Christmas 2016 part TWO!

Here's a little video of our Chat with Spencer.

Christmas 2016

Hello Mina San,

This is just going to be a short email because I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It defiantly hasn't felt like Christmas, all the trees still have their leaves, not even cold and people here are going to get KFC. It has been nice to tell people about the true meaning of Christmas even if they don't want to know more. It is lots of work and none is easy but I love it out here the people are great and the Branch is a ton of fun. 

Remember, one only needs to drop the last syllable in Spirit of Christmas to make it the Spirit of Christ. I believe President Monson said something close to that but the Idea is the same.

Lots of love to everyone and remember to open your mouth about the gospel and God has promised it "Shall be filled"

Dec 18, 2016

Hello Everyone,

I have successfully survived my first transfer and have made it to being out a little under a year. To answer some unasked questions, yes I do hit my head on lot of things though probably not as much has a would on Kyuushuu(the island that has Fukuoka) or Hondo(the main island, has Hiroshima), kaicho has asked that we either say 'a little over a year' or 'a little under a year' when asked how long we have been out. And now to my Week...

Tuesday: Me, Aoki and Mizukawa and staying in Nago while Osborne i leaving to Yamaguchi to be a breaker(first companion after trainer), District Leader and Zone Leader, he is going to be busy. We went down to the beach and just hung out for a good amount of time, it was Kirei(beautiful) and there was a fantastic breeze, okay it was really strong but it felt great. 

(sign says "Dangerous beyond this point", but it looks really cool)

Wednesday: I got a package today, a little underwhelming

(the forced perspective is supposed to make the box from us look like the size of the Altoids can. It did not look like it to me, but I sent the box so I already knew how big it was)

 Okay joking, I was really excited and it is actually much bigger. It arrived around lunch and then we went straight to work. Since Osborne was leaving tomorrow, him and Mizukawa stayed at the apartment so he could pack. We made some RA (return appointments) for today but none of them happened, it was a little sad. When we came back for dinner, we waited a little longer to leave to でんどう(dendoing - tracting) so we could see Osborne off and so we could take Mizukawa with us on our でんどうing.

Yep, we have wands, I have Voldemort, Aoki has Harry, Mizukawa has Belatrix and Osborne has Ron

Thursday: the companionship was a threesome because Mizukawa doesn't have a companion so he came with us. We mostly でんどう in the inakas(countryside) and there weren't many people who talked to use. I did teach eikaiwa mostly by myself, which was pretty fun. Elder Houseknecht(the new elder) came near the end of it, so I had him come up and finish it off.

Friday:today we taught an AB(After Baptism) Lesson to Kouichi Shimai and I did teach a small part of the Lesson, it was mostly scripted but it went okay. Then we did weekly planning and でんどう, which nothing interesting happened. 

Saturday: I went on splits today with Houseknecht ad we started it of with a drive to Ginoza, a small town. We took part in a "Forgetting the Year" celebration, it was super cool and a ton of fun. Then we had our Basketball でんどう, still a ton of fun, but since Houseknecht's bike isn't here yet because he had to ship it from his last area so, we walked everywhere. It was a lot of fun, we stayed by the Basketballcourt to でんどう s that we didn't waste time walking back and forth. 

Sunday: church as usual, can't understand anything. We did do a song practice afterwards for the upcoming Christmas thing we are doing. Then we got back for lunch, and after lunch we tried in vain to contact some LA(less-active) but one where home. But, while we でんどう we did hand-out 2 BoM, which was really cool.

Things our great here, still super hard but it is fun. There is a lot to do and not much at the same time, is weird. 

The top and bottom are the guy who was in charge of the event and the middle is the group I sung with and I am next to Houseknecht

This video is of a 6 year old playing the piano.

This video is from the Forgetting the Year event.

Opening Christmas Advent 2016

Here are the things that we sent Spencer for Christmas. We sent them wrapped and he was supposed to open them one day at a time.

He knew to expect a package from us and received this altoids box (on left). Not sure who that was from, because the box on the right is the one from us. It cost us $95 for shipping!!  Yikes! We will have to learn more about how they charge for shipping so we can be more frugal next year.

Day1: Christmas decorations. This tree was cut from a plastic table cloth. The star is from craft foam and glittered up by Talley. We also sent tinsel garland and battery powered Christmas lights. Hopefully he used those to decorate and just didn't send pictures of it. We also made red circle ornaments that we put notes from family and friends on. Again, hopefully he used those and just didn't send a picture.

We sent a Harry Potter wand and house tie for each of the missionaries in the apartment. Spencer got all of the house ties, because we just like him more! We sent each of them wrapped and labeled with the missionary's name. They were not supposed to open them until Christmas day, but I guess it worked out for the best since one of the elders was transferred shortly after Spencer received the box.

Here is Spencer and his companion playing with the wands and lightsticks

Day 2 - A Nativity set. We wanted him to have some things to make it feel like Christmas. 

Day 3 - Stockings. Again we wanted him to have some decorations. Also, later gifts are things Santa usually leaves in the stockings.

Days 4 - muffin mix. Just a little taste of home

Day 5 - Snowman Soup (a.k.a. hot chocolate with candy canes and marshmallows)

So far Spencer has not sent us any more pictures of what we sent. I guess next year I will need to take pictures as we wrap them up!

Dec 12, 2016

I did not receive an email from Spenci as expected, so I emailed the mission office:

Dear Mission Office,

I really don't want to be a difficult or hovering parent, so I really hope this email is not out of line or an annoyance. I know you are very busy. Elder Brinkerhoff is our oldest child so I realize I may be more concerned than is necessary. However, I did not receive the expected email from my missionary Elder Brinkerhoff yesterday, so I am just checking in to make sure that he is fine.

Thanks,

Jennifer Brinkerhoff

First time Missionary Mom


This is the reply I received. I love the tag line.


Sister Brinkerhoff,

Thank you for your email of concern. Every six weeks we have transfer in the mission, and during that week, transfers are pushed back to Tuesday. This is transfer week, so P-day has been moved to Tuesday. 

You should receive an email from him today! He is an incredible missionary!

-Elder Colton

Japan Fukuoka Mission Office

First time missionary!

Dec 12, 2016 Accident Counter - 1

Hello everyone!  This is going to be about a day later than normal because we  have transfers this week. I'm staying, Aoki Chōrō is staying, Mizukawa Chōrō is staying, and Osborne Chōrō is going to the mainland but hasn't told us where. Now the Week:

Monday: Nearly died on my bike. We had gone to a music story that Mizukawa had found, he is really good at guitar and Osborne is really good at banjo and after we. And finished we were heading back to the apartment and they had all turned off the sidewalk to ride in the street and I was a tad bit late on turning. The side walk was a lot lower than the curb, so I hit the curb and bounce over it and landed in the middle of the street. It shocked me but I was able to ride and catch up, I am unhurt and fine. Tuesday: we had DTM this morning on how to use the Christmas season in the でんどう (Dendo - “proselytizing") and it was pretty fun.

Then we went out to eat and おいしかった(Oishikatta - “was delicious”).

Wednesday: we had lunch today with Taketomi 兄弟(brother) and we went to this Hotel and they have a restaurant that is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet, that was really good. Also I almost got hurt again. Riding on the sidewalk and there was a car parked on the sidewalk so, I slowed down to go around it and there were these two people walking and I couldn't get a round them so, I turned a little wider and my tire hit some uneven pavement and it launched me off my bike. Luckily I land on my feet so i was able to pick up my bike and ride away unharmed

Thursday: Oddly we did no でんどう (Dendo - “proselytizing") today, it was weird. We weekly planned until dinner then we went and taught Eikawa (English class). We did do some one on one conversation because only two people showed up and that was really cool.

Friday: じゅんかい (Junkai - splits). I went with Mizukawa Chōrō today and had a blast. I found out he is a huge Star Wars fan as well so, that was yet of or conversations. We also found this Lady who literal lives on top of a hill and she had a huge house. We taught her for about 10 minutes, baptism invite, gave her a Book of Mormon and tried to get a Return appointment, it was really cool. After dinner we went to the area by the church, oddly it was more rural feeling. We didn't get many contacts but we did visit a member who lives in the area and shared a message with her.

Saturday: we had a weird thing happen during the でんどう(Dendo - “proselytizing"), the last house we knocked on before going to go do “basketball でんどう” (Basketball Dendo) (get to that later), this lady answered the door and we started to talk to her and she told us to wait and she went and got this younger girl (looked like her daughter) to come talk to us. It was really interesting and part of it was because she has a bible, pretty much no one has a bible in Japan.

Basketball でんどう, we went to a basketball court near the beach (pretty much the only one I've seen in Nago) and we played basketball with who ever showed up and we had a pretty good turn out and it was a blast. Afterwards we invited them to A&W to get some floats but no one could come. We also had dinner with some members today, the Kasamura. They are really cool, the English isn't too bad. They were sealed in the Hawaii temple a couple months ago and both are really strong members.

Sunday: We gave Kouichi 姉妹 (Shimai - sister) the gift of the Hoy Ghost before sacrament part of sacrament meeting started, it was super cool. でんどう (Dendo - “proselytizing") was the usual but this one lady did tell us about the Water God, I understood none of it and neither did Aoki. Before dinner we went caroling with Taketomi 兄弟 (Kyodai - brother) and that was super fun, we went to 4 people but only 2 opened up their doors, one of them had us come in and we talked for a little bit and she gave us a little snack.

Monday: Not P-day. We went and でんどう (Dendo - “proselytizing") farther than normal, about anchor bike ride to a place called Yagaji island, it was a long ride but mostly flat.

Blue dot in the bottom center of the picture is the Apartment and the arrow at the top is where we went to.

After that we went to the mall to get some food with Miyagi 兄弟 (Kyodai - brother), a branch member who is nice but has some mental disabilities. After that me and Aoki went to go teach a patient all investigator we found while tracking, Miyamoto San. He is really nice and likes the mormons.

During the lesson I felt something on my neck so, I reached up to grab it and I felt it wriggle so I panicked and flung it at the ground, it was this pale worm looking thing, it was really gross. The bug thing left this on my collar, not happy and disgusted

Japan is a ton of fun. Thank you all for your prayers of protection. Here is a video for your entertainment of me eating Nato (it's fermented soybeans), enjoy!