Hello out there!‏

Dear Family,

Well this week was an interesting week! As you know I have a new companion and now we've served together for a full week. I miss my previous companion because we had such a good groove going with the dendo and getting pi's and lessons and stuff. It was really good, and this transfer even though I am the junior companion it's looking like I need to be more of the senior companion. Elder Eaton does his best, but he doesn't really trust other missionaries well, and so it makes dendo a little tough because you start heading towards an end goal in the conversation and if you pause at all he will jump in. But, there is a better half to that sentence. I have really gotten over worrying about what my companion will think if I tell them they should dendo differently, and so slowly, we've been working together a little bit to make it better, and we visited a guy that said we could come back while housing and my companion really tried to do better and you could really see and feel it. I don't think it will get really consistent or anything like that for a while, but at least that one time it was really good. The person we visited wasn't super interested, but we taught him about the Book of Mormon and were even able to give him one. So even though he doesn't super much want us to come back at least he knows our testimonies and a good image of missionaries, and has a Book of Mormon. So way good part of the week.

The rest of the week was harder as there was almost a power struggle going on, basically both of us testing to see who would be the one to take charge, it seems more like that will be me, which I think will be really good this transfer. We only had 2 real investigator lessons this week, so that made the week pretty long but one of those was with the one and only, Dipen. We invited him to be baptized on June 13th and he said he needed to think about it. But this week we will potentially have 2 meetings with him and really should know whether he will be baptized this transfer or not by next emails. It was a good lesson we had one of the members, brother Misu, who is fluent in English, there as well. So we were finally able to get a member to meet Dipen! Way good stuff there. During the lesson he really seemed like he wants to get baptized. He really wants to be able to be forgiven of his sins, and to get the gift of the Holy Ghost, but it seems he is a little afraid that even though his family would support his decision to convert that he might get a harder time from his extended family. So hopefully we can meet him and he can come to church this Sunday. You have to attend at least 2 Sacrament meeting's before baptism and there are only 2 Sunday's left... So it might be pretty tight, but I think he can do it!

Hagiwara, although he's "not a pious man" he really seems like he is moving towards it. So far we have only met him 2 times but I have called him and had many conversations with him like a friend, so he has some pretty good relationships with the missionaries. But anyways, we got an email from him this morning, and well, he sounds like he is getting pretty deep into the Book of Mormon. He hasn't read any more than the intro and testimonies of the witnesses as far as I know but in the email he was referencing the English version that I gave him and made some really cool connections that strengthened my testimony in a unique way. So the day that we met him to give him the English Book of Mormon that he asked for, elder Turley and I forgot to bring one, so we searched the church for one, but then I remembered I had one in my backpack. The church didn't have one so we decided to use that one. Now for the real cool part. About a week before that day I found a lot of English book of Mormons and I grabbed one to carry and mark parts that might help investigators. So I marked up the intro really nicely so that if ever I needed to I could really help teach the introduction really clearly. And I also marked some other scriptures in 1st Nephi as I was reading through it. Well Hagiwara doesn't know it, but the person who marked the Book of Mormon he has was me. But because I had that Book of Mormon prepared Heavenly Father was able to work through me to help him see some cool stuff. He was saying in the email that the bible is the first (or like more main) testimony but that the Book of Mormon is another testimony. Then he referenced the underlined word in the intro "comparable" meaning comparable to the bible and working together to testify. Then he asked why, if the Book of Mormon really is as important as he and we believe it is, why is it not called "the other testament of Jesus Christ" which is a pretty good question. But in all this he was really deeply thinking about Jesus Christ and God and all of that so I think we will be able to help him through some serious progress by the end of the transfer. AND he is the one that asked us to meet again this time instead of laughing really hard and agreeing when we ask, so I'm really excited. That was way long but cool story! Who knew that forgetting the Book of Mormon at the apartment, and having one on me to read when elder Turley was in the bathroom would change so much with one of our investigators!

Other than those 2 we've been finding all week, which has been tough as described above, but it's getting better I think. We have a couple new pi's but not much of report. Also we taught another investigator, Sasaki. But he returned the Book of Mormon, said he didn't understand it, and that when he went to the Internet he didn't like what he read. He wouldn’t really let us explain either, especially cause some of it was true and he just wasn't willing to change. He said the happiest time in his day, week, or life, is when he is sitting by the window, reading the newspaper, and drinking his coffee. So he said thank you but I'm going to leave now. And then left and wouldn't listen to us. So that was a bummer but we'll keep trying when we can on him. This week though we have a few lessons planned already and hopefully more to come. It was a humbling and tough week but hopefully the next 5 are better. Japanese is getting slightly easier in some areas but it's still way hard and sometimes I wonder if I will ever understand, but I know that I can at least speak enough to make a difference.

Well I hope that everyone at home is doing well, and has had a good week. I've been learning a lot that it's often not worth it to worry too much about things that happen when you don't want them to or don't happen when you do want them to, it's more worth it to realize what happened today that made it a good day, or what didn't happen today that made it an even better day. There's all kinds of things in life that bother us too much so if I just recognize what can and can't be helped, then everything just floats a little smoother. Japanese lesson for the day! "Shouganai しょうが無い" it means it can't be helped. Like maybe there is no piano in a room but no one wants to sing without one, but it's shouganai so they do anyways.

I love you guys! You're the best! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.S. We also had scout ekaiwa so that was way fun! It was just English in groups of three then some games and stuff and it was way fun! I'll send some pictures!

P.P.S. That was a really long letter! :)

 

Elder Gailey finally got his box!

Elder Gailey saying goodbye to Elder Turley

 

 

Missionaries and Brother Miso

 

 

 Man playing a traditional Japanese Shamusen

 

 

More Ramen

 

 

Missionaries outside the church building

 

 

 

Elder Gailey with his Eagle Scout uniform and the other scouts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wooden block Flip Flops - all the rage!!!  Basically a portable hardwood floor!

 

Hey! Day late, but not a dollar short!‏

Dear Family,

Well the transfer calls are in! I'm in Hachioji another transfer! Elder Turley is off to Kofu area and my new companion is Elder Eaton, he's only a transfer above me so pretty close! As I'm writing right now Elder Turley has headed out so I'm in a trio with the zone leaders, who will no longer be the zone leaders as Elder Hansen is heading out to Takao to be with my last companion, Elder Young, even though he was Elder Young’s trainer. Way interesting, but someone in every companionship in Hachioji leaves today! And on top of that every companionship in the whole zone has someone switching, it's crazy!

In other news, it was an unfortunately slow week this week, a lot of canceled lessons and a lot of exhausted days from all kinds of things but this week is going to be much better. But we were able to meet with Dipen, and Hagiwara too! Dipen came to an activity that President Wada does where he shows a movie and teaches gospel principles from it called questions of the soul. The movie was Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams, so I was way happy for that one! Dipen really loved it and I think next time we're going to review it and extend the baptismal interview then! It's going to be way cool! And we also met with Hagiwara San who slowly but surely is blowing me away with his knowledge of English, he speaks perfectly and uses really large words like I do sometimes! It's way random but cool! He says he doesn't have a ton of interest in the spiritual side of the gospel, but he does want to know as much information as he can. I think we will just have to slowly ease him into gaining a testimony but it will be good! Sorry there wasn't all that much craziness this week!

We had a way good ping pong night, and unfortunately I was off my game and didn't quite get the win but it was way fun! And I really really want to see the Dead Poets Society now, it looked like a way good movie from the tidbits I saw! Oh and in other sad news, I won't be able to go to Keath's performance because the people that were supposed to go got too busy to go! So sorry for that Keath! I will definitely bring back/send home the announcement in Japanese for him though, maybe it will be a cool souvenir! Sounds like everything is going well at home, it was way cool to get so many pictures from everyone! And mom it would be way fun if you guys could come! I really want to go to Tokyo Disneyland as well, so if you can pick me up we should go there, and to a lot of other cool stuff from my mission, like visit members for meals and stuff, although that's a long way from now! I did hear about Makenna, I'm way excited for her! She talked to me about it quite a bit and asked my opinion and stuff a lot as well! My guess is that she will go to Peru or some other South American country.

It's been good so far and I'm looking forward to the transfer! I love all you guys, sorry if this letter is a little weird, it was kind of hard to figure out what to say since I just talked to you! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.S. I just got my package yesterday! Thanks Mom! You're one in a minion! Those shirts and socks and all the stuff was great! You're the best!

 This is the box he was talking about.  I also sent his scouting things.

Happy Mothers Day!‏

Dear Family,

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

You'll hear that soon mom, I hope you're ready!

Well! At the moment I'm writing this before I have talked to you so you will probably already know all this when I talk to you, but I'm writing anyways. This week was a way good week! We had a lot of lessons and a lot of cool experiences. We were able to teach Dipen again and we were able to go through the whole restoration with him and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon (which he was way happy to get, because he used to have a bible in Nepalese but he lost it and now he has a Hindi Book of Mormon to replace it) and he said he would pray every day! It was way good and a way cool lesson, the Spirit really guided our words and I even thought of an analogy that really helped him right on the spot through the Spirits help so that was way fun! He is such a cool guy, and he even accepted a soft baptismal invitation so this next lesson we will probably invite him for a specific date.

We also taught a guy named Hagiwara who we met about 2 weeks ago and we said we considered him a friend even though we just met him and now he is reading the Book of Mormon! We don't have a next lesson set up yet but we're working on it. We also met our friend Inoue San at his house again this week and he let us in this time! So we were really able to teach thoroughly and with the spirit and it went really well, he basically taught himself and was way overly thankful for our visit but that's cuz he's a nice guy. So it was way good. We also had lots of other first lessons and we introduced the restoration and Book of Mormon to most of them so yeah it has been a good week. On Saturday we had 6 lessons scheduled, some at the church and some at houses so we didn't have much finding time but we were able to teach all of them and we even finally made contact with a less active we have visited 10 ish times before. Sorry all that was so short, there was just too many lessons this week to really distinguish between all of them, but it was a way cool week! My companion and I joked a couple times, that hey maybe this is what American missionaries feel like! So it was a cool week.

I found some way cool shirts on pday that have Japanese writing on them! It's surprisingly rare to find that here, so that was nice. I'm not quite sure what else to say since I'll be talking to you all in an hour and 8 minutes. But I hope everyone has a great week and to always try and follow the Spirit! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.S. 1 hour and 6 minutes now.

 

Elder Gailey and Elder Turley - Mother's Day Message

 

Companions - Elder Turley and Elder Gailey

Ramen

Scouts - Eikaiwa

Elder Gailey is still waiting for his box with his Eagle Scout shirt

 

 

 

Temple pday and finally able to wear short sleeves! (There was a rule until May 1st)‏

Dear family,

Hello! It's been a way good week so far in Hachioji, really good things are happening here. We have 2 new investigators this week! One, his name is Dipen, I feel like I have talked about him before but I'm not really sure! He's a Nepalese guy that has gone to a lot of Christian church before when he lived in Nepal. We gave him a church tour on Monday night and it went really well! He even told us that he loves Jesus Christ! And also that he is Hindu but if he ever wants to change that there is no problem in his family or from his friends if he did change to Christian. It was a way good tour and I think he really felt the spirit and we were able to pray with him before the end. He didn't come to our next scheduled meeting but I think he will come to the next one so it will be alright! And our other new investigator is one that dropped us earlier but his name is Nagano, and we are starting to meet with him again so I'm happy about that one! Other than that we taught a lot of first lessons to potential investigators and we'll be seeing if they turn into investigators in the coming weeks! I think quite a few will.

This week we did as much finding as we could in between teaching and on any free days that we had we went on some real productive adventures! I was on splits Tuesday and into Wednesday but half way through the split the AP companionship called and one of them was sick so we went on a double split so that they could get one of their companionship to a lesson with an investigator. It was interesting partially because every time I have ever Dendo'd with Elder Connell (one of the AP's) we just get rejected like crazy, and that happened. But we taught the lessons we needed to and they went really well and both those people we taught came to church this Sunday. We found on our map a way cool park at the very north of our area, so one day we visited a p.i. that lives up near there and rode the rest of the 45 minutes to the park. It was somewhere around a 90 minute bike ride. But we were able to talk to a few people at the park and met a way cool guy named Tanaka that lives up there but would be willing to go all the way to the church for a lesson so I'll keep you updated on if he becomes an investigator. The park turns out to be the site of an old castle and there are signs saying what kinds of buildings and towers and walls used to be there and it talks about the wars and stuff involved there. Lots of Samurai stuff there though which was cool! Then because it is golden week here in Japan (a string of 5ish holidays in a row where most people don't have work) we did a lot of park Dendo. There was a little bit of getting lost in some confusing parks and a few mosquito bites but every time we got lost we ran into someone who would listen to what we had to say it was way cool! This week was way good as far as talking to people and getting follow up appointments and even getting Book of Mormons out, we did better than all transfer this week.

While doing some park Dendo near our apartment we met a homeless man, named Somei. I think he's only been homeless a short time but we started talking to him and it turns out he used to be a Jehovah's Witness investigator or member we aren't really sure yet, but when he learned about their blood transfusion beliefs he decided that that church must be wrong. He has read the bible 10-15 times and he took the Book of Mormon and said he would read as much as he can. So this week we're going to see if he would be willing to keep commitments and clean up his life with things like the word of wisdom and if he is we're going to keep meeting him and try to get some Ward help on getting him a job or something. But we will find out Friday!

Another cool story from the week is that yesterday we were running out of time for dinner and we weren't sure where to go but we decided that McDonald's would be an ok place to go. Turns out that our stomachs were guided by the spirit on this one because we sat down and ate and we both felt like we should talk to the guy next to us but we kept saying we would do it just before we left and then after a while he leaned over and talked to us because we weren't doing it, and he's coming to ekaiwa this Wednesday and hopefully church on Sunday as well! He was such a cool old guy, he's 84 and loves English and his name is Isobe. Especially after that one me and Elder Turley have been trying even harder to make sure we act immediately on prompting a of the spirit so hopefully that won't be a problem after that.

So anyways it was a great week! Oh Shinji did fast and pray and stuff and he felt the spirit but he isn't really willing to admit that it really was the spirit because he says he has felt it at shrines and stuff as well and we tried to explain that as you get closer and closer to the truth you will be able to feel it more and even at a shrine God will still try to guide you, but he kind of just tuned us out unfortunately. So I'll update you on that as I know more but I just bore my simple testimony to him that the church really is true and that I just want him to know that and get the same happiness and joy that everyone who knows that has, so maybe it sunk in a little I dunno.

If you could send me my scout shirt and eagle neckerchief (no sash) that would still be much appreciated! And it can just go to the normal address. I look forward to when you have time to take pictures and hopefully you guys can get some more of Meagan's house too sometime! That sounds way exciting! Sounds like work has been pretty busy for everyone so hopefully Sunday you all got a chance to rest! I put Matt’s name into the temple in Tokyo today so hopefully that will help. Hopefully Morgan can get doing better and that everyone will do well with their physical therapy. Tell Kaiden I was way happy when he named his dog Walter! That made my day that day! Also I am probably going to be at Keath's performance in Tokyo on the 18th, we're trying to get an investigator and then we can go! They have been advertising that like crazy at all the church buildings and stuff so there will be a lot of members there. Thanks for all the emails this week! It was way nice to hear from you all so much! Have a great week this week and try and share the gospel when you can! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Gailey

The Mega Big Mac - a Big Mac Doubled!

 

Elder Gailey's $3 McDonald's Socks

 

Tokyo Temple - Elder Gailey & Elder Turley  

Slimy Sushi

Elder Gailey and a dehydrated fish he ate 

Funny Sign

Castle Ruins Park