Week 82

Hey Everyone,

 

So we had transfer just this past weekend and as luck would have it my companion and I are going to stay together for another one.  Still me and Elder Shimamoto cruising around out here in Kawagoe.  Things have gotten way good recently though.  We have had 2 different referrals from other missionaries areas and both of these guys are incredible!  They're so much fun to be around and they're way great!  I'm so glad that I get to stay in Kawagoe too!  It's probably been one of my favourite areas so far!  It will be hard to leave here.  Well I hope that you all are doing well, keeping busy and having fun.

Just wanted you to know that I'm keeping you in my thoughts and my prayers.  Love you all so much.

愛しています！！

本当に伝道は一番楽しいこと’だよ！本当にこの福音が真実であることを知っています。

私たちは家族として永遠に住むことが出来るので非常に嬉しいです！

私は皆さんに心から感謝しています！

どうもありがとうございます！

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 81

Hey Mom,

So my release date is October 9.  That's what I wrote down.  I was thinking that we could tour the mission for like a week or something.  So as a plan, we tour the mission from Oct 9-15 and then fly home on the 16.  does that sound good to you?  =D

My week has been pretty good.  We've been pretty busy and we've been seeing a lot of miracles.  Mostly in the form of other areas investigators living in our area and them transferring them to us.  We've had some great lessons so far and we've got more coming up.  The only thing is that this coming Saturday we get transfer calls and I kinda get the feeling that I'm going even though I've only been here for like 3 months.  But I love this ward to bits, and wouldn't be sad if I finished my mission here.

Empower hour huh?  Sounds like fun haha.  If you enjoy the muscular screaming the next day.  Haha.  I had a day like that a few weeks back.  We went and played football and rugby at a park and the next day my muscles were so sore.  Like I didn't know I had those muscles. haha.

My favourite Japanese food?  Well I have lots. Okonomiyaki, sushi, yakiniku, gyudon, aisu kuriimu (ice cream haha), natto (fermented soybeans) (yeah I actually like those now haha).  My least favourite Japanese food is probably wasabi.  Lots of bike riding?  kinda?   Did the eczema clear up?  ... next question.  So a cool missionary experience that I had this week has been:  Well my companion and I were on our way to a dinner appointment when I stopped this guy.  Turns out that he goes to Montreal every so often for his business.  It was way awesome because he was way friendly.  He said he wants to come and see the church sometime, so we'll see what comes of it.  It's not every day you find someone way sweet like him.

Sounds like things are just keeping going huh? Hehe Way great.

By the way the ACT went well I think.  I did really good on the English and and then math, but then science and reading were kinda sketchy because the time limit was way short.  then I think I did good on the essay.  so now we wait 3-8 weeks and then I'll get my marks.  so yupp.  thanks for all the coordinating that came from your end.  I really appreciate it!  But now I must go. 

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder |<eith

Week 80

Heyyy,

 

So I don't have oodles of time this week but...

Sounds like Easter went way well over there.  Yeah the Japanese people don't really celebrate Easter.  Well the Christians do obviously. But the rest of them don't.  Like even within the church the only thing they really do is like an egg painting activity and maybe they'll do an egg hunt too.  But for the most part they don't really do much as a family. Yeah we were able to get together with Mike, as you probably know by now.  It was way awesome!!  Did it make me trunky?  No not really.  It just kinda reminded me that the future is coming up way faster than it's supposed to. 

And now I have LOTS of KISSES  wooooooohhooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

Conference was absolutely incredible.  I went in there with questions.  And during the conference I didn't really feel like I was getting any answers.  Then after the conference I went over my notes and started highlighting the things that I wrote down that pertained to certain questions. It was then that I realized how many answers I was getting.  One of my questions was about extending my mission or not.  Like I got an email asking me to confirm my release date.  And I got to thinking that if I went home the early one, then I would have a better chance of getting into a job if I didn't make it into school.  So then I got to thinking that if I didn't make it into school, and I stayed until October, then I wouldn't really know what I would be doing.  When I went over the notes that I had taken, one of the things Dieter F Uchtdorf said in the Priesthood session was "Sometimes we need to walk into the darkness, having faith that the Lord will put solid ground beneath our feet."  Or something to that effect.  And then I realized that I am supposed to stay til October.  If I don't make it into school (and even if I do) that's kinda my 'darkness' the part of life that's coming up that I'm not really sure about.  But yeah it was way cool to recognize the answer to one of my questions like that.

And yeah I LOVE conference.  It's so awesome.  I've really come to appreciate it a lot more since coming on a mission too. I think all missionaries do that.

The work is progressing way good.  We actually have someone awesome that we're teaching (in like 30 mins haha) he's reading, he's praying, I'm pretty darn sure that he wants to get baptized.  It's going way awesome.  And yeah I'm still a zone leader. We have transfer calls in a couple weeks and we're really not sure what will happen.  There's a good chance that my companion and I will stay together, but on the other hand, who knows.  We really can't tell.

And I definitely agree on getting spiritual nourishment every day.  It's one of the key things that we ask our investigators to do.

You can do it!!!  =D

Yeah that's pretty much what's happened to me this past time stretch haha. 

Take care.  Love you.

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 79

Mumsy dearest,

So march was like that huh?  Well for us, march just kinda puttered in then up and stormed out.  The temperature went up a bit.  I'm now wearing short sleeves under my suit jacket.  It's not that warm yet but it's not that cold.  (It never was that cold come to think of it...)  It rained pretty heavy the other day.  And wind like you wouldn't believe, me and my companion were out dendoing and then we got a text from the mission home saying that because there were areas of the mission that had received gale warnings, we had to return to our apartments.  The worst had already passed for us though haha. 

I'm so stoked for Conference.  It's always so fun to watch.  As missionaries it's one of the times that we look forward to the most.  And we get them all bam-bam-bam.  Like it starts at 12 on saturday, then it's 12-2, 3-5, and 6-8.  So instead of 2 hrs between sessions, we only have 1.  Just enough time to grab some munchies and say hi to a couple members before we get to go back and be spiritually saturated.

So yeah I'm excited.

How am I doing?  Well terrific is probably a good way to describe it.  We had a couple splits this week and had terrific days on both.  The one day, my temporary companion and I were able to give a Book of Mormon to the first person that we talked to.  Then the next split, we were planning and we had pretty much got the day planned out.  Then I suggested that we go and visit a member.  So we did and it turns out that the member wasn't home.  So then we started going to look for somewhere to eat.  Then one guy we stopped, my companion invited to come eat with us.  So he did!!!!!  We went and had gyudon. (meat on rice).  And it was way good.  When we were talking that night, I was telling him of how I remember my first split with my zone leader and how I thought it was awesome how he seemed to be way led by the Spirit.  Then the other missionary was like "Well you did the same thing.  If you hadn't suggested we go and visit that member then we would have missed that guy and missed out on a new friend."  Didn't quite hit me until then.
As for investigators.  Yeah we have a couple that we're working with.  One of them has a baptismal date, and he's looking pretty good. Then just yesterday I had an investigator of Elder Roberts (the other Canadian) call me because he actually lives in our area, so we made plans to meet and we'll probably start teaching him real soon.  Things are looking way good. They were kinda slow getting started though.  It didn't really help though that last transfer my enthusiasm was super low.  Not to blame it all on my former companion, but he was the reason for a lot of it...

And we get to go have dinner, (or lunch) with Uncle Mike tomorrow!  Way awesome.

But yeah, so that's me! 

Yeah my mission is awesome! 

Thanks =D

Love you

Elder Keith

キース長老