Week 78

こんにちは！！

konnichiwa

Warm weather huh?  Well you can keep it all over there.  I missed out on any really cold weather.  So now the weather is getting warmer and this time I'm prepared for summer.  Or at least I know what to do so that I don't die again haha.  Last summer was literally murder.  Like it was 36-37C every day with no breaks.  And holy smokes is it ever humid here in Japan. Like I would wipe the sweat from my arms and then 5 mins later have to wipe it again.  And I sweat from right below my knees too... (-_;) 

Well as for my ending date.  I'm not sure if I'm going to extend or not.  Like for right now it pretty much depends on whether I get in BYU or not.  By the way, when did you apply for me to start?  Like the winter semester when I get home or...?  It doesn't really matter which one to me, but I figure that it's something that I should be aware of.  How long was I thinking of touring for?  .... uhhhhhh.....   ^_^  I dunno.  Maybe like 10 days or something.  2 Sundays I think would be good.  But not necessarily 2 weeks.  I almost think we would run out of things to do.  ... Naaah it'd be really hard to run out of things to do haha.  But yeah maybe 10 days or so.  But like because it's still 6 months away, I think it's kinda early to plan flights.  But there again... hmmm.  Oh yeah we'll be here for General conference I think... haha.  *sidetracked haha*

And the ecclesiastical letter... I'll ask him more about that when I see him next.

So what's been happening in my mission the past week?  Well we had some pretty awesome stuff happen.  We had a guy come to English class suddenly, and he's way awesome.  He's hearing the lessons, he's progressing way good.  Then we have another guy who we were just able to set a baptismal date with.  Then English class is fantastic fun.  I'm the one who runs the game at the end (besides teaching the advanced class) and the member who teaches the beginner class has complemented me on how fun eikaiwa is now. 

In other news.  You know the game "hot hands"? (heh heh)  Well I found out that it's not a good idea to play that game with the pavement.  It's really good at that game.  Nuff said.  haha.  I'm ok.  Don't worry. =D ;)

So something spiritual that happened to me this week.  Well this week I went to a district meeting that was way awesome.  In it the missionaries who were presenting taught about faith and attitude and love.  What is faith? was one of the questions.  Then there are 2 attitudes: happy, and grudging.  And finally was find someone to share, the love that God has for us, with. It was probably one of the more powerful district meetings that I've been in. 

What interesting thing about Japan... uhhh.  well... what would you define interesting haha.  I've been here for a year and 3 and a half months, so the things that are interesting to you would become normal for me.  haha. 

Yeah president Albrecht only has a transfer and a half left after this one.

Being zone leader is pretty cool I guess haha.  My companion rocks!  He's so bold!  And the area is way awesome!  If this was my last area and I was here until October I don't think I would mind.  That's how cool this place is.  It's way awesome.  But I think I have one more area left after this one. We'll see.  But we have 6 missionaries going home and 19 coming next transfer so I get the feeling that I might be called as a trainer again.  We'll see. 

Thomas is taller than Adam... Adam was almost as tall as me when I left.  I know we joked about me being the shortest one when I got back, but I didn't really think it would actually happen until now.  He's probably taller than me isn't he?

I'm way excited to see what the family room will look like to.  If it's not done by the time I get back (which I expect that it will be) then I'm all in for helping. 

Well yeah that's me this past week.  Hope that you guys and everyone are doing terrific.  You're in my prayers. 毎日.  Thanks so much for everything.  Love you!!!

本当に愛しています！！！

どうもありがとうございます。

Week 77

Hey,

 

So I don't actually have a lot of time today unfortunately. We decided to go play again.  And then we went to the biggest mall in all of Asia or something like that.  It was pretty big.  It's called Koshigaya Laketown.

 

But I had a quick couple of things that are kinda important.  So the first is that I got my death letter...  (The letter that has the information that I need to write down in order to come home.  As well as a don't get trunky letter).

So I need the code of the ottawa airport... I don't know if you know what that is but... I need it haha.  So as for right now too, my return date will be October 9, 2012.  But if I don't get into BYU, I'm going to consider extending.  So at the bottom it says

"Will your parents be coming to Japan to pick you up?"  I feel very strongly inclined to put 'yes.'  My thoughts are this.  Maybe have you, Mom and Dad, come and pick me up.  We'll do a tour and then come home and stuff.  And then we'll plan for me to take a trip back to Japan for the summer of 2013 with Ben (if he can make it), Adam, and Thomas.  I can double check and see if they can do families or not but, in the event they can't...  Or would it be better to plan a trip to Japan for all of us for the summer of 2013?  Or the Winter break of 2012?  I'm good with whatever.  But basically I want to come back and I want to show you guys how cool Japan is!

So yeah.  If you could let me know ASAP with this stuff...  because the mission home kinda wants this stuff back ASAP haha. 

 

Sorry that's pretty much all the time that I have for today.  Ask me those questions again and I'll be sure to write more next week :)

Thanks so much.  Sorry for all the hassle.  Love you!

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 76

Dearest Everyone,

 

This week, we are running a little low on time because we decided to go and check out a 'museum of modern science.'  Pretty much intended for people much younger than us.  So not overly a waste, but if we hadn't've gone it wouldn't have been that bad. 

Oh good you got the package.  At first I heard that it was gonna take like 1-3 months to get there.  But you got it all good and everything.  Ok good.  Heh heh yeah I thought the ninja masks were pretty clever. And Mom, you got a kimono?!  I didn't know what it was!  Haha.  And actually no the lady who gave it to me was in Fuchu.  But I can maybe see if I can get their address somehow if you want.  And what would I suggest... (^_^;)  eeehhhhhhhhtooooooooo...  I don't even know.  haha.

You're going to the temple!  That's way awesome.  I was able to go to the temple just shortly ago. 

And as for transfers, I survived transfers.  But my companion did not.  Elder Sakae transferred out.  And so I stay in Kawagoe and my new companion is a guy named Elder Shimamoto!  He is from Hiroshima.  That makes 5 Japanese companions!!  Wooooo.  It's funny because my new companion was my old companion's previous companion.  And they were together for 3 transfers.  My new companion is absolutely terrific.  As soon as I knew he was my companion, I felt way happy.  Like I just got the feeling that it was going to be a good transfer.

And yep, still a zone leader.  But there were a couple of transfers in the zone this time which results in....... a VERY young zone.  I may or may not happen to be the oldest one with 12 transfers (everything is measured in transfers as a missionary).  My companion is 9 and then there's 1 missionary who's 10 and the rest are under 10.  So I'm definitely feeling my mission age...  Yikes.  And man what I would give to trade spots with any one of those missionaries. 

Mondo meals?  Well I had that one that one time.  Haha, the rest weren't so much big as they were homemade steak and homemade french fries (they just deserved a picture). 

Wow sounds like March break is gonna be rough on everyone!  xD  Haha.  My week is:

Monday-Transfers

Tuesday- Pday

Wednesday- Zone conference prep and Eikaiwa

Thursday- Zone conference/district meeting

Friday- Zone leader council

Saturday- Meal appointment with the bishop

Sunday- Church, PEC

Monday-Shokuji (meal appointment) with the dendo shunin (ward mission leader).

Yeah should be way fun

Oh and by the way, just a heads up for the day of reckoning...

I'm up to 3 sets of 40 push-ups every morning!!!!  Haha!!!! 

Are we finding a lot of investigators?  Well not particularly, but that's gonna change really soon.  But aside from that the work is going well.  Or so I feel.

So in my BoM reading this week one thing I learned was,

from Jaob 4.  I read verse 6.  And then I thought, wow, that level of faith would be way sweet.  What did they do?  Well I looked and all they did was "search the prophets" (search the scriptures) and then "have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy" (listened to the prophets and believe in the revelations received from them.  It was then that I realized that this was not something applicable only to them in their time.  The things that they did are just as easily done by us.  So is that level of faith attainable?  Yes. We are only limited by ourselves.

And then I also liked verse 7!  Weaknesses.  Haha yeah this verse pretty much speaks for itself.  So that's one thing that I learned this week.

So yeah.  That's life for me.  It flippin rocks right now!  Like I'm on an up!  I feel way genkier now than I have in the past 6 weeks.  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  楽しみにしています！

Sorry but my time's up for today.  Love you all so much!  Take care ok!!

愛しています！！

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 75

Hey!!

Yeah we have had some pretty radtastic people come and speak to us.  It was really inspiring.  And I got to shake their hands!!!  Yeah it seemed like some of the stuff he was saying, was being said just to me!  I took a LOT of notes haha.

Well, this week has been good for the most part.  The one thing that kinda happened was that we had a run in with a drunk guy.  Nothing really bad, but he just kept going on and on about random senseless stuff.  And then my companion and I just had very different ways that we thought to deal with it.  And that didn't result overly well.  But I came to learn more particularly (once again haha) turning to Heavenly Father for comfort.  And it really did help.  In my morning study too, from the Book of Mormon, I've been seeing, A LOT, of just how merciful the Lord is to His children.  How much he loves them and how much he wants to help them.  And I've put His promise to the test.  All we need to do is ask for comfort, sincerely seek it, to receive it.

This is the last week of the transfer.  And I must say that it has been a growing transfer once again.  There've been a lot of fun times, but Elder Sakae, is definitely the only person like him I've ever met and I think I will ever meet.  But I'm learning so much from him.  But if we're not together next transfer, I don't think I would be heartbroken.  And then other days I can think of it being way good.  But yeah... we'll see.  Whatever the Lord has in store for me...

And yeah I did get an email from Uncle Mike too.  That's way awesome!!  President Albrecht lets us meet up with family who come to Japan for business like that.  So I'll for sure be able to meet and do lunch with him.

Being a zone leader isn't so bad.  I'm not acutually as busy as I thought I was going to be.  Like there are busy times.  Like ridiculously busy times, but for the most part I just do the same thing as always. I'm almost close to caught up on my journal haha.

Snow?  Yeah actually we did have a day of snow.  It was way sweet.  WE had like 5cm!!!!  And it stayed for like a day!  Haha.  Started into spring?  Yeah kinda?  Like I doubt we're going to be seeing anymore snow, and the weather should theoretically get a lot warmer from here on out.  Anything funny happen?  Well over-crowded trains are ALWAYS funny.  Heh heh heh.  Had that one today.

Spiritual?  Well the afterwards of the drunk guy was really spiritual for me.  Not too much besides that haha.

I'm glad Adam and Thomas want to go on missions.  It's the best choice they will ever make.

And the spot on my skin?  Well the one spot went down, the other one stayed the same, the other one went down slightly, the other got a tad bit worse, the other itches every night (but only at night...weird right?), and the other one stays pretty constant.  So yeah overall getting better!  Haha.  I've stopped using the laundry soap I had, and I'm using the cortisone, fairly regularly so I think that it should get better from here on out.

Yeah I'll let you know if there's anything I need.  So all those same questions back to you. (minus the skin ones haha).

Love you so much!

Take care eh?

Elder Keith

キース長老

And my doki shimai (the sisters from my MTC district) all go home next week!  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

That means I'm getting old!