Falling Apart Bike

So my bike brakes are completely out, my front brakes are pretty good still though so that's okay. Ive had a broken spoke in my back wheel for like two months and its probably screwing up my wheel but it's still good. Part of my chain broke but it still runs good but it's
probably just a matter of days or weeks before that breaks too and I got a punk in my back tire last week and I had to get it fixed and the dude ripped me off way hardcore and charged 3200¥ which is like 30$ it was ridiculous and I'm just hoping my bike lasts me the rest of my mission. It might not haha so like we tried everything to take off a chain from a returned missionaries bike and we couldn't. Pretty much you name it we did it and that bike is now unrideable. We tried so hard.

So this week was pretty good. We went to Nagasaki for exchanges and I worked again with Elder Campos and we had a ton of fun trying to take off said chain, and then his comp got cut on the finger and had to get stitches so i got to stay in the apartment with him while Elder Campos and Elder Winchester went to go teach a lesson haha it was crazy. Their apartment is two Brazilians, an Asian dude from Cali who is learning Portuguese from them and Elder Murdock from Utah. There is so much Portuguese in that apartment hahahaha it's way funny, they're a way chill group of guys.

So our investigator from English class is golden. I found out she doesn't drink alcohol or tea or coffee haha like that's insane. And then we taught her and we don't have a lot of time, only like 20 min and she said she read about the restoration in the pamphlet and the whole time she read it she said she felt like it was familiar and like she knew it from a different life and asked about that. Unfortunately, my comp kinda talks a lot and went in to the next thing and killed the flow hahahahahha right as I was about to be like "of course we knew it before! We all did and we accepted it!" And do the pre earth life thing to really affirm what she said and felt but yeah she is so solid and we are meeting her again on Thursday and we will have like an hour probably and it will be so good. She said when she prayed through the name of Jesus Christ she felt so much peace and love and it was awesome. We are so excited for her. Her name is Sachiko and she is like in her 40s and is a single mom but her kids are moved out and she works as a esthetician. Way cool lady.

I guess that's the coolest thing. We all knew Gods plan and we knew what it entailed and that it includes the fact that some of us won't make it back through our own decisions. But how great is it that we have the chance to learn and grow, and how great that we will be
resurrected to perfect bodies that will live forever. How great is it that we can choose this for ourselves? Its a great life.


All you can eat breakfast today with Bro Cook and Sis Monette. She's from the Philippines.

Monette's boyfriend last night in the Philippines. They skype everyday haha so I was like let us

 take a pic with him because he's way cool and loves the Elders.  

 Us and Furukawa kyodai, he's so dope. The picture didn't load all the way but looks cool 

Lightning and Thunder

There was a night this week that it was just lightning and thunder ALL NIGHT literally eight hours straight and so I only got like three hours of sleep which is definitely not enough but the apartment was occasionally shaking and there was just constant light flashing in through the apartment and it was literally the worst haha I got sick of it and closed the curtains (I sleep with the curtains open because I like it when the sun rises in the morning to help wake up. I love natural light) but when there's lightning like crazy I closed it and my comp laughed so I guess he was awake too. It was so crazy like if we took a time lapse it would literally probably look like daytime that's how much lightning there was.

We got hit with some decent rain a few times and rode home in a lightning storm once which I wasn't happy about haha it was like a half hour ride home through pouring rain and lightning but it wasn't lightning that was striking the ground it was all up in the clouds but
we were visiting someone and I think we were there a little long and we got home late and if we tried harder to manage our time on that one then we would have been home on time and also missed the rainstorm pretty much completely. But the member from the Philippines needs our help so it was really good teaching her and talking to her. She's the best and is always skyping her boyfriend in the Philippines and like he loves us and told us to tell her to get married to him. They're planning on it but obviously shes not in the Philippines right now.

We visited Kenji and read the Proclamation to the World with him and he really liked it and he told us during the time that he has been listening to the missionaries and read the Book of Mormon he really has felt like the message has been centered completely on families. He
still doesn't necessarily believe in God. BUT he has told us that this message has made him spend a lot of time pondering what he is doing as a father and husband and has really motivated him to be and do better and try harder to be that person for his family. It said it has made him really grow and feel a desire to learn and grow. While he still doesn't believe, to me that is a success. He is progressing so very subtly and simply but his countenance has changed, his words have changed, his everything has changed. He was never a bad guy to start out with; rather a fantastic guy that just doesn't have the gospel. But now he is 100x better than when he started listening a while ago, and even just in the time that I have been meeting with him.

Also yesterday the regional Family History Consultants came and spoke in Sacrament Meeting and had a fireside thing after church and it was way good and they really did such a great job at pumping every one up for Family History work and then I asked him a question about Family Tree and he couldn't help me haha I got wrecked but really he got wrecked. But the point is that the gospel is about families. The gospel strengthens families. The gospel allows families to be together for eternity. The gospel connects us to our ancestors and they say by learning about them we learn about ourselves because they are a part of who we are. The gospel allows us to perpetuate family bonds all the way back to Adam to now  throughout forever. The gospel allows the faithful to become even as God and have our own families throughout time. The gospel is the soul greatest thing for families and we have
the wonderful opportunity to participate in this work and help others through family history and temple ordinances. How great is that?

We were way out in the middle of nowhere and found this store that sells homemade sugar products so the lady took us on a tour and she is 80 and works there and apparently it's a pretty popular place so we bought a jar and it tastes way bomb like is my new fave food and I have a new best friend in this grandma.

 I don't know why my comp makes this face but Tanaka kyodai took us out to Chinese food and it was way good, Chinese food in Japan is pretty impressive.

It was Navin's birthday last Monday so a member got some cakes and we took it to him 

ha this is such an awkward picture.

A cool shrine we found. Its so green out here its amazing. 

 This preschool's mascot is Godzilla hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahhaha! 

Only in Japan 

?????? 

Dead Turtles

みな、元気かい？元気じゃねと元気になれよ〜

So this week we saw the most horrifyingly disgusting thing on the planet and if you don't want graphic imagery like skip this paragraph but this was a big part of the week so like
申し訳ねーや well so like Saga has tons of turtles right so we are riding home one day and we are in our neighborhood and there is this turtle walking in the street and we were like "aw cute its a Mississippi turtle (the Mississippi turtles have red marks on their eyes and are
physically superior to the native Sagan turtles and have essentially stolen all of the food sources and have taken over Saga, according to our investigator Kenji) and he's walking in the street! He's way far from any river so why is he here?" And so as we rode by we saw that
his shell was smashed in and he was bleeding and his body was like torn in half and his guts were hanging out and were splattered all over the road and stretched out and there was blood everywhere and we realized that this little turtle was ran over by a car or something
and it just tore it apart and it was awful to see a turtle quite literally cut in half but still walking. So that night we were riding and we didn't see the turtle but we saw the guts still, but when we came back we found him. He actually got surprisingly far like probably 30 meters from where he was run over and splattered and ripped asunder. Well the next couple days he was always in slightly different spots and positions but was dead though so then he was clearly in two pieces with nothing inside of him so the crows all got to him. Poor guy. He's gone now, somebody came and cleaned up the scene but literally it was awful. We saw some other turtles that had been run over this week but nothing was as bad as this turtle. Maybe he didn't give heed to the word. DC 6 verse "2 Behold, I am God; give heed unto
my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words." That gives new imagery to the scriptures.


Well in case any of you were wondering we were able to get two Nepali dudes to church on Sunday, but one left early haha he was kind of drunk. But the other one was solid and turns out the church recently just published the Book of Mormon into Nepali so that is way sick
right? We were able to give our guy Navin some pamphlets for him and his friends and he was wondering if we had any Sri Lankan stuff for the Christian lady next door who we met and we gave him a Sri Lankan Book of Mormon to give to her and hopefully we can get her to come to church too. We haven't taught the Sri Lankans yet but hopefully we will be able to do that. She pulled out her bible and everything and loves Jesus just like the Nepali dudes. Well actually it was Navin's birthday today so a member wants to drive with us to their way ghetto apartment and give them cake hahahaha like that's chill. Well we taught him the restoration and he read the nepali pamphlet during sacrament and it was really good. He said he really liked all the members and how nice they were and how they all were like a family, he said it was really good and made him feel really good and happy. The power of
members fellow shipping is so really and nothing compares to it. The missionaries may do the teaching but the members have to be there to help. It's a team effort.

We were able to find two other investigators this week also and one is a young mom that comes to our English class and she was a little hesitant at first but we are excited to teach her, hopefully she will continue to learn in the gospel.

Speaking of moms my mom is old haha so is my dad haha they turn 49 and 48 this week respectively so everyone wish those geezers a happy birthday also my brother Jon just turned 17 last week too so he's old also everybody wish them a happy birthday and don't do anything bad for their birthday because my dad will have to interview you because he's
the bishop and that wouldn't be a good birthday present.

I got more books from Oku Kyodai in Naze and you got it, they are conspiracy books so these 

are all the books I have acquired from people on my mission so from left to right:

1. Himalayan Holy Person: 1008 quotes (apparently has same power as Jesus but whatever) 

*got in Okinawa housing

2. The rape of Nanking isn't real (about how Japan didn't go into China in WW2 and rape 

and kill hundreds of thousands of people but that it was an allied propaganda scheme 

to make the atomic bombs look better) *also got in okinawa housing on the same day actually 

(Rest are from Oku Kyodai)
3/4. The Anatomy of Dependency. It's about the Japanese mindset and psychology

5. Merchant of Death. It's about how War is a business and wont ever end.

6/7. The Art of Loving. It's a psychology book about all the different aspects of love and 

what it really is. 

8. Psychopath. It's about psychopathology and actually on the cover says that Trump 

is a psychopath. Fitting huh.

9. Collapse of Japan 6. Its about how Tokyo is going to be completely destroyed in a massive 

earthquake and stuff like that.

10. Why the Japanese people like to flow with the current. It's about Japanese 

psychology again

11. The Japanese and the Emperor. It's about the emperor hah Oku Kyodai HATES the 

emperor and anything Shinto. So thats that.

12. The Articles of Faith. NOT from Oku, but I did acquire this and its really good. 

Shoutout to James E. Talmage. Everyone should read it. 

The Sri Lankans and also the awkwardest pic of all time

My comp thinks he's so funny haha its not my fault I'm tired I'm working hard and its pretty hot 

FUKUOKA OMUTA NAGASAKI JUNGLE

So this is a reference to this cool song that the only words are NEW YORK MIAMI LONDON JUNGLE and its way cool, but as you can see, we travelled a lot this week. It was pretty hectic and busy but its the way it is. So we had Zone Conference in Fukuoka with the Fukuoka and Nagasaki zones and let me just say, Fukuoka is a way dope city. Hakata is the coolest place, I love Fukuoka and could totally live in the suburbs outside of Fukuoka. Actually Fukuoka is like the fastest growing city in Japan I think. Way cool. But anyways they called me on like Tuesday and asked if I could play a musical number and I'm like yeah. But I have no music so like shout out to Durtschi 2.0 I wrote an arrangement of the Baptism rainbow song and I love to see the temple and played it and afterwards Egan shimai testified way hardcore about primary songs and was really teary eyed it was good. But the point is
like there was two days so I prayed way hard to figure something out and put my trust in God and he helped me make a decently good arrangement and was able to play it really well at zone conference. He will help you if you trust him! Just ask and trust! Also, it is like 2
hours north to get to Fukuoka.

Well that was on Thursday. Saturday, the Omuta elders in my district had baptismal interviews so I went down to do this and they both passed! It was very neat to see two people with completely different lives and they are both committed to follow the Savior Jesus Christ
for the rest of their lives. It was a very nice experience and I learned from them too. Isn't it interesting how we are able to learn from people that may not have all the knowledge you have? It's definitely the spirit. Very very good experience. Well Omuta is like almost in Kumamoto, like two hours south. So we came back to Saga and got in a car and drove with a member two hours west to get to Nagasaki for a District Priesthood session and they really emphasized on the importance of doing the simple things. They pulled out a quote from
President Eyring that says if you miss reading the Book of Mormon for even two days in a row, odds are you aren't going to finish it in a year. That was really good. They talked a lot about how they can help less active members and work with the missionaries. That was really good. It was a very good meeting and I learned some Portuguese from the Brazilian elders. Desculpe, eu so gosto de meninas japonesas.

Then we came home in another two hours so this week we had a total of like 11 hours of traveling. That's a ton and takes out a ton of time but despite that we were able to work our hardest and do our best to find people.
That's all that matters. Do your best to live the gospel and love people.

 

I'm wearing this members vest. He always has this anime pins and stuff haha 

but dang though like look at my thigh gap though  

外見とアイデンティティが違うというのを我々現代人が認めるべきです！

ですから、どうか、僕らの日本語を聞いて下さい！

So I will attach a video later that I got about a bunch of white people that are fluent in Japanese at a restaurant and how the waitress doesn't understand what they're saying. It's funny because it's true and happens everyday. Not at restaurants necessarily but we might be speaking perfect Japanese to them, typically old people, and they'll just laugh awkwardly and say they don't know English. It's really weird but its actually something I looked up a little bit on my mission and pretty much if you have the predispositions of what someone is going to say and its different, your brain cant comprehend it really. So literally her brain in this case hears English. It's funny ha. But the title of the email is from the last part and he says something like "today in this age we should realize that appearance and identity are totally different!"..."So, please, listen to our Japanese!" Maybe Ill use this out working. Maybe I just like it because its totally true and I'm more Japanese than anything else lol.

Anyways this week was a good one. We said goodbye to Elder Jo and he went to Naze, my fave area, and now elder Barlow is here in Saga. We actually went to high school together. I was a TA in his Japanese class my senior year and I usually didn't have anything to do so I
would sleep hahahaha but still like it was cool getting that transfer call. Needless to say, things have been fun.

I have a cool story to tell. So we found this new investigator who is a young mom. She's way cool. Well so we were out playing with some kids and they were way fun and Japanese kids are the best just straight up, like they think that the Japanese speaking gaijin are the coolest things in the world. They love us and when they found out we speak Japanese they do everything to you like talk, ask random questions about America, ask what words are in English, ask you riddles, hit you in certain places and sometimes stick their fingers in your butt (I've actually never had it happen to me, I'm way lucky) and they pretty much assume you understand everything. Well then we left and went to this apartment and this mom opens the door and the kids are there and it was way cool and we are way tight with her 8 and 6 year old boys and she loves it and pretty much became an investigator because of that haha. Way cool story and wouldn't have happened if it weren't for taking the time to be with the children.

We couldn't meet our Nepalese friends this week which was too bad. We also couldn't meet the lady that made me open a jar but we will go back and follow up. Life is good right now. Got a little bit of a headache and a cold but that's okay. Thank goodness Japanese people
are sanitary and we wear masks when we are sick so we don't spread disease. Everything here just makes sense. Gotta love it.

That's pretty much it for the week! Not too much to say during transfer weeks so maybe there's more next week.

Psych I just remembered the main story I was going to share. So we were doing some studies at the park and I accidentally left the phone on the bench and didn't notice until we got all the way to the church to teach English. It's like an hour walk haha we didn't have bikes
yet. So it was sitting there for like 6 hours. Well so Imamura shimai somehow finds out our phone is there, hops in her car and goes searching for it. We have to get home at 9 and it was like 850 at night so we couldn't go. Well she didn't find it but gave us the police's number and told us to call it tomorrow if our phone wasn't there. Well we go and the phone is just sitting there and then we tell her that it wasn't and she's like "how are you texting then" and it was funny but here's the cool thing. She wasn't sure what to teach in primary and the lesson was on prayer and she felt like she should go to the English class and then she found out about the phone and then realized that she's going to use this story for class and she made a little paper book about the phone and its called "The two missionaries that lost their phone" and its pretty much exactly what happened and it was about how we prayed and then went the next day and it was still there. So like the kids loved it and got way into it and colored it too and we got gold and silver suits apparently but the point is that God answers prayers, and in order for us to fulfill our responsibilities He will give us promptings and it is just our job to listen, just like she did.
Elder Tschirki

A cute Nepalese couple riding their charis (bikes)

 Throw back to high school

Meeting at the station 

The phone was still there. Only in Japan 

Jar

First things first, I'm way OP at life because I challenged Elder Lyman to a pizza eating competition because he talks so much trash about how he can eat more but I have beat him every time. Before I had 5 okonomiyaki and he had like 3.5. THEN we went to Indo curry and I had 7 nan and he had 5. Well he's still talking trash so I challenged him to pizza at the all you can eat pizza place by the apartment and lets just say I won at 4 and a quarter pizzas by myself. By the way I am still skinny like it made no effect on my dieting.

Well this week was pretty crazy. First we were knocking on doors and this door was open in this super ghetto apartment building and there was a dark skinned fellow cleaning without his shirt on and so I yelled inside and he came out and was super happy and was rubbing his
belly the whole twenty minutes we talked to him. He's from Nepal and LOVES Jesus. He was like "Teach me about the Jesus Christ. The Jesus Christ life, everything" and like yeah he told us to come back anytime after four, "today, one week, two weeks" and so we were like um how about tomorrow? And he was way pumped and he said he would bring his roommates and we would talk about Jesus Christ. Well we met a bunch of the friends as we left and they were all pumped to learn about Jesus. Well we go back the next day, so on Friday, and the friends are there waiting and they let us in and sit us down and have us start teaching haha we were like whoa bro like the main guy isn't even here but we started and we were teaching these four Nepalese guys in English in this super ghetto apartment but there was a point where I thought "man this could be pretty dangerous I could be stoned our beheaded but wait they're Nepalese not ISIS" but they were all chill and all have tons of interest in Jesus Christ. But the thing is though they don't have interest for more than like 20 minutes haha. Or like 5 and so it's really hard to keep them focused. Well so we finished teaching our boy Manoj and he's like "yeah when I go back to Nepal I'm going to be baptized" so clearly we need to teach the Restoration to our Nepalese homies. They said they might go to church but didn't this week but our meetings are pretty solid I'd say. They are also meeting with Jehovah's Witnesses (I'm not sure how they communicate lol) and they said "yeah Japanese people think that Jehovah is God and Jesus is like Jehovah's son" and we were like ummmmm nah that's just the witnesses. Anyways pray for my boy Manoj Kumar Ghratan and his three other friends.

Then we met this lady in another apartment yesterday and we were just talking and then she hands me this jar and asks me to open it. She's like 25 with a little boy both in pajamas and now I have this jar so I open it and it was pretty hard to open, she had been trying for a while so it was kind of sweaty, but like I opened it and gave it back and she was like "okay I'll listen now" and so we taught how the gospel will bless and strengthen her family and she was willing to make a return appointment and said that pretty much she is home every afternoon so we are going back Friday but I don't know how solid she is. It was just kind of funny how her talking to us was apparently contingent on me being able to open the jar. Maybe that's how we find new investigators.

Then me and Elder Lyman on last Monday made an appointment with this lady from Toitsukyo and simply they believe something along the lines of Jesus didn't finish his mission and was killed and then some other Jesus type person was born in Korea and started this church to finish Jesus' mission that he was sent to do, and she believes it way
hardcore. Well we came back and talked to her last night, her name is Nakano, and we were just testifying about the Book of Mormon and then she goes crazy on a bunch of questions about Adam and Eve and Satan and the fall and all of this and she was just firing questions left and right and we were able to answer them all and she was like "wow you guys have answers for all of that. Our beliefs are still a little different though" and we were like yeah #2 Nephi 2 as a commitment and she took the book and is open to reading it and learning for herself and so we will see what happens there. We are going back next week. She also was going to give me a pair of shoes haha. I'm wearing shoes from a returned missionary that fit perfectly so I can preserve my nice Doc Martens I bought before my mission and so the shoes I am wearing are worn out pretty good and she was going to give me shoes. She's a way nice lady and we really truly need the spirit with us way strong when we testify to her.

So just like that in like three days we have like 6 new investigators. Like I don't know what the heck happened. We went through nine weeks of teaching one guy Kenji every week. But also he accepted the invitation to pray by himself.


The district. Elder Ishizu is going to Okinawa. I still haven't gotten my transfer call, but I have bought a rain jacket for the first time in my mission. Lol

 Imamura Shimai took us out to yakiniku and I went way hard like its 

expensive yakiniku and so obviously gotta eat your moneys worth

Pee

I'll get to the pee part later.

This week was way good. Like we went to Nagasaki for exchanges and I worked with this crazy Brazilian named Elder Campos and he's so funny and drinks coke everyday and is often late home because he buys coke. Haha what a weirdo. Anyways well Nagasaki is pretty much one Main Street and from there goes up into the mountains. Why anybody originally lived there, I'm not sure. Pretty much think of people living in the Andes mountains and you get what I'm saying. Like Machu Piccu man. Anyways so we were walking and talked to a ton of people and got wrecked like nobody would talk to us. Well as we are walking we stopped this black dude who is from Ghana and talked to him and it turns out he's going to try and come to church, but will be there at 1600 also for a lesson. So like he is super solid. Then we went to McDonalds for dinner and a bunch of girls were taking pics of me as I was waiting in line. It's always so obvious but I guess when you stand out like me it happens. Then we walked to the top of this mountain. Like it was crazy and we started knocking doors on the way down and nothing was really happening but we did the whole street down and I
saw this small apartment building with two lights on and I was like lets do that then go home so we did and made two return appointments. Now if you can do math you would see that that apartment building was 100% return appointment ratio. Pretty sweet. Felt the spirit testify and it was good. For sure the first college guy that answered was pretty solid. Then Elder Campos had to go poop way bad so we went to the nearest conbini. Well he goes in and then like he's there for a while and I'm just standing there awkwardly and then all of a sudden our new Ghanaian friend walks in and then Elder Campos walks out and the Ghanaian dude is like no way i live like 200 meters down the street! That's way cool. I'll see y'all on Sunday at 1600 at the church! And that was that. Way cool miracle.Then I was like dang Elder Campos your poop took too long and I don't even know the area but I know enough to know we gotta run for a decent part of the trip home. Plus we had to buy ice cream for the apartment, and of course a coke for him haha, so we ran. Well we ran a long ways and then started walking and then we passed this college girls and I was like すいません
which is excuse me, because we were in a hurry, and they laughed and were saying that maybe they should have responded in English but they didn't know what to say and then laughed and me and Elder Campos understood obviously and we laughed, fist bumped and then started running again. Well it turns out we were a little late because of the poop incident but it worked out great and it was a good night.

Anyways enough with that there's been a couple of good experiences these last couple of weeks. So because we have been trying to be healthy, we have been drinking tons of water, like I drink probably like 6-8 liters a day. So anyways because of that we have had to pee a
lot, and for some reason it always hits right before we are going to visit someone, like way bad. And so there's been a couple of times when straight up I pray before we knock on their door that I wont have to pee while we teach them a lesson because if we go find a bathroom
we will be late. And the coolest thing happens. During the lessons there is no signs of having to pee. And you gotta understand that like this isn't just a regular bathroom break, its like a whole liter is ready to come out at any second and then all of a sudden for a half hour or more that gets put on hold with nothing. Then as soon as we get back to our bikes it happens again and then we rush to a bathroom. It's happened to both me and Elder Jo, even at the same time. Haha but it just goes to show that the Lord will answer your prayers, even if it seems like it's silly, if it matters to you, it matters to Him. He loves you and wants the best for you, even if that means holding your bladder for a half hour as you teach someone the gospel. He's a pretty good guy if I do say so myself. I know he's helped me in little ways as well as in the big ways. He helps me everyday somehow. I'm so grateful for that.

Elder
シャちゃん

Me and Campos

 

Campos and his coke

District pic at Indo Curry

 

Nagasaki Eki. Usually there's a ton more people. The mountains get higher and you see 

houses with literally 40 stairs to get to the door because the mountain is so steep, but it's 

not like Shacks because this isn't poverty filled like the Philippines or Central America. 

This is JAPAN and normal people with lots of money live in this nice houses built into 

mountains for some reason.

A toilet requesting men to sit down and pee because they are trying to minimize

splashing pee on the seat because it's a women's toilet also.