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.

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.