My First F Bomb!

Wow, this week. Time is flying and the work is moving forward.

Every transfer goes by faster than the last. Sometimes this whole two year thing feels long but the times flies (Timeflies? Cancel)

This last Sunday 3 of our friends came to church. Akira who we met Saturday, weird experience of him stopping us on our bikes saying, "hello where are you from?" He is stoked to learn about Jesus and English but I think he may be really caught up in himself and not super open. I will send a pic of him. Then there was Chen our Chinese
friend who is super scared of the Book of Mormon and thinks because he is a "bad person" God will punish him if he accepts a holy book. Lastly, IKEDA came! We didn't get to teach him a lesson this week, but he is doing what he needs to in order to find that answer he has been praying for. Church was hectic trying to make sure people had a good experience. Then after church we went streeting and met a man who said "handsome! You guys are cool, good looking. You should be in movies" Then he goes to Elder Harrison and grabs the fat on his stomach and yanks on it back and forth and says, "attractive man." Man the stuff you see here sometimes. Then some random Indian dudes who wanted to take a pic? I'll send that. Then we had dinner at a members. It got sooo cold but we streeted again afterwords despite the conditions and boy am I thankful. Highlight of the week here. We saw about 3 people the whole time and we just kept walking around, looking back on it, really seems like we were guided to this man. So rare in Japan to not see like anyone on the street. The third guy we talk to middle aged man stops and right away says he wants to come to our church. Then we start talking, he says he wants to change his life, he wants to learn. Starts asking if it's ok if he can still come to church at this point
in his life, he may be too old. We are like of course man!! He was stoked and was so thankful he met us and agreed that it was probably guidance from God. I've met people similar to this and not seen them again which is the worst but I have a good feeling about this guy. Really felt the Spirit as he was talking to us about his desires. On top of it all he is a big Steelers fan and knows them from like the 60's or something. Anyone who knows Japan knows this is the rarest Japanese dude. That kinda person doesn't exist here. There was no one outside that night and we met someone like that? God's love and guidance for his children is undeniable.

Had a sad experience this week meeting a kid who hates Christ and God because of death and war. Man tears came to my eyes as I talked to this kid my age with so much hate and anger working a hard construction job living alone. I really wanted to help him so bad.

Funny experience of the week was while I was passing out English flyers at the train station. This man says "you're Mormon." I say "yeah how did you know?!" Then he dropped 4 F bombs while flipping me off as he walked away. Hahaha I told him to have a good day. I was laughing so hard and it really motivated me. I love negative motivation like that. That also doesn't happen in Japan. People don't usually know the F word or at least not how to use it or flip off. He did though. People always just avoid you here if they don't like you, not freak out on you.... We also met some guy that spoke a little English and told us him and his "husband" have 2 kids. We weren't sure if it was a language mistake so I said, "wait husband?" He said "yes husband, kyotsukette (be safe)." Definitely an awkward silence, not sure why we should be safe?

We have a legendary recent convert here who is Chinese. We teach him once a week and are trying to help him stop drinking and we had such a strong spiritual lesson with him this last week and he has stopped ever since.

Invited more people this week than I have in my entire mission. We are really looking for those select few out there that are ready to hear our message.

Little more pressure got put on me this week as my mission president said I may be training or a leader in the near future. Maybe not this transfer but we will see. He talked to me a lot about being a big leader in the mission and not being mediocre.

Another friend Shin became an investigator this week. He was like "I will take this (BoM) home, read it, and pray before bed, is that ok?" Things are going well here! I love you guys. Thinking and praying for you. Thanks for your support and prayers.

Elder Spackman

1. Our random Indian friends on the street

 
2. Akira who stopped us on Saturday then came to church. awkward pic

 
3. A friend who came to church last week from Oman, dope dude. He was putting like the whole church meeting on his snap story. Lol.

 
4. This lady here that's obsessed with missionaries playing with Harrison's chubby cheeks. Sketchy stuff lol. We try to avoid her..

Uh hi...

Yaaaaaaoooowa

I will start this off with a quote because the rest of this email won't be super interesting. I am really bad with pride but I read a few really good quotes by Ezra Taft Benson yesterday at church.

“Pride does not look up to God and care about what is right. It looks sideways to man and argues who is right.… Pride is characterized by ‘What do I want out of life?’ rather than by ‘What would God have me do with my life?’ It is self-will as opposed to God’s will. It is the fear of man over the fear of God.

To the proud, the applause of the world rings in their ears; to the humble, the applause of heaven warms their hearts."

Some bomb stuff for all of us to take in right there. I went on a split (change companions for a day) with an Elder I live with named Eaton. We put in work. His Japanese is insane and he is super bold and gets people to open up. Blew me away. I hope to implement some of the things I learned. Together we got 4 new contacts. We saw a couple on the street carrying some really heavy luggage. They were super gothic, piercings all over and super different. I judged them a little at first I won't lie but they were super chill. They were from France and had came a long ways to get here while trying to roll luggage with broken wheels. We carried it for them and they were soo thankful. Such a bomb opportunity to serve, we really don't get many of those.. He agreed to meet again to get him a French BoM. We also met this Nigerian outside a drug store smoking and dressed like a straight G. He was super chill and I kept hearing songs I recognized and realized he was bumping music in his car across the street. He and I connected a ton talking about rap haha. He said he wanted to chill and gave us his number Lol. Another kid we met who dances and did a way good robot for us. Hopefully we can meet with some of these people. Getting a second meeting is so dang hard here. 

Yesterday we had some friends come to church, one of which is from Oman and super chill. Then right when we started walking home we met a 20 year kid who is just down. We took him back to the church and had a great conversation. Hopefully we see Yutaro again soon. I really love talking to kids around my age. All business men here ignore you cause they are busy, and old men and super stuck in their ways and don't stop talking. They just go off about Buddhism and other religions. Though kids around my age are usually pretty humble, chill, and not very religious. 

So our main investigator Ikeda is doing ok. He wants an answer. He is reading the scriptures every day and praying about its truthfulness. He will probably come to church this week. We gave him an invitation to be baptized in about a month and he said no. He doesn't want to keep the word of wisdom. His desire is low because he hasn't really felt the Spirit. From my own experience I think he may need to show a little faith and obey God's commandments to come closer to the spirit and receive an answer. Then his desires will change. Really hoping he feels the Spirit as he continues to CPR (come to church, pray, read scriptures). All of you better be CPR'ing as well!

I love you guys, thanks for your prayers and support now as well as when I wasn't doing the right things in my life.

Sorry not a ton this week but:

1. A dinner we had with a member here and his friends last night. The dude on the left is so sick.

2. A monster hummer here that I see sometimes, literally looks like a toy. So weird because you never even see normal hummers here..

3. Elder Eaton the kid I went on splits with. Lol I made the meme

Spackman 長老

What is this Place?...

Wow so much to be said this week, but I will try to keep it short. So we saw general conference this last weekend, it's later here so it can be translated. Blows my mind how much I get out of conference now. Sad to think how much I missed out all the times I skipped it in the past. I really liked the advice that was given on testimony meetings in church. Giving younger children other opportunities than testimony meeting to bear their testimonies before they understand the importance of a testimony, and telling us that we should just keep it short, say what we are thankful for and what we believe. They really just hit home devoting Sunday's to the Lord and keeping the commandments. Shouts out to President Monson. Seeing him falter as he bore his testimony reminded me of King Benjamin. Right before King Ben died he gave it his all to testify and plead with everyone to keep the commandments. Two things we saw President Monson do this last conference. I felt the Spirit then and many times as I listened this last weekend. One thing I guess I always kind of knew but didn't totally realize is what it means when we feel the spirit. It's a good feeling so it means it's a good thing, but is it more than that? Yes. It is. If we feel the Spirit whatever we are praying, thinking, hearing, reading or studying about is true. That's what the Spirit does, simply, it tells us what's true. (In this case for me I received more of a witness from the Spirit that President Monson and the other speakers are really prophets and apostles of God). If you ever feel the Spirit, remember, it's more than a feeling. ("More than a feeling" lol)

Last Monday I got to see Kohei again!!! We met up and went to Costco, he is doing so well. He feels the Spirit when he prays and his parents sound like they are pretty chill with the whole church thing. We challenged him to be baptized! He didn't quite say yes but he is on his way. He will get baptized someday for sure. I love that kid so much. We have a Chinese friend Chen who is the most awkward person I have ever met haha I love it. He has been coming to everything, church, baptism service and conference. He isn't ready to start meeting yet but almost there. There are actually a lot of Chinese people here. It's cool. We ate dinner with one this week named Chou. We have lost contact with Paul, he is sick and super hard to get a hold of. Otherwise he is ready to get in the water. We try to visit him about twice a day. I had a feeling we should visit him this last week, we turned around on our bikes and went there but.. Not home. Though I think it was meant to be as we met a kid who has a BoM?! Wha? Haha. We found another kid named Matsuda who is down to hang out, he came to English class and showed us some magic tricks that blew my mind. We have been going to the place called Fuchinobe, which has a big Christian university. All the kids have some understanding of the Jesus and a good image. It doesn't mean they are interested but it helps a ton! So we are spending a good amount of time there. I love talking to kids around my age.

Haha lol we went there yesterday actually, I said, "how are you?" To some kid and he speaks really good English because he lived in Canada for a while. I say, "your English is good!" He fluently replies with, "no i don't really think so." Japanese people never accept compliments but I started laughing super hard when he said that in
perfect English. I ask what he likes to do he says, "My hobby is to get girls, I'm like a pickup artist." Hahah I have never heard that as a hobby but... Respect. Later yesterday we met some old guy that does karate and he just attacked us. He didn't touch us though.. somehow he would perfectly stop his punches and kicks before he would hit us but it was insane. Way bizarre.

I'm pretty used to the weird crap of this country but every day I see something like that and it just shocks me haha. Japan is so weird. The other day we hopped into a quiet store to talk on the phone and this person in a giant power ranger suite walks out of the back storage room for no reason. Couple days before we walk out of a church to hear some really weird political marching music playing through speakers on top of a bunch of vans. I'll send a video. Sometimes this country feels communist... Later that day I saw a bad 5 car pile up. Sometimes I just wonder what this world is I live in..

The most promising person we are working with is a middle aged man named Ikeda. He is married to a member. Though they have a very bad relationship. We have talked about eternal families but we don't think either of them want that... Really hard to work with. They are only together because of their son. So sad. Though he has really been progressing and he said this last week that he is cool with baptism just doesn't want to stop drinking. He doesn't have that desire because he hasn't felt the Spirit and gotten an answer from God. If he prays with real intent he will get one, then have the desire to stop, then probably get baptized!

Last thing, so funny that they brought up testimony meeting in conference and how we should keep it short because a really old lady in our ward got up for a long time in our last testimony meeting and was asked three times to sit down. She swatted away the bishopric counselor with her hand every time and just kept talking, I could not stop laughing.

Love you guys. I hope you're all keeping the commandments and therefore finding more joy in your life. If you don't know what I'm talking about ask me or another member. This church changes and helps lives more than you can imagine. Give it a shot. You have everything to gain and nothing to loose.

Elder Spackman

Here's the good stuff: 
 
1. Reunited with Kohei! I swear he smiles in real life.. Haha

 2. The ward hooked it up last week with peanut butter and a ridiculous amount of granola, my favorite stuff

 
3. Us with a recent convert here, lol he is so funny

 
4. One of the many weird things I see here, this is outside of some store for something (idk)

 
5. We played a game in English class the looser had to get up and dance ah man this was so funny (that's me going ayye)

 
6. The vans, flags, and music. Communist or nah?..

 
7. Guy snoring way loud on the train