Sunday, July 25, 2010

So this was a pretty good week.

Monday - so after P-day we went to a place called Nara. So here some Japanese history for you but right now the capital is Tokyo right? Before Tokyo it was a place called Kyoto, I have been there 2 or 3 times and sent you pictures and before Kyoto was Nara so they have a bunch of cool stuff there and its all way, way old. One of the building we visited was the oldest wooden building in the world or something crazy like that. Also we went to another park that have deer EVERYWHERE and you can go up and pet them and feed them and stuff. I will make sure I send you some pictures. It was pretty fun. We went as a district and had a good time.

Tuesday - We had District Mtg and went to eat out afterwords. After that we had some streeting time but didn't have much luck and did Eikaiwa which was normal.

Wednesday - We had an exchange with the other elders in our district. They both came down to Habikino and we did a 4 man in our area for this day. I was with Elder Jones, he is our DL and will be leaving for home next week. He is from Payson so we live pretty close. Way cool guy, really funny, and a good missionary, I was able to learn a lot from him. All together we were able to find 3 investigators for our area and somehow met 2 others from there area and set up appointments so both companion ships got new investigators which is cool. Also we taught Sho the guy that learned english in Australia I don't remember if I told you about him. Anyways he believes in this religion called kofuku no kagaku (Happy Science is the direct translation). They believe that their leader had part of god in him and has been born 7 times on the earth. Each time he was born he started a new religion so our church was already started by him and stuff. Yeah it was a tough lesson but not much came of it. We probably will drop him but we will see what happens

Thursday - We had a lot of dendo time but for lunch we got invited over to a members house. Her name is Tachibana and she is way nice and makes way good food. Apparently Elder Fukui knows her really well (He was in this area) and told her to invite us over which was way nice. Hopefully we can make a better relationship with her over the next few weeks. We were able to find 3 new investigators this day which was cool. One of them is from Morocco and seems pretty promising. He just quit drinking and smoking and says that he misses religion in his life so we will see how his lessons go we are meeting him on sat.

Friday - We had a lesson with a highschool kid but went a little hard and scared him away I think. We couldn't make a new appointment but maybe later when we give him a call. We also found a new investigator that is already christian so hopefully we can help him out

Sat - We had 2 really great lessons. The first one was with a new investigator named Azuma, hiromichi. Way cool guy with pretty good english. He wants to go over to america and work and stuff but anyways he has alot of interest and is one of our progressing investigators at the moment. We were able to teach all of lesson one and committed him to read and pray about it. I think he has some strong desire so he should be able to get an answer pretty easily. We are going to meet him on sat.
The next guy is named daisuke. He actually believes in budism which most people don't. He has an open mind which makes it easy to teach him. We taught lesson 1 and gave him a tour of the church. Hopefully we can baptize him also.

Sunday - We were suppose to have Yuki come to church but he stood us up for the 2nd time in a row now which is frustrating. We did streeting afterwords but not much luck.

So it was another good week. Hopefully we can get these new people to progress a little better and get someone committed to baptism soon.

Thanks for the package i haven't gotten it yet but I am excited I am sure that it will be great. We only have one more p day before transfers which is weird. Its going by pretty fast.

Thank you for everything
Love you tons
cam

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Hey

Hey how is everyone? It sounds like the trip out to Oregon was a fun one. I remember going there when we were all pretty little. It was fun and we got to see all that underwater reef stuff. Yeah we have heard all about Spain winning the world cup sounds pretty cool. Wish I could have seen it. Oh well I guess there is always the next one.

So this week was pretty good.

Tuesday - We had a TON of rain all day. We spent a lot of time housing and walking around in the rain but its pretty tough to do missionary work during the rain. We were able to teach Hashimoto again this week. We went over the Plan of Salvation and had him teach it to us to review. He did a way good job and understood almost all of it. He is still working on his parents but during the lesson he pretty much said that we were going to have to wait until he gets a job. After the lesson we did english class which is pretty weak in this area and we are hoping that we can strengthen it over the next few weeks.

Wednesday - It rained all day again. We were lucky enough to stop a guy in the morning when it stopped raining for about 10 min and set up an appointment with him. We also got another by walking around in the rain and I think the guy felt sorry for us so he decided to make an appointment. Other than that just a lot of rain but 2 investigators is really good in the rain.

Thursday - We did a lot of streeting again and were able to find 2 investigators. Also later that night I kind of had a crazy phone call with Hashimoto. While I was talking to him and answering his questions I could hear his mom yelling at him in the background and stuff and he had to hang up on me. I later found out from a member he texted that his mom went crazy on him and said he couldn't go to church at all and stuff, that they were going to disown him and all this other crazy stuff. Its all cleared up now and but it was pretty scary at the time, we thought we were going to lose a way solid investigator because of it. Pretty good day

Friday - We had interviews with president. They have now changed how they do interviews and ZC for all the missions around the world. Interviews and ZC are only once a a quarter now and they have other trainings that the mission president can do and stuff so we won't have another until October which is kind of weird. My interview went good, sounds like I might train again next transfer but its still too early to tell so we will see what happens. After interviews we took an investigator to a YSA activity. They have them every week and the missionary couple that ran it went home and since they left it slowly has been getting worse and worse kind of falling apart so its not as good as it use to be but its still pretty fun. There is a new Japanese couple in the mission running it and hopefully they can pick it back up.

Sat. We got stood up by one of our solid investigators which was way frustrating. I was really hoping to get him a baptismal date at the lesson. I guess he isn't as serious as we thought he was but we were able to make another appointment with him on the phone and we will see what happens next week. We also got a call from Hashimoto telling us that he couldn't come to church this week but that his parents are not going to throw him out and stuff and that his mom is going to come to church next week! So we are way excited, hopefully she will come and the members will do a good job and his mom will let him be baptized. I really hope it all works out, its been almost a year since my last one so I really hope he goes through. We were able to find one other investigator that night which was nice.

Sun. - We didn't get anyone to church this week which was a bit of a let down but next week should be good. After church we went to that weird ladies house that knew all the missionaries which was a giant waste of time. We were only over there for one hour thankfully. She has no interest in the gospel, just in fooling around with missionaries which she has done for 30 years kind of crazy but we probably won't visit her again. After that we did some streeting but it was pretty dead.

So yeah a decent week with some progress with Hashimoto. I really hope he can be baptized he is really prepared and so ready to get baptized he just needs the go from his parents. Hopefully this week turns out good for him.

Thank you for getting that package ready its going to be great I am sure. I am way excited for the books and stuff.

Thanks for everything
Love you
Cam

So yeah I just got a phone call from Hashimoto and he totally dropped us. Yeah so his dad supposedly got sick because of him wanting to join the church. His dad stopped eating, sleeping, talking and just was sitting in a chair and all this bull crap. So he decided to drop us and wait until his dad dies to get baptized. I was super super bold with him and straight up told him that he getting baptized is more important than his dad. That he knows its true through the spirit and he has to act on that and stuff but he wouldn't change his mind. His dad is pretty good I won't lie I didn't expect that but man its so frustrating.

I guess we did what we were suppose to by giving him the chance to enter the waters of baptism but he obviously doesn't have as strong of a desire as we had hoped. I am going to try to do kind of a low move by asking him for his address so I can write him and then visit his family by surprise sometime. He said he still wanted to be friends and get my address and stuff and come visit if he was in America and stuff. I don't want to fully give up yet but we will see how it goes. Looks pretty bad right now I pretty much told him straight up that this is his chance to accept the gospel and if he doesn't he will not be saved but he still refused. Man I am pretty frustrated but I guess we just have to work hard and find some other people to teach now. Maybe it will all work out some how.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Hey, how is everyone?

So this was an alright week. We had a really good week but kind of a disappointing sunday but anyways.

Tuesday - We met with a few new investigators and the lessons went pretty well. One is now progressing but it will take him a long time to get baptized. He is pretty set in his ways and is the first japanese person I have met that does drugs but is way cool and a really nice guy. We also met with Hashimoto again and taught him the word of wisdom which he said he would have no problems with and would keep. We had Eikaiwa later that night and had some fun.

Wendsday - We had another lesson with Hashimoto and taught him the rest of the commandments and he said he would keept them all. It was interesting that he said that they really weren't hard to keep and they just made sense. It was the first time I had heard a Non member say that and not just look at us like we were crazy so it was pretty cool. It rained for the rest of the day and while we worked hard we had a tough time talking to people in the rain.

Thursday - It was the all mission meeting which was way fun. I got to see all the guys from my MTC district that went to Hiroshima which was a ton of fun. It was weird to think that we have been in Japan for over a year now. Everyone was pretty excited about the mission joining and we are all ready work hard together. We know have around 130 missionaries in our mission so its pretty big. The meeting was great and a ton of fun. We didn't get home until around 7:30 so we didn't really get any time in for missionary work that day.

Friday - We ended up having a lesson with a guy that we thought for sure wasn't going to show up. It turned out alright but he didn't seem to take it too seriously. Hopefully we can help him progress a little better. Later that night we went to a YSA activity with an investigator. It was ping pong night. It was fun but wasn't planned too well so we kind of had to make it a little more fun. One thing that is great about Habikino is that we are in the outreach area so we can go every friday if we have someone to take. Its usually alot of fun and good for fellowshiping the investigator. Hopefully we can keep going.

Sat. - We decided that we were getting kind of bored of doing streeting all day so we tried some new ways to dendo. First we went to the rec center and they didn't have Bball but had ping pong so we figured we would give it a try. I have been playing a bit out here on p-days and thought i had gotten pretty good but man the old ladies there could have wiped us all over the floor if we had played them. There weren't any young people to talk with so we didn't stay for long but its something we want to try again sometime. We also tried going to a park but it was pretty dead.

Sunday - We had 2 investigators come to church which we were way excited about but had a few problems. It was Hashimotos 3rd time so we didn't really worry about him but the other investigator we had high hopes for if he liked church. He wasn't really able to make friends and the first sunday school lesson he went to was on the Law of Chasity... yeah so he left after that but we were still able to get another appointment. After church we went out streeting and this lady walked up to us and said follow me elders i want to talk to you but I am busy so walk with me. After following her around for a bit she took us to her house and showed us this box of pictures and business cards of missionaries from 30 years ago till about 2 or 3 years ago. It was insane, she has known missionaries forever. We got an appointment for next sunday and hopefully it goes well.

After the day was over and we were eating dinner we got a call from Hashimoto. His parents found out about him wanting to get baptized and stuff and told him if he did they would throw him out of the house. So for now we don't really have a solid date for him. He can still meet and come to church but being baptized might be a little tough. We don't have any really good prospects besides him so hopefully it all works out and we can still baptize him. There is still hope and we don't intend to give up but man it was pretty disappointing to get that phone call from him. Hopefully it all works out.

How was the trip to Oregon? Was Aunt Cami still as funny as ever? I am sure she was. Who won the world cup? Let me know how everything is going
Love you
Cam

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Hey

Sounds like its really hot out there. Man I can't believe how hot it is right now. The humidity is killing me and my comp way bad and it only gets worse from here.


Thats cool about Brandons Bro. They will all be able to speak Japanese when they get home. Hopefully I can study it at school. Thanks for looking at those books for me. I don't know what is good I just need something to help me progress now. I can speak and understand almost everything I just need to work on my vocab., I feel like my grammer is doing ok because I have focused on it most of my mission. But, I feel like I am in a rut at the moment and it would be nice to get out and make some more progress. Maybe the books would help me get out of it. Thanks a ton.

So yeah I am starting to get more use to Habikino. You asked about the apt. its actually one of the bigger ones I have had so far. Not as nice as the Akashi one but its pretty big which is nice. Also has 2 couches which surprisingly makes a big difference.

We had another really good week.

Mon - We had a lesson with a kind of less active family. They fed us dinner it was way good. We get to go every Monday so its way fun and they always feed us which is great.

Tuesday - We had a zone meeting which we planned our goals for the transfer as a zone and ate food together it was pretty fun. I got to talk to Elder Buerger and he sounds like he is doing good. Also Elder Enta is in my district so its fun to see and talk with him. Afterwords we had a lesson with Hashimoto and we were able to set a baptismal date with him for the 25th of July. He is really progressing well and understands everything. Hopefully we can help him along until then. His biggest problem would be that he is trying to hide it from his parents which is ok because he is 25 but i can see it turning into a problem later on so I am not sure what we will do at the moment.

Wednesday - It was a long day of dendo but we were able to find 2 people so we were excited about that.

Thursday - Same deal as Wednesday we had a lot of finding time and were able to find 3 people so things are going good.

Friday - We had 3 appointments set up from the people we had last week but not a single person came which is way frustrating. While we were waiting for them we were able to find 2 more people which made it a little better.

Sat. - We were suppose to meet a investigator at Mcdonalds but he didn't show. while we were waiting i noticed the older man next to us was studying english so that was a pretty easy contact and we were able to make an appointment with him for next week. Later on that day we had a lesson with a new investigator named Yuki. He is really interested and we committed him to be baptized if he finds out it is true and he said yes. We don't have a date yet but he is going to come to church next week and we have another appointment for sat. We have a lot of hope for him.

Sunday - It was a good Sunday. Hashimoto came to church and we were able to do a few lessons with him. In one of the lessons he told us he was doing 3 prayers a day. At first I thought it sounded a little weird the way he worded it so I asked him how his prayers were and how he prays. He told me that he does 3 a day and that he prays first to Heavenly Father then he prays to Jesus Christ and last but not least he prays to Joseph Smith. I was pretty much floored to the ground and tried not to laugh. We had to explain to him again who we pray to and stuff like that. He understood his mistake and said he won't do it that way any more. I guess you have to have that mission experience of someone praying to Joseph Smith some time. He also stood up in the lesson and did a deep bow and apologized about WW2 and the bad things Japan did. He is a bit different than most people but really wants to believe and I think he is going to be baptized.

Later that night we had an appointment with an older guy who just walked up to us on the street and said he wanted us to come over to his house later and talk with his family. He said he just wanted to talk about America and not religion because he doesn't like it. So we headed over and they were way super nice. They fed us this pizza that was dang good, the best I have had in Japan so far and talked to us about all sorts of things. America, Our church, families, culture, missionary work, etc. It was a ton of fun. He had a friend in college that was a RM and I guess has been to church once. He doesn't have much interest but they were nice so we hope there is some way we could help them.

So we found 9 people this week, got an investigator with a baptismal date and a few other progressing investigators so we are really excited at the moment and I am sure this next week is going to be great too. We also have a big meeting with the entire mission on Thursday to kind of meet all the new missionaries from Hiroshima so it should be a lot of fun to see everyone.

Thanks for the package, I can't wait for the books and music. I can't think of anything else but thanks a ton.
Love you tons
Cam