Another week down and now just transfer emails left!

Dear Family,

This week has been pretty good. It's hard to remember what happened this week to be honest! It too was kind of filled with random stuff which is nice because of some problems with my companion, I talked a lot with Elder Simons about how everything has been going. He's a good friend to me, so it's really nice, he has been in Takao the same amount of time as I have been. I had always thought that the closest friends would come from companions but so far it has been the other district members. It's pretty nice. Anyways the week started with temple pday and Shibuya and what not so that was way good. Then the next day we got our new iPads obviously, and they are pretty much the same just black and have more memory. The screen cover from the old one got scratched in a spot pretty good so I just went with the cover they gave us and it works pretty well, it's a pretty nice one so that's good. The new cases don't have screen covers so I'm being a lot more careful because a protector can only do so much.  So that literally took all of Wednesday because of travel time which was about an hour and a half each way on trains. Then we had Ekaiwa which was pretty good. Thursday we finished our setup and stuff on the iPads and did some dendo around the church.

Other big things that happened this week was a district blitz at some huge apartments near the park around here. There are about 65 ish buildings and each has 10+ floors with around 8 apartments on each floor I think. So quite a few people live there. We really didn't have any success with any of the doors but at the end I said hello to a guy walking into the apartment and asked him how he was. Then he said that he was good and asked us if we are Jehovah's Witness to which we told him who we were and he invited us to come to his apartment. Then after talking for quite a while we taught him about prayer and he said he knew how so he pulled out a written prayer and we taught him how to pray and he just started praying. It was a way good humble prayer and he even did it right without much instruction. So that was quite the miracle. He may be a little crazy, he talked about some kind of mental sickness so we will have to be watchful to see how sane he is. Most of the people we have been finding that seem like they have interest lately all just like lose their interest or change their mind on meeting so it's getting a little discouraging but I still try and work as hard as I can.

We got the opportunity to help a member move this week which was way nice to get some service other than the bike taxi. But it did take us forever to get there. The way back was nice though we just got to fly down a way long steep hill so it was way good. There's nothing quite like the feeling of flying down a hill on a bike. Yesterday while housing after church my problems with my companion came to a head. He said the district needs to get better at explaining simple gospel principles easily and well understood.  The only reason he thinks that is because he thinks his definition is the only one out there. So while housing he was saying "tell me what faith is" so I did and he didn't like it so he just starts saying "explain it like I'm a child" and in my opinion I did the first time but he just got way angry and kept calling me a horrible teacher and that I'll never be a good missionary if I don't forget myself and care about the Japanese people like he does.  So it has been a hard week, but next week are transfers so hopefully things will change.

Today we just played sports and climbed Takao San with Elder Simons and Parks investigator James, he's half Phillipino and he speaks English. He's 15 and way cool. I'm excited to see how they do with him. Other than that I'm just waiting for next Monday and hoping for a transfer.  I hope you all had good weeks and remember that I love you all!

The music all worked so feel free to send away! I really appreciate it! And it sounds way fun at that Sounders game. Now you know what it's like! Haha one day maybe Morgan will go. ;) I won't get to see conference until the weekend after you guys so tell me how it is! Oh also I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time (while on my mission) so that was way good! I really love that book. I have every one of the 531 pages marked in at least one place (which was one of my MTC goals) so I'm way glad about that. Now I'm aiming to read it again pretty quick so I can really get the connections. So a little spiritual message, if you read the Book of Mormon I would challenge everyone to take Moroni's challenge again because it truly is a testimony builder. Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Gailey

Japanese Cherry Blossoms!

Elder Simons, James (investigator) and Elder Gailey

Japanese River - Yudono Gawa

 

Another Shrine

 

 Elder Parks, Elder Simons, Elder Young, and Elder Gailey

 

Memories of the MTC

 

Shibuya Baby!

Dear Family,

Well this week has been a good week! Still full of things like conferences and stuff but one day was a Russell M. Nelson conference! It was way sick! Oh and real quick to clear up the iPad thing. The iPad's we currently have are test iPads as we were one of the first to use iPads in the world. So they are updating us to a newer version for phase 2 if you will. They are more like if not the same as the iPads they will be giving to everyone eventually. It has more access and is just all around better, they will be black iPad mini 2's and have 32 gig instead of 16 gig so that will be way nice for sure. The switch to the new iPads will be tomorrow so that will take up pretty much the whole day. But this week has been good we got a good bit more Dendo time which was nice to get us back in the swing of things. Today was temple Pday so that's why this is coming so late. And there is a lot of cool stuff to tell about from today so I will put that in later.

We had a bunch of conferences this week. With the biggest being the Elder Nelson Conference. The big focus was on our iPads and being disciples of Christ in the digital age. He said some really cool stuff and it was really cool getting to shake another apostle's hand! Two down and 13 to go! I thought it was really interesting that the main reason (that they said) for why we have our iPads is so that we can learn how to best use them (electronics and the Internet) and use them right for the rest of our lives. They said that specifically it is not to make our missions easier or more convenient. It was way cool and I got to see a lot of people because the north mission was there too so some of my MTC friends were there! We also had a conference in Hachioji from a senior couple about doctor stuff, good as well.

We've been getting as much Dendo in as possible and have had a whole ton of people who close the door halfway through us saying "konnichiwa!" So it's been a little rough. We are still finding people though! And we still have a ton of follow up to do in Fujino. And it is starting to look like we won't be able to go back out to Otsuki where Elder Bunker and I went that was at the edge of our area an hour train ride away. This transfer is just too full of conferences and things we have to travel for, not to mention how much it is costing to go to Fujino all the time. But it's good! I'm really enjoying this transfer. We did what we call "naked Dendo" a few days ago where we go out without our iPads or backpacks just a few pamphlets our phone and a Book of Mormon each. Not even our watches. We actually had a lot of success with it. We got all our pamphlets out and a Book of Mormon and maybe a potential investigator! It was way good.

So the interesting stuff from today was going to Tokyo for temple pday. And on the way back we went through the Shibuya station, which is right next to the busiest intersection in the world, so naturally we had to get off and go walk through it, I'll attach the videos. It was way crazy and way packed and completely different from everything I had ever seen in Japan. It was way sick and we had a lot of fun. But on the way back to the station we got interviewed about Japanese electronic things versus America's things like vacuums and fridges. So me and Elder Young probably will be on TV tonight! Woo! It was way cool!

I think that's all I got for this week. No new foods just new restaurants mostly! So it's been a good week. I'll keep working hard and I'll talk to all of you next week! Love you!

Love,

Elder Gailey

The Tokyo Temple

Shibuya

Hotel Royal and quite a few bummers‏

Dear family,

This week was pretty fast and pretty slow, maybe because it was full of bigger events that took a longer time I'm not really quite sure right now! We went to Fujino 3 times this week, had Zone Conference, splits with the AP's and that about sums it up when you throw in ekaiwa and game night. This week the whole apartment has just been exhausted from working like normal but also having all those other things thrown in making our Dendo hours still pretty weird. Aaannnddd it continues into this upcoming week too, so there will be lots of tiredness. But it's good we all love it at the same time.

So Zone conference this week was way good there were a lot of good trainings and a lot of just alright trainings that we weren't really sure the purpose of. President and Sister Wada though gave some really good ones on dealing with Japanese culture and how there are a lot of things that you can still do (for culture) from Buddhist type ceremonies and stuff if you do it right. And Sister Wada did a training on the Samaritan woman at the well. It was way good, I really liked the way she explained that Christ didn't go way deep explaining things but just taught as simply as possible, making it impossible to misunderstand. In our free time in between Fujino and the other things we just dendo'd near the area of the church because we had ekaiwa and stuff and we found some people for the sisters and a couple for us so that was really nice. We have a lot of people that if we can finally get some follow up with them we will actually know how many investigators we have. We have quite a few we just need to get the times to teach them all worked out.

We had splits with Elder Rockwood this week.  He just came with me and Elder young and his companion left for Kofu with 2 others. I think I told you guys a bunch about the AP's when I first got to Japan, how I really liked them and stuff like that. I think he is a good guy but after splits I'm alright with not going on splits again for quite a while. We went to Fujino and met up with Brother Chiba a recent return missionary who we found the Takeuchi family with. So Elder Young, knowing that I have more patience than he does, had Elder Rockwood with me for most of the time and he went with Chiba for most of the time. It was alright I just don't think you should be as forceful as he likes to be in his Dendo. I don't think as missionaries we should shove the gospel down people's throats sometimes and expect them to like it. But that's beside the point. We found a few people that might have some interest. When I went with Chiba though I learned a lot. He is always so incredibly happy and energetic. I don't even know how he does it! He's a way good missionary too so I'm glad to have his help out here.

We tried to follow up with the Takeuchi family and some people around them, on the time that we set up, but no one was home unfortunately. So we tried to find some more people and walked all the way to the previous train station to save a little money and have some adventure and it was really cool. We found a way old broken down hotel that is abandoned! Pretty good adventure if you ask me! But we also met some cool people on the way! Yesterday though we tried to visit the Takeuchi family one more time and they were actually there this time but it was completely different than the first time. She (the mom) came out and talked to us saying how she is scared of electromagnetic waves and how they have no electronics in their house and how she freaked out when there were pictures in the pamphlet we gave them that she thought might give her children an outside world influence. So she is very interesting. And she told us to visit on weekdays in the morning while her kids are at school but not until after Golden Week which is a week in May of 5 ish holidays in a row. So we were really bummed and no one else was home. But we talked it out had a good rest of the day and now it's pday and we are going to try and visit some recycle shops and have a good day of fun stuff to de stress and calm down and be chill.

That was my week pretty much! I hope you guys all had a good and hopefully more successful week than my week! Love you all!

Elder Gailey

 

Fujino

Hotel Royal

Elder Michael Gailey & Elder Austin Young 

Elder Gailey & Brother Chiba (Returned Missionary)

 

 

 

 

Another week, a new family, and a lot of random fun‏

Dear Family,

This week was a pretty good week I would say, it went by way fast! I can hardly remember anything we did because it went by so fast. It was good though. I think I put in my last letter that Elder Young and I plan on housing all of Fujino. So we spent a lot of time doing that, but I will explain that in a little bit. We have had a lot of activities like game night and Ekaiwa and district meeting and things like that so between that and some of the other stuff we have been trying to get done the days have just been filled really well, sometimes at weird time segments but it worked out pretty well.

This week we found a bunch of people in Fujino! We went up once last week and once this week. It was a lot of fun up there because it's so much a small river town. A very inaka (country) place for sure. The first time we knocked out as much as we could of the far away stuff and met a lot of cool people, found some old war tunnels, and a gaijin that knows Mormons really well (not super interested but was glad to meet Americans again) and we missed the last bus back to the station but a guy who we asked about the buses gave us a ride there which saved us like 2 hours. We gave out a bunch of Book of Mormons and stuff and even more pamphlets so we will need to do some serious follow up but it will be good. But just the other day we went up again to a different area of Fujino with the other elders and a recent returned missionary from the Sapporo mission (he is Japanese and his name is Chiba). It was way cool because while he was with us, we got 4 solid follow up appointments with some people for this Friday morning. One is a family that just moved in who wants us to come teach them way badly because they believe in Christ and God and all that. So we are really excited to go teach them. They are the Takeuchi family and we felt really good when we knocked on their door so it's going to be a good visit I'm sure. Then there were a bunch of others who were just busy at the time and couldn't listen to our whole message so they said we could come back this Friday as well. It was way cool! Goes to show that housing or whatever it is, is only ineffective if you make it that way. I will let you guys know how those meetings go next week!

Other than that we were doing random other Dendo things because our schedules were always strange. But yesterday we were doing a kubarikai (stand somewhere and hand out Ekaiwa flyers) and we got kicked out of the station because a guy who didn't like English called the cops on us! Way dumb! Then we tried another station but no one was there and Elder Young accidentally set off an alarm by some bike parking, so basically we had to run home! Way interesting night, not illegal but way interesting! So there is the funny story for the week!

Elder Young is a good companion, it's fun but everyone has their annoying times, but it's still good! Still lots of fun! Today we have a fun pday of going to recycle shops and stuff and then FHE and a Mogi (role play lesson practice) and stuff so it will be lots of fun! I hope everyone remembers to keep taking life day by day. If you can make it to the end of today with a smile on your face that's all that you need to do! The Lord will help out the rest. I love you all and hope you have a flippin sweet week!

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.S. Yep I got my package mom! Thank you so much! Thanks for the card Morgan! Those recess peanut butter cups are heaven. And feel free to activate away!

Fujino

 

 

Uenohara

New Day, New Transfer!

Dear Family,

 This week was transfer week so there were all kinds of new things and interesting experiences. Elder Bunker and I had to prepare the apartment for the sisters to move in so we spent most of our time doing that so not much to report there but we had a lesson with a member in it with Uki San. He is doing good and the member that came to the lesson told us that he doesn't really think Uki is making the connections to why the gospel is important or what the things we want him to do are important and affect him. It was good and I think we got a better grasp on where he is at. Then transfer day came and we shipped off our companions and Elder Simons and I waited for Elder Young and Elder Parks. Elder Young is way good and he has taught me a ton already. Obviously I'm developing my own style of proselyting but he is really helping me make it all very effective. He has been helping me to learn a lot about just going straight into a lesson with the person so that is really good and even if they don't want the Book of Mormon or to come to church or learn more at least they know about prayer or God being their Heavenly Father or something! Elder Young is from LA and he has been out a little more than a year. He's transfer 10. He's got loads of confidence in everything so that's good usually! I think that about covers it though. We have gotten out 3 Book of Mormon copies in the limited Dendo time we have had already. Most of the time has been spent either moving or planning, and there is still more to go. We still have all the same potential and actual investigators just the letter changed.

There has been a lot of good already this transfer so I am excited to see what the rest of the transfer brings us. It's a huge work that we're doing out here but I love it for sure! I'm pretty sure I haven't really gotten any new foods recently but I may have a small sushi addiction... The people out in Otsuki are way nice but we haven't been able to go visit again yet and we haven't had any contact with them either but probably end of this week ish we will be going back now that we have money again. Elder Young is way good at housing so we will be doing that almost exclusively this transfer and streeting on the way to the houses. From here on though it will probably rain more but heat up little by little so I'm excited for that part of the year. We probably will just ride bikes to housing places and then walk the rest of the time but I don't like biking so that's why we never did it. I would rather find the people on the way usually which is much easier while walking. We'll still probably mostly walk. It was a good week so far though!

Have fun with Matt and his wife and have a great week! Sounds like everyone is doing ok so keep it up and keep looking for chances to share the gospel with your friends and stuff! 

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.s. Still no luck on the package...