Hot as the sun but better dendo!‏

Dear Family,

Well this week was a pretty good week! It was really weirdly structured for sure. We taught some lessons, we had a lot of meetings, and we dendo'd when we could. It was way dang hot this week though! I have never sweat so much in my whole life. At the beginning of summer I couldn't figure out why Japanese people carried around towels and rags everywhere, but now I see. It is incredibly hot and incredibly humid all at the same time, but it is alright, I guess it could be all year round right?

Well to start off Yuuki has gotten pretty busy from work until next month, but we have an appointment set with him for the week after Sunday so that's not a big worry yet. We have been in contact with him this week and he's already read the first 10 pages of the Book of Mormon and prayed a couple of times on his own! He's progressing pretty well I think. So we gave him Mosiah 18 as some homework for the time between then. But he's doing good! And Azuma San is finally back from vacation!! So we met with him on Saturday for a lesson and it was way good. He apologized a ton for only reading the Book of Mormon 2 times on his vacation, he was real upset that he didn't do it every day but he said he prayed at least 2 times every day on vacation though. So we finished teaching him the restoration and he really liked it. He talked about his vacation and how because he prayed and asked for safety he didn't have any problems on vacation. So now he is going to pray about Joseph Smith, so I hope that goes well!

We also met with Yamamoto and taught him the plan of salvation. We're working on his desire to join a church through the use of members. So this last lesson brother Iishi came to help us with that and since he is a school teacher he was able to teach really well and kind of just went hard in the paint and taught Yamamoto for 30 minutes and they became great friends so hopefully that helps. We'll use him again when he can. We also met with a man in the phone who I called and invited and played ping pong and created a relationship and are going to start teaching him after ping pong every week, so that's way cool! His name is Tanaka San. And last but not least for the teaching of the week we rode out for 45 minutes on the hottest day of the week to where google maps took us and it was wrong, so we looked it up on the phone and luckily that worked! So we rode another 20 minutes after making a few wrong turns and we found it so we rang the doorbell... Nothing. Called... Nothing so after 5 or 10 minutes in the sun we started back for our bikes and he pops his head out the window (the member) and invited us in and we came into a way 80s room where we talked with him and a less active friend of his. It was really cool because we just answered a lot of questions the less active brother (Brother Oshima) had and then shared a nice message on the little things and perseverance, that we made up on the spot, directed by the spirit, and then afterwards invited him to pray to end the meeting. I was pretty much expecting him to say no, but he said he would and he started, and after 40 years of inactivity said his first prayer, and started to cry. He offered an incredibly humble prayer and then we took a picture and decided we would meet again around the beginning of next transfer, hopefully he will come back soon!

In some fun random things we found a Lotus dealership in our area! And the person we found a few weeks ago, the lady from housing (Motoko San) is now a progressing investigator for the sisters! She read the pamphlet me and Elder Brummett gave her and already believes that Joseph smith was a prophet and everything! Also today we went to the zone leaders area for a day of sports! So that was fun. And last but not least last week on pday we were walking around Seiyu (Japanese Walmart) for some stuff and we kept passing the same guy all over, so we said hi. Then the next time we saw him he stopped us to read our name tags and ask us who we were, then we said hi as we passed him again, then the last time we saw him we talked to him and found out that he is the vice mayor of Tokorozawa city! So he got our names and our number and told is he would call us pretty soon to have us over for dinner and talk about the church! So that would be way sick! But anyways it was a great week! Saw all kinds of cool stuff and random stuff. So I'll send pictures.

I hope everyone's week was great, I heard from most of you, but I hope this week is good too, just remember when things aren't going the way you maybe want them too sometimes God has another, better plan for you! That's what I have been learning lately! So it's been good. I love all you guys! Keep having fun and enjoying the sun! Just be glad you aren't sweating like monsters!

Love,

Elder Gailey

Basketball on Pday

 

Elder Gailey at Hula Night

Okano kyoudai and the less active member, Elder Gailey and Elder Brummett

 

Lotus and Tesla Cars

 

Elder Gailey and the Tesla

Inside of a Shirne

Strange Car

 

 

 

Elder Brummett and Elder Gailey on a Forest Trail

Burnt out house

 

 

Strange house

 

Elder Brummett and Elder Gailey

 

Massive bugs in Japan 

 

Buddhism

 

This Last Week!

Dear Family,

This week was a pretty good week! We started to see some of the work from the beginning of the transfer finally starting to show up. Elder Brummett is still little by little getting better. And so far this week we have gotten 2 new investigators to work with and they are both progressing right now! One is going very very slowly, while the other is going much quicker I think. So there is some exciting stuff. We had quite a few activities this week that kind of made it hard to find some time to dendo, so we just had to talk to people in the passing time between lessons or activities or things like that.

At the beginning of the week we just got rejected hardcore. Literally on Monday not one person would even stop to say hello. I'm not bragging or anything but usually I'm pretty good at stopping people and starting a conversation it's after the beginning whether they stay or not that changes, but that day no one would even stop. It was a long day, but as usual if you work hard on the long days the next day is usually full of miracles! So we tried to visit some old potential investigators we found housing and nothing, but then we visited a lady that we referred to the sisters, because she hadn't contacted them yet. And we basically taught her an overview of the restoration, and found out when she lived in Seattle (home stay) she met and received a bible from a member. She has kept the picture of Christ he included in the bible on her fridge for at least 10 years, and now we  met her and she's starting to take the lessons! Cool miracle! That was all during a fast as well so just goes to show the miracles from fasting!

I went on splits this week from Tuesday to Wednesday dinner time, with elder loi-on who I used to work with in Takao. He's my zone leader now. So we went out on Wednesday and stopped to talk to this kid in a park. He was 14 and his name sounds a lot like shore. He'll actually be in Seattle for a week or two. But anyways he said he's always wondered about churches and if there is a right one, so we sat on a bench with him and taught him the whole restoration and invited him to pray and he offered a beautiful prayer like he's been praying for years, and said he will keep meeting when he gets back! So hopefully that goes well over in Hibarigaoka (where we found him).

Thursday we taught two lessons and boy were they long! Both were 2 hours long and the first one was incredibly hard. We met Matsumoto San around 1:00 even though the lesson was set for 2:00. And we tried to give him a church tour but he turned us down halfway through and he said he likes just talking more, so then we spent the next two hours trying to explain that God was our loving Heavenly Father and that we can talk to him through prayer, but only if we do it in the right way and to the right God. He went on some huge tangents like evolution, race, commandments, and all kinds of other things. I'm not even really sure how I kept up with his crazy Japanese. But at the end he prayed in the right way for us, he wouldn't commit to do it at home on his time but he did it there and it was good. Then at night we taught Yamamoto San. He was a way good guy and it was a way fun lesson, and the member that was with us did a way good job and basically it was like there were 3 missionaries there. So we taught him the whole restoration as well and asked him to pray and everything and he wouldn't because he doesn't want to join a church right now but slowly I think he will go there. Elder Brummett and I really thought it was a good lesson though as the spirit was pretty darn strong there so we were really happy about that. Yesterday we taught a guy names Yuuki San. He's a way funny guy but it was a really good lesson, he's so open to accepting truth and he really wants to know God. So we met him at a park and taught him the restoration and he said a great prayer and is really showing a lot of desire to learn. We are hopefully teaching him tonight too so I'll let you know how that goes! Other than that we had a questions of the soul activity done by president wada and our potential investigator doctor Azuma came! He left right after but he really enjoyed it and it was a great experience for him.

A funny thing from this week was Friday we had a sports night and some people we met in the park came! Do you remember the lion dance video? They all came! All 6 of them and did the dance and added to it! I'll send it to you tomorrow because as of tomorrow, we have Facebook back!! That was a big event this week! So be on the look out for some metaphorical spiritual shines of the shoes! Also this week we had mission president interviews but he came to every apartment with his wife to do them... It was a really nice interview, and then Sister Wada decided to check our bathroom........ I've never seen a Japanese lady make a face quite as disgusted as that! It was quite humorous actually! But don't worry we are cleaning up!

Anyways, I'm glad everyone is all safe and had fun camping! Maybe when I get back cleaning up will go a bit smoother? Haha it was probably just fine! But next year I'm not sure if I'll be back for it or not but I would love to go camping. It's weird to imagine that I hit 1 year next month! It's freaky really. But anyways everyone stay safe and have another great week! It was awesome to get all the pictures and stuff! Kaiden is so dang big! Well I love you all!

Love,

Elder Gailey
ゲイリー長老

P.s. I also will have blogger (some random app) tomorrow so if you know of a way I can look up my blog that way that would be much appreciated! How's the Japanese dad?

 

 

太陽の輝きにも... (Brightness of the sun)‏

Dear Family,

Well this week has been a very interesting week! It was incredibly hot, some might say hotter than an oven, but I'll let you take that as you will. It was good, we found some people, no new investigators yet, but those will come. Elder Brummett is getting out there a little more. And we've been seeing miracles out the ying yang! So that's been really good.

Monday night and Tuesday were spent on district leader splits. It was an interesting time, my district leader Elder Kerr, is an interesting person, but we were able to get some good conversations with people on the street and while housing and while kubari-ing. So it was pretty good. While doing kubari (the handing out English class flyer things) I met this guy, a construction worker for somewhere nearby that had just gotten off work and before going home wanted to stop by the store. So he walked past me and I talked with him for about the next 40 minutes, not quite the short trip he was expecting but it was really good. I taught him basically the whole restoration right there and he really liked it, only bummer was I forgot some of the words in the first vision story at the time, maybe for a reason? Not sure. But he really liked it and said sometime when he has more time he will call, which probably means never but still it was way good!

Other than that this week we tried to build part of our map but found out we need another map book... Now it's a $70 map... Anyways we did that a little and visited a nearby (half an hour away) lake a couple times, and man is that lake full of miracles. It was way cool every time we went there. The rain stopped on Friday morning so we were able to get back to the regular dendo. So Friday at the lake park, we got a few contacts and on the way back to our bikes, we talked with a guy named Matsumoto, who about a minute after meeting asked if we would like to sit on a bench and talk for a little while. He had a lot of questions about resurrection. Which was pretty interesting in a Buddhist country, and it's pretty hard to have them understand, but we taught him the whole plan of salvation to help him understand and he really liked it. Especially because he has something wrong with his thyroid or neck or something because right below his Adam's apple was a large tumorous looking spot so that was interesting. It was a little hard to focus during the lessons because there were a few high school students being loud and obnoxious but it was ok. Hopefully he can meet this week! We'll see. Oh! And a person we met last week, his name is Azuma, but we call him doctor Azuma to differentiate him from our investigator Azuma. He came to eikaiwa on Sunday morning and he stayed for sacrament meeting! And he said he plans on coming every week from now on, so now we just have to help him take the lessons and I think it will be great! But overall this week was way good between finding people so close to truth they can almost touch it. We found a lot of Christians too. There were a lot of conversations and street lessons but unfortunately the people just aren't wanting to meet again quite yet. Which is a bummer but it will come.

There were lots of fun things this week! I got some new brown shoes to replace the old ones you told me to switch out, so I'll send a picture when I take one! And at the park by the lake yesterday we met this group of people playing some traditional music and doing traditional dance and I got a way cool video and they all might come to sports night to perform this Friday! I'll send a video of them, it's way weird, but way cool for sure! And Elder Brummett and I have been really enjoying the days this week even if they are long and hard but we laughed all day which has been really good. And we got to teach a member named Pepe who is from Peru some Japanese, even though he only speaks Spanish. It was way funny, and hard, but good.

It looks like everything back home is fun, I'm still praying for everyone, especially grandma and grandpa and I hope all the prayers help at least a little bit. But thank you everyone for keeping me updated and sending me emails and pictures and what not! It's way nice! I'm glad everyone's having fun, and it's crazy to think next month I reach hump day... That's going to be freaky! But at least by that day I can say I have forgotten a ton of English... Talking is getting so hard! I think more in Japanese some days than in English! But I hope everyone has a great week! Meagan, I'll probably beat you in the tan contest next year when I get home from being outside all day every day! And my watch line will be great so look forward to that! Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Gailey

Pancake Night

Elder Gailey Samaui Burger

Weird Bug

Lake Photos

Easter Island Head

Elder Brummett

Pictures good ol' bike parking

Snake!

 

Traditional Japanese Dancing

Tokorozawa!‏

Dear Family,

Well a new p-day in a new place, surrounded by new people, with a new streak of weather, just a whole lot of new! So the quick run down of Tokorozawa. The last 2 transfers here the missionaries haven't really done much it seems. There is 1 investigator in our teaching pool and we met him on Saturday, but he will be going on vacation next Saturday for 2 weeks so basically we have to start from nothing and build it up. Elder Brummett is a really good guy, but he's pretty darn shy about Japanese and talking to people. I have been trying to help him talk to people more and he has been contributing in about 1 conversation a day so far on the street. President wads told me I need to help him out, so I'm doing my best. I hope we can finish this transfer much like Elder Turley and I did, teaching lessons, having meetings with new investigators, and filling up our teaching pool. I think that would really boost Elder Brummett, but it's going to be hard until he really starts to join me in finding people. But you can take a horse to water and stuff but I can't make it drink, so I am just trying to give him times to try it out and get better! Most of all I'm just trying to be an obedient and diligent example for him. Hopefully it will pay off. So anyways, on to this week!

This week was my last week in Hachioji and first bit in Tokorozawa. We were able to do quite a bit in Hachioji. We did a FHE with a less active family, and the wife LOVED it. She said she remembered all the feelings of when she first got a testimony and stuff, so that was great! And we taught Hagiwara again because I told him I was transferring and he said "I'll be at the church in 10 minutes is that ok?" So he shot over here and we taught him a lesson. We basically set up some more expectations of taking the actual lessons instead of just sniffing. I think he'll come around to baptism and stuff here in the next little while. But he agreed to take them so that's great! And at the end, as usual, he gave us some dendo advice! I can definitely see him being a mission leader later on! Then we met with an eikaiwa student right after who is going to start taking the lessons, his name is Hiratsuka. But then at eikaiwa I said my goodbyes and took a lot of fun pictures and stuff! I basically passed out my business card like candy! Then on transfer day brother Misu, who was one of my favorite members, came in with me in the station and dropped me off at the train door, he was really sad to see me go, practically cried, it made leaving harder for sure. Then I rode solo on the train for an hour. And now I'm here! It went pretty well except for rain, which as a missionaries is no fun! And it has rained every day so far! But it's good!

So that's my week but one funny thing from the week is that I got a message from the Sister Wada the mission president’s wife. The message said that me and Elder Eaton are famous, because of the video on the lds missionaries page that Brother Sugimoto did. It was way cool! I never ever thought that anything would happen like that, so I was very pleasantly surprised! Anyways that was my week! I'll send some more pictures! Oh and I really live in the city called Kotesashi, which is a lot more country than Tokorozawa but we still go there a bit! Sounds like everyone had a productive fun week! I'm glad! Unfortunately Fourth of July didn't really happen here, but next year it will! I'm glad Ginger is doing well! I hope she makes it! And it sounds like grandpa's condition is pretty up and down and stuff. But I am really praying for him and grandma, tell them that I love them please!! But anyways, have a great week everybody! I love you!

Love,

Elder Gailey

P.s. Go USA! Beat Japan in the World Cup!

 

The link to the YouTube video with Elder Gailey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=24&v=ZdWyWA-hMNA

 

Aquarium Trip

Elder Gailey and Brother Misu

Elder Gailey's Last Eikaiwa in Hachioji

 

 

 

Elder Dunn and Elder Gailey

Elder Gailey and Elder Eaton

Elder Gailey eating Giyouza before the Aquarium 

 

Elder Gailey, Elder Brummett and others

Video of fish eating Elder Gailey's feet!