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