Craziness and a half (Week 70)

So I didn't transfer. Just as I expected. And Elder Dolbin didn't transfer. Just as I expected. I didn't manage to worm my way out of district leader position. Just as I expected. So nothing has really changed. Except Elder Munro went home. Which was sad but happy. And the new zone leader is pretty cool. Its fun going to church with him. His name is Elder Eliason. Yup. You heard right. My MTC doryo. So that's fun. Elder Dolbin and I actually planned everything for the week assuming we weren't transferring so its good we didn't transfer. We got a lot done. And it was crazy fun. But not as much as I would have liked. Our investigators were not as home as we would have liked them to be. But we talked to a lot of people on the street and taught a lot of lessons. Which is always fun. I love doing that.

 

So we found three new investigators this past week. One of them has unfortunately wouldn't agree to set up an appointment but said he would call us if he felt something when he prayed and read the Book of Mormon. He was actually sincere. But now its all up to him. Which is scary. We don't know if we will ever see him again. But he really will try the prayer thing. So I have hope. Another investigator we found is a college man who is very kind and said he would read the Book of Mormon before we came to visit him again. We have an appointment tonight. I have high hopes for this man as well. And the third man we found this week is actually from Indonesia. He doesn't speak any Japanese. His name is [S____]. And he doesn't have the best english so we have to speak really simply and its pretty hard for him to express himself. He is a diligent Muslim. He reads their book and prays every day. Which I think is really cool. I don't meet enough people that care about God. He said he won't convert but we can come back so we'll see where that one goes. Its been fun. Lately we have been finding a lot of new investigators and kind of sifting through them to find those who will actually progress and among those we are finding those who will be baptized. So its been really fun.

We haven't met [Y___1] san in like 40 years but we have an appointment scheduled with him this Thursday. Which is so good. With bro Tanaka the ward mission leader. I love him so much. Tanaka kyodai is the coolest guy ever. Anywho. It should be good.

 

We did bring a scripture to [Y____2] san. And it was very cool. It was about prayer. And then I shared an experience I had praying for her. I felt the spirit and I started crying in my prayer for her and thought it might be good to share that with her. I told her how strongly I felt God's love for her and how much I loved her and her family and I about started crying as I told her. And then after that all she could say was thank you. She obviously felt the spirit just as strongly as I did. She said thank you twice. Once in english for our sake and once in Japanese so she could feel like she was really expressing herself accurately. It was so good. She is so awesome. She is moving slow but she is moving forward. And I am so excited about it.

 

I did buy glasses. They are not like any glasses I have ever had before. They are kind of a Japanese style. And it was way better than buying glasses in America. Even though they asked me all the questions in Japanese. But it was fine. And the worker there was really cool. We kind of became friends and she gave me a discount. So maybe you will get a picture. After I get my hair cut and can use a computer that allows plugging stuff in.

 

Well. That was my week I think. It was fun. I want to stay here forever. It has been too much fun. I'll talk to you next week.

 

Love Josh.

 

And about skype. I don't know yet if I can skype. I asked the zone leaders to ask the assistants but they haven't got back to me yet. We all got an email on the phone telling us what to do to have our families call our phones. And nothing about skype. So I may or may not be able to. I'll let you know by next week what I can do.

Super crazy week (Week 69)

Mom asked what District Leader job is. I just have to teach my district every week and I have to go on splits with them for training purposes and I have to report the affairs of the district every week to the zone leaders. I don't really want to be district leader. I don't feel very leadery. But I'll do it if I have to. Today we get transfer calls. So I might not be district leader after today. But I probably will. I also probably won't transfer. I hope not. We will both probably stay. Elder Munro goes home though. He leaves for Australia this Friday. I am way sad to see him go. But alas. That is the fate of us all. We grow old and die. Speaking of growing old I heard that every area in my zone is going to have either a first or second transfer missionary. So I will be one of the old missionaries. Already. I feel like time is flying by way too fast. I still feel like a bean. But whatever. 楽しくがんばりましょう！。

So I thought of a good theme for our zone next transfer. But I am not zone leader so I don't get to decide but I suggested it to my zone leader. So maybe. But here it is. 日本が福音的に爆発するように楽しく頑張りましょう。Can anyone read that? Nihon ga fukuinteki ni bakuhatsu suru youni tanoshiku ganbarimashou. It doesn't translate to English very well. That's the part I'm most proud of. I thought of it in Japanese. It means lets work really funly hard so Japan blows up in a gospel-like fashion. Yeah. Its pretty cool right? And it has connections with Ishigaki that I don't want to take the time to explain here.

So this past week I had p day on Saturday but couldn't email so I am doing that today. We went to a baseball game. The Hiroshima Carp. It was so fun. Kind of weird. And the Carp didn't win. But it was super fun. I think I am developing a like for baseball. Its super huge here. I also went on splits with the zone leaders for like four days. So I didn't spend much time in Saijo. But I will this week. Assuming I don't get transferred. Which I am going to assume. So that was exciting. I am really getting to know the zone leader area. I hope that doesn't mean they will make me zone leader sometime. God seems to like to prepare people for stuff but I am just hoping this is a coincidence. Well. It was a crazy week.

Y_____ san really likes the Book of Mormon and she kind of was disappointed when we visited her and we didn't have a scripture prepared to go along with the commandment we taught. And she asked us to prepare one for next time. She is so cool. And she is progressing quite well. I am so excited. I love these people. We got to meet H_____ again. And he said he would try to read the Book of Mormon and pray every day to see if God is really there. And his first prayer was given right in front of us. It was so good. I really felt the spirit. And Elder Dolbin and our member, Sister Miwa, who is going to the new Japan Tokyo South mission in July, both said they almost started crying in his prayer. It was cool. I hope he can really start feeling the spirit soon. And we met with K_____ san who is the mom we found a couple weeks ago who has some interest. We tried to teach her but as we really started to get going with teaching and answering her question things went crazy and just spiraled out of control and she said she had to take care of her kid and we had to leave but to come back another time. It was Satan. He was getting in the way. Which means she is probably going to benefit from hearing what we have. So we will keep trying.

Well. Dendo is going good here. I am having lots of fun. It is starting to get too hot for suits but we can't take them off until the 30th. But then some days its too cold and I want a coat. Like when it rains. The baseball game rained the whole time and I was in shorts with just a shirt and a poncho thing that I bought. Holy smokes it was cold. But fun. Anywho. Thank you for everything you do for me. I appreciate your prayers. Keep them coming. We are seeing miracles because of them. Its blessing a lot of lives.

Also just one real quick thing. This morning I was on the phone with a sister in the ward and before we hung up she went out of the way of the conversation to tell me that my Japanese is super good right now. That during that phone call my Japanese was better than normal. I didn't feel that way but I guess I am making progress. So that made me happy. I can't describe to you how hard this language is to speak. But I slowly continue to make progress.

Well. I love you. Have a good week.

Love Elder Riddle

Big stuff going down (Week 68)

So last week I did training in District Meeting. The night before I got a call from my District Leader telling me that he was being suddenly transferred to the area that shares an apartment with Tsuboi. That was sad for me. I love him. But the Elder he switched places with is also wonderful so I am happy for that. And then I did training. I have never been in a better district meeting. It was so cool. The spirit was so strong. Elder Dolbin and I taught about finding people. And it was wonderful. And then through the zone leaders, who are in my district, President caught wind of it being an awesome training. And since our district leader is now gone I was made district leader. So my current responsibilities are District Leader/Trainer. Oh boy. I really don't want to be district leader but whatevs. I'll give it a shot. So now I will do training every week. All by myself. In both languages at the same time. Wish me luck.

So I hear there was an earthquake in Japan. I don't know if its the same one but I felt an earthquake this past week at about 5:30 in the morning for me. The phone went crazy with an alarm and woke us up and then I checked it and it said an earthquake hit. And a few seconds later the apartment started shaking. It wasn't very strong where I was. If you were walking around you wouldn't be able to feel it. But I did feel an earthquake. My first one. That was exciting.

So as far as new investigators goes we found two this week. Both are pretty good. One we have taught twice. He is 18 and his name is H_____. He is cool. And the other man is named Y_____(3) san. He is cool. We only taught him once but we have another appointment. Which is way cool because when we found him on the street he made sure we only wanted to meet one time. But he has decided otherwise I guess. And we have a new investigator. Our other investigators did not make much progress this past week. Which is too bad. But we were really busy and so were they. Especially Y_____(1) san. I haven't seen him for a long time. I hope he is ok. He is too cool to lose.

It has been really cold here lately. It was warming up really nice and then randomly went way cold. It rains pretty good about once a week. That's annoying. It makes finding people almost impossible.

Its ok if you send me another package eventually if you are doing it for you. But if you do it for me then don't do it. I cost too much money as it is. And then I go diva and ask you for money for glasses and stuff. So only send them if they are for you. And only a small one.

Physically I have been feeling a little bit better. I have been able to do everything I need to while ignoring my knee. I really haven't noticed it. My back is a little worse off some days. It is quite painful in a painful way but I have been able to do everything I need to do and we are doing well here with the work. We continue to dendo like you wouldn't believe and I am experiencing more joy and miracles than ever.

When I come home I want to go to Disneyland in Tokyo. If not there then Legoland. If the general public decides that isn't acceptable then Disneyland. At Christmas.  So we can see all the pretty Christmas stuff. And if not Disneyland then camping. I want to go camping again. It has been far too long. And if not that then you can just get me an iphone. I use kind of a dirt phone here and all the Japanese people have iphones so I get jealous.

Funny story about the phone. We live on the third floor of the apartment building. And I had the phone in my suit coat. And then I took said suit coat and draped it over the railing for like 10 seconds. (this was like two weeks ago.) And I heard something fall to the parking lot below but it bounced out of view. I thought it was my planner. But then I discovered it was the phone. But then I thought it would be ok because we use solid bricks for phones and they are invincible. I went down to investigate and I discovered that the invincible phone turned itself off and then wouldn't turn back on. But it was still in one piece. So I took it to the local cell phone place and they said it would take a while to fix so they gave me a temporary replacement. Which was a beautiful white flip phone that had a pretty display and was fun and easy to use. And all of the missionaries were jealous. And then this morning I had to go pick up the old "invincible" phone. So I have that one back now. Zannen. But it looks as if part way through repairs they gave up and just gave me a new phone so I scored there. Until I get transferred.

Anyways. I love life. I love Saijo. I love my companion. And I love you.

Love Josh

Dendo is an emotional roller coaster (Week 67)

Well this has been my craziest week yet. Last p day we went to Hiroshima castle and that was cool. Lots of fun. And this week we saw a lot of miracles. I haven't had a new investigator since I was in Tsuboi. But this week we found four new investigators. And I was so happy. We had such a good few days. We worked hard and we saw so many miracles. And we have since tried to meet with three of the four. None of them showed up to their appointments. That brought my emotional level quite low. We still have the phone number for two of them. But one is now gone forever. And I don't know about the other two. They all seemed like they were so into it. They were interested. Two had interest in baptism. But they didn't show up. We still have one to meet though. Tomorrow. I hope that goes well. I really hope he shows up. I really do. So that was that. Huge miracles and then big sadness.

This week we also got to go have a day of dendo prep for the youth of Hiroshima stake. that was fun. We went out to dendo for a couple hours with the youth. It was pretty cool. I was with a guy going on a mission today. He left this morning. And it rained really hard. that was the first time i have been caught in the rain in a suit and had no way out of it. I got soaked. It was really raining. But it was still good.

I have to wait until next week to see conference. So that should be fun. I am excited for it. I am really looking forward to it. I can't wait. I wish I could have seen it already like you. But I will just be patient. I will be able to see it in english. I could decide to watch it in Japanese I guess if I wanted to. But I would rather not do that. I wouldn't get anything out of it.  It sounds like it was good though. I can't wait.

We weren't able to meet with Y_____ san this week. That made me sad. I feel peace about him though. I think things will be just fine. He is 22 right now. He is super cool. And I hope he can start really progressing again this week. We met Y_____(2) san a couple times this week. That went well. That was really nice. She is so nice. I love her and her family. They are so wonderful. And she is really progressing. She is progressing really slowly. But she is really progressing. I have seen her come very far in my time here. This week she even shared a scripture she liked with us. That was really cool. I love it when investigators share scriptures with me. It is so fun. I'm excited to see where she goes.

I am really starting to love Saijo so much. This place is great. And I really love the people here. I love the members. And our ward mission leader. I don't know if I have said this before or not. But I think about it a lot. Our ward mission leader reminds me of grandpa Liddle. And he just owns. He is the best ward mission leader I have had on my mission so far. He is so awesome. He just gets it done. And his dendo fire is crazy hot. Its so easy to work with him. And it is so fun. I love him. I love all them members here. They are so wonderful.

Elder Dolbin and I are really working hard together. It has been really fun to work with him. My district leader keeps telling me that we probably have the highest numbers when it comes to finding people in the whole mission. That just means we talk to everyone and teach a million lessons on the street and give a lot of Book of Mormons and stuff. Tomorrow at district meeting my district leader wants me and Elder Dolbin to do the training. On finding people to teach. I am way nervous. I haven't really trained like that before. And I don't know what we do that's special. We just work hard and talk to everyone. Anyways. It is just so fun. The true key to happiness on the mission is hard work. When you work so hard that you are wasted when you get home and are wasted when you wake up in the morning and you are wasted all through the day is when you are happy no matter what. I have been facing a lot of difficult things lately. But I am so happy. This is just too awesome. It is so hard. But if you just work you will be happy. So life is good.

I hope all is well at home. I love you all. I don't have much more time. I'm sorry this was so short. But have a good week. I love you.

Love Elder Liddle

Hi again (Week 66)

Well I just got done listening to some Taylor Swift and now I am emailing you on this wonderful P day. There is a beautiful little bread store close to here where everything is only 105 yen so we went there for lunch. And that store always plays American music.

On this glorious P day we plan on going to do some sports with the zone and then going to Hiroshima Castle. That should be fun. But it doesn't even compare to Kumamoto Castle. I went to the Atomic bomb museum and the one building that is still standing after the bomb. That was very interesting. I want to go back to spend more time there. It was kind of crazy to see. It kind of made it more real to me just how much was destroyed by that bomb and how many people were hurt. Crazy stuff. I can't imagine watching one of those blow up.

Also the Sakura are starting to bloom. So that looks really cool. I hope to get some pictures of it. This will be my only time to see them in Japan.

So Y_____ san did not get baptized this week. He was really busy and hard to meet with and then we finally did and he presented some concerns about being baptized. It seems like he really understands how baptism is a big thing and its a commitment and his concerns were that he wasn't sure he could live up to it. So he doesn't have a baptismal date anymore. But he came to church. And we are going to talk to him more about his concerns to see if we can't help him out. I still think he will get baptized. Just not yet. Give him a couple weeks.

Y_____(2) san is going really well too right now. She is just super nice and I love meeting with her and her family. We have a great time and Yasuda san really trusts us. And she is really taking this gospel thing seriously. She's praying and she is reading the Book of Mormon. It makes me really happy. And her 5 year old daughter drew me a picture. It was nice. We had a lesson and dinner with her at her house this past week. And I brought dessert. That's right. You guessed it. I made that super delicious cheesecake mom always makes. Except not the crust because the crackers are impossible to find here. Not even Costco has them. But it was super delicious. And the Yasuda family loved it. So did I. I made two. One for them and one for me. Yes it did destroy me inside every slice I ate. But did that stop me? Of course not.

Well the Padawan and I are getting along well. He is learning to use the Force quite well. We even got to go on splits with members of the Jedi Council (the Assistants to the President). It was really fun. And we got a lot done. It was really fun. I can't tell you how much fun it is to go out and talk to people on the street. Especially when you just sit talking for like a half hour with some guy from Okinawa. Its awesome. And it is super cool being able to do that in Japanese. Having my Padawan here has helped me realize just how much Japanese I know. I can get around these days. His Japanese is really good too. The people in the ward have to ask if he is new because his Japanese is better than normal. He is so cool.

I slept on my neck weird. Now it hurts.

I'm in P day clothes.

Also I accidentally caused the fall of the Saijo phone from the third story of our apartment building to the parking lot below. Yeah. Its broken. Oops. I hope we get that sorted quickly.

Well. I love you all so much. You are all awesome. I just learned that Y_____ san likes iCarly and that you can buy them in Japanese. So yeah. I'm totally doing that when I go home.

Have a nice day.

Love Qui-Gon 長老

A crazy week in Saijo (Week 65)

To answer questions before I forget I have yet to do anything really fun for P day in this area but today I will. I'll tell you more about that in a little bit. Already we are seeing some sakura blossoms emerging and they look really cool. I will get to see them this year. Thank goodness. I wasn't able to see them last year because I went to Okinawa and their sakura live and die way before the rest of Japan. I am excited. They already look really cool. I don't think I have really eaten anything weird lately. Well. I don't know. Japanese food is really becoming quite normal to me so maybe to you it would be weird but I don't really think about it anymore. Unless something really crazy is put on my plate. Do you know what natto is? I eat that a lot. Almost every day. With some wasabi mixed in. Erika might know what natto is. That is pretty weird. But I like it.

So this week we were not able to baptize Y_____ san. He got home from travel on Friday and then got way busy because he was graduating on Saturday so his baptism had to be moved to this next coming Sunday the 31st. I hope all goes well for that and that he really is understanding everything the way he should be. I think the biggest stress is making sure he really understands and really is converted.

Also dendowise this week we had two whole days where zero dendo got done. One of the days we were traveling to and from Fukuoka for a huge conference again and the next we were helping other missionaries in another area with activities. The conference was super cool though. It was super fun and it just pumped me up for more dendo. So this past Friday and Saturday we were able to go out and talk to a lot of people. We taught a lot of lessons and we handed out 31 Book of Mormons this week. 22 in one day. Its just crazy. We were about to run out but then received a shipment of 96 Book of Mormons. Which is a ton. But hopefully we can have enough for a while. We have already passed out 50 together as a companionship. We want to see if we can do 100 this transfer. I think that is definitely possible. Its been really fun dendoing with my bean. And he is just the coolest guy ever. He has no fear and he just wants to work and get it all done. I love him.

So yesterday there were two random white guys in church. The one was named Tom Dickson. Go look him up on youtube right now and his Blendtec stuff. Yeah. I met that guy. And we are going to have lunch with him today. A brand new costco just opened up this week in Hiroshima and he is going to be there doing his blender demonstrations and we will go see him and see the new costco and eat food and stuff. So yeah. I know a celebrity. Who is also a member of the church. And then we will go to see the atomic bomb museum. Which should be fun. So that will be my P day.

So I still really don't speak Japanese but somehow I have been able to do anything that I need to. So maybe I really can speak Japanese. It is really fun to have those experiences where my bean gets stuck and I come in with understandable Japanese to finish it off. Its all with God's help though. I can't do any of this by myself. I can speak better Japanese when I am teaching lessons than when I am just talking to members or other missionaries. Its kind of weird. But cool at the same time.

And Erika. In your email you used Japanese that I had to look up. I didn't know the word for fox or for badger. And I already forgot them. so I'll have to look them up again. But you should keep emailing me in Japanese. It will help your Japanese and I really like Japanese so its fun for me to have someone to email. Nihongo wa tanoshii desu ne. Daisuki desu yo. issho ni manabimasho!

Well. I think that was my week. I love you all more than I know how to say. I really miss you but I'll see you soon enough. Time is flying so incredibly fast. As a missionary you see time in transfers. I have about as much time left on my mission as the amount of time I have lived after Ishigaki. Which is so short. I am starting to get scared because it goes too fast. I just have 5 and a halfish transfers left. I am one of the old missionaries now. Oh boy. Well. I'll live it up while I'm here and see you sometime at the end of the year.

I rabu yu so machi.

Rabu Ridoru Eruda

First week as a trainer (Week 64)

I can't believe they are building a lego store in Utah. Its about time they figured out I live there. And just in time for when I get home. Just one problem. I have no money to buy all the star wars legos and lord of the rings legos and stuff that I need. Like the super star destroyer.

So I've been training this guy. His name is Elder Dolbin. From Sandy Utah. And it has been quite exciting. I rather like training and being the one who gets to decide everything I do. Elder Dolbin is crazy cool. He's got a ton of dendo fire and he just wants to work with every minute he's got. I've learned quite a bit from him already actually. And his faith is crazy. He has such strong faith. We have already had cool experiences. President has asked that we as a mission try really hard to give out one Book of Mormon a day. And on our two days together we passed out 18. It was crazy. All because of my bean and his faith. We are almost out of Book of Mormons in the apartment. So we need to get more. Also we are teaching a lot of lessons on the street. A lot of people are listening at least enough to be taught about the Restoration or something. So that is really cool.

This is the first time in my mission that I need to be the one who knows Japanese. He relies on me to help him when he gets stuck. And I can't get stuck now or we just all explode. And I am the one who has to understand all of our various meetings that happen on Sunday. I've been extremely nervous about that. That has been my biggest worry. But much to my surprise I learned that I can speak Japanese when I need it. Pretty well actually. And I can understand everything I need to understand. I can understand a lot now. So I am having a good time with that. This training thing is going to be really fun.

So Y_____ san is still traveling the world but he should come back this week. And we are going to try really hard and finish teaching him everything we need to teach him and get him interviewed for his baptism because his baptism is this coming Sunday. I really hope we can get everything done and have him understand everything so he's ready. But I have high hopes. He is a cool guy. And I'm really excited for him. He's awesome.

So its been cool having Elder Munro close by. He's fun and its been a good time. We have had fun already just going to church together. So yeah. I enjoy that. I think this transfer is going to be a really fun one up here in Saijo. I'm excited.

We have another conference in Fukuoka tomorrow so I get to ride my fourth Shinkansen. But then we have to take a bus all the way back. Too long. The Shinkansen is fun but its not really special anymore. Its just a really fast train. Like an airplane on the ground but you can't feel it turn. So I like airplanes more. I hope I get to ride more airplanes soon. They should probably just send me down to Ishigaki again to reopen it soon. I have only been on 23 airplanes. I don't think its enough.

Well. That's life right now. Things are good. I am a trainer and its fun. Its hard in a lot of ways. But I think it will really be a good experience for both me and the bean. So let's get rockin.

I love you all. You are all the best.

Love Elder Liddle