Examples

 皆そんこにちは!

Man I had so many mixed feelings leaving Atsugi. I was looking forward to a new start but so sad to say goodbye. Kohei had a free week basically and he hung out with us literally every day before I left. Sunday he came to a ward activity (where I swallowed the bug on the way), Monday we played sports together with him and the whole zone then went to Costco with him and Bro. Ishii. Tuesday we planned to play basketball and teach him a lesson but he made a friend at the gym so we just went back to the church and ate together and played ping pong with the friend. Wednesday we taught him and talked about baptism. The Spirit was way strong in the room. He said if he gets an answer about the Book of Mormon and if his parents are ok with it he will follow Jesus Christ's gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of Holy Ghost, enduring to the end). His parents have a good view of missionaries and think we are good friends for him. I didn't get to meet them but we wrote them a dope note with some pictures and he said his mom really liked it. I wrote him a big goodbye note with some pictures and he gave me a really cool Mt. Fuji decoration. We will see each other soon because we still live close but I miss that kid.

We hung out with Kenji one last time before I left too. We just went for a drive, talked, and drank soda haha. It was way chill. He told us before we hung out that he just wants to hang out and not talk about church :( I told him I wouldn't but when he started asking us if he should get back together with his wife or divorce her I couldn't resist. I just told him he needs to ask God, cause we don't know! I told him we didn't need to keep talking about church I just wanted to say that but he asked how he would find an answer. We introduced the Book of Mormon to help him find the answers. He is on his way. I miss those two already :/

One last thing that happened before I left is Busteed and I were passing out English class flyers at the train station and this girl around my age asked in fluent English if we do a cooking class? I said no of course, I don't cook haha. We started talking and I was telling her about God and she frankly told me she doesn't need him. I told her He exists and loves her regardless. We talked for a bit longer, she was waiting for a friend, as soon as she saw him she said "oh he's here!" Then she just jumped at me and gave me a really quick and awkward hug. As missionaries we aren't supposed to hug the opposite gender but I felt a little bad not just giving her a pat on the back. Most awkward experience on my mission and most awkward hug ever. Japanese people don't hug, plus I just met her? Then I saw she was meeting up with some 80 year old that's her "friend"? Weird experience. 

Sagamihara is great from what I have seen. Ahhhhh the apartment is so nice. I went from the worst apartment in the mission, no joke, to one of the better ones. I don't even have to duck on doorways! My companion Elder Harrison is loving and cool, he is really strict but it's a good opportunity to work on my obedience. We are working way hard and I'm so dang tired. It's really given me an opportunity to concentrate on the work and because of it I am not feeling down at all! In fact I have been way happy ever since I got here, even though I'm not having as much "fun" if that makes sense? 

Ever since I got here I have had the craziest dreams! One of which was a movie of myself chasing down a person I accidentally offended who is on a killing spree of everyone I know, legit action movie, my mind was blown. Another one where there were these blue trees and they were so cool and a lot of black people love them but white people were trying to cut them down and burn them and were releasing bears on the black people to stop them from protecting the trees. I got blamed for the incident and everyone was saying I was a racist for killing the black people.. CRAZY stuff haha. 

Our two main investigators here are Paul and Ikeda. Paul is from England and he is one of the most unhealthy people I have met. He just doesn't take care of his body. Smokes, doesn't drink water, take care of his teeth, etc. it's all mostly because he was severely bullied as a kid and it's really affected him. He is so stoked about the gospel though. He is 33 but wiggles around like a little kid when we talk about the gospel because he gets so excited. He prayed about the church and then had a crazy dream saying the church is true. He wants to be baptized. We are trying to help him with his word of wisdom problems. We had a good opportunity to give him a blessing. He also lives with his girlfriend but we are planning on getting them married here in the church as soon as we can! Ikeda's wife is a member in the ward. We are trying to help him get baptized to receive the ridiculous amount of blessings the gospel gives families. He's a little hard hearted and his wife was there last lesson and she was just calling him out. The air was thick, we think it may be good he heard that from her though.

We met a guy on the street this week who had been to SLC and knew about Mormons. He took us to his business (it's hard to even get people's phone numbers here) in this huge building. It was a physical therapy place, really good lesson, but weird atmosphere. He was playing massage music, giving us weird water, and these ladies came while we were there and behind these curtains making weird sounds with metallic balls (sounded like rubbing the top edge of a glass dish and the weird humming sound it makes). Way freaky experience. 

In my intro to the ward during church yesterday I talked about being examples. Those of you who played an example in my personal conversion, I owe it to you guys. I'll never forget it and will be thankful for eternities. We have so much influence on others, we never realize the effect we have until after.. but always be the Christlike example your family and friends need to come closer to God. By small and simple things great works are done. By many of your "small yet subtle" examples I came to find the joy the gospel brings. 

Love you <3

スパックマン長老

Pics

1. Last day in Atsugi with the dope district and zone leaders I had there

 

2. My last English class with my Vietnamese friends Vu and Hai

 

3. Last English class, Fukuoka kinda ruined it.. But but Kohei and Issei are there in the front

 

4. A ton of kimono (traditional Japanese robe things) pictures Elder Busteed and I put up in the apartment haha

 

5. A really awkward goodbye song Fukuoka sung for the people leaving Atsugi. Kohei and I were way confused as you can see (I was way weirded out) but I'm glad this kid enjoyed it!

Kohei and Issei

HELLO everyone (what I mean though is "hey guys." but I guess we aren't allowed to say "hey" in our mission anymore because it's "slang" lol)

So sad news.... I'm moving to Sagamihara this Thursday and saying goodbye to Atsugi. I had some hard times and some great times here. Overall though in terms of the area it may go down as my favorite. I'm so sad to say goodbye to my friends here, the ward and especially Kohei. We are trying to hang out as much as possible before I leave. We hung yesterday, playing sports and going to Costco today and will chill again on Wednesday my last day too haha. This kid is seriously so sick. He's the 17 year old kid who Elder Brown and I found about 3 months ago, that is obsessed with basketball and loves listening to music. Yesterday we brought him to a family home evening activity. On the way there it was dark and I saw something dark flying at me, my mouth was a tad bit open and a good sized bug flew straight down my throat. I was gagging and coughing trying to get it out but I just had to swallow it... anyways.. Lol He is so friendly and nice to everyone but at the same time doesn't care what others think about him. He just does what's right. Usually when kids meet with missionaries here they don't tell their parents or friends but he is just super honest and open. We taught him the basics of the gospel last week and he has been praying. He had a college interview and prayed for help with it. He said he felt happiness and peace and wasn't nervous at all. He knows it was the Spirit too. Yesterday we talked to him about baptism and how it's our goal for him. He answered by saying he doesn't know what his parents will think but he thinks the gospel is really good. We asked why and he said because of the feelings he gets when he prays. Man I can't explain the happiness I feel with this kid. I'm teary eyed right now writing this.

Our other young friend Issei who I have taught occasionally also came last night with us and the other Elders and it sounds like he is going to start taking lessons. Issei is about my age. The idea of these two homies coming closer to God makes me so dang happy. My other basketball friend Kenji with the younger family is still struggling and hard to meet with. He is busy and sometimes too depressed to want to hang out. He is living separately with his wife. He says he is happier because of it. I really don't know what's best for him and his family so I am a little lost but I hope we can meet before I leave and that he continues to open his heart and pray. He watched the "Hope of God's Light" Mormon message and said he had goosebumps but has trouble believing it's legit and not just propaganda. It's the spirit he felt! He knows it too he just can't admit it. It's really sad to see all the answers right in front of someone and see them shove it away because they don't want to change or don't want the responsibilities. We have decided to drop Shimizu. We had three lessons in a row where the spirit was strong and we invited him to be baptized and he says he wants to be but he doesn't know if he is going to. It's been this way for so long. We need to give him some time. We are meeting with a dope young father named Kazuhiro (Kaz). We are teaching him English and gospel stuff. He has a lot of potential as well. We are just at the beginning stages with him. You may not hear about a lot of these people ever again but if I get news on them later on I will be sure and let you guys know!

The last really awesome thing that happened this week. There is a return missionary who we are friends with from Canada who spoke English and Chinese on his mission. He is trilingual. His name is Elder Ikeda and he actually served with a girl I met from Bountiful, Shaurie. He came to Atsugi and bought us a super expensive meal. We tried cow tongue (way good) and ligament. He asked for a priesthood blessing from us before his job interview with the Naval base close by as a doctor. I had the awesome opportunity of doing so. I love giving blessings. The next day he was really thankful and said it helped, then yesterday told me he got the job! It's a pretty hard job to get so I'm really excited for him. So cool to see the love that God has for his children to bless them so abundantly and to be a part of it.

Btw some of the weird foods I have eaten: Squid, Eel, Cow Tongue, (all way good) ligament, octopus (pretty good), raw horse (gross lol), human quad sushi (the worst).

Love you guys, read Either 12:27 be thankful for our weaknesses and trials because they help us be humble and therefore closer to God.

Elder Spackman

Pics

1. The two dopest kids here in Atsugi, Issei on the left, Kohei on the right <3

2. Bowling with our new friend from English class, Yoshida. (Yes I was the one that bowled 4 strikes in a row)

3. Arm wrestling the cutest little girl at church, I lost :(

4. People here don't celebrate Halloween but I guess this guy is ready to turn up this year lol

5-6. We on da bus str8 sleepin

Yooo! Waddup!

Yooo! Waddup!

I really can't remember my week very well... But there was a decent earthquake that woke us all up, pretty weird experience! Kohei has now started praying about the Book of Mormon and has great faith. He recently changed his profile picture to a picture with us so you know it's real now ;)

We are meeting with a few new friends. Really crazy how many people we have been able to teach this transfer. Though the transfer is coming to an end and I have a bad feeling I am transferring.. Time has moved quicker this transfer than I think it has in my whole life...

I love you guys! Here's some pics and a video

1. Oreo smiles

2. Garbage du-rag swag

3&4. Busteed, a dope member here, then Kohei and I

5. Peck going HARD

You Have to See These Videos!

Hey guys! So my companion is great, Atsugi is awesome and we are teaching great people. Only bad thing in Atsugi is our apartment is super old and gross! Haha Though for some reason I've been feeling the fifth transfer "blues" lately. Just a common thing in this mission that you start to feel a little down in your 5th transfer but it's all good! Knew there would be hard times out here. It's just life right? Must be something I need to learn or something good coming up that Satan doesn't want me to experience. We gotta push on! 

Despite the recent lack of enjoyment out here.. Today was the best! We went to Costco with our great friend Kohei (kid who obsesses over basketball and we have been teaching lately) he also came to English class, we taught him this week and he started reading the Book of Mormon. We are taking it slow with him but he is understanding and progressing so well. He is very excited about, even posting on Facebook that he "prayed to God." Tomorrow we are playing basketball with him. We are all really good friends.

I played some ping pong this week with one of the members, brother Ishii, he is soo good and I have changed to only front hand play. I used to mostly use my backhand but I can go so much harder with back and top spin when I'm using front hand. I'm stoked about it! Haha probably didn't make sense.. 

Yesterday we taught this genius 14 year old named Naohiro. He understand every single thing we say. It's crazy, I've never seen a Japanese like that, especially not a 14 year old. It's so sick but he is apparently just learning because "he wants to learn about other religions." I think it's more than that and it will be more than that, but right now he is a little hard hearted. Really sick kid!!

So highlights of this week was hanging with Kohei and also our other friend who likes basketball and has a young family, Kenji! So we went to Sushi with him and his wife, I tried raw horse, so gross. Though we really hit it off as always with him. It was so fun and he talked on the way home a lot about life. Soo sad he is so depressed. He couldn't think of a single positive thing in his life except for his son. He said he wants to die, all kinds of stuff. We are trying to help him find a purpose in his life and help him. It's so hard because I don't understand the struggles of being married and having bad depression. Though I know Jesus Christ has felt how he feels and I know God knows what's best for him. The gospel helps with any problem someone may have. It's so cool to see. He is a little hard hearted and won't open his heart enough to try and feel God's love. Or so we thought... Today I got Facebook messages from him that he prayed and thanked God for everything he has in his life and asked me all sorts of questions about God. I can't believe he completely changed like that. Things got really bad with his wife and I'm really not sure what's going on or how to handle it but.... I'll let you know more next week! 

Funniest thing by far this week though... We have this crazy old guy that just comes in the church and asks us English questions. I took videos of him. We will see if I can cut down some of the videos because they are too long and he talks about some bad things... Haha

Love you guys! Do me a favor and read Alma 32, gosh it's so good every time I read it my mind gets reblown!

-Elder Spackman 

Pics & Vids

1. After sushi with Kenji and his wife Taeko! 

2. Our crazy friend grabs an escaping donut wrapper with some authority, scared me so bad haha

3. Us inviting him to be baptized as he leaves, he gladly accepted ;)

4. Him telling us that he was apparently a sports announcer but more importantly the kind of girls he likes hahaha I can't stop laughing at this

"Power! Good! Nutrition food!"