17 December 2017

17 December 2017

I may or may not have opened a couple of presents already... just
candy, to help me survive studying.

10 December 2017

10 December 2017

This is apparently the "driest" area in the whole mission. At least that is what they say. I don't think it's true though. This is the most coordinated ward I've been in yet when it comes to missionary work. There are a lot of people who are helpful and stuff here. 

Hey I'm sorry, today we are practicing for a giant Christmas event so
I haven't really had a whole lot of time... also I need to figure out
what day to Skype. 24 25 or 26.

3 December 2017

3 December 2017

Well. Here I am back in Kanagawa-ken. It's good to be back actually. I
really really miss Yamanashi of course but hey, it's all awesome here
anyways so really it's just be between good and better haha.

My new area is called Fujisawa. It even touches the ocean which is
cool. It's all city of course (because that's kinda most of Japan).
But it's a pretty good looking place! Not quite as squished together
as Yokohama though. Actually part of our area touches Yokohama, so
that's cool. I can visit my birth city.

My new companion is Bradford長老 from Utah. Yaaay, Utah power again....
haha. He is awesome though. Super cool guy and a fun guy to work with.
I'm excited to see what we can do this transfer!

Saturday and Sunday were stake conference so I haven't met many ward
members specifically but I have met a ton of stake members which was
pretty fun. It was a super good conference and this stake is really
good. This is going to be a fun place to work!

Elder Bradford and the other two elders in this apartment were all my sempai in the MTC.

26 November 2017

26 November 2017

I'm transferring to Fujisawa. Yeah I'm gonna miss Kōfu but I knew I was gone so it's not a surprise or anything.
Sorry. I can't really think of anything specific to write about today. I'll try and send a good one next week. In my new area..

19 November 2017

19 November

何を書くべきか全然分からないので、日本語で書いています。すごく下手ですからごめんなさいね！
甲府エリア本当に大好きです。甲府ワードの皆さんに感謝しています！彼らは最高ですよ！
今日斎藤家族と一緒に昇仙峡へ行きました。ほうとうを食べました！ほうとうは、山梨県の名物です。美味しかったです。あまり時間がないでこれだけです！ごめんなさい！

愛しています！

Because do not know at all what to write, I am writing in Japanese. I'm sorry because it is very poor! 
Kofu area really love. I am grateful to everyone of Kofu word! They are the best! 
Today we went to NoboriSen Gorge along with the Saito family. I ate the Hoto! Hotowa, it is a specialty of Yamanashi Prefecture. It was delicious. This is the only and do not have much time! I'm sorry! 

I love you! 

12 November 2017

Sorry I didn't really get to think about what I was going to talk
about today. Elder Paquette went home so I'm in a three person
companionship again. We've been pretty busy. One of our member friends
is going back to America for three months (she'll probably get engaged
this time haha) and another is going to the MTC this week. This ward
is the best. Once you serve in Kōfu long enough, you kind of just
become part of the Kōfu family. I'll try to think of more to talk
about...

Every apartment I've been in has 2 companionships.
Yeah, so because I'm now in a tri-companionship again, things are a little crazy. This week has been crazy. 
Yeah this whole three person thing is gonna really make or break the
end of this transfer.. I hope Bateman Chōrō can handle Allen Chōrō the
way I've had to for a transfer and a half now. I hope it goes ok...

Here is a picture from the Ichikawa family. Well, and Sister Harada
and her daughter Aimi.

5 November 2017

So this week has been more than a little crazy. All starting with our
Tuesday Halloween. We went home teaching with a member in our ward.
It's always nice to go around and visit people we don't really ever
get to visit or anything. It's nice to drive around Yamanashi instead
of having to bike that's for sure. Halloween night was just a normal
night though. All the festivities were only really over the weekend.
Regardless, when we were streeting we made sure to say happy Halloween
to everyone. Haha.
Wednesday and Thursday it was randomly announced we had to do splits.
So Wednesday I was with Paquette Chōrō and Thursday I was with Bateman
Chōrō. With Bateman Chōrō I met a drunk man who was very very happy to
meet us. He gave us his number saying he wanted to take us out to get
yakitori and he'd cut our hair for free. I don't know if he
necessarily remembers but man was he excited. However on that splits,
we also found out that this was going to be the most crazy weekend in
Kōfu city.
Turns out the large university right by our apartment was having their
huge three day celebration. We found this out when a parade of
students came marching down the street dressed in all kinds of
costumes and were led by a marching band. We were handed the booklet
schedule by a man in a playboy bunny outfit.
Then later on we met a couple of really tall white guys. They told us
they were from Iceland and they were here for the bacon festival.
Bacon festival. Yes.
So this made us all excited. Friday. We went over to the bacon
festival in the morning (and I might mention on the way we had to go
through a giant ramen festival) and it was already packed. This
immediately the became the focus center point of all of our dendō
activities for the rest of the day. We got there right as it started
and within ten minutes had run into the guy in charge from Iowa. He
gave us $20 worth of bacon bucks. We got in the lines for free bacon
(Yes, free bacon) and met lots of people. Later the guy found us again
and gave us 10 more bucks and some hats. Crazy.
It was a crazy day.
Saturday was crazy too as we focused around the university having its
festival. Not too many stories from that one.
Now, we are heading back to the church after going to an amazing hike
through Nishizawa Valley. What a hike. Super amazing.
Anyways. I love Kōfu. Met a lot of interesting people lately, so
that's been fun. You know, just doing what we do.

So today we planned out a big trip to a place called Nishizawa valley
to go hiking. It's a long hike though so we have to leave early. I'll
try to write an email on the way and back to send you guys when we get
back. Sorry! Have a good week!

29 October 2017

So, this week it rained a lot. Again. And there was a typhoon. Again.
Sounds familiar right? Yeah, I think rainy season decided to come late
this year or something.

Because of the rain, we haven't had much luck talking or finding
people recently. (Japanese people are hydrophobic). But regardless,
it's been an adventure. I do recommend it.

Sunday was crazy though. We have these two investigators who I can't
remember if I mentioned who are incredibly poor and don't eat most
days. It's given the ward quite a bit of service in providing food for
them. Unfortunately it seems at this point like they may be feigning
interest in the church for the food at this point. We haven't had a
lesson with them yet really. But we're working on it. Because of the
large amount of issues that they have no piled up in the lives, it may
be a while before they can be ready to receive baptism. So we'll hope
things go smoother with them.

I don't remember a whole lot else about this week besides rain...

Gotta prepare for going to fujiyoshida again.

Fujiyoshida is the one of the big, maybe the biggest, cities at the base of Mount Fuji. I love fujiyoshida so much. It's where I want to live.

20 August 2017

He is going to be released on Wednesday and will be fine. Sorry for
not having much time

30 July 2017

So it's only been a few days with Siqueira Chōrō but man, he is the beeeest.

The sisters had a baptism this saturday so that was super fun. Also,
we already have a baptismal date and maybe two more coming with a
family from Brazil.

Siqueira Chōrō served here Kōfu at this same time last year for four
transfers making this his fifth. He is the first person I've heard of
to do more than four transfers in Kōfu. But he met this family last
year and had a baptismal date with them. But after he left things got
really messy with them. Partly because only Spanish speakers could
teach them after he left and things got a little confusing I guess.
They ended up trying to return to their old church with is CRAZY. So
things got bad there and they cut ties for good there. The mom then
was thinking about the missionaries and prayed and said if it was Gods
will, the missionaries will come back. That was one week ago, and on
Thursday, Siqueira Chōrō got transferred back in and on Friday, we
randomly showed up at her door.

There has been a lot of miracles in these past few days alone. It's
been great. And crazy... haha.

Yeah, my companion was drafted into the Brazilian military at 18 and
stayed for two years. He's got CRAAAAAZY stories. He was a sniper and
got to a pretty high rank and stuff. He is from São Paulo. He also
almost became a catholic priest but stopped everything at the ceremony
of his baptism in that church because he heard a voice say he was not
supposed to join that church.


Maybe I'll move to Seattle after my mission.

23 July 2017

23 July 2017

I haven't got my transfer call, so I have no news about that yet.

So on last Monday, it happened. I ate a lot of sushi. Yup. A lot of
sushi. It's not as if I like it or I would ever choose to again if I
had a choice, but if someone says eat it then I can do it.
It's really not that bad though. It's just not something I enjoy eating. I like looking at it though.

There was a long earthquake the other day. Pretty fun.

Oh and apparently the Japanese communist party loves to meet at kōfu
station. They had a BIG rally which consisted of them standing on top
of a van with loud speakers and a voice changer. It was super creepy
and felt like something out of a movie.

We tried to have a movie party with the Eikaiwa students and other
investigators. Everyone sounded really excited about it. No one showed
up.. EXCEPT the sisters investigator from Taiwan. She is really bright
and happy all the time. She is getting baptized next month.

There was also a big car show at the station. Our double Dutch friends
performed as well. Pretty cool.

I don't know what's up with Kōfu station that brings in so many people
and crazy events but it's fantastic.

Email from President Warnick - 

Dear loved ones of the wonderful missionaries in the Japan Tokyo South Mission,

 

We love your missionary!  We are grateful for the privilege of serving together and we are blessed by the faith and examples of these servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For your information, our mission has been asked to change our transfer schedule beginning next January.  As a result, all subsequent transfer dates, and, by extension, return dates, will be moved back by three weeks.  For example, according to the old schedule, the January group would be returning on January 12th but that has now been moved to February 2nd.   The return date for the next group was scheduled for February 23rd but that will now be March 16th.

The default will be to have each missionary stay three weeks beyond the original plan in order to accommodate this change.  We’ve asked the missionaries to confirm with families whether this will work.   If not, we can arrange for the missionary to leave three weeks earlier than the original plan.

Thank you for your understanding.   We are deeply grateful for your support of your missionary in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Warm regards,

President Warnick

16 July 2017

16 July 2017

So I haven't really had any pictures or anything to say these past two
weeks but I'll catch up now. So two weeks ago, we had a fiesta where
Cuff Chōrō and I dj'd. It was awesome. Lots of food and lots of
people.

It's been SO HOT recently which makes street contacting pretty
unsuccessful. So we've been doing a lot of housing. Some lady
predicted from my birthdate that I'm going to receive brain damage
somehow soon. Yup it's been great fun.

Saw a music video being filmed last night. It they had some awesome
gear. Can't say much about the "music" though.

It's really hot here in Kōfu but I love it for sure. Can't wait for
Obon next month. It's the big summer holiday. Celebration of the dead.

One of Suzuki Shimais dogs. It's tongue is always like that. It doesn't go back in haha.

That bike was the most expensive bike I could find at Asahi. It was REALLY nice.

Meal with the President and Sister Warnick.  He comes out to Kofu for interviews.

10 July 2017

10 July 2017

We're in the country. Where it is peach season. We get millions of
peaches. Peaches for free. {This is a reference to a song by Presidents of the United States which is about peaches} The Kōfu Ward does fruit basket every two weeks instead of once a month.

We went to the temple today. Today we left later because they changed our temple time today. We would have had to get up at 4 this morning if we left from Kōfu. But we stayed over at Takao last night so it was only an hour train ride to the temple. We left at 8:30 to get there for 11:30.

No pictures this week. :(  

2 July 2017

2 July 2017

Well, this week was a weird week.

First I gotta start with Tuesday.  A member of our ward from Vietnam
(baptized here in Kōfu) wanted to go out to eat with us. He said he
wanted to go to a place called Bonchi. I've definitely heard about
this place before from previous Kōfu missionaries. This place serves
INSANE portions of food for super cheap prices. It was really good but
so SO much food... I actually managed to get through my tanmen
however. I was the only one to finish what I had ordered of our group.
However Cuff Chōrō got the biggest thing they offer. It was absolutely
ridiculous how much there was. We were pretty impressed by how far he
got. It's funny how the people that work there trolled us as well.
Farnsworth asked if he could get something smaller and normal sized.
The guy thought that was ridiculous and told him so. When Cuff Chōrō
was trying to get through that mountain of food, he asked the guys
wife if anyone had eaten the whole thing before. She said yes, a woman
has done it. We laughed pretty hard at that. Cuff Chōrō is still
feeling the sting I think. Haha.

So, a lot of the members in Kōfu have farms and such. (We have so much
corn from the ward it's ridiculous. And vegetables too.) last week a
member of our ward asked if we would come help her out in her corn
field. So we all went and weeded her corn field. After that we ate
some peaches from her orchard (because apparently she owns like an
entire mountain.) while we looked out over the beautiful summery
mountain sunset. It was pretty great to say the least. Kōfu has some
good looking country for sure.

Last weekend we had zone conference so it was my first time leaving
Yamanashi prefecture since I first got here. We had to wake up a
little early to take the three hour train ride out to Takao where the
meeting was. Luckily we were able to schedule splits with the zone
leaders in Hachiōji on the day after so instead of returning to Kōfu,
we went to Hachiōji for splits.

When we got back to Kōfu Saturday night we arrived just in time for
the fire show. I think I need to start seriously considering swinging
fire around as my future career...

I didn't know that the holding a peach thing for the picture was going on so....

Just a random picture I took on the train back to Kōfu. It's one of
the prettiest train ride you can take. It goes straight through the
mountains.

25 June 2017

25 June 2017

It's been a HOT week. So hot. Lots of humidity. Haha. I love Kōfu.

I've met a lot of really cool people out here. There is actually a couple of pretty big universities out here so we talk to a lot of students. 

I kind of just don't have anything else to talk about. It's just normal stuff this week.. sorry.

I asked him if he was going to send a real email and here is his response:

Umm, I'll work on one. I didn't really have time to because we biked
WAY out somewhere this morning to hang out at a foot bath.

"One of those foot baths where fish eat the dead skin?" I asked.

"Nope, just a hot tub for your feet."

In response to questions to dig some information about his new area:

No real progressing investigators at the moment. No one will
come to church. Most Kōfu ward members live WAY too far away to visit.
The ward is super old. It's actually one of the oldest areas of the
church in Japan. Almost no youth at all. They do the fruit basket
every TWO weeks. It's crazy. Yamanashi [the prefecture he is in] is known for farming and a lot
of members either have farms or gardens. We have way too much corn,
potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers and stuff. It's a cool ward.
Pretty small. Everyone does English classes. We have more service here
than Machida, that's for sure. We're going to pick corn tomorrow. It
has rained maybe three times since I've been here. It's the rainy
season. Palmer Chōrō is a hard worker but we are very different. 

I asked if he was going to make salsa and if he wanted me to send him chips.  He replied:

Uhhh.. nah I'm good.There are a LOT of Latinos in Yamanashi though.
Since Farnsworth Chōrō speaks Spanish, he and Cuff Chōrō have been
going up to "Spanish land" to find people.

Not sure why he sent a picture of a tiny kitty but I assume it's for Abbey and Marin

19 June 2017

19 June 2017

I have SOOO many Enoshima pictures to send still! I don't know how
I'll send them all though..

Anyways

Yeah, Kōfu is awesome. It's such a good looking place. It's got so
much old stuff too. I'm really excited to be here that's for sure.

My new companion is a great missionary for sure but he is also super
loud and obnoxious and talks almost entirely in California slang. He
is kind of annoying but really he is a good missionary though and I'm
excited to learn stuff from him.

I can't think of what else to write yet though...

Kōfu is super great though. INSANELY hot
however. It's like Utah but with more humidity.