Dear Family,
Well how was all of your weeks? I hope it was
a grand ol time full of goodness and fun things! Sounds like dad has been
pretty busy already as a 2nd counselor. I'm proud of him as ever! Moms doing an
awesome job taking care of everyone and even me from 10,000 miles away. I'm
very grateful to have awesome parents for sure. This week has been good, we did
a lot of stuff and almost had 3 new investigators, but it turns out just 2
because one of them stood us up. Bummer right? But still! We got some new
investigators. So at very least that was good. We had some really busy days and
some days with practically nothing. So it went a little up and down but overall
was really good. Elder Okada will be peacing out of the Odawara party for his
home in Kobe pretty soon, this Thursday to be exact, and my new companion is
going to be... Elder Aoki! One of the most English fluent Japanese elders in
the mission! So even though I was hoping for an American companion, I can still
speak more English than I can now! Elder Okada tries real hard but it doesn't
really come across and it always seems that in the times where I actually want
something to come across well it doesn't meet because I'm not Japanese so the
nuances are a little off. So being able to speak a little more English will be
quite nice. And I don't have to translate every day! It definitely was a
blessing and it helped my Japanese a lot. So despite the joy of getting to
speak English more I will miss a lot of things.
Anyways this last week we
were supposed to have zone Pday but it rained, just like today! So nothing
really exciting happened that day until we were doing some housing. We decided
we should visit a person that the sisters had met (he's from Mexico) and so
when we knocked on the door out came a fluent English speaking Mexican man. So
we chatted for a bit and after about 15 minutes I had testified about Joseph Smith
and he agreed to hear more, even just for a little bit. So we met him again on
Thursday. Thursday we taught him the whole restoration and he accepted the Book
of Mormon (not too much intention to read it... But it's a start!) and then on
Saturday he came to a fiesta in our zone leaders area held by some Mexican
missionaries. So it was a good week for him! His name is Ryuichi (he's half
Japanese) but he leaves next week for Mexico so if we get him well set up they
can progress with him there! Then after meeting him the first time we did a
Kubari Kai, and that's when I met my man Ken. He first walked past me glaring a
little bit. Then came back later expecting me to try and talk to him, and
obviously I did. So for the next hour while I was talking to Ken we had a huge
conversation about why we can't just say "there is one God but everyone
can just choose what they think about him and it will all turn out ok"
because regardless of what we choose or what we decide, it doesn't change who
God is. It doesn't change that God is our loving Heavenly Father with a body of
flesh and bones who gave us a way to return to him. And for an hour we talked
about this and finally I bore testimony of Joseph Smith and that he really did
restore the church, and everything changed. Ken realized that there is
importance in what is true and what's not, he realized that we can't just
decide what's true and he agreed to meet with me again on Friday. Well Friday
came and went and still no sign mission. I may not be baptizing him right now,
but I feel like in at least a little way I was able to be a vehicle through
which the spirit could teach him that there is something more out there for him
when he's ready. So there's a nice story for everyone I hope you enjoyed it! It
was a grand old time.
We also found a new investigator on our busy
day Saturday, we had to meet Kato San (he's an investigator again) at the
station at 4:00 and about 3:30 we met a guy housing named Hanaki. And well he
got visited a few weeks ago and received a pamphlet from the Jehovah's
witnesses. But that gave us a perfect opportunity to teach him the restoration.
So we did and he really liked it gave us his phone number and we're going back
there sometime this week! Awesome miracle. Then we ran to the station, barely
made it, and went to a baptism in Kamiooka where I saw Elder Poffenberger
again! It was lots of fun. Then on the way home we stopped at the fiesta to see
if Ryuichi was there, he hadn't arrived yet so we had to go meet Takeuchi Kyoudai
who was having some struggles this week with his testimony but now he's
stronger than ever. But while waiting for a train a man said "hey
elders!" In English and it turns out he's been less active for 10 years
because there is no church where he lived but he returned just a few weeks ago
to japan and has been really feeling he needs to go to church, and saw us and
we gave him his churches address and I think he went! Crazy miracles! But yeah!
Awesome stuff! Hope there's even more next week!
Also this Sunday, a fun thing that happened
was a random American member walked in while Elder Okada and I were teaching
young men's, and said he's here on business trip, so I got talking to him, his
name is brother Chaz Clark. He's from Minnesota or something but he works for
Toyota. So I translated for him in sacrament meeting and then afterwards we got
talking. Turns out he's got a mechanical engineering degree and works on auto
braking systems. But as a result he gets to drive all kinds of nice cars around
all day. Sweet job right? I'm not good at explaining but it sounded way fun! So
basically now I'm thinking I don't know what I want to do when I get home...
I'll need to experiment a lot at college. Scary stuff but if I ever need info
he gave me his number and stuff so I'm getting connections! Woo!
I think that's just about the whole week, so I
hope all of you have a ridiculously fun week and enjoy life to its fullest!
Feel free to shoot me some lines on how you're doing, I know everyone's life is
busy and stuff so I hope it's all going well and that everyone is healthy and
happy. For today my testimony is that I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. I
know that he did so much to forward the work of the lord. And that he really
did, like so many of us, lack wisdom. And that when he lacked wisdom he asked
God. And when he asked God, he received a real answer and because of that
answer we are here now and can be together forever. I love you guys all so
much, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gailey
P.S. Keep me updated on how everything's going
with the college stuff, thanks so much for all that you do for me! You're the
best! I love you!
Hey everyone,
Here's the final addition
to my email! On Wednesday my buddy Yamamoto San came all the way from Tokorozawa
to visit me and we ate 30 dollar sushi! It was way crazy! But it was a really
good time, and he gave me a sick Japanese watch! He's an awesome guy, and he
really respects me and my belief and I was able to teach him a lesson for the
first time since I left! It was awesome!
Elder Gailey
Sushi with Yamamoto San
Making Chocolates
Elder Okada
Odawara Family
Countryside
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