End of 5, WOW!

Wednesday: district meeting and Eikaiwa. We missed Len and Taichi, the college students, but we have a lunch appointment on Saturday. We also went to Hoya to street, we didn't find anyone, but that is my goal for next transfer. Find someone in empty Hoya to teach.

Thursday: Choi conference. Elder choi of the Area presidency came and talked to us. He and his wife are from Korea and they are hilarious! One of the first things that they were talking about is PMG as the new Perfect Marriage Guide. They also told us that we should go to school and find an eternal companion as our after mission priority. They talked a lot about how we can work with members. That was 7 hours of sitting, so what did we do when we went home?  We housed! We had a great time housing. Found some new PIs, for the sisters, but that works too.

Friday: we did studying, weekly planning, and streeted the Eki for a bit before going to call up some people from the phone. Yay planning...!

Saturday: we had lunch and a lesson with Len and Taichi. We ate Ramen Jiro, the dangerously big one. The lesson was great. We sang "I am a child of God", explained why we were in Japan and they were totally down to meet again! Then to make things better, we went to Kichijoji with Masato to watch Meet the Mormons. That helped to much! He really understands that we actually left our family for two years and we are here to help. He had a lot of concerns about Mormons, but the movie helped.

Sunday: all of our investigators are young, and they all have the same problem. They can't wake up in the morning. So Masato and Taichi slept in. We passed the Sacrament, which made me happy, it is a chance to serve members. Then after church, we had ward council while downstairs, the youth were having a yakiniku party for some people who had gotten into high school.

We found lots of PIs that evening and then did studies.


I have to run, but I love you all!

愛していますね！マーフィー長老

A little rainy week

Tuesday: not much happened today. We streeted around Hibari and Hoya. No one wanted to talk, so we just kept talking. One thing from personal study is President McKay's book, the chapter on the Resurrection. The resurrection did happen and Christ did rise from the tomb on the third day. He died for all of us. I know all of these things by the testimony of the Holy Ghost.

Wednesday: district meeting and Eikaiwa. District meeting was fun. I remembered to take a picture at the end, so I will hopefully do that more often. Then we went Streeting and talked to some nice old people. Eikaiwa was nice. Lots of our regular students came. We will be testing a new program for the MTC soon, but more on that tomorrow.

Thursday: Woke up, biked to Kichijoji. We started the day with zone meeting, then had a bento for lunch, we went down stairs to have a kind of zone conference with Musashino stake and Machida stake. I saw Farnsworth and Muranaka Chōrōtachi, so that was great. We watched the mission president training that went along with our world wide broadcast from January. Then sister Warnick gave a training in how to more effectively use Eikaiwa for dendō. P.s., this is by 4 pm. . Afterwards, our zone went to the Homebu for more training related to our testing for the MTC lots of English teaching methods discussed. We ended up also doing our studies there at night until we stopped to get donuts. We spent an entire day in Kichijoji sitting.

Friday:the day of weekly planning. After the normal study and planning, we went to Ōizumi gakuen for a little bit, then headed to the southern border to find a less active that no one had ever met. He was not home and his address was unconfirmed. No phone number. When we got there, we had this experience.
It was a great bike ride down a freeway.

Saturday:  the return to Kichijoji! We went back to get training from Elder and Sister Gong, from the seventy. She is actually sister Warnicks sister. We talked about what the new class is like and it is nice! It is focusing solely on conversation practice and there is a real textbook for the students. After a couple of hours there, we went home for study and dinner. And lunch. At night, we taught Eiken to Hisashi, who is a new investigator. We also visited brother huff. A less active person who will come to some activities soon.

Sunday: we had church, a slightly crazy investigator came, we had a good talk with Aono Kyōdai about the new Eikaiwa program. We went to Ōizumi gakuen and talked to a guy from California and a girl who had just spent 10 months in Arizona on a home stay. She is going to get in contact with the sisters to talk. We ended the day with studying.

Monday: splits with elder Hawkins. We left the mission trying to find a ward member, visited Uenoyama Kyōdai, he left his house! Then we went to Hoya, where there was no one. We also discovered that all roads lead to Hoya, so that was cool. We housed at night, found a cool little family for the sisters to go and visit. Lots of stuff found for peanut butter fudge. I need that recipe by the way. I also found Andes mints and Terry chocolate oranges. 

Tuesday: so today was temple pday. Elder Burnham and I were on splits to go and we took a new route. There was a train where we started next to the door and the stereotypical Japanese thing happened. We were pushed from one side of the train to the other. I could have lifted up my feet and stayed upright. Then we went to the temple and had temple curry, which is the best in Japan. We came back, I ate a pie and then we had time to email and do groceries.

Thanks for all of the love this week, good luck to all of the missionaries out there, and those who will be I. The field soon! I love you all!

P.s. Quinten, I love you, send me a picture of your new car.

P.p.s. The missionary broadcast is really good if you haven't already seen it.

Mata nae,
愛していますね！
マーフィー長老

It is night where you are!

Not much to write about, so I will just translate the Area book.

Sent to William after Connor heard of
a raccoon visiting seminary.

Monday: we went to FHE with Masato. We played a game where you had to remember everyone's name and voice, so all of the investigators were severely in need of help. The message was about us recognizing the light of Christ in our lives. Sister Warnick made cinnamon rolls for dessert.

Tuesday: we found a new danchi to house next to a member. He is gaijin, Brother Huff and is very hard to get a hold of him. We also went to Kiyose to street.

Wednesday: we had district meeting, where I gave a training on the Book of Mormon and the joy that it brings and when people don't have the Book of Mormon, it is like they are eating umeboshi and when they do, they have chocolate! I also forgot to get a district picture. We will try again this week. Then we walked around the Eki, but no one wanted to talk, so we went and set up for Eikaiwa. We made friends with our three youngest students, Len, Taichi, and Kenta.

Thursday: We did weekly planning, and a random guy walked up to the second floor and started talking to us. It turns out that he was an investigator a year ago. We invited him to come to ping pong night and he did. We exchanged phone numbers, so we will see where this goes. We also had dinner with the Asadas, which is always really good.

Friday: We went to Ōizumi Gakuen and on the way went to look for some less actives. Along the way, we say a tanoki statue the size of a grizzly bear, and we met another old investigator. He is catholic and he would love to meet. We are just waiting on a phone call. Then we went out for Chinese food with Kurenuma and Fukuda Kyōdai, the patriarch. The mabodofu was awesome!

Saturday: we were going to go to ramen jiro with Richard, Len, Taichi, and Kenta, but the 3 amigos did not show, and we didn't really want to put ramen jiro into our bodies before fasting, so we tried a new ramen place, which wasn't that good at all. But at least we had some honey mustard karage. Then we dendōed with Richard, that went all right. Elder Schreiber had a baptism interview to go to, and and then we did some studies in the afternoon. That evening, I taught Hisashi again at Eiken. Today we talked about the Houston Zoo, Wunsche, and NASA. I showed him pictures on google maps. Also side note, we passed off the family that we taught to the sisters so they could be taught more, and it turns out that they are moving closer to Hibarigaoka and are still meeting with the family! Yay!

Sunday: fast Sunday, always a blur for the first half and then really fast for the second. After lunch, we went to try and visit brother Huff with Uemura bishop. We rode in a car! Driving with the steering wheel on the opposite side on Japan's tiny streets is something else, I would not recommend it. Then we had dinner with one of the Nagata clan families, the elders quorum president. Members always make better curry than missionaries can, but we use the same stuff. Then we went back to our new danchi s, met some nice grandmas, and we were able to meet brother huff! That just goes to show, when you are consistently persistent, you will see results.

Monday: we woke up, emailed, and went to Kichijoji for the day. We had yakiniku (Sutemen and taro for only 15 dollars. It was all you can eat for an hour with ice cream, sushi, various meats, veggies, and drinks. Then the others wanted to check out a sticker store. Weirdest 20 minutes of my life. Would not recommend unless you like level over infinity weird stuff. We went to Kichijoji to play sports, so we played a basketball game, I tried to play tennis, but yeah, lots of exercise today. Oh, and here I am with a haircut with all of the General authorities coming this week and next week. We are getting 3 different meetings, so our dendō time will kind of get cut back, but not too badly. Also, heads up, next week is temple day, so I will be emailing on Tuesday, but please, send on
Monday so that I can respond!

Thought of the week: I am nearing the end of the Book of Mormon, and the end of Mormon is really good. It puts everything about the Plan of Salvation, Christ, the need for an Atonement, everything, really simply. Give it a read this week and tell me what you think. Well, we have to jet, but 愛していますね！
マーフィー長老からメールです。





















Views from somewhere in


Hibarigaoka

Fujisawa

What happened this week?

This week went by really fast. We were sitting at dinner on Friday and we asked ourselves what day it was and when we saw that it was Friday, we all didn't believe it.
But here is the small plates, the ones that were important.

Tuesday/Kiyobi(火) (kie-yo-bi): We had a great lesson with Uenoyama Kyōdai. He had forgotten where we were reading in the Book of Mormon, so we read 1st Nephi 3. He really liked that. When we are kind to our brothers and sisters, we will have better success. Then we went to Kiyose at night and housed a referral. We went home with 3 potential people to teach, we will just have to get back out there soon.

Wednesday/(水)Suiyobi (Suu-yo-bi): Today we had district meeting and Eikaiwa. Before district meeting we went Streeting and met a guy named Bingo. He was interesting, but he lived in Ikebukuro, so we told him where the missionaries there were. Shig told some pretty funny jokes at Eikaiwa. Do you know who Shig is? He is 75+, completely fluent in English, and comes to Eikaiwa because he wants to learn nuances from missionaries. He has been taught all of the Gospel, but he loves to drink. We love him, he loves us, so we expect him. He told us this joke this week, "Who didn't make airplanes fly?" "The Wrong Brothers"! Ba-dum, crash! Great Wright?!?

Thursday/(木)Mokuyobi(mouk-yo-bi): Weekly planning. I drank a whole 2 liters of water. Then we set up for ping-pong night. We went and continued to house "The Street". We are almost done with the section that we picked out. By the end of the transfer, we can most likely do all of the houses from the church to half way to the Eki. It rained one day this week, but not this day. What day was that?

Friday/(金)Kinyobi(keen-yo-bi): Lots of finding time. We walked around Hibarigaoka during the day and went to a park where we met a really old nice couple. They gave us a snack. We also saw a panini stall that was a Volkswagen bus. Great weather. The Sakura is going to start to bloom soon, so I will send those pictures for sure. That evening we went to the station and kubaried, streeted and then housed.

Saturday/(土)Doyobi(dough-yo-bi)- We had TOIEC and Eiken classes today. Only 3 people came, but I had a great lesson with Hisashi, who from here will be an investigator. He understands a lot of church stuff because he has been going to Eikaiwa for a while, he just needs someone to explain the rest of it and to fill in the blanks. We had a great dinner with the Ganaha Family, it was beef stew and it was pretty chaotic. I love the Ganahas. The youngest, Yuya, is so funny, he is only 2, but he has already destroyed a toilet with toothpaste. And he can climb. I would have thought that he was older, but no, he is just a little toddler with an aptitude for trouble and adorableness. We housed around the Ganaha's house by these big danchi. One set is really nice (where we housed), the other is mostly abandoned and boarded up. Really creepy. Most of the buildings have only one or two apartments being used.

Sunday/(日)Nichiyobi(just the way it is spelled): great Sunday. We taught Gospel Principles class, Elders Burnham and Schreiber gave talks, and the ward made us some ramen after church. We sang "I need thee Every Hour" in Sacrament meeting. After church we went and had another lesson with Uenoyama Kyōdai. I think that that his cat is dead. It hasn't come home for a little while. Then we had a surprise lesson with Kurenuma! We were actually going to visit him later on in the day, but he came to us instead! We talked a lot about new member stuff, to help him get used to the newness of being in a ward. He is still doing great, he just needs to get more sleep. Sometimes he looks like he is dying young because of how rough he looks with out enough sleep. Then we went to the Eki and streeted before dinner and studies. With the new change, studies can be whenever you need the, to be.

Yes, that was my week. I love you all. 愛していますね！
マーフィー長老の心からメールでございます。