2017 05 07 Hey, It's a New Transfer!

Konichiwa! I have survived another transfer, one down and another year and a half ぐらい (gurai - approximately) left. It's been a way fun transfer so far and it's going to be HECK-a fun.

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

YEP, I'm staying but Sendai is going be a 4-man town. So 1 elder leaves and 3 new elders are coming in! FUN!

awesome 名刺 (meishi - business card) I drew

Yagame長老, comps for a day

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

Today was all packing but we had a party at the Aoki's house and it was way good.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

I was in Kagoshima most of the day waiting for Yagame 長老 (Choro - elder) to come. He is part of the other companionship and I almost missed my train because we didn't know where he was. I went down to the platform and he was just chillin’ there, so that was a relief. Then the evening was heck-a stressful! So, I got a call from the branch president saying the other 2 Elder didn't show up. It turned out that they were running a bit late, so they decided to stay at the Zone Leader’s apartment. Then I got a call from a pay phone, for Voorhees asking me to get a hold of the Kure elders because NO ONE was there to pick HIM up! I acted as a middle-man between him and the Kure elders. I hate transfers. :S

I think I'd make a good clock model

me, Elder Chadwick and Hedamichi (a LA we taught)

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

Elder Williams and My new companion Elder Chadwick came.

I'm Batman

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

Saturday, while 伝道した (Dendo shita - tracking (past tense)) we ran into some JWs and we had a cool talk with them and we had way fun game night. We just went around to different parks and “balled up” (basketball contacting), WAY fun!

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Today was a normal fast Sunday, but afterward I got MUGGED! (by three granddaughters of a member) The mugging resulted in the theft of my mintias (Japanese candy mints). Then we talked to Aoki会長 (Choro - elder) about some of the contacts in our area book and had a freaking fantastic 食事 (shokuji - meal) at their house. We also talked to some way cool people during 伝道 (Dendo - tracking).

we got a freak ton of bananas! Weekly planning got a little.......boring

Update from Dad…

I reported to Spencer that we did a dinner experiment the other night and that we tried eating fondue. When I asked if he’d had any interesting dinner experiences lately he responded that he’s been eating pretty normal and that it's been pretty good quality. So far, probably the weirdest is that Spence has eaten is Okonomiyaki. Which is a kind of Japanese pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name comes from the word “okonomi”, meaning "how you like" and yaki meaning "grill".

After learning about this new food trial we asked if Spence had started to make his own meals or if he was still having his companion do the cooking. He reported that he IS learning some new cooking skills, but that it’s mostly his companion doing the cooking.

2017 05 01 Tranfer Calls

Konichiwa! Hey Yo, it's been another fun week here in not real Sendai. It's been a busy week with an extra day to talk about. Here is the week...

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Normal Pday, bought a little model that you have to put it together because I was bored, thanks for the idea Daddy'o. In the evening we had 2 RA, the first person, her son came out and said they were good and the second lady we showed up a bit late and planned to talked with her for about 15 minutes but she was asking us a ton of good questions and we ended up teaching almost all of lesson 1, way cool.

Update from Dad…

Sometimes Spence is able to hang out on email for a bit and respond to our messages. A few weeks ago he sent me a message with the subject, “A quick favor”. He had heard that the Australian cookie Tim Tam were pretty popular in Japan but he couldn’t find any. He asked me to use my internet skills to try and find a store that carried them. I found 2 stores but they were out of his area. I followed up and asked him if he had found some exciting things to do on his Preparation Day. He said that aside from a Monopoly game they didn’t have anything to do. I suggested that he look into a Hobby Shop because he likes models and robots and HELLO!!!! what better place to explore robot toys than Japan. I also told him that getting to know the shop owners in the area was a good way to meet people and simply be a good neighbor. So when he thanks me in his email for encouraging him to go by toys because he’s bored on his mission, there’s more to the story than he’s saying. And now you know the REST of the story.

The model thing I bought		The model thing I bought
The model thing I bought

Tuesday (火 Moku 曜日yobi):

Last district meeting and I went on 巡回 (Junkai - patrol / splits) with Elder Rowley, way cool guy. A cool miracle we say was I made a RA (return appointment) last week and it didn't work out but we visited her again today and we were able to talk with her and taught her a little bit, way cool.

Wednesday (水 Sui 曜日yobi):

It rained freaking ALL DAY, what kind of weather is this? It's supposed to rain hard for like 2 hours at most and it doesn't rain again for a couple months. But it was a cool day, we had 2 RA (return appointment) in the morning that didn't work out and for the fun of it we went to a far area and talked to some cool people.

Thursday (木 Moku 曜日yobi):

普通 (Futsu - normal) day, weekly planning and Eikaiwa (English conversation class).

Weekly planning got a little.......boring

Weekly planning got a little.......boring

Friday (金 Kin 曜日yobi):

Fairly 普通 (Futsu - normal) day except for dinner. We went to our branch president's house and had steaks, WAY good. And I did a 模擬 (Mogi - mock or test) lesson with them that wasn't too bad.

Missionary Apartments, everything brakes

Saturday (土 do 曜日yobi):

We kind of started some basketball 伝道 (Dendo - tracking) here but it hasn't really picked up steam, so Voorhees practiced his dunk, yep he can dunk on a 10ft hoop and he is shorter than me.

Sunday (日 nichi 曜日yobi):

Pretty good day, we got a RA (return appointment) last week from a guy that gave us soda and we came back but either wasn't home or didn't answer, it was kinda sad.

Monday (月 Getsu 曜日yobi):

Since it was transfers we delayed our P-day. We had a RA (return appointment) with a lady that was a new investigator but she didn't answer. In the evening we had a dinner with the Aoki's again and this time they had a friend over, we taught them how to make tortillas and fajitas and then talked about the BOM, way cool. Well, today is that infamous transfer call day and we haven't got them yet but, we're pretty sure that I'm staying and Elder Voorhees is leaving.

Elder Voorhees make tortillas

Update from Dad…

Here’ an email that we received from Spencer’s Mission…

Parents of the Best Missionaries in the World!

As some of you might have seen in the news, Mount Sakurajima in Kagoshima erupted yesterday morning. The volcano erupts periodically with no real danger other than sending volcanic smoke up into the air. All of the missionaries in the surrounding regions have been contacted and are safe. The eruption presented no dangerous living conditions for any of our missionaries, so no evacuations will be made.

-Japan Fukuoka Mission

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.