Typhoon

So as the subject says, a typhoon came this week and was coming straight for Kagoshima! So the weather was way bad on Saturday night and the church leaders here called and cancelled church on Sunday so we stayed inside and the typhoon completely missed by hundreds of
miles and the weather was fine but we were told to stay inside until three and if it didn't come by three then we were okay to go out and work and three came and went and nothing happened. So that's my missionary typhoon experience. But I have been hit by a car so I have one cool experience working for me.

This week we had a way cool miracle. So we are out walking around streeting and talking to people and we met a foreigner who didn't get mad at us and hate us! Seriously, props to missionaries in other countries. But the real miracle is we met this 18 year old kid,
Yamanouchi kun and set up a return appointment and gave him a Book of Mormon. Pretty solid right. The appointment is for the next day, Friday, so we show up to the city hall place where we teach because the church is impossible for people to get to, and he comes and pretty much we ask why he wanted to meet and actually showed up and he said he wants to learn more about Jesus Christ because if people knew about Christ the world be a better place. First off, no 18 year old ever thinks about this. And especially not a Japanese one. So we taught him and set up another appointment and guess when that was for? The next day. So we go and take a member who just got back from his mission in Kobe, who is also the Sano's grandkid, and they got along great and love pretty close and both love basketball which is perfectly convenient because we're going to start doing basketball every Saturday night and they both can go and we set it up so we can teach our boy Yamanouchi kun after basketball. Apparently he's really busy with cram school, or school to get into college because I guess his grades weren't good enough, so we won't be able to meet too much during the week but he would have come to church but church got cancelled. So guess what we set up a baptismal date with him for like October 16 and he set yes and so were pumped and he's our miracle investigator. Going to church will probably be the hardest thing but
besides that so far there is no problems. What a stud. Besides that, just a lot of regular finding and teaching some good lessons to other investigators who will get baptized but it's just a matter of when for them. He says that he believes baptism progress the soul to be able to become perfect and live with God but he just has to continue to progress personally up until that point of baptism. This guy understands eternal perspective and progression. So we're just continuing to work with him. He has been taught, and understands everything so that's way cool.

Anyways no cool lessons really this week to teach. Me and elder Reed get along awesome, and when he is doing zone leader things I work with Elder Miyagi and we have no communication problems. He's like 18 still and so we are sometimes immature and he says things like "poo man" and when he goes to the bathroom he says he "gave birth to poo baby" and sings happy birthday to poo. He's the funniest person I've ever met. His English is so funny and not that great and so we only speak wakamono Japanese, or young person Japanese, so my Japanese is getting pretty good. Because I'm going to live here after my mission I gotta get pretty good at Japanese, you know?

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老
日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ～

Zone Transfer Meeting featuring Elder Woolston. 

Love that kid. I'd be comps with him again in a heartbeat. 

Elder Reed is bottom right. 

Me and Elder Miyagi 

There's a place here that sells melon pan ice cream or just メロンパンアイス. Japanese is way easier than English. Anyways, it's so delicious. 

 We "found" a restaurant called "Tomato Ramen" which sells exactly that. 

The best ramen I've had.

Time to leave Amami

As the title says, it's time to leave my beloved Amami, my home for like 6 months just about. Four transfers here. Pretty good. I guess I can say some cool things about Amami (stole this idea from elder Sherman).
1. They eat goats
2. They have a language that isn't related to Japanese that old people speak.
3. They have a lot of beautiful beaches.

That's about it but I adore this place. Anyways, I'm sure those of you that read want to know where I'm going. This morning Egan Kaicho called, which isn't too normal, and told me I'm going to the next area north of here, to Kagoshima! Where I've gone a couple of times already. I'm going to be a new district leader in Kagoshima and will be companions with Elder Reed, a zone leader. Pretty cool stuff! I leave tomorrow night on a boat and get to Kagoshima at like 9 in the morning so it's a really short transfer in that aspect, but I get to
go on a boat!! I'm way pumped. Third trip on the boat. That's pretty rare. Kagoshima is completely different area than here. It's. Big city. It has young people. A volcano. The population is about 600,000. Amami's is like 40,000. That's a pretty big change. It'll be sad to leave but I left my mark here and feel like I've blessed people's lives and so I feel good about leaving.

Also the Sapporo temple was dedicated but we couldn't go to the dedication because it was only at stake centers and so there were 12 missionaries in all of Japan probably that couldn't go. But I'm sure it was great. Ha.

Anyways this week we rode our bikes to a lot of far places and met some good people. We met a lot of our friends in the streets and at our favourite takoyaki restaurant and it was really nice because pretty much I knew I was transferring and it was good to see all of these people one last time. Everyone on Amami is friends with everyone and so it's very easy to make friends here. It's hard to teach them but it's easy to make friends with them and make good impressions on them. If you're friends, it makes it so much easier to teach them because they trust you, and if they aren't ready to listen to the message, you can still be friends with them. That's not just for missionaries but for everybody in life. It reminds me of the talk that someone gave in general conference last year about a man that helped
reactivate many of the men in his ward and helped them get to the temple, and when he was asked about it he said he talked about their trucks and their lives and built relationships and that turned into them being able to come back into the church and receive those blessings from God, that He wants to give us.

Anyways, I don't really have a cool message or anything like that to share this week except that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true and living church on the earth. Christ directs this church and lives. President Thomas S. Monson is
his prophet. If we live the way we're supposed to, study and pray about the scriptures, anyone that truly desires to know truth will ALWAYS find this church. God promised and he won't let them down. The church is growing because people desire truth and safety from the
darkness of the world, and have come to find it through the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. God is simple, understandable, and works the same as he always has and will continue to work the same as he always will. Once again, in order to learn this, you have to study and pray with an open heart, and he will tell you.

Love you all!

Went one more time to the Sakamoto family's house. We went by bike and it took two hours ha but it was so fun. Isn't Go Chan just the cutest kid ever?

 

The Sakamotos have a rock climbing wall. There was a lot of friends 

over  too so  it was so crazy haha

The last meal with Shige Shimai. She's so great and has four sons. A professional soccer player, a professional boxer, a professional Judo (maybe) person who is the Asia Champion, and one in the Japanese military. 

 In case anyone is wondering, I'm still ripped.

 

This describes my trip on Amami. Beautiful Beaches, and the towel says

"Kansha" or gratitude, or thanks kind of a feel. 

Kids everywhere

(I just informed Drew that his grandfather died, only 9 months after his grandmother died.)

Dang grandpa too. Well I'm sure they're happy! He did eat a lot of hotdogs as in like every day and that probably isn't healthy but hey he's probably doing something on the other side besides watching TV! This is probably the busiest Grandpa has ever been, ever. And he can
walk and be free from the effects of oldness (it actually autocorrected to oddness. I don't think he can be free of that) and from the car accident he had a few years back. If he isn't busy, grandma is probably showing him the ropes and whipping him into shape. I wonder if they have tv screens in the spirit world. Baseball? I've actually grown to absolutely love baseball while I've been on my mission. I still can't play but it has become actually important to me ha. So , He might be an angel guy that reports on crimes and sins and is like a detective for other angel guys. They don't have a perfect knowledge yet either so they don't know! They might need guys like that. I wonder what the spirit world is like. I've read some stuff from prophets and their visions and they all are the same. Everybody is busy and has a "job" as in like a responsibility and it is so important and that there are so many things that happen there that we can't even comprehend that are important for the salvation of the soul
and hastening the work. Joseph Smith said something like even after we die, we still have to learn many things pertaining to our salvation before we are judged and exalted. I think that is super profound. Endure to the end doesn't just mean our mortal life, it means for
eternity. All the way until judgement (excluding the millennium I think because Satan will be bound) people, even saints, will have the ability to fall. We learn that even some of the elect will fall after the millennium,. Crazy stuff! Satan has real power and we really do
truly have to endure all the way until we are glorified beings with God, having received a fulness.

Anyways, enough of that and on to the good stuff. We didn't really get to teach that much this week. Akira San called us and said that he couldn't meet on Saturday because his work schedule changed and he wasn't sure if he would be able to come to church or not, and he was surprised and a little frustrated but he was able to come to church. We weren't able to teach him though and he said it will be like a week by week thing and he'll have to tell us. He works in construction or landscaping, and so when they have a project, that's what they do all day every day. So we will see. Next week is transfers and I have been here for almost six months, so I am almost guaranteed transferring next week. I will keep you updated on that too. Besides that, not much happened. Knocked on a lot of doors. Talked to a lot of people on the street. Was told quite a few times I am more Japanese than American. Don't have a problem with that. Oh, we went to a return appointment and there was this eight year old kid and he walked up and started talking to us and the return appointment was his friends house and he said he was just there and that the mom was home. Well, she didn't answer, so we talked to the kid again and we started playing catch, then soccer, then he grabbed his other friend and a soccer ball and played keep away, and then we did PKs too. Ben, or Elder Jenson would be so proud. I won in the PKs. That was about an hour and a half to fourty five minutes. Time flies when you're having fun! I'm sure they'll remember the time they played soccer in the street with a tall redhead and a Japanese guy with Jesus Christ on their nametags.

This week I've been thinking about prayer. It's so cool. But one specific thing is praying about your weaknesses, telling God what you're going to try and do and what you want from Him, and then going forth and doing your plan. AND THEN, being responsible, and taking
accountability every day, probably at night and telling God how you did. Why is this important? It shows God that you care. That you want to change. That you are trying. That you need His help. It shows God you are humble. It shows God that He can trust you. So everyone, find something you want to change, and then do your part, and God will do His! It may not be easy. It may take years, but you can all do it.
Love you all

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老
日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ〜

 Elder Tschirki looking good. Got a new tie for a dollar (I have like
90. Most are from recycle shops for a dollar.) but this one is my
favourite.

The middle kid is the kid that first talked to us. 

 

A pretty sick breakdancer we found.

Nana chan. Nana means seven, so she's the seventh child. 
I completely forgot to talk about the Sakamoto family (8 kids family) 
but we  visited and it was way fun, as usual.

Go chan. She is the fifth child. Go means five. She's like three years old.

Our lovely branch when the Egans came. There are a couple people mission 
but this is the active members on Naze.

 

Just Kick, and Push, and Coast

The subject line is a song by Lupe Fiasco about skateboarding. You will see why this is relevant if you actually read this. 

Akira is doing good. He says he is stopping a little bit more every week. We hope he can stop. Well we know he can. If he becomes converted to the Lord and the gospel he can stop anything. If he reads the Book of Mormon, he will have the power from God with him. We also taught Itou San who says that all religion is made by man, but that God is real. Well, long story short, he's a really great man and loves us, and he remembers my trainer Elder Flippo perfectly. Anyways, he can say whatever he wants, but when we bore testimony of what he needed in his life and what the truth of the gospel is, he couldn't say anything. He felt the spirit tell him it is true, and I know that because we did. But whether or not he is humble enough to to accept it is the hard thing.


So this week a couple of cool things happened. Let me tell you about them. Our random German friend on this lovely island of Amami, Rainer, who has a wood shop so he can make surfboards (he is married to a Japanese lady and they're one year old is half Japanese with red hair ha. Signs of the future??) is moving soon! They will be going back to Germany I
think next year and they are temporarily moving now I think. But anyways we were going out that way and he saw us and waved us down and told us to come to his shop. Well, I talk to him a lot whenever I see him and we are pretty good friends. SO he gave me his handmade longboard (without the wheels, he wanted those) and he said that it still has a lot of worth but because he's closing shop he can't sell it and that if he wants another one he will just make one ha. So then the cooler thing happened is he gave my companion one too! For free. He sells these boards for about $100 or so and we got them for free and he was so happy to give them to us. I love that guy so much. Now the next thing is to try and figure out how to get it home, haha. Elder Gass, who was here before me, bought one and he is really into long boarding and says that it's the best quality board he has. Or at least it's really high quality. So I'm excited!


Then the next cool thing happened. President Egan and his wife came down to my lovely Amami this week on Saturday so they could come to church here on Sunday! How cool is that? So we went to dinner on Saturday night at our friend Miwa's cafe (which is where I'm bringing mom and dad and the Palmers when we come to Amami after my mission) and had dinner with the Egans and the Sano's too. It was a great night. Then church went well and we had a shokuji, or a meal with all of the members and it was so much food so I probably ate as much as an entire branch of 5 Japanese women together and more. We had a lot of
pasta and okonomiyaki and salad and it was just a heaven on earth. BUT besides all of the food, which I love, was President Egans testimony. He told us multiple times that if somebody truly has a knowledge and testimony of the divinity and truth of the Book of Mormon, they will follow commandments. Most problems that arise in people's lives happen
because they don't read the Book of Mormon, or just the word of God in general, daily. If we study the scriptures daily, we will have peace. We will have happiness. We will have joy. We will have knowledge. We will have light. We will have guidance. We will have growth. We will have the love of God always with us, and I know that that is true!

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老
日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ～

Me and my boy Rainer at his shop as we were on our way to teach Itou San.

 I shunned my companion because he wouldn't let me go to go go curry. 

 I guess my comp took a picture of me as I'm tucking in my shirt. 

Sano Choro with a pineapple thing as we were visiting less actives that live an hour away by car. 

 

Amami. We saw a ton of surfers. Same day as pineapple picture.

And the Sano's. Love those people!

 

Kagoshima 2.0

SO THIS WEEK WE WENT TO KAGOSHIMA! We left Monday night on a boat, and came home Thursday night on a boat, arriving on Friday morning at 5:00 am. Anyways the boat on the way up was fun, it was just your regular ferry that goes all night long with a bunch of people sleeping in the same room. It's actually fun but there's nothing to do on it except
for drink alcohol which we don't do so there's literally nothing to do. Anyways, we got to Kagoshima on Tuesday, and there were no members that could pick us up and in order to get to the conference on time we had to take a taxi which was fun. First taxi ride ever, ha. Anyways the taxi driver was way cool and gave us candy. The Kagoshima church is literally on the top of a mountain so we passed a bunch of missionaries from the zone walking up the hill in the heat and we were in a cool, air conditioned taxi. The arrangement of Love at Home that we played went very well. The members in Kagoshima made taco rice for us. That's as Mexican as the food here gets. It's literally taco seasoning and meat, lettuce, tomato, etc. on top of rice. Just like the name sounds. It's good. So the conference lasted a long time and then we went home and stayed in the Kagoshima Zone Leaders apartment
which is about as big as my living room and hallway. Japanese apartments are very small, and they already have four people living there, so eight was really fun. Anyways Kagoshima is a pretty big city. I'm pretty sure I saw more people there than live on Amami. But Amami is way better and laid back. Well guess what. EVERYBODY is playing Pokemon Go. I know I'm late to the Pokemon Go parade but nobody plays it on Amami. It's crazy. There are literally hundreds of people in the park just playing Pokemon. It gets people out of their
houses and outside walking into position to meet us. Well guess what. We made some return appointments and got a lot of phone numbers because of Pokemon Go. You see, you walk up to someone, ask if their playing, talk about Pokemon for a few minutes, and then you can teach them because you just became friends. Like it's that simple. As crazy as it sounds, Pokemon just made missionary work in Japan easier by a hundred times. But it will probably die. There's even 50 year old women walking down the street playing. It's literally insane.

Anyways we came home on Friday morning and on the return boat I slept next to a grandma haha we talked for a boat after I dropped something and woke her up at like 8:30 pm. She was really nice. It was weird to sleep next to a Japanese grandma but the mats are preassigned so there's nothing you can do. Anyways we taught four lessons in three days, you now, that's like really good here on the island. That's actually super super good for here. Three were with investigators. Akira San is working hard at quitting smoking and told us that when he gets baptized he doesn't have any Sunday clothes. We offered to find some for him and he told us he will buy them himself. Like that was really cool. He brought that up himself! But he doesn't want to have a baptismal date, even as a goal, because quitting smoking will be hard and take a lot of time he said. We can't argue with that so we are going to work as hard as we can with him. He REALLY wants to quit and said he cut down half this week. He's a stud. We taught him twice.

This week I finished reading Jesus the Christ. For those that aren't LDS here or don't know what it is, it is a 729 page book about the life of Jesus that just uses scripture and analysis and it's very, very good. I encourage everyone to read it, but don't let it replace the scriptures themselves. The biggest part that stood out to me is how many times Pilate wanted to free Jesus and let him go. Did he know Jesus was the Son of God? Probably not. Did he feel the spirit testify to him about truth? Probably. Did he try to do what is right? Yes. Did he in the end give in to pressure? Yes. I thought about that a lot and how it applies to our lives. There are many times that we are Pilate. In essence Christ is brought to us and we are forced to choose between Christ and pressure. We put Christ through a gauntlet, essentially, and in the end give in to pressure. I mean gauntlet as in we try our faith, we go back and forth, we question, we doubt, we go through uneasily by ourselves with limited knowledge and ultimately many times deny Christ. I don't know why we do that! It doesn't make sense! We
have Christ, the literal Son of God on our side, next to us, yet we are willing to give into pressure and deny him. It's sad! It's true! Even Peter, the chief apostle, denied Christ at least three times. We know of the three times when he wept bitterly, but there were probably
others too. but the principle here is that we can repent! Peter repented and was forgiven, became one of the greatest missionaries and leaders the world has seen and restored priesthood authority to Joseph Smith! Though he was imperfect, he understood that and worked to come closer to Christ and become converted himself! We can do the same!
There is NO limit on how many times we can repent. We just have to mean it and work harder!

Love you all!

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老
日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ～

Yes mom, I am staying healthy. The Sano's have a blood pressure thing. I'm good.

Secret pic of a Japanese guy on the deck with Kagoshima in the back ground.

The six Amami missionaries on the boat. 

Me and the famous Sakura Jima. It exploded the day we got there. 

Not the biggest group by far but everyone is playing Pokemon. Park in Kagoshima.

Zone leaders apartment. Elder Bomtempo, Elder Johnson, Me, Elder Beer, Elder Reed, Elder Haoka, Elder Ishizu and Elder Miyagi. I am the fourth oldest behind the three to the right, then the others are way younger than me ha. Mission age wise. 

Japanese (actually all from Amami) Rappers. Notice the Jazz jersey. This inspired me to try to freestyle rap in Japanese. 

The Tschirki smile

Crazy Grandmas and Grandpas Everywhere

This week was an interesting one, as in a lot of weird things happened. MOM AND DAD I FORGOT THIS STORY TOO SO YOU HAVE TO READ THIS. The first crazy thing that happened is we think we found a habu while he were in the mountains. It was in the little stream by these ghetto mountain houses so we walked up to this grandpa and we were like "yo, there might be a Habu (super poisonous snake that kills people) but we aren't sure. Come check it out." So he came, and then walked inside of his friends house, yelled at him to come out, and he was also a lovely grandpa figure but without a shirt on, because this is Amami. So they looked at the snake, couldn't figure out if it was habu, but on the chance that it was they picked up rocks and started throwing them at it. Like in the Bible when the Jews stoned everyone. And then they were like "let's go get some poles" so they grabbed these metal poles that were 'conveniently' the right size and the pinned the snake and smashed it's head and killed it. We filmed it because how many times are you going to see two grandpas, one without a shirt, speaking a random island language kill a super poisonous snake in a river by their house? Probably never. So that was the best part of the week. It was really entertaining, and no, we did not participate in the killing, we were just watching because we found it. 

THEN, a few days later, we were out in this one place and this grandma came up to talk to us and she can't really hear but she was really happy and she told us that the house we were on the street next to was hers and she started hitting it with her umbrella to get her husbands attention. Well, he can't hear either (both can speak perfectly well though). So she took us to her house, and we thought well this can't be that bad, so we went and went inside and the dad was just in apron and boxers, and they were just yelling at each other because neither of them can hear, and she tried to show us around her house and different rooms and he would just walk around yelling that they didn't have anything and they were poor and he wanted to give us food and she wanted to too and they didn't really have much so we didn't take anything but the Japanese medicine drinks (Norie Chizuko know what I'm talking about, in the small brown glass bottles and they're about 150 yen or so) and I really like those and they insisted so I didn't have any problem. Also I drank two in a day once and nothing bad happened to me so I think that's a myth that drinking two in a day is bad. Anyways, we left and as we were walking to our bikes, well Grandma followed us. This is when we realized that she probably has short term memory loss too. She tried to get us to go back into her house and meet her husband and give us food and told the exact same story about her kids about 10 times and so we walked back to her house because she was going to get her husband to say goodbye to us and she would signal us to come in and we would signal that we needed to go and she would come back out and talk to us about the same kid in Kagoshima that's a teacher, again and again. So at this point we don't want to be rude and so we keep on listening. Well about 30 minutes have past and finally the grandpa husband comes out and waves goodbye so we think that we are free and can go so we hurry down to our bikes, and get on, and just as we are about to ride off to the next place we wanted to go, well guess who comes down the street. Grandma again, and she's dancing! So we started dancing too and told he we need to go and got on our bikes again and hen she realized that we were going and said thank you and how she was happy we came and told us to come back again and then said goodbye and we left. Well that's the end of grandma and grandpa but not the end of the weird. So we go to our next place and they're having a matsuri, or like a festival party thing and we were like shoot, there's nobody in these apartments, so we bought some shaved ice and thought about how we should spend our last hour of the night when some grandpas get on the stage and they start rocking out hard. They had drums, electric guitars and everything, and they were GOOD. They were seriously very talented, and none of them were younger than 65 I would say. So that was cool. Then we visited a less active, the same one that we visited last week that I got music stuff from, Ueno Kyodai, and went home. Well if you think that that is the end of the shenanigans on Naze, you're wrong. So tomorrow we have a meeting in Kagoshima, which means we take an overnight boat to get there because we are on a tiny island, so we called the assistants to the president yesterday to get our travel plans, and as they were checking, they realized no boat leaves on Monday, and so they said they had to rush us and pack us and get us on the boat yesterday night. Well it was the afternoon so it wasn't that big of a deal but the plans completely changed, and the Sano couple are coming too so we had to call them and she said there IS a boat tomorrow, so she called the office, and then they wanted her number, and then Sano Shimai and the Assistants worked everything out and then they both called us and it turns out that we really are leaving today, after we packed and got everything ready yesterday. So life has been crazy. And then we got some phone calls from President Egan, and getting calls from the President isn't really typical so I answered and he's going to try to come down here for church and see how everything is going down here, but he didn't say when. So that's what's been going on lately. 

Anyways, this week our investigator Akira, before we even taught the word of wisdom, told us that because he read the Book of Mormon and prayed everyday he had been helped from God to overcome his smoking and coffee addictions. BEFORE we even taught anything about it. Well perfect timing because that was the next lesson. And it was an even bigger surprise because he actually read the places we gave him to read and prayed every day. So that was the real highlight of the week! He is such a stud. It may be hard for him to quit smoking, but he quit alcohol a long time ago, and I really believe that God is helping him along the way. He helps us all and we don't even realize it until we look back and see that He has been there the whole time. 

Also this week was my year mark. That was really weird. I have a year, and then the rest of my life in Japan so I'm not too worried about that. 

Love you all!

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老

日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ〜

Basic, but the best graffiti I've seen in Japan.

Pretty good "no sales" sign

Grandpas killing potential habu. Probably been doing it from the time they were kids with their dads.

Shout Out to Mr. Durtschi for Being a Way Sick Teacher

Well like the title of the email says, shout out to THE Mr. Durtschi, possibly still the choir and AP Music Teacher at my beloved Timpanogos High School. If he moved schools or careers, I am not sure and am going off of year old knowledge. Anyways, I will explain why I am shouting out this beloved teacher. I took AP Music Theory and learned a lot and still remember like probably 80 percent, which is pretty high for not studying it in a year because of my mission but anyways, everyone should take that class if you have aspirations to write
music. Anyways, this week Egan Kaicho called, and it's hopefully not everyday that you're getting a call from your mission president. Anyways he asked me to play the piano and accompaniment at the zone training/ specialized training on the 26. That has two meanings. One, WE ARE LEAVING THE ISLAND!!!!! And second, I had to call the Sisters in the zone and see what they were planning. Well, as I was talking to them, they said they hadn't thought about it (it was still the same day) and don't have any arrangements. So they were like "you play piano, can you write an accompaniment part as we sing the melody from
the hymn book?" So pretty much like a hymnplicity deal (shout out mom because I'm probably the only here that knows what that is because of you haha) and so I agreed and now I have to write an accompaniment part. Like that's not a big deal, it will just take some time today because it's pday. But so this all happened on Saturday. Well, Saturday night, we visited a less active dude named Ueno Kyodai, and in the past I had only ever been able to talk to him for about 30 seconds at most, but he let us in and I was surprised. Well, it turns
out he was a music teacher and writes TONS of music and taught my companion music theory during our visit haha. I still remembered and very poorly sang the do re mi Fa so la to do thing to the hymns that he was singing with him. I'm not good at singing but I can read music. Anyways, he had tons of staff paper and he wanted to give me about 500 sheets, but I only took about 30 sheets and a book and now I have paper to write the music on and figure everything out, and I told him I will bring him the music when I am done with it. So that's a lot of music talk, but really, everything is falling together perfectly. God's hand is in the details, even the little things such as a musical number in Kagoshima Zone, or helping out a less active guy because we have the same interests. But I am positive that without God, we
wouldn't have even been able to do any of this, or see even these small miracles. So I guess that's why I'm shouting out Mr. Durtschi. Oh also, Ueno Kyodai says that "Music is not knowledge. It's training." I'd say I agree. You can KNOW music and how it works but unless you have experience it doesn't profit you anything. So that's pretty cool. That's the meat of this email this week.

Other experiences that happened. I finished the Book of Mormon in Japanese this week. I have been reading it every day for three transfers, or about four months, and I finished it, usually understanding it. Like that's pretty cool and I know that if you are learning a foreign language, the Book of Mormon definitely has power. Even if you aren't learning a foreign language, the Book of Mormon has power in every aspect of your life. So just read it.

I also ate a 2.5-3 kilogram plate of curry. It was so much but I did it. Ever since I came to Amami, I knew I would do it, so I did it last week because I thought it might be my last P Day here. It was hard. Oh and for those of you that don't know the unit of kilograms, that's
between 5 and 6.5 pounds of curry. They took my picture and it's on their blog and probably social media, and probably on their wall. Go look it up. Just search go go curry and check out their website.

Anyways, that's about it for this week! Oh I forgot to say but I'm still here on Amami with my beloved Japanese companion, Elder Ishizu, and we are still working hard every day and may have made a return appointment with a retired Yakuza guy that has tons of tattoos and no teeth, but his fingers are still all there. 
Love you all!

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老
日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ～

 

A couple of weeks ago but we found some giant rocks on a beach and tried to climb to the very top but couldn't. Meaning I tried to but couldn't. 

 Curry before...

Curry after...