Earthquakes and Repentance lol

Ayyyyyo!

I'm loving Atsuki! It has super pretty green hills and rice fields but still has a big city feel. Lots of great things happened this week. We had a lesson with both of our investigators this week and saw huge improvements. 

So Kobayashi, funny old guy. He makes the funniest faces and noises in our lessons. Loves reading the Book of Mormon but was apparently just wanting to "learn about religions." So therefore he has expressed how he won't pray or come to church. We went from that, to him saying things like, he thinks Jesus Christ's teachings will make him more happy, he will come to church, then at the end basically volunteering to pray. We were way stoked. He got sick though so he wasn't able to make it to church but every week he progresses a ton. He is smart too. He understands everything and asks deep questions that I usually can't understand lol.

Shimizu, middle aged man, probably in his 40's. He is a post office worker but is always wearing a suit. It's pretty rare here in Japan to be able to teach middle aged men who aren't insane. They all work so hard and are so busy. Though we actually got to meet with Shimizu 3 times this week! The first one we talked a lot about effort and what happens when we put God first. We shared the Tyler Hawes Mormon message which I love. In that lesson I got kind of emotional, I don't know why but I just felt so much love for him. In a complete no homo kind of way, it was a love I've never felt. We challenged him to write down a few things he is thankful for every day. He has had trouble recognizing blessings in his life and has been kinda down. We can all do a better job of being more thankful. Then middle of the week we went to Fujisawa for sports night to play basketball but their hoop was broken :/ though we still had a good time with him. Then yesterday I was on splits but Elder Brown and Stevens set a baptismal date with him for June 12th! He has had 3 dates before now but this one is sounding very solid. He apparently asked some really good questions and for the first time admitted that his strong feelings in lessons and church is the spirit. AHH I love my investigators. 

Church was so great yesterday. Though it always is with Atsugi ward, sickest ward ever ah man. I was on splits w/ Elder Mitabi. He is Japanese and the shortest elder in the mission. He may be the shortest missionary in the mission no joke haha. He is less than 5 ft I think. So of course the baptismal date for Shimizu is great but we also got the opportunity to step in with the bishop to give this woman a blessing who has been struggling. Before the blessing we were in the bishops office while she told about what was going on and she was just bawling. During the blessing she was bawling as well. She seemed so relieved after the blessing. Man I have felt and seen the power of the priesthood and it's real. One of the many reasons I believe this is God and Jesus Christ's true gospel is because of that power. Sunday was also great because Shimizu made it to church. He has had work a lot recently and hasn't been coming. Five other potential and current investigators also came, and a less active who hasn't been in over 15 years. 

During class we talked a lot about repentance and how important it is to forgive. I read this: "The Lord will not forgive us unless our hearts are fully cleansed of all hate, bitterness, and bad feelings against other people (3 Nephi 13:14–15). “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin” (D&C 64:9). If we don't forgive we can't be forgiven for our sins. Are we not all imperfect? Have we not all needed to ask for forgiveness at one point in time? We must show the compassion to others God shows to us. I have always considered myself too forgiving, though church was a wake up call that I actually need to be better. I think I justified not forgiving people who never apologized. Though as DC 64:10 says, "I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." Time to forgive and LET IT GOOOO... Cancel. Such a sick Sunday.

One of the guys who came to church I was shocked to see. The day before he saw us walking on the street by the church and waved while in his car. Really rare here. I was too surprised to wave back haha. Then he turned around, drove up to us and stopped to ask about English class haha. We ended up inviting him to church and to our surprise he showed up!! We were pretty busy that day and the chances of him seeing us by the church at the specific time he was driving around looking for us was slim. Sometimes things are too much to just be a coincidence.

We got ahold of Naomasa this week. The guy that we met last week who went to Purdue and has a family. He said he has been reading through the Book of Mormon! He's busy though so we will see how that goes. 

I also taught a training on finding which was a little weird teaching vet missionaries. I talked about three main things. The importance of being happy when trying to share a "message of happiness" (for example forcing a smile on your face until it becomes real), considering the fact that each individual is called to their specific mission and area for a reason and if we don't use our unique skills and brain process we are wasting those talents, and the R-word... Referral. Referrals are way hard to get here for many reasons and there is a lot of stress put on getting the church members trust so they are comfortable in giving us referrals. Though I think there needs to be more focus on God's trust. If God trusts you he will be more willing to help you find His "referrals." (Thanks for sharing your personal experience on Skype Tanner:) Which also helps the members trust. This means it's way important to put in the effort THEN the blessings will come. That's true with anything we do if the effort is put into following God's guidance. Again, any advice that comes from me is something I need to work on as much any of you. 

So yeah last week I "felt" an "earthquake" but this week I legit felt one. We were in the church and the floor was moving and building was moving. What we felt was an 8.5 earthquake off the coast of Yokohama, so it wasn't as strong here. This one still kinda scared me though...

Today we had zone p day which was fun. We went on a little hike and there was a great view of Odawada and the ocean there. I will send pics. There was also this huge slide there, I'll send a video of that :)

I am loving Atsugi. I know hard times are ahead but that's life. Gotta find the joys in it. Everyone do me a favor and smile more this week :)

Love ya

Spackman 長老

Not a ton of pictures this week but they're way sick

1. View of Odawara

2. Nagano and me reunited! He's so Asian lol

3. My comp Elder Brown and me

4. Video of the slide. Way wild. It kinda of hurt haha

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 :)

2. Some kids we met on the street who wanted to take a pic with us. You know I took the opportunity to include my best friend (Jesus) lol

3. Javier, man dis dude got turbo swag lol

4. The new district :)

5. Us spelling "Atsugi" at the top of the mountain (ft. Mount Fuji)

6. Pic from the hike you can see the ocean

7. Some of the friends who came on the hike, and mount Fuji!!

8. The hiking crew

Videos!
1. Bad news. I guess the spiders get pretty big here in the summer :/

2. View at the top of the mountain and a little explanation

Tokorozawa to Atsugi

So I got transferred! I'm kinda indifferent about it.. Sad to not be with Inumaki and my way chill apartment anymore :/ I really learned a lot in Tokorozawa. It's crazy that all my experiences in Japan happened in Tokorozawa. They changed our transfer plans (not that I know any different) so we figure out on Saturday where we are going then we leave Mondays. That's why I am emailing on a Tuesday. We basically don't get a p day this week. So my new companion is Elder Brown from UT. As far as I know he is way chill and works hard. It's nice to be able to have any conversation I want, as he speaks English. I can already tell we are going to work hard. My experience last week (in my last email) came at a perfect time. Ready to go baby! From what I learned last night we have a way bomb investigator pool. Definitely a change from my last area where both of our investigators were a little shaky. Then Jordan moved and we dropped Iwasawa this last week.

So I'm now in Atsugi. It's a lot more rural out here, so there are rice fields and everything but then you have some pretty big towers close by? It's kinda weird/hard to explain. It's a lot more spread out and has more fields but also has some big city parts. It's way sick, reminds me of an American city, I already like it more than Tokorozawa. Haha. Transferring here was crazy.  It was a two hour train ride but I hopped on 5 different trains carrying my bike and some bags the whole time. Man we had so many crazy people in Tokorozawa... I continued to see the guy that is obsessed with me and my height at least twice a week. I am sending a video of him he's so ridiculous. We legit had about 5 absolutely insane people we would see on a regular basis, but I love them and for some reason feel like I will kinda miss them? 

This last week people in my room were still sick, so again there was a lot of hanging out around the apartment. Though we did have a lesson with our referral and it was good! He was very responsive and took everything in really well. He was drinking a beer the whole time and gave us green tea, it was funny. I hope that things go well with him in Tokorozawa, they have a lesson with him this week. Hopefully I'll get an update on him sometime in the future. We also had a basketball night and surprisingly a lot of people showed up, it was dope. 

Alright miracle time! I got a call from my ZL, Bates Saturday night. He asked me if I remembered the lady that Elder Lundberg (my other ZL) and I met while we were knocking doors on splits. At first I didn't, though as he told me I remembered. She listened to our message about Jesus Christ and seemed interested but we had a feeling that she may have been more into tall white men than she is in Jesus Lol. Though we were thankful we were able to share a message. I guess after I went back to Tokorozawa about a week later she called them up and they taught her a lesson and she felt the spirit super strongly. Apparently crying through the lesson. That alone is crazy enough, so rare in Japan. Here's the kicker, I was told she said she has never been religious but has always felt drawn to Jesus Christ and has been having dreams with him in it. In fact when we knocked on her door she was asleep and having a dream right then about Jesus and us knocking on her door was a sign to her we were sent from God. Whaaat?! Pretty wild. Hopefully things continue to go well there. 

To be honest I feel like I haven't seen a ton of fruits from my labors yet, that was one of the first ones. I remember at the end of the day after we met that lady, feeling relieved cause I did everything I thought God wanted me to, but when it was all said an done I still didn't have any new investigators nor had I seen anything way cool happen. I seem to feel that way a lot to be honest. Which means two things: 1. I need to work harder and try to notice God's blessings in my life more 2. The blessings just aren't as visible as I like them. Little did I know we had made a big impact on that woman and it was while we were knocking doors too! Knocking doors is so hard here which I won't even get into...

Here's what I am getting at...Sometimes we do everything we possibly can to receive more blessings but feel like we aren't getting anything from our work. Though I was thinking about it, if every time we did something good we saw a blessing exactly how we wanted it, it would all be too easy and this life's purpose wouldn't be fulfilled... We can't grow without struggles and trials of our faith. Is faith not hope for things which aren't seen? Do we stop doing the right things when the going gets rough or we don't see the big picture?

Just something to keep in mind... I don't have time to write anything else! Though I love you all!:)

Spackman 長老

Pics

1. Atsugi baby!!

Elder Inumaki and one direction round 2

Regrets

I won't get any wifi today. So this is probably getting to you a few days late. My whole apartment except for me got sick this week, I feel like I am next. It's way hot and humid here but it's just going to get worse. I guess during the summer there are days that get to 100% humidity. Mixing that with a hot day is some dangerous crap. I love the heat but humidity kinda ruins it. 

This week we got a referral from the sisters in our district! He says he believes in God! Two rare things here in Japan referrals and people that believe in God. We met with him and were able to set up an appointment. If you have a relationship with God or believe in him, be thankful for it. We take it for granted.

After over a month of trying to visit him we finally saw Jordan at the starting of this last week! We came by right in time to see him one last time :( he told us he is moving. As far as I know Jordan has now moved to Yokohama to start a new job making more money therefore bringing him closer to his goal of going to America. I will hook him up with the Yokohama Elders and we will see what happens! I see this being a part of God's plan for Jordan. Plus I was previously wanting my next transfer to be to Yokohama anyways soooo ;)

Funny things for the week... We got stuck at a train crossing in Tokorozawa for an absurd amount of time. At train crossings there is a constant annoying beep until the gate lifts. I looked a ways down to where the station is and there is some high school kid just bowing ridiculously low and fast to the beep beat. He did this (and we were laughing the whole time) for like 10-15 minutes and then stayed there waiting for the next train. Who knows how long he had already been there or stayed there afterwords but we were laughing soo hard. He must have lost a bet or something. 

I also quickly learned, sleeping in a room with 4 people here, that I talk in my sleep. Some things that I have apparently said include: 

-Japanese sentences, such as "tsukatte mo ii desu ka?" Which means, is it ok if I use this? 

-"If you ever want to do something effectively you need to.." Motivational speaker?

-Lastly my favorite! I sat up and said, "ALRIGHT! Now who is with me?!" Then raised my hand and looked around. After no one raised their hands in agreement cause it was the middle of the night...I let out a frustrated sigh and collapsed back into my deep sleep.

Now, let's talk about regrets :) I'm actually not talking about the past though... I am talking about the future. Regretting things in life is pointless, though thinking about regrets has been good for me. I will finish that thought in a sec. Bear with me as I share two things that happened yesterday.

My roommate, Elder Bennion was pretty sick this week. Two nights ago it got really bad. I woke at 3 am by Hunsaker saying we are going to the hospital. Bennion's stomach was killing him, to the point that he was audibly grunting in pain. Bennion is no wimp either. Basically we ended up calling an ambulance, went to the hospital, got some ct scans and he is ok...Just has a nasty stomach infection. Bizarre experience to have in Japan. Later that day... Skyped with the fam! That was so great. So great to see the whole family and especially my nieces which are growing up so fast :( Though it was more than just seeing and talking to my family.

Here's why those 2 things were important: Though unlikely, I had this hypothetical thought of Elder Bennion dying. I thought about how short and unpredictable life is. In talking to my family I thought about how much more glorious it will be to go home and see them (and all of you) after giving my all out here. I asked myself a blunt question. If I went home/died today would I have any mission/life regrets? Straight up? Ya I would. I have not been working as hard as I should be out here. It's tough to handle the truth sometimes but if we never realize we can't change. It's time to improve. After this realization, I found it easy to get out and work hard yesterday and am committed to keeping it up. Not perfect but I am trying to be better. 

Side note: After all this on Monday, we prayed as usual for inspiration that day, and followed it. The first person I talked to was a young man who likes ultimate frisbee from Chicago (2 things I love) named Mike. He and I had a way spiritual discussion. I was able to share with him my story and though he has never prayed, he is interested in developing a relationship with his Heavenly Father. Let's hope he exercises that interest and meets with us again as we have planned.

Here's my challenge. Ask yourself about regrets you may someday have regarding who you are now and where you're headed. Give yourself an honest answer and do something about it! 

Lastly, be happy! Have some fun! We didn't come to earth to be stressed, stern, and angry. I am learning to smile a lot more here and be happy no matter what. When I do it I have double the response from people I normally do and I find joy in working. Again it's pretty simple.. Are you happy? No? Do something about it without using a short term or synthetic form of happiness. For me that has been developing a relationship with my Heavenly Father and following his son Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope you know I am far from perfect and need to follow this advice as much as anyone else. Strive to be more happy and increase the quality of your life and those around you :)

Spackman 長老

Pictures

1. Bet my fam thought they would never see this..Trying to eat healthier, been drinking spinach smoothies, mostly cause it brings out my eyes ;)

2. Happy Mother's Day from my apartment!

3. The backrest on my chair fell off this week :/ struggle was real in this one

4. **We were both wayyy nervous for this picture... (Ft. My new tie :)

5. ShibuyaAAEEA we stopped real quick to grab a picture on the way back from the temple

6. Hospital chillin 

7. I love my comp lol, hope we stay together this transfer (ft. Other new tie)

9. Torozawa city high rise apartments <3 At the bottom is the "tombstones" of a Japanese style graveyard

Dat Weekly

I swear I have less and less to report every week... We are trying to find some new investigators right now. I dropped Jordan's baptism date. We can't ever catch him when he is home. Iwasawa is just the same as always, not really progressing. It's frustrating but not much we can do except work to find some new investigators and pray and do our best with the ones we have. I went on splits with the zone leader, Elder Lundburg, in Hibarigaoka. It was way fun and we worked hard. We also went out to Fussa for a district meeting. So rural out there, really weird, the train station doesn't even have anyone working out there. They just trust you to scan your card to be charged for the ride. Crazy how much they can trust people here. Breaking rules isn't even something that crosses most people's minds.

So ya splits was great. We visited a member who has been struggling lately. He was crying the whole time and we had a great lesson with him. We taught a ton of lessons to people on the street too. I felt the Spirit more that day than any other since I left the MTC. We went housing later that night and I practiced a written approach. It's way hard because you have to just belt out who you are, what you are doing, why it benefits them, and invite them to hear the message before they tell you no through their little voice box doorbell thing.

NOW funny stories!!

As we approached one door we must have been easily heard because a window opened. Right away I just see a man with his shirt off and wet hair. Then realize he has stepped out of the shower to open the window. He leaves the window open and steps back in the shower fully visible and we locked eyes. I stepped to the side real quick. We were laughing so hard and quickly ducked under the window and ran off, probably the funniest thing of this week. We also met this total hippie from Australia just traveling the world with his girlfriend from Holland. They were both soo chill and we started talking about missions. He was like "ah bro when you got your call and saw 'japan' were you just stoked or were you like ahhh **** " haha we both laughed way hard and I said it was a little bit of both.

Ok so here in Japan they have super nice toilets that have seat warmers, butt sprayers to clean, and blow dryers to dry off your butt afterwards. Though they also have these crap toilets called "squatters". I had my first experience with one this week. As missionaries we usually keep stuff in our shirt pockets. You definitely have to bend over to use these toilets they are basically a hole in the ground. Just check the picture. Anyways as I bent over my missionary handbook fell out on the toilet and it slid into the water. I was laughing so hard and I couldn't grab it right then cause I was busy. I had Inumaki come in to show him and moved a little... this toilet happened to be a sensor flush. So my handbook got soaked with water. There was a really important paper I needed in there, but I was not going to fish that thing out. Elder Inumaki didn't want to leave it so he pulled it out. Afterwords I had to get a picture. I was laughing way hard. Ended up ripping the important paper out which was soaked and packed it around with me for the next day of splits...

Oh man! I almost forgot. This week we saw the crazy guy who is in love with me. I see him at least once a week. It was a little later in the day and there was pretty much no one on the street. We walked into Seiyu (Walmart) and he was walking out. As soon as he saw us he literally fell down to the ground laughing with joy just cause he saw us. Man he must truly know what Ammon felt in Alma 27:16-19. (Looking forward to that moment with a lot of you after my work is done here) He came to Sunday morning Eikaiwa and church the next day. He may be too crazy to try and teach cause he doesn't stop laughing and talking but at least he is coming to church? Haha.

We went to a park further away.

Things are definitely getting hot here now. We played a lot of basketball Saturday. It was way fun but exhausting cause it's so warm. Sometimes I feel bipolar out here. One second I can't stop smiling and laughing, then next I am thinking about how much I miss America and how rough it is. It's all good though. Necessary struggles!

Love you, have a good week!

Spackman 長老

Pics
1. Probably my new favorite pic from the mission. There was a ton of people dressed like this at the park taking pics. So weird... These are all girls by the way. One is wearing a mask.

2. The location of the toilet incident, and my soaked handbook

3. This week is golden week in Japan. A week of off work. Like the only days Japanese people get off all year. They all just party hard. This was Costco today.. Soo packed. I loved it

4. Straight swaggin wit dat camo bucket hat

5-6. The district rocking da shades