2017 04 23 じゅんかい (Splits)

Konichiwa! Well, it's been a fun week with a ton of interesting things that happened and as the title said, 巡回 (Junkai - patrol / splits) a lot this week.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

It rained ALL FREAKING DAY LONG!!! Both mine and Elder Voorhees' jackets soaked all the way through, but a funny thing happened, we saw a snake commit suicide. It was very entertaining.

This are not injuries

some how my shoes dyed my feet blue

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

We had district meeting and then went on a 巡回 (Junkai - patrol / splits) with Elder Campbell and that was way fun. We had a way cool time, talked to some way cool people and actually got a return appointment, which was way exciting. Also, we were going to 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) with the Zone leaders tomorrow so, they came over tonight, and the Taniyama Elders were staying over too, that means we had SIX Elders in our not super big apartment, it was... interesting.

thanks for the package 家族 (Kazoku - family)

Hmmm, the jellybeans didn't stay in the eggs

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

巡回 (Junkai - patrol / splits) with one of the ZLs Elder York. Like I said, we have extra elders in our apartment and we only have 2 bikes so we ended up walking EVERYWHERE. It turned out to be a way cool experience though. We talked to a ton of people, got a ton of RA (Return Appointments) and found a guy who most of his family is LDS and we got to talk with him for a good amount of time.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

So, we had an apartment check which means we spent all morning cleaning. We passed but right afterwards we went to 2 RA (Return Appointments) that I had set the day before, the 1st lady wasn't home so we went to the one right after it and they weren't home either. Came back, weekly planned and then went to Eikaiwa (English conversation class).

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

We went to a RA (Return Appointments) that Elder Voorhees had sent and we taught her for a little bit and got another RA (Return Appointments) from her, which means WE GOT A NEW INVESTIGATOR!! It was very exciting. We were going to visit a LA (Less Active) in the afternoon and she likes Mexican food, so we made some homemade tortillas to give her. We had a RA (Return Appointments) appointment before with a young mom, she was cool but didn't seem interested.

we found it dead in a canal and asked someone what it was and they called it a Tanuki. It’s a Japanese Racoon Dog!!  LINK

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

We played some WAY good basketball in the evening and it was a ton of fun.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Church and then in the evening we found some cool people that we got some RA (Return Appointments) from. It's been a WAY better week this week and a lot of it has to do with attitude. I learned that if you're going to go out and do something with the attitude that you will fail or just a negative mind set, you will fail and not have fun. BUT, if you go out with a attitude that you WILL succeed or just a positive mind set then your chances of success are exponentially higher and you will have a blast!

Updates from Dad...

It doesn't happen every week, but on occasion, IF we respond quick enough, we can have a little chat with Spencer over email. This was one of those weeks, so I have some extra information to add to his general email message.

The missionaries can read paper letters whenever they receive them, but they can only read their emails on their P-day. So, I've been waiting until Sunday to write Spencer a personal letter so that it would be on the top of the new emails list from the week. Apparently my email was the only email he got this week. If you have a moment, shoot him a quick note and maybe a photo with an update of the happenings in your life. After the rough week he had last week I tried to offer him some advice about trials and growth, and I'm sure that he would love to hear from a few other people too.

I told him that I was worried about the subject line of last week's email. The translation reads, "Will you please put an end to my suffering". I asked if he was referring to the suffering of his hurt knee or just the struggle of being a missionary. He replied and said that he just had a bad week for missionary work and that they felt like we were wasting time and being unsuccessful. I tried to reassure him a bit, but also told him that the truth is that he will feel that way quite a bit while doing missionary work in Japan. From the looks of this week's message they HAVE found some new investigators and that he recognizes that a positive attitude can change a whole situation.

We are also thrilled to announce that Spencer says that his knee is basically back to normal now, and has no pains at all.

2017 04 16 Will you please put an end to my suffering

Konichiwa! Here’s the translation of the subject line for this week’s email. 私の苦しみを終えって下さい (Watkushi no Kurashime o Oette Kudasai - Will you please put an end to my suffering.) Ya, I'm not giving you a translate, have fun finding it. It's been an interesting week, we actually saw the sun for a couple days, it was weird but here is the week.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Normal, super rainy.

The Sakara (cherry blossoms) are now blooming

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

We went to Kagoshima for 面接 (mensetsu - interview) and then hung out the the district for a little bit. On the way back though we talked to these way cool people, this Japanese guy and his Chinese wife, both grew up in Australia and it was way cool to talk to them. We also had a some new students in Eikaiwa (English conversation class), a mom and her two kids.

more cherry blossoms

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

伝道した (Dendo shita- tracking (past tense)) all day and knocked on all day. For the evening though, Aoki 会長 (Choro - Elder) (He’s the branch president with the same last name as my first companion) took us to a place that was a bit further away and that was pretty cool.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

Weekly planning and Eikaiwa (English conversation class). Cool thing that happened with Eikaiwa was the new family from Tuesday came and also a new girl came, about high school age.

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

Normal day of all day 伝道 (Dendo - tracking).

scenic...

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

So, my knees were hurting a bit and when I talked with the mission doctor he told me to go to the Orthopedic and after going there we found out I have what is called Jumper's Knee, it's just an overuse injury and they just gave me pain meds and to take in easier. Cool thing that happened was Aoki 会長 (Choro - Elder) took us out to eat some Yakiniku (grilled meat) and we found some kids during the evening and had a way fun game of Basketball.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Church was normal, no investigators came but we don't have any. We went back to an area we had began to 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) and 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) it some more and we came back way tired and not super happy and way tired.

2017 04 09 It's Rainy

Konichiwa! こにちわみ皆さん!!! (Konichiwa Minasan - Hellow everyone). As the title of this email said, it's Rainy and a lot more then back home.It's been a way fun week and we actually did a ton.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Pretty normal P-day but something's that were different is we nerded out a bit or I did and went a head and bought some ポケモン (Pokemon) cards, there pretty cheap ¥290 ($2.68) per pack.

Here's those Pokemon cards I mentioned

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

I rode the 新幹線 (Shinkansen - bullet train) to Kumamoto for a Zone conference, which was way cool and after the conference I got to visit with some people I know and the hopped and Shinked (missionary vocabulary - used the bullet train) back.

pal Barlow 長老 (choro) is in Kumamoto. We met in the MTC, but his dad and my dad lived in the same apartment during their mission in the Northern Sendai Japan.

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

We found these way cool people during 伝道 (Dendo - tracking), and we talked to them for like a half an hour and gave them both a Book of Mormon.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

Weekly planning and Eikaiwa (English conversation class). Eikaiwa was cool because a ton of people showed up that haven’t been there the past couple weeks.

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

I did a Mogi (practice or role play) lesson with a member at their house but it took us forever to get there for 2 reasons;

1. they live WAY out there

2. we got lost

BUT, when we got there we had a cool lesson and afterwards did some calligraphy and that was way cool. In the evening we went with Aoki会長 (Choro - Elder) (did I mention that the branch president had the same name as my trainer?) to go do some Home Teaching.

our "lovely" first couple tries at calligraphy

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

Basically just General Conference but we watched all 3 Saturday sessions straight with only a couple minutes of break, it was a bit rough.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

GC again but we also had a 食事 (Shokuji - meal) with the members, WAY good food. And we went out and 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) a new area for the 2 of us and it was a lot better than it thought.

My favorite talk from conference this year was my M Russell Ballard about setting goals, that is important to do if we wish to reach our highest potential, I would also recommend reading the goal setting part in PMG (Preach My Gospel), it's in chapter 8. For fact for Sendai right now, it's raining pretty hard right now and I have been informed that in rainy season you don't see the sun so, I'm looking forward to that.

2017 04 02 薩摩川内 (Satsuma Kawauchi)

Konichiwa! Hello again 皆さん (Minasan - everyone). It's been a 普通 (Futsū - ordinary) week.

Cool thing that happened this week is we found some Japanese Tanks, way cool! They did a paraded around the streets in 川内  (Sendai - the name of the city that he’s in. Fun fact, the Kanji or Japanese letters for Sendai can also be pronounced KawaUchi. If you translate that Japanese word it says “River Insides”).

us in front the tanks

The tank parade on Saturday was way cool. We also went down to 谷山  (TaniYama - another city name. The literal translation means Valley Mountain… that’s contradictory) for district meeting on Thursday and Campbell 長老 (Choro - Elder) is now in my district so, it was way cool seeing him, again. (NOTE Elder Campbell was Spencer’s MTC companion)

We got to 谷山 (TaniYama city) by 電車  (Densha - electric trail) and that was a WAY cool for a first time. 微妙 (Bimyō - subtle) moment of the week was Wednesday we were 伝道  (Dendo - proselytizing) in the rain, it rained about everyday last week. We started on this one apartment and we were working our way down and on the third floor from the top we knocked on the door, no answer, so we moving to the next one but before we knock on it we hear three massive thumps and the door we just knocked on opens up. We said こんばんわ  (Konbonwa - Good Evening) a couple times but no response. Then they started chanting in Japanese so, with all our wits we RAN….fast! We had no idea what was said but we figured it was a 神道  (Shintō - one of the main Japanese Religions) curse of some kind. (Shinto is a Japanese religion dating from the early 8th century and incorporating the worship of ancestors and nature spirits and a belief in sacred power (kami) in both animate and inanimate things. It was the state religion of Japan until 1945. The other main religion in Japan is Buddhism)

That's all I got for this week but, last Pday we visited a 神社 (Jinja - a temple or Shrine) that is nearby, it was pretty cool.

またね (Mata ne - See ya!)

way cool shrine with endless stairs		shrine
stairs		stairs
the arch you had to cross before getting to the bottom step