MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our Fruit Basket was loaded!

Merry CHRISTmas from the Kamakura 宣教師(missionaries)

皆さんこんにちは！！メーリ・クリスマス🎄🎅！
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas! Hopefully no one got
any coal! If you did...well you have next year to improve :) I love
Christmas so much. In Japan, it isn't as big of a holiday as it is in
America and couples usually go on dates instead of people spending
time with their family. Nevertheless, it's still great!

From now on, I am going to try to keep these updates shorter,
especially this one. It was a slow week. We had Christmas Conference
at the mission home on 水。It was amazing! We enjoyed several talks and
food! The food reminded me of potlucks back at my home ward. We also
did White Elephant (gift exchanges). I even got to see my MTC kouhai!
On 金、the 鎌倉 ward had a Christmas party. Once again, super fun and
great food! The primary had a skit about the birth of Jesus; it was so
adorable! And by the way, Japanese children are sooooo cute! A few
nonmembers, investigators, and 英会話 students came too. A pretty great
turn out!

Church was cut short because of Christmas; we only had sacrament
meeting. Even though I could barely understand it, I still felt the
spirit. In Japan, wards have a "Fruit Basket" for the missionaries.
Every week, that basket gets filled with food and the missionaries
collect it after church. Due to Christmas, that basket was filled 2-3
times more! We are so grateful for the church members! For those back
at home, this is such a great idea! It helps us so much, especially
because we don't have too much time to shop for food. After church, we
went with Suzuki兄弟 and Tsuchiya姉妹 to Christmas carol at a nearby
carehome. I loved it! Music speaks to me on a different level so that
was extra special. Seeing those people smile just made me feel the
Christmas spirit so much more. After caroling, we went back to the
church. We met a super amazing guy, Imaeda-san, while walking home. He
shared a lot about his life, including the rough times. His wife died
recently so he has been living just with his 14 year old daughter. He
mentioned that whenever he walks past our church, he was curious about
what is inside. So we gave him a tour and talked a bit about the
church. We exchanged contact info and offered him a Plan of Salvation
pamphlet and Book of Mormon. He gladly accepted and agreed to meet
again. It was a Christmas miracle! He was definitely prepared by the
Lord! We then had a shokuji (meal) with the Matsumoto family. The food
was soooo good! And get this, it was an American-style meal! It
reminded me of Christmas dinner back home. The Matsumoto's are so
sweet! We also shared the "Light the World" video and talked about
service. What a great Christmas!

I hope all of you are taking the time to remember the real reason we
celebrate Christmas. God gave the greatest gift of all, His son, Jesus
Christ. Christ gave us the gift of the Atonement. I testify that
through Jesus Christ and the gospel, we can improve our lives and live
with our Heavenly Father again. I love everything about this gospel
and how it has changed my life. Even though Christmas is coming to an
end, I ask all of you to always remember Christ and always look for
opportunities to serve others. I know you will be blessed if you do it
from your heart. As always, thank you for the support and love. I wish
all of you a very Merry Christmas!! Please continue to spread that
CHRISTmas love!

-Elder Chab
チャブ長老 or 茶武長老
愛しています^_^

I ALMOST GOT HIT BY A CAR!

皆さんこんにちは
My last few days in Shonan area have been an adventure! P-day was hectic, as usual. We went to Kaneko 姉妹's house in the evening to join the Harvey family and Tashibu family for family home evening. They are return missionaries! They are the best! They prepared some delicious food! It reminded me of home! Especially because one was similar to a dish my grandma makes, I called it Mint Chicken. Mom, you'd know what I am talking about lol. After eating we shared a message about Christmas. I am a bit sad that I won't get to see them anymore but I promised I'd visit them after my mission.

About the car incident.. Jödicke 長老 and I were heading back from church with more cookies. We were on the sidewalk; sidewalks aren't as wide as they are in the US. A group of 10 men or so were in front of me and I couldn't go around. Then there was this pole in the middle of the sidewalk. Another biker was coming the opposite way and the group moved closer to my side to make room for the biker to pass. Well they ended up bumping me towards the side closer to the street. Since I didn't have much space to begin with, my front wheel fell off the sidewalk into the street. The light also just turned green! Since I was trying to regain my balance, I couldn't move completely out of the way in time. A car going about 15-20MPH ticked my front wheel and I barely had enough time to move completely out of the way. The group of men asked if I was okay and then I took off to catch up with my companion. It was a miracle that both my bike and I were unharmed! This all happened in about 10 seconds. Hopefully that's the closest I'll come to an accident.

On 水曜, we went to the Chigasaki駅 to carol and kubari again. We didn't have much success as last time and no members came out. I was kinda disappointed and it didn't help because I was already feeling down during the day. We went to a soba shop for dinner and then headed back to the church for 英会話. It was great, except I had to say bye to everyone. The Tatebayashi's and Abe's were there so I talked with them and then we took pictures. I'm going to miss the Shonan ward so much!

Transfer day was also hectic. I said bye to Jödicke 長老 as he left to Kichijoji. The rest of us went to the station to pick up Poff 長老 and then went to the mall to study. Ayala 長老 had to leave next; he's going to Kofu, which is very far. We then went to Carl's Jr. for lunch. After lunch, we got our stuff and went to the station again. I got on my train for Ofuna and Poff 長老 for Fujisawa. Carrying a bag, bike, and a suitcase on my back was not easy! Luckily it wasn't too long of a train ride. I transferred to the Odakyu line and headed for Kamakura. I waited for Lind 長老 and Coleman 長老. Later in the evening, we met up with a PI, Haru, in Shichirigahama. We ate pancakes at a shop near the beach. Haru used to be a bad kid in school, until his teacher talked to him. He changed everything; his dream is to help the kids in Africa! What a great dream! And he is still in high school! We taught him about baptism and he accepted a soft invitation to baptism! He is very promising! We also met couple Mormons from Washington state.They were dressed as Santa Claus and Mrs.Claus; they just got back from a charity event at a children's hospital. So, my first day in 鎌倉(Kamakura) was pretty great!

We haven't had much success lately. We met with Nakachi兄弟 the other day; he's way cool! He got baptized in July and he loves the gospel! Other than that, we've been trying to do a lot of street contacting. Since 鎌倉 is a popular tourist site, everything dies down at night, so it's hard to do anything after 8. Most of the time we just contact people from the area book and try to visit  potential investigators.

My companions Lind 長老 and Coleman 長老 are great. Elder Lind is on transfer 5 and Elder Coleman is on 12. There are some crazy hills in this area...so I don't have to worry about leg day. It's been an adventure so far and I'm sure there will be more, so I'm excited. Thank you so much for reading every week! I'm sorry it's so long but it's hard to sum up everything during the week. Since you won't here from me until the day of, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! メール・クリスマス🎄！

Family home evening with Harvey 姉妹と兄弟、Tashibu兄弟と姉妹 and Kaneko姉妹 last week! 

Lesson with Nakachi兄弟!

Kamakura missionaries plus the Zone Leaders Perez長老 and Gerrard長老

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 or 茶武長老

愛しています！

We made cookies for the members and investigators!

Kazushi and I! He wanted a nametag for the picture so my companion gave him his!

I'M BEING TRANSFERRED!!

At Shakeys!

Christmas Caroling!

Nagai 兄弟 made a card of all the missionaries in the ward!


皆さんこんにちは！
So this past transfer was only 4 weeks instead of 6. Our mission
president didn't want anyone to be traveling around Christmas time and
for missionaries going home, they can get home on time for Christmas.
With that said, I got my transfer email on Saturday!! It says:
"For this next transfer, you will be assigned to Kamakura A in the
Fujisawa East Zone as a Junior Companion. Your companion will be Elder
Coleman and Elder Lind. "
So I am going from the Fujisawa West Zone to the Fujisawa East Zone!
It's not too far away by train, maybe 30 mins or so. It'll be
interesting being in a trio! Traveling itself won't be so fun though.
I have to carry my bag, bike, and my carry-on luggage. It's going to
be a mess. Hopefully I figure it out!

Remember the potential investigator from last week? The one that
believed that the world was uncivilized before 1863? I'll call him
Fred for now lol My companion and I met with him at the church on
Tuesday. Fred read a little bit of the Book of Mormon so that's why we
decided to meet again. After we sat down, he began to tell us more of
his beliefs. He mentioned that there is a lot of evil in the world and
that the devil is everywhere..I mean, he isn't wrong lol After about
15 minutes (he can talk a lot), we decided to be a little pushy and
told him we wanted to start. We taught him how to pray and then said a
prayer. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a very good
listener; he asked questions and we answered, we'd ask him questions
related to the principle and he'd give his input. We really felt the
Spirit during the lesson; we didn't feel a good presence before we
prayed. After going through the lesson, we asked if he would be
baptized when he knows our message is true. He didn't really give an
answer and then began to tell us more about his beliefs. He mentioned
that he feels that he is God. He also said he wants to help us by
teaching us his beliefs. We told him that we know the gospel is true.
We also told him we can meet again when he wants to learn more about
the gospel. Other than that, we won't really focus too much on him.

On 水曜日, instead of going to 英会話、we had an appointment with the German
lady, Susan, and her family, the Stahls. When we got there, the
husband just got back from the store with a bunch of snacks for
everyone. We didn't meet the husband on the previous visit so Susan
must've mentioned us coming. We thought it was so nice of them to get
food for us. The husband is French but also speaks German, Japanese,
and English. He also was Catholic when he was younger; so he knows a
little bit about Christ.We got to know the family a little more and
then we shared a message about Christmas. We mentioned that Christ is
the greatest gift of all and then talked a little bit about Christ's
life, Atonement, and a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. We bore
testimony after sharing some experiences. Susan said she couldn't
believe in what we said and didn't think she needed to because they
already have a good life. The husband looked interested but whenever
he would try to say something, he'd look at his wife (as if asking for
permission), and then wouldn't say anything. More or less, they
weren't really interested; they said they aren't too religious. But
they said we are welcome to come back if we want to talk. It's their
choice if they want to learn more. I have faith.It was a pretty good
lesson though. And they are soooooo nice! We might go back one more
time this week since I wont see them because I am transferring.

On 木曜日, we met with a ward member, Kazushi. He wants to serve a
mission! So we are doing as much as we can to help him. He reminds me
a lot of myself. When I was preparing to serve a mission, the
missionaries from my ward would have me go to lessons with them. They
also gave me some tips. Anyway, me, Jödicke長老、Ayala長老、and Gilbert長老
went to Shakey's (which is in Chigasaki) to meet him. It's all you can
eat for about $10; so we ate a ton of food! They had some interesting
pizzas like Marshmallow Chocolate and Brownie Chocolate. They also had
shrimp and corn, Mexican-style and much more. After eating, we met
with the sister missionaries back at the station. We did some
Christmas caroling and distributed 英会話 flyers. We also taped small
chocolate bars to pass along cards. And most of all, we gave out 14
Book of Mormons!! Nagai 兄弟 wrapped the モルモン書 in Christmas wrapping
paper; they looked fantastic! We had so much fun caroling! We did that
for about 3 hours. Then the sisters had to leave so we stayed another
hour or so. Then we took Kazushi with us to do some housing in
Chigasaki! The apartments we tried to go to were locked/needed codes
to enter. We spent about 20 mins or so looking for a place to house.
Then Kazushi decided that we should pray to find someone to talk to.
After the prayer, we walked across the street and found someone! He's
still in high school. He recently came back from Denmark for school,
but he's Nihonjin. He also spoke English, a little Danish, and a
little German. We talked about why we are here and then shared a quick
message about how God loves us and can help us in our life. We then
told him if he could pray and testified. We also gave him a Book of
Mormon! He was excited! Sadly he didn't want to give us his contact
info but we gave him a flyer with the church address and phone number.
He's a great person!

This Sunday was fast Sunday since we had Stake Conference last sunday.
During sacrament, I bore my testimony in Japanese! I still don't know
much but that doesn't matter because the Spirit was so strong! I also
said goodbye to the Shonan ward. They thanked and congratulated me for
my work. I am glad I was assigned here for my first transfer. I'm
going to miss them a lot! Later on in the evening, we were street
contacting. Before we had to go home, we found someone to talk to. He
spoke English! He used to live in the US. He knew a lot about other
religions including us. But he wanted to hear more about us so we
talked about the Restoration. He also said he reads the Bible a lot!
He didn't have much time to talk to us but he was very interested. He
took the Restoration pamphlet and said he would contact us he felt the
desire.

Wow! Lots of miracles this week! There were also smaller things but I
am running out of time! We have to end P-day a little earlier because
we have a FHE in Chigasaki to go to. We made cookies! I'll be packing
up most of my stuff tomorrow and sending my luggage over to my next
area. Wednesday will be a normal day and Thursday I go to Kamakura!
It's been a blast here in Shonan/Hiratsuka. I learned a lot within the
last month. As Christmas draws closer, I would like to remind all of
you to be a light for others! Watch the "Light the World" video that
the church put out and share it with your friends! Thank you so much
for your support! See ya next week! 愛しています！

ーチャブ長老

ANOTHER WEEK OF MIRACLES

The nice origami lady that we met on the train!

Carl's Jr. with the Shonan missionaries!

Sweet new suit from H&M!皆さんこんにちは！！
Wow, it's Monday already. It's true when they say that weeks feel like
days and days feel like weeks. とにかく, I want to start off by saying
お誕生日おめでとう or HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing little sister Melody and
also to my grandma! I hope both of you have another 素晴らしい year! Thank
you so much for the love and support you have shown me! I love and
miss you!

火曜日 (11-29-16) was very interesting. We met up with a potential
investigator; I will not mention his name for privacy. We met him at
the park in Chigasaki, about a 30 min bike ride from our apartment. A
ward member, Brother Harvey, who is a return missionary, came with us.
Long story short, he believes that before 1863, the world was
uncivilized. Like the Stone Age. He said everything we've been taught
were lies. He said the Book of Mormon was written in 1970 and that he
met Joseph Smith. He thinks the Book of Mormon is true though. He also
said he hears voices. We didn't really get to teach him anything. But
he took a Book of Mormon and we might meet again. We will have to
think about it.

We got Krispy Kreme donuts for district meeting!!! It was great! The
place is only open for a week and we knew it'd be a while before we
get to have it again so we went for it. 英会話 was amazing, as usual! On
金曜日, we had to go to Kichijoji for Facebook training. I got to see my
MTC district again! I missed Davis 長老, Cuff 長老, Jones 長老, and Sadler
長老 a lot. So as a mission, we are folding 1000 paper cranes. On the
train ride to Kichijoji, my companion was folding some. A lady saw him
and then talked to us! She said she loves origami and taught us how to
make a flower. She said she was Christian and she used to live with
Mormons. We talked about what we do as missionaries and she seemed
interested. When we had to part ways, we gave her a モルモン書 (Book of
Mormon). She was excited! Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to
ask for her contact info..But hopefully we meet her again or she goes
to church one day. It was a miracle!

Over the weekend, we had stake conference in Shonandai. I could only
understand about 40% of what was said. But I still enjoyed it.
Hopefully one day I will be able to understand all of it!

On Sunday night, we had dinner at the Shinno family's house. They are
so nice! Brother Shinno is a return missionary. He served in Sapporo.
The two of them got married back in March so they are pretty recent!
They prepared a dish called sukiyaki. It has beef, tofu, mushrooms and
other stuff in like a broth. It is dipped in raw egg and you eat it
with rice. I don't know what a lot of it was but it was goooood! As I
am out here, I am learning to be less picky. Mom and dad, I'm sure
you'd be happy to hear that lol

Today was a pretty good day. We went to Carl's Jr. as a district for
lunch. It was great and it kinda reminded me of home. The sisters left
because they had other errands. But we went to H&M to look around. My
companion bought some new slacks, Ayala 長老 got a Guns & Roses T-shirt
and I bought a blue suit! It wasn't that expensive surprisingly and it
fits great! I've always wanted a blue suit haha! Then we went to Lopia
to do some grocery shopping.

Overall, another great week. As you know, the Church came out with
some Christmas related stuff. If you haven't seen the "Light The
World" video, I highly recommend it. I encourage all of you to be a
light for other people, especially this month. I love Christmas season
so much! There is a much more positive spirit everywhere! Seek out
opportunities to serve others. I promise you will learn a lot and
become closer to Christ as you do so. Thank you so much for the love
and support you've shown me. It has definitely been a source of
strength. 愛しています！Have a great week!

チャブ長老