GOT WRECKED AND A BAPTISM

皆さんこんにちは！

I thought summer was supposed to be picking up but there has been a lot of cloudy/rainy weather this past week! I'm enjoying it though!

About getting wrecked... Last Monday night, we went to look for some apartments in Ayase, which is super country-like; there are rice fields everywhere! We were on our way home, biking down some moderately steep hills. I was leading and my companion behind me. There was a pretty sharp turn, so I had to slow down. While turning, my back tire went over a small dirt pile and I lost traction and slid. I couldn't regain control after that. My bike flipped sideways, I was thrown off my bike, rolled a couple times on the ground, and then skidded on my right side to a stop. From my point of view, it was pretty crazy; I just saw colors everywhere. It was like a movie scene haha. I stood up right when my companion caught up to me, nearly unscathed. I got some minor scrapes on my elbows, right shoulder, and my lower right hip(which I later found out was more than a minor scrape haha). I also sprained my middle and 4th finger on my right hand. My fanny pack and white shirt took most of the blow haha. There's a hole in my fanny pack(which I patched up) and a hole in my brand new shirt that I bought the week before. My bike was pretty much fine, it just doesn't shift gears as smoothly. I'm glad it was mainly my items that got damaged instead of me. God definitely gave me some help there :) We got back on our bikes after and rode home, which was a bit painful :) 

I went on splits with Magaña長老 from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday in Fujisawa藤沢. He is from Mexico but lived in Canada for several years and he loves golf. It was so much fun to 伝道 with him! We talked to a bunch of people, gave out two Book of Mormons and a couple pamphlets! He is a fantastic missionary! He only has a transfer left :o Wednesday was pouring rain, so we studied in the morning. While heading back to our area, two of our umbrellas got destroyed because of the wind...But I bought a super nice one that is supposed to be "inside-out-proof". We'll see what happens during typhoon season haha :) We had district meeting and 英会話 later that night. My companion and I taught advanced class. It felt a bit weird because I was teaching TOEIC solo in my last area for 2 transfers. But it was still fun!

We met with Masuzawa-san on Thursday evening. He is in his 60s and is an architect. His house and office are the same building, pretty interesting! His lady friend, Aiko, (they aren't married) was there as well. He prepared stuff to make sushi! He taught us how to make our own and man it was super good! Oh and I like shrimp now, so I used a lot of that for my sushi haha :) They talked a lot, so it was kinda hard to get started with our message. We introduced the Book of Mormon to them and gave them a couple things to read. Aiko was really into the BoM; she already finished what we told them to read before we left haha. They are excited to learn more though! We didn't get to set up another appointment with them before we left but that shouldn't be a problem :) 

When everyone got home that night, I asked Lind長老 if he could give me a blessing of comfort. It's been a bit difficult getting used to the new area, companion and well, the mission in general. Lind長老 accepted my request and my companion and Gilbert長老 joined in as well. Lind長老's words sounded like they were from God himself; I got the comfort I was seeking :) The blessing was a bit long though (which isn't bad). Before Lind長老 closed the blessing, my companion all of a sudden withdrew his hands from my head. I opened my eyes-unfortunately a bit too late to realize what was about to happen- and saw him fall backward and hit his head on the dinner table. He fainted. Gilbert長老, Lind長老, and I were super confused. I grabbed the phone and we called Warnick姉妹 while we helped him. He woke up a couple seconds later, confused who we were, and then came back. He told us it had happened before and that he has low blood pressure so he can't stand up still for too long and that he locked his knees during the blessing. We joked a bit after, saying that he felt the Spirit too strong haha. But he's perfectly fine now! Definitely a blessing to remember! 

We had a baptism for the sisters' investigator, 清美さん, who speaks Spanish。A lot of the 南米(nanbei-South America) missionaries that helped her came as well. The talks were in Spanish(also translated into Japanese)! I never thought I'd make use of my Spanish while in Japan but I was wrong! I was also asked to play piano for the meeting! I played "When I am Baptized" and "I Feel My Savior's Love" as well as "A Child's Prayer" for the special music number, sung in Spanish by the missionaries. It was a great opportunity! Carrasco長老 performed the baptism and Magaña長老 confirmed her the next day in 聖餐会(seisankai-Sacrament meeting). Everyone, myself included, was so happy for 清美姉妹! What a glorious day! I am so thankful for the opportunity as a missionary to help Heavenly Father's children find their way back to Him!  

We also had a lesson with 横山さん. 小松兄弟 helped us out a lot! We taught the Restoration, focusing on Jesus Christ. We then gave 横山さん a calendar with the dates and lessons planned out for him to be baptized on July 22! He is super excited and really wants to follow Christ! Unfortunately, he said he was still a bit sick so he couldn't come to church this past Sunday. Please pray for him! 

Well, that ended up being longer than I intended, ごめんなさい!! But with as many interesting experiences that come with being a missionary, it's hard to choose what to share! Anyway, I hope all of you are able to have your own adventures this week! 

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 or 茶武長老

愛しています^_^

Rice fields!

You can see Mt. Fuji way in the distance! 

Bike wreck aftermath!

Post-bike wreck..Just a small scrape :)

And a hole in my shirt :)

Our calendar for 横山さん! 

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 or 茶武長老

愛しています^_^

THEY HAVE RICE FIELDS

皆さんこんにちは!

Before transfer day, Schow 長老 and I made cookies for the beloved members of the Kawasaki ward! I've never made so much cookie dough in one setting! We had a lesson with Taisei-san in the evening. We roughly set a baptismal date for him! It makes me happy to see him progress! When I first got to Kawasaki, he'd been coming to 英会話 for a year and had no interest in learning about the gospel. But he decided to take lessons with us last month and he's progressed so much! He will be out of town in August so they won't be able to teach him. But if all goes well, he wants to get baptized in September! I am excited for him!

Transfer day went smoothly. I didn't get lost haha :) My new companion, Elder Kennett-Brunsdale is way 元気 and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with him. Gilbert長老 is the district leader; he's pretty tall compared to me. But he's a great leader! Also, Lind長老 is in the same apartment! It's great to see him again, especially with everything that happened in the interesting land of Kamakura!

We had a lot of finding time over the last few days. Not too many results yet, although I do have pretty sore feet haha :) We do have a baptismal date for our investigator, Yokoyama-san. We may have to push it back because we currently aren't meeting with him enough for him to be taught everything in time. That's okay though; we will do our best to be our guides. Sadly, he didn't come to church this week because he felt sick, but he had us pray over the phone for him!

It's just amazing here in Atsugi. The members have such strong faith and they love missionary work. They love helping us out too, especially with 同席's. I even got the chance to bear my testimony on Sunday. It just feels so great to be a missionary! 

On a side note, I saw rice fields for the first time in my mission! Most of my areas have been pretty urban...But Atsugi is a mix! There are giant rice fields close to the apartment haha Also, there is a Costco here! Let's just say we bought enough food to last the whole transfer! I love Costco! Anyway, that's it for this week. Have an adventurous week! 

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 or 茶武長老

愛しています^_^

District blitz from last week!

Me, Taisei-san, Schow長老, and our 同席 David! Ignore Taisei-san's shirt haha 

The new way to wear a tie!

COOKIES

Making cookie dough! 

COOKIE DOUGH!!

Baking at the church!

Atsugi gone crazy!

First day in Atsugi and all the elders in the district got the king size at Sukiya... I didn't finish lol 

Kennett-Brunsdale長老 and I!

Atsugi district and Kitajima兄弟!

COSTCO ADVENTURES

COSTCO with the Sagamihara elders!

Can't go wrong with Costco pizza!

Yea...this is just for breakfast x)

TRANSFER 6

皆さんこんにちは!

We did a lot for P-day...I finally got to clean my bike and I got a haircut! I bought a couple white short sleeve shirts from UNIQLO(which I love) to prepare for summer as well as a nice sock tie! I'm super ready for summer! Except for the heat and bugs haha. 

We weren't able to get in contact with Tanaka-san this week. He didn't come to church either :(

But we did have a lesson with Taisei-san again. We talked about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. Pretty smooth lesson!

On Friday morning, we helped the office elders and Elder Morgan move the rest of the stuff out of the sisters' old apartment. Moving is way 大変(taihen-difficult). But we had fun! We even replaced some of the old furniture in our apartment! Our apartment looks pretty fresh now! 

I was on splits with Poff長老 on Friday as well. I got to teach their investigator, Yoshida-san. We talked about the priesthood and read the BoM together. He's a great guy! We streeted later on near 武蔵中原駅. We had some pretty good conversations with he people there; one of them said he would come to church and 英会話! It was a lot of fun with Poff 長老!

We had district blitz in Tama Plaza again on Saturday. We did the English challenge again and it was pretty effective! Lot's of people came up to us and said they weren't interested in the candy we had but they just wanted to go to 英会話 and took a chirashi(flyer)! We ate at Cabrillo's, the new Mexican restaurant again. Those beef and fish tacos were sooooo good! 

Now, about transfers.....I am going to Atsugi in the Fujisawa West zone!! So I've spent 3.5 transfers in Kawasaki! It sure was a blast! I love the ward members here soo much! I told them I'd visit in a a little over a year haha! My new companion is Kennett-Brunsdale長老. I don't know too much about him, but when I first saw him during a conference, I kind of felt like he would be my companion some day! Interesting! I'll be leaving on Thursday! 

We had church cleaning with the YSA on Saturday night. It went pretty well and we were able to talk to the YSA a bit after. After everyone left, we stayed behind to lock up. Before we left, we decided to check Facebook. Shortly after, we got a knock on the door. She spoke in Japanese first but then switched to English. She told us she was from Indonesia and has been looking for a church to go to. Her name is Angel! As we explained church, she got really excited and said she would come this Sunday....Sunday came and she showed up! We introduced her to the 姉妹たち and now she is taking lessons from them. What a miracle!

Church was kind of weird knowing it was my last Sunday in Kawasaki. We got invited to the Nishi family's house for dinner though. They are both converts and their son Taku-kun is super 元気! He's the same age as my baby brother(6) so I told them they could play together when I come back to visit haha! We had them write down a list of non-member friends and blessings they've received from going to church. We asked them to pick one friend and share their experience and invite them to church. But they said they've already been doing that as well as reading the BoM as a family each night! What great examples! The members truly are amazing! 

With another transfer down, I'm realizing how short a mission is. Despite it being short, there is so much to learn. I just love it. There won't always be good times. But that's okay. For those that aren't sure about a mission, I recommend it 10/10! For those that aren't members, give it a go! Go to church and talk to the missionaries. I know this gospel is true. また来週ね! See you in Atsugi!

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 or 茶武長老

愛しています^_^

View from an apartment in Kawasaki!

California Pizza Kitchen in Kawasaki!!

The Nishi family!!

TRUTH SEEKERS

Kawasaki district! Schow長老, Poff長老, Me, Brimhall長老, To姉妹, Patch姉妹!

Got our boy band picture.. the TRUTH SEEKERS

LOVELY KAWASAKI

Last 英会話 in Kawasaki for me!

The Nishi family!

WILL YOU MAKE ME MISO SOUP EVERYDAY?

皆さんこんにちは！

Everyday, I am given the chance to learn something new and improve. It's a great, yet humbling experience. This week was pretty packed and I definitely learned a lot!

After our glorious trip to IKEA for P-day, I had splits with the zone leaders from Monday night to Tuesday evening. IT WAS SOOO HOT during the day! I had to buy a couple water bottles while 伝道'ing. We even had some popsicles in their apartment. We rushed back to our area in the evening for a lesson with 大誠(Taisei)san. We planned on reviewing the Restoration and giving him a BoM but he had some concerns about prayer. We had a really great discussion about prayer and how it has helped our lives. He said he will pray because he wants to feel the Holy Ghost! How great is that!

On Wednesday after personal study, we decided to clean our apartment complex's hallway. We sweeped, mopped, and cleaned the air conditioner boxes and windows, which were full of dust. I love service! Since it was the 31st of the month, we went to Baskin Robins with the other elders and their investigator, 吉田(Yoshida)さん。吉田さん told us how some people propose in Japan. He said the guy will say to the girl "毎日味噌スープを作ってくれ(Mainichi miso suupu o tsukutte kure)" which translates to "Will you make me miso soup everyday?". For those who don't know, miso soup is a very popular tasty soup in Japan. It is often served alongside the main dish. Anyway, we thought it was hilarious! He told us that people actually do that still. Hopefully my future fiancé understands Japanese because I am definitely going to use that line haha!  

We did a lot of travel later on, trying to visit members that we've never seen at church. From the visits, we found out that most of them don't even remember being baptized, not interested anymore, or they are Buddhist now. It's a shame but they do have their agency. One elderly guy was pretty rude to us. We asked him if he was the member we were looking for. He said that he died 4 years ago and that he didn't know who we were. We tried explaining to him that we were missionaries. He said he couldn't hear us and then began laughing maniacally. He mumbled some things and then said "Go somewhere far away and die!". I don't really know what we did to deserve that but we were surprised 😳 . We left after that haha. 

We met up with Kenshin-san again on Friday. He had a hat on and was looking like a stud when we saw him, he's the best haha. Aiki兄弟 同席'd for us; they bonded immediately and Kenshinさん wanted to know more about Aiki兄弟's life as a church member. Kenshinさん also wondered why we don't drink coffee, which led to an introduction to the Word of Wisdom. We then taught him about prophets. Because he likes sports, we explained that God and Jesus Christ are like basketball coaches and that prophets are the team captains. He liked that comparison and understood well! We gave him a Restoration pamphlet to read before the next visit. He is excited to meet again! Why is everyone I meet here the best?? 

Saturday morning, we played basketball at the Yamate church with 田中さん。I was pretty rusty, but better than last time. He enjoyed it and said he would like to play again. In the afternoon, we met 田中さん in 吉祥寺(Kichijoji) and his member friend, 伊藤かずね兄弟 for Polynesian Night! We learned about Polynesian culture and many missionaries shared some of their family history. We got to see some pretty cool dances, including the "Haka". We then had dinner together at the usual abura soba place; I love it so much. 

On Sunday, 田中さん showed up a bit late to Sacrament meeting but we are glad he came anyway. We went to the YSA class for the second hour. The teacher, たこがわ姉妹, had prepared a lesson on the Plan of Salvation...It was perfect because that was exactly what we wanted to teach 田中さん next! She taught simply and made it pretty entertaining; she taught all of it with in 15 minutes! 田中さん loved it and said it makes sense! After church, 田中さん came to the 山下 family's house for dinner. We had a great time and unfortunately he had to leave before the message. But it's good that he was able to build connections with the members! He is really improving a lot! 

As mentioned before, lot's of great things happening this week. Kinda hard to leave it all out. Anyway, until next week! 

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 or 茶武長老

愛しています^_^

THE IKEA BUS!

Found an awesome statue this week!

Saturday morning basketball at the Yamate church with Tanaka-san!

At Polynesian night with 伊藤兄弟 and 田中さん!

Sunday night dinner at the 山下's with 田中さん!