Snow

So I got the call... I'm still in Shimonoseki for another transfer and my new companion is Elder Lotti and I'm excited to be here for at least one more! Four transfers! 

This last week was interesting. One of our investigators just suddenly dropped off the face of the earth and we can't contact him anymore... Weird. We're still going to try occasionally though. The other said he was way too busy with school. So that was our investigators for the week. 

Anyways... IT SNOWED! Like a ton! And it's super windy and freezing! I love it! And it's only getting colder because February is the coldest supposedly. Exciting! Because there was a centimeter of snow everything but sacrament meeting was cancelled and I had the  privilege of playing the organ (YES) and we all gave five minute talks just on the spot so that was intense. 

The last couple of days have been interesting because my companion has been packing and we've had a lot of people want to take us out to dinner. We had dinner on Sunday with the Seko couple and yesterday with the Fukunaga's and had okonomiyaki and it was so delicious and then tonight we're going to get yakiniku again with Koganemaru Shimai and Isouda Shimai. This branch is so great! I love it here! Also, after dinner on Sunday we didn't have very much time but we felt like we should go to a nearby apartment so we did, and sure enough the first out of two contacts we got there we made a return appointment. God is so great!

ALSO we made mochi on Saturday in the snow and what you do is pound rice with a giant hammer and make mochi which is just gooey, sticky rice and it's so delicious! Unfortunately I don't have pictures on my iPad but it was so much fun! Japan's culture is the best!

I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

Okonomiyaki is like a giant pancake with squid and octopus and noodles and whatever you want and it's so delicious. We also had chicken throat and my favourite food, cartilage, oh and also whale bacon.

 

 

 

Deadlifts

So one of our investigators is progressing but he is an eternal investigator. He has such a hard time believing in God and told us that he doesn't care about the afterlife but he just wants peace in this life. He kind of has the wrong motives we think but he'll figure it out, even if it takes a while. Our 20 year old investigator Okumura hasn't been progressing but he's still willing to meet with us. New Years and Seijinshiki kind of threw things off but we'll have him back on track. He enjoys meeting with us and we just taught him the Plan of Salvation. We dropped our third investigator because he straight up told us that because of test season he doesn't have time. One of the members, Fujinaka Kyodai wants to go with us to visit him and figure things out, so maybe he's dropped? We'll see but I really like him.

We made three return appointments this week but they all fell through.

We went down to Hikoshima to do service at Tomita Kyodais house (he has four or five greenhouses) and we moved a ton of wood, moved giant pipes and used a table saw to cut them, I bundled them and deadlifted them into his little truck thing and he moved them. My legs were dead for the last few days but it was awesome. I love serving people and taking  time out of our day to help them do things that they aren't able to do themselves.

We had a music concert night on Saturday and 30 people came (I guessed only 12 would) and we played upside down and everyone had different songs to play - I just made something up on the stage and it sounded very good, shoutout @ Durtschi and AP music theory class for that one - and then Kaicho's band played. I talked with the others' investigator about motorcycles and trains for like 20 minutes which really boosts your confidence level because just being able to talk about random stuff is so satisfying, but the gospel is obviously the best!

I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

Our district and zone leaders. 

We had to go to the bike shop at 8:00 last night because Horstmeier Choro got another flat and it was pouring rain. I love it!

A cool car that we found

We Ate Fugu

 So like the title says, we ate fugu. Fugu is blowfish and it costs about $100 BUT members bought for us along with $300 more of food so we really have it good here in Shimonoseki. 

Because this last week was very busy we didn't have much teaching or finding time. We had to deep clean our apartment which took two days to finish. We went down to Kitakyushu for exchanges and I got to work with the craziest guy I have ever met, Fukuda Choro. He's insane and so fun and we had to go to the hospital to get his back fixed; he's been going for the last couple of weeks and is really in pain but he doesn't show it. We taught a couple of lessons and because of the new year celebrations our investigators weren't reading so they weren't really progressing but everything's good with them now. 

I had an interesting personal experience. I had noticed I was in a little bit of a slump and I was wondering why and pondering it and it hit me: I hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon as much as I needed to be. I had still had very focused studies but you still have to read the Book of Mormon. So I did that yesterday and it was noticeably different (not that before was bad) but it was a huge difference. Today too. 

We met a couple of Chinese kids last week and we're all best friends now. Their names are Esson and Cho and we went out to eat with them. They're so cool and we haven't taught them yet but we're all very tight and they're very good at English. We were definitely supposed to meet them and they won't have any problems with taking lessons as far as we are ware. The Japanese is coming good. Sunday was Seijinshiki (20 year old coming of age party) and I decided I'm going next year because I'll be 20.

I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

Elder Horstmeier and me after our eating contest. We ties at 29 plates.

 

Cho and Esson 

  

Fugu

Yakiniku Kingu

 

Me having to eat peanut butter after losing a food challenge. Ito Choro fed me.

 

Yakiniku

So since Friday not much has happened. We did have the best yakiniku (cooked meat with raw egg) I've ever had last night at the Hiramatsu's last night and their 10 year old granddaughter is way better than me at piano. Anyways that's about it.

Oh cool story. There's a brother in our branch who decided two months ago he was quitting the church and his kid is waiting on his mission call. He comes to church yesterday and gets up in sacrament meeting and just cries and said he was sorry to everyone and bore his testimony hardcore. He said it was because of the persistence of one of his friends in the branch in addition to his kid Genki and as he would sit there stubbornly they would give him blessings almost forcibly (he didn't say yes or no, he just sat there) and tell him that they're going to go to the temple when he gets his recommend renewed and eventually it just really touched him and he said the worst mistake he had ever made was making his 92 year old mom worry about him and his family (she's a member too).

So don't quit the church! Keep going! Rescue those around you! Your choices don't just affect you but everyone around you! God wants you to be happy and the only way to find true happiness and peace in this life is through His teachings!

I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

Last night, Colton Choro on the left, and my companion Horstmeier Choro on the right. Natchan (her real name is Natsuki) and Hiramatsu Kyodai. Best night ever! I love this family so much!

 

GainingWeight at Christmastime

This last week was pretty intense as in we had to go to the bike shop three times and didn't have a whole lot of dendo opportunities. We had to go for Horstmeier 長老s brakes, my brakes, and then his flat after he hit a tree pretty hard in the dark and flew threw the air. That was pretty cool, we were just riding and all of a sudden there was a huge crash and he's gone because he hit a tree but he was fine and landing walking as his bike flipped through the air. That was a cool experience but apparently it put a pretty big hole in his tube. 

We went out to Yamaguchi yesterday for interviews with Kaicho and I love the trainrides in Japan so much but I haven't been able to ride a shink yet.. but anyways while we were there we had a very edifying message from the assistants about faith and conversion and what we
need to do for our own conversion. They shared the scripture from D&C 4 which says, "...and an eye single to the glory of God" and that glory is God's work and glory which is the eternal life of man. So in order to be qualified for the work we have to have the same conviction and
passion for the work that God has, meaning we have to be converted. You have to "lose yourself for [His] sake" like Christ teaches in the New Testament and you will "find yourself" in eternal life and joy. It's simple! It's wonderful! 

I was reading in 1 Hebrews 11 this morning about faith and what I took away from it is like Moses, we have to love the gospel and Christ more than the riches and pleasures of the world (conversion) and in order to have faith we 1. must believe that God will help us and 2. "diligently seek him." If we don't believe, we don't have faith. If we don't do our part, we don't have faith. God wants to help us but we have to accept His help and do our parts. I 100% believe that. Read that chapter and Ether 12 together and your mind will be opened as to faith if you diligently study. Anyways I love you all and I'm glad you all had good Christmases!

Oh and for New Years Eve we went to Fukunaga Kaicho's house and has some of the most delicious food ever. We had Nabe, lobster, mochi pizza, everything and it was delicious. Japan is the best!

Elder Tschirki

At the train station at Christmas going to a member's house for dinner 

 

New Year's food

  

 

Merry Christmas

First off thanks for the package family! I needed all of the cold weather gear and I put it all on and I feel great!

Second, transfers happened and I am... Still in Shimonoseki! I love it here so much! It's just become home and I love it even though it's the ghetto but the ghetto life is for me! Also my trainer Flippo 長老 went home honourably, and I have a new companion who is last transfer! His name is Horstmeier 長老 and he is a displaced Idahoan from Alpine, UT and he's probably the funniest person I've ever met. Anyways the last week and a half was pretty taihen because my trainer had tons of packing to do so we were down like two straight days In the apartment so I read a lot of scriptures. Anyways so he left at 8:00 AM on Thursday a week ago and my new companion came at 3:40 in the afternoon. The other two in the apartment had a lesson at 3:00 so I was a wandering missionary for an hour so I went out with Makoto Kyodai and street end and picked him up and we couldn't figure out how to drive inside the train station so we were like twenty minutes late but that's okay. This last week we have been super busy with Santa stuff. We went to our branch presidents work and sang songs and then he and his friend said, "we're not going to play Christmas songs but we are going to play rock and roll." It's an old persons home and they were all asleep anyways so that was fun. We then went around to a bunch of recent converts and less actives and sang as a branch kind of thing which was super fun. We also had the Christmas party in which I had to be a Santa for an hour taking pictures which was fun. Just regular Christmas stuff. But the highlights:

•I can talk to anyone I want to here which was featured in my 40 minutes in a car with only Fujinaka Kyodai.

•On Sunday, because we weren't able to get in contact with one of our investigators Okumura, I prayed for him to contact us and 30 minutes later he called, and then came to church and stayed afterwards and hung out with all of our YSA and ate a bunch of Takoyaki. That was a miracle! Prayer works and your father in heaven will help you if you pray in faith! Plus he's progressing and happy because of the YSA and church, etc. so we are praying for him to be baptized and have spiritual experiences everyday.

•Christmas! Full day P-Day! Christ's birth! Our King! Our Saviour! I love Him!

Anyways I think that's it! I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

 Me and Colton 長老 at the Christmas party

Our Branch President rocking and a crazy lady dancing.

Me and Horstmeier 長老 and Ikawa Kyodai waiting for a train to go play volleyball with YSA  

and investigators. We were riding for about an hour and a half on bikes and we decided to just

get on the train where we met Ikawa Kyodai. It was raining and windy but riding on the 

highways makes it so much faster because there aren't lights but it's more dangerous.
 



A Book of Mormon Anime

 Christmas!

 

We Haven't Gotten Our Transfer Calls Yet

We actually hear Christmas music EVERYWHERE. Grocery stores, sushi places, malls, everywhere. They love Christmas here, if they have kids, and the music is always playing. I just wish it was the old stuff like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Anyways this last week we taught three lessons kanaaaa (kana is like "I think", I didn't even think about it when I typed it, it just happened). Jun, the doctor, wants to change his life and become happy. He understands the doctrine of God and he can't deny the fact that other people have had spiritual experiences. He believes them all. He wants to have those same experiences and so he's been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and praying everyday. He wants to know if God is there and how he can get happiness from him. We set a baptismal goal for him for 1/30. Okumura, my boy, we taught on Saturday. He believes that there's a God and he also now has a goal baptismal date for 1/30. He expressed concern about joining a Christian church but we asked if he knew that it was true if he would join and he said yes, if he knew. We taught him about Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon and how we NEED faith in order to receive promised blessings from God. We used the Shinko Bag analogy (faith bag) where we put candy in it, told him there's candy in it and they reach in and take the candy. We ask why they did and they said because there's candy. God is the same. He says "do this and I will bless you with this" and if we do that, we receive those blessings. It's really simple yet so overlooked. We have to have TRUST in Him in order to take the first steps in receiving those blessings. On Sunday we taught Kawachi with Fujinaka Kyodai who was the perfect joint (member present lesson, they call them joints here in Japan, I'm not sure why). We told Kawachi we would bring a young person but that fell through so we had the opportunity of bringing a middle aged man missing his thumb and index finger on his right hand (I love shaking hands with him) and instead of getting attitude from Kawachi we got respect. He had opened his heart a little but because he had a Japanese person teaching him. We taught about the restoration and the Book of Mormon at his genki saki (outside his door) and he said he really wants to know if it's true too and he's reading and praying everyday and still skeptical and doesn't believe but he wants to. He also has a goal baptismal date for 1/30. So in the last week we went from like 1 investigator to three baptismal dates. That's a miracle and it was only wrought because of faith and obedience. As we keep teaching them and they keep progressing, miracles will continue. "God has not ceased to be a God of miracles."

Oh we got to dress up as Santa's for Kunishi Shimai's special needs school and that was so much fun! They have such such sweet spirits and God loves them all perfectly, and you can feel it.

PS the Christmas Devotional was very good. Last year's music was better only because they sang "The First Noel" which is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever heard, but this year's "Unto Us a Child Is Born" was amazing. I loved it and that's exactly what the Christmas Video that the church put out this year says. Go watch it! I've seen it at least 100 times now and I feel the spirit stronger and stronger everything I watch it.

Oh and mom I memorized the Standard of Truth like you asked. "The standard of truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble and calumny may defame but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it was penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." Next step: Japanese.

Love,
Elder Tschirki