Week 41 - 05/27/18 - Pictures

this little kid was passed out on the train and kept laying on Farnsworth長老

free speaker 

Inpromtu english lesson in McDonalds  

Karin chan, she loves the missionaries and always grabs onto me lol.  

 Reo our 18 year old investigator 

 lesson with Kashihara

 dinner with the Sakurais

 after my second flat tire... 

 Eikaiwa night

 

  

Week 41 - 05/27/18 - Group Email

This was a very eventful and interesting week! 

First thing that happened was while we were riding back from visiting someone I got a flat on my bike... We had to walk 45 minutes back to the apartment which was kinda unfortunate because it ruined our plans. But it was all good because the next day I got it all fixed up.

Sunday was definitely the most interesting day. In church I accompanied on the piano for the first time in this ward and also played a musical number so that was fun. After church there was a YSA party at a members house that we were invited to but we had a lesson so one of us stayed back, being me, and Elder Riggs went to the party with our other investigator. So we went on splits and sadly Elder Farnsworth and I had to stay and teach a lesson while the other Elders got to go eat food... Elder Farnsworth was way salty about it because he just got pulled into it haha. After the lesson we went to visit a less active college student who lived about 9 km away. Literally one minute away from the house I hit my back tire on the curb super hard and it just exploded lol. So that was the second flat of the week. Worst part was that we were really far from our apartment to walk. Anyway, we went to the kids house which ended up being a college dorm and some kid let us in. We definitely weren't supposed to be in there and a bunch of college kids were just looking at us like what the crap are two gaijin doing in here haha. The less active wasn't home so we left a note and bounced. 

We decided we would walk home a different way and few minutes later we ran into Brother Sakurai who was on his way to visit the same less active who he hadn't visited for over a year! He said he could give us a ride home but he was on his scooter so we had to walk to his house. On the way we ran into some drunk old man who was walking his dog and he was sure happy to see us. He was just yelling at us in what little english he knew and going crazy hahaha it was hilarious. Once we got to the Sakurai's they offered to make us dinner so we happily took their offer. The YSA party actually happened to be at their house so we got the after party, Farnsworth was happy. They had me play the piano again and we shared a little message. Their less active daughter was there and she sat in on the message. While driving us home Brother Sakurai said he really thinks it helped his daughter having us come over. So maybe we happened to run into Brother Sakurai for a reason! 

Some other things that happened: 
- One of our good friends who comes to eikwa works at a speaker company and so he hooked me up with a free super nice speaker! 
- We had a big eikaiwa night with the whole stake which was lots of fun. It was American themed for some reason so we sang the national anthem at the end. Didn't think I would sing that in Japan haha.
- I went on splits with Elder Solari one day and Elder Farnsowrth two days this week. Splits are always fun. 
- While I was on splits with Elder Farnsworth we were doing a lesson with a kid in McDonalds and a group of highschoolers sat across from us. They were studying english and asked for me to help them so I was their tutor for a few minutes haha. 

ディーン長老

Elder Dean 

Week 40 - 05/20/18 - Pictures

food photos 

 Fujisawa elders using their brains

 Gun wanted to send a pic to Elder Gilbert so we gathered around him and took a weird picture lol 

  jujitsu

 service

 line filter  

Conference 

Week 40 - 05/20/18 - Group Email

This past week has been super busy! 
Last pday I got to skype the fam which was super awesome! That time goes by way too fast... I'm so grateful for them though. 
Later we went to a members gym and he taught us some Brazilian Jujistu! It was pretty sweet and now I can take down anyone that comes at me so ya'll better watch out haha. 

Tuesday we did splits with the zone leaders over in Fujisawa. I was with Elder Nielson, this is his first transfer as zone leader. It was fun to get to know him. He likes skiing and similar things to me so that was nice. Usually when we hand out fliers we just hand out a flyer and that is it. But the fujisawa ward has started putting there fliers in a little package of tissues which is what most businesses do in Japan and we were able to give away an insane amount of fliers in a super short amount of time. Not sure if it will actually bring more people to english class cuz people might just want the tissues but it sure made me feel better about myself hahaha. 

One day while visiting a potential investigator, the mom answered and pretty sure she was a bit drunk because she was being really flirty and getting way close to my comp haha. She's like 45 so it was weird. It was an odd situation and she was putting off some weird vibes. She took a Book of Mormon though! 

On Friday and Saturday we did some service! Friday we helped a family in the ward clean their apartment that they are movin out of. It was honestly the dirtiest apartment I've ever been in though. The Floors and walls were disgusting. I was amazed that they had been living in that apartment for 20 years! On Saturday we cleaned up trash around the sagami river with the ward. I love doing service! We found tons of trash and a few of our investigators came! 

Saturday afternoon we had a missionwide conference with Elder Renlund. It was awesome to have the whole mission together again. I got to shake Elder Renlund's hand and he told me he and sister Renlund went to Olympus high school, pretty cool! We had another conference with Elder Renlund in the evening and one of our investigators came so that was a great experience for him. My favorite parts from the conferences were when Elder Renlund explained his experiences assigning mission calls and how the lord won't let him make a mistake. We are all called to our missions for a reason! Another cool part that I liked was when he shared his experience from setting President Nelson apart as the prophet. He said he was crying so much during the blessing that his tie was completely stained. It is always powerful to be in the same room as an apostle! 

I love you all! 

ディーン長老

Elder Dean

Week 39 - 05/13/18 - Pictures

~bento(lunch box) from zone conf (there's always some weird food in those haha) 

~some kids we talked with on the street

~kid we met on the train

~Ramen with Shohei 

~zone conf pic 

 ~investigator jeff

Week 39 - 05/13/18 - Group Email

母の日おめでとうございます！
Happy mother's day to all you awesome moms out there!!

We had zone conference this week and got little pocket wifis! Now we can message our investigators and do everything we need to in the apartment! It's gonna be a game changer for sure. The focus of the conference was using technology effectively so my comp and I are shooting for that this transfer. It's crazy how much missionary work has changed and is changing with all of the technology we have available to use. 

I was able to message a friend from Shonan and grab lunch with him this week! It's only been like 2 months but it's felt like forever and it was fun to catch up. The best part about it was he told me he's read all the up to Alma 40 which is crazy because I had yet to meet an investigator who had read past 2 Nephi! I'm really hoping the Shonan Elders continue meeting with him and get him baptized! 

Every other Sunday we are teaching this little 12 year old kid named Naoki kun. He's in a part member family but recently his dad has allowed him to be baptized so his goal is to be baptized in December! We taught him about the pre mortal existence and used the New Testament picture book plus a sweet picture of the Plan of Salvation that he loved! (Shout out to Elder Hauck for the gifted hands!) It's really fun teaching him and he's always so excited. I taught him some typical American handshakes that he loved haha. I hope I can see him get baptized! 

During sacrament meeting yesterday while partaking of the sacrament I felt such gratitude and love for our Savior who sacrificed his life so that we can be cleansed from our mistakes! It's such a blessing to always be able to improve despite being human and constantly messing up. I hope everyone takes advantage of our what our Savior has done for us and uses his gift of repentance!

ディーン長老

Elder Dean

Week 38 - 05/06/18 - Pictures

indo curry for seans bday

sketchiest secret menu ever at indo curry haha 

 kebab, kebab truck 

 dinner with kenshiro

bbq 

 ferret

aikaiwa koen by the dam 

ice cream at the farm 

Week 38 - Group Email - 05/06/18

Hello Everyone,

So this past week in Japan was called golden week. They call it golden week because almost everyday is a different holiday so lots of people travel and relax. It's pretty good for missionary work because so many people are out and about.

Last pday a family in our ward invited us to go on a picnic with them at a nearby park. Of course we were down but it ended up being an all day thing haha. We drove over an hour away up into the mountains to this little farm then to a giant park right next to a reservoir. It was awesome to be up in the mountains! It's crazy how green they are compared to the mountains in Utah. I love it! One of the girls in the family brought her pet ferret with a leash so I got to walk a ferret lol that was a first. I also ate my first Kebab from an Iranian food truck which was amazing.

We had a ward BBQ this week and had tons of people come! It was supposed to happen outside next to the Sagami river but unfortunately it rained so we just did it in the church. A less active came named keisu kyoudai and he was the coolest dude ever. He is a mountain guide and photographer and has summited tons of huge peaks all over the world. He said he's climbed everest 4 times which is dope. I talked to him for a while which made me happy because I miss all that stuff sooo much!

Some other stuff that happened this week:

I started using the weights we have in our apartment and did curls the other day. I'll just say I'm terribly out of shape and that was not a good move because I literally have never been so sore in my life... lol.

We do service at a old person care center and I talked with a 100 year old lady most of the time! Pretty crazy because she definitely didn't look 100 so I was amazed when I found that out. Pretty sure that was my first time meeting someone that old!

We met a kid on the train a couple weeks ago named kenshiro who grew up in america so he's fluent in english. He's a really cool kid so we went out to eat with him at an okonomiyaki place. When we were eating he just kept ordereing tons of food for us and the bill ended up being $90 for three of us lol. We're missionaries so we can't afford that kinda meal! Luckily he took most of the bill which we were very grateful for.

I miss you all wherever you are in the world!

ディーン長老

Elder Dean 

Week 37 - 04/29/18 - Pictures

First time eating dragon fruit

 View from our apartment

Shabuyo 

 Service at the care center

 Elder Kawasaki's last eikaiwa

Week 37 - 04/29/18 - Group Email

Hey everyone! 

Another chill week here in Atsugi. We were able to find a ton of potential investigators and talked to some awesome people! 

Last pday we went to a shabushabu place. Shabushabu consists of big pots of boiling soup and tons of meat and vegatables! It's usually all you can eat as well so that was a good time. The downside was that I was super congested so couldn't really taste any food but 

We were fortunate enough to meet a guy named Jeff this week who works in the Navy at the nearby base. He's from Boston and loves to talk. He invited us in and talked for a solid hour straight before we could say anything haha. It was english though so I can't complain! He's had a pretty crazy life and essentially told us his whole life story. He has lots of hard things going on as well so hopefully he will recognize that the gospel is what he needs! We gave him a Book of Mormon and plan to study it with him during the coming week. 

We saw a miracle the other day! While biking in front of the church we said hello to a kid walking by. Turns out he used to come to church but stopped when he was 12 (he's now 19). Apparently life just got busy and his fam stopped going. We were able to exchange contact info and hopefully in the future will help him come back to church! 

We had stake conference this past week and I was able to understand a lot more than I was anticipating so that boosted my Japanese confidence a ton! It was pretty funny, when the last speaker got up he had a solid 40 minutes left to speak so he called out two people from the congregation to come up and talk. They were really surprised but did well haha. Anyway hope everyone is doing well. 
Love you all! 

ディーン長老

Elder Dean