Another Crazy Week

So, Tuesday: Battaglia Chōrō left us before lunch. The assistants came and picked him up. We (now Murphy, Porter, and Muranaka Chōrōtachi), reviewed my area book and which investigators we needed to focus on the most. Then we went and did Kubarikai in Mutsuai-nichidai-mae, the college sector of Fugisawa. That was alright, it was raining, but more on that later. Then at night, we began contacting and emptying out the area book because it was raining, but more on the rain... Now! So there was a typhoon on Tuesday night. We did a lot of contacting and had to return home early. However, the lost time had a benefit! Leach and Dowdle Chōrōtachi from Atsugi came and we ate Mitsuya Cider floats! Mitsuya Cider is basically Sprite. Those were good.

'Sprite' float with chocolate
vanilla ice cream?

Wednesday: Today was pretty much the same. Rainy, windy and Kubarikai. This time we went to the southernmost end of our area, Tsujido. That was slow. It is by a mall and an Eki, but you can't kubari in either of those. Then we continued to clean the area book. We have only done about 1/5th of it. It takes forever. There are so many potential investigators in there!

Authorization to do missionary work
from a living prophet, Thomas S Monson

Thursday: Thursday was Eikaiwa as usual, but we had a lesson with Deguchi san before hand. Deguchi is a great person, and he is probably our closest to baptism. He will likely be baptized if he can get off work enough to come to church. Work in Japan and sports on Sunday is probably Satan's biggest tools against the church right now. I taught the advanced class as usual, but with Farnsworth Chōrō, the other bean elder in Fugisawa. Also, Thursday is our weekly planning session, so that basically kills most of our time, but we were effective this week.

Friday: so, dendo today was Mutsuai-nichidai-mae again. It went better this time, but it was still raining. Then at night we contacted because our lesson cancelled on us. The finale of the day was teaching about the Commandments with Abinadi for Morumon Sho class. That was good, lots of good conversations started. The night ended with our weekly game of dodgeball with members and investigators. Always fun.

Saturday: district meeting and a funeral. So district meeting takes a while, so the beginning of the afternoon was gone, but I shared the spiritual message about speaking humbly and simply. That is important in Japanese when you don't speak it very well. You should look up the video "A Man without Elegance". It's super good on LDS Gospel Library. The funeral, we were asked to help at had all of the help that they needed, so we did our missed morning study. That evening, we had 2 lessons planned and they both cancelled. We contacted instead. We will have lots of lessons this week.

Sunday: Church! Church was good, I shared the spiritual thought in elders quorum about not being afraid to speak about the church to nonmembers. We had a meeting with the bishop over what we can do to help the ward grow. He is nice and a good leader. I will try to help him as much as possible.

Monday: well, as you can see, we went bowling. I got second place. Then we had a lesson with George, from the Philippines. That went really well, he will meet with us a lot. Then tonight, I go on district leader splits with Gonzalez. It will be fun. Love you all!



He did not mention this but we know
he was happy eating his staple meal.

More from a letter to Dad:

Okada hasn't set a date yet, but he is progressing. I read the Book of Mormon in Japanese with him almost every night, and the nights that he misses, he reads on his own. This week should be interesting for our lessons. I am meeting a lot of Battaglia Choro's investigators that I haven't met yet, so I get to tell them that he is gone.

(I showed Gretta a picture of Mount Fuji and made the mistake of telling her it was a volcano. She now prays that Connor will be safe from the storms and the volcano - way to go dad!)

Thank you for telling Gretta don't worry, but a lot of Japanese worry about typhoons and the Tokaido Earthquake a lot. They aren't like us, where a hurricane would come and we would just keep going. They talk about it for a long time before and afterwards. I have met some people that don't like rain and won't meet with us if it is raining.

Elder Bednar, one of the twelve apostles, will be visiting Japan and speaking at two devotionals in October.  Connor will get to attend the devotional on the 16th. It will be held at the chapel next to the mission home.  Connor said he will send a report of what they learn.


Commentary from Gretta:  As we read today's letter and looked at the pictures Gretta stopped at the picture of Connor at the bowling alley said, "So this is where Connor went bowling.  Look at his handsome face." At this point she is touching the screen and you can tell, connecting with Connor. She continues, "I don't think that is a very missionary thing to do." I asked her to explain. "Well, it's not an appropriate missionary activity." I asked her what appropriate missionary activities were.  "Going to houses and visiting people and talking to them about Jesus." She then touches Connors smile and says, "but, he looks happy so I guess it is alright."  Elders everywhere, the five year olds are watching you.  Do good things!          

Cliffhanger explained

Ok, so sorry for the cliffhanger!

Wednesday: Temple p-day! Same as MTC temple days, except we had to go all of the way to Tokyo! Afterwards, we went to the distribution center for me to get a small Book of Mormon. On our way home, Farnsworth and Murphy Chōrō, the beanchans were left behind in a huge Eki! We decided to document this momentous occasion with a selfie. 😁

We were ok though, we went to the next station and met back up. But yeah, abandoned in Tokyo without a phone, with nothing but our wits and Heavenly Father's help. The rest of the day was so busy. We taught for 4 hours straight, which is why I emailed the next day.

Thursday: Eikaiwa, we had 4 new students! That was fun! Also, earlier, we saved an investigator from dropping us! I did a lot of the talking somehow. The Gift of Tongues is real, never let anyone tell you differently. Also, some investigators brought me a late birthday gift. It is as big as my arm, but is really just a bunch of individually packed bags.

Friday: Elder Yamashita of the area 70 came for the missionaries. The theme was finding and opening our mouth, he promised/challenged us to get a baptism before October 18th, which I will tell you about after that event happens. It is a secret. He and his wife are super genki, or really energetic and happy! They spoke English and we did origami for an object lesson on following with exactness and opening our mouths. Afterwards, we taught the Book of Mormon class before Sports Night. We used Nephi and the murder of the chief judge to teach about prophets guidance. That was a little difficult, but fun.

Saturday: Today was more meetings. We had Facebook training, so next week on p-day, I can tell you where to find me. We also had a "culture training" that really only went over the reasons that Japanese people are different and act the way they do. We got pulled over by the mission president afterwards. He took me to his office and told me that things were going to change. And then he took Battaglia Chōrō in and they were there forever! Well, now I am down a trainer because he is the new Assistant to the President (AP). I get to be in a trio until transfers. Hopefully I don't have to leave Fujisawa and maybe I will train, but probably not. We had a miracle afterwards. With five minutes to catch our train to Shonandai, we made it all of the way from the homebu to Kichijoji Eki in 4 minutes through the crowds. That was great. Others who missed that train didn't get back until 7ish, but we got back in an hour.

Sunday: Church! And Nanbei! And my first dinner at a members house! I think one of my favorite easy meals is porridge. It is really good. We brought Okada-san with us and the message I shared was on the power of the Atonement. I shared a Mormon message, "The Refiner's Fire", which I would recommend everyone check out online. It was hard to listen to Japanese today. I will get better though.

Monday: P-day. So today was weird. We woke up at 6, went to the church for exercise time (dodgeball) with the district, and we had pancakes for breakfast. I made some really good chocolate chip ones with blueberry jam. Those were good. Afterwards, Battaglia Chōrō and I went fishing with brother and sister Stewart. Brother Stewart is an RM who served and got married here. That was fun, we caught at least 15 fish. He cooked some for lunch and it was pretty good. The only downside to it was all of the rain. It was so wet everywhere, but the fish liked it. That went until about 3 and then we went to a park by enoshima to play rugby with a bunch of investigators. Rugby is so confusing! It made me appreciate football a little bit more though, but not much. It was still raining and the field was all muddy when we got there, but it being rugby, we played on. Afterwards, when we went back to Shonandai, we met up with a recent convert from the Philippines. We had tonkatsu for dinner. That was really good. Also, when we got to the station, guess who was there?!


This Pigeon!!
Yeah, that was random.
So after dinner, we had a lesson with Okada san, but there was a wrench in the works when we got there. Two other of our investigators were there to have a lesson because they couldn't go to the one the next day. That was kind of scary, but it worked perfectly! Okada wants to be baptized and we will be working on setting a baptismal date with him. He bore his testimony about the power of Christ's atonement, the Book of Mormon and lots of other things. It was just what our other investigators needed to hear, so good on him!

Tuesday: because of lots of side lessons yesterday, I didn't get to email you, so I am doing that now. Battaglia Chōrō left before lunch, so I am in a trio now. Tonight we are going to be reviewing what investigators we have and doing some finding. This is going to be challenging, but "I am ready now".

Hai, until next time everyone, matta nae!
マーフィー 長老
Elder Murphy
Shonandai, Fugisawa, Japan

Left Behind in Tokyo?

This is sukemen. It is delicious!

I really wish I knew where the time went. I think it has really only been a week and Japanese weeks are shorter than American weeks. So a review, because a lot of the day to day stuff is the same, but don't worry, I will be as descriptive as my fried brain can be.

Monday: p-day, but you already knew that. I finished off last Monday with a lesson with Deguchi San. Wow is he a kinjin! That is a golden investigator (literally golden person). He stopped drinking on his own and we haven't even taught the Word of Wisdom! It was great!

Tuesday: so, the plan today was to do our studies, then do some contacting because our area book has over a hundred potential investigators. We did that, but mostly focused on the investigators who have been harder to get ahold of recently. Afterwards, we were going to visit a recent convert who has been sick. So we walk downstairs (our church has two floors) and lo and behold, there he is sitting in the chapel! He was better and we were going to go and visit him, but instead he came to us! Yay! Train money saved and a new person to talk to! The other thing that we did on Tuesday was build temples. It was an investigators birthday last week, so we made her a reminder of where we see her in about a year. That was fun.

Wednesday: so only two major events happened today. First, district Kubarikai Blitz. That was amazing. We went to Fugisawa Eki for about 3 hours. So many people and faces. There were only 2 problems for me though. First, my spot was next to a bakery, a bistro, a Mister Donut, and a Baskin Robbins. That would normally be a great thing, but I was starving! We ended up getting Chinese food. I had fried rice and gyoza. William and Quinten would love gyoza. The second problem was and is, all of the crazy people find me. I had 2 and I had no idea what one was saying and the other kept switching languages. The multilingual guy I got to go away because I responded in all of the languages. Thank you Ms. Johnson for helping us learn how to say hello in so many random ways. I spoke Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, English, French, and Portuguese. And if you think the crazy people are over, think again.


Thursday: Eikaiwa! We got 4 new students, which is really good because the last transfer didn't see any any new students. I get to be in charge of the game next week.

So I am really short on time. I hate to leave you on a cliffhanger, but I have to go to the store. Here are all of the pictures of the week. I can't wait to tell you the beanchan tales of being left behind in Tokyo proper on temple p-day. Ai shite imasu minas an!

Left behind in Tokyo?

Happy Birthday Connor

So, a lot of questions have been asked and I will try my best to answer them.

Church in Japan: the church in Japan is amazing! This Sunday was fast Sunday and all of the new missionaries in the ward were asked to share a short self introduction and a testimony. Apparently I said that one of my hobbies was studying, but what is weird is that I know how to say that and i don't remember saying that. Other than that, I pretty much catch about 30% of what is said. We went to primary for 3rd hour to answer the junior primary's questions about missions. So a really sad thing that I learned this week. The only day that Japanese students have for sports teams is Sunday and because of that, most youth in Japan are inactive during their youth. During 2nd hour we went to the youth class. They had one for deacons and one for the older than deacon age. There were only 4 youth and 3 of them left after class for sports.

This is the inside this morning before we cleaned. Just imagine made beds and that is what it looks like. So, we bought groceries, mostly just some noodles and flavor/sauce mixes, but, Homem Kyōdai took us to Costco and paid for a whole bunch of food, so we have eggs, meat, muffins, Calbee. That is a Kellogg cereal/granola thing in Japan. And then, on Sunday, the ward members put together a "fruit basket". So much food! Here are our cupboards.
        

We have so much food! All that we have to buy today is milk for the 6 bags of Calbee. We get about the same as normal missionaries, but a lot of the allowance goes to travel. I have spent so much riding the rails! It is cheap compared to Singapore and Chicago, but I do it so often it adds up. A lot of my travel is reimbursable though because it is for a baptismal interview or zone splits. Battaglia Chōrō is a zone leader, so we go everywhere. This week I was in Atsugi for 2 whole days. We did a lot of kubarikai, which is flyers for Eikaiwa. Eikaiwa, if you use it right, is a really good finding tool here. We teach about 5 regular investigators a week and about 20 short messages on the street, the train, and over the phone. Yamada-San has been busy all week, but he should be free this week. I have met a lot of people. The Relief Society president and her son are really nice. He spends a lot of time with the Senkyōshi. Enomoto Kyōdai is super nice and speaks really good English. Chiba Kyōdai is going to get married in October. I haven't had time to take any pictures with the members, Sunday is one of our busiest days and this Sunday especially. We went to Nanbei (or Domingo) and I passed the sacrament. There are plenty of Portuguese and Spanish speakers here, so I am glad they had the chance to come. Nanbei is twice a month and more people come every time. Battaglia Chōrō is from Lagos in Portugal. I don't need more pajamas yet and I will be looking for a certain Gretta's artwork in the mail from the honbu. Seminary in Japan is same as Texas. Bright and early so that people can get to school. A lot of the members that I have met are accountants and other office working jobs. Shonandai is not close enough to the coast for anyone to be a fisherman.

I had my first Japanese fish today. We went to a conveyor belt sushi place! Yay! (I hope someone recognized the sarcasm in that yay). It was better than American sushi, so I enjoyed it more, but it was still pretty hard. Wasabi helps for those who dislike the taste of fish. I love wasabi.



Some of the dishes looked pretty sketchy, but my trainer and our districts two Nihonjin took pretty good care of me and Farnsworth Chōrō, the other beanchan from America/Peru.

We are going to the temple next week in Tokyo proper and the next week we are going to Enoshima, a really cool looking island on the coast. Today we are going to teach a lesson in the evening so we couldn't travel really. We are going to have a takkyū (ping pong) tournament at the church.

Other than that we aren't doing much. I rode a bike for the first time in a year in Atsugi and that was terrifying. No sidewalks for a bit, lots of hills and big trucks everywhere. I wasn't even on my bike. I was on splits with Dowdle Chōrō and I was on his companions boneshaker of a bike. Here is my bike. I don't know why it has white tires, but it does and it is great. I also haven't ridden it yet. We are a 4 minute walk from the church and a 6 minute walk from the eki.

I am running out of stuff to write about. Places I have been this week:
1. Atsugi
2. Shonandai
3. Chigasaki
4. Hon-Atsugi
5. Sagamihara

This week I am going to:
1. Fujisawa
2. Shonandai
Maybe we will meet someone who wants to be taught somewhere new, who knows what the Lord would have us do.

Spiritual thought for the week: so I convinced the Relief Society president to bear her testimony on the Book of Mormon. She was a convert and she said no to baptism 3 times. She said the thing that was holding her back was a disbelief in the Book of Mormon. She said that as soon as she started earnestly reading and taking it into her heart, she was given confirmation that it is a true book.



My desk (which has now been cleared off).

The district had a member sneak over on Sunday under the premise of checking how clean our apartment was. This was Enomoto Kyōdai and probably someone else's handy work. This ward and area is amazing! I feel so welcome and everyone is patient with my Japanese!

Yeah that's about it for the week. I turned 19, I feel the same, thank you all for your emails. I love hearing what you have been up to and I hope that I am giving you the information that you want to hear. If there is something that you want to find out, please just ask.

マーフィー 長老
Shonandai, Fujisawa, Japan