Hello everyone!

Hello, how is everyone today, tonight, this morning, whatever time it is in your part of the world? I hope you are all genki!

So we had a pretty normal week, so I will do a little note first.

I read a talk from general conference this week, Elder Bednar's "If Ye had Known Me". It put really simply how we can know Christ. You should all read it if you have time. It talks about how sometimes we just need to accept the truth when it is given to us. But that can be taken lots of different ways, so it would make more sense if you read it. Email me about what you think, I would love to hear your perspectives.

Ok, so,
Tuesday: we had district meeting, my companion, elder Schreiber is the district leader, so I know when he prepares for it, because in companionship study, he tells me, "yeah, this morning I just did district meeting stuff, made a training" or something along those lines. He is a hard worker for that. We went and streeted past the Eki to the south and we met a cool guy named Bingo. This is when I learned that bingo is a very popular and old name in Japan. We had a nice kubari session, then went home. Long day of walking.

Wednesday: zone meeting in Kichijoji. Your normal, just the 3 districts meeting to see what the president or zone leaders think that we can do to be better. This time was great, lots of talk about planning more effectively, talking to more people at eikaiwa, now an official mission school, and helping members. Great talk. Then of course we had Eikaiwa. Lots of people came, so it was really fun. Lots of laughter.

Thursday: weekly planning, and a meeting that Schreiber Chōrō might have had to go to. So we planned and towards the end, I am reviewing some emails from the mission office, and there is one addressed to us about a district leader training that was happening as I read the email, so we called and checked to see if my companion had to be there or not, but there was no real verdict, so I guess he is the clear for that. We went to ping pong night so that we could teach Kurenuma a lesson, but that almost did t happen because he showed up late, but we ended up teaching him a review of the Plan of Salvation. He really understands that Christ and the Atonement are central to the plan. If there was no atonement, everything would be for naught.

Friday: We decided to go to another end of the area, over by Shakujikoen and Nerima Takanodai, on the East. We planned on stopping around some schools, but there was no one out. It was kind of creepy, just some ghost schools and apartments. We circled back to the park and met a nice guy walking his chihuahua. Really nice to see something Latino. I miss Hispanics. That night we went to Ōizumi and streeted. We found a hobby store owned by a Japanese person who loved guns. Half of the shop was devoted to Airsoft guns, the other was to model planes, trains, and automobiles. He knew who we were and he said that he had been to Salt Lake City before. Japanese people really like that part of America. We then proceeded to see a miracle, at an apartment named Willing, (was like out of Doctor Who, "A town called Christmas"). We saw it and we thought, how willing is "Willing". We knocked on one door that night, and we taught our first family on their genkan. The mom brought the kids out to see who God is and how families can be together forever. They were all so happy from this idea and wanted to here more. This was the start to a great weekend.

Saturday: a little bit of a slow start to the great weekend. We had to wake up at 5:45 to go to Ward Council, so we were sleepy and less active during the conversations. Then we were at the church anyways, so we cleaned up and vacuumed. We went home and did our studies, then we went to go and see who we could teach. We met another family in the street, but they live by Shibuya, but they said that they would look up the missionaries over there.

Then we went home and got ready to go and play soccer with the ward and Masato. I scored twice! So funny story, Masato said that his bike was broken and had a puncture in his tire, so Schreiber Chōrō, whose hobby was fixing motorcycles, cars, and bikes, volunteered to fix it for him. He took apart the back half of a Mamachari, bad idea. Then we left him the old chari from the church, and went to soccer. That night, when we got back, we had a great lesson about prayer and prophets.  He really seemed to understand why prophets were important and he said he would like to hear Elder Holland the next day. So we go and continue to fix the bike only to find that the other Elders, Hawkins and Burnham Chōrōtachi had tested the tubes for punctures, but there were none! Wow! That was a lot of effort for a flat. So Schreiber Chōrō grudgingly put the bike back together and Masato had the opportunity to talk to a member for a long time. She learned that he had a hard time waking up for church. So she told him to get to bed earlier and to come, no matter what. She is a mother of 3, so she knew just how to say it. Go Ishimine Shimai.

Sunday: Great morning of listening to Elder Holland and the Area presidency in ENGLISH! It was all being translated, so our American friend came and sat in. Elder Holland shared about how in 3rd Nephi, when the Savior came to the Nephites, they were up for a whole day learning, then he told them that he had to go. They only looked at him and cried, but they wouldn't try to stop him. Christ saw this and he had compassion on them. Christ loves all of us, no matter what.
Then we had an English lesson with a friend Kawakami. It is scary how quickly he has improved in a month. We had a half English, half Gospel lesson with Masato after that. We talked about prayer and God again. He has a really desire to ask God for help, and he put it together himself that Heavenly Father is all knowing and all powerful. Then we watched some of the evening devotional with Elder Holland. We didn't get to go to Kichijoji, so we hopped onto the secret broadcasting. It was just the 3 of us, so it was great. We missed the end with Elder Holland, but Masato realized without it even be talked about, that reading the Book of Mormon is really important if he is going to understand what we are talking about. Then we went and had dinner with what was left of the food in the apartment. It was an interesting white stew with green onion and cabbage in it. Tasted kind of like the spinach baked pasta that dad makes.

Today: Emails, shopping, Daiso, nap. That is pretty much it. By the way, here is an average post-shopping look for me.

My record is 3 bags on each handle bar. Fun to ride right?

But yeah, I appreciate all of you, you all are otsukaresamas.
まったねえ皆さん、愛しています。
マーフィー長老
Elder Murphy

P.s. - have fun with the Japanese in the picture email.

Transfer 5, a third of the way too fast

So, a new transfer already.

Monday was great. A new schedule for p-day that works perfectly. We are able to just email all of you lovely folks in the morning and then go and have an adventure.
But we followed up physical preparation with spiritual preparation. We went to the temple on Tuesday! So normally, this wouldn't happen, but our original day got pushed back, so we went to Tokyo on Tuesday. After the temple, Molen Chōrō had to pack, so that was that day. We packed and cleaned the apartment for the two new elders coming to Hibarigaoka.
Lots of conference talks were played that day. One of my favorite is now President Packer's "Spirit of Revelation". Great talk about guarding our thoughts and actions so that we can have the guidance of the Holy Ghost with us always.

Wednesday:
So part of my area book got wiped this week, and I don't actually remember what happened on Wednesday except for a great first time doing mission school eikaiwa. I gave the first spiritual message. It was about saying nice things because if we say bad things we can't take them back. It was in really simple English and was an object lesson, so I enjoyed it. We had a tube of toothpaste and a plate. I asked one of the students, a 60 year old bodybuilder, to squeeze all of the toothpaste out. He was skeptical about it but he did it. That really helped everyone understand that words are like toothpaste, once it is out, you can't put it back. By the way. Japanese toothpaste is weird. I didn't know what to do with the toothpaste, so I tried to flush it down the toilet. That did not work. I ended up just cleaning the church toilet at 9oclock at night with toothpaste. Minty fresh!

Thursday:
Transfer day. We woke up, got everything ready for Elder Molen, and then took him to the station. Before he left we got him some good snacks for the candy store, which is called in English, "Big Candy City Hill", or as I take it, "The big rock candy mountain"! I have found it! It is no longer just a song. That was a little personal victory this week. But we sent Molen Chōrō off and we started to Street and kubari. It started to snow. Cold, not fun transfer day for anyone traveling. There were big delays on the railway, so Elders Schreiber and Burnham ended up arriving at the same time, even though they were supposed to be an hour apart. We went into weekly planning, super fun this time... because I have a new companion! Elder Schreiber is from Logan, Utah, he lives near the university. He has been here for a year. Very enthusiastic about everything. Loves cars and cats, so if you see a picture of a nice car or cat, he would love you forever if you sent it. After dinner, we started housing a street that I have had a good feeling about for a while, it was alright, but gets better tomorrow. We went to ping pong night so that Schreiber Chōrō could meet Kurenuma and Nakamura Kyōdai. He is pretty good at ping pong.

Friday: we biked the border today. We went to the most northern part of Ōizumi and streeted for the day. We met a lot of cool people who will hopefully call us this week. We found a nice big park that is halfway In our mission and halfway in the North. Lots of walking. We had to skip through the North mission for the roads, but we didn't see any missionaries around. Then again, there wasn't much on their side of the street.

Saturday: church cleaning, the new Eikaiwa program TOEIC, where we weren't needed because there were only 3 students. We went and continued to house the street. I don't know how to say it. That is what it is in our plan as well. We went to the absolute southern border of Hibarigaoka. Lots of walking this week. We met a man named Doctor Mori. He has been to 65 countries to preform surgeries. He had a haircut like Einstein.

Sunday: so we had a new friend come to church today. His name is Mike. It was his first time going to the church and we explained most of the Restoration to him. When we were talking to him about the Book of Mormon and its testimony of Christ, he said, "What? Why didn't you tell me earlier! If this about Christ in the Americas, it must be really important. Tell me more!" I thought to myself, yes, thank you, finally someone in Japan gets the weight of the Book of Mormon! If we didn't have this key witness of Christ to complement the Bible, would we be so different from everyone else? We are going to try and meet again this week. Nice guy.

Monday: we emailed in the morning, went and ate some indo curry, and now we have just finished shopping. It is great! We are thinking about going to Ōizumi gakuen today. I will take some pictures of where Astroboy was born for you all.

Well, I appreciate the emails and as always, the love and support on the home front. I hope everyone is not getting sick and keeping up the school work. 愛していますね！
マーフィー長老

The last week of the longest transfer. Literally

Tuesday: Elder Millard was taken by the Homebu for a while. I am in a trio with the zone leaders until transfers. We had apartment inspections (like in college), and Elder Morgan, a senior missionary working with military relations, liked it. Except for the patio, which we never use anyway. We cleaned it though. We then had a very disorganized district meeting because we don't have a district leader right now, but it was fun and we were able to build some district unity. We went to find a PI next to our apartment and met a really nice old person who did not understand why all Japanese people couldn't be Christian and Buddhist at the same time. But he was nice and listened to our message and took a Restoration pamphlet to read at home.

Wednesday: Today we had a great early morning bike ride to Kichijoji for zone Conference, which is just like a big meeting where the president tells us things that we need to know for the next little while, we get training from the APs, president and sister Warnick, and the zone leadership. It was really long, but really useful. We had a long discussion about how to use the new schedule to be more efficient with our time. Then we came back in time for Eikaiwa! We combined advance and intermediate class because we were short, but we had a great time. One student wanted us to teach him phonetically, with Japanese English phonics, but we had no idea what he was talking about. This then became a 10 minute "argument" that was solved, by Shin, our friend in advanced class when he got tired of it and cleared up that we were going to teach the way we teach and that it works and that he was proof of it. I was in the corner helping the other students while Elder Molen was trying not to be too sick in the other. He is better now, but we have all had some degree of bad health this past week or two.

Thursday: MLC (Mission leadership conference) for the zone leaders. I started the day with another early morning ride to Kichijoji, and did studies with the office Elders. Then I went and sat for 3 hours with the normal Elders in Kichijoji while they did weekly planning. I was able to have a nap, put some lessons into the area book, and set up some stuff for my new companion. (New companion, he said new companion! Who could it be?) then MLC ended and we went back to Hibarigaoka and did our weekly planning! Fun day?.!


Friday: Friday for the zone leaders is a day of district meetings and travel. We started after lunch, then took a train to Kotesashi, where the Tokorozawa church is. We saw Mount Fuji out of the train window. I couldn't get a picture because it was a moving train. Tokorozawa is really nice. It is far from all of the hustle of Tokyo and you feel calm there. Then after district meeting we went back to Hibarigaoka for the bikes to... you guessed it, bike to Kichijoji. Kichijoji district is really big, but it flows really easily. Then we went back to the apartment to contact at night because Elder Molen was not feeling too good.

Saturday: Church cleaning, transfer calls, and Kiyose. Church cleaning went fine, we didn't have to mov any pews like we normally do, from ping pong night. Then transfer calls came rolling in. I am staying in Hibarigaoka and my new companion is an Elder Schreiber. I don't know anything about him except a love of cats and that he was trained by Elder Spackman. He has been here for a year and is the new district leader, so we should work well together. Then we biked to Kiyose and actually found the people that we were looking for! We meet a less active who has been missing for 40 years because he never told his wife that he was Christian and a PI who is interested in English and the Gospel! Good day, also maybe the hottest day of the winter, very good weather. Other transfer news, Elder Molen is going to the Yokohama area again. He has only been in two zones his whole mission, and Sister Hartshorn is going to Tama. I don't know anything about those areas. At all.

Sunday: Fast Sunday, we had a good testimony meeting, I understood most of it. After church we met with Aono Kyōdai, the ward mission leader to talk about the new mission school that the area is starting. It is English and prep for the Eiken and TOEIC tests. These tests are the ones that make or break Japanese careers, so we have to be teaching to the max. Then, we went to some danchi, super big apartment complexs, and housed. No one really answered, but then Kurenuma Kyōdai called and wanted to had a lesson. We talked with him about the Restoration and the temple, so he is getting ready to go to the temple soon. Yay!

Monday(today): some of you may have noticed, but missionaries can now start p-day at 8am! So we got all of our necessities taken care of before 12! Super effective! We then rode to Kiyose to see a recycle store and the view, and now we are at the church, finishing emails and just hanging out until we need to do something, but I think that we are done for the day. It is only almost 4 and we didn't feel rushed today, it is great. Well, I will hear from you this week and can't wait to see what your week was like. Love you all!

Recommended reading: Our Search for Happiness. This is a book from the missionary library, but it just lays out everything that we teach so simply, it is amazing. It is not very long, so go ahead and give a quick read if you have time this week.

愛しています、
マーフィー長老

A week in Japan

Monday night: we went to Kichijoji for Family Home Evening with Endō Kyōdai and his friend. It was interesting. Elders Molen and Hawkins taught about honesty. It was interesting. We played two truths and a lie. Japanese people are really good at it.

Tuesday: We went on a long walk to find some less actives. We only found one and she was so nice. She gave us a bunch of vegans meat. This was the day that we found the nice riverside park and President Trump.

Wednesday: I was sick today. Pretty bad headache and sore everything. I slept in and then we went to find a members address in Ōizumi gakuen. He didn't have an apartment number so we couldn't get in touch with him. We went and taught Eikaiwa, always fun.

Thursday: still pretty nasty feelings. We watched the world wide missionary broadcast and did weekly planning, then went to the Asada family's for dinner. Asada shimai is still the best cook in all of Saitama Ken. No changes have been implemented here in Tokyo South yet, but if you want to know what is happening in other missions, I am sure you can find the broadcast online.

Friday: Today was packing and cleaning. We are getting ready for a cleaning check and for the end of the transfer. We did maybe the deepest clean our apartment has ever had. Ever.

Saturday: today we visited Uenoyama Kyōdai again and read the Book of Mormon with him. He really doesn't remember anything about it. He hasn't been to church in over 35 years. He is really nice and always gives us orange juice. We were going to go to a Chinese New Year in Kichijoji, but our investigator cancelled and we had to go home early. That evening we had a great lesson with Kurenuma. He is doing great! We taught with Aono Kyōdai, who is studying for semester exams.

Sunday: way too busy. We had Church, where Kurenuma was ordained a Priest, and then the bishop's daughters baptism. We had a friend come to the last hour of church and to the baptism . He is from Aomori prefecture up in Sendai. He brought us some apple from there and they are really good. After that got really crazy, we went to Ōizumi for dinner with the Aoki family. We had a message about the Book of Mormon and Star Wars.

Yeah, busy week, next week looks busy too, but thanks for emails and love from all of you, 愛しています！
マーフィー長老