Dear family,
Well this week we taught
Takahashi, Dipen, Hagiwara, and Hikaru. I don't know if I have written about
Takahashi before, me and Elder Turley found him around a train station called Kitano
and we said hello and told him who we were and what we do as missionaries and
he thought it was way cool and that because he knew a couple Mormons in school
he wouldn't mind meeting us. So he has met with us a couple times at food
places but this time he came to the church again for a lesson and he said he
would download the Book of Mormon and try and read it on his phone when he has
time. So that was some good progress from just wanting to know about the history
of the church. Hikaru is actually getting quite a bit better at English. We
taught him all about a, an, and the, but he still doesn't understand them well
because there is no equivalent in Japanese. But he really liked it when we
taught him about the atonement this week. He really thought it was cool that
because of the atonement, Christ understand his struggles personally and that
through him he can have his burdens made lighter and not feel guilt for past
mistakes. It was really cool the reference he gave the atonement in the lesson.
We're teaching him again tonight so that is going to be pretty fun! We were
able to get a recent convert to come to his lesson so I'm excited for it.
Hagiwara met us for a little bit on Saturday after the sister's investigator's
baptism and before stake priesthood conference. He is still making progress, he
likes to speed up and slow down really randomly in his progression, but he is
always moving forward. Initially he told us we couldn't start the lesson with a
prayer, so we talked more about it and the relationship between us and God and
went into a lot of other random places, but he let us pray at the end, and he
made a really cool comment after the prayer. He said that God really must be
pairing all of the missionaries up in companionships because otherwise the
companionship wouldn't work so well and compliment each other so well, so that
was cool that he saw that! Dipen met us before the baptism with brother
Sugimoto a member that went on his mission to San Francisco I think, and we
just kind of re-set expectations that as we teach him things he will have to
make changes, and we talked about why God asks us to do hard things and how we
can make it through those hard things. He still doesn't have a baptismal date,
but after seeing the baptism of Yamauchi San who the sisters were teaching, I
think his fears are a little eased. So that was way good and now he has a
friend in brother Sugimoto!
Other fun things this
week, I had splits with Elder Rockwood that were a lot of fun, we went with Brother
Misu to visit a less active he is good friends with and she was way nice! Her
name is Sister Yagi and she is such a happy lady I don't know why she doesn't
come to church! She was way nice to us and to Misu as well. Right now she
really doesn't have a big excuse not to be coming other than she is nervous
because she doesn't know anyone anymore at the ward so we'll keep meeting her
every now and then! Eikaiwa this week was pretty intense. We teach the advanced
class so most everyone is fluent ish so we taught about opposites. Words like
on the contrary, to each his own, you're either with us or against us, and
things like that. And my, oh my, was it difficult, they couldn't wrap their
heads around it to save their life. It was way difficult for them, we felt way
bad but we tried as hard as we could in Japanese and English and it just wasn't
coming. Way funny time though hearing their examples to see if they understood.
Finally got our weekly planning done in 3 hours this week. That was a blessing!
Oh another thing this week
was Brother Sugimoto asked us to be in a episode of his new show he is doing on
YouTube. So he filmed us eating ramen and stuff like that and made a way funny
way cool video for that episode! I'll let you know what it's called when it
goes on YouTube!
My companion and I are
leveling out pretty nicely and we've been finding a lot of cool people in our
main housing area right now, we've only housed there 3 times and there are two
people with Book of Mormons there now! I think you're right dad, it really has
been interesting my sequence of companions and what I have learned from them.
Everything has been going real well, and that Costco run was way fun! I only
had to pay $30 to the $237 total. I got way lucky that Elder Coggins and Elder Dunn
hadn't payed me for the previous week of groceries! That's how you make a
successful Costco trip! I was talking with Elder Dunn about our plans for
medical school, he mentioned having kind of a random major before med school
can help your chances of getting in assuming you do well on the MCAT, so I was
thinking about it, and if it works I would really love doing something with
auto mechanics. Like building, improving, and designing cars. So that's
simmering on the stove of my brain! And yeah we eat at member’s houses probably
3 times a month in this Ward, which is pretty darn good but it does lend itself
to gaining some weight! But have no fear! As the Elder Gailey you all know, I
still can't gain any weight no matter how much I try. So that is a thing. Well
other than that I'm doing my best to get better at Japanese, and to memorize
the first vision in Japanese, and laugh a good portion of every day. It's going
pretty well this week! I love you all and I'm very grateful for all of the help
and prayers and emails, they certainly make everything better. Everyone have a
great week in the sun and remember to count your many blessings! Love you!
Love,
Elder Gailey
P.S. Every Japanese person
who hears my name says oh, Gary Cooper? Nice to meet you!
Misu
Companions
Elder Gailey and other missionaries
Elder Gailey with noodles in back
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