2017 03 20 Sendai is NOT Nago

Konichiwa! I've been now in my second area for about a week now and it has been freezing cold and rainy and its suit season again. It's been an interesting week though.

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

I woke up and went straight to the airport. Traffic was pretty bad getting there and we had some trouble finding out how to get my ticket. When it was all sorted out and I had gone through security, I had to RUN to my plane! but made it on time. It was a pretty short flight and I got my luggage okay. I was met by the senior missionaries for Kagoshima, the Packers, who are from AZ and actually live near Mountain View. We took the scenic route to Sendai (the name of the city is actually Satsumasendai), it actually was pretty cool. We got to Sendai and then the packers took us out for Indo curry. WAY GOOD. Then they took the Elder that needed to go home to the bus terminal and then me and Elder Voorhees (my new companion) did some でんどう(Dendo - tracking). Today was also Elder Voorhees' birthday and some members from Kagoshima that he served with took us out to dinner at a Hamazushi. They also do a Tuesday Eikaiwa  (english conversation class) too so, we did that too.

Benimo tart (made from potatoes)

fantastic members that feed us twice this week

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

でんどう (Dendo - tracking) all day long and it was cold. I sent some of my luggage by mail before leaving Okinawa and that showed up today, that was way nice.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

First we had district meeting in the afternoon after that we had Indo Curry (love that place) and then we had じゅんかい (Junkai - tour? Going around?) right afterwards which went about 4-7 because of Thursday Eikaiwa. Way fun day and still cold

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

We had lunch with a Less Active and the meal was seafood spaghetti, YUP! During lunch we got a call saying that my bike had showed up which was fantastic. Then we でんどう (Dendo - tracking) all night long.

The district

The district

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

The highlight from today is that I did a Mogi (the word means “imitation” but is used by the missionaries to mean a “role play” or “practice”) lesson with some members and well, it was a good experience. And then the normal hours of でんどう(Dendo - tracking)

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

For Stake Conference today we had to travel down to Kagoshima, but luckily some members gave us a ride. It was a pretty good Stake conference and I got to meet some new people and see Swapp 長老 (Choro - Elder, from the MTC district) again and that was pretty cool. After the Conference was over the same members that took us out to eat on Tuesday had a lunch with all the missionaries that they served with and of course their companions. It was way good. We went out to でんどう (Dendo - tracking) when we got back and normal day but we did see this guy shadow boxing on the street and we stopped to talk with him. He said he had some interest in meeting with us but since he was exercising at the moment that he couldn't meet right then. So we asked if we could meet him again some other time and he was said something like "sure, I live in the same apartment as you two". So we now might be teaching one of our neighbors!

spaghetti with prawn and shrimp		weird snack thing that was left by the other elder, taste like it is made of a potato
horse meat, actually not bad		Yennies (1¥) for days

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Rainy, cold and sad day. Any Monday that ISN’T a PDay is a sad day. For afternoon でんどう (Dendo - tracking) we decided to take a trip and kinda picked a direction and biked, in the rain and wind. It was pretty cool by the time we stopped to でんどう (Dendo - tracking) the wind got super bad.

Well Sendai in Kagoshima is going to be a fun place, cold and wet defiantly not home or Nago.

My companion accidentally rubbed some super spicy hot sauce in his eye. Here's a video of his experience.

2017 03 12 びっくり (SURPRISED!)

Konichiwa! SO, last week I ended my email with saying that this week was going to be uninteresting, NOPE. I couldn't be more surprised. There were a ton of cool experiences this week but if you want the biggest surprise just skip to the end... actually you'll have to read it to find out. Oh, and we’re still on walking everywhere.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Normal Pday, we did get a RA (Return Appointment) for Wednesday and that was way cool.

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

We had a pretty good DM (District Meeting) in the morning. Then after that, a member took us out to eat at a WAY nice restaurant and it was WAY good. Evening でんどう (Dendo - tracking) we found Matsuda, who is what we call a 金人 (KinJin - literal translation = gold person ie golden investigator) or prepared person and we have a RA (Return Appointment) with her on Wednesday along with our previous RA.

the food at the restaurant

the member really didn't want to be in the picture

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

We had our RA tonight, (the guy from Monday), but did answer. So we met up with Matsuda and she was home so we taught her the 1 Lesson. She seemed pretty excited to meet with us.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

We also so had a RA today with a young Mother that we had met last week. She was way cool too but.....she is moving, very soon. So, we are going to visit her a couple more times and then refer her to the missionaries where she is moving to. Eikaiwa (english conversation class) was normal, no one was there for the first 10 minutes so we were a little worried.

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

Remember last we when Elder Lords’ bike broke and we have to walk everywhere? And we found the Book of Mormon battles card game and we were going to challenge each other while we  でんどう (Dendo - tracking)? Well, it turns out that Elder Lords knows his BOM heroes pretty good. So instead of challenging each other while we contacted people, we actually read ALL of the Book of Ether during でんどう (Dendo - tracking) and that was way fun. We also went to go visit Matsuda and finished up Lesson 1. Like I said, she is WAY 金人 (KinJin - golden investigator) because she was asking us questions, like about what she was feeling as we were talking to her!!! 金人!!!!!!!!! She also told us that she never answers the door if she wasn't expecting anyone so that's another miracle that she even did opened the door for us!

Giant bonsai or am I shrinking?

random giant Bonsai tree we found while tracking

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

It was raining WAY hard this morning. It let up just in time for Basketball in the afternoon. We stopped at the church for something and I checked the missionary homepage and saw we had a referral. So, we called the number but there was no answer. AND, no one was there for basketball so we decided to just practice a bit. Then, out of nowhere, we got a call and it was our referral! She lives close by so she came on down to talk with us. We talked with her mostly BRT (Build a Relationship of Trust) but we did answer some questions about the Plan of Salvation. Way cool experience.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

So, a ton of しょくじ (Shokuji - meal, although it may also be missionary slang for a member referral) today. First one was held after church because a family was moving out and some cool people came. The first guy we met was a convert that Elder Lords baptized last year! The other person we met was a LA (Less Active) mom we had been trying to visit since I got to Nago. After that we got a message from Elder Bankester saying I had left behind some peanut butter from our last visit to Okinawa and he was bringing it up to me. We also so had a しょくじ (Shokuji - meal) in the evening with the Kasamura couple. We went ahead an set out to でんどう (Dendo - tracking) before they came and on the way back we got a call from our mission president, President Egan, and he wanted to talk with me..........

When he found out we had a しょくじ (Shokuji - meal) he said to call him later. The しょくじ (Shokuji - meal) was way good and we had another surprise with that. Kasamura Shimai (Shimai means “Sister”) had invited 2 of her students to join us. It was way fun and way good food.

しょくじ (Shokuji - meal) at the Kasamura's

So to recap - We’ve had actual return appointments, we met a golden investigator, we actually met the less active member that we were tracking down, we went to an appointment and they brought TWO extra friends to meet us. Everything is looking great here in Nago. So when we got back we called President Egan right away and you know what he told me? …….

Emergency Transfer!

I'm going up to Sendai on Tuesday. Yep, I am being transfered up to Sendai tomorrow and I have to pack all today pretty much. Right when things are getting way cool in Nago I've got to leave, darn it.

*NOTE FROM BLOG TRANSCRIBER AKA Elder Spencer’s Dad

WHAT!?!?!? So I served my mission in the Sendai Japan mission. I am THRILLED that Spencer was called to serve in the Japan Fukuoka mission, but now he’s being transferred to a new mission?!?! To MY old mission!! This is just AMAZING, and wild, and crazy, and wait… why is this happening? Why didn’t we hear this information from Spencer’s mission president? Or why didn’t we hear from his NEW mission president from the Sendai mission? Spencer sent me an email separate from the big group message. We were able to chat back and forth a bit in that email and I’ll include the information here.

Elder Spencer:

Hey, I'm transferring to Sendai tomorrow

Dad:

WHAT!?!?!?

That's a completely different mission!?!?!!

Elder Spencer:

Not a joke

Dad:

Well, I didn't think that it was a joke for sure, but Holy Cow?!?!? I'm so excited that you're going
to my old mission, but we'll have to get you a winter coat or something!

That's pretty incredible. So I guess that we'll be sending you care packages to Sendai
mission now. I just looked it up and the mission president is President Jeffrey R. Smith

Elder Spencer:

Actually that was a bit misleading. There is an area in the Kagoshima Prefecture called
Satsumasendai but everyone calls it “Sendai”. It’s still in the Fukuoka mission but I
am legitimately getting on a plane tomorrow and fly up to the Kagoshima area to serve
in Satsumasendai.

Dad:

Jerk

JUST KIDDING. I love you anyways. ;D

Elder Spencer:

I have to fly by myself and I can't read Japanese...

Dad:

It can be super scary, but make a note card with the basic sort of questions on it so that
you can have it for quick reference. my first area was a long bus ride all by myself.

Just don't ask people for the flight to Sendai!!  they will be just as confused as we were and
may steer you in the wrong direction. You've been training for this moment my son!
GO! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

So all that crazy stress, and he was just teasing us. LOVE that kid!

2017 03 05 Still Not a Fan of Journaling

Konichiwa! Fun fact for the week, we did a ton of stuff and I didn't write down any of it in my journal because......I was LAZY. Soooooooooooooooooooo, this is going to be significantly shorter letter, (probably) and I will journal better this coming week.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Pday, pretty normal. We did some apartment tracking at night and talked to some interesting people and invited them to Eikaiwa.

I mentioned chicken and spaghetti for every dinner and we weren't joking

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

We continued to でんどう (Dendo - tracking) in the place we had been “blitzing” last week. We found a shop there that was selling 100 yen okinawa soba (100 yen is about a dollar) and it was pretty good. Then we finished up some apartment tracking in the evening.

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

Elder Whiting, who is the President of the Asia north area, came down and did a conference with us. He mentioned something cool in his talk that I feel like I need to improve on. He said that we should not be speaking bad about each other, and I challenge you all to do the same. That’s not something Jesus did, and we’re all trying to be like him, right? :D

All the missionaries at the conference

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

hahahahaha, what an interesting day today. So, we were heading back from Morning でんどう (Dendo - tracking) when my companion's derailer broke off his bike. So, we spent the next couple hours trying to fix it, then walking to the bike shop. ONLY TO FIND OUT that it will take about a week for the needed part to be shipped in. That means there will be lots of walking in my future. So, we walked to eikaiwa (english conversation class) in the evening. There was a smaller turn out, but a college girl that we talked with on Monday came in, and that was way cool. Then, we RAN about a mile, up hill and in our Sunday clothes to get back to the apartment before 9, we barely made it.

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

So, since we don't have bikes to ride now we just でんどう (Dendo - tracking) around where we are at. So, we でんどう (Dendo - tracking) some houses on the way to the church, near the bike shop and for evening でんどう (Dendo - tracking) we decided to go and visit the college student to see what her interesting in the gospel was. BUT, she wasn't home and then we had to hurry back because we were being picked up that evening to go down to Okinawa city for a companion exchange the next day.

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

Down in Okinawa today, じゅんかい (Junkai - tour? It could be mission slang) with Elder Lystov. It was way fun, while でんどう (Dendo - tracking) we found some kids play basketball and I asked to join and it was a ton of fun. And later in the evening I ate some Mochi cover ice cream (pounded sticky rice with an ice cream filling), sound weird but was good.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Fast Sunday, started with walking down to the church to give a member a blessing. Then, a pretty normal day, but there were most of the brothers in the ward were gone, it was kinda weird. Normal day, we found the Book of Mormon battles card game some weeks ago and randomly during でんどう (Dendo - tracking) Elder Lords fanned out a bunch of them and told me to pick one. Apparently we are going to try and memorize all the people in the Book of Mormon. It seemed like a good idea, let us see how long it lasts.