I ate a burrito at a mexican restaurant for the first time since I left. The restaurant was sick but someone didn't spell check. haha
Hiking (Mt. Daizokyojiyama)
Monday, October 29, 2018
Week 63 - 10/28/18 - Group Email
Yesterday at church I had the chance to do the sacrament prayer in sign language for the deaf recent convert in our ward. I was a little nervous but I practiced a lot so it went all good. It was cool to see how much he appreciated it. After the first prayer I felt the spirit very strongly and lots of love and respect for that member. It was a really fulfilling experience and I'm so grateful I decided to learn it. Later with the help of a member who can sign fluently we taught him one of the after baptism lessons. He is planning to receive the Melchizedek priesthood soon which will be exciting!
Last p-day we went hiking again. There was a nice view on the way up but the summit was surrounded by trees... It was still a good time though! We are hitting up another famous mountain today so I'll let ya'll know about that next week.
On Wednesday Kofu ward had their first funeral ever in it's over 100 year history. I guess everyone does Buddhist funerals. They wanted the missionaries to come so we had to spend like 6 hours there. Elder Oe and I directed traffic for the first 1 1/2 hours and that sucked haha. Also I was literally the only person without a black suit cuz I didn't bring one so kinda awkward.
I ate some weird food the other day. Pig heart, stomach, liver, intestines, throat, head, and tongue. It was all surprisingly super good except for the throat. It was like eating rocks.
We met with our guy Wakao this week and had a pretty good lesson. His son died suddenly a few months ago so we were able to teach him about the plan of salvation and that he will be able to see his son again. It seemed to give him lots of hope. We also had a lesson with a highschool kid named Kanato who disappeared for awhile. Elder Waldron and I tried to contact him all last transfer but never could. Then randomly last week he showed up at english class again. Miracle for sure!
Sad part of the week: Someone jacked my bike light!π That's my second time getting something stolen in Japan... haha
Anyway love you all!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
Elder Dean
Monday, October 22, 2018
Week 62 - 10/21/18 - Group Email
Hello! Another week down!
We had zone conference this week which was awesome. I had to give a 45 minute training and that was stressful but it went alright and I'm glad it's over. The focus was working with members. I have definitely come to notice how much of a difference it makes when missionaries work with the members and we have seen lots of miracles! Plus basically everyone that's a member of the church has a special light about them which makes it really easy!
We have a deaf recent convert in our ward that recently said he might stop coming to church because of how hard it is to communicate with the members. That made me really sad so I took it on myself to learn as much Japanese sign language as I can. So far I've learned the whole sacrament prayer (shout out to Elder Orton for the video) and some other basic stuff like the alphabet. It's crazy how enjoyable and easy it is to learn since I'm learning it for him not for me. It's been really nice to see how happy it makes him when he sees that I'm making an effort. I never thought I would learn Japanese sign language at all before my mission.
We had a meal with the Hoshi fam the other night. They invited three friends over amd we were able to teach the restoration and give them all a Book of Mormon. That kind of thing doesn't happen too often so it was cool!
Some other stuff that happened this week:
- Splits with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Brimhall and we had a good time!
- One of our investigators believes a man like Christ was born in Korea named Mun and recently died. Aparently he wrote a book that they believe in which is kind of like the Book of Mormon to us. We think his main reason for meeting with us is too teach us about his religion lol.
- We had a meal during splits with some members and one lady who was very old gave us all the biggest hugs and told us how happy it made her that we came over and shared a message. It was really nice to see how happy this gospel can make people.
Well that's about it for the week. Hope everyone have a good one!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
We had zone conference this week which was awesome. I had to give a 45 minute training and that was stressful but it went alright and I'm glad it's over. The focus was working with members. I have definitely come to notice how much of a difference it makes when missionaries work with the members and we have seen lots of miracles! Plus basically everyone that's a member of the church has a special light about them which makes it really easy!
We have a deaf recent convert in our ward that recently said he might stop coming to church because of how hard it is to communicate with the members. That made me really sad so I took it on myself to learn as much Japanese sign language as I can. So far I've learned the whole sacrament prayer (shout out to Elder Orton for the video) and some other basic stuff like the alphabet. It's crazy how enjoyable and easy it is to learn since I'm learning it for him not for me. It's been really nice to see how happy it makes him when he sees that I'm making an effort. I never thought I would learn Japanese sign language at all before my mission.
We had a meal with the Hoshi fam the other night. They invited three friends over amd we were able to teach the restoration and give them all a Book of Mormon. That kind of thing doesn't happen too often so it was cool!
Some other stuff that happened this week:
- Splits with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Brimhall and we had a good time!
- One of our investigators believes a man like Christ was born in Korea named Mun and recently died. Aparently he wrote a book that they believe in which is kind of like the Book of Mormon to us. We think his main reason for meeting with us is too teach us about his religion lol.
- We had a meal during splits with some members and one lady who was very old gave us all the biggest hugs and told us how happy it made her that we came over and shared a message. It was really nice to see how happy this gospel can make people.
Well that's about it for the week. Hope everyone have a good one!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
Monday, October 15, 2018
Week 61 - 10/14/18 - Group Email
Last P-Day we hit up another hike and planned to open transfer emails at the top but they came way late so it didn't happen. The hike was a bit of a let down honestly as well. It's right next to Fuji and the view is supposed to be amazing but sadly it was cloudy and we couldn't see squat haha. It was still fun to spend time with a bunch of good people though! At the top one of the older member fell down and hurt her ankle so she had us give her a blessing right there at the summit. It was a cool experience! She also made it down safely so our prayers were answered.
Saturday night we had dinner with some crazy college kids who ended up coming to ping pong night afterwards. It was super fun to spend time with them and they reminded me exactly of my friends. One of them said he was interested in learning more about our church as well so we will hope for the best with him.
The highlight of the week was definintely General Conference! I can't believe it was my third conference as a missionary and that I only have one left :(
I think my favorite talk was "Take Upon Ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ" by Robert C. Gay. Go give it a read or watch if you haven't already. I also really liked Elder Brough and Rasband from Saturday AM, and Elder Dean M. Davies from Saturday PM.
Well there's not a ton to report on this week but I love you all!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
Saturday night we had dinner with some crazy college kids who ended up coming to ping pong night afterwards. It was super fun to spend time with them and they reminded me exactly of my friends. One of them said he was interested in learning more about our church as well so we will hope for the best with him.
The highlight of the week was definintely General Conference! I can't believe it was my third conference as a missionary and that I only have one left :(
I think my favorite talk was "Take Upon Ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ" by Robert C. Gay. Go give it a read or watch if you haven't already. I also really liked Elder Brough and Rasband from Saturday AM, and Elder Dean M. Davies from Saturday PM.
Well there's not a ton to report on this week but I love you all!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
Monday, October 8, 2018
Week 60 - 10/07/18 - Group Email
We got transfer emails today and I'm gonna be staying in Kofu. My new comp is Japanese! He was in my apartment last transfer so I know him already. His names Elder Oe.
Last P-Day our bishop was nice enough to take us to a cool park up on the mountain side then treated us to gyoza afterward! His family is awesome so it was fun to spend time with them. His youngest son had some toy sword that he just kept wacking me in the back with literally as hard as he could so besides that it was good time haha.
So the trash system in Japan is a lot different from America. You have to sort your trash and take it out on certain days. In our area most trash only comes on one day of the month so it's crucial to get it out that day or it just piles up. The previous elders weren't very good at that so it had been at least 4 months since lots of trash went out. The day finally came this past week and I think the highlight of the week was definitely getting all that trash taken care of haha. We had closet completely jam packed with trash... it took us a solid hour to get it all out and on the street.
I'll share another miracle from the week! We were knocking doors and happened to find a Chinese guy who came to our ping pong night a few weeks ago. We didn't have too much time to talk about the gospel before but since we housed into him we were able to talk more about and he said we can come back with Chinese pamphlets and what not.
We were walking around one day talking to people and I saw a cat on the ground that looked like it was sleeping so I went to pet it and realized it was dead. That was sad :(
We met two highschool kids on the street a couple weeks ago that seemed interested in coming to ping pong night. They said they were both really good at ping pong night so I challenged them to a game. Well they came this last Saturday and absolutely destroyed me lol. They both play for school so that explains it but it was nuts how good they were.
Yesterday an American man and his Japanese wife visited out ward. The wife got up to speak so a member asked me to translate for the husband. It started out all good but then she started speaking way fast and about something I could not understand at all so for like straight up 2 minutes I just sat next to this guy not saying anything. It was awkward. I was able to translate the testimony at the end though hahaha. Luckily he was nice and didn't mind.
Well I hope everyone enjoyed conference! Love you all!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
Last P-Day our bishop was nice enough to take us to a cool park up on the mountain side then treated us to gyoza afterward! His family is awesome so it was fun to spend time with them. His youngest son had some toy sword that he just kept wacking me in the back with literally as hard as he could so besides that it was good time haha.
So the trash system in Japan is a lot different from America. You have to sort your trash and take it out on certain days. In our area most trash only comes on one day of the month so it's crucial to get it out that day or it just piles up. The previous elders weren't very good at that so it had been at least 4 months since lots of trash went out. The day finally came this past week and I think the highlight of the week was definitely getting all that trash taken care of haha. We had closet completely jam packed with trash... it took us a solid hour to get it all out and on the street.
I'll share another miracle from the week! We were knocking doors and happened to find a Chinese guy who came to our ping pong night a few weeks ago. We didn't have too much time to talk about the gospel before but since we housed into him we were able to talk more about and he said we can come back with Chinese pamphlets and what not.
We were walking around one day talking to people and I saw a cat on the ground that looked like it was sleeping so I went to pet it and realized it was dead. That was sad :(
We met two highschool kids on the street a couple weeks ago that seemed interested in coming to ping pong night. They said they were both really good at ping pong night so I challenged them to a game. Well they came this last Saturday and absolutely destroyed me lol. They both play for school so that explains it but it was nuts how good they were.
Yesterday an American man and his Japanese wife visited out ward. The wife got up to speak so a member asked me to translate for the husband. It started out all good but then she started speaking way fast and about something I could not understand at all so for like straight up 2 minutes I just sat next to this guy not saying anything. It was awkward. I was able to translate the testimony at the end though hahaha. Luckily he was nice and didn't mind.
Well I hope everyone enjoyed conference! Love you all!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
Elder Dean
Monday, October 1, 2018
Week 59 - 09/30/18 - Pictures
Bonchi food and brother sharp
lover birds
some highschool kids
bacon eating contest
Member we did service for ε°ζε§ε¦Ή
Week 59 - 09/30/18 - Group Email
Last pday we went to a restaurant called Bonchi that's famous for huge portion sizes with a member and he challenged us to eat one of the biggest dishes. He said in the last 12 years he has only known 2 missionaries who have done it. I love competition so of course I was down haha. The meal was chicken curry katsu which was way good but they also threw a banana on the side and I hate bananas so I had to choke that down first. I ended up finishing it all and literally thought I was gonna die. That was by far the most I have ever eaten but I wasn't about to lose lol. There was straight up probably about 4 cups of rice in there. To put that in perspective in our apartment we usually eat 3 cups of rice for 4 Elders. I guess all I'm saying is don't challenge me to a food eating competition cuz I'll win hahaha jk. To make things worse we got invited to have dinner at a members that night. I weighed myself that night and had gained almost 7 pounds that day...
On a different note we had interviews with President which were awesome. I always come out of interviews feeling more motivated. President Warnick is the man. Later that day we had a lesson with the 80 year old judo master we are teaching. After the lesson he showed me some moves and took me down way easy haha he's such a G.
We did weeding for the most adorable grandma ever from our ward last week. At her house there were tons of mosquitos so we asked if she had any bug spray. She ran inside and brought out straight up bug killer lol. I told sister Yata she should probably stop spraying it all over herself haha. Also this woman lived super far from our apartment so we had to go by bike. Literally 2 minutes from her home Elder Waldron and I hit a huge bump and his tire just exploded. I was laughing way hard at him because he just got his tire fixed like 3 days before that but then I could hear a faint blowing noise so I looked down and realized mine was going flat too :( Luckily there was a bike shop not terribly far away but bike problems are still a burden.
There was a big bacon festival going on near our apartment during the weekend so we checked that out. We got lots of free American bacon so that was not too shabby. It was raining super hard both those days so we tried some "ame" dendo. Ame means rain but also candy so you go around asking people if they like ame then hold out a piece of candy haha. Lots of missionaries do it so we figured we would try it out. It made some people laugh but others just looked at us awkwardly and said they didn't like candy lol.
Hope everyone is doing well!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
On a different note we had interviews with President which were awesome. I always come out of interviews feeling more motivated. President Warnick is the man. Later that day we had a lesson with the 80 year old judo master we are teaching. After the lesson he showed me some moves and took me down way easy haha he's such a G.
We did weeding for the most adorable grandma ever from our ward last week. At her house there were tons of mosquitos so we asked if she had any bug spray. She ran inside and brought out straight up bug killer lol. I told sister Yata she should probably stop spraying it all over herself haha. Also this woman lived super far from our apartment so we had to go by bike. Literally 2 minutes from her home Elder Waldron and I hit a huge bump and his tire just exploded. I was laughing way hard at him because he just got his tire fixed like 3 days before that but then I could hear a faint blowing noise so I looked down and realized mine was going flat too :( Luckily there was a bike shop not terribly far away but bike problems are still a burden.
There was a big bacon festival going on near our apartment during the weekend so we checked that out. We got lots of free American bacon so that was not too shabby. It was raining super hard both those days so we tried some "ame" dendo. Ame means rain but also candy so you go around asking people if they like ame then hold out a piece of candy haha. Lots of missionaries do it so we figured we would try it out. It made some people laugh but others just looked at us awkwardly and said they didn't like candy lol.
Hope everyone is doing well!
γγ£γΌγ³ι·θ
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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...
