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!