Week 58 - 09/23/18 - Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 58 - 09/23/18 - Group Email

Hello everyone!

This week we had a lesson with an 80 year old guy that is a judo master. We did the lesson in his dojo! He's definitely the most fit 80 year old I've ever seen. Next week we will join his karate class after the lesson haha it should be a good time. We also did service at an old folks home which we plan to do every week from here on out! We are just changing sheets or whatever else they need us to do. 

We had a couple dinner appointments this last week. One was with a Brazilian family so they made some way good Brazilian food. They also cooked up some deer so I got try that for the first time and I think I'd be okay to not eat it again lol it wasn't my fav. The other fam we had a meal with lives out in the countryside and has a huge orchard and old style Japanese house. They made us pizza and rootbeer floats! They order rootbeer from America just for the missionaries haha. It was nice to have a classic American meal again!

We went on a dope hike last week with a few ward members for p-day and it was way pretty! It's called Mt. Hinata! The top was all white sand and rock for some reason so it was a unique summit for sure. On the drive out there Mt. Fuji was looming in the distance. Honestly it's such a cool looking mountain and you don't know how bad and I wanna get up it! Sadly our pres says we aren't allowed to climb it as missionaries :( but hopefully someday. 

We also got invited to a dinner with one of our PIs because we watered his plants while he was on vacation. We found out when we got there that he invited a bunch of friends so it was a good opportunity to introduce them to the church! It was a really diverse group as well, 2 Brazilians, 2 Americans, an Indonesian, a Chinese guy, a Japanese Elder and 2 Australians who are originally from Malaysia and China. It's lots of fun to meet people from all over the world here in Japan! It was also a plus that they all spoke fluent english haha. We were able to share a message about the Book of Mormon after which went well. 

I was able to meet an awesome recent convert in our Ward named Mochizuki兄弟 (who is deaf) this week. Oddly enough the missionaries met him at english conversation class haha. I was able to spend some time with him a few days this week and was really impressed by how happy he is all the time. He's been deaf his whole life but seriously is always smiling and gives everyone a huge hug when he sees them! I showed him my favorite scripture and he read it in sign language for me! During that I felt so much love for him even though we just met and was really inspired by him. I took a pic with him so I'll send that! I've been learning some Japanese sign language from him as well which has been fun! 

We have still been on the finding grind lately and keep finding people who seem to have potential but right when we think all is going well they just stop messaging back... It's honestly the most frustrating thing ever. We've been doing practice lessons with members to build their trust so hopefully we can get some referals here soon. I'll keep y'all updated! I hope everyone has a great week! 

Love you all!

ディーン長老

Elder Dean

Week 57 - 09/16/18 - Pictures

~~~No group email this week just pics!

We went hiking last week up to a really pretty area. There were huge cliffs next a river and a nice waterfall. 

Week 56 - 09/09/18 - Pictures

Every old person mentions James Dean when I tell them my name haha

 view from apartment

Kofu castle

 

 

Rice fields

 

 

Week 56 - 09/09/18 - Group Email

We are a bit low here on people we're teaching so this week we did lot's of hittin the streets and talking to everyone. Gotta love it! We taught some French dudes the restoration by kofu castle which was cool. It's weird teaching people who are Christian... 
We were able to meet with one guy we're teaching named Tomo, he took us out to lunch. Apparently he is a "Hell's angel" prospect (super famous biker gang) so pretty hardcore dude haha he's covered head to toe in tattoos. 

We had dinner with a member named Wayne Sharp who honestly may be one of the strangest people I have ever met. He's American and just a crazy dude, not sure how to describe him but I'll get a pic with him eventually. He calls his kitchen uncle wayne's kitchen for some reason. 

A typhoon hit but since my area has mountains all around it we were all good. It did rain super hard though. A member said something like 16in. of rain fell during the storm. It was also the worst typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years, so pretty nuts! 

A few funny things happened this week. Well the first wasn't funny when it happened but now I can say it was funny haha. So right before bed I went to get a drink in the sink and I usually just put my head in the sink and drink from the tap so I did that but I didn't see the chopsticks that were sticking up in the drying rack. So I literally slammeed my face into the chopsticks and one straight up went in my eye at the corner! I don't know how I didn't go blind or something haha. My eye was way sore the next two days but it's all good now. Definitely a miracle there. 

The other funny thing happened during stake conference. In the middle of the meeting a 10 year old kid was trying to pull his little brother from the hall to where their parents were sitting. He was yanking him back and forth because he really didn't want to come in for some reason haha then he knocked him over and dragged him by his feet all the way down the aisle to where his family was. I was dying laughing! There were tons of people in the meeting as well lol. 

Love ya'll!

ディーン長老

Week 55 - 09/03/18 - Pictures

Last day at the Care center (Tsunoda and Mitsuhashi )

 Bridge at night in Atsugi 

 last district meeting in Atsugi

 

Various people from Atsugi 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from the train 

New comp - Elder Waldron

graveyard in Kofu

Dope temple in Kofu!