Chicken Katsu
Okonomiyaki
Elder Kawasaki drew a pic of me so i drew one of him hahaha
Odawara eki
Zone blitz (I forgot my tag... oops, so I was Elder Fukuoka for the day lol)
Bridge right by our apartment
Monday, April 23, 2018
Week 36 - 04/22/18 - Group Email
Hello Everyone,
We had a nice busy week here in Atsugi! Transfer emails came and I am staying in Atsugi with Elder Riggs! I'll probably serve here for at least two more transfers because he goes home at the end of next transfer.
I'll start out explaining why I titled this email "everyone's a Chinese Spy." So we have one investigator who is Chinese that I have talked about a bit in previous emails. Anyway he has expressed his concerns with us that Chinese spies are following him because he has said negative things about the chinese government in the past. We always would try to be understanding and testify to him about how the gospel can help. Every lesson he would bring up the topic of Chinese spies and even told us he believed there were spies in our english class. He was actually starting to progress pretty well and said he wanted to be baptized so we assumed he was just a bit paranoid.
Well on Saturday, right after english class finished a cop walked in the door and asked if we knew the man he was with who was our investigator. Then our investigator looked in the room and started accusing a bunch of students and members as being Chinese spies!! One of our members went outside with the cop and the investigator and talked for a bit. Eventually he came back in just super fired up and angry which was weird because he's the most quiet member I know haha. The investigator called us and said he wanted to talk to us with the cop so we went outside and the member came with us. The member was so angry because the investigator had been accusing him of being a spy as well and was demanding that he show his ID and stuff. (Kinda hilarious because this member is literally 70 years old and would be the worlds worst spy lol). He was filming him with his phone and just kept saying the weirdest stuff. We eventually told him that he has to leave and not come back if he is going to accuse our members for being Chinese Spies! hahaha. So he finally left but before that screamed something about the Chinese goverment at the top of his lungs. It was a really weird situation!
Some other things that happened this week:
- Yesterday we went to a birthday party for a Brazilian investigator's son! There was one guy there who spoke english but the rest only spoke Portuguese so that was interesting. I got to try some way good Brazilian food though!
- Elder Solari Garcia totally ate crap on his bike and went to the hospital! No worries though, he is all good.
- I went on splits with Elder Solari who is still transfer one so I got to experience being a senior comp for the day which was a good time!
- One of our english students gave me a candy bar. I said thanks then he said "but you might want to be careful" and pointed to my stomach. I said "why, because of my white shirt?" And he said "No, you are getting fat." Hahaha I've got a pretty nice belly comin in...
- We did a zone blitz in Odawara, our neighboring area which was lots of fun. I held a giant poster that said "家族と何をするのが好きですか" or "What do you like doing with your family?" People would come and write down their answer on a piece of paper and stick it on the poster. It was a great way to introduce our beliefs regarding families and was lots of fun!
- The other week we had dinner with an older couple who didn't have chairs so we had to sit on the ground and eat. That's literally my worst nightmare because I'm terribly unflexible and sitting cross legged hurts sooo bad. So that was the longest hour and a half of my life!! I thought my legs were gonna fall off the whole time.
Love you all
皆さん愛しているよ
Elder Dean
ディーン長老
I'll start out explaining why I titled this email "everyone's a Chinese Spy." So we have one investigator who is Chinese that I have talked about a bit in previous emails. Anyway he has expressed his concerns with us that Chinese spies are following him because he has said negative things about the chinese government in the past. We always would try to be understanding and testify to him about how the gospel can help. Every lesson he would bring up the topic of Chinese spies and even told us he believed there were spies in our english class. He was actually starting to progress pretty well and said he wanted to be baptized so we assumed he was just a bit paranoid.
Well on Saturday, right after english class finished a cop walked in the door and asked if we knew the man he was with who was our investigator. Then our investigator looked in the room and started accusing a bunch of students and members as being Chinese spies!! One of our members went outside with the cop and the investigator and talked for a bit. Eventually he came back in just super fired up and angry which was weird because he's the most quiet member I know haha. The investigator called us and said he wanted to talk to us with the cop so we went outside and the member came with us. The member was so angry because the investigator had been accusing him of being a spy as well and was demanding that he show his ID and stuff. (Kinda hilarious because this member is literally 70 years old and would be the worlds worst spy lol). He was filming him with his phone and just kept saying the weirdest stuff. We eventually told him that he has to leave and not come back if he is going to accuse our members for being Chinese Spies! hahaha. So he finally left but before that screamed something about the Chinese goverment at the top of his lungs. It was a really weird situation!
Some other things that happened this week:
- Yesterday we went to a birthday party for a Brazilian investigator's son! There was one guy there who spoke english but the rest only spoke Portuguese so that was interesting. I got to try some way good Brazilian food though!
- Elder Solari Garcia totally ate crap on his bike and went to the hospital! No worries though, he is all good.
- I went on splits with Elder Solari who is still transfer one so I got to experience being a senior comp for the day which was a good time!
- One of our english students gave me a candy bar. I said thanks then he said "but you might want to be careful" and pointed to my stomach. I said "why, because of my white shirt?" And he said "No, you are getting fat." Hahaha I've got a pretty nice belly comin in...
- We did a zone blitz in Odawara, our neighboring area which was lots of fun. I held a giant poster that said "家族と何をするのが好きですか" or "What do you like doing with your family?" People would come and write down their answer on a piece of paper and stick it on the poster. It was a great way to introduce our beliefs regarding families and was lots of fun!
- The other week we had dinner with an older couple who didn't have chairs so we had to sit on the ground and eat. That's literally my worst nightmare because I'm terribly unflexible and sitting cross legged hurts sooo bad. So that was the longest hour and a half of my life!! I thought my legs were gonna fall off the whole time.
Love you all
皆さん愛しているよ
Elder Dean
ディーン長老
Monday, April 16, 2018
Week 35 - 04/15/18 - Pictures
some pics at the beach
Indo curry
Lots of koi fish in celebration of childrens day
Week 35 - 04/15/18 - Group Email
Hey everyone!
This email isnt gonna be that exciting because not much happened this week.
One day we went to our eikaiwa students parents indian curry restaurant and they hooked us up with a ton of food! They just kept bringing out "secret menu" items over and over again it was awesome. Our investigator michael still is paranoid about chinese spies and said he thinks a missionary he met in the Tokyo mission was a spy lol. He did accept our invitation to he baptized though if he finds out what were teaching is true! He still has lots to learn but I could definitely see him being baptized eventually. Today for pday we went to a big park next the beach and played sports. We also walked along the beach and it was so nice! Today a reminder popped up on my tablet that said "Its been 8 months are you fluent yet??" I guess I made that reminder in the MTC cuz i thought for sure id be "fluent" by now hahaha but nope not even close... Japanese has been humbling to say the least! One thing I do know is is that I am better than when I left the MTC so hey im improving!
Love you all and have a good week!
ディーン長老
This email isnt gonna be that exciting because not much happened this week.
One day we went to our eikaiwa students parents indian curry restaurant and they hooked us up with a ton of food! They just kept bringing out "secret menu" items over and over again it was awesome. Our investigator michael still is paranoid about chinese spies and said he thinks a missionary he met in the Tokyo mission was a spy lol. He did accept our invitation to he baptized though if he finds out what were teaching is true! He still has lots to learn but I could definitely see him being baptized eventually. Today for pday we went to a big park next the beach and played sports. We also walked along the beach and it was so nice! Today a reminder popped up on my tablet that said "Its been 8 months are you fluent yet??" I guess I made that reminder in the MTC cuz i thought for sure id be "fluent" by now hahaha but nope not even close... Japanese has been humbling to say the least! One thing I do know is is that I am better than when I left the MTC so hey im improving!
Love you all and have a good week!
ディーン長老
Elder Dean
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Week 34 - 04/08/18 - Group Email
Hello everyone!
It's been a pretty good week here in Atsugi. Last pday we went and "hiked" Mt. Takao! I say "hiked" because we took a chairlift half way up then walked the rest of the way. I did get some Elders to run down with me though and that was very nice to run a trail again! Mt. Takao is awesome though, there are tons of cool statues and temples all the way up.
Every Tuesday we do service at an Old person care center. We go for an hour and talk with/play games with all the old people. They are all so cute and love talking to us gaijin (foreigners). I'm getting good listening practice trying to decipher their ancient Japanese! It's pretty crazy most of them are in their 90's and seem like they are in their 70's. Japanese people don't age quite like Americans haha.
One day we were passing out english flyers next to a college and I was able to have a good conversation with a kid and give him a Book of Mormon. Well about 20 minutes later he came back and gave me a drink he had just bought from 7-11! It was a really small thing but easily the highlight of my day. Everyone go out and serve someone!
On Thursday while walking through the park we came across a big group of old people doing dances/exercises so we joined them! It was pretty hilarious and they loved having two young gaijin join them. After a few dances we played a game where everyone put a "pokey" (long skinny pretzel thingy with chocolate on it) in our mouths then they gave us a ring shaped chip. We got into five groups and whichever group could past the chip from one side of the group to the other without using their hands the fastest won. That was something for sure haha.
One of our investigators from China has been telling us alot about his struggles with Chinese spies. Kinda crazy but he says Chinese spies are always following him because he left China and has been talking trash on the Chinese government. He even claims there may be chinese spies in our english class?? Not sure about that but if so that's nuts haha. He's also concerned that if he joins the church there may be spies that are in the church. Definitely not the kind of issue that I thought I would be dealing with as a missionary!
We were able to watch conference yesterday and Saturday which was a awesome! Conference is great as a missionary. While were were sustaining President Russell M. Nelson I had a way strong feeling that he is a prophet of God! I'm really excited to see the progress the church makes in the coming years.
I hope everyone is doing well and does some service!
ディーン長老
Elder Dean
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Week 33 - 04/01/18 - Group Email
Hello!
Basically everything that happened this week has to do with the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)! There is usually a little over a week where the Sakura have fully bloomed in Japan and it looks super pretty. One day our ward did an Ohanami which is when you go and have a picnic under the Sakura trees. It is a tradition for many Japanese people. Before we did that we made some "churros" at the church out of Tofu and pancake mix haha they turned out interesting. At the park we had a picnic then played some games, quite a few investigators/eikaiwa students showed up and it was a good time!
On Friday we had splits with the zone leaders and I was able to go back to Shonan for a distric meeting. It was a bit sad to listen to other missionaries talk about the investigators I was working with just two and a half weeks ago. After that meeting Elder Pierce and I went to the park and did some studying. There were tons of Sakura and it looked sooo cool! Definitely wasn't easy to focus.
On Sunday morning we woke up early, early and did a ward prayer in the mountains for the upcoming year of missionary work and to celebrate Easter. We drove up to a nice lookout, sang some hymns, did a testimony meeting then heard a prayer from the bishop and the ward mission leader. It was really awesome! There was of course some nice Sakura up there as well! We had a pretty busy week which was nice. We taught a good amount of lessons this week and had 4 people at church again! We are hiking another mountain today for p-day. I hope everyone has a good week and enjoyed conference!
ディーン長老
Elder Dean
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From movie night the other week. Zone blitz in our area. hiked Mount Oyama. IT's pretty cool t here is a huge Buddhis...
