Dear Family,
Well the infamous transfer
week has come! And as much as I would like to keep you all in suspense of
waiting to see where I'm going... I'll be transferring to Yamate to be a
district leader! It's about a 2 hour trip away from here to there, so it will
be quite a while! But as sad as I am to leave Tokorozawa, I'm way excited to be
going to Yamate! My companion will be Elder Carlini, a guy who is almost done
with his mission and is from Layton Utah. He'll be my "district leader
trainer" so he'll be helping me with the transition. But it looks like
I'll be there for a while because usually district leaders get at least 2 or 3
transfers there. So that's the big news. But this week was incredibly
interesting. Up and down and all around! I'll probably just go day by day to
help the craziness make sense.
So Monday was the day we
were supposed to move apartments, so we had spent all last week getting ready
to move and stuff and we're all ready on Monday. As usual my companion had a
headache when we started cleaning so he went to bed, and when it came time to
leave for a lesson, was still fast asleep. So me and elder Kaesler went on
splits, mid cleaning, and rode out to a referral from the sisters. His name was
Kayukawa. So we knocked on his door, he answered, we introduced ourselves and
he asked us to teach right there on the step. So we did, we taught him the
whole plan of salvation, all of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and most of the
first lesson all mixed into one because of his questions and intent listening. The
connections were flowing like crazy, and he really liked it. He also prayed at
the end and accepted a soft baptismal commitment. However he is writing a novel
right now and doesn't have time to meet this month since his draft is due to
his publishing company. So we set up a time for next month and it looks good
there. On the way back we grabbed lunch and while eating got called by elder
Kerr and Moa saying that we aren't moving. So we go home and get the
information we know and it wasn't enough so I called the office elders and
discussed all the possibilities, and reasons for everything and got a solution
that everyone was happy with, except elder Moa. So then we finished moving
everything back into the current apartment. Basically the reason we aren't moving
is because the elders didn't call the landlord until that day and she said no
to 4 people in that apartment. So anyways. Ever since I finished the phone call
elder Moa was furious and wouldn't speak to me, so that night I split again to
go with elder Kaesler to teach doctor Azuma, and it went well and he was happy
to meet, and has agreed to continue learning. Then I came back asked what the
problem was with elder Moa and he said I betrayed him in deciding to stay here
even though that's what office staff told me, and that it pissed him off
because I didn't go through the senior companion. So that was a dumb reason and
he also said he has no desire to change and that he's good enough the way he is
and stuff. So that blew over by the next morning.
I wrote about temple p-day
last week so that is that. Then Wednesday came and we went down to Yamate, (my
next area) for a zone meeting at the park where japan was dedicated for
missionary work. That was way fun and we got another ends experience. But then when
we got home my companion flipped out and said sit down, we're talking about
this now. And so I said ok, and he basically laid down all the reasons that he
doesn't like me. Because I don't ask a ton of deep questions to him or share a
ton of really personal things from my life. So we talked about it for a bit and
he was angry and kept saying I'm a fake person because I don't share every
little thing about my life with him, and I really didn't care so it was
bothering him. Anyways, we had a lesson with Yokoyama that day so we left the
apartment to go teaching, and he was fuming mad. And on the way I stopped a guy
and talked to him, invited him to church, then turned around and bam no elder
Moa anywhere. So I walk into the church and he is sitting in the back corner,
still fuming, and I said "what was that!?" And then voices raised and
he kept yelling that I'm not real and don't care about anything after which he
accused me of not being real with God, or having a relationship with God, which
is where he crossed the line and I yelled at someone for the first time I can
really remember, well outside of soccer. Saying that he has no idea about that
and never ever will. And that didn't make him too happy so he turned around and
stormed out, left the church building, and so I went through the protocols and
called president and stuff, talked it out and he asked me to go look for him,
so I did but nothing came. No where to be found. So again called president and
he said to go find a companion, so I was companions with the sisters for about
an hour til a member got there to be my companion. Then I taught Eikaiwa and
after the member made some calls and found out elder Moa had gotten on a train
and rode to the next area over to stay with those missionaries! So I became a
trio with elder Kaesler and elder Kerr and there were a million calls from zone
leaders and president and stuff. Then the next day it was decided that there
would be a conference thing to talk it out. So basically all of Wednesday I
managed the area like an adult and elder Moa ran away because I am not the same
person as him. It was way weird.
Next day comes and we sit
down and basically elder Moa says that President Wada chewed him out because
he's a 24 year old senior companion, he shouldn't expect me to be the same as
him to be a good companion, he shouldn't push his opinions on me, and he
absolutely should not have gone against the white handbook and run away. He
apologized and I tried to find some places that I could have done better, and
found some and both of us left fine again, he just mostly needed to cool down.
So that was the drama for the week! After that we taught Takano San once more,
but he just isn't placing any importance on invitations or what we say, still
can't understand how to pray or anything, so it's looking like we're going to
have to drop him. But then that night we went to Iruma City as a district and
did a quick Blitz that was a lot of fun. Friday we went to Kunitachi area where
we did another blitz and ended up handing out around 70 Book of Mormons and it
was way fun. That night as well we had a pancake party for our outreach
activity, and well I learned I can make pancakes pretty well and it's a ton of
fun! So maybe I can help dad up camping? *wink wink* on Saturday I met Azuma San
for the last time because of transferring, we talked about keeping the Sabbath
day holy and he committed to start first week of October. Woo! It was very
funny to talk with him that day, I invited him over if he ever comes to
Seattle... Sorry! Hope that's ok! Other than that we planned and met a less
active, Abraham Kyoudai. He doesn't usually like Americans so I was pretty
lucky he liked me. He knows his history like crazy so he would just go on and
on, but it was so interesting how he would draw connections from all over
history and all over the world. He had a hard time believing that Joseph smiths
experience happened, especially because he hadn't seen any prophecies of it
yet. So I felt prompted to share 2 Nephi 3: 5-15 where it prophesies of Joseph smith.
He got crazy in depth in reading, he read and analyzed every word and thanked
us profusely for showing him an answer to his worries and determined to study
that chapter way hard from that day on. It was way cool!
Now the fun stuff,
yesterday was the 40th anniversary of Tokorozawa Ward! How cool! So church was
from 12 - 3 and Takano came! He didn't understand hardly anything but he liked
the atmosphere in the church building and everything except loud little kids.
Then from 4-7 we had the anniversary celebration. That was awesome! Takano
stayed for the first hour then left, and Abraham was there for the first hour
too. Basically the first hour was just old people saying what they had done in
the ward, and introductions and talks and stuff. But OOSHIMA KYOUDAI CAME!!
He's the guy we visited at the members house clear out in the middle of nowhere
this and last transfer. His biggest fear was that no one would welcome him
back, but he walked in and 12-20 members rushed over shouting it's been so long
and hugged him and shook his hand and he cried of happiness. Then at the end
came over and thanked me profusely and told me "I'm coming back now, I'll
be there next week too" which was incredible! He's coming back!! Then
Yokoyama showed up and ate some delicious food that the ward made with us then
we taught him a lesson and talked about his concerns around Nephi killing Laban
and stuff because he's been reading the Book of Mormon a lot this last week. It
was good, and he was sad to say goodbye but said he might visit me. So yeah! It
was a good last Sunday! And a very interesting week, and now I get to go be a
district leader, it's going to be a lot of work! But I'm excited!
I hope all is well at
home, it's crazy how the number of months left is so close to single digits...
Not trunky, but man... It's overwhelming! Thanks for the emails everyone! I
love getting those pictures and stories and things too! It's been a great
experience so far, I'm excited to see what comes! I love you all tons and tons
and 2! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gailey
Seeing Elder Bunker again at Zone Conference
Zone Conference at Yamate
Ponds in Yamate
Elder Gailey with Kohei Kun
Elder Gailey with Yokoyama
Elder Gailey with Ochiai Kyoudai
Elder Gailey with Okano Kyoudai
Elder Gailey with Takano
Yokoyama, Elder Moa, Suzuki Kyoudai, Elder Gailey
Yokoyama, Suzuki Kyoudai, Elder Gailey, Ichikawa Kyoudai
Azuma and Elder Gailey
Elder Kerr's Birthday
Kentucky Fried Chicken for Elder Kerr's Birthday
Elder Gailey Sleeping on a Train
Zone Blitz at Kunitachi
