the basic lessons. He started bring up alcohol & smoking, I was thinking he was bringing up problems but then he said my family and I don't do that, nor do we drink tea or coffee. I'm thinking, "ok.... So what's the problem?" Haha. He then told us very bluntly some of the struggles he has with girls and how he wants to stop. He asked us how we avoid temptation and decided right there that he is going to keep himself clean for 2 weeks & then work from there. Just made me so happy to see someone reading and applying the gospel doctrine. We literally aren't doing anything, it's all God. In our next lesson you could see the church teachings just being pieced together in his head. We sang my favorite, "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus." When he sang it in Chinese he was deeply moved. I got a video of him and Choyo singing, I'll send it.

We've been going hard with the Chinese people lately. Met one on the street who was being pretty stubborn. We had trouble communicating and called Choyo up, put them on the phone and they talked for 20 minutes as we just sat there not understanding a word haha. Then this guy gets off the phone and is down to meet with us haha. We are in touch with like 4 other Chinese friends too, I love Chinese and all the other kinds of people I get to meet!

I haven't talked about him in a while but it was mostly because we hadn't seen him in a long time and we were really worried about him, but we finally met with Shintaro again!!! After his baptism we knew he wouldn't make it to church the next week for some college stuff but then he suddenly went to Hokkaido with his family and we really didn't hear from him much because he is terrible at emailing us back. We try to email him a lot because he answers every 4th email haha. Man we prayed and worried about him quite a bit. Just worried that something bad happened and he would disappear (which sadly happens at times). Side story: there was a new temple recently opened in Hokkaido, look it up, it's soo pretty. They dedicated it this last week and so we went to the video broadcast of the cultural celebration Saturday then the dedication broadcast Sunday. Anyways, one night while I was praying about what to do with Shintaro I felt strongly that we should invite him to the cultural celebration. He answer and said he wants to go to that and the dedication. He needed to be interviewed to go to the dedication and time was short so we assumed he wouldn't make it. He came to the cultural celebration, which was soo good, I had tears streaming down my face while watching a history of the church in Japan, love this gospel and these people. He got interviewed and made it to the dedication the next day! Turns out he has been doing fine, doing the little things, reading scriptures and praying. He actually got approached my Mormon missionaries in Hokkaido and surprised them by saying he just got baptized haha. We are meeting with him in about an hour :) soo relieved and happy he is doing ok.

I've got to tell you about my new friend Keisuke. Earlier in the week while passing out English class flyers at the station. I gave him a simple invitation to learn about Christ, he came to Eikaiwa, at a little after party we had he did just that, learned about Christ. I taught him a decent amount and he agreed to meet again in the week. The next time we met him Shintaro was with us and asked if he could join in the lesson. Choyo was already there for the lesson so all 4 of us taught Keisuke, kinda weird but he was way chill about it. Shintaro did a great job, especially considering he just got baptized. Keisuke loved it! He understood everything so well and gave an amazing prayer at the end. We asked him to pray once every day and he has since been praying about 4 times a day! :) He told us about how he decided to quit smoking 6 months ago and is doing well with it. He went to a church when he was younger and since he quit smoking has been feeling like he really wants to go to church so when he met me on the street he was excited to come and happy we met. He agreed to prepare to be baptized!! God definitely prepared him to meet us at this moment in his life :)

We finally got to go visit a different place this last week, Toyoda. We always have something going on, so we never have time to go anywhere. Maybe we should more because that was one of the most successful nights of my life! In about 2 hours we found 5 new people! One is the father of a family who told his daughter he met us and she said she met missionaries when she was in middle school and has recently been wanting to meet missionaries again really badly. Another guy we met around our age who lives right next to another Christian church and has been wanting to go and study there for a long time but their doors are always closed. We told him we can open the doors anytime for him ;)

Hachioji is BLOWIN UP! I hope with that monster email I helped you understand what is making me so sad that I am leaving here :(

Sorry, I'm not proofreading that lol, Love you guys <3
- Spackdaddy

1. Today we met with a couple seniors in high school that I previously met like 8 weeks ago playing basketball. Haven't met someone that loves playing and watching basketball as much as I do in quite a while. Today started off with some endo curry and we ended up going back to the church, having a lesson and they are stoked about learning more. Ahhhh why am I leaving?! :(