Thursday, December 25, 2014
Christmas Day
Monday, December 22, 2014
Week 9 - Almost Christmas!
Dear Family,
This week has
surely been an interesting week. We are in the new apartment so over 2 days we
had to move alllll of our stuff over which was tough because of the roads and
the way that they work coming from our old apartment, the sidewalks and asphalt
isn't well maintained so it was sure a bumpy ride. When we got there, there was
literally nothing there, no food (not even rice), no toilet paper, no soap,
basically it was like no one had been living there before us but it was way
dirty like there had been. So we had to clean and spend a ton of money setting
it up. Only 1 more pday so money wise I will be just fine until next month
completely because I have been able to budget and watch it very well so far.
Hopefully I can continue to do so!
Sounds like
at home the prep for Christmas has been pretty good! I'm glad you always listen
to those feelings, it's a good example for me to follow while I'm out here and
for the rest of my life. No worries about the Nintendo, obviously be careful,
but if it was a problem I could buy a new one here for about $5 so it's not too
big a deal. Sounds like the drive to Utah Temple
Boy this transfer will be interesting. I like making a plan and following it as it was planned unless significant things change it. Obviously there are lots of times when we change it because of a prompting or something but the change usually doesn't effect our overall days plan. However this transfer I will have to get used to a lot of having our plan completely changed and not written down and stuff which especially after camp is tough for me and I don't see it as very efficient. But it seems with Elder Bunker he likes planning something and then not following the plan at all, which works well for him but it's tough for me so it will definitely be interesting how that works out. He also does everything the opposite of me usually, like taking different entrances into buildings and doing things in strange orders so I guess I'm supposed to learn how to be much more flexible in the way I do things. It's a little crazy and I go to bed very tired but it's good. Also this transfer is the poster transfer for lack of communication. With Elder Crain leaving he still hadn't received a lot of travel information when he left Takao for the mission home, and just about every day after that there was an event or something that either he neglected to tell us or the district or even the zone leaders so there was lots of mad scrambling and stuff. And there were things we had to move around and make a million calls about and such with all the meetings we have around Christmas. We have temple trip, Christmas conference, an FHE we didn't find out about until Sunday, and a million different things. Hopefully after Christmas it will all settle down and all will be well in Elder Gailey's brain again.
Our
investigators are doing well and luckily were willing to move around the
lessons when we needed to. Also our new ward mission leader, Brother Kato, is
great he's doing a lot of work and helping us get members in lessons and all
kinds of good stuff. Uki san is doing well, we are finding new things he
doesn't remember that we need to review but he is definitely doing better every
day. Kuramochi has still been MIA but we still are hopeful. Mark we are trying
to meet with on Christmas and teach another lesson and be his friend. Nakajima
Kyoudai as well is moving forward I think although he still doesn't really
crazy want to be baptized so that is a work in progress. We haven't had a crazy
lot of time for anything this week so that all really sums it up, but Elder
Crain is back home and a 2 man feels a little strange but it will be good. We
also had our ward Christmas party this week where we gave a presentation on who
missionaries are and what the true meaning of Christmas is, it went well,
although it wasn't super exciting. Afterwards we were able to go caroling with
the ward at an old folks home in a nearby town which was fun the people there
really liked it. The room really smelled like old person and some of them I
swear we're inches from death but they all smiled and laughed and sang when
they could and it was loads of fun!
One of the
funny cool and spiritual things this week was on Friday I think it was I went
on splits because Elder Bunker as our new DL had a training to go to. I was put
with another Elder from Kofu
That about
covers it for the week I think, so I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and I
hope you enjoy the day and remember why we celebrate it as always! I look
forward to Skyping you all and I will talk to you then! Love you!
Love,
Elder Gailey
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Week 8 - New Investigator - More Christmas
Dear Family,
This week has been pretty
good! We have done a lot of exploring around Takao, I have been wanting to
explore a lot more so we have been doing it. We found a bunch of new places and
things like a $100 Mountain Dew machine! But along the way we have found a lot
of new interesting places and people. One thing I want to do this transfer with
Elder Bunker is that we want to go out farther in the area because there is
only really half the area that we usually use between all the elders and
sisters but we actually have a ton of unvisited area here. We have already been
doing that a little bit and we are finding people who have never even seen us
before so I think it will be really good for us to do that.
One really crazy thing that happened this week is that we met this guy on the street as we were going down to the eki (train station). We passed him and I asked my favorite question (what kind of music are you listening to?) because it will 90% of the time have the person stop and we can talk to them pretty well afterwards. So he stopped and I asked him where he was headed and he said he speaks English. So then we started talking to him in English and learned he came from the Phillipeans and had been Catholic all his life but hadn't gone in a while. Then we invited him to church and became his friends on Facebook and he said he would come and we went our separate ways. Then this Sunday he came! So he went to all of church, really liked it, then we taught him the first lesson and he accepted the invitations to pray and read the Book of Mormon and be baptized if he finds them true! So it was super good and he is very excited to keep meeting with us! It was a very cool experience!
Christmas is coming up and I know a little more about the situation with Skype and FaceTime. I can choose the day and time in that time frame so whenever works best for you and I'm not sure how to use FaceTime yet but I will keep working on it. So let me know when the best time would be. The Japanese don't really celebrate Christmas, every now and then you will see a house with lights but that is because they have seen it in a movie and they are just random colors and randomness. It's all good about the lights, they look really good! Oh and the commercial part has made it here but it's more like huge December sales and stuff so it's pretty different. Thanks for covering me on presents mom! And I hope Morgan can get feeling better! Sounds like sports are going interestingly too. Thanks for the pictures and I have been loving my 25 days of Christmas so far. I haven't opened today's but I will get that later!
I really appreciate all the prayers and support you guys give me. Uki san is continuing to progress, he wouldn't accept a baptismal date for February but we will work on one about a year from now, next lesson. And Kuramochi has kind of dropped off the face of the earth even for his friends so that is worrisome but it's probably just fine and will just take time. But we actually have found a new investigator this week (talked about him above) so thanks for the help with the prayers! I have been working as hard as last week if not harder on language and everything and I have been getting better don't worry! As for bike stuff I did have an interesting run in with a head on collision with a guard rail... I was riding at the back of our trio so I couldn't see immediately in front of Elder Crain and I glanced at a car coming super close to me and then bam there was a guard rail and I went flying and just barely missed a bad balance beam type experience. I have bruises on my knees from them hitting the rail and one on my thigh from the close call but it's all good, my bike seat got bent so I swapped out for Elder Crain's better seat and everything else was just fine and other than bruises I'm all good! Funny things this week though we're just being in this trio. Elder bunker and I just give Elder Crain such a hard time and he laughs and we laugh and we all get along really well so the jokes just keep flowing which is nice. So it has been a pretty fun transfer so far especially when Elder Bunker starts to freak out about his money because he was super bad with it before he came to Takao so he has $30 to his name until January and he always flips out but it's funny and he realizes why it is that way so it all good!
Our apartment will be a 6 man for the next 2 days though, Elder Loi-on got emergency transferred because an Elder in another area broke his arm and shoulder and it sounded pretty bad. So he left this morning and his companion is now in a trio with Elder Busteed and Simons. So now we have 2 trios and the sisters. All the elders will be in my apartment until Elder Crain leaves too. So a bit weird. I will let you know how it changes next week! I think that's all though! I have learned a ton and had some great experiences! We did things like street, get snowed on, carol and all kinds of things! It has been a very fun and spirit filled week! I miss you guys and love you but have a merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Gailey 
25 Days of Christmas - Days 9 - 14
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Week 7 - Good Week and Opening 25 Days of Christmas
Dear Family,
This week has been pretty interesting! Lots of fun things, lots of Dendo, and lots of cool stuff! However I will start off with what we did this morning. Our ward mission leader (brother Matsuoo) had the missionaries over for dinner on Tuesday and while there elder Crain was able to set up a service opportunity where we go help him at his bakery. He makes some of the best bread (パン) and stuff that the area has, and while we were helping he taught us some recipes for our favorite ones! So that was awesome! That is the reason for the late email today, because we were there from 6 to 12 ish! The dinner earlier in the week from them was amazing as they make bread but also make regular food at the bakery too so they know how to cook like crazy, he made us home made pizza and steak (and a ton of it too!) I had roughly 3 stakes and half or more of a normal regular sized American pizza because it's rude not to finish all the food and Elder Simons ate more than me. So that dinner was amazing! Other than that the week was pretty average, we did lots of Dendo, but one of the services we did was to do the jitensha taxi, which is a bike taxi that we use to drive people to their apartments in a certain area of Takao from a cafe. That was fun and we met a guy we had met a week previous while doing it and he came to meet us after church yesterday and we gave him a tour and he said he felt the spirit (or his words were: a good feeling!) and now we are meeting him this week and he may become a very good investigator! While we were giving him a tour I played a hymn for him as well which he really liked. It was really good!
Uki San is trying to make
time for church but he has to find a replacement leader for his class because
he helps start the class for the teacher and stuff. But he is doing better and
better every meeting. We met with him 3 times this week which is a great sign
and we invited him to baptism every single time, and we learned that his heart
is softening. Before he would have just said no, but now he says he will think
about it and see if he wants to or not so it's going great! Kuramochi is really
busy with school so we can't really meet right now but his friend and the
person who referred him is making sure he prays with her every single day so
that is super good, we will see where he goes and if the guy we met during
taxiing will take lessons.
This week I have made an extra special effort to talk as much as I possibly can to everyone I possibly can no matter how obnoxious I am because the week before I didn't give it quite my best effort and I missed a lot and we didn't have as much success. But this week was much better and because of it my Japanese has taken a huge jump in proficiency! I can do entire conversations without having to look at Elder Crain or Elder Bunker in complete confusion! It's much more fun to Dendo now! I am receiving a lot more blessings as a result of that for sure, but I should have known that already! Elder Bunker is great! He is from Highlands Ranch Colorado and he has a Colorado accent, basically he sounds exactly like Matt Butler and we get along probably too well and we may hit some mischief! But it will be good! I'm excited! Being in a trio was weird at first and I didn't like it but now I think it's great! And Elder Crain will leave on the 17th so we will be a regular 2 person after that.
Christmas calls will be from the 22nd - 25th here in Japan and I can skype or use FaceTime, but I don't have any info on FaceTime yet so next week, I will probably know then. That base that the Cunninghams are going to is in my mission and if I am anywhere near it I can go on pday at very least! So I'm excited for that! And it sounds like life is busy but good back at home which I am always glad to hear! Meagan got Garrett a sweet gift! And I am loving my 25 days of Christmas! And along with all that I bought 10 Mountain Dews at a vending machine this last week - haha it is funny to see them in the fridge. And there are currently 5 in my apartment, because we are a threesome. And the other 2 elders live in a different building, it's more like a town house, it's about 5 minutes away and brand new and the sisters are in a different complex apartment. Minionaries were perfect! I love them! And in that picture with our helmets it was actually snowing like crazy! So there was that! It's been insanely cold this week! But it has been good! I think we found 4 new English class students this week too so more people will come to that now! I think I answered everything now, I am happy for all you and your Christmas arrangements and stuff, hopefully those lights go up soon and I can get a picture! Thanks for all you guys do and keep me up to date with! And it was crazy seeing Emilee in the newspaper and Morgan's stuff in there too! Good job! I love you all and I hope you have a great week leading up to Christmas! You're the best!
Love,
Elder Gailey
P.S. Today we are going to
Hachioji city to meet an investigator and I am going to buy a 2nd bag
for some other stuff that we do for Dendo and a sweatshirt because somehow
between the MTC and here I lost my sweatshirt. But it's all good, love you
guys!
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