Dear Family,
Boy oh boy have we been
busy. There wasn't a day this week without a meeting or lesson at the church,
if not more than one. It was pretty intense. But really quick before I forget
again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILEE AND RYAN! Oh and happy anniversary too! Now back
to the week. The main meetings were with Yokoyama, Azuma, and Yamamoto, and
then we had zone conference on the Tuesday that took all day. So here we go
into a wonderful week!
So Monday was a pretty
good day, my feet got stained from playing soccer barefoot against Hibarigaoka
district, which we won by a long shot by the way. It was way fun though. Then
in zone conference we learned all kinds of good teaching methods, as a mission
we're all getting pretty decent at finding, but teaching needs work so they are
really focusing on that. So we learned a lot about how to plan and how to teach
investigators repentance. It was really cool, we collectively were focusing too
much on the steps I think and not enough on applying it in daily life and why
we have it. Later we got some Hanno dendo time, but it didn't really have much
success that rainy day. We knocked on a house at one point and an Indian lady
handed us her phone so we could talk to her English speaking husband and stuff
then we gave her the phone and she closed the door and we heard a couple slaps
and her kids screaming and running... It was way intense. Eikaiwa is getting
even harder because I'm loosing my English and grammar more and more every
day... School will be rough!
Thursday was a way busy
day, we had lunch at a nearby ramen place, and halfway through we got called by
the first pi I found in Tokorozawa, Matsuoka San. So he called up saying he
wanted to meet us, but we only had 30 minutes and he said that was fine, so
then we met him and talked with him on a park bench. Turns out he's actually
part of a huge intense religion in Japan called Sokagakai, and they are
required to get a certain amount of dendo as a regular member, so he used us as
his dendo time, and so it was a dendo swap for about 30 minutes. I kept it out
of a bash, but we both shared and I told him that together we can spread the
message of Christ and helping people and he agreed and we parted ways. Way
strange 30 minutes. Then we rode an hour out to a members house, where we met
with Ooshima Kyoudai, a less active me and Elder Brummett met at the same
members house last transfer. It went well we taught him about his relationship
with God through prayer by using Enos, one of my favorite books. And it was
great, the member even gave us a watermelon that he grew himself! Then we raced
back to the church and taught Yokoyama about repentance and stuff just like we
were taught at zone conference and it went great!
Next we taught Yamamoto on
Friday right before game night, it was way cool because HE PRAYED!! And in that
prayer he actually began the repentance process on purpose! He's starting to be
intrigued by it all! So we asked him to pray every Day and he accepted it! We
taught him about the Book of Mormon, he read all the stuff before the pictures
this week, like the intro and stuff. He had a lot of questions but he answered
most of them on his own, and this time he also agreed to let us give him
homework for his month long vacation! It was way cool! And he's coming to the FHE
at the mission home with us today! He's progressing quite nicely now! I just
hope his vacation doesn't mess things up. Then we had Azuma, basically we
taught him about family history and journals, and he loved it and has been
writing in his journal a lot, he even writes about his lessons and studies in
it so maybe his kids and grandkids will want to learn! Then that night we
taught Yokoyama, well I say taught but really we got together with him and a 19
year old member, Kazu Kyoudai, and watched meet the Mormons together in
Japanese! It was funny to watch them take all the jokes seriously... But it was
really good for both of them! It was way fun too!
Yesterday at church one of
our Hanno pis came to church! We picked him up at the eki (station) and walked
to the church in the rain cuz we forgot umbrellas, then he came to all 3 hours
of church and stayed for the potluck afterwards! He basicly has no worries
about church anymore, so we set up a time to meet him to teach him the
doctrines. So hopefully he will start investigating! Then after church and
stuff we taught Yokoyama again, this time it was.... The law of chastity...
Which wasn't awkward until my companion asked him the same incredibly direct
question a bunch about whether he had or hadn't done things, if you catch my
drift. He told the member at the beginning that he had, but my companion asked
him like 3 more times afterwards, one time in English. It was weird. But he
agreed to try and keep it as well as possible. So it went well, he thinks his girlfriend
will be ok with it too, which is good. And then last night I died of tired and
was only woken from my slumber of death by my alarm going off right by my head
for 5 minutes straight. I'm incredibly tired this transfer! It's good though! I
figure I can sleep in when I get home! Dad had asked me how Japanese is, I
understand most everything and can say most of the things I want, I'm at
average missionary speaking and listening level for closing transfer
missionaries. I can say or understand pretty much everything, until the lord
decides to humble me and suddenly I can't speak any language. But it's been
pretty good for learning humility!
I thought a lot about the
importance of sacrament meeting this week, it's way dang important! It's one of
the best places for investigators and us to build our faith in Christ. So we're
pushing really hard for everyone to come to sacrament and understand what it
is. Hopefully it goes well! I would encourage everyone to think about how you
prepare for sacrament meeting, and how you look at it. I feel like people take
it for granted a lot. I certainly have! So I'm going to try and be better!
Getting that new ward all set up sounds way intense! In Japanese I would say おつかれさま (お疲れ様) it literally means the honorific tired man, but
basicly it means your doing great thanks! Also the house sounds like it's
getting a lot of work! It will be way different coming back! Then Kaiden scored 10 goals... THATS
INCREDIBLE! Way cool little man! And boy oh boy I want a Houshka jersey! He's
so dang good!
I'm glad my box came! I'll
send you an email with some directions on who to give some stuff to in your
email mom! Sister Cunningham is taking way good care of me so far, I don't have
any super big needs at the moment... But now that Sister Cunningham is in
Yakota, the flags would be pretty easy! Just a thought! ;) Looks like Meagan’s
house is good and Emilee and Ryan's trip was fun! It was great to hear from
everyone! I'll send some pictures from the week! Love you all! If you have any
questions let me know! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gailey
Less Active member
Plane Museum
Ramen
Elder Gailey eating a Squid Burger from Burger King!
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