Michael's Good Experience: Quite an interesting letter I'm sure! Thanks mom and dad for raising me well!‏

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