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!