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

Wow, what a week

Tuesday: So today we spent a long time finishing something that will help everyone for a long time. We worked on putting our less active and members list into the area book with a correct map. That was boring, but I can now read most addresses in our area!

Wednesday: We had a really good lesson with Uenoyama Kyōdai today. We read Enos with him and he was really open. He doesn't remember a lot of stuff, like the day, or when we last came. But we love him and still visit him all of the time.

Thursday: Today was freezing! The temperature was floating around zero for most of the day. The wind was also roaring all day. At Eikaiwa, we played "I went to the market" with a bunch of old people and one of the best people at it was a beginner student who works so hard. He comes to a lot of church too. He might be the hardest working student we have.

Friday: Ping pong night. It was us and Nakamura Kyōdai. That was it. Millard Chōrō contacted while I got to know Nakamura kyōdai. We had a really interesting talk about why Japanese people are the way they are. He was the second person that I talked to about the Second World War in Japan. It is really interesting and explains why the Japanese are the way they are. Apparently a lot of them are scared of Americans. Interesting right?!

Saturday: Freezing again. We went Streeting and housing in Kiyose. Everyone we talked to said to go away because it was too late and they were going to bed. It was 7:30. We walked home after that. But the sky that night was so clear. All of the stars were out and you could see for miles. We also went to pasta with a member, Endō Kyōdai. He brought us one of his friends to teach! She was super prepared and hopefully will talk to the sisters soon.

Sunday: We finished all of our work with the less active list and talked to the bishop about who we can help the most. Then we went to a corner of the area and tried to find a PI and a less active. They weren't home, so we biked back. I think that I am getting better at biking. We met a guy from Fiji. He bought us scones because he heard someone tell him to get us some. He was really nice and had met missionaries a year ago. We might be able to help him with his Japanese someday.

Monday: we went to indo curry today. I had mutton curry with a chicken tikka. Really good. Naan is the best bread by the way, except for biscuits and gravy. Does anyone know how to make naan? Sent off some stuff to America.

That was our week, next week will be even better and filled with fun activities that I can't wait to tell you about next week!

皆さんを愛しています！(Love you guys!)
また！(Also)
マーフィー長老 (Elder Murphy)


Selection from letter to William

I was reading some conference talks this week and one stood out to me. It is Elder Gary E. Stevenson' "Look to the Book, Look to the Lord". It is about the Book of Mormon, obviously, but it talks about how everything that we believe is centered and depends on the Book of Mormon. Next year in seminary is the Book of Mormon, and I think that a good way to get ready for that is to read it with the family. I know that it is true and I know that by the power of the Holy Ghost, who has testified to me in my heart the truth of the Restoration. Joseph Smith really did translate it by the power of God. There have been plenty of people here that have tried to dissuade me of my faith, but as I bear my testimony to them, the same testimony that I bear to you, the Spirit is there and manifests to those who have an open heart. In the January 2017 Ensign, on the last page, is a story by Hue B. Brown, a past General Authority. It is simply, a straight forward and true way of putting the importance of the Book of Mormon.

Another week done and gone

Sunset in Kiyose City

So, how has everyone's weeks been? I have had a great week. Good sights in the sky (the moon is really pretty here). There was a lot of finding time. We have been organizing our area book and putting all of the less-active and other members into a big searchable database. It takes forever. I think that I have been reading kanji, but only name kanji, a lot easier than last transfer.



We had zone meeting in Kichijoji this week. We talked a lot about scheduling and planning. I kind of fell asleep.

K was baptized on Saturday. Suzuki Kyōdai was going to be baptizing him but he had the inspiration to tell K to get baptized by an Elder, so he asked me the day of. That was scary.

Church was good, we impromptu taught gospel principles class. We played Crystal Maze today, an old game show from England. Elder Hawkins set up all kinds of mini-games.

Spiritual note from the week: I was reading the January Ensign and it is so useful! It addresses so much stuff that helps Japanese people. You all should read it. Thanks!

That is about it for the week. Love you,

マーフィー長老




We made it too full



Three birds on a third building

Cliffhanger

Sorry, it is happening again. A cliffhanger. I have an hour of p-day time tomorrow, so until then, adieu.
Ok, I am back!
It isn't much of a cliffhanger, but here are the real highlights from last week.

Ping pong with a real master. I can play against Japanese people now!
Giving Book of Mormons to libraries.
Talking to a bird to get directions to said libraries.
Really cold weather.

On Sunday night, it was raining and supposedly going to snow, but we housed 110 apartments and all of the people who opened up were really prepared and passed of to the sisters because they were all girls. But still, the two of us did that in one night! We really see the dendō fire when that is the only warm, thing we have, ha ha ha!

Monday was a ward Mochizuki, where you make mochi, or pounded rice. I would not suggest eating it unless it is a candy kind. That was a weird taste all day.

Monday night we went to a sports center and played indoor soccer with a bunch of members. They were savages. It was very rough and dirty play. I have also never seen a 69 year old be goalie.

We had a ton of lessons yesterday, so we were not able to do our p-day leftovers. K is doing great, he has his interview today.

I love you all! Keep up the fun work at home and school!
皆さんを愛しています！
マーフィー長老 (魔府医長老)

















From Dad's letter

Yeah, time really flies here too. I am sure that Mom will be so happy when she is done with school.

Gavin told me about driving and he loves it! He is crazy! I think about people driving here and the roads are so small! I wish I could take more naps, but we are always busy. I do appreciate the art of the nap more than before. Will you send me a side by side picture of everyone to see how the height is? I want to see how William and Quinten are sizing up. I think that I am going to beat William to the end of the New Testament, I am in John right now, so only 5 books left.

Pictures of the last year

So 2016 is gone and we have all of 2017 ahead of us...
Yeah!!!

Tuesday: Less active finding. We went to an extreme of the area, Kiyose, and we walked in the rain. That was cold. Today was a lot better than Monday evening. Everyone canceled on us. But on the bright side, we found the family that we were looking for! They were home and we are going to visit them tonight (Monday). We found a street that was an outdoor art gallery, but it was too dark for pictures.



Apple vending machine

Wednesday: today was a lot of walking. No one is really around during this time of year in Japan, and if they are, they didn't want to talk with us. Long day, not much to talk about. Eikaiwa was fun though.

Thursday: the day of planning. We did weekly and monthly planning today. It took all day. I don't really want to bore you with those details. Then we were on ping pong duty, but no one came, so I had a free lesson with Nakamura Kyōdai. I could be really good when I get back. He was going hard though, kind of scary.

Rice vending machine

Friday: Today we reaped the fruits of the phone cleaning. We have found a lot of people to teach from old PI and other files. We had a long lesson in a restaurant, weird guy, said that he used to be Jehovah's Witness or something, but wanted to meet with us.

Saturday: last day of the year and we spent it cleaning. We had really good traditional Japanese food though, I don't know what it was called, but it looked like a pot luck chicken soup. Our apartment is so clean!

Sunday: I became a samurai today! It was a long day at church and then we had a lot of personal reflection time. We have set goals and improved our study ideas, but it was all day. In Japan, New Years is more important than Christmas, so we couldn't do any effective dendō. But we can go hard this year!

Thanks for all of the support everyone, love you!
マーフィー長老

Our tatami room (where we sleep)