Birthday

Well the patriots won the super bowl but it was in OT and sounds like it was a pretty crazy game and so I am still a patriots hater but I gotta say it was probably very entertaining to watch. Actually the military here all get the super bowl off because the leaders were sick
of everybody coming into work late and hungover so they just made it a holiday ha.

Anyways this week was a way good week and let me tell you why.

Sunday: got super sick.

Monday: felt good for the most part until the night and I got hit with a massive headache and lungs pain and coughing and sneezing and death pretty much.

Tuesday: we went up to Okinawa city for a Zone Blitz which is where everybody ineffectively works in one area all day with others that don't know the area and stuff so yeah plus I was super sick but it was really fun. I went with this elder named Roncal and he's Peruvian but
lived in Japan his whole life so we went to this place, my brakes are dead so we walked most of it, found our dinner spot for Yakiniku and then went and knocked some doors. The first one was actually a business but the lady came out and we were able to give her a Book of
Mormon as her client is standing behind us waiting and she let us talk and it was such a neat experience. Then the next door was another Book of Mormon. Pretty cool, then we had yakiniku, just us two, and did the usual elder stuff and like yeah it was chill. Also my comp broke a pedal clean off his bike. Hahahahahahahhahahahah. I wish I was there to see it. So then we went home at night.

Wednesday: we had a lesson set up with a college kid and so were by the college and he isn't coming so I text him and the messages back aren't in the best Japanese and we're really confusing and it was so weird. It was like "I thought we were meeting at your apartment" and stuff which was really weird. Well then we get a call from him and guess who it is. It's elder York on Ishigaki and I got that phone number and this college kids number on the same night and mixed up the contact info and they had a lesson at the same time at this guys
apartment and so we laughed for a few minutes at how stupid we both were and how both of our lessons didn't happen and then went on our ways. Sometimes funny stupid stuff like this just happens. After a number of other mishaps and such with my comps bike we deemed it
unridable. There's a broken pedal, a few broken spokes, etc. He's a big boy. But we taught Andrew and his wife and it was really good.

Thursday: not much happened. The bike shop took my comps bike and is going to get in contact with the bike company hahahah.

Friday: not much. Had good ramen with Tenyu, our mission leader.

Saturday: got a call from a guy I met once and he wanted us to go visit his friend in the hospital on base who is recovering from surgery and asked for a Book of Mormon. Well we go and he's "devout catholic" and here's some of what he said. Infant baptism doesn't mean
anything because God doesn't damn babies. To take Communion you have to be repentant and confess your sins to God and your leaders and vow to not do them again. Praying to Mary and the cross is idolatry and doesn't mean anything. He doesn't drink or smoke because the body is a temple of God and we are given it as a gift to take care of. The church has been changed and teachings twisted through corrupt leaders that don't care about the word of God. Some political stuff and some abortion talk, etc. He also wants to live in Utah or Idaho because Mormons are great, safe, religious, family revering people. So pretty much in 90 minutes of being there he taught himself the restoration. Trust me we weren't really able to say too much but what we did say was our testimony and gave him the Book of Mormon and he wants to read it. It's interesting how every single thing he said at least about
religion fell in lines with the restored teachings of Jesus Christ. Crazy stuff. Super great guy. Then while we were out riding our replacement bike broke so we're walking now. Lol.

Sunday: so Sunday and Monday is where the title of the email come in. So it was sister Sakamotos birthday and she's 20 woooo which is actually super young for a sister missionary in Japan. Like super young. They don't usually go out until like 25 ha. But anyways we got her birthday stuff and made sure she had the best birthday every because she has obviously been having a little bit of a hard time, which is where Monday comes in. So every Monday night there's a Family Night activity with the military YSA because they don't have family out here and they need as much spiritual strength as they can get being out here in the military. Well so like a month ago I planned with my boy Dorsey who is like a professional chef pretty much to make some birthday cakes for This family night. So he did and it was all done secretly and the only people that knew were me and him and the other two sisters pretty much. Well family night ended after the elders taught a nice lesson, and then I was like we have an announcement. So we had Sakamoto come to the front and we sang happy birthday (twice haha we messed up and sang before the cakes were brought out) and it was like the best surprise birthday party. It totally made her day. And that's how this transfer is ending out, on such a fabulous note and everybody is doing great and the stress is
pretty much nonexistent now and I'm so happy because all of this hard work paid off with such a great night and party and she was just like "thank you thank you so much" so it was a blast.

I guess the moral of the story is always work hard to love and help people. It might be hard and it might be a hard road and often times stressed and even lonely but it will always pay off in the end. We know this is true because Christ did the same for us. He taught us, loved us, led us, etc. and it will all pay off in the end.

Love you all!

Elder Tschirki
iPadから送信

Breakfast with the senior couple. My new smile for pics haha also my shoulders look good 

Us and Tenyu 

Me being super sick with Elder Roncal

The zone. Also if anyone knows Mizukawa kun, he's the second to the right. 

He went to Orem high.

The King Kong statue outside of the yakiniku

My new fav food. It's called Tsukemen. It's like ramen but just separated? I don't know. 

Last one hahahaha I just love this surprised look it's so great. 

This is what good planning amounts to. Priceless.

New iPad

Hey y'all so I got a new iPad which I am way pumped for like I was sitting on the third floor where we loved and I heard a van door close and I was like "this is it, my new iPad" like I just knew it. I knew it. So I got up and saw the post office guy in the window and made eye contact and went and got it and I was smiling like all day because I literally have never been this happy. Well okay this is the second most happy I've ever been, I'll tell you why in a sec. But yeah I have a new iPad. So pumped. That happened Friday. Well so the most happy I was is when I called the Naze elders out of the blue and just chatted and I found out my boy Akira is getting baptized next week! Or rather this week! He passed his interview and quit smoking! That was the most happy I was probably ever in my life. He really hasn't missed a Sunday since he was found like 9 months ago. I was there teaching for about four of those. I'm so pumped for him and he's come so far. Man I'm so happy. Apparently he still talks about me and the other missionaries too. He's the greatest person I've ever met. 

This week was chill I guess like there wasn't too much drama or nothing like that so like it's good. Life's good haha. Okinawa is a good place. It's pretty much the Mexico of Japan. I just realized that sounded really bad but let me explain. It's kind of ghetto except for the tourist places but there's no crime and they eat tacos. It's got a lot of similar architecture too and it's just everybody is kind of more economically not as well off yet everyone is happy. So yeah. It's pretty cool. Also I saw that trump really is planning on building a wall around Mexico on the news here. Japanese news is pretty weird just FYI and so I don't know if that's really going to happen or not but yeah. I guess I can't really talk about politics as a missionary but that's all people talk to us here about so it's okay maybe. Y'all will see how trump goes ha I'm coming back to Japan so that's all I have to say about that. 

So yeah everything else that happened this week so we were teaching our super interested investigator Kuroma last night. The day before she was asking about attaining perfection and pretty much told us that from what she's read in the Book of Mormon that she can do it. Well last night we were like hey so another way we can do that is through baptism and she asked tons of great questions and was like "yeah I think if god was there I would totally get baptized like I see how it's necessary" and then she was like "but I like drinking and if I have to stop drinking I don't want to." She likes drinking because it makes watching anime better. Like more interesting. I'm like I'm sure it does because anime is crap haha but anyways yeah so we probs going to teach more about faith next time and maybe word of wisdom. We never mentioned anything about that ha so like we'll see. She's also way down to come to church but has no car so we'll see. 

There was also a change in the missionary schedule and everything worldwide and its way chill and gives us a lot more power to choose for ourselves and work effectively and righteously or not. Pretty cool. Not much really to talk about there, if you want to know just read the news in Utah. It's probably everywhere.

Also funny story from last week on PDay so we went to a beach (it was freezing 60 degrees and windy which is bad choices) and it was after shopping and we had a few extra minutes. Well let's just say it was a terrible idea haha because wind and skirts don't go well together, especially when there's already a communication barrier and Sakamotos skirt is going everywhere and she's trying to get MacFarlanes attention but she's just taking pictures like no big deal and me and my comp are just like what the heck this is crazy and it's cold out here haha. But like it was super funny and everyone was laughing like it was chill so yeah so the moral of the story is don't go to the beach on cold windy days in a skirt. Bad choice. Funny memories.

Love y'all!

iPadから送信

 When I got my new iPad. Genuine smile ha.

Way pretty sunset from the apartment

Said beach and awkward hair and skirts

Me and elder Sherrill on exchanges in Okinawa city and we played with these kids for a while and bought them some bread.

 

Don't know if I sent this already but it's the missionaries, a way sick member tamale (back) and a recent convert Clarence (next to me) and it was way fun. Probably already seen but forgot.

 

iPad problems

so my ipad is still messed up ans stuff ans its getting worse so i am sorry this email stinks but we are doing fine ans rhe work is going good and hopefully the office doesnt forget the ipad this week

also saw the inauguration clips at a little okinawan restuarant. good times. 

japan for the win
Elder Tschirkik                     

シャちゃん

Sick Week

So this week was actually pretty sweet. Like it was one of the coolest weeks of my mission which is good after having a while of suck. So first, the sisters are pretty much doing the same I'm pretty sure. I was also told that the reason that Sister S. is here is to help the whole Japanese situation with everybody aka pretty much what I thought and expected and like so me and her have been working way good with that and pretty much I'm making it so except for lessons with Americans that I only speak Japanese. My comp wants me to too because he wants to learn Japanese really bad and so its going to be a fun experiment but obviously the main thing is so that Sister S. actually knows whats going on and can have somebody to talk to about life haha. Good times. 

So this week we taught a ton of lessons and have two new investigators and three new progressing investigators and its like woah. When I first came here there was a ton of potential investigators and only one that we were really working with. Now there is like three progressing, 7 total investigators that we are working with and the thing is is that none of the people we were teaching were even on our radar. We just like called them or showed up at their place and it was like way cool. This is the biggest teaching pool of my whole mission. Its the complete opposite of my Amami Oshima where we had like three investigators over six months. Its been like a week and its exploded here and its not like we really did much, the Lord has been helping and guiding us, to which I will share probably the coolest thing ever which happened yesterday after church. 

We went to go teach this lady who became an investigator last week. She is single and we can't go into homes of the opposite sex without somebody else present pretty much and we didn't really know how much interest she truly had because like we showed up last week at 1950 and she said at 2000 she had a TV show she needed to watch ha so we go back earlier this week and we didn't quite have a plan yet. She had some questions last time about plan of salvation stuff and so as we were thinking about that I had this thought literally come to me so powerfully that said "teach about the restoration. There's power when you talk about the restoration." I didn't doubt it but I wondered why because we hadn't talked anything about it before, we just gave her a Book of Mormon and testified of it before her TV show came on, but i told my comp that that is what we were doing and I didn't know why so we figured out kind of what to talk about and a scripture or too and pretty much God did the rest. So we go up and ask her about her TV show which comes on every week at 2000 by the way which is really good to know, but anyways we ask if she read the introduction to the Book of Mormon like we asked her to before and she said yeah and ran and brought it back and we asked if she had any questions and boy did she have questions. She asked why there were tons of different denominations, why the Book of Mormon is necessary and how its different from the Bible, how Joseph Smith became the guy that translated it and how, etc. Then later as we were talking about it she asked us to give her scriptures that have made us believe that it was true and we opened them up and read with her and she folded down the pages as she read and we did that a few times and we told her that if she sincerely wants to know the truth of it, if she reads and prays that she will get an answer and we told her how the spirit worked and how we know the Book of Mormon is true, etc. This all happened in about forty minutes, just in time for her favourite TV show. She stood with the door open in the cold (yes its actually freezing cold now like 60 degrees Fahrenheit but it feels like zero) with a blanket over her and just absorbed everything. I don't know how it is in other places in the world but in Japan that is pretty much unheard of. I know that the prompting that I had to teach about the restoration came from God and while I had no idea why we were supposed to and why this and why that, why not plan of salvation, etc. that because we planned for this and followed the prompting, we were able to answer her questions and help her. Yeah we would have been able to answer her questions any, we aren't idiots, but we wouldn't have had it all with the idea of gearing it towards the restoration and already teaching that anyways. She is such a good investigator. And that's my little lesson for the day ha. Follow the spirit. There was a point where I thought that this is probably the spirit and i need to follow it and then I felt that confirmation of following it. Pretty cool and I know we are all able to do that and have guidance from God.

So just a couple other cool experiences. I was just sitting in the foyer talking to our mission leader for the Japanese ward who served in Oakland so his English is fluent and then Elder Yamashita from the quorum of the seventy just walks in with another member from the seventy, Elder Hayashi and it was just like so random. Well not really because his daughter lives in our ward. But we weren't expecting it and we both look out in the parking lot and so Elder Yamashita. This was probably my fourth time meeting him over my mission and he said he remembers my face. That was cool. The other cool experience is a week or so ago I really had to pee so I went to the combini (its a convenience store and they have them like every quarter of a block) and I saw this old white dude and his Japanese wife and I was like dang that's the future me. I assumed he was just a retired marine and like married a local or whatever and so we go in to pee and he turns around smiles and says "hey elders" and we were surprised because a white people around these parts usually are a little bit more rude. Well so we talked with him and he's a member from Utah and his daughter just got back from the Kobe mission. They are the Webber family. I'm sure I have people that know them. Way cool. Then they bought us ice cream. That's before it got super cold. Now its super cold and I realized it's just because I'm used to Japanese weather now and I haven't been cold in like ten months. So that's that.

Also one of our investigators said his favourite basketball team is the Pistons and he loves Chauncey Billups. The early 2000s Pistons are his favourite team.

That's it! Love you all!  

Elder Tschirki

I'm getting pretty good at the Japanese squat sit thing. I can do it for like a half hour now. Just squat and like sit on your legs. The only problem is that my butt is too big haha and then like really only punks sit like this all the time.  

メリークリスマス

Elder Tschirki's mom here. I forgot about this email. It was the Christmas email so it is a about three weeks out of order... OOPS! 

So yeah it was Christmas and we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas at members houses and had tons of food and feel way sick because yeah American and Japanese food are just a little bit different. But anyways it was a way sick holiday. Got some presents too. Also mom, the book just got here and yeah thanks!

But anyways this week was good and busy. We taught our boy Tamashiro and he is doing well but he flaked on us for church on Sunday and it was really frustrating because he promised me he would be there. But it's okay. But he's so excited and loves the gospel and his life has already changed so much.

Besides that we spent three hours in traffic in a car after spending three hours in Naha which is a half hour away with no traffic the other day to get my comps bike and it was just crazy but we were with my boy Chew who is retired Air Force. He drove us down and everything. So we had a whole day disappear there but it was okay. Good adventure through Okinawa traffic. Also along those lines these drivers in Okinawa are terrible and we almost get hit everyday.

So anyways not much to talk about this week except for it was fun.

Love you all!

We did some caroling together the other night

2017

So it's 2017 like where does the time go? I only have about 6/7 months left. Crazy! Well this week was busy and we have a new investigator and it's awesome. We were able to meet with Andrew and Arielle this week because they were moving but they still came to church the members reached out to them so well and it was honestly great. Such good experiences. Then Tamashiro didn't come to church after he promised me he would. We haven't been able to contact him for a bit so I said forget it we are going to visit him, and so we did and we shared a great message with him and I was like "Tamashiro, when you aren't answering us we get worried man, what's going on?" And he says that his health just hasn't been good and he hasn't been in contact with anyone. I made him promise to answer us through the classic guilt trip (not really) but a couple days later when I texted, he replied really fast and honestly he's just got a hard time right now. He can't stop drinking and we're trying so hard to help but there's only so much you can do when you can't really stay in contact.

So my mom asked me what was up and I told her straight up the problems in my life right now and I figure I want to tell everyone what's going on because I ain't no sugarcoating kid and anyone that really knows me knows that I say things how they are so if you're interested in reading what it's like to be a district leader to a threesome of sisters and two are American and one is Japanese then you can keep reading. It's pretty long. If you don't care or don't want to you can skip to the pictures! 

1. There's a panel on my iPad screen that doesn't work and it's always glitching out and I have to send it to the office and they will get me a new one but that will take a while but I just have to do it, so I haven't been emailing as much ha. It's really frustrating working with technology that doesn't do what it's supposed to. It's hard and so I pretty much just go through the basics haha.

2. The sisters are again..... going through a hard time. Here's the rundown. There's two Americans and one Japanese in an area that the sisters see a lot more success with the Americans. Well so the Japanese sister, Sister S. is the senior companion and is okay at English but obviously not fluent. Well the other sisters both suck at Japanese. So they just talk to each other in English when planning and assume that Sister S. understands. And then Sister S. doesn't feel like she's doing anything because the other two do everything even with the Japanese investigators and so I've had quite a few talks with Sister S. to help her out and figure out what to do. So I told her she always has to have her own specific phone, and she needs to become bold and take charge as a senior comp and then like ugh yeah so like I'm stressed. We've sat in on a couple of their lessons with English speaking people and they just do the whole thing and Sister S. has her part figured out and then there never comes a time to say it and everything and then she feels like she's useless like man it's pretty sucky. Like I'm trying so hard and the assistants have called me and stuff to ask about them and it's just a hard situation. And here's the thing. If she doesn't figure it out, or rather, isn't "allowed" to figure it out, then next transfer when it goes to two man companionships again, it's just going to be a mess. And then here's the thing. One of the other sisters doesn't like what I'm doing to try to help and is being a complete hindrance and is all like "this is what we have to do here in Japan. We don't understand Japanese" and all this crap and I just want to be like "why does everything have to be about you!? Freaking have charity and care for your comp that cries whenever I talk to her because she doesn't know what to do! Stop being a 20 year old selfish brat!" But unfortunately I can't say that. So I'm just in this spot where I don't know what to do and well I made plans with Sister S. and then the other sister doesn't like it and then I try to get information to them about necessary things and then only the Lord knows what happens and then Sister S. calls or texts with a question or asking me to do something and I'm like "I already figured that out" and then there's this big miscommunication because she didn't know and it's to the point where I just have to say "they didn't tell you huh" and she's like "yep" but actually more like now I don't even have to say anything and just give the face and she's just like gives the nod or whatever and my goodness gracious if you couldn't tell I'm stressed about it and pretty much am training her t0o. I pretty much have two new missionaries. 

3. Don't thing that I'm having a hard time with my comp. Training is so fun and Elder Stucki is great. I love this Elder and he'll be a great missionary. The biggest thing with him is Japanese but like that's normal for new missionaries but it's already gotten a lot better. It's definitely fun and we get along great.

4. Okinawa is fun but it's not Japan. I like Japan. Okinawa is like a good vacation spot. Ha. But like that doesn't get me down because I love it here so much. Pretty much the biggest thing is just these useless problems caused by sisters. Like elders have no problems it's funny. Ha.

So the rundown. It's hard to type on my iPad and I have tons on my mind right now. That's pretty much the whole email in a sentence. Besides that, investigators are for the most part doing good. Actually probably going to send this out to everyone because I'm not about that emailing only the good life. I'm about that keeping it real life. But that's it.

Elder Tschirki

シャーチャン

日本最高ヤゼ〜

Sunrise from the apartment

The two cutest babies in the world, the sisters in the front. This was a meal on New Year's Day. Probably the best meal I've had.

Busy

So this week we were way busy and had tons of stuff happen, culminating in the worst p day ever but that's okay. We are watching Finding Dory and it is really lame ha I want today to end way bad but whatever. Anyways I guess I will email about the good things which is just about everything. 

We have two new investigators this week, one is Japanese and one is American. I'll talk about the Japanese one first. We came home early one night and decided to give some people some calls and so I went through a lot of people and nobody answered. It was terrible. But then about a half hour later, we got a call back and this we were able to set up a return appointment with a 24 year old named Yasu. Well, we taught him about God and baptism and he told us that he has two friends that are both return missionaries and that he really admires them and looks up to their example. Because of that he kind of thinks that there might be something in the gospel for him, too. He is pretty interested. The American one is named Andrew. He is married to a less active who is really trying to get her life back and said that there was something missing in her life and she has finally realized that that is the gospel. So when we go over and teach them it is teaching both of them at the same time but it is really good. We taught them the Restoration and they both said that they would read the Book of Mormon and pray. They also said that they might come to church on Sunday, and well sure enough, they came and they told us when we taught them that when they came that they wanted us to sit next to them and be with them the whole time. So we are way tight with them and we are going to extend a baptismal invite to him in the next lesson. They are both in their mid to late twenties. So those were the two main highlights of the week.

Hey Mom, training is going well. It is fun and definitely different. I am the only that knows anything about Japanese and so it is really fun but also hard having to explain everything but it is so important to help a brand new missionary as much as I can and I know that I can be a definite impact in his life. I am not going to lie I probably have some of the better Japanese in the mission and so I hope my companion takes advantage of that. I know I could have taken better advantage of my trainer's Japanese.

Also yesterday for New Year's we woke up way early and saw the sunrise. That is what the whole country does and it is way fun.

Tschirki

シャーチャン

日本最高ヤゼ〜