20

Well I guess something happened yesterday and I turned twenty years old and that's weird I feel completely different. Tons of people say they feel the same but I feel like a man. I can drink alcohol (not like I will because that stuff is messed up) and I have a little more hair on my chest and I will be able to grow a good beard in eight months and I can speak Japanese pretty well and I can get myself dressed now and I'm in Okinawa and I'm in charge of helping people change their life like dang this is some pretty big responsibilities. But it's so much fun! So yesterday we had a birthday party for me with some military YSA who we always do stuff with anyways but yeah we went and there was fried chicken and pancakes and shoutout to Alban because that was the best fried chicken I ever had. But the thing is is now whenever I eat American anything I always have stomach problems so yeah it's so fatty and sugary and it's kind gross but good but I like Japanese food better :) but anyways yeah this morning I had some diarrhea because of American food and that's been the last week lol. Good times. Also yeah it feels like my my life is in a new stage and I'm just like figuring it all out. It helps being here because obviously a lot of the YSA are between 20-26 and they are in the military so they see a lot of good and a lot of bad things that happen out here and just talking to them is really awesome to know that these people truly put Christ first in their lives despite all the temptations and crazy people and situations around them. Also Sano Shimai in Kagoshima sent me a birthday present and I got it today and it's the best present ever! I'll show a pic later.

Oh by the way mom it is kind of weird being in a district with four sisters and me and my comp and hopefully the sisters all have good relationships because I don't want to be the guy that has to put up with the drama. I think everyone will be good though. Stay tuned. Oh ps they call people like me the "relief society president" ha. Good times.

So since Wednesday not much has happened really. A recent convert Teddy took us to a way good ramen shop and he told us his conversion story. We met with our 26 year old investigator Tamashiro Yuuya who is ex yakuza and wants to change his life. The yakuza is the Japanese mob that extorts money, sells drugs and prostitutes but they aren't dangerous to the general public. They only hurt and kill people that mess with them and don't pay them back. But our boy is trying to change his life and come to Christ. He even has a book called "from yakuza to Christian" or something like that. He is also getting his yakuza tattoos removed :( they look awesome (he showed us when he was drunk one time) and they're really pretty tattoos. Look them up on google. But he wants to completely turn his life around and right now the biggest step for him is quitting drinking but we know he can do it. He says right now he drinks to numb the pain of his tattoo removal surgery. His scars are pretty crazy because in the yakuza they tattoo most of your body. Seriously, look them up and you'll see. But he came to church and had a great time, felt the spirit and learned a lot! Every time we meet him he always thanks us so much and bows at a 90 degree angle and shows us so much respect. He is working so hard.

We had thanksgiving at a members house on base and he invited a lot of nonmembers and a less active dude. The member is way solid and doing great member missionary work. He is 23/24 ish. He actually served a mission in Ogden Utah. But anyways it was fun being there with all these young marines and hearing their crazy stories which most of them involve being insanely drunk in crazy parts of the world and everybody was just laughing. But the thing is is that now that a couple of them have their drinking rights taken away because of stupid choices they are really considering life and it's purpose and that's where the member has already jumped in and given them Book of mormons and has offered to help them so we will see what we can do too. They're all busy dudes but they seem open and willing to change. We will continue to work the the member to see what we can do for his friends. But really though, I don't think I've heard crazier stories. Shoutout to Clack. He is the funniest person I've met. 

We're also working with some less active people and one is in the military and he wants to start coming back so he actually came to district conference yesterday and we talked to him a bit and even last night and he really wants to get his life back on track so that he can go to the temple and be married eventually. It really shows just how no matter what you've done, you can always come back and come closer to Christ. Our progression is eternal. 

Anyways that's about it for this week! Keep being awesome and don't sign up for a bank account with Wells Fargo.

Love you all!

Elder Tschirki

君を愛してるよ

Small thing from Sano Shimai. She does this thing called oshibana which is when she preserves flowers and presses them and makes pretty things. I love her so much, 

she's the best.

This way good ramen we found

Tamashiro yuuya

Chilling in okinawa

Snoopy donut

Okinawa

Osprey

So I got to Okinawa safe and sound and everything is doing good. It was hard to leave Kagoshima because the best friends of my life live there and it was so sad. So sad. But so me being a good boy I printed out a picture of me and the Sano's and put it in a frame and gave it to them at the bus terminal and they were so happy. PS mom and dad I told them we are coming to Japan in march of 2018 and we'll visit them and they'll take us all over Kagoshima and we'll all take the boat down to Amami together and it's a pretty solid plan. Start saving up for your japan trip by the way because that's going to come sooner than you think and you gotta come back. March has the Sakura and everything and would be the prettiest time to come. Plus it starts warming up. Then I guess we can go from Amami down to Okinawa. We will bring the Palmers with us and it will be the ultimate trip. If you guys wanted to we could come earlier because I get home in July and we could go in the fall. That would be way pretty too. Like November ish. We could come to japan for my birthday and you could drop me off and I can begin life in japan. That is the plan, but it's just a matter of when I come back out here. Probs the sooner the better. Then I can find a wife haha. But anyways leaving Kagoshima was hard. Love that place. It really felt like home. But Okinawa is cool too. It's way different haha.

Anyways the reason I called this email the osprey email is because we're right next to the base and there's these really loud aircraft that fly over without a purpose every 10 minutes and it's really loud and the Okinawans don't like it at all and protest the base a lot but the aircraft looks pretty good though. But they are super loud and sometimes when we're talking to people they fly over and you can't hear and they point at the aircraft and kind of just awkwardly close the door. But the members in both the Japanese ward and the military branch are way solid. But these osprey man, they just have a way of flying through when you're in your personal study too and yeah it's crazy. 

My comp, Elder McColm is awesome and he is a transfer three. I'm his second comp. He's like me when I had elder Horstmeier. He is so cool and I've never had a funnier companion ever. We get along great and some people have problems in two man apartments but we have absolutely no problems and get along so great. We just joke about osprey all the time.

Anyways been more busy here in Futenma than any other area. That also means I'm way tired. I'm so tired. We also have two church services that we go to on sundays which means we're at the church for like eight hours on Sunday. But it's awesome! We have some awesome people that we're working with and as I know them better I will start to talk about them more in the next emails but life is going good.

 

Elder Tschirki

君を愛してるよ

Picture time!

I made my first okonomiyaki yesterday because my comp has never had it because he is on Okinawa and they don't really have it here. So I said I'd make it and it was WAY good. 

Elder McColm

My district

The Sano's took us to a way sick park last week. Miss them so much

 closer

My pic for them that I gave them when I left.

 

Figi

This is Elder Tschirki's mom. I accidentally got the emails mixed up. This post took place the week before the last post. :)

So a few weeks ago we found a dude from Fiji that has family in Hawaii that knows Elder Tofa's family and he came to church yesterday and we taught a lesson to him in English. That was weird ha. But he's way solid and is probably going to keep coming to church! That's probably why Elder Tofa is here in Kagoshima, like straight up.

This week was really busy. We were able to teach Akira kun again and we just read from the Book of Mormon and it went well. He's way solid and pretty much we're just going to wait on baptism until after his test season because he's way busy and not too able to come to church right now. He has tests every Sunday. But he's doing well and his mom is okay with him getting baptized.

We have a new investigator named Kuroki and he is also very busy. He is 26 and works as a mover and so he is only home for a few minutes a day and we've taught about the Book of Mormon and baptism and he is way good. Every time we go visit him we feel the spirit way strongly. He is sincerely wants the blessings and is really wanting to learn, but time is the biggest constraint.

We also threw away a members tobacco with her. We told her if God was sitting in the room with us what would she do, and she said she would ask for strength, and I said that probably in order to do that you have to do your part and throw it away, and she said "I see. You have
a way with words. That was the spirit. Let's throw it away." And she did! Hopefully she'll be able to stop so she can go to the temple.

This week the Sano's came back for sure and it was so great and I love them so much and straight up they are for sure my favourite people I've met in my whole life. So obviously I got a picture and tell me if you can't see the love. Love you all! Not as much as the Sano's though!

Elder Tschirki
君を愛してるよ

Old crazy guy at English class wants to learn chemistry English. 

He's way smart haha but completely crazy.  

Transfer Calls for Days

Well as the subject says, I'm leaving Kagoshima.... after two transfers. But I'm going down to the island of........ OKINAWA wooooooo. And I'm going to Futenma area, which has a military base, so this will be interesting. Two wards to take care of. Obviously the Japanese side is better so I'm excited for that. I will still be district leader and apparently right now futenma is doing really good and has had a ton of baptisms recently. I will have a young companion. He is transfer three next transfer. Should be an adventure! But because of transfers, that means I'm leaving Kagoshima and the beautiful Sakurajima and the Sano family, and my wonderful investigators, but I'm not worried about any of them. They'll all end up great. Except for sakurajima. It is an active volcano that hasn't exploded in a while so it should happen. It usually just blows up ash and soot though and turns the whole city black and I wasn't here when that happened.. but anyways yeah I'm leaving the cooling down autumn weather of Japan and flying down to the hot weather of Okinawa. Should be fun!

This week we couldn't meet with our boy Akira kun. Something came up and he couldn't come to basketball or the lesson. But he can't get baptized until January so we're not worried. Things come up, and life happens. We also met with Tsuruda and that was good. We talked with him about charity and such and helped him get on track to become more loving with people as the Savior is. He took it really well. He isn't mean to people at all, more like afraid. He doesn't connect well with Japanese people and doesn't want people to get mad at him. He's finished all the lessons and wants to get baptized but this is pretty much his last hurdle. So we're working with him. Besides that we didn't teach any other investigators I don't think. The weeks are so full and busy I don't remember, I need to look at my planner to remember.

Probably the highlight of the week was something that people may not think of as a highlight, but it was we went to a funeral for a 92 year old member that passed away. She's been strong in the gospel for so long. I don't think I ever actually met her, but her daughter, who is the branch presidents wife, wanted us to come last second, and so everyone else had a ride except for me and elder Tofa. We were calling people and nobody could go. So I prayed in the morning before my studies that if we needed to be there, God would give us a way, and if we weren't supposed to be there then we wouldn't go. Well about an hour later a member calls and says something along the lines of "I wasn't going to go but I decided that I should go and bring you two with me." Later in the car he said "I thought about it and I needed to serve you two and also the family at the funeral so I came." That is a literal answer to a prayer and then a faithful person on the other end that gets the prompting to act and does it. That's pretty much textbook. It was such a neat experience. And then the funeral was great. Surprisingly, they didn't cremate the body, and had a casket burial. Interesting in Japan. 

Then yesterday morning elder Tofa got a call from Kaicho and it turns out he's training and I didn't know where I was going and so I just wanted to pack because it was raining pretty hard and you know, nobody likes to be soaked in a suit. Well I didn't get my wish and we rode out to a place that's thirty or so minutes away and so obviously we're soaked and I wasn't so happy and then we had to ride up a mountain in the rain and my comp got off his bike (I didn't see) and I kept going all the way up. Well I get to the top and I'm just chilling for like twenty minutes at a dry cleaners because they had a canopy thing, soaking wet, without a companion and tired and a little mad. Well I'm sitting there and I figured my companion walked up or something, and just as they say in Boy Scouts, if you're lost from your group, don't go anywhere. Stay where you are. So that's what I did. (See dad I learned lots in scouts) and I said a prayer to God and I told him I didn't want to be mad or sad or anything and that I really wanted to have a good attitude. Well as soon as I finished, a person comes up and asks if I know a member and I said yeah and they said they're best friends with them. Way nice people. Then a couple minutes later elder Tofa walks up with an umbrella and he's happy and I felt happy too and wasn't even upset anymore and even though it rained all day and we could wring the water out of our suits, it was a fun day, from like 2:30 onward. So I had a couple really cool experiences this week about prayer. It can literally change you. God wants to help you but sometimes you just have to be humble and ask. God is great.

Love you all

Elder Tschirki

君を愛してるよ

 

 Way pretty sunrise from the apartment

 Last pic of me and sakurajima.

Some huge statues we found. Not even big though. This is like one you could have at your house.

I'm mad at my mom because we never had spam growing up. Spam is great.

 

Carolina Reaper

So the reason this week is called Carolina reaper (I think that's what it is called) so because we went to this ramen place and guess what, they have a really hot food but when Japanese people say something's hot it is usually like green pepper level. So this stuff was hot enough to kill someone and I died and had a ball of fire in my stomach all day and two days later the bathroom experience wasn't much better so yeah I couldn't finish the food and I asked the guy what was in it and he said "Carolina reaper" and I just about died because when you eat that your whole body is in physical pain. So I learned a good lesson about that and that I need to ask about what they put in stuff. But I probably won't ask that anyways so I didn't learn anything. 

This week was really cool. I'll start out with how we had a way sick halloween party and had like 60+ people show up and a lot of nonmembers and it was way fun. So many great people and cool costumes. 

So we taught Akira kun too and we finished all the commandments and we decided with him that we are going to go slower through his test season and meet once a week from here on out. Way solid kid.

Me and elder Jo were on exchanges the same day as the Carolina reaper incident and we were in this way odd apartment and I had this strong distinct impression that we shouldn't be there and so we left and went to a different apartment building and long story short we met this kid that loves his family. He's 26 and doesn't have his own family. But anyways long story short we made a return appointment with him and me and elder Tofa taught him again on Sunday night and he became an investigator and both times we met him I felt the spirit super strong and it just felt good. It just goes to show that when something isn't of God, you feel confused. You feel like you shouldn't be there. But when you are doing what's right, it feels good, it feels right, and that's because it comes from God. So that's pretty much what happened today.

Elder Tschirki

君を愛してるよ

A lot of the people that came.

  Sano Kaicho was Draemon for Halloween. Cool stuff.

 

I had to play piano and this little girl just sat next to me and talked to me the whole time and I've never seen her before but it was way cute.

 A cool activity we had at a members house

A way pretty sunset 

 Me on the phone. My comp takes random pics of me haha. 

John

So let me tell you about John. He's this guy that is interested in religion and is meeting with the other members but lost all of his papers and money therefore he isn't here legally and is living at a members house close to ours and changed his back story a few times and won't let us take a picture with him and ran away and tells us how he is wanted by the USA government and his dad was killed by them and how he is going back to Taiwan next week but I don't know how he can if he doesn't have any money, and now he knows where we and the sisters live and was asking sister Anderson questions about her address, email, etc. and yet they still haven't called the police on is guy because everyone is naive idiots but as soon as we met him I knew something was wrong and he needs to go to jail. But even Kaicho said just to wait until he leaves on the 27. We'll I have to disagree with everyone here because we're getting stalked by this dude John and it's creepy. Well guess what, to make it worse, Elder Frederickson in Mexico dealt with this exact same thing last week. But yet nobody calls the police on this guy. Well, that's what happened this week. Harboring criminals, no big deal.

Anyways this week was good. We found a new investigator, Takamine san. He's like probably 50 and way cool. We taught Akira Kun this week the law of chastity and we sat down bro to bro and just we're straight up like "sexual feelings are good man, girls are way attractive man, but you just gotta wait" and he didn't have any problems with that and so he's good to go and we're almost done with the lessons. But the best part of this week was this. We had District Conference which is just Stake Conference, and President Sano was released after nine years of being president. The spirit was way strong there and you know he is a man of God. He's only like 45 so he will have a good life of being a 70 ahead of him. He has been a branch president since 25 years old. But so we're standing there welcoming people as the missionaries do in Japan and the Sano Grandparents that I love so dearly walk in the other side, and they were saying hi to people, and then they saw me and walked over way fast and skipped through everybody and shook my hand and gave him a hug and shook her hand. I told the sister missionaries that I was just going to play it cool and be like "what's up" but as soon as they came it was such a happy reunion and I was smiling so big. I have never met anyone in my life that I love more than those two and they were so happy to see me too and then afterwards we walked into the hall and Sano shimai started talking to elder Tofa and the first thing she said to him was "elder Tschirki eats too much, it's ridiculous. Can you believe him?" And just started laughing and man I love them. They officially come back next month and I'm so happy. As you can probably tell I am so happy. It was probably one of the happiest things that has happened in my life. 

Mom I love my comp and the people in my district. Kagoshima is way cool. The area is awesome, the members too. Investigators are going good. The only thing is not living with Japanese people anymore, and instead of that three American people. I'm definitely more Japanese than American haha. It's true. The BBQ pics you sent look good but honestly I'd take a good Okonomiyaki or some sushi over that. Ramen is way good too. Udon is probably my favourite noodle. Raw eggs, fish, horse meat, etc. all so good. Japanese food for the win. Definitely living here after my mission.

Love you all!

 

 Elder Tschirki

君を愛してるよ

 

Sano Kaicho and his family took us out to dinner. 

 

A way pretty pic of sakurajima

 

A castle we found and walked up to and it turned out to just be an office. #Japan

 

Suit Season

So as the title says, suit season has begun. Some days it is still way hot in the 80s and other days it is in the 60s so it's kind of a hit and miss. It started yesterday. It'll get really cool in probably a month or so no problems there. Let's see. Elder Harrell and Tofa went to Fukuoka for MLC and so I worked with Elder Jo, a brand new missionary, for a couple of days. It was fun because I could do whatever I want and be the only one that could talk and understand. He's a way smart kid and pretty negative and condescending and so it was fun to go out and walk the streets for seven hours straight and show what real missionary work is like and not that MTC stuff. After that he just came home and was quiet and slept. Haha it was way funny. He's gotten a lot better since then.

Our investigator, Akira kun, is following the word of wisdom! We taught him on Tuesday and he was like "that's too strict" and we said "well it's from God and this is what He promises. Won't you at least try?" And so he did and so we met again on Saturday and followed up on it and he said "it's not even hard. At first I thought it was kind of strict but it's okay now, I get it." But while he hasn't noticed the blessings from living it yet, he will. We especially emphasized the "finding treasures of knowledge" part of the blessings because he's in school and we said if he follows it, God will bless him more in his tests and school. We also taught fasting and stuff and he said something like "I don't actually buy my own food but when I do I'll pay my fast offerings." He's pretty solid. A kinjin. (Golden person
(investigator)). The hardest thing is coming to church because he has practice tests every Sunday.

So anyone that doesn't know what the word of wisdom is, it is a commandment of God that we don't take harmful substances into our body such as coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs, etc. We also are told to be careful with what we eat and be healthy and mindful in what we eat. I
think everyone knows that we don't drink. Well let's think about it. God created us and our bodies and we know that those things are bad for them, so why would we justify ruining a present that comes from God? Why would we give ourselves negative health issues on purpose? Why would we treat our life like that? Is it Christ like? Would Christ smoke and drink? The thing is no, he wouldn't, so why should we? Christ says in the New Testament that we need to hear the commandments and then do them, and if we don't do them, we have no place in the kingdom. He says that we should either be hot or cold, and that the
lukewarm will just be spit out. We should either be righteous or unrighteous. That it is better for the unrighteous than those that profess Christ be don't live up to the standard. Let us all keep the commandments of God.

Love you all!

Elder Tschirki
君を愛してるよ

This dude, Saigo Takemori, is the real Last Samurai, 

and he's from Kagoshima. This is like three minutes from the apartment, 

but I just finally got a picture of it. 

Zone training. I got to do the Japanese translation. Pretty fun. 

Actually not too hard. My comp is the brown Hawaiian kid behind me. 

Me and elder parry to the right were just talking about NWA. 

We went bowling last week on pday, it was way fun.

Elder Jo

 Another Sakurajima pic 

 A massive spider in our apartment. I was shaving but it was huge.

Japanese Pride

So this week was way good. We said goodbye to elders Miyagi and Reed this week which was way sad. I'm going to miss elder Miyagi so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much. He's my number one favourite person I've met on my mission by far. So I told him because I'll be living in japan after my mission anyways that I'm going to be at his homecoming talk which will be in like May 2018. So yeah. And then the rugby World Cup is in 2019 and the olympics are 2020. I'm going to be living in Japan during a good period of time. Well anyways so they left and it was way sad but elder Tofa came in as the new zone leader and he is one transfer ahead of me and his Japanese is way good, kind of like mine, so we're really good together. He also wants to marry a Japanese girl too. He went to BYUH for a year. He's a stud and we'll do great together. Well we already made two return appointments so everything is going to go well. Kagoshima is still great. Still eating raw chicken. I'll put a video down there. 

 

Well as everyone knows, conference happened and there are a couple of talks that I really liked that I've been thinking about even before conference. I loved elder Nelsons talk about joy and how true joy only comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Along with that, Elder Renlund says that repentance is joy. So pretty much using the atonement of Jesus Christ and repenting gives you joy. It's really simple. We were created to have joy. And whether or not we fulfill the purpose of our creation is up to us. Everybody wants to be happy in this life. I don't know of anyone that wants to be sad. But unfortunately people go around the wrong ways to find happiness and joy. I promise the only way to truly be happy is through Jesus Christ. The other talk I thought of is elder Ballard and I've never really liked his talks but this time he laid down the law. Without Jesus Christ and the only true living church, where would you go? What would you do? If your answer is liberation, the only way is through the gospel. If your answer is freedom, the only was is through the gospel. If your answer is joy, the only way is through the gospel. Where would you go? What would you do? 

Anyways that's all I've got for this week!

Life is good!

Elder Tschirki

 Saying goodbye to elder Miyagi.

Last pic of the best district.

Way bomb indo curry

 

Cool pic of the dolphin from the aquarium last pday.

 Way legit pic I got of a jellyfish

Punch Yutaka

Anyways this week was an interesting week. Elder Reed thinks he's transferring and Elder Miyagi is for sure transferring because Elder Harrell is getting a bean (new missionary) and we are all sad about that and we love that kid so much. I also found a way cool connection with a member on Sunday. So the Sano's on Amami's daughter in law (husband is district president) was a missionary in shimonoseki who knows when and it was the exact same apartment that they have now and so I lived in the same apartment as my favourite Sano Shimai's daughter in law. Maybe that is just cooler to us because that's weird but yeah. Also the Sano's come home from Amami this month and if I stay I will be able to see them and I'll give Sano shimai a huge hug because it's not romantic and there's nothing wrong with that if you actually read the white handbook. Plus she's pretty much my grandma and I might move in with them after my mission for a bit because they'll let me without a problem. I heard they talk about me a lot down there still and still joke about me haha I love them so much. 

We were able to teach our boy Akira kun two times this week and he just continues to be amazing. We taught lesson three, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and told him that baptism isn't the end but rather the beginning and from there we get the other necessary ordinances and stuff like the priesthood and going to the temple and being sealed forever. Well we ask at the end if he had any questions and he said "no not really, but I really like how baptism is the beginning of me being able to get closer to God." Like wow. What 18 year old kid thinks about this stuff? God probably has some good things in store for this guy because he is prepared. He came to church and life is good. He's the best part of the week. Also, President Egan came to church down here in Kagoshima and he has a torn rotators cuff and we asked if he would get surgery and he says he doesn't have time and it would take rehab. Pretty much mission presidents don't get surgery because they don't have time. He's the hardest working person I've ever met. He pretty much said the gospel is more important than being hurt and that he will get surgery when he's done. That's a year and a half away but he's going to do just that. So pray for that guy please because he needs it. He is exhausted and sometimes we think he's just going to drop and die but he keeps going. He's a great role model for us missionaries. 

This week I've been thinking about conversion and things like that and I'll tell you what I've concluded. If the words of the prophets in the scriptures or in real life aren't what you live by, repent and do better. We in these times cannot afford to have our personal standards not align with that of God. If you are not aligned, you will fall away. It just takes a little step here, or a choice here, and honestly you can be gone. It's so easy to fall away and that's why the path is narrow and strait. Only those that stay on it will be saved kind of a thing. The best way to ensure not falling away from the path is by living the teachings found in the scriptures. If someone asks why you do something a certain way, if you can't find a principle in the scriptures, repent and find one. Let it be the guidebook for your life. Let it lead you. 

 

 Elder Tschirki

君を愛してるよ

 A cool Buddhist temple right in the middle of the city

 

The prettiest mountain volcano thing. My sakurajima. It hasn't exploded yet while I've been here. Pretty much no matter where you are you can see it. This is from close to the church.