Super busy week, but next week is Christmas!

After the Open house in Kichijoji 

Everyone is doing it... i wonder who put that on there, it wasn't me by the way.

We can speak French in Japanese 

Super good orange juice. The label doesn't lie.

We tried to take pictures this week

So these are my rain pants, but they are actually bright purple, the lighting just makes them look blue

They caught me eating my 400gram chocolate bar from Gyomu�fs

We made this poster

Long range selfie!

Sea Dragon

This house had a pigeon coop on the back! And more on the roof! Crazy! 

It is December!

Hello, it is cold!

Hey everyone, I have a cold. But that is ok, because Nagaoka Chōrō is here! Yes, Nagaoka Chōrō, I am training a Japanese Elder! He is from Sendai, up north, 20, and went into the MTC on the 9th of November, so he is brand-new, but pretty awesome.

This week:
Tuesday: In the morning we went out to house for a little bit, and then came back to clean and pack for Elder Casper. We cleaned, I fixed a paper window, rearranged the study room, cleaned the tatami room, smacked some futons for a couple of minutes with a back scratcher (we don’t have a beater, or a Bludger). Then we did studies so that we could send Elder Caspers luggage. After dinner we went to Nokendai to do Christmas Dendō on a hill that was next to a danchi complex that had a bunch of buildings based off of Boston. It was pretty big and fancy.

Wednesday: We did studies before district meeting and Eikaiwa set up, then went to Gumyoji to street before dinner and Eikaiwa. Eikaiwa was good, we had some new people come and they enjoyed it. We also started an Eikaiwa choir for the Christmas party, we will sing Silent Night together.

Thursday: The day that I started getting sick. Came pretty hard and fast. We woke up early so that I could go to Kichijoji and I was feeling great, then about halfway, on the train, I started to get pretty dizzy, so I got off and sat down. I waited for a couple of trains, tried to get on one and bounced off the wall of people, I could not get in. Then I got on one and lots of people followed and we were so tightly packed. Wow, Tokyo, right... I eventually get to Kichijoji, stumble off the train, I have my mask on, and I get to the meeting pretty much on time. Trainer meetings are always fun. Everyone is looking at each other, who is who’s new companion, where will you go? What will you do? Lots of questions.
But it is Elder Nagaoka, like I already said. I am excited to improve from Round 1 of training in Round 2. We spent a while on trains and then went home and planned and ate and slept.

Friday: Happy Birthday to Mom, you are awesome!
We did a planning session for our Dendō fireside and it was good, then dedicated the Sisters apartment for them. We went to the police station to see if we could carol in Kamiooka and kind of got scoffed out with a no. There is not a space “wide” enough. But that is ok, we will keep looking around. Then we streeted and ate dinner and did some Christmas housing at night.

Saturday: I slept in today, that was one nasty way to wake up 😷. But i got better and we did studies and went to a bank for Elder Nagaoka. Then we streeted and housed and did  some training for 12 weeks. We ended the day with DCS reports and Game night, which was great.


Sunday: DCS, Then we taught about the principle of Obedience in Gospel Principles. It went well, Nagaoka Chōrō is pretty good at speaking Japanese... he is Japanese. Then we had a dendō Fireside and it went way well and lots of dendō fire has been kindled! 🔥 GO MISSIONARIES AND MEMBERS! YAY! 🔥
We did a little choir practice and then ate lunch and did personal study. We finished the day with making an area email account and housing 7 stories up a cliff. Fun. Lots of stairs. We ended with 12 weeks and dinner and had conference call.

I am so excited for Christmas and I hope that you all have seen the Light The World initiative, it is for more than just missionaries, members and those kind of people, anyone can share Light right now, so go and try!
Love you all!
Elder Murphy
#LIGHTTHEWORLD!

It's a boy! Part 2?

So transfer calls came, I am training in Kamiooka, that poor Elder’s legs are going to be exceedingly large in stature by the time he is done with our next 9 week transfer.

But here is an overview of the last week!
Monday: Zone P-day followed by me getting a little sick far from home, visiting a cool middle schooler that everyone had thought was a high schooler, and having my favorite water, yes water, the yogurt water, i hope I can find it in America.

Tuesday:
- We went to a new area, Seaside Town, which was just a huge danchi city. Then we went to Costco for dinner and kubaried at night.

Wednesday:
- We were able to do district meeting! And then we set up for Eikaiwa and did a kubarikai. Eikaiwa was good, lots of good conversation about dreams and goals and then a good game of Charades.

Thursday:
-Thanksgiving with members of the English Ward in Yokosuka.
They were so nice to all of the missionaries of the zone and invited us all to their homes! And on top of that, Kamiooka Ward had a barbecue through the Boy Scouts of the area. At night, when we came home, we started splits with Elder Poff and did studies.

Friday:
We paused splits for Weekly Planning in the morning, then we went out and a really good kubari, I ran out completely of flyers. At night we did our Christmas dendō and it was super effective, more people wanted to listen to us.

Saturday:
We did a Member blitz and we rocked it! The district with super members found 2 new investigators and 5 PIs! Go members! I am really excited for next transfer when we can do it again.

Sunday: good day at church, we had the most effective DCS and Ward Council ever, s next week we will have a ward line group up and running, a dendō fireside after church, and lots of Christmas spirit! We had dinner with the Inoue family and it was awesome we had the opportunity to dendō in the area before going and it was good.

Today: We opened transfer calls, Elder Casper is going to Kamakura, we ate pizza from OK Super, and we are on our way to Yokosuka to help Elder Ota teach a lesson as his back up. I can’t wait, we are in a train that is going pretty fast, and with forward facing seats, so you can see out both windows really well. It is cool, but it looks like it will rain and I don’t have an umbrella on me. It is beautiful on the Yokosuka peninsula. Just hills and trees, it is a completely different place than Kamiooka. And the sea is really close, so you can see shipping lanes or Military ships, both Japanese and American in the bay. Lots of tunnels that just go through mountains too. Can’t wait!

I love you all and hope that you all have a good, warm week!

Winter has come...

So, yeah, it is really cold here. But the good news is, in the apartment, I found a really nice jacket that got abandoned and it fits me really well and is super thick, so thick, my magnet tag doesn’t stick. But anyways, here is the break down of the week.

Tuesday: It rained all day after we left and I didn’t have my rain jacket or umbrella, so my other jacket took one for the team and we kept going. We went to Konandai, met a man who is one of only 7 people in the world to have his last name, there used to be a lot, but not anymore. Then we went to a place that is called Nokendai, in a subdivision called Nagahama and met some nice people, one told us to come back later, so we will make sure to do that.

Wednesday: Studies in the morning, followed with District meeting, which was really good, we got some info on Spanish speaking members and we are looking forward to next Sunday when our South American friend can come to church. Then we did eikaiwa set up, which doesn’t take that long, then we went to the Kamakura Kaido to see who was walking between Gumyoji and Kamiooka. Eikaiwa was fun, at first it looked like there would not be anyone, but they all just came late. The message from the sisters at the end was great, about how the Book of Mormon can answer any question if you apply it. Try it out sometime, it works.

Thursday: We had apartment checks, which we were getting ready for up until about 20 minutes before the Nelsons got here from Yokosuka. They liked it though, they are really funny people, they accidentally rang the wrong bell, and scared a lady, so they gave her our cookies, too bad, but maybe she will remember the gaijin with cookies. Then we did studies and went and got permission to kubari starting next week in Kamiooka. Afterwards, we did weekly planning. At night we visited a less active and helped him take out his paper recycling that has been accumulating for a year. He only had half of it ready, so 6 months of paper has now been recycled. We had a long conversation with him about why he doesn’t come to church, what he thinks about Japanese economy and wages, taxi, and a lot of other stuff, so we went home just in time.

Friday: We went to Kamiooka in the morning to try it out, it was not as busy, but I liked it. Then we did studies in the afternoon and went to a place called Maita in the afternoon to house and street. It was good, we shared an easter video explaining who Jesus Christ is and how to find peace in life. Some people actually answered and listened and we showed the video once! At night we went to Sugita to house and met a cool high school student and her mom that want the sisters to come back and teach them English and the Gospel, because she is at a Christian School, and they were really nice.

Saturday: more rain, but that’s ok, we put two copies of the Book of Mormon in Gumyoji library and Isogo library. Isogo was amazing. We got lost and met a dad taking his little girl to the library, but he was ok with us being missionaries and was fluent in English. Then we met the head librarian, he had been to church and Salt Lake, and even read the Book of Mormon, thanks to a friend that he had a long time ago and what, he was also fluent in English. Super cool. Then we did studies and i don’t remember what we did in the afternoon. At night we learned about the Nagoya Mission from a member who is on intern here. He served in Nanao, Seto and Kasugai, so shout out to Elder Greer, he might visit soon. Then we sent DCS.

Sunday was good, we had a long day at church with DCS, greeting, choir, and stats, did studies, gave a message at dinner with a bunch of families gathering, and then followed up with a former investigator on a hill that had no exit.

I liked today, we had Zone thanksgiving and we played ultimate frisbee and did arts and crafts. We will go and follow up with a PI now,


Have a great week! See you later, 愛しています。
マーフィー長老

November is cold

Tuesday: We went to a place called Byobugaura, don’t try and say it, you will hurt yourself. There was not really anyone there, but the best thing that we found was a way up the sea cliffs that is not at a 45 degree incline. Then we did studies and went to a place called Konandai, which is a pretty big school area, there were literally hundreds of high school and college students there. We talked to a bunch of kids and it was pretty funny. One group said that going to Eikaiwa with us would probably be better than at school. We were there for a bit and on our way back, we stopped at Asahi so that I could pick up some breaks to put on later. After dinner, we went to an Eki that no one knew it was in the area until I asked about it. It is called Kaminagaya, or Upper Long Valley. The housing was kind of different, the area that we went to turned out to be a bunch of rich people living in huge houses. Then we went to the Eki and main road area to street, which was pretty good, if it had been a little earlier in the evening, I think that it would have been great.

Wednesday: So it started with some studies, then moved into Interviews with President Warnick on the second floor, then we went immediately to District meeting on the first floor, then we got ready for Eikaiwa, went home, finished studies and ate dinner, and then returned and did Eikaiwa! Busy day, with the most exciting thing being the game that we played at Eikaiwa. It is a beat game with themed vocabulary, but no one could keep the beat or if they could, the person in front of them would say the word that they were going for.

Thursday: So for those of you who don’t know, the weekly planning outline has changed. It is a lot less ordered and leaves a lot of requirements up to us. And so doing it for the first time, it took forever. When we finally finished, it was time to visit a kind of investigator. We went to Sugita at night and found a new PI, a mom, and then streeted around. It was pretty cold.

Friday: We finished Weekly Planning in the morning, then did studies and went to Konanchuo to get permission to kubari and find some service opportunities. We ended up running around the Kamiooka Eki area trying to print a map, get the paper filled out and get it in to the Police on time. We did and then went to two different service centers to find service, but all that they had were babysitting, which we can’t do, or helping older people take a bath, which we also can’t do. That took the bulk of the afternoon. When we finally finished, it was time to visit a kind of investigator. He did not answer, but that is ok because he lives 2 minutes from us. At night, we went down to the bottom of our hill to house and street. We ended up by some student housing that is a lock out and a temple called Kichijoji, so I have dendōed all around Kichijoji. We found a PI and got a call from Hibarigaoka, because all of the people there have only been there for a transfer or two and they needed info. I found out that Masato is still progressing and they are meeting all of the time now. Then we went to street and it was good, all of the Christmas lights are up on Kannon Dori, the Main Street in Gumyoji.

Saturday: Splits with Elder Poff, but it was a super busy day. We went and helped clean the church with the Elders quorum president and then he took us to Ramen, but I still think that Hibari’s Ramen Jiro is better. Then we came home, did studies, and started to walk to Kamiooka to do some Christmas dendō before Stake Conference. We only talked to one person, but he was super prepared and hopefully the Zone Leaders follow up with him and he will be a good investigator. Then we went to Hakuraku for Stake Conference. I got to see Richard and Motoki, so it was good. The stake presidency focused on the Sabbath day. Then we went home with Tsunoda Kyōdai, a recent convert. He is really cool. We ate kebabs and went to bed.

Sunday: Went to Stake Conference with a member and the Sisters and their investigator in a car! It was still pretty far in a car, but it was funny to see the member and investigator talk because the member is a young father who is fluent in English and super funny, and he and the sisters investigator, an older lady, live 2 minutes away from each other and have a bunch of friends in common, so it was an interest conversation. Then we listened to all of the talks with the Kohoku elders investigator who didn’t want to sit by them, he told them that he was going to sit by us today. It was pretty funny, he loves them, but he is a free spirit. We took the train back with a recent convert mom and her daughter, they are pretty funny. (The daughter is the one who dragged Hattanda Chōrō out of Trick-or-treating). Then we ate lunch and did studies, went to do stats, found the rest of the district doing the same thing, and went to Kuraki Park. There were a lot of runners, cats, and dogs. It was really big and we should probably go back when it is light outside. We then went to the hill where a bunch of people gathered the day Commodore Perry came into Yokohama in 1854. You can see all of Yokohama and it is really amazing. Then we visited a new investigator from Peru and she is going to church in 2 weeks. We came back to Gumyoji and housed at the bottom of the hill, which oddly has not been housed in any recent time.

Monday: We have done our groceries. I found Panettone, the Italian Christmas cake that Brazilians love so much. I can’t wait. We also are going to eat chocolate rice, which i think tastes like marshmallows. I don’t know what else we will do today, but i hope that you all have a great week! Don’t forget to be Genki!

Spiritual Message: Read the Conference talk Obedience through our Faithfulness by Elder Perry in April 2014. It is really good and could help you realize why God asks us to do things.


Love you all, enjoy the Kamakura pictures!

Kamakura

Hello World!

Welcome to the Crash Course of Elder Murphy’s Week! Thanks for coming! Don’t Forget to be AWESOME!

(Warning: May contain Rest and Recuperation.)

Tuesday: We rested for the Morning, and Afternoon, I am studying a lot of stuff right now. There is an old copy of the Articles of Faith by Elder Talmage, which they used to use as a missionary teaching tool, but is now just on the same level as Jesus the Christ, so incredibly detailed and yet incredibly eye-opening. At Night, because it is Halloween, we went to a set of Ekis, Kanazawa-Hakkei and Kanazawa-Bunko. There are supposed to be lots of college students here and we didn’t really meet any until we were almost to Oppama, the last Eki in our area (maybe). We went and ate Baskin-Robins because it isn’t a 31st without 31% off Ice Cream. I almost got bumped into by an Indian guy who was biking, but we talked after that and he was really nice, he works next to the Baskin-Robins, and I think that he would be open to getting a pamphlet and Book of Mormon. He is from near Kerala, so shout out to Jicky.

Wednesday: Long day. We studied in the Morning and went to the Church to do District Meeting. It went long. We needed to start an Advanced Class, so I had to negotiate a way to that and then when I said that we need to do Level Checks, it was time to put my negotiation and persuasion skills to the max. We ended up doing Level Checks and having a huge group discussion time while me and Casper Chōrō and Cranston Shimai were doing interviews. It was a long day. To finish it off, I watched the movie Legacy, which helped me get some ideas for the district, so that we can achieve our goal of a baptism by Christmas. Phrases that Came to mind: Are you building a Legacy of Faith?; Where are you on the Journey of Life?; etc.. Really good for the district and our investigators.

Thursday: Morning Studies, Afternoon Weekly Planning (the style and method will be changing soon, so it might get better), and an evening of R&R. Before we came in though, we went and visited an old Investigator to see how he was doing and he was kind of sick, but wants us to come back after he is better. We invited him to the Halloween Party and wished him well.

Friday: Morning Hill Climbing towards Negishi. We went up and down so many hills that we could have gone around. We were heading towards the Eki Negishi, but Elder Casper had never been there, so we just started to go with our offline maps and our hope that it was the right way. Very long bike ride there, very short on the way back. We went to a park on the top of a vista, (see pictures), and it was very good. Lots of people because it was Culture Day. Families, workers with their dogs, Gaijin, and beautiful weather. But sadly, it is not in our area. It is in Yamate. So we biked back, learned that, and went to Konan-Chuo, an Eki 5 minutes south of Kamiooka. It literally means Central Konan, which is the Ward in Yokohama. We went to get some volunteer opportunities, but because it was Culture day, it was closed. So we started to street and this guy calls out to us literally as we walk away from our bikes. He says, “Hey guys! Hey, how is it going?” We are really confused because normally when this happens the person is either drunk or crazy. But he is not! He is from Mongolia and wanted to know if he could come to church and meet with us. Kiseki! Miracle! We tell him where the church is and that is all we have time for because he had to get back to work. Then we went home to R&R. At Night, we went on Splits and I took Elder Hattanda to go and visit a member family with a son who turned 14! He was not that excited that we visited, but his mom was. It was just the 2 of them celebrating when we got there, so we sang him Happy Birthday and gave him some Kit-Kats. Then we went and visited a Less-Active Brother who was sick and talked to him for 2 hours about his work, his anime, his health, his opinion on Hokkaido and how empty it is, and more about anime. He was way interesting, but nice. We will go back and help him move a bunch of recycling that he always forgets to put out.

Saturday: For the Morning, we went to Idogaya to participate in the Green Birds initiative. This is picking up garbage in the city. There was a ton of garbage. They needed us to take pictures of the garbage, so most of the pictures this week are of garbage, so as missionaries say: “ that’s a ゴミ写真！“. There are 40.... what more do I need to say. Except that we got 3 new PI’s. The people that were there serving ranged from us to normal people to city officials to shop owners to a previous congressional candidate. One lady laughed when she found out that we were 20 and 23 and missionaries. It was a good opportunity to show some people that missionaries are a good thing. They were all normal and wanted to trade contact information, so were said, “Yeah we want to be your friends!”. Hopefully we can invite them to an event to get them aquatinted with the church and then from there, they will be Investigating. Then we went and did studies for an hour, so 30 minutes of Companion and 30 of Language and went to the church to set up for the Halloween Party. It was really fun, all of the seats were full, we had piñatas, the donut game with donuts on a string and you have to eat it, but they only pulled to package off, a round of trick-or-treating with the classrooms (Hattanda Chōrō got pulled out by his cape by an older Primary girl) which was really cute and hilarious. Then we ate food and really good pumpkin bread. I thought it was fun. After we had cleaned up and ended splits, we wrote DCS and we went home for R&R.

Sunday: Elder Casper was super sick, so we called the Bishop to tell him that we wouldn’t be there, and gave the other Elders the Progress Report for the ward. When he was sleeping, I took a nap too, read more of the Articles of Faith, PMG, the Life of Jesus Christ Bible videos, and waited. Then when it was time to go and submit stats, we went and did that, tried to watch some Online training videos, and came home. We made dinner, and then I made a sign for #Light the World. I also decorated the apartment for Christmas. Then the day was over.

I love you all and hope that you all will have a good week!
Things that will happen this week:
•Interviews with President Warnick
•Stake Conference in Hakuraku
•Not much else

Have a Merry Christmas!
 愛しています！
− マーフィー長老

 

Fall is fully here

Hi everyone! It’s me and we had another surprise Typhoon last night! It was super fun! But more about that later, here is what happened this week:

Tuesday: We studied in the morning and went to this place called Kanazawa Hakkei and Kanazawa Bunko. They are 2 ekis in the very south of our area that are supposed to have a lot of college students, but they did not have very many people on a Tuesday. We tried to go to an island park, Nojima Park, but there was no one there. It was really nice though. Everything down there on the coast reminded me of Corpus Christi and Galveston. It had the same 雰囲気 too. Sorry, this is one of the words that I will have to relearn in English. In order to get there, we biked for an hour, so then we biked back. One of the best things to happen to me there was tortellini. I found some tortellini for 3 dollars, so of course I biked it back with me. Now I need to get a Seiyu to get Classico. At night, we went to Kamiooka Eki to street and house. We met some nice people housing who were more than happy to tell us that everyone around here is old and not interested, even though they were maybe 40-50. They were really nice though.

Wednesday: Eikaiwa! After sitting for most of the day in Zone Conference, which was really good, we had Eikaiwa and had a good Gospel discussion with 4 people staying and a really good game of Mango, Mango, Mango. At zone Conference we learned about the new Christmas initiative, which will be light the World again. We are all really excited to do it this year, especially because we got to do it last year too. One goal that we have is to help church members realize that it is more than just a Christmas Day, it is a Christmas season of service and love. If you have any ideas on how to do that, those are very welcome.

Thursday: Monthly Planning. We have Line! We have been waiting to get Line, so everyone is happy to be able to contact new people on the streets and members and investigators. We will be able to get a lot more contact information now from people that are interested, but never check their email.
At night, we visited a family to pray to help the dendō in their area, and to hear the advice that they had to give us about Kamiooka. We got lost on the way there, so by the time we had gotten there, talked with them, and left, it was time to go home.

Friday: We thought that we were going to have an apartment check as of yesterday, but it got canceled in the morning. Instead, we just got some chairs, a cutting board and a new pan from the Yokosuka Military Couple, the Nelsons. Then immediately after they left, we had to get to district meeting, which was really good. I gave a training on how to teach who Jesus Christ is. Then we went home, studied, had some rest, and went to Gumyoji to the police station to check if we could kubari. As I had expected, it is a no with out paperwork, so we are filling that out right now. Then we streeted in Kamiooka and got some fabric for a tie making event on Saturday. After dinner, we went back to Kamiooka for a lesson with our College Student and the American Intern as a doseki. It was a really good lesson and he will be reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it hopefully. We will follow up at the Halloween party next week.

Saturday: Studies, and then a tie making event. No one came. We decided to write our reports and leave to go and street in Gumyoji. Gumyoji reminded me of the Professor Layton game: The Diabolical Box. I like that game. It started to storm at night and Elder Casper needed to rest, so we returned and contacted.

Sunday: Today was really good. It was a 5th Sunday and the lesson was on Family History, which they are focusing on because the temple is closed. The members in Japan are being challenged to store up family members to take to the temple when they are able to in Sapporo or Fukuoka, or for some people, in 2020. We were also able to introduce the mission goal for the wards to everyone. It is code named “White Christmas” because we want to see every ward baptize one person by Christmas with one addition baptismal date and to repeat that by February 1st. The dates don’t really matter, the planning and coordination between wards and missionaries is what is needed for the mission to grow. Then we had a shokujikai, or potluck lunch. It was really good, I met some really cool members, like one who is going into video game design and another who is so good at English. He served in Hawaii and if I hadn’t met his wife and kids, I would have said that he was maybe 21ish. Then we did stats, went home because Elder Casper was super wiped out from church, and did our studies. The Typhoon kind of started, but we still went out to visit a Peruvian man with the Atsugi Elders on the phone for better Spanish. My Spanish is so bad... we need Gavin here in Japan. But, new investigator! We met the PI’s wife and she will be going to church on Sunday! We walked to that house through, the typhoon, so as Elder Poff, the zone leader would say, #Obedienceistheprice. That is the new zone theme. When we are obedient, no matter the cost, we will receive blessings.

Monday: P-day. We will not be doing much this week. We have to stay home, so we went to Gyomu’s and I made a cake in the microwave. I might make a sculpture or make a tie too. It is beautiful weather again, just like last week, so maybe if we have a storm every Sunday, I will be okay with that. Tonight we will street and house up north in Yoshinocho and then switch to Gumyoji to catch the late commuters.

I hope that you all have a good week at home, we will be trying to have one this week. Things that I am looking forward to is the Ward Halloween party on Saturday, which the ward is depending on the missionaries a lot because they don’t quite know what it is. I have found out that a Japanese Halloween tradition is a Piñata, which I associate with a Fiesta or Birthday party. I look forward to seeing what all of little kids dress up as. 

I love you all, またね！皆さんが素晴らしい方々ですね、ジーキー頑張れ、私は帰る時に日本語を話すように友人が必要ですね！
マーフィー長老

Please just spell it Kamiooka

Hello Everyone! Sorry about last weeks short picture email.

So yeah, I have transferred to Kamiooka in Yokohama. It is not far from the Wharves or from the center of Yokohama. It is a lot bigger area than Hibarigaoka or Machida, with lots of hills and smaller subway stations and ekis. My companion is Elder Casper from Morgan, Utah. The other elders in the apartment are Elders Poff and Hattanda. Elder Poff and Elder Casper went into the MTC at the same time as me. Elder Hattanda is a couple of months older than us.

But anyways, here are some things that I wanted to put in my email last week:
•I had 3 punctures in my back tire in 2 days (Always the back...)
•We went out with the Lowes to find some less actives and we found one! (So out of the 7 we were given, 3 have been face-to-face contacted)
•We had Sriracha Popcorn and watched a movie about the history of dendō in Japan and temple construction.

But anyways, here is this week:
•Monday: My last lesson with the High Schooler. He is super smart and we made him tacos. I will have to keep in contact with him on Facebook to see when he will head to America and Canada.
•Tuesday: We packed and cleaned, it was a lot easier this time, so i guess 3rd times the charm? I have only transferred 3 times, so Kamiooka is my 4th area. I could die here though. But I have lots of time left, so I am not to worried. Then we were going to street, but the door kept getting knocked on and by the time that it was time to go, it was time to do studies. We had to be at the church for a shokuji of Sukiyaki with the rest of the district, except the Zone Leaders, and that was hilarious. The sister who put it on had to run and grab some eggs, but while she was gone, we learned how to make Sukiyaki from the Electrician, who we just randomly asked if he knew how to make it. He surprisingly did and it was really good. We invited him to dinner, but he didn’t stay.
•Wednesday: We had to clean some of the kitchen a bit more and then we had a English lesson with the Preacher and his student! They are always really interesting to talk to and to be around. We made them milkshakes and we had a good time. Then we went home and did our studies, went and got ready for Eikaiwa a little bit early and contacted. It was a good last Eikaiwa and we were able to talk to one man who had come to church on Sunday and invited him to take the lessons and to come to church again. He said yes! I won’t be there, but maybe he will be happier.
•Thursday: Train time. My transfer was pretty easy, I just had to take a train from Tamagawagakuen-Mae to Shonandai (Fujisawa), and from there a train to Gumyoji, in Yokohama. Way nice, not crowded, the car was air conditioned, I packed smarter so that I didn’t have to carry a bunch of stuff. Then when I got here, we ate some lunch and went to the church to plan. We have lots of work to do, so we are excited to get going. Then afterwards we went out for ramen as a District. We decided to go and visit a member who is in Japan on an internship and to share a quick message with him. He was super cool and he served in Nagoya when Elder Yamashita was the Mission President there. (He served in Nanao and a bunch of other crazy places). We ended up talking about his mission a lot and then we housed around his apartment and streeted home to go and contact.
•Friday: Today was crazy, I got called into Kichijoji to go to a District Leader training meeting, so we left in the morning and got back at night. We took some good trains through the mission and all over the place, so that was fun. Lots of standing. It was a good training, but kind of like the last one. Then we ended up doing our studies and contacting some more while elder Casper rested, (He is a little sick right now, so pray for him).
•Saturday: We rested in the morning while i contacted and watched the rain, then we did studies after everyone was good to go and then we headed to Kamiooka eki, we made it there, had to turn around, but then we saw a high councilor from machida, but I didn’t know him. It was really cool, he called out to us from his work, but because neither of us recognized him, we started to dendō him. It was a good chance. Then we went home, i made dinner and we went to the church for game night. We played around the world ping-pong and another hard version of ping-pong. It was really cool. Also, Elder Casper almost beat Miyagawa Shimai,  one of the sister missionaries at Shogi, so that was impressive. Then we wrote our reports and got home before the storm really started.
•Sunday: First day of Church in Kamiooka. Started with a good DCS with the ward mission leader having gotten back not to long ago from Sendai as a missionary. He is super nice. We will get to help the ward with a halloween party in a couple of weeks with a game/activity. If you have any ideas, please share them. Then we did Sacrament meeting, we taught about keeping the Sabbath day holy in Sunday school, then we met the Elders quorum, which is really tiny, but super funny. Then we talked to some people, including an older brother who told me a lot of funny jokes in English. We went home after sending stats and ate lunch and then started to house in the rain, we had to turn back, so we went home, I made dinner and we did our studies and contacted. The typhoon went right over us in the night, but no one woke up.
•Monday: P-day 1: Chinatown. I did not think that I would ever return to the Chinatown in Yamate. The last time I went there it was with Elders Spackman, Millard, and Molen in December. Wow, flashbacks! It was fun, we had some good chinese food after being invited into every restraunt. We say at least 3 panda themed shops, lots of classic gates, and lots of funny clothing. I really love how Chinatowns smell in Asia. It is what I think of when people ask me, “What does Asia smell like?”. Then we are writing emails and are about to go home and street in Gumyoji.

I love you all and a good conference reference for you this week is from President Boyd K. Packer titled “The Witness”. It is one of my favorite talks. I try and bear my testimony as powerfully as President Packer, but he takes the cake every time.
Have a great week of school and I hope that you are ready for Halloween next week, bye-bye, あいしています！
マーフィー長老

 

Last week here, then a new place

I know everyone enjoyed the planner pictures Connor sent but here is some info from letters to family that you may all enjoy as well.


We didn’t get to meet with everyone that we wanted to this week, but it was still really good. We met with the Family and the High School student. The kids had been fighting, so we changed our lesson to help them not to fight. The High School student is great, he just needs to pray a bit more and to apply what he is learning. He is progressing now. We had an Eikaiwa student come to Church yesterday so we had a lesson with him.

So I am transferring to Kamiooka, so i am jumpy, but Elder Casper, my next companion is really nice. There are no members that live close to our apartment here, but we will see about in Kamiooka, Minami, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. I will miss the Pontes Family from Brazil. We had a message for them yesterday so we went to their house and they are just the nicest people I have met here. His testimony is so strong and pure and he is one of the strongest members that i have ever met. The stake patriarch here was baptized by Brother Welch’s dad and Asada Kyōdai.