FASHION SHOW

They wore clothes that were donated to the church :p

水落兄弟 and my companion doing some modeling!

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN FALL!

皆さん頼もう！

It's the 25th of the month again, so you know what that means! Also, fall is starting up and the weather is cooling down! Thank goodness! Oh and general conference is soon! I'll be watching it a week after it airs in America because of the translation. I'm excited!

We had interviews on Wednesday. I love Warnick会長! His words and love are inspiring! I also asked him to correct a video I had translated from English to 日本語 and he said I was all good to go! Yay! 

We met with 桝田(Masuda)兄弟 on Friday with 高村(Takamura)兄弟.They also went swimming together in the morning to get 桝田兄弟's body strength up; they said it was great! We went over the baptismal interview questions with 桝田兄弟 and talked about baptism a bit more. 桝田兄弟 has been investigating for about 20 years; his family are members but he hasn't been baptized because of his work. He believes everything and is practically ready to be baptized. We explained that he has permission to be baptized even though he can only come to church once a month. But he said he still wants to wait until he can come each week. Then on Sunday, he came to church! He talked with a member of the bishopric. He explained to him that perhaps   God wants him to be baptized now, then he can receive the blessing of a new job/ being able to come to church every week. 桝田兄弟 said he will think and pray about it. We'll keep praying for him too! I love him and his family so much and I want them to seem them at the temple as a family some day! 

On Saturday, we had an 秋祭り(aki matsuri-fall festival) at the church with the ward. It was a fantastic turnout! There was food (takoyaki, hotdogs, inari etc), games, and a fashion show by the young women in the ward. One of our investigators, Tan-san, came and he enjoyed it. He is Vietnamese and he's been in Japan for about a year. He talked to a lot of members too. My companion also got to do some modeling for the fashion show too haha. I love this ward!!!

Sunday night, we decided to stop by Qiu姉妹's house. Her husband, 清水さん, is not a member yet but he loves church, the members and the missionaries. He is super close to baptism as well, so we are really focusing on him. We read Ether together instead of what we originally planned because he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. When we finished, they promised they'd read together each night before they go to bed. Qiu姉妹 asked her husband about his thoughts on baptism and he said "別に" or "Nothing much". She then asked what's holding him back and he said "Nothing really". We promised him blessings and then told them about the baptism in the Kanagawa ward this week but they can't go because they are going to the temple and she's going to show him around. He really loves wife though, especially if he's willing to wait 2 hours for her at the temple haha. We'll be visiting again hopefully next week. I wanna help him so much!

It's been great focusing on helping others on the gospel path, especially when they are so close to baptism. Please pray for them! I hope you are all ready for general conference for those back in America! I challenge you to have one question or something you want to learn in mind as you watch and I promise you'll find an answer! また来週ね! 

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 

愛しています(^-^)

So it's spider season now...We found a big web and put a poster on it :p (Don't worry, we took it off)

部分！！

皆さんこんにちは！

Another supercalifragilistic-expialidocious week! I'm sorry non-English speakers for that long word! To be honest, this week was quite a blur but I'll do my best!

 We had district blitz in 弥生台(Yayoidai) on Wednesday. People there are just amazing! I passed out a ton of fliers and we talked to a lot of people! We even got a new potential investigator there! He really wants to learn more about Christ! Hopefully we can meet him again soon!

So we had a special zone conference on Thursday at Yamate. On September 1, 1901, the first four missionaries that came to Japan offered the dedicatory prayer for missionary work in Japan. The church building was very close to where the prayer was offered! We learned a lot about the history of the church in Japan. A couple weeks ago was the 116th anniversary. The church in Japan grew from 4 members to about 130,000. We even met 2 of the first 5 Japanese missionaries! What a great opportunity! 

Translating wasn't that bad. Papenfuss姉妹 was the other interpreter and she's pretty much fluent so I had a great helper!

On Saturday, we helped out the cub scouts with some geography stuff. We explained some American culture and facts. Then we went over to Fujisawa for the Chopin (pronounced "Shopan") concert with a couple 英会話 students. The pianist was 高畑姉妹 from the Atsugi ward! She's been playing piano since she was 4. She went to BYU Hawaii for a piano major and has played in a couple big symphonies! The music was incredible! I love Chopin! 

It rained from Saturday night until early this morning. We had another typhoon come by but we were already sleeping :p Fun stuff though! また来週ね！

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 

愛しています(^-^)

I forgot to take pictures this week but here's some of the Yamate church!

TRANSFER 8! A YEAR???

皆さん頼もう!

Sometimes I forget that there is life outside of being a missionary! People will tell us about what's going on around the world and I am just blown away haha. Especially with all the natural disasters going on. I pray for each one of you and your safety everyday!

So I had quite a number of 交換(koukan-exchange/splits) with other missionaries this week. From Monday night to Tuesday evening, I went with the zone leaders. Rather, just Eteru長老 because his companion Harrison長老 was sick and had to stay home. Eteru長老 is from Australia and he is We talked to a couple people and I got to learn from one of the best finders in the mission. Harrison長老 loves the same music as me, including Linkin Park and Avenged Sevenfold. Small world!

I also went on splits with 関根長老, 池上長老, and Giles長老 on Friday. It wasn't a full splits but I did get to 伝道 with each one of them in Yamato. Our companions are district leaders and they had a new training for all the district leaders at the mission home so they went to that and the companions stayed behind and 伝道'd while they were gone. For a long time, there weren't many guys on the streets for us to talk to. While I was with the 日本人長老達 (Japanese elders), I got to speak more Japanese than usual. It was a good time to grow since I've never had a Japanese companion. Some guy called out to us at some point and told us to come over. He was blasting some Linkin Park song and rap. He then spoke a mix of English, Spanish, and Japanese to us. He didn't want to hear anything we said but said that he respects us. He then started rapping about us and dropped some cuss words in English and Spanish. 池上長老 and I were absolutely shocked because we never hear that out here haha. We did give out a couple Book of Mormons though. A lot of fun!

We did some cleaning the day before transfers and wow! There's so much space! We still have to get rid of some junk left behind by old missionaries though. For all you missionaries, don't leave stuff you don't want in the apartment! It's a pain to get rid of trash, especially in Japan! 

As for transfers, Sipe姉妹 is the new bean-chan! Straight from the MTC! 

It's been a year since a became a missionary! It's crazy to think I had a different life a year ago! I am excited for what's to come!

Recently, I've read a lot of articles from the Liahona and a couple talks from the most recent General Conference. I've learned so much! Something I wanted to share is from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear". He mentions that fear should not be the reason why we do things or why we make other people do things. Fear doesn't change our hearts to do good and people don't learn what they need to learn. Rather, when we replace fear with love, we can learn and benefit so much more! So please, strive to do everything with love! I love all of you! また来週!

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 

愛しています(^-^)

From Misíon Latina last week with Higa兄弟 and 英会話 student from 厚木 ward! It was great seeing them again!

Throwback to 英会話 in 厚木!

Misíon Latina!

THE COOLEST MEMBERS

Meet Tenshin-kun! The coolest kid in young men's that I've ever met!

Glasses crew!

Kaoru-chan and us!

RODE A CAMEL

こんにちは!

I just got back from Zoorasia again! We there for most of P-day. We went with our investigator, 佐々木さん! This time, we actually got to see everything! I even rode a camel! It was awesome! 

We met with a couple people this week; one of them was a new investigator. 張さん came to 教会 this Sunday! It was a bit hard for him because his main language is Chinese, but one of the members translated for him during Sunday school! We have quite a few promising investigators; I am super excited!

I don't have anymore time, but it was a great week! We got transfer emails too...and I'm staying in Hodogaya with Bateman長老! I'm glad to have another transfer here!

-Elder Chab

チャブ長老 

愛しています(^-^)

Rode a camel!