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.