Week 6 - Finally December and almost Christmas

Dear Family,

This week has been a long busy week! There has been quite a bit going on this week as far as meetings and special Dendo opportunities. However first I must apologize, I haven't opened the first present yet because I rolled out of bed at about 5:30 got dressed and left for seminary at 5:50 so I didn't have much time but I will send another email later after I open it and after I relieve my transfer call and find out my fate *dun dun dun* so that you guys can be updated! Mom, I got my other package the other day so thank you very very much!! Now I've got the good stuff still! Sounds like Christmas is in full swing over at the house, and I am very interested to see how the lights look, so when you can send me a picture please! Thanksgiving looked like it was good, thanks for setting a place for me at the table! It was very nice to see and hear that! Please keep sending pictures, as many as you want, they are fun and if anything help with missing home. Those Christmas trees looked fantastic! Well done, and thank you dad for letting them! I am excited to call when Christmas rolls around!

This week I have done some crazy things, on thanksgiving since we were supposed to treat it like any other day we did that (we had district meeting and we had our 3 hour weekly planning as a companionship) but then because those meetings especially together mean you are cooped up planning and talking about plans for 5 hours we went with Elder Busteed and Elder Simons to a ramen shop that is down the road from our apartment, there you spend 500円 ($5) and you get a bowl of ramen and then you can pay an extra 50円 (50 cents) and they will give you a full refill of noodles. Then on top of that if you get 10 refills ($5 total) you get your money back for the refills so it's a challenge pretty much. So, lo and behold, this guy (me) got all 10 down and got my $5 back! Basically I ate like 2 pounds of noodles! It was insane but I have pictures of it! So that was my Thanksgiving day! We also had interviews with President Wada this week which was odd when my interview was only 2.5 minutes and we were scheduled for like an hour or more. Then he brought Elder Crain back in and basically talked to him about dating when he gets home for 30 minutes, but I got some good Dendo advice too. Then he did a presentation that we were able to bring 2 investigators to. (Kuramochi and Uki) What he does is shows parts of a popular Japanese or American movie and teaches lessons from that. He taught the plan of salvation from the movie we watched called "departures" or in Japanese "okuri bito" and it was very interesting! Uki is doing so well but he still doesn't see the importance of it. He is realizing more and more about what Christ did and how he can help him but he still says that English is his number 1 priority and then he will focus on church after he is fluent. And as always I never know about Kuramochi San. But a crazy thing happened this week.

So a week or two ago I mentioned my hands were cold after a lesson just to make an awkward silence go away and keep conversation and then this week for his lesson he shows up and gives me a nice winter coat that is mission appropriate and everything! He just says here, take this, it's not new but I brought it from home for you to have! So now I have that coat and he has brought me a sweater and vest thingy too and I feel like he is just never going to stop so it is kinda awkward, but he means well. He is way nice to me but not so much to some of the other missionaries, he always calls one of them fat and asks him if he is on a diet and if they say no, then he tells them to go on one. Kinda funny! This week during study I found an awesome scripture, it is Alma 26:5-9. Those verses pretty much show Ammon and the other sons of Mosiah going through D&C 4 and checking off what was done how it was done and what they received from doing those. If I had a mission plaque I would probably put those on there! My companion is getting pretty close to leaving so he brings it up very frequently but it's all good I understand it as long as he still works hard!

I think I answered everything! Now, oh and yesterday I had my first meal at a member’s house. They live forever by bike but all 6 elders biked there (the sisters got a ride from the daughter) and we had dinner and listened to that daughter play marimba and we gave a lesson on eternal families, because the dad isn't a member, but it was loads of fun and we are well and heard a lot of funny stories, they are cool people! I will email again with my transfer stuff and pictures of opening my present! I miss and love you all and I hope you have a great week and do some awesome stuff! Thanks for getting the lights up even when I'm not there to put them up with you and put them in the yard! Thanks!

Love,
Elder Gailey



PS - I got my transfer call today! I will be staying in Takao this transfer! For the companion situation Elder Crain, me, and our new companion Elder Bunker will be in a group of 3 for two weeks until Elder Crain goes back to America. So I'm here for Christmas! I also found out today that the sushi I originally had a problem with is actually ridiculously delicious! I had the same type of stuff at a different place and it was really really good, so I had 15 plates! And surprisingly despite eating so much I have actually lost 10 pounds on my mission so far... I weighed myself while at the gym with the other elder's investigator because they couldn't come and found out I have lost 10 pounds but it's probably because I eat pretty healthy now, lots of veggies meat and rice and things here, and not much junk food with the exception of Mountain Dew but I dunno! I'm doing pretty good and I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Gailey

 

 

 

Week 5 in Japan

Dear Family,

This week has been pretty fun! Lots of bike riding and craziness. After pday ended last week we went to a sports night thing put on by the Honda Family to try and find some potential investigators and to get there we had to go up and down some crazy hills. It was like the one down to the church and probably about that long up and down, needless to say my legs were a little bit like jello when I fell asleep. But now the hills that used to be hard aren't bad so that is a very good thing. We were able to meet with both of our main investigators Uki San and Kuramochi San. Kuramochi San is a very hard investigator because he says he has never felt happiness and he is a very depressed very introverted person and I can't understand his Japanese but his friend (a member) helps in the lessons a lot and brings a very powerful testimony too! Uki San is so close to being a member it's insane. He has an English class at the same time as church so he hasn't come because he likes English more than the gospel but in the gospel the only things holding him back are his worries about the word of wisdom and going to church. We will keep working, I would love to see him become a member so we will keep on going with him. Kai San (the guy we met the first day hasn't been able to meet since the last one I told you about, which is a bummer. But we will keep trying. And Mongen Kyoudai, the less active who I talk about cars with, is so close to coming to church to watch us sing next week. We have dinner with him tonight so we will press church again. We had lots of cool Dendo activities this week like putting as many Book of Mormons in my bag and trying to hand out all of them. We didn't get them all but it was fun!

It's nice to see that Heavenly Father understands how hard it is for me to understand nihonjins. Yesterday I was getting pretty frustrated but was still trying to talk to them even though I didn't know what was going on and as the last contact of the night he put a man that spoke textbook simple nice understandable good speed Japanese to us and I understood 100% of what he said and was able to actively participate in his conversation. So that was a tender mercy for sure. I ate my first indo curry this week! It was delicious and this bread called nan that they serve to dip in your curry is some of the best food ever. I'm a little addicted...

A crazy thing that happened this week was we had 3 or 4 earthquakes and one was big enough it was hard to stand and all the dishes in the sink were throwing water everywhere and crashing around and it was nuts but lots of fun! One funny thing this week (well now it's funny) but I had my first bike crash! My wheels hit the curb as I was trying to go from road to sidewalk and I did a sideways flip off my bike slid on my messenger bag and hit my knee on the ground! Only a touch of blood later and I was just fine! My knee feels a little loose or like it needs to pop when I walk up stairs but that is slowly going away so I'm not worried and I'm not hurt at all so don't worry mom! The messenger bag didn't get a single scratch either which was crazy! Oh and another thing is that we went to visit an old member that was in our area book and we knocked and no one answered so we knocked on the neighbor’s house and asked if he lived there and she said he died... It was super awkward. Very unfortunate and sad but awkward and a little bit funny because we were just thinking... "OH he died!? Dang!"

The man from Nepal we met while streeting and he just wanted to come to church (and he did) so we are going to try and start teaching him! The weather sounds nice there! I'm glad you can drive through puddles for me dad! I did get a haircut and it was a really nice one he did exactly what I asked him to do so that was good! I should be getting that first package soon so woohoo!  Thanks for all the support and the prayers, they really help! Sounds like sports and things are going alright and thanks for the updates! Be safe with those trees and dad put the trees up on Wednesday please! Your missionary from a bajillion miles away requests that! 

Well this week I hope to see a lot of miracles and a lot of good things, next pday is transfer call day so I will let you know if I stay in Takao or go somewhere else and how the companion situation will work out because Elder Crain is set to go home partway through this next transfer and usually you are with your trainer for 2 transfers so I dunno! It will be interesting for sure! I will try and be extra safe as it gets colder and life goes on so that I don't get in any more crashes but sometimes it just happens. I love all of you and can't wait to hear from you throughout the week! Thanks for all the support and help! 

Love,
Elder Gailey 

 

Week 4 in Japan

Dear family,

Sounds like life at home for everyone has been interesting! From snow and cold to wind out the ying yang! I'm glad you all gave Spike a proper burial, but I'm sorry he died! You'll see him again Morgan! It is getting really, really cold here in Japan and there as well it seems! I have worn a sweater or something just about every day this week and I have been wearing shorts under my pants for 3 days... It's crazy cold here! Boy, that storm does sound nuts mom! Crazy wind, crazy power, and craziness. I hope everyone was able to stay all warm and safe!

This week has been full of small things but not so many big crazy experiences. One weird thing this week was I tried Takoyaki, which is basically an octopus ball. It is some kind of bread like batter with part of an octopus tentacle and a lot of weird filling inside. They are huge but you have to eat them in one bite. I have a hard enough time with that kind of octopus let alone everything else that was in my mouth at the time. I got through 3 of my 6 and called it. They were kind of good but a lot of bad. And one really funny/cool thing was that we went to get ramen at this place where it is 500 yen for your first bowl and then 50 yen every extra bowl of noodles you want. First Japanese ramen (completely 100% different than American ramen by the way) and I had 4 extras... I was so full I couldn't fully bend over it felt like! Oh also this week there was this festival called Icho Matsuri (matsuri is festival) and so there was a parade and tons of people dancing and singing and performing and stuff, that is where I ate the Takoyaki. It was crazy! Although everyone said that was a small festival so I have no idea what to expect for the next one! However we visited and tried to talk to a lot of people but only talked to a few, but they were good.

One spiritual good cool thing that happened this week was while looking for people to talk to at the matsuri, we were crossing a bridge and we saw a guy drinking his beer and looking down so we greeted him and he ignored us and we were about to leave, but then we asked how he was doing and he started talking to us. An hour ish later we had taught him the plan of salvation and made several invitations. However, as most Japanese people he has 2 jobs and is going to college so that was during his like 3 hours of free time for the whole week that we talked to him. I don't know what will happen but at very least for the next time he meets missionaries, he knows that he can talk to us and that we aren't scary or pushy. My companion seems to view me as an already trained elder and always says I'm the best companion he has had, so I dunno what to think about that, but it does mean I am learning a lot on my own so that's good!

There were a lot of meetings this week so we didn't do as much work as far as finding people but it was still good! While I was on splits with Elder Talentino, we found a huge Shinto place... It turns out to be where 2-4 emperors are buried, I don't know if I wrote about this before, but I will send pictures when we visit it next! Oh and this week we did finding on a hike up Mt. Takao! So I will put some pictures up of that! It has a Buddhist temple on it so we took some pictures there and I have one of Mt. Fuji! So I will include all that! I love you guys and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.S. Take good care of Ginger :)

P.S.S For one of the sisters birthday we are going to get all you can eat okonomiyaki! (I don't know how to describe it) love you guys!

Also, I forgot to mention the earthquake that I got to experience the other day! It was on the day of splits that I found the big tombs we were in companion study and chilling in the apartment and suddenly the building just felt like it jumped and leaned a good bit! Then it was just shaking for a while and we could really feel it as we were on the 8th floor! It was crazy! But it was no big deal people outside just kept walking or driving and inside companion study just continued it was crazy!

Also I was told that there may be a cheaper and possibly faster way to send me packages although I don't know. It is a company called "black cat" and it is what the mission uses for sending our luggage and what they use to send us packages once they get to the hombu. So I dunno but it's food for thought :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3 in Japan

Dear Family,

First off, thank you for all the Happy Birthdays!! I was glad to hear from all of you! Sounds like is has been busy back at home! Good job Morgan! Keep practicing driving and maybe I will have to teach you some Japanese racing things! I'm documenting everything pretty well, I haven't missed a day in my journal and I have been taking some pictures.

We have been eating well I think, my companion is a good cook and when we go out to eat it is delicious and has yet to be more than $10. We have a stove and a microwave and a microwave oven looking thing and a toaster. Oh and a rice cooker. That is a necessity when I get back.

Well this week was pretty normal, it was a shorter time between p-days because of temple p-day. This week we had something every night, English class (ekaiwa) on Wednesday night, art night on Thursday night and game night on Friday night. Before ekaiwa we taught a guy named Uki. Uki San is 60s and had a stroke a while back so he has some paralysis, his left leg mainly. We taught him this week and read the Book of Mormon with him and he was struggling with it. But I felt we should show the “Because of Him” video in Japanese and relate it back to the scriptures and why we have and read them. Christ is the center of our church. He is what the prophets wrote about and is what we read them to learn about. After we showed the video and I had my testimony significantly strengthened as I saw the spirit working on him during the video and it was just amazing. But after the video I bore my testimony and asked him some questions and he said he now realizes that through Christ he can change. And he thinks he wants to and will be able to finally do it. I would love to see him get baptized. It would bless his life like crazy. Then the days have been spent doing a lot of meeting stuff and lots of finding. 

On Thursday night we got a knock at the door and it was the YSA brothers who brought me a cake and sang Happy Birthday to me right after I had been writing in my journal that I wasn't sure what kind of birthday it was going to be. It was crazy delicious and it was very nice of them. Then the next morning on my birthday we got up at 5:00 to teach Nakajima San but he didn't show so we waited from 6:00 to 7:00 but he didn't come. Then on the way back my companion bought me Mountain Dew. There is a machine right outside our apartment that I found the other day... I am keeping a tally of how much I drink and what it costs for my mission... Then we had study and during that president and sister Wada called and sang Happy Birthday to me - which was really nice. Then the day was normal and we went to game night where more surprises awaited. At the end it turned into a birthday party for me and everyone gave me cards and presents and a little brownie cake. One present had sparkles all over so that was a little sketchy to open, but I did it. I don't have any pictures of that right now but I will get some from one of the sister missionaries soon. Then that night we ate my cake and it was a great day! Now I'm 19! And I got all your emails on Saturday (I can read emails whenever wherever as long as it doesn't interfere with my work, so I check and read it often). 

Yesterday we walked from 5:30 to 9:00 up and down hills doing streeting, so I was crazy tired last night. I have been exercising every night and surprisingly have had to make my belt one loop tighter... Opposite of the MTC, but in a healthy way! I am getting more and more fit from biking so that is good! My legs aren't sore anymore!  Japanese is going well, it is always hard, but some things are starting to be easier. I am understanding more of what I am reading and more of what I am hearing, speaking isn't really a problem, just speaking fancy and in long sentences doesn't happen too often. In that bowl was a ton of rice, some kind of meat, cheese and some veggies! It was delicious!

This week the best and most spiritual thing is that story with Uki San. The funniest thing was probably watching everyone that was at game night try and sing Happy Birthday in English - make your worst Japanese American accent and add a lot of mumbling and that is about it. And a crazy thing is that last night we found a couple of Nepalese men by a convenient store sitting on the ground who I almost tripped over so I started talking to them and they were way nice and want to come to church!

My companion hmmmm well his goal is to get married in a year at least and when we do street contacting he is really good at teaching a short lesson right there. I will have a better one for that next week! Oh and Mom, no the seminary teacher is still crazy hard to understand. Most nihonjin pause at the particles like wa and ga and o and ni, but she makes no pauses. It's just a constant string of sound! Very hard however it is getting better!

That about sums up my week! It is getting crazy cold here so today we are getting me some thermals or something. The sweaters do help though! I miss all of you guys and love you and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gailey

‪Additional questions and answers:

1. You haven't said anything about grocery shopping or the stores there.  Do they have any American food like peanut butter and jelly or just Japanese food?

They have it, like peanut butter and stuff like that but for the most part it is expensive and everything else is either Japanese versions of American food or is Japanese food. Fruits are crazy expensive here! So we eat a lot of veggies and not many fruits unless people give them to us.

2. Didn't you have a couple of other investigators that your companion was working with when you got there? 

Yeah we do, uki San is one of them, but there are some others just most were busy this week or are kinda shaky usually! But we have lessons most days with the exception of this week

3. You said it is cold there..... how cold?  How is the weather in general?  

Do you write these email while you are doing your laundry?  In your pictures, I did not see a washer.  Where is it?

Are you doing anything fun for your p-day today?  Do you ever do things with the other elders in the area?

I think so. It is like 50 ish, it is a lot like Washington. It's very dry right now, but very grey and I like it. The washer is in the bathroom with the shower and Japanese squirty toilet (toilet and bidet combined – added by mom) . Today we are going to go buy some warmer clothes and stuff and yeah, there is another companionship in our apartment so we do a lot with them but all 6 elders do a lot together. We are playing football later today with an investigator 

4. Any other plans for the day?  Shopping?  What is your favorite food so far?

6:00 pm is when pday ends, just chilling, some shopping, probably hayashi rice.

Info on the pictures:

One was of some crazy stairs to some houses we knocked on, one was a Buddhist statue and one was a Shinto temple, umm those spiders are huge

We don't really know if they are dangerous... But most of them are palm sized and we watched one eat a fly yesterday in a matter of 3 seconds. Not just killed and wrapped up, it legitimately opened its mouth and ate the fly live and whole... So yeah... There are tons, they are everywhere, literally.

Elder Gailey 

 

 

Week 2 in Japan

Dear Family,

Well it sounds like your week has been crazy! If I haven't already said it, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! It sounds like you had a good birthday and that you liked all your gifts! When you said you got a Cam Chancellor jersey I did a fist pump and said "yosh!"

As uneventful as Halloween usually is, it’s still fun though! Well we go to seminary every week on Monday that is the day we have chosen to go. Sister Honda is the teacher and she speaks the fastest out of any Japanese person I have ever met here, she is a bit the ward busybody but it's all good. My bike works great and my legs are turning into tree trunks with metal plating so that is pretty sweet! This week no real new investigators that we found yet. And the work with our current investigators is slow. Because most people have no idea about Christianity you have to go real slow and explain A LOT of things. I am trying to do my best and be the best missionary I possibly can. I am greatful for all the help you all give me.

The birthday and Halloween pictures were great! Morgan's costume was a little creepy but that's good for Halloween! But dad, WHERE IS THE GOATEE!?!?!? That news was left out of previous emails!   Hopefully the honbu (I think that's how it is spelled) (mission home) can get that stuff sent real quick!

So to get here I shipped my 2 big suitcases and brought my carry on (that I could have lived from for 2 ish weeks / I listened!) and my messenger bag. My companion carried my emergency bag that the mission requires me to have and such so it wasn't too bad! We just rode the train to Takao and walked about 10 minutes to the apartment maybe 20. Finding is going well, we had some pretty good meaningful contacts this week and a couple that were really weird... This drunk old Japanese dude started like hugging us and slapping us on the shoulder and speaking in weird circles in weird Japanese. It was kind of funny though! He couldn't walk a straight line to save his life!

We had a few lessons this week, some with less actives and some with investigators. Kai (the guy we met on my first night) agreed to listen to the first lesson when we ate dinner with him the other night. He is a cool dude and I think he really has felt the spirit in our lessons. We taught him how to pray and about God at dinner. It was cool to see the spirit teaching him! In most of our lessons there is a point when I need to share an experience from my life and whether planned or un-planned it seems to invite the spirit. There is an investigator that I think likes me now because of one of the experiences I shared and he sees now that we are not just here to tell people to join our church but because of how it effects our lives we want everyone to have those blessings. So I think he will accept more invitations now! We went to teach a less active named brother Mongen the other day. He is Mongolian but is Japanese fluent. He LOVES cars, so he has his own car business and stuff. Usually he can't find much in common with the missionaries, but he really likes me because I understand everything he says about cars and can talk about them too. If nothing else it gives us an excuse to stay and visit! I got to use some cool car analogies too in that lesson. I likened the things we do in the church like have faith, pray, and read our scriptures to a stick shift (in Japanese even!) and we start with faith and that gets us going real fast at the start but you can only get to a certain speed on just that. Then 1^st gear was prayer and so on and so forth! He really seemed to understand a little better from that! So I am excited to keep teaching him. There are random things like that all over that make me think, is this why I am in this area at this time? And it probably is. 

We visited an area called Fujino yesterday. It is complete countryside and it was beautiful! It was when I was on splits with Elder Loi-On. I will include some pictures! But I think that about sums up my week! I am excited for my birthday but I don't really know what to expect for it! It might be an interesting day, but I will just work hard! I miss all of you and love you and I hope that you all are staying safe and happy! Oh and in my mission I use Facebook and I was looking over the mission policies and what not and there is nothing I have to change on mine so all I have to do is change my name to elder on there and add a new cover and profile picture. So I will be seeing what some of you guys are posting and you can see some Japanese and English mission posts from me. Probably only 1 or 2 a month though at most but I will be using that, so if you see me on don't freak out! 

The food out here in Takao is delicious too! There are a few all you can eat places that are crazy good! I should try to leg press Garrett when I get back! Hmmm weirdest thing I have seen... The fact that there are a bajillion vans here and people modify them and stuff like they are going to race them! A van!? It's weird haha, there are probably weirder things but I don't know at the moment. I have eaten octopus already on sushi which was crazy but not too bad! The worst thing I have eaten was a dried umeboshi. A dried pickled plum. It was so nasty. It felt like I was chewing on a salty sweet tongue... The other weirdest part is how bad everyone's teeth are. Especially in such a clean country their teeth are nasty yellow brown, almost everyone is missing teeth and or has metal fillings or teeth.

Oh Tokyo isn't actually a city at all. Weird I know but actually it is an area. There are between 10-30 ish city's that actually make up Tokyo. An AP said it really well when he said Tokyo never ends. My area is the edge of Tokyo.

Love,

Elder Gailey 

P.s. I can make some Japanese food now! And I learned why no one is really fat here! Their snacks are veggies, their meals are full of veggies, and their toppings and stuff are made from veggies! So hopefully I will be crazy healthy when I get back!

P.p.s I forgot! We had a conference this week from Elder Ringwood of the seventy! It was crazy good! It was long but it was like our own personal General Conference! Everyone read and study, like actually study a bit, of Moroni 7! That chapter is incredible! Thanks!

P.p.p.s. I will include some pictures of me doing the king bowl at Sukiya over here in Takao. My pictures weren't great of that challenge thing but it should be not to bad! It was HUGE!

P.p.p.s. The Temple was great! It is very traditional Japanese looking on the inside like entry way and the rest is kind of like most of the rest are. The celestial room was really cool! Lots of stained glass and a cool looking chandelier. It was really small though, as it is a small temple. The session was cool! So for translation in all temples as far as I can tell (same in the Provo and Tokyo temples) what they do is give you headphones and you tune into your desired language on a little radio receiver thing and you have it translated in the headphones while the room is in native language. The Japanese in the video is really cool and sometimes really funny just because of how some of the words are usually used. It was awesome though! It's about 6 trains and an hour and a half away for me but it's cool! Oh and we won't ever ride the bullet trains because they are $200 an hour and would cross our whole mission in like 10-30 minutes.