Hibarigaoka

Man I was sad to leave Hachioji. The couple days before I left I was able to meet Shintaro, Keisuke & Tou (Jack)! It was way sad to say goodbye to them. I don't think they understand that we won't see each other for a long time, so they weren't as sad I don't think haha. Maybe I will see them soon though if I can make it to Jack's baptism.

So when we move areas we ship our bags but then carry our bikes in a bike bag and whatever else we have as we ride the trains to the new area. If you haven't heard Japanese summers can be pretty ridiculous. I was sweating pretty hard. I decided to take my backpack off and put it on the bag rack on the train. I started talking w/ some guy and got distracted with that and worrying about my bike. I've been so good about keeping track of my stuff here but forgot my backpack on the train... Tried to trace it down with one of the workers for over an hour and they couldn't find it.. I prayed hard multiple times that day because my iPad and lots of other important stuff was in there. I go back to the station the next day and BOOM they've got it! They found it after they did the nightly check of all the trains. This country is amazing, people never touch what isn't theirs and if they do its to find the owner, soo honest.

Although transferring was disappointing there isn't really a better place to transfer. The ward here is AMAZING! It might already be my favorite ward haha. Just tons of young families. I got here on Thursday and what seemed like the next day (Saturday) they had the annual summer party at the church and it was soo turnt! Best ward party I have ever seen, this ward is soo fun. A bunch of young, way chill, families. I really wanna work hard for them and find them some new friends for the members to welcome them in the Hibari family :)

We went to Tokorozawa for a district meeting this last week and boy was that weird. That was the first time I have ever been back to one of my previous areas. I hadn't been to Tomorozawa in a 1 1/2 years! So weird to be back. I honestly hated that place but I was happy to be there again, just so many memories. They are still working with Iwasawa who I worked with while I was there. He has defiantly been taking lessons for over 3 years. They have another baptismal date with him right now, he has had 5+ baptismal dates before. Hopefully they can get him really committed to it this time!

Btw my new companion is Elder Elsmore. He is a really young missionary but really great. Wayyy better than I was at that point in my mission. He is from Texas and speaks really slow... But it should be a great transfer. I talked about some typhoons last week but I recently heard they were all level 1... There is one coming in tomorrow and they said its gonna be a level 3-4?! Pretty nuts, I'm excited.

Short and lame letter, sorry, but I need to go! Love you guys

1. D Meeting in Tokorozawa

2. The Elder's I live with. Budge, Yoshikawa, me, Elsmore with some friends that I knew in Tokorozawa

3. Hari! We are still working with him. Elder Brown (my previous companion back in Atsugi is home now and he hopped in the call as a member. We hated each other but we are wayy chill now).

4. One of my Chinese friends from Hachioji, Li

5. The rest is pictures from the party, love this ward!

Hachioji Fire > Typhoon(s)

Such an eventful week! We had some big typhoons hit here yesterday and had to stay inside all day so our email time was moved to today. I heard from people that 3 typhoons hit here at once, some others said 5, some 6, one said 9? Haha. All I know is we got hit by multiple typhoons. The mission is about to get flipped upside down. A lot of missionaries just went home (24) and 22 new missionaries are coming to the mission. The transfer after this one will be about the same, so they have split up zone leaders to be with younger companions and a ton of people are training. I'm transferring & am way disappointed about it because of the amazing people we are working with here in Hachioji (more about them later). I am going to Hibarigaoka, pretty close my first area when I came to Japan, Tokorozawa. I'll be a zone leader there and follow up training Elder Elsmore. Lots of responsibility but that's where everyone is at in the mission right now haha.

One of the most disappointing things about leaving is Jack. Since last week he has continued to shock us with his progression towards God. On our way home Monday night we started talking to this pretty hard hearted guy. He  would ask amazing questions and then just throw everything we would say out the window. On his way home from work Jack saw us and just came up and hopped in the conversation. Jack starts telling this guy that if he doesn't believe what we say now it's ok because that's how he felt when he first met us. Then he starts answering fairly hard questions and telling this guy about the peace he has found since he started studying with us. The guy asked how he found it, Jack said, "I started praying." The guy was like, "yeah... I can't believe that." Jack said, "that's ok man, I know exactly how you feel, I felt that exact same way 2 weeks ago." We had only started lessons with Jack a week before that and he is already testifying and teaching people he doesn't know on the street! A few days later we had a lesson and as soon as we sat down Jack said, "hey soo can we do the baptism on the 10th?" Just so awesome to see his desire and willingness to follow Christ. He already asked his boss for the day off and is looking so solid. In that same lesson he asked if he could say the opening prayer and right after that just started telling us about how Choyo told him about the commandments and how he wants to keep them but they might be a little hard. Keep in mind we started lessons with him 2 weeks before this, we hadn't even taught the basic lessons. He started bring up alcohol & smoking, I was thinking he was bringing up problems but then he said my family and I don't do that, nor do we drink tea or coffee. I'm thinking, "ok.... So what's the problem?" Haha. He then told us very bluntly some of the struggles he has with girls and how he wants to stop. He asked us how we avoid temptation and decided right there that he is going to keep himself clean for 2 weeks & then work from there. Just made me so happy to see someone reading and applying the gospel doctrine. We literally aren't doing anything, it's all God. In our next lesson you could see the church teachings just being pieced together in his head. We sang my favorite, "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus." When he sang it in Chinese he was deeply moved. I got a video of him and Choyo singing, I'll send it.

We've been going hard with the Chinese people lately. Met one on the street who was being pretty stubborn. We had trouble communicating and called Choyo up, put them on the phone and they talked for 20 minutes as we just sat there not understanding a word haha. Then this guy gets off the phone and is down to meet with us haha. We are in touch with like 4 other Chinese friends too, I love Chinese and all the other kinds of people I get to meet!

I haven't talked about him in a while but it was mostly because we hadn't seen him in a long time and we were really worried about him, but we finally met with Shintaro again!!! After his baptism we knew he wouldn't make it to church the next week for some college stuff but then he suddenly went to Hokkaido with his family and we really didn't hear from him much because he is terrible at emailing us back. We try to email him a lot because he answers every 4th email haha. Man we prayed and worried about him quite a bit. Just worried that something bad happened and he would disappear (which sadly happens at times). Side story: there was a new temple recently opened in Hokkaido, look it up, it's soo pretty. They dedicated it this last week and so we went to the video broadcast of the cultural celebration Saturday then the dedication broadcast Sunday. Anyways, one night while I was praying about what to do with Shintaro I felt strongly that we should invite him to the cultural celebration. He answer and said he wants to go to that and the dedication. He needed to be interviewed to go to the dedication and time was short so we assumed he wouldn't make it. He came to the cultural celebration, which was soo good, I had tears streaming down my face while watching a history of the church in Japan, love this gospel and these people. He got interviewed and made it to the dedication the next day! Turns out he has been doing fine, doing the little things, reading scriptures and praying. He actually got approached my Mormon missionaries in Hokkaido and surprised them by saying he just got baptized haha. We are meeting with him in about an hour :) soo relieved and happy he is doing ok.

I've got to tell you about my new friend Keisuke. Earlier in the week while passing out English class flyers at the station. I gave him a simple invitation to learn about Christ, he came to Eikaiwa, at a little after party we had he did just that, learned about Christ. I taught him a decent amount and he agreed to meet again in the week. The next time we met him Shintaro was with us and asked if he could join in the lesson. Choyo was already there for the lesson so all 4 of us taught Keisuke, kinda weird but he was way chill about it. Shintaro did a great job, especially considering he just got baptized. Keisuke loved it! He understood everything so well and gave an amazing prayer at the end. We asked him to pray once every day and he has since been praying about 4 times a day! :) He told us about how he decided to quit smoking 6 months ago and is doing well with it. He went to a church when he was younger and since he quit smoking has been feeling like he really wants to go to church so when he met me on the street he was excited to come and happy we met. He agreed to prepare to be baptized!! God definitely prepared him to meet us at this moment in his life :)

We finally got to go visit a different place this last week, Toyoda. We always have something going on, so we never have time to go anywhere. Maybe we should more because that was one of the most successful nights of my life! In about 2 hours we found 5 new people! One is the father of a family who told his daughter he met us and she said she met missionaries when she was in middle school and has recently been wanting to meet missionaries again really badly. Another guy we met around our age who lives right next to another Christian church and has been wanting to go and study there for a long time but their doors are always closed. We told him we can open the doors anytime for him ;)

Hachioji is BLOWIN UP! I hope with that monster email I helped you understand what is making me so sad that I am leaving here :(

Sorry, I'm not proofreading that lol, Love you guys <3
- Spackdaddy

1. Today we met with a couple seniors in high school that I previously met like 8 weeks ago playing basketball. Haven't met someone that loves playing and watching basketball as much as I do in quite a while. Today started off with some endo curry and we ended up going back to the church, having a lesson and they are stoked about learning more. Ahhhh why am I leaving?! :(

2. The mission roster now, it changed soo much!

3. Hibari! Been there before, it's a good place, just sad to leave

4. Pic from Jack, Book of Mormon! Japanese on the left, Chinese on the right!

5. Not as good as Yamate was but I'll miss Hachioji, good place

6. Too suteki

7. Trying to be like Jesus! Jack is across the table

8. Typhoon!

超 TURNT

Alright alright alriiiiiight! I'm not sure why but this week was just a way happy and spiritual week. One of the major reasons is because our Chinese friend, Jack, is soo legit! I told his story a bit last week but we had 2 lessons with him this week, he came to church and we went together to a member's house for dinner last night. I love making friends here who are down for whatever whenever. In our second lesson this week we were just talking to him and he stopped and was like, "I want to..." then looks at the Chinese member Choyo and says a Chinese word. Choyo turns to us and says, "repent." He just stopped us in the lesson and says he wants to change and improve. We stopped what we had planned and taught him the steps of repentance right away and challenged him to continue the process by being baptized. He said he will try his hardest to get baptized next month, right now we are shooting for the 10th but his schedule may change, we will see. I don't know what happened but my mission turned up so hard this second half. I've been blessed to meet the most amazing people! 

As Jack has been meeting with us he has really changed. A lot of that is because the breakup with his girlfriend humbled him and he has just started to get comfortable with us. He was introducing himself to the members with a short story of his life, how he studied Buddhism but that he's not about it anymore and is excited to be learning about Christ. We had a pretty crazy Sunday school class. Sis. Seki, a member that hadn't been to church in forever came, I'll talk about her more later. The teacher asked for two people to share the blessings they have seen from getting baptized, the first one was fine but then Sis. Seki went off about how bad her life got after her baptism and how bad she thought baptism was.... Not really what we were hoping Jack would hear his first time at church lol. Through her whole rant, I'm like, "oh no..this could ruin it for Jack." He turns and looks at me, kinda surprised she said that and then just cracks a smile and starts laughing lol. He gets that baptism doesn't just suddenly take away hardships in life or change your temporal status. Sis. Seki eventually wrapped up what she was saying and it turned out a lot better than it started with her saying that now she realizes it is good she was baptized. Japanese sentence structure is set up so the will/will not or have/have not comes at the end. So I was on the edge of my seat waiting for her sentences to end, not knowing what the meaning of the sentence would be. We were laughing way hard through most of the lesson though because there was a lot of interesting comments from some of the students. Shout out to the teacher for dealing with that haha. 

Sister Seki was actually a big miracle. Elder Nelson and I stopped a guy on the street and while talking to him, Choyo walked by and hopped in the conversation. Then she walked by, introduced herself and also hopped in venting to us about the struggles she has had since baptism. She has had a lot of bad experiences :( but Choyo put in work! He showed a ton of love and gave her a hug at the end. He got her contact info and got her to church. The members were happy to see her again and she was happy to be there. So cool what love can do. All of that didn't really help the guy that we originally were talking to tho, haha he seemed pretty weirded out. 

We met a hard core Bruce this last week! Not sure why it's called a Bruce but that's what the whole mission calls a foreigner (particularly a return missionary) who marries a Japanese girl. The Bruce we met is a previous missionary of Hachioji and came back to visit with his wife. The crazy thing is his wife is a previous member here in Hachioji... He met her on his mission and ended his mission here... Seems a little fishy ;) There have been a few awkward questions arise about their history and it is soo funny to watch the awkwardness lol. 

There were a few experiences we had out trying to find people this week that I want to share. One was with our new friend Yuki Satou (most common name in Japan I swear). It was the middle of a pretty hot day and I remember saying something like, "you're a child of God, He desires your happiness and created a plan for us. Anyone can follow the plan and find true joy." I say something pretty similar to most people that I meet and I don't know what was different about this time but I felt the spirit so strong as I said that and started tearing up. God is there and so is the plan, I felt it and know it. 

The thing is... It's all on us to find and follow the plan. After meeting two people within 15 minutes who yelled at us and said they were calling the cops, we met a man that would only open his door 2 inches, all I could see was his bulging left eye staring at me and we talked for almost 30 minutes like that haha. We promised him some blessings of coming closer to God. He couldn't wrap his head around what "coming closer to God meant." Shooting for an analogy I asked him if he has kids, friends or family. It was so sad, but he said no to every question. We told him we are his friends. He eventually told us he didn't have the best relationship with his parents. We asked how he could have changed that, he said he didn't & doesn't care... I talked about my father, said I have a great dad and I know he loves me. Despite that, if I don't care or put forth effort, I separate myself from my father. It's the same thing with our Father in Heaven. He agreed and we asked, "will you learn more about your father in heaven?" "No" "what?! You don't want to?" "No" This happens sometimes but usually I don't feel as bad as I did right then, made me so sad. I told him bluntly how sad I am, then how sad God must be. He agreed that God is probably sad. I asked how he feels, he said he is lonely and not happy. I asked if he wants to feel happiness, he said no :( I told him him that we sadly can't help him then :'( 

God can't help us in that situation either. Happiness is a choice and only through Christ can we feel that true Joy. 

I'm not done with this guy, we told him we are his friends and we are going to show him what it's like to feel loved and he will want more. 

Love you guys <3
Elder Spackman

1. Dinner w/the Tsukara's last night. Soo turnt! Jack is sitting right in front of me and Choyo's on my left.

2. The homie Ebi that my uncle Doug got us in touch with. He took us to the highest class restaurant ever! So sick. No idea how much it cost but it had to be like $40/person or something

3. "You're nuts"

4. Corn ice cream... Weirdest crap ever

Guided Break-Ups

Kind of up and down week. We saw some amazing miracles but also had some set backs and trials. I was studying one morning when my iPad just turned off and didn't respond to anything! It showed no signs of life no matter what I did. I took it into the mission office and they called Apple. I guess there isn't anything that can be done, so I got a new iPad. Which is great except for the fact that I literally lost everything. All pictures, videos & notes. So sad. I had some awesome scripture journals and lists I had collected on my mission in my notes. Bummer. With all of that I lost my note with the email list for this weekly email. I went through and found the old list of who I sent it too and used that so maybe this is your first time hearing from me in a while. If you aren't about it, feel free to block me or something lol.

We traveled so much this week! In 4 days we went to Tokyo 3 times. Oh and then also we took our weekly trip out to Kofu the 5th day. Pretty exhausting. One of the times we went to Tokyo we went on splits with president's assistants. They are way sick, just such boss missionaries. During that time we had a conference call with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission. Here pretty soon one of the assistants will go home, so we know they will call a new one soon. We decided to trick the mission and I gave the introduction for the conference call. A few days later at the mission leadership conference people were tripping out thinking that I was the new assistant. Lolz

We saw a miracle this last week with a Chinese friend named Jack. We met him on transfer day like 4 weeks ago and since then have been struggling with him over Facebook. He just was way hard hearted and unwilling to meet with us. He was focused on studying Buddhism. We ran into him on the street with his girlfriend who is Buddhist and he did not want to talk to us at all. He was pretty rude actually. We invited him to dinner at a members house last night, he called us on Facebook and we happen to be with Choyo the Chinese recent convert who hopped on the call and convinced him, in Chinese, to come. He came, accepted a Book of Mormon and was just eating it all up (the food as well as the teachings... Get it? Lolz). Turns out him and his girlfriend broke up, he is really humbled and done studying Buddhism. We have a lesson set-up with him today! He should be at church next week too.

Another thing is I had the opportunity to give a priesthood blessing to one of my roommates this last week. Sorry if it's TMI but I discovered I have a hernia a few weeks ago and not even a week later he realized he had one too. So bizarre for us both to get one at the same time. Mine doesn't hurt and isn't serious, but his had gotten really big and had been hurting him a lot for a few days and it was looking like he would need surgery. If so, that would probably mean he has to go home early. I gave him a simple blessing for his health. By the end of the day it was gone and he's been fine since. I don't think any of us have realized how amazing of a miracle that was! The priesthood power is real. Miracles are still being performed to this day.

One last thing. We have had a lot of fruit flies in our apartment. We ignored it for a while thinking it was just a seasonal thing. They love our garbage. One time I replaced the garbage bag and saw in the bottom of the can what looked like little rice bits but we checked it and it was maggots! After that we started looking a bit more and noticed they were everywhere! We would notice one thing and it would lead our attention to another spot. One of those situations where it's so bad you just start laughing. The floor, wall, floor mat, etc. We just stopped everything we were doing and started cleaning. One of the grossest things I have experienced. Soo bad. Eventually we found the main nest area behind some doors leaned up against the wall. Just stacks of maggots and probably eggs. It's all cleaned up now but words can't explain how nasty it was lol.

Oh also my uncle, Doug hooked it up fat with a new friend that he met while he was working here in Hachioji and we are meeting him on Thursday! Hopefully we can teach him about Christ :)

Love you guys. Thanks for all your prayers and support <3
- Spackdaddy

1. We skyped Hari again this week, he is doing really well :)

2. picture I discovered from back when I was in Atsugi this time a year ago. I'm the one taking the pic with the iPad

Ogino Shintaro!!

I'll try to keep it short! Ogino Shintaro is now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! He showed up at 7:30 in the morning and we had an awesome baptismal service. He slipped on the steps walking into the font and pretty much fell in haha. He was sooo nervous. He is a pretty quiet and serious guy. I said the baptismal prayer right and looked around before I dunked him to make sure it was ok, got the ok but as I was putting him under the water I realized I forgot to say, "Amen." So I threw it out there right before he went under lol. I think it counted but they made me do it again haha. He's such a great kid. In his testimony afterwards he talked about faith how cool he thinks it is and how he wants to continue to build up his faith. He knows his faith isn't super strong but he wanted to do what is right and felt like baptism is the way. Such a pure heart.

That Sunday after the baptism I can't even tell you how many people we ran into that we know. One of which was the man who Elder Cook and I owe everything to, who didn't stop going off about how we need to teach Trump, the White House & DC about the gospel. It was only because we were held up with him that we were able to ditch him mid convo because Elder Cook saw Shintaro. One of the people we met right after baptism became an instant new investigator. He asked us for contact info and to meet again. He was down when I told him what we're going to talk about. Literally next person we see is a kid we have been talking to named Yuusei. He is on the verge of investigating the church. Just way busy. Then this really blew our minds, next person we saw was our friend Milan from Nepal, similar situation.

We skyped with Hari from India again this last week. He's pretty much ready for baptism but lives 7 hours away from a church lol. Hopefully he just moves to America soon. That's what he wants.

Love all of you so much :) keep the commandments and remember your covenants

1. BAPTISM!

2. Ogino Shintaro

3. Us with a recent convert Choyo, he's Chinese and soo funny

4. Koki on the left, Maachi on the right. Sickest kids ever. They are are from Osaka and sooo outgoing and straightforward. People from Osaka are sooo cool, I really wanna go there someday.

5. Dat Beatle tho!

6. Man it's honestly worse than this but everyone in this pic is playing PokemonGo

7. I can't believe I saw this... I giant paper machete Trump... So bad

8. We had a talent show at the church, Choyo sung and um... well just watch. It was 5 minutes of this hahaha love him