Real letter

Wow, this week was busy. We had 2 thanksgivings, the Japanese one and the American one. The bishop had us over on Thursday and it snowed. I love the snow. The Aoki family had us over on Wednesday. They are a young family with a 3 kids. It was really fun. We talked about Star Wars, which I am starting to miss now that there are advertisements everywhere for "Rouge One". Then we had a meal with the Bishop's family.  We had pizza from Costco, which is a big deal because there is only 5 in the mission.

It snowed on Thursday if you saw the pictures. Other things this week: district meeting, zone meeting, interviews with the president, temple P-day. We found the nicest old lady while housing the other day, I don't remember if I told this to you or not, but she was so nice and open and accepting. We introduced her to the sisters the next day and she really likes hearing about Our Heavenly Father. We also visited a lodging home. The old people were so funny! We sang carols for them.

Our friend K should be getting baptized on the 10th, we had some awesome lessons this week. Lots of faith building. He really admires a member of the ward who does a lot of translating for the church and almost every Japanese video that I have on Gospel Library is his voice. He is really cool. We had family home evening at the homebu, so that was fun. We biked to Kichijoji a lot again. I had really good sukemen this week. I love you all! Thank you for writing me. And this is Ramen Jido, which is a super good place in Hibarigaoka (Hebarigahooka).

Elder Murphy
マーフィー長老

Poster send to Quinten

Waking up to an earthquake

We heard about the earthquake and tsunami warning yesterday but were not worried about Connor.  Glad to hear from the mission. Here is President Warnicks letter.

Dear Parents,

This is a brief note to let you know that your missionaries are all safe and accounted for following this morning's earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan. The quake, occurring at 5:59am local time, measured 7.4 on the Richter scale; but was still felt here in the mission some 250 miles away. Although the resultant tsunami warnings for 10 ft. waves along the northeastern coast of Japan prompted evacuation from low-lying areas there, the impact for us here in the mission was simply a gentle rocking in our beds as we woke up this morning--there was no damage or injuries here.

We love your missionaries and will continue to do everything in our power to keep them safe. We appreciate the constant love and support you show your missionaries.

Sincerely,

President J. Paul Warnick

Japan Tokyo South Mission

Transfer 3, week the first

Elder Spackman. Transfer 16 of Boise Idaho.
Will attend Utah State. About a head and
a half taller than me.

Our apartment, second floor, used to be a sister
apartment, so it is pretty nice, but super small.

This is a creepy house by the church.
Too many Winnie the Pooh bears.

Here is our church, the gate is actually used here!

Not Hibarigaoka, but the next Eki over, I don't know what it is
called yet.

So, this week was transfers. I am no longer a beanchan!

On Tuesday, we spent all morning cleaning. Well, I didn't do any cleaning, I was packing, but the others made the apartment look beautiful! We went and streeted the Eki afterwards, didn't really find anyone it was so cold. Then our evening lesson fell through, so we decided to hack at our area book of over 100 people! Most of them were old, but you never know.

Wednesday: Had a good morning, no complaints. Then we went to Tsujido, where all of the surfing in Honshu is. Every other person's bike had a side rack for their board. We heart attacked 4 families that day. A heart attack is when we cover the door in paper hearts and candy. It is pretty fun. They never say anything, but it builds a relationship with the ward. The last house was super hard to find and when we rang the bell, someone answered and recognized us, and sent us away. We were really confused and thought we were at the wrong house, but no, we were "kekko desu"ed by the elders quorum presidents wife. So we heart attacked their mailbox instead. That threw us off, so we finished off or last day with contacting the 100+ hard to find people in Fujisawa.

Thursday: transfer day. We see Dowdle Chōrō off to get his new trainee. Then we stopped at the church to get some chocolate that Akemi, an old investigator of mine, super sweet old lady, had left for me. There was a print of Fuji-san with it, so bonus! Then I left. I got on a train for Yokohama and I had to stand with my bike all alone for 2 hours. I only had to transfer lines once, in Yokohama, but that was pretty easy. Then I stood until I got to Hibarigaoka. I got to the Eki and Spackman Chōrō really is as tall as I was told he would be. We streeted to the church, which is 7 minutes from the Eki. Then we had a lesson with a really cool programmer. I hope he contacts us back. Then we walked another 9 minutes to our apartment. So yes, I ride a bike literally everywhere now.

Friday:
    Our District:
Elder Millard- district leader, from Tennessee, transfer ~8
Elder Molen- zone leader, from Utah, transfer 11
Elder Spackman- zone leader, from Idaho, transfer 16
Me!- Transfer 3
Sister Casteñeda- Sister training leader, from Mexico(?), transfer 9
Sister Hartshorn- transfer 2

I went on splits with Millard Chōrō. We were together all day. The ZLs were at district meetings all day. We worked really hard, maybe a little too hard... we only took about 20 minutes for dinner. But that was rewarding. If you try something to the best of your abilities, the Lord will bless you.

Saturday: so today was 6 hours of meetings in Kichijoji. Kichijoji is only a 20 minute bike ride south and it is all flat, so it was really easy. First was a stake priesthood meeting, then a family history fair, and then a stake conference session. That was long. I learned so many words.

Sunday: last session of stake conference. So long! We went and ate lunch and went to Streeting. Met some interesting people, but no new investigators. Did some good Kubari. Went and contacted a bunch of PI's, we were pretty tired from all of the bikes.

Monday: cold day. We are writing emails and shopping. There is not much to do in Hibarigaoka. Tonight we are going to find someone to teach if it kills me.

Actually teaching in Japanese and SYLing has helped me so much. I can hardly write in hiragana and katakana, it takes me so long. I will be Working on that this transfer. I am in one of the oldest, transfer-wise, apartments in the mission, so I should be able to boost my speaking.

Bonus: Part of Connor's letter to Dad

So we just had a family history fair! It was great, it was just youth and missionaries having the opportunity to talk about what they are grateful for in their families and to tell funny stories. I told my partner, this little 11 year old about to be a deacon, about grandpa Murphy and how he worked on trains. I showed him the picture of him hanging off of the caboose. It was funny! Japanese always see trains as passenger cars, but seeing a goofy American on a caboose was really cool for him. Thank you for helping me love family history! Most of my reservations just expired, so you need to go back through and get all of the ordinances done for our loved ones. The temple will be closed next year, and I couldn't do them anyways.

Extra Bonus: Part of Connor's letter to Mom

I miss reading books. I am reading Jesus the Christ right now though. It is super good. It just took some time to work on me. I am glad that the Librarian at Northgate remembers me. I don't remember her, but she helped me get some confidence with Battle of the Books. That was so long ago.  I can't believe that it is already Thanksgiving! Holidays don't really matter in Japan, so we usually just have a nice dinner or mention it during the day. But I will miss just eating a lot and having a nap. As you know, missionaries don't ever stop doing stuff. This was an easy transfer, travel and luggage wise. I only had to switch trains once, which is a miracle, considering that I had to go all of the way across the mission. Sagawa, the company that ships luggage, came on time, delivered my stuff on time, I packed my carry on well, my bike isn't very heavy, and there was no one on the trains when I left Shonandai.

This Week

So we got transfers this week. I am transferring to Hibarigaoka. I all of the way across the mission now. I get to be on a train for a long time, but not as much as Greer Chōrō from the MTC, he has 6 hours ahead of him. This week was good, lots of shokujis.

It is pretty cold when the wind blows here, it goes straight through you. We have been visiting a lot of members and calling people recently, trying to set up lessons for the next transfer. Tomorrow I am having curry with a new investigator, who is a college student studying English. This week was the weirdos split I have ever had. I was with the person I should have been for most of the day, but then he had to go on splits. I was then with this other elder from Atsugi, but he was going on splits with Porter Chōrō. So I ended up with McDonald Chōrō for the end of the night. I biked about 20 miles over the past 2 days. That was exhausting. I didn't really do anything today, but I am reading Jesus the Christ and am on chapter 13. For William, I have reached Acts. For Quinten, I want to see what you are cooking up with Legos. Gretta, keep being cute. Gavin, don't get swamped at school or NYLT. Mom, thank you for raising me the way you did. Dad, thank you for being the best always. Love you all!

Note from Dad: we have updated the Mission Map page with pins of his new Ward building as well as our best guess of his apartment.  He will be junior companion to Elder Spackman who is on his last transfer. 

Also, this transfer will only be 4 weeks due to Christmas and then the following transfer will be 8 weeks to get everything back on track.

The p-day of Meat

Today we had an all you can eat BBQ. It was so much. We are probably going to eat dinner really late and a super small size. Right now we are playing around the world ping-pong. It is very dizzying. I can play ping-pong with one hand. This is hard. This weekly visit a lot of members. That was fun they are all doing well. The transfer is almost over. Can't wait to see where I go next. It is exciting. I hope you all saw the picture that I sent of the schedule that's about the same as this week. Right now we are going to go shopping. We need to get a lot of basics. Ties are annoying. I cannot wait to see what adventures are here this week. We found 20 big apartments was 100 doors each.
Quick Nihongo update: everyone thinks that I am pedapeda, or fluent, but I am not and I am dying. I can get a lot of the just, but the whole sentence evades me.
Here are the pictures for this week:

Here is today's Yakiniku.

Guess what we saw about Shonandai!

I am dying! You all will have to wait for me to get back for all of these movies.


Love you all, thank you for telling me how you are and for William, I am racing you. I am in John right now.

Matta nae!

穴奈白奴奈墿橾 諂今氏及珨楓分中允五哫諒�匹﹝