Performance

So this week was cool and pretty busy including getting sick once but like it's all chill so here's the rundown.

PDAY we went to the mall and had okonomiyaki and just hung out and whatever like it was fun and really chill.

Tuesday we had to practice for our song which involved getting two of the Okinawa elders down here and then practicing. Also, sister Sakamoto taught us how to make Chicken Nanban after district meeting and it was super good. Then her bean got hit by a car and we had to fix her bike haha she's okay just some bruises. Reminds me of when I got hit by a taxi. Pretty much the exact same thing but her bike got messed up and mine didn't.

WEDNESDAY Elder Whiting of the Seventy, our Area President came and we had a conference that was like six hours and we did our musical number. It was super good. So I never told y'all about this musical number so I will now. President Egan called about a month ago and told me to do a musical number with my district and two Okinawa elders and so we practiced a bit, and then performed it and it was really good. Personally I didn't really like the song choice but they wanted to sing this song called "The Olive Tree" and so that's what we did and it was super pretty. We put it together really well. However the entire conference I had this nasty migraine and it was terrible and so we went home in a taxi and then I just laid down at 5:00 and didn't wake up until 8:40 and then I just laid there for another hour. It didn't go away. It was probably the worst headache I have had in my entire life. I'm not even kidding my pulse was pounding through my skull it was awful and I don't know how or why I had it. But now it's gone. So I'm okay now.

That's pretty much all the good stuff that happened. We've been helping the sisters a lot with just little things to keep them going good. I think everything is getting better and we're so grateful.

Sister Egan said she was so grateful for everything I was doing to help sister Sakamoto out. I asked sister Egan if I could buy a kettle so I can make my own teas. She said yes. The mission owes me ¥7600 for different things like taxis and kettle and stuff like that.

Honestly I'm just really tired right now and don't really want to Email but life is going well, the beans are doing okay, Sakamoto is doing okay, everything's okay and we're all working hard and teaching.

Oh our investigator is progressing but I can't tell if she's crazy. I'm really good at Japanese and only understand about 60% of what she says when she goes on weird rants but whenever we talk about spiritual things she is locked in and loves what we teach. She said she would get baptized after she prepares better. She's scared to come to church. She gave us coconut cookies and told us to give the sisters some too because she saw them riding their bikes and she assumed they were from the same church.

Also can someone figure out who one the Japan All Stars v. Hanshin Tigers baseball game Friday night?

 All of Okinawa. Elder Whiting is in the middle so his wife

 

 Me and my boy Elder Colton. He's an AP. Stud. 

Found a jinja and there wasn't even really anything in the shrine at the top.

 

From the top

 Okonomiyaki

Interviews

Well honestly this week was pretty boring and not much happened and we had interviews with the president and that was like it and it went pretty well. Just the same old.

One of our investigators likely dropped us. She said "yeah I'm busy this Sunday so I'll let you guys know when I have time to meet again" so pretty much she probably won't ever call us.
Another had car problems and had to cancel her appointment. Another said he can't meet until after March 14.

That all happened on the same day ha it was terrible but it happens and at least two are still investigators that just can't meet for the time being.

But despite all that we have a new progressing investigator named Rumiko. She's this way cool 49 year old lady that loves alone in this way sketchy communist looking apartment that you can hear everything that's going on but really all that's going on is her TV and she leaves her door open. Anyways so she found scriptures she liked in the Book of Mormon and loved it and said "sorry I've only read to here this week" and she had read the first ten chapters and it was super good and she remembers the story perfectly. She turned down the invitation to come to church for the time being saying that while we were nice that she really doesn't know if she can trust church organizations and went on a thirty minute thing about organized religions and evil religions. She's a big big big talker and it's hard to teach her because well say like two things and she'll go off for a half hour haha it took two lessons to teach the restoration but we did it and she's progressing. So we're happy. Plus she's so nice and gives us food and cookies and cake and Mugicha and so she's super cool. We're teaching her once a week and she made it herself so we go back every Wednesday at 11:00. How cool is she?

That's pretty much the highlight of the week.

Now to some cool stuff learned. So sister Sakamoto wanted a blessing on Friday night before the left to Naha for exchanges but it wasn't looking like time would add up because we had an appointment 40 minutes away at 7 and they were leaving at 8. Well so she said never
mind it's okay, you know how girls do that which never means it's okay and so I told her if she needs a blessing the Lord will give us a way to be there at 7:45. Now this is what happens. Our person wasn't home (of course ha that's typical) and so we booked it home and every single light we hit was green and we were able to make it to the senior couples apartment at 733. 1. That's a new record by 7 minutes and 2. We could have gone faster and 3. The Lord prepared us a way and we were able to do what we needed to do. That's one thing I've learned on my mission. I've been studying a lot about Joseph Smith lately. Well kind of. I've been read the Church History in the Fulness of Times institute manual and it's really good and up to now has been all about Joseph smith and one of the things I take away from him is that even though he was imperfect, he always was able to do what the Lord wanted. Even if things were looking bad. Even in the face of opposition. Even while the Mormons were being abused and killed, he always stood tall with unwavering faith to do what's right. That's kind of what this felt like. As soon as I told her that if she needs a blessing we'll be there, I knew we'd be there and never doubted that and we were able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. If we put aside ourselves and just put our trust in the lord and allow ourselves to be humble, we can do anything and He will help us. He won't tell us
to do something and not help us. The times we feel like we aren't being helped is actually when we aren't doing our part. It's simple.

Love you all!

Elder TschirkiLast night we had dinner at the former Bishop Arakakis house with a lot of the YSA in the nearby wards. Me and your boy taught a way bomb lesson about prayer and everyone was laughing because I'm funny but the spiritual part aka most of it was super good. Ft Thomas who's just a marine that came to have fun haha. He's so funny. I bet you can't find him. Actually he's trying to learn Japanese so he's way cool.

 

Rumiko's freaky apartment

 Yakiniku with the sisters

 

We went to Shuri castle with some military members but here's my district it started raining 

 The castle

 A good pic for mom (I told him he looks so silly in many of his pictures...)

Second Try

Well the reason this is second try is because the first one didn't send and got deleted and it isn't in my trash folder so I have to type out is super great yet terrible and heart wrenching but super spiritual and awesome Email again. So here it goes. Everything starts on Friday when me and my comp went to eat yakiniku and when we do that we use our lunch and dinner time for it because it's 90 minutes and because you're completely full, and then we work for the rest of the day. Well after yakiniku we both had to stop and use the bathroom so
we go to this one Lawson and there's tons of apartments and it starts raining. I was going to take pictures of this place because I know the sisters haven't been there and I always take pictures of good places for the sisters to go. Well it rained so I couldn't and we left and
did work for five hours straight and it went fine, nothing too spectacular. So then after we have to go to the bathroom again. So my comp wants to go to this Family Mart and I use my trainer authority and say no we're going to another Lawson. Lawson's anywhere are better
than Family Mart, just automatically. And this one Lawson I had in mind is one of the nicest in Okinawa. So we went there, went to the bathroom and then got a little snack before leaving, and then all of a sudden the sisters roll up out of nowhere and were so shocked to see us there and we talked and they are getting treats too well guess what they don't know where they're going that night because their maps stopped working and then like so we look it up and it was the exact same place I was going to take pictures of and show them. The exact same spot. So we were going to this other apartment and it turns out the sisters were trying to visit this recent convert that lives there but she wasn't him in the exact same apartment building that we were going to. How cool is that? So we do this apartment building and make a return appointment in the second floor, and then "accidentally run
into" the member on the first floor, teach her a lesson and then she volunteers to help us in our lesson next Friday. How cool is that? Miracles for days! 

Now what about the sisters? Well they didn't end up the best like we did. So apparently the met this lady that talked for an hour about a bunch of crazy stuff and now sister Sakamoto is all freaked out and all this stuff I can't really tell you guys and so she's been having a super hard time since Friday and it's obvious and we've done our best trying to help her and keep her going and stuff and like she'll get there but honestly she's just scared. Just scared. And like all this crazy stuff so we gave her a blessing on Saturday and it went well and then whenever we're all there helping her she's okay but whenever she's at the apartment she feels vulnerable and scared and stuff well last night after reporting with the sisters I just prayed so hard like I've never prayed so hard in my life if I'm being honest. It's like just I don't know what to do. I've talked to them so much and don't know and so I was literally pleading and frustrated with God about is whole situation because I am lost and she is lost and we're all worried. Well so I'm asking God what to do and this answer comes immediately "just love her." And I was thinking well I do that anyways and have for 10 weeks so what do I do differently? And he said again immediately "just love her." And I'm getting his point now and I ask is there anything else and again immediately "just love her". That whole time was full of the spirit so strongly, almost indescribable. I know God was telling me what to do to help her. So I came out of my conversation with God full of peace and strength. I felt like everything was going to be okay. The fear and anxiety at least in that instant were gone. There's probably a million things that she needs right now and if God is only telling me to love her than that's what I'll continue to do. He knows how we all need to be loved and when I asked how, he told me just to do it. I don't think he really cares as much about how but rather just that we try. He loves all of us and we are used to help other people and love other people and bring them closer to God and help them feel His love. That's our purpose here and we just have to do it.

Love you All!

iPadから送信

The church bought us all new phones and I had to sync them all, etc. 

My comp made this on Tuesday haha. 

Four Missionaries

Well we had transfers this week and the sisters turned into 2 and then just me and my comp so my district got super easy. It's like just us four and a senior couple so like way easy. Oh also me and my comp stayed the same and then Sister Sakamoto became a trainer and her bean (I forgot to tell you that a bean is what they call new missionaries in Japan haha) and she is American from Hawaii so like this is fun and she has red hair so like that's chill but like yeah it's just like this little district of four people and there's other districts that
are like 12 people. So I'm loving life right now. We're all just like chilling emailing so I'll take a picture maybe to show you everyone.

This week was fun it was like transfers and we had to help with that and stuff and made cute little stuff for the new sister and put it on their front door so when they got here it was fun and they were pumped and then we taught some lessons and it was really cool and actually
super cold. So February in Okinawa actually drops down a lot like it was 12 degrees celsius and so cold. Like sweater, coat, neck warmer, gloves, etc. weather. And so windy. My English is turning bad because this is how Japanese people speak English. So funny.

Well I'll share a cool experience I had this week. Well a little while ago we had a Korean lady call us in English and set up a time to meet with us. It didn't work out because she went to Korea but last week I called again and set an appointment and we were just planning on
having the sisters come and they ended up transferring so I was like shoot what do I do, on Tuesday night. The lesson was Wednesday. So I suddenly got this idea that there's a super strong Korean lady in the military branch and I should call her. So I did and she was pumped and was like "you have a Korean investigator?" So then we get to the lesson on Wednesday and it turned into mostly Korean and there's no problem but it turns out she's golden and the member shared an experience. She was praying on Monday to have an experience to share the gospel to someone. And like we called the next day about a Korean
and so she knows that her prayers were answered and it was super good and the investigator goes to Korea next week so we are meeting again. That's pretty much it haha good times. Miracles happen and God is
real.

Love you all!

 Buying bikes for new missionaries

The one Sakura tree we found. I missed Sakura both years of my mission lol.

Me with my beautifully decorated door.

Last day with the old district.

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