皆さんこんにちは!
Its the last week of April already! I can't believe it! But that means spring is here! Other than winter, spring is one of my favorite seasons! And it looks so great here!
We had a lot of kubari time this week. Tuesday night was interesting. We went to 武蔵新城 again(it's pretty effective at that station). Next to the spot I was standing was a sign for a gym advertisement. After a couple minutes, it fell over. I looked at it and debated if I should pick it up; I didn't want people to think that I dropped it. Eventually, I decided to pick it up and put it back. Shortly after, this guy runs up to me, taps me on the back, shakes my hand, says "ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU", and gives me a pack of tissues. He then went to the opposite side of me and began kubari'ing. I realized he worked for the gym who's sign I had just picked up earlier. My companion was by him. Eventually he talked to him while I continued to kubari. When it came to wrap up, I went over to them and hopped in on the conversation. My companion had basically explained all of the Restoration to him and was finishing up the Book of Mormon. We tried to give him the book but he kept saying he couldn't take it. Nevertheless, a great experience.
We had the weekly service at the care home on Wednesday. This time, they wanted us to sing! They wanted us to sing "The Star Spangled Banner". That was odd because we aren't in America but we did it haha! We also sung "Nearer My God to Thee", "Praise to the Man", "I Am a Child of God", and "Called to Serve" in Japanese. We then got the opportunity to talk with them for a bit. It was awesome!
On Friday night, we went back to the same station. The whole night, people kept coming up to my companion and talking with him. A 外人(gaijin-foreigner) went up to him, asked for a Japanese Book of Mormon(we gave him one of course), told us he used to have an English one, and then took off. Schow長老 just looked at each other like "What just happened?" We always have interesting experiences at that station and that was no exception :p
Saturday was a long day. In the morning, we met with a less-active member's son; his name is Masaru. He is starting to come back to church so we were asked to help him with that process. He loves basketball and soccer; and he actually just had his 14 birthday the day before :0 Anyway, we went to the 山手(Yamate) church to play basketball with the missionaries there, our zone leaders, and two other new members. We played Speed and a few rounds of 4v4. It was a lot of fun! After that, Nielson長老 shared a spiritual message. Honestly, before the mission, I wasn't a sports person, especially because I was terrible at it. But I definitely love sports a lot more now, specifically volleyball! After about an hour train ride back, we had lunch at the apartment and then studied. Then we got back on another hour train ride to go to the stake center for the Saturday evening session of stake conference! I understood about 70% of the Japanese! It was amazing!
Sunday was just great! We had stake conference again, but this time we were able to watch it in our own church building via satellite broadcast! We talked to a few members after and then had choir practice. 今野(Konno)兄弟 had me play piano for a bit while he helped fix the choir... I was quite nervous, especially because I am still new at playing piano, let alone sight reading. It wasn't that bad though haha. At 2pm, there was a baptism for 新野(Shinno)兄弟's daughter, Miya. She turned 8 a while back. But it was great! That was the first baptism I had seen in Japan. Pretty much the whole ward(about 100 people) was there! We got to hear the primary sing and two kids gave the opening and closing prayer. Japanese kids are so cute! I also found out that the 新野兄弟 in my first area, Shonan, is the brother of the 新野兄弟 here! He came here for the baptism too! What a small world!
In the evening, we went housing in 二子新地. When we were there last week, a person had told us that their neighbor would be interested in learning about Jesus Christ. We knocked on the door but they weren't home. So we went back to that same house. We rang the bell but no answer. We then knocked and then a lady came up to the window. We explained who we were and then said we wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ. She then went to the opposite window. This was the conversation, which was in English :o
Her: "Uh..I don't need it. It's almost 8 o'clock" (It was only 7:20 lol)
Us: "Do you want us to come back another time?"
Her: "I uhh.. no.. it's not...it's not....don't come...okay bye...see you next time!"
She left after that. My companion were super confused! We looked at each other and said "What just happened?" We knocked on the next house(which belonged to a less active). We said that it's the missionaries and we came to check up on him. He responded with "My mom isn't home. Please contact her". We don't know how that was related, especially because the guy sounded like he was at least 30 years old and could handle a conversation without his mom but yeah. Once again, WHAT JUST HAPPENED??
Lots of confusing moments this week. But I enjoyed it! Sorry if this was a bit long; I couldn't bring myself to just leave it out. I hope all of you are making your own adventures everyday! I love you all! またね！٩(^‿^)۶
-Elder Chab
チャブ長老 or 茶武長老
愛しています^_^
BASKETBALL!!! Masaru is the kid between Schow長老 and I
Lunch that my companion and I made. I've been making a lot of my grandma's Mint Chicken(thats what's on the rice) ever since I got the recipe 2nd transfer. Who ever thought I would learn how to make Thai food in Japan :p And of course, APPLE SLICES!!