Atsui Atsugi

Atsui meaning hot and Atsugi the place I live. It's so hot and humid here lately. I have to carry around a little towel to wipe my sweat and shirts are yellow the next day after you wear them. Japan summers are miserable.

Feel free to skip this paragraph, some updates on some things a lot of you may not care about:

Kobayashi- can't seem to get himself to church and he prays but won't sincerely pray. We are sharing with him the scriptures I will talk about later. Since he won't do those two extremely important things we are having trouble helping him progress. He is having trouble with drinking too. It's kind of funny how ridiculous it is but after we compared eternal life and happiness to beer he kind of picked beer... He just kept saying, "but beer is so good!" I think he knows what's more important though. So Shimizu is ok after his wreck and it was actually kind of a wake up call for him because he "felt God's hand protecting him." His testimony is solid and he is ready to be baptized! Though.. This last week he told us he has work off Sunday. Next Sunday he has off was supposed to be his baptism. Kinda frustrating that he didn't tell us earlier.. We told him we could do it even though it was short notice... He told us he is waiting for a girlfriend and new job before he gets baptized... We were shocked, we thought he was over waiting on ridiculous blessings. We decided to have one more lesson and potentially stop meeting with him for a while so that he can take some time to decide if he wants to do this with or without receiving worldly blessings. After that lesson the decision was made to not do either because he is soo close and it sounds like his real concern is falling away from church after baptism and a few other things. I'll keep ya updated.

We sat down this last Saturday to call some of our contacts we made earlier in the week. Usually this is a disappointing thing for missionaries because people give wrong numbers, block you, ignore you, boot you, etc. In a short amount of time we scheduled lessons with three of them! Craziness. Then yesterday we found a guy outside of the church who is totally down to take lessons. Really good stuff. Hopefully we start seeing some solid new investigators from these contacts.

I'm in kind of a hard/awkward time in the mission where I have been out long enough to realize what I have gotten myself into but not long enough to feel close to halfway...haha Two experiences this week really motivated and helped me. 

The first, testimony meeting of all the missionaries going home. One Elder shared his feelings as he read "Japan Tokyo South Mission" in his call letter. He never would have guessed Japan but he knew it's where he needed to be right when he read it. It reminded me so much of my experience. As I felt the Spirit, it testified to me again of the truthfulness that I am supposed to be here at this time for these people. A basic teaching of the gospel is that when we feel the spirit we can know that whatever we are thinking about, reading or hearing is true. Though sometimes I tend to forget that for myself. Concentrate on the Spirit guys! 

One of my best friends in the mission, Elder Stevens, went last. He said serving a mission is the hardest thing he has ever done. I right away thought how it hasn't been that way for me. Waiting around to be able to serve, sticking it through my senior year basketball season and selling alarms door to door were probably all harder so far. This was a big wake up call that I can be going a lot harder out here. If it doesn't end up being the hardest thing I have ever done I probably am not doing it right. It doesn't have to be discouraging or upsetting but it should push me. Elder Stevens also shared something he heard in the mtc that really helped him, "Christ loves us so much that he would perform His atonement and die for any single one of us. Even if it was just me, or just you he would still do it." I believe that's true, that statement helps us understand His love for us. 

Next experience, interviews with President Wada. Though this is really long and some of you already know these scriptures, all of you have something to learn from this. My question was a little misunderstood by President but he still answered it perfectly with these scriptures. My question was, "as missionaries we pray so much that it has become a chore for me, I hate that, how can I keep my prayers meaningful?" He started by sharing Moroni 10:3-5. 

For any of you that don't know, this is the promise written in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon. I challenge all of you who haven't already done so to read the introductions to the Book of Mormon, maybe a few chapters, this promise, then follow the council from the promise that I have bolded down below. I know this promise is true because it's worked for me and I have seen it work for others. If you have any questions about this don't hesitate to ask me! 

If you feel like you already have a testimony of the Book of Mormon this promise still applies in helping us know how we go about praying for anything not just an answer about the Book of Mormon.

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

So this scripture asks you to think about how much He loves you and wants you to be happy, the plan and atonement He has provided for us to live with Him again because of the fall of Adam. As we think about that it says to pray and ask God if The Book of Mormon and its teachings are true. Having a sincere heart and real intent (really wanting to know) and having faith (believing you will receive an answer). If you feel a special feeling as you pray or later think about it, that's the Holy Ghost this scripture speaks of and the Holy Ghost is telling you it's true. I share these things because I love all of you and want you to feel the joy I have through the Book of Mormon and its teachings. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. All it takes in an experiment. When you receive an answer it's important to act on it and take the next step in following its teachings, whether it's being baptized, serving a mission, etc.

Another great scripture that helps us understand how we should pray and what we should pray about is Alma 34: 17-28

Hope all is well much love fam <3

Spackman 長老

Pics

1-2. Japan takes photo booths to the next level with something called Purikura. It's for girls but we do it sometimes haha. It edits photos to make you look like a model (not me tho cause I make it as ugly as possible). This is the homie Elder Stevens and our friend Issei. 

3. Awesome sunset off Atsugi bridge 

4. Elder Quilter came over (Mom he is the grandson of sister gleed!) and joined us in Atsugi for a few days, this was at Eikaiwa. 

5. Elder Browns butt sweat after a bike ride

6. So I flicked this glue cap first try off the wall, bounced on my desk, then in the cup. I knew I had to get it again after that and I didn't bounce it off the desk but still cool.

Some Ridiculous Stories & Facebook!

Sorry everyone.. I don't know why but I didn't get any pictures this week.. Though I am using Facebook now! We spent a decent chunk of time this week changing our facebooks so we can use them as missionaries. It was crazy clearing up my photos, brings back a lot of memories. Man I love you guys. I will be posting on there at least once a week so feel free to add me if we aren't already friends, just look up "Elder Brett Spackman." Though, if you want to talk send me an email on here. I'm not supposed to message on there unless it's missionary related.

Alright, here's the most interesting stuff from this week. Elder Brown and I have been trying hard to visit less active members lately. We have a list of over 300 church members in our area who don't go to church and no one knows them. Since most of the addresses are very old we make sure and talk to a lot of people on the way there and back so it's not a waste of time if we don't meet them. One day this week, the first home we went to, we ring the doorbell to talk on the intercom. After we asked the guy if he would hear our message in English he said, "wait." This guy in his early twenties comes out so stoked to talk to us. We asked again if he was down for the message. He just ran in his house, we were way confused, he came out and locked his house up as if he was going with us somewhere. We asked where he thought we were going and he said, "isn't there a church close by?" So crazy, this dude was way down. We joked for a little then shared the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He originally said he didn't believe in God and that even though we had cool teachings that he wouldn't meet with us (which shocked me because he seemed so down), but after a little more teaching he was down. When we asked if we can have his number he basically said, "duh.." When we shook his hand goodbye, he quickly shook it then hopped on each of us for a huge hug. Seemed as if we were long lost friends that hadn't seen each other in a long time (funny cause we are.. Pre-earth life? Hahahahahah I made a funny). This guy didn't seem Japanese at all, they don't even hug friends here let alone strangers! Usually we awkwardly teach people how to hug if we feel like it... Though this time we were the ones caught by surprise! As we walked off we realized we should pray with him. I just go back and yell his name and he comes out really quick stoked to talk again haha. I asked if he wants to pray, he was like, "yeah I wanna pray!" So we taught him, he prayed and said in the prayer that, "he thinks because of Him (God), he was able to meet with us." He gave us both huge hugs again and we said goodbye. Straight up insane experience.

Alright next story. The sister missionaries' friend showed up to English class. The sisters were having her practice English with us after class. The first thing this girl says to me is "do you have a girlfriend?" Next was, "what kind of girls do you like?" Haha we were laughing way hard. When I went around saying goodbye to everyone by shaking hands, she wouldn't let go of my hand! She kept talking to me and I would give a squeeze and a shake then try to let go, but every time she would quickly grab it again... Little by little I was getting out of her grasp until she eventually was just holding my finger. She was really close too. I stepped away and she followed while holding my finger. Eventually I got out of the situation, so funny, but I was really uncomfortable.. Girls... Ew. 

The start of this week definitely humbled me. I went on splits with a brand new missionary for a day and a half! It was really fun a cool kid from Atlanta, Elder Ayala. He minored in Japanese at BYU, so he was about as good as I am. We had a lesson with Shimizu which was so rocky. We had a member there and eventually him and the member just talked for a very long time and we didn't really understand it. We did a lot of proselyting and really had a lot of success despite our lack of experience. We got out 3 Book of Mormons and got 4 phone numbers, pretty good, at least here in Japan. Hopefully we can contact some of those people later. 

Shimizu and Kobayashi are doing just about the same as before, but today we figured out from one of the members that Shimizu got in a wreck. As of right now we can't get ahold of him nor do we have information as to if it was serious or not. Today we have been cleaning getting ready to have President and Sister Wada over for interviews. They are coming to check out apartments, which hasn't been done for many years. They are going to be shocked when they see our apartment. I have heard from many that it's the worst apartment in the mission. 

Saturday we got together with some members and friends and made American pizza, man it was so good. Then yesterday after church we had a gyouza (pot-stickers) making party, so good. Then for dinner that same night we went to a members house with friends and just had a feast! The food here really is so great. 

Sorry, no lecture or pictures in this one... Haha Maybe next time.

Love you all! :)

スパックマン長老

Sad Day

Lost one of my best friends this week, John Galt, to a sudden overtake of cancer. One of the best men I have ever met. Always supported me at basketball games and Eagle High athletics as a whole. I always knew I had a second home and family down the street from mine. Their door was always open and so was their fridge :) I'll never forget the times shared with John. 

Things like that make me so thankful for our opportunity to live with God again and see our friends and family. I'm so thankful to know that John will not suffer with cancer because of the sacrifice God gave us with his son Jesus Christ. These kinds of things remind of what's important. Why:

-God and Jesus Christ are important

-why it's important as members to share this gift

-why it's important, if you're not a member, to seek after an answer from God as to if he exists, if this really is the church he has put on earth today, if we really can live with God and our families forever (and allow others to do the same) through this church and it's teachings 

The first thing I would like to do (if it hasn't already been done) is to go through the temple for John so he can have the opportunity to do these things. Mom and Dad if you could get working on that, that'd be great :) 

Now as to my week... Shimizu is doing great! Things are just hard with him having work on Sunday's... His date keeps getting pushed back, now it's first week of August. Though we are trying to do this right. Last lesson he was able to recall the restoration, which before he couldn't even remember Joseph Smith (he forgets a lot of things). He also bore his testimony to us. As long as he keeps that up he is ready! We taught Kobayashi the Word of Wisdom this week. He understands now he needs to stop drinking alcohol to be baptized. We were trying to help him see the importance of finding an answer from God about Joseph Smith and the BofM. I shared about my prayer of whether or not I should serve a mission and the deafening answering I got. Talked about how I'm not perfect but was able to stop the things I had been doing once I found an answer. He surprised us by saying that he will slowly start to try and quit! Love my investigators.

This week we also had bible study on Saturday with two friends from English class. It's really nice because we teach it in English and this last week we started doing half Book of Mormon studies too! So I am excited about that cause they are kind of investigators now and because the BoM is a lot more exciting haha. Also got a chance to clean the Watanabe's shower this week. Service opportunities are gold here, they are so hard to find. Though we had dinner with them a while back and she was excited because "I can reach all the things she can't!" So we came by this week and I bleached it. She was so thankful. Love that stuff. 

On our way home from visiting a friend last Saturday I happened to look in a restaurant and see the sister missionaries eating with a member. Anyone who has a sense of the amount of people and restaurants there are everywhere here knows the odds of me seeing them are very low. I stopped and since they were right next to the window it was a prime opportunity. I did a creepy smile in the window. The member saw me and was scared but when Sister Murakami saw me her hands came up to her face and she didn't stop screaming. One of the best freak outs I've seen. Lol Should have videoed it.

I feel like I am writing future reminders for myself most of the time in these emails, but I encourage all of you to continually remember our purpose here on life, to prepare and be worthy to meet our Father in heaven again. How glorious will it be to collapse with joy and hug Him after we pass? If you haven't figured out the purpose of life yet, talk to the missionaries, read the Book of Mormon, pray about it. Seek and I promise you will find. 

Love you all don't forget it.

Pictures

1. The new district

2. Elder Mitabi's last p day & last district meeting where everyone drew pics of each other (mine is so bad lol)

3. Me, Elder Stevens & Gutierrez. Elder Stevens and I are way tight, he goes home after this transfer though :(

4. Selfie game on point lol soo gay

:)

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all doing well. Figured out recently my sister Nancy is having a baby girl! Way happy and excited for the new niece and nephew that will be joining the Spackman family soon.  Too bad they will be about a year and a half old when I get back.. Lol

This week we had a few disappointments we lost contact with a lot of people but things are going well with Kobayashi and Shimizu. We pushed Shimizu's baptism back just because he can't get work off this Sunday.  The next Sunday he has off, we are doing it! We went with him to sushi earlier in the week, I tried eel for the first time (so good) and Shimizu paid for us. He is so nice. We had a few lessons with him this week and we're really hoping he follows through with this baptism. He has had multiple failed attempts in the past. I don't usually ask for this, but please pray for him if you remember. Kobayashi has been really stuck on a lot of deep doctrine lately but we finally have got him concentrated on the basics of the gospel and receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Really hoping he can gain the testimony he needs to stick true to his baptismal date.

The mission had a big Hawaiian Luau in Fujisawa this week. We took one of our friends, Issei. On the way there, in the train station, something came down off his forehead and started crawling on his face. When I realized it was a good sized spider I freaked and hit it off his face right as it got to his mouth. Soo nasty. Then at the luau our ward mission leader taught everyone the Macarena. I got way too into it (as I do) and he called me out of the crowd to do it on stage.  haha it was way fun. When I came back to my spot in the crowd one of the members in Atsugi that was there said, "sexy man, you sexy man" hahaha I was laughing so hard. 

While at the Luau I got to a chance to see Yusuke, my trainer, Elder Nagano's investigator. When I went on splits with Nagano, we went out finding with Yusuke. He is our age, so funny, and cool. After a night of hard work with those three I started to tell him, "this church is true, that's why we work so hard to share it." He cut me off after true and said yeah it is. We were both really shocked he said that. He now has a baptism date and recently moved it to an even closer date. Pretty excited for him.

I thought I got away from the crazies in Tokorozawa but guess not. There is a crazy old man who has been coming to the church lately. Recently he was going off on how he doesn't trust Elder Brown that he is American. He thinks his passport is "bogus." I asked what he thought of me and he went off on how good of a man I am, how I must have good parents (I do) and lots of money (I don't). As he left he says he thinks I will have two wives. Little does he realize I might, cause I'm Mormon ;) lol 

I sent a picture of him a couple weeks ago, Brother Mouri a member here in Atsugi, is supposed to die this week from cancer. We visited him and he is really really sick. He only had energy to stay awake and hear us sing and pray. At one point he was trying to clear his throat and couldn't... He pressed the help button, he was really struggling. He started yelling and choking trying to clear his throat. He was brought to church later in the week on a stretcher. It was testimony meeting and of course everyone was crying and talking about him. It really seemed like he was attending his own funeral... It looked like he died a few times during the meeting...

The reason I'm telling you this is because Mouri's dying wish was to come to church to take the sacrament. He has brain cancer and has forgotten a lot of things but he hasn't forgotten the importance of repenting and taking the sacrament to be forgiven of sins, so neither should we. He hasn't let severe cancer nor the fact that he is on his death bed keep him from coming to church. With that example we have no reason to skip church and miss out on the blessings of the sacrament that Mouri so desperately wanted. 

Pictures

1. Kobayashi! He's way funny and hard to understand haha, love him (he's next to me)

2. We spent a whole day cleaning our apartment for transfers. I almost threw up. Our air conditioner hadn't been cleaned in over a decade no joke. All the black is mold. We are trying to get someone to come professionally clean it, until then I'm sleeping with a mask on.

3. Some of the mold chunks I pulled out of it

4. Elder Mitabi's goodbye party

5. English class!