Mission Adventure Letters 3

Today’s letter:
Hi Everyone! We got to celebrate with a widow today, so today will will not be long.
We got to serve her and sing for her and talk to her. Afterwards I am going on Splits with Elder De Andrade from the MTC.

What happened this week?
- Zone Conference (Centered on how we improve our dendō by focusing on the Book of Mormon) So far it is working. We are studying as a mission to find the answers to questions of the Soul, which are the really hard questions in life.
- District meetings focused on new ways to dendō.
- Zone P-day: Spoons (Mutual Style with a ball), Jeopardy (iPad made missionary style) and Get to know your Companion (no one one that one...).

Things coming up:
MLC
SPM
Interviews
Fast Sunday (With the Ward)

It will be a busy week, so I can’t wait to see the things that the Lord has in store so that we can get to work.

I will put together a good batch of pictures from the week and send it next week, I didn’t have much time this week, but これからですね。

愛しています！
マーフィー長老より

Mission Adventure Letters 2

This weeks Highlights:
- Splits with Fussa and Fuchu Elders: Elder Patch of Fuchu and Elder Winn of Fussa.
- Family History dendō finally did it! A PI!
-Elder Patch and I walked out of the Eki and the first person that we talked to actually had interest in Family History and we got his contact information, so hopefully he comes to the class!
- Lunch with Members and a ride in the back of a Suburban
- That was a crazy car. I didn’t know that you could drive such a huge car in Japan, but apparently you can. A member wanted us to come over for lunch and we went with a brother that loves to hang out with the missionaries. We got to sing the songs that she had at her baptismal service 25 years ago. She really liked it.
- Eikaiwa!
- Always great, everyone always stays for the lesson that we do afterwards and this time a non-member bore their testimony of God and that he is there. She is awesome!
- Lesson with the Police Officer
- Went really good, he is progressing and he is helping us out by letting us know where we can do different kinds of dendō, like Violin Dendō (Elder Jödicke is a Violinist), or free kubari on the Eki deck. He and the member that has been teaching with us have a great relationship.
- Long talk/ planning sessions
- we have had a couple of planing sessions to get ready for Zone conference and it was super hard to concentrate. I broke the rule of not studying/planning on an empty stomach and that made for a harder time than it needed to be, but it will be a great training!
- District meetings and a Member Kubarikai
- I love kubari with members. They let us know when to be there and where to go, and all that we have to do is show up with out planning on our end! It makes dendō much easier. Thanks Kunitachi Ward! Afterwards, splits with Elder Winn started and we went to join a member for a dinner of microwave everything!  Super good, but maybe not the healthiest.
- Game Night!
- You will never believe it, but I beat a Japanese person at Shogi! We also put  down the reigning champion of Blockus, Elder Shepard, but it took all three of us and then no one really one after that. I will take pictures next time!
- Lunch at Ikea is dangerous.
- We were almost out and all that I was going to get was Lingonberry Jam, but then an employee walks up with a plate of sample chocolate and it is toffee chocolate. They got me, I got some.

Things coming up this week!
- Splits with Kunitachi
- Zone Conference
- Dinner with a Helicopter pilot trainee
- Bowling with a couple of brothers
- The 老人 home! I am in charge of the activities
- Lots of visiting members to get to know them better

I am excited for this week! It will be super busy, but I am ready!
See you all later!
Elder Murphy

Mission Adventure Letters 1

Highlights of the week!
- Fussa and Fuchu and Kunitachi District Meeting!
- On the way back from Fussa (the train is once every 30 minutes) we got to help 3 military guys get to Tokyo for a fun day of real life Mario Kart! They were really nice and happy to have help reading maps and doing trains.
- There are only 4 of us in Kunitachi, the Elders, so it was kind of lonely and quiet for some reason... next week we will have to get GENKI!

- MLC: A long day of training and council about how to help us and the mission. It ended very well and lots was learned about Zion, accountability and stats.

- All you can eat Shabu-Shabu with a Filipina member and that was a funny experience. Lots of stories and loud gaijin in a Japanese restraunt.

-Mochizuki: Hammers, rice flying everywhere, 2nd floor was ruled by the primary children playing giant badminton and ping-pong followed by a small church tour and a violin/singing/piano concert thrown together the day before! Great time!

- Alex Boye/ Bless4 concert. Not expecting that as a missionary, but all of the people that we took really liked it! I would recommend Bless4 by the way.

We almost biked to Fussa on Saturday and then to the other side of the area before our time was up for the day. Good day of Excersice. I run with Elder Shepard now too. All kinds of suprises!

Just because we have to say Sayonara doesn’t mean it is good bye, especially to our loved ones. There will be a day that we will see them again. That is a promise from God to everyone on Earth. I know that is true. I hope that all of you will have a chance to know that it is true as well.

Love you all, stay safe, and have a great week!
Elder Murphy

Welcome to Kunitachi!

This week was crazy busy, with transfers, stuff happening before transfers in Kamiooka and all that has happened since transfers in Kunitachi. The ward is amazing, everyone is super friendly, they are full of dendō fire, and the people in the area seem really open. Here is a miracle for you:

We were having dinner at a member’s restaurant last night and a crowd of 9 men walk in at once. At first we kind of panicked, thinking that we were now a burden on the member who was feeding us, but then the men started to talk to us. They had just come from a Sokagakai Prayer Rally and some of them wanted to speak English to us. We asked how their Prayer thing went and they proceeded to explain why they pray and how they pray. The next part was amazing! After they explained how they pray, they ask: “You are Christian Missionaries, so how do you pray?” We were then able to teach about prayer and Heavenly Father, and invite them to the ward Mochitzuki and Eikaiwa. We think that we would not have been able to do that if we hadn’t listened to them first.

I was sad to leave Elder Nagaoka, but he is in good hands. 2 of the genkiest missionaries got sent to Kamiooka to help the ward keep up their dendō fire. When I got to Kunitachi, everything started really fast, we have already had Skemen 3 times and biked all over. We are on the train. For Kichijoji for a bless4/ Alex Boye concert, so i have to go, but my challenge to everyone is to try and listen to someone that you usually have trouble listening to and try and make that a better relationship.

See you all next week!

Elder Murphy