Pokemon-Go takin ova

Dang this week was nuts! Shintaro is doing well but as usual we don't really hear from him all week and then he shows up to church for all three hours and is willing to study with us for as long as we want. Since his baptism is next week we had a lot to cover. The three of us had a lesson/interview with Bishop. There are such amazing leaders here in Japan, bishop is just such a boss. We went from that to a baptism in Takao so that Shintaro could see one. We went back, ate at the church together then practiced the baptismal interview. We realized pretty quickly that his faith is not as strong as we thought. I think he was really nervous so he started forgetting and overthinking things but we ended up having like a two hour lesson about faith. During church he had  expressed in a prayer that he wants to be worthy to have the Priesthood and has previously expressed desires to become like some of the church members, be baptized, etc. We read through Alma 32 (I love that ch. so much) and tried our hardest to help recognize his faith. Shintaro eventually agreed to pray his hardest to know if the church is true. That was a really intense and sincere prayer. He didn't recognize an answer at that time, but God will answer him when he is ready. He then went into his baptismal interview and I was pretty worried... He passed though! I guess he was super nervous in the interview. He isn't positive about how he feels about the church or that he is feeling Gods guidance but he is following what he feels is right (God's guidance) and he is looking solid for the 31st! I don't usually ask for your prayers for things, this may be the first time but please pray that he can feel and recognize the Spirit of God.

We had a pretty crazy day this last week, running into people I've met. We ran into a Nepalese guy that Elder Cook and I had met on the street and set an appointment with but he bailed and never answered our calls or texts. So seeing him randomly on the street was probably uncomfortable for him, I bluntly asked what happened and he said he was busy. He gave me a different email than before which is a little mysterious... He was with a guy from Sri Lanka who told us he used to meet with missionaries. I looked him up and it turns out he has a long history of meeting with missionaries. It's way bizarre they're friends. Later we met another friend, Takahiro, Elder Cook and I had met that has since blew us off. Awesome guy, he's just really busy. Also all in the same day I ran into Aaron and his GF from last week! It was the day of English class and they reassured us they were coming, then didn't show up. It was nuts how many people we ran into though.

You guys remember when I was in Atsugi a year ago and we would meet sometimes with a guy from India named Hari? He was really struggling at that point but wouldn't let the church teachings help him. At one point Busteed and I went and hung out at his place and said a prayer with him. Elder Nelson also served in Atsugi so he knows all the people I did, including Hari. We were able to Skype him this last week in India and he has a baptismal date and has changed a ton! He is doing so much better that before. He said the first time he ever felt the spirit was when we prayed together with Busteed.

Today we went to lunch with Shintaro and the one and only Motoki Maeda from Yamate! Ah man I love him so much. I payed for both of their meals because I was just so happy to be with them haha. We planned the baptism with Shintaro, he asked me to baptize him, which is awesome, but I was hoping he would ask Elder Nelson or one of the ward members. Motoki is doing great. At the end of this week he is headed out to Nigata to a small, church supported college that's like a mini BYU. He is strongly considering serving a mission but talked to me about how he knows that either way he will be trying to share the gospel with those around him, that he doesn't need to be on a mission to help others. I love his faith and attitude. He's praying to know what he should do.

Other than that we met with a Chinese guy named Sunny. He hit us up to play ping pong and agreed to come early for a lesson. He wants to believe in God and learn more about Christianity because Christians seem so happy and he doesn't feel like he is happy. He also said he wants his son to learn more about God. Sunny will take some time but he is really humble and I love him.

I know it already blew up in America but Pokemon-Go came out in Japan this last week. You have noo idea. It's soo turnt here. I kid you not 90% of the time I see someone with a phone out they are playing Pokemon Go. We are using it to our advantage and just stopping people by saying "Hey! Are you playing Pokemon go?" The other night we were talking to this Nepalese guy and his friend interrupted us telling him to follow. His friend didn't even look up from his phone though as he passed us. We got up the next morning to go running and we see the same guy walking around, eyes glued on his phone, wearing the same clothes as the night before. We asked if he had been playing all night, he excitedly said, "yes!!" An entire night spent walking the streets trying to catch Pokemon....... Lol

Love y'all

1. Long time no see... Motoki!!!!

2. The skype with Hari!

3. Bro. Noguchi, I promise he smiles... Sometimes hahaha

Heyyyy

Well... Elder Cook, my last companion is now closer to all of you than I am, in Utah. Elder Nelson came in on Thursday and we kicked things off right! On the way home we sad hi to a group around our age. We sparked up a convo and they were each from a different country: Peru (Aaron) Japan (Hiroshi), & Vietnam (Yen). We talked a bit and Elder Nelson just bossed up and asked them to come back to the church with us.. And that's what we did! Gave them a church tour and started talking about the Book of Mormon. We looked around and of course had one in Japanese, looked a bit more and found one in Vietnamese, but couldn't find on in Spanish! :( They were totally cool with sitting down and talking about it together. The Japanese guy kept saying, "this is so cool!" We decided to read the introduction together. We start reading and I look underneath some hymn books on the table and sitting right there is a Spanish BoM! If it wasn't enough of a blessing to have one at the church, the fact that it just happen to be sitting on the table of the room we went to? Just so awesome. Since Aaron is Catholic he actually helped us out a ton with explaining things to the other two. We ended up challenging them to be baptized if they feel the teachings are true. They said yes and Aaron said, "yeah, like I'm Christian and this book is Spanish so this is easy for me." He has since been reading the BoM and will come to English class with his girlfriend (Yen) this Wednesday!

Then a couple days later we were riding on the train. I had an immediate feeling to talk to the kid next to me but honestly I just wasn't feeling it. There are times where I'm just tired and just want to relax for a bit. So I sit there for half the ride but couldn't fight the feeling. His name is Ryutorou, we talked for a bit and he said he doesn't believe in God. I asked him if God did exist, what kind of being would he be? He says, "someone that guides us and helps us know what path we should take." I was shocked. I never hear answers like that. Turns out he had been reading a book recently that talked about it. I told him a bit about the path God wants us to take, gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he added me on Facebook. The best part is I messaged him maybe 5 minutes after meeting and he had read the whole pamphlet, and told me he is thankful I reached out to him because he has been wanting to learn more about Christ for a while. :)

Shintaro gets me way nervous every week. We loose contact with him every week because he is busy but he always follows through and comes to church. He came this last week and since he can't meet until next Sunday when his baptismal date is we uh... We gave him everything. We taught him about tithing, 10 commandments, Sabbath day, law of chastity, pretty much all the commandments and he agreed to keep them all. He's looking real solid for the 7/31 baptismal date, we're getting pretty excited. I can't believe how much he is understanding and how willing he is to follow the teachings. People think it's because I am a good missionary or something lol but really I've just been really privileged to meet such prepared people on my mission.

I also got a chance to play basketball with a kid named Ryo about my age. He lived in Ohio for ten years and brought a friend who lived in Tennessee. They were both sooo chill. It was nice to speak in a Japanese & English mix with them. We went to this siiick gym to play and I got so tired so fast. I'm way out of shape but it felt good to play again. Also went to Costco today :) went with Bro. Misu from Hachioji & Ishi from Atsugi. They are the best.

Thanks for reading, love you guys :)

1. The three friends we brought back to the church Elder Nelson's first day here

2. A pic from last week we forgot, Ahamadou and his girlfriend. They have been meeting with missionaries for a long time but their parents are anti-Mormon :/

3. Kofu district meeting :)

4. It's a cool place, famous for it's fruits, we got peaches last time we were there, best fruit I've ever had.

5. Gotta love Elder Mizuguchi

6. Our English class last week

7. This pic does no justice of how ghetto this place was that we ate at. I found 3 hairs in my food lol

8. Mormon Missionaries aka biggest drug dealers in Japan

9. Lol a Chinese recent convert here hookin up the much needed backrub

If nothing else, read the ending

Haro Friends! Every week I have so many great things to share but I'll try to cut it down to the highlights. Got transfer calls this week, I'm staying in Hachioji and Elder Nelson is coming in. I don't really know him except that he is a boss missionary. Elder Cook is going home, I've been around dying missionaries my whole mission but this is my first time killing one.

We met with the American from last week Mark again! We had a little over an hour to talk and hoped we could spend it giving an introduction of the gospel. Turned out he talked pretty much the whole time and we just listened. Usually that means someone won't listen or stop talking. That wasn't the case here though, we were happy just to chat with him. He has a crazier life story than anyone I have ever met. He has been through A LOT: abuse, lost friends, drugs, gangs pretty much anything you can think of. I can't say everything he told us but I have so much respect for him after hearing all of it. He doesn't remember much of his life before 18 when he was put in a rehab center. After a year of that the only progress they had made is helping him care about survival and know how to do so. He went straight from that to working for gangsters for 15 years. From then he had a few people that helped him come around and believe in God & forgive others. He cleaned up his life and found a good job but still was an emotional wreck. At one point he lost everything, family disowned him completely, girlfriend committed suicide and he lost his job. So he left for Japan and has since become an amazing person. At the end of the lesson we at least got a prayer in and on the walk with him back to the station we gave him a Book of Mormon taught a bit about it and our purpose as missionaries. He knows now that next time we are going to share more about what we do/why we are here and about the BoM haha. We are meeting again this week. 

Shintaro is doing really great, and looking pretty solid for his baptism on the 31st! I don't know why I have been so blessed to meet such amazing people here. We had a lesson last Thursday and he read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We planned to review/teach it but we started asking him about different parts of it and he ended up teaching us the whole thing and we just kept telling him, "yeah that's right!" We gave him The Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet as well as the Word of Wisdom, Tithing & fasting, and Chastity pamphlet. He came to church this Sunday and had read all of them and basically committed himself to keeping all the commandments. He said the hardest one might be fasting because he will want to eat lol. I cannot believe how willing and smart he is. We still have some things we need to help him with but he is doing really good! :)

Oh yeah!! I heard some awesome news this last week!! Motoki (in Yamate) is doing really well since I left. People progress and change a lot before baptism but continuing that level of improvement is really hard after baptism. Not Motoki though. Sounds like he is headed to the temple soon to do baptisms for the dead, getting his sister to start taking lessons with the sisters & planning to serve a mission! I can't tell you how happy that makes me :)

This college kid named Kohei came to church yesterday speaking really good English and just started asking me all kinds of questions about the church. We sat down and he was challenging my beliefs a lot. He is a sect of Buddhism called Soka Gakkai and is really committed to it. I was interrupted a lot and he wasn't really listening but he wanted to know the reasons for every single thing we do like not drinking coffee, alcohol or tea. I addressed some of the reasons but he got annoyed. He said coffee & tea are proven to be healthy that religion can't argue scientific facts. We became friends and agreed to disagree. It was frustrating but I think we have all had questions about some of the things the church says. Whether you are a member or not. I still have questions as well. In fact I told him simply that I don't know. What I want you to know is what I do know. It's what I have felt strongly in my life and what God reminds me every day: God is there, he loves us and wants to help. What I do know is God has chosen a prophet, just as he always has, to help us understand what he wants for us. What I do know is I spent a lot of my life not following Christ and thought I was happy, when I changed and decided to follow my savior I found true joy. If I know that then nothing else matters. Just as Motoki said when he learned about those same standards, "if Jesus [or God] says no, no one can say yes." We can always trust God. 

Whether you are a member or not. Please don't get stuck on things you have heard or don't agree with. Just like any thing in life, start with the fundamentals. Just how we can't hit home runs before we learn how to swing. We can't expect to understand or believe the hard things before we develop a relationship with God and Chirst through prayer, meeting with missionaries, studying the prophets words & attending church.

I love, think about, pray for and miss all of you <3

1. This picture is crap but we had an awesome lesson with our new friend Toranosuke and went to dinner with him and Bro. Nakamura who is the guy across from Elder Cook.

2. leadership conference at the mission home this last week

3. At church with the kid who I just talked about Kohei, Cook, Shintaro and I :)

4. We went to this way bomb steak place with a recent convert bro. Uota. 

5. That pink and white stuff with the black spots on my plate is dragon fruit, first time eating it

Pork Chop

I can not believe how much can happen in a week! Time is still moving quicker and quicker the closer I get to the end though. President Wada is now gone and President Warnick is here. We actually got to meet him and his wife this last week. They came and visited the Machida Stake missionaries here in Hachioji and they are soo great. I felt the Spirit through the entire meeting. I especially felt it as I saw the picture of when he was set apart to be a mission president, I really felt that he has been called by God to be the mission president at this time. 

This week we went on splits with the Takao Elders. I started off with a new Japanese missionary Elder Ota. He is a total boss, way bold. We had an awesome day. We didn't talk to a ton of people but still managed to get 4 peoples contact info. Originally though it was only 3. We came around a corner by the station and saw some middle aged American passing out fliers. That's a big thing here in Japan, at the train station they pass out flyers and advertisements, we do it sometimes with English class fliers. Anyways his name was Mark from DC. He moved here ten years ago and ended up telling me a lot about his life and the peace he has found through Christ and forgiveness. I asked if he lives alone and that turned into a conversation about his dating life which I probably should have avoided haha. He told me his choice of girls was used to be pretty bad, "just imagine a dog walking down the street who notices a pork chop laying on the road. This pork chop has been baking in the sun for days and there's maggots crawling all over it. Any reasonable person would avoid it but I was just over there like [starts looking around panting like a dog]." Hahaha I just busted up laughing, Elder Ota is pretty good at English but got so lost in all that.. I can tell Mark has changed a lot from who he used to be. I got the chance to tell him about my change in life as well and taught him the restoration. The conversation was going great until he realized how late he was. Before he left I stopped him and gave him a hug. No homo but it was a special moment after the hug as I saw his face soften, I know he felt the love and that's a great feeling. Then he left... I was so disappointed that I didn't get a chance to invite him to church/learn more or get his contact info. The next day I went to the station with Elder Coleman. As we waited for AJ a new investigator to show up, through the crowd I saw a white guy and it was Mark! I chased him down and expressed my regret that we didn't exchange info. He said he too was really sad we didn't. He gave me his name for Facebook. After looking through hundreds of people with the same name and adding 3 of them he messaged me! Gotta get him a Book of Mormon. 

Sorry that was so long but that was definitely guided by God. I want you all to know how easy it really is to share the joy of this gospel. Don't make it harder than it is. God wants you to share it and wants them to hear it. You want them to hear it and I do too. They may not know it but so do they! We have so much working in our favor, will you invite your friends and even those you don't know to learn more about this church from the source? (Church/Book of Mormon/meeting with missionaries)

So we fasted and prayed for Shintaro (the kid that came to church last week and we set a date for baptism) to follow through and get baptized at the end of the month, he didn't show up to church though... As much of a bummer that is he called us right before church and told us it's because he is sick. The reason that's a good thing is because up to that point he had never answered a text, email or phone call from us for the three weeks that we have known him. After that we emailed him and since then he is answering our emails! That is HUGE. Without consistent contact it is really hard for us to help people progress towards baptism.

We also figured out how to use some of the $100 we received a few weeks ago. We took a homeless friend out for a meal, really nice hair cut, clean and shave. He looked so much better. He didn't appreciate it as much as we hoped but if felt really good to do that. He came to church the next day as well :)

Last thing! We turn the lights off at 10:30 but I was still brushing my teeth. I started to get in bed but remembered I didn't check by bed for bugs as I usually do. It's pretty weird but I do that most nights even though there isn't ever a bug on my bed. I just had to check though. I turned on the light to check real quick... There was a decent sized cockroach looking bug just chillin on my bed! Haha Lolz 

Love you guys so much

1. President Warnick and our zone!

2. A picture from last week that I forgot to send. The Yamaokas had us over for dinner and we invited our friend Keisuke that we met on the train a while back. He doesn't live near us so we don't talk a lot but he is a way cool kid.

3. Every missionary that ever comes through Hachioji knows Bro. Misu (next to me in the pic). We see him about every day and he is so great. Buys us food, drives us around and gives me back rubs. Anyways! He took us over to his friends the Nakajimas' house for dinner. They made an amazing meal and were so nice. The opportunity to meet with nonmember families is so rare here so that was a big blessing.

4. At dinner last night with the Kitahara's.....

5. This group pic is a little more normal but the old man on the left is a recent convert and the lady next to him is Filipino and this was her first time meeting everyone. At one point I looked over and saw the old man massaging the bottom of her bare foot, and her making noises because he was digging in hard with his knuckles. I don't know how they got to that point because she doesn't really speak English or Japanese... Pretty bizarre lol

6. Dat Vape Life tho 🏼

7. Elder Cook and I are stepping up the COOKing game lately... Cook. Get it? ;)

8. Beef, Rice & Salad wraps?