More interesting things to look at in the zoo in Japan

Date: 9/19/2016
Place: Shizuoka
Companion: Elder Wilson

日付：２０１６年９月１９日
赴任地：静岡県静岡市
同僚：ウィルソン長老

Hey guys! Sorry j don't have any time to write today because we're
going to the zoo with Nagakura 兄弟! 

永倉兄弟と動物園に行くので、今日もあんまり書く時間がなくてごめんなさい！

The weirdest thing at the zoo? White people. People probably looked at us as much as they looked at the animals!
この動物園で、一番変な生き物は？それは、白人です。お客さんたちに、かなりジロジロ見られました！

Random nice people we met　通りすがりの人々たちと

Bro. Nagakura + orangutan　永倉兄弟とオラウータン

So basically a lot of great stuff
has been happening this week! We met with Moe, our Swiss friend, with
Brother Chikano on Tuesday! It was way cool and chikano 兄弟 bore the
strongest testimony I've ever heard in his simple English. He's a
boss! (And he has a superman jawline, which is also awesome). Moe went
back to Switzerland so we are trying to get into contact with church
leaders there. Haha this is weird!  

今週もたくさんいいことがありました！火曜日、近野兄弟と一緒に、スイス人の友達、モーさんと会ってきました。近野兄弟が、簡単な英語で、とても素晴らしい証をしてくれました。彼は最高です！モーさんは、その後スイスに帰ってしまったので、彼の地元の教会の指導者と連絡を取る予定です。

Nagata family! Love them. 

大好きな永田家族と！

Then we visited Ikeyama San with Suzuki 兄弟, who is a psychiatrist, 
so we could learn a little bit more about his situation. 
It went over super well and we're super grateful
for Suzuki 兄弟. Lately Ikeyama San hasn't been meeting us or coming to
church so we have been a bit worried. But after this lesson we are
starting to understand his situation just a little bit more. He's such
a nice guy! We had some great finding experiences this week as well! On Saturday
we found a couple new PIs who are way cool.

そして、精神科医の鈴木兄弟と一緒に、池山さんを訪ねました。

I WANT TO HOLD A BABY MONKEY SO BAD (my first son will probably look something like this)

A lot of fish 

One of the biggest things that happened this week is all of the phone
calls and communication that has been happening between us and the
APs, and then on to the District Leaders. THIS MISSION IS CHANGING SO
FAST. Especially starting from next transfer, things are going to
change a lot. The bar is being raised and our vision elevated. We are
cleaning out everyone's iPads, cleaning up language and Japanese use,
elevating effectiveness and pushing for consecration. The new
missionaries are going to grow up in a very very different Japan
Nagoya Mission than I've known. We've kinda just stopped speaking
English lately as well. The mission, as a culture, is changing and
it's awesome! All of this is coming from the honbu.
Ok I gotta go!

Love y'all!


Elder Johnson

This Mission is Changing 新しい規則- 日本語 (Japanese)

Date: 9/12/2016

Place: Shizuoka

Companion: Elder Wilson

日付: 2016年9月12日

赴任地: 静岡県静岡市

同僚: ウィルソン長老

The sisters lent us their bikes because ours was wrecked. 

自分達の自転車が壊れていたので、姉妹宣教師達のを借りて、、、

Man this week went so fast and was so long at the same time. I don't
even know where to start! Ok so we had another couple of exchanges. We
wanted to get all of our exchanges done with our district leaders
early in the transfer so they can train and follow up on all the other
missionaries throughout the transfer. 

今週は短いようで長い一週間でした。何から話せば良いのやら、、、まずは交換の話から始めますね。今回、ディストリクトリーダー達が他の宣教師のトレーニングを早速始められるように、ディストリクトリーダー達と早めに交換をして、彼らのトレーニングをすることにしました。

We exchanged with Fujieda on
Monday night. Elder Hilamatsu came with me and went with Brother Miwa
(the older) to go hunt down some less actives. We didn't get locked
out of the apartment this time so that was good :). 

まずしょっぱなは、月曜日に藤枝の長老達と交換をしました。平松長老が静岡に来て、美和兄弟と一緒にお休み教会員捜しをしました。今回は、アパートの鍵を忘れませんでした。:)

Koukan (exchange) life. Ending the koukan. 

交換の締めに。

Then we switched on Wednesday and I went to Fukuroi with Elder Spadafora. It was fun!
We went looking for some former investigators and ended up finding a
handful of Brazilians instead! I finally got to actually use my Portuguese! 
Haha it's still not good but at least I know enough to get us a next appointment. 

そして水曜日、今度は私が袋井へ行って、スパダフォラ長老と伝道しました。楽しかったです。昔の求道者を探しに行ったんですが、それよりか、福音を聞いてくれそうなブラジル人を数人見つけることができました。やっとポルトガル語を使えて良かったです！ハハハ まだまだ全然うまくもなんともないんですが、次のアポを取るくらいはなんとかできました。

Then we finished the exchanged and I finally came home to Shizuoka with Elder Wilson and we went home and literally
collapsed. We hadn't eaten any substantial food or had a normal
sleeping schedule for a long time because we did three exchanges in
under a week. Elder Wilson took the hit pretty hard and just lay
motionless there on the ground for a few hours. Both of us could
barely walk! I just used some random stuff around the apartment and
made some curry and we finally had a normal meal with normal rice and
just took a moment to recover and be normal for a second. 

交換を終えて、やっとこさ静岡へウィルソン長老と一緒に帰ってきました。一週間弱で、３回も交換をしたので、二人とも大した食事も睡眠もとっておらず、かなりヘトヘトになってアパートに帰ってきました。特にウィルソン長老は、重度の過労のせいで、数時間ほど死んだかのように床に寝転がっていました。アパートにあるものを集めて、カレーを作り、やっと普通の食事にありつくことができ、しばし休憩、、、

Then we pretty much spent the next two days on the phone and planning. 
We had a mission wide phone conference with the APs and all of the zone
leaders. We discussed a lot of things and wow, this mission is
changing so fast! I'm so excited! We have been just destroying the
phone and organizing everyone that has ever talked to a missionary in
Shizuoka. It's been super effective! 

On Saturday we threw a birthday
party for Elder Wilson! Thanks to our fantabulous shimai, it worked
out great! It was a total surprise to him and we had three
investigators, a part member and a handful of members and even an
english class student there! We played guitar, played games and ate
good food. Tsujimoto Shimai even made a fancy birthday cake and Kiyomi
Shimai brought a box of cookies from COSTCO! It was awesome!

それから２日間はずっと電話、計画ミーティング漬けでした。伝道部全般のゾーンリーダーとAP（伝道会長の補佐）の電話カンファレンスがあり、いろいろ話し合ったんですが、なんかいろいろ良い方向へ変わっていっているみたいで、とても嬉しいです。静岡中の求道者の記録をまとめることもできて、とっても時間を有効に使えて良かったです。

土曜日は、ウィルソン長老の誕生日パーティーをしました。素晴らしい姉妹たちのおかげで、とってもうまくいきましたよ。まったくウィルソン長老には内緒の、サプライズパーティーでした。求道者が３人、教会員の方たちが数人と、英会話の生徒さんも来てくれました。ギターを弾いたり、ゲームをしたり、美味しいものをいただきました。辻元姉妹が綺麗なバースデーケーキを焼いてくださり、きよみ姉妹がコストコからクッキーを持ってきてくれました！最高でしたよ！

Elder Wilson's birthday party　ウィルソン長老のバースデーパーティー

On Sunday, we had a complete random bunch of miracles! As we were
walking to church, Suzuki San just called out to us from his window
(half naked as always) and invited us in for a cup of tea. We told him
that we couldn't because we were on our way to church and invited him
along. 10am rolls around and HE JUST SHOWED UP! Also Raita, whom we
didn't even invited, came along with Okumura and Iwano Shimai's son.
It's raining miracles! So there was a pile of people at church and we
were outnumbered. The shimai couldn't help us because they also had
some folks at church! I want to get these guys to just go sit with
members if possible.

We have a great week lined up! We actually had time to do weekly
planning yesterday so this week is going to be AWESOME!
Elder Wilson and I have been having so much fun!

日曜日は、本当にたくさんの奇跡が見れたんですよ！教会へ歩いて行く途中、鈴木さんが（半分裸で）窓から私たちを呼んで、お茶に招待してくれたんですが、教会に今から行くのでお邪魔できない由を告げ、反対に教会に招待しました。時計が１０時をまわった頃、なんと教会に来てくれたのです！それから教会に招待もしなかったらいたくんも奥村さんと岩野姉妹の息子さんと来てくれました。奇跡が天から降ってきたようでした！人手が足りなくなってしまったので、姉妹宣教師に助けを求めようと思ったんですが、彼女たちも求道者が来ていて助けができずで、今度から教会員の方たちとも一緒に座れるようになれたらなぁと思いました。

今週も一週間、いっぱい予定が詰まっていて、いい一週間になりそうです！昨日、今週の予定のミーティングをしたので、今週はすごい一週間になりますよ！ウィルソン長老といると、とっても楽しいです！

Elder Wilson's birthday haul from the Ward　ウィルソン長老、ワードからの誕生日のプレゼント

OK RANDOM UPDATE! The Japan Nagoya Mission will be becoming a Japanese
speaking mission next transfer! The Honbu released a new rule,
effective next transfer 9am to 9pmJapanese only will become a thing.
YES!! I'm so excited for this! This is going to help my japanese so
much! Elder Wilson has already been helping me a lot with kanji. It's
been great!

突然ですが、名古屋伝道部は今度の転勤から、日本語伝道部になるんだそうです！本部からの新しいルールで、朝の９時から夜の９時までは日本語しか喋ってはいけなくなるんだそうです。やった！これはとってもいいことだと思います！私の日本語の上達にはもってこいです！ウィルソン長老に、漢字をたくさん教えてもらっていて、とっても助かっています。

Random miracle of the week; We were going to go to the gym with Bishop
(because he's a body builder. LEGIT) but then we found out that Elder
Wilson's bike decided to punk itself in the middle of the night so his
tire was flat. This is the third time in three weeks! Anyway so we
canceled on the bishop and walked in our gym clothes to the store to
get a punk kit. On our way there, I remembered something that Elder
Williams said in DTM. He said to just cut the fluff in OYMs and just
be bold and invite people to just hear the Gospel right off the bat.
So we stopped this guy on a bike and asked him if he had ever thought
about God. He said, "no." So then we said, "We've got a book that
talks about God. Here you go." And he actually took it! And then we
just asked for his number and he gave it to us! That one surprised me
a lot. Normally we kinda beat around the bush and try to get them to
like us before we introduce the Gospel. But not with this guy. We just
Gospel smashed him in the face and he actually took it!

もう一つの奇跡の話をしますね。ボディービルダーの監督さんと一緒にジムに行く予定にしていたんですが、前の晩の夜中にウィルソン長老の自転車のタイヤがパンクしてしまい（この三週間、これで３度目）ジムをキャンセルして、店にパンク修理キットを買いに行きました。道中、この間のディストリクトミーティングで、ウィリアムス長老が言っていたあることを思い出しました。というのは、伝道中、人と道端で話をするとき、ただのおしゃべりはやめて、思い切って福音のメッセージを伝えるようにするということです。すぐに実行してみることにし、自転車に乗っていた男の人を止めて、神様について考えたことがあるかを聞きました。考えたことがないという答えだったので、「ここに神様について書いた本があるので、読んでみてください。」といってモルモン書を渡すと、なんと受け取ってくれたのです！電話番号を聞くと、なんと電話番号までくれたのです！まったく度ビックリしてしまいました。いつもだったら、なんとなく遠回りに話をして、なんとか気に入りってもらえたようだったら、そこで福音を紹介するというパターンでした。でもこの男性は違いました。最初から福音を持ち出して、すんなりと受け入れてくれたのでした！

Anyways. Be bold! Be faithful! Believe and it will be so! It's sounds
cliche but that's really about all there is to it. The funny thing
about the Gospel is that God literally gives you everything you want.
He will give you investigators, success and Spiritual Power if you
want it. But only if you want it more than anything else and are
willing to do anything for it. Don't just keep the rules but WANT to
keep them because they work! Don't just talk to people on the street
because that's what you're supposed to do. DO IT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO!
God will let you play a part in His work and His glory only if you
want it more than anything else. If you don't sincerely want it, pray
to want it. That's all it takes.

ということで、勇気を持って、信仰をもって、信じれば願いは叶うのです！なんかわざとらしい決まり文句みたいですが、本当なんですよ。福音の面白いのは、神様はあなたが端居ものをすべてくださるのです。求道者や成功、霊的なパワーでも、あなたが欲していれば、与えられるのです。でも、ただ欲するだけじゃダメです。何よりも欲すること、そしてそのためなら何でもする覚悟があること。規則をただ守るだけじゃなく、そうすることによって得られる何かがあるから守りたくなるのじゃないといけないのです。道端で人と喋るのも、宣教師としてやらなければいけないことだからではなくて、そうしたいからするのでなければいけないのです。他の何よりも神様の御業に携わることがしたいのではなければ、いけないのです。もし、そうしたいと思う気持ちがないのならば、なれるように祈ればいいのです。

Lately we are shifting our focus from work to results. My entire
mission I've focused on working really hard, not getting stuff done.
If we can cut down this tree with a chain saw, LET'S USE THE CHAIN
SAW. If there's a member that can drive us to this investigator's
house, USE HIM. It's not about working, it's about getting results. We
have two random tachiai lessons set up this week and we are trying
hard to change the way we think about things. Working here is weird
because we spend so little time actually working but when we get any
time at all to go out and do stuff, STUFF HAPPENS!

Ok this email is long enough. Sorry guys.

Love Y'all!

Elder Johnson - The second hardest working missionary you know

最近、フォーカスを「どのように働くか」から、「結果」に変えてみました。今まで、結果よりも、一生懸命働くことに力を入れてきました。もし木を切るのに、電動ノコギリが使えるのなら、ぜひ使えばいいと思います。もし、教会員の方が求道者の御宅まで送ってくれるのなら、ぜひ送ってもらいましょう。どれだけ一生懸命働くかに集点を絞るのではなく、どのようにしたら結果を出せるか、なのです。今週は立会い付きのレッスンのアポが二つあるんですが、もっとこれからは、いろいろ考え方を変えてみようと思っています。ここでの伝道生活は、本当に変なんですよ。宣教師として伝道できる時間というのは、あまりないんですが、時間がやっとできて、外に出て働くとなぜか事がうまくいくのです！

長くなって、すいません。

みんな大好きだよ！

ジョンソン長老より

I Stayed the Night at the Church - Adventures of a Homeless Missionary

Date: 9/5/2016

Place: Shizuoka

Companion: Elder Wilson

This has been the absolute awesomestest, most insane week of my entire
life! We met with Suzuki San, a guy that we met while walking to the
church on my second day here. He's just a cool, crazy old grandpa who
lives right next to the church and loves to travel the world and play
his Shakuhachi (Boss Japanese Flute). So we went over to his house and
he ended up teaching us old Japanese traditional stuff like how to
properly kneel, bow and present yourself while playing the Shakuhachi,
Samurai style. It was AWESOME. He handed each of us a flute and we
practiced for a bit. I couldn't get any good sounds out though haha!
Also he happened to have a Didgeridoo from Australia! THOSE ARE NOT
COMMON IN JAPAN. It was way cool and Elder Wilson played a little for
us. It was so cool! His wife is really nice and fed us awesome
Japanese food. I think she has more potential as far as learning the
Gospel goes. We had fun but I don't think they have a ton of potential
right now. We'll see.

We taught Suzuki Kyodai that night at the church. He's awesome! I love
him and he has a rock solid testimony. His wife and kids are not
members so please pray for them :). 

Also that day we went to an
Ukulele shop and made friends with the owner. He's a big Jake
Shimabukuro fan and has a ton of really high end, actual Hawaiian
ukes! He isn't interested in the Gospel but he did agree to advertise
our ward music night and even offered to lend me an ukulele for it! We
jammed to a couple of Jake's songs and left. It was really fun!

On Wednesday we went out to lunch with one of our YSA's who is
studying at a college near here. He hasn't been to church in a while
because he's busy with school but he wants to go on a mission! We went
to the famous Shakey's (It's pretty much Pizza Pie Cafe - AMERICAN
FOOD YEAH!) and we just talked about how awesome missions are and got
him excited to serve. 

Then we biked all the way out to Mihara San's house and we attempted to teach him a lesson. He's an interesting
case. He's an artist and a very deep thinker and so wrapping his mind
around religion is hard for him. We'll see how he turns out.

Thursday
We just prepped for ZTM and went and met with our Ward Mission
Leader. On our way there we knocked on a few doors. No one answered
and we were about to leave when Elder Wilson just said, "One more
door!" so we did and found someone! It made us late but we found
someone who listened to us!

Friday
Today we had an insane day! ZTM went really well. I felt the spirit
and I think others did too. It felt good. 

Afterwards we started the
koukan with Numazu Elders. Elder Wilson went with Elder Iwaasa and I
got elder Otsu. We hurried and cleaned up the church and then booked
it for the apartment. Elder Wilson called and told us that he forgot
and took the key with him! So we were locked out! None of the windows
were open so we were stuck! But we had an appointment to be to so we
booked it for shimizu (it was really hot today). On the way there,
Elder Otsu's bike seat completely fell off! So we stopped by at a
local mechanic shop and they let us use some tools. Turns out it was
completely broken and not fixable so elder Otsu just rode seatless the
whole way to shimizu! We were forty minutes late by the time we rolled
up at 池山's house. We asked to see his parents so he took us the rest
of the way to his house and asked his parents if they wanted to meet
us. They didn't sound real happy and said no. So then he asked us if
we wanted to go to the college that he wants to get into. He said it
was kinda far but he was on a Mamachari so I figured it couldn't be
too bad. IT WAS BAD. We never made it to the college.  

He decided he
wanted to go to a art museum instead and so we road all the way to
Higashi Shizuoka MAMACHARI speed! So it took an hour and a half. We
got there and taught him a lesson. The lesson went really well. He
prays every day and has a Book of Mormon. We taught him about what it
was and the laws and commandments contained and how they could make
him even more happy. He accepted it all! We taught very very simply
and he agreed to come to church! He has a better understanding of the
Book of Mormon now. 

Then we left and finally went to get something to
eat because neither of us had really eaten anything all day. We barely
had time to stop at The Big and grab some pudding and bentos. Then we
booked it for the church for Eikwaiwa. We ate quickly and then I made
a ton of phone calls trying to get us into our apartment/trying to get
permission to sleep at the church. We weren't able to get into our
apartment but Everything worked out with getting permission and all so
that we could stay at the church! ITS BEEN AWESOME! Elder Otsu isn't
terribly happy about the whole thing. But I had so much fun! It's been
a crazy, weird adventure. We found some rugs and stuff that we laid
out on the ground and slept on. I used a seat cushion as a pillow. I
spent the whole night just wondering how long that seat cushion had
spent underneath other humans and now I was using it as a pillow. Haha
I slept surprisingly well! Which was good because we didn't have any
time to be tired the next day! 

Sat

We got up, I did a little of training
and then we hopped on train for Numazu. We got there and I was
reunited with my beloved Elder Wilson and went to a Sushi place to eat
lunch with the Numazu elders. It was my first actual meal in like two
or three days so that was good! Then we hopped on a train back home.

We found a cool guy from Kyoto who had just climbed Fuji that night.
He's super nice and actually asked for our number! We'll see if we can
hand him off to the guys in Kyoto. It was way cool! 

And I was so tired
that I wanted to die. We got back to the church finally and were about
to ride home so I could finally shower and brush my teeth (by this
time it was after 4pm) but then we discovered that Elder Wilson's bike
had a flat tire. So we literally sprinted home, I took a wet wipe
shower and changed clothes and then we sprinted back and ran onto the
bus as it was about to pull away! We made it to the station on time
for our appointment with the Fu family! They are our new Chinese
investigators. We went and had good chinese food with them and invited
them to church!
Then we finally went home.

Sunday
We had so many people come to church! We had Iwano Shimai's son, who
is not a member, so I went and sat with him while Elder Wilson sat
with the Fu family. Then Okumura san came after Sacrament meeting and
we were completely outnumbered at this point so we asked Chikano
Kyodai to make sure he felt welcome. 

The Shimai have been working
really hard and they also had two investigators in church! Shizuoka is
going nuts! Also Sister Wilcox, who served here a while back, came
back to visit with her parents. Then we went to the Bishop's house
with the Wilcox's, the shimai and their investigator. It was so fun!

Aight sorry this email is super long and I feel like I haven't even
covered all of the stuff that happened this week but I should probably
send this now.

I love Shizuoka! The Lord is blessing us so much. For the first time
in my life I can actually feel the Spirit ALL THE TIME. I've grown a
lot in the last two weeks that I've been here. We haven't even had
time to dendo really but stuff just keeps happening. We just work and
stuff just happens. This is the most fun I've ever had! 

Also I forgot
to mention that Elder Wilson and I are pretty much the same person and
we get along really well and have tons of fun while we work!

Love you guys!

Elder Johnson - THE SECOND HARDEST WORKING MISSIONARY YOU KNOW

Shizuoka - Land of Miracles

Date: 8/29/2016

Place: Shizuoka

Companion: Elder Wilson

Elder Wilson

I'm in Shizuoka!!
In the morning we went to the train station together and I saw Elder
Gubbay off (he went to go stay with Elder McClellan for transfers). It
was way sad to part ways. I love my bean and I will miss him! He's
such an awesome missionary and Inuyama is on the verge of seeing a ton
of success right now. Bruna's Mom is set for the 18th, Carolina is so
close to accepting a baptismal commitment and there a lot of other
investigators (mostly referrals and part members) that are really
starting to come together! I'm so sad to leave! I popped my bike tire
and the patch kit didn't work so I just packed it up with the punk and
took it to the train station. There at the station, I met Yuna and a
couple of guys who were way cool! It was nice of them to come and see
me off. Then I hopped on a train headed for Jingumae and hopped off at
Nagoya. 

Brother Sakai

IM ALONE YEAH

Actually bring alone was really boring. I was way happy to see Elder Iwaasa on the train 

Since everyone was transferring, I saw a lot of missionaries
at Nagoya Station! I thought I might enjoy transferring solo but I
realized on the way down there that I actually didn't know what to do
with myself and hated being alone so it was great to see some
missionaries at the station. 

Random peeps I met at Nagoya when I exchanged trains

I freaking love this human. Elder Hunsaker is a homie. I bumped into him at Nagoya as well.

Then I switched to JR and hopped on a

train to Toyohashi. I was lucky enough to bump into Elder Iwaasa, who
is transferring to Numazu! That was awesome and so we just rode all
the way to Fujieda together to get our companions. It was a good 3
hour ride with several changes, which was a pain but we got there!

The ride to Shizuoka! With Elder Iwaasa

We carry our bikes in bags when we transfer. It's a bit of a pain but hey, it makes for a great adventure getting in the way of everyone ;)

Elder Wilson is a beast! This is going to be the best transfer ever!
He grabbed my  bike for me and we got on a train for Shizuoka. On the
way there we found an awesome potential investigator! Then we got off
the train and had to walk in the rain all the way to the apartment
because my tire was flat. Shizuoka is a big city! The biggest I've
served in so far. We live in a nice neighborhood about an hour's walk
from the station. Then we spent the next few days in a blur of
planning, making goals, making phone calls, heading back to Fukutoku
(where I just came from) for Mission Leadership Training and more
planning for the zone. Mission Leadership training was awesome! Elder
Coleman is the new AP and he has a lot of fire. The mission is
changing a lot. They are working really hard to change the mindset of
the mission and boost everyone's faith. MLC was AWESOME and got us
really fired up! Usually, after big meetings like this, missionaries
all get on a train and hang out all the way to Nagoya before splitting
up. But this time, everyone got on the same train and then scattered
and started talking to people! We took an entire train car by storm!
It was the coolest thing I've ever seen! In Japan, all train rides are
pretty silent because you're not supposed to talk on trains, but this
time the entire train car was alive with people talking to
missionaries! This is how it should be all the time! We split off from
everyone at Nagoya and then us and the Shizuoka Sisters talked to
people almost the entire 3 hour ride home.

This is Shizuoka missionaries! Plus Sister Thomas' popcorn.

Then we planned and schemed some more for the zone. I'm losing my mind
in the apartment! But it's been good. We still had time to get out for
an hour or two though and found a handful of potentials and an
investigator! THIS PLACE IS SO GOLDEN! Almost everyone we talk to
actually has a good conversation with us! People here are super nice.
We found a PI and an investigator just walking from the apartment to
the church! It's been awesome! Elder Wilson is a beast of a missionary
and he works hard so all has been well.

The apartment here is pretty big and rumor has it that we are going 4人(4 people)
next transfer if all goes well! The ward here is awesome! The bishop
is a BODY BUILDER. Yeah we're going lifting with him on Saturday.
Chikano Ryou Kyoudai (Bro くん) from Kariya (one of my old areas) moved
here for work so I get to see him again! I love that guy! This is
going to be awesome! This Ward seems to be pretty high class. We live
in a sort of rich neighborhood, surrounded by big houses (big for
Japan). I'm so used to Aichi and everyone we talk to being a factory
worker! This is way cool! Our ward is amazing! In Ward council, they
talked a lot about part member families and set up a music activity
right there on the spot so that we could invite our investigators! Our
ward is comprised primarily of part member families and they gave us a
list of 15 families with good potential to start working on! This area
is THE PROMISED LAND. I love this ward so much already!
I'm so excited and so happy to be dendoing here with Elder Wilson!
Also we have sister missionaries in our area! Sister Thomas (this is
her last transfer) and Tsujimoto Shimai! Haha Tsujimoto shimai and I
for some reason keep on following each other around the mission for
some reason. We were in the same district in Suwa and then in Inuyama
and now we are in the same area! Haha it's been fun. Sister Thomas and
I were in the same zone in Okazaki, which was way cool! She also
served in Nonami as soon as I left it so we know a lot of the same
people. Elder Wilson and I though have been in opposite areas for our
entire missions! So we don't know any of the same people or have any
of the same stories which means we have a lot to talk about and it's
way fun!

Random weird experience of the week: we got serenaded by an old,
half-naked Japanese man on a bamboo flute (shakuhachi) from his second
story window as we were walking to the church. We were just walking by
and heard him practicing. He noticed us through the window and called
out to us and then started playing! Haha it was the most Japanese,
bizarre thing I have experienced in a while! I'm so mad at myself for
not taking a video!
Yeah it's been quite a week!

Love ya guys!


Elder Johnson


Enviado do meu iPad

The people at MLC (Mission Leadership Council?)

Me, Sister Pasi, Sister Lyman, Elder Decker and Elder Wilson

Miracle Summer - Goodbye Inuyama

Date: 8/22/2016
Place: Inuyama, Aichi
Companion: Elder Gubbay

日付：２０１６年８月２２日
赴任地：愛知県犬山市
同僚：グベイ長老

Wednesday

MIRACLES BRO!!
Yesterday we had a cool one. We were out delivering cookies to people
all day. We were able to meet Miyata San's mom and she was super nice
and talked to us for a while and gave us a ton of fresh vegetables out
of her garden! I love her! 

Then we biked up to the top of this
mountain on the border of Kakamigahara and Unuma and went hunting for
Kawaguchi San. Her dog died recently and so we felt like she needed
cookies. But we rode around and around and couldn't find her house!
(House numbers are not a thing in Japan) We saw this random elderly
couple out on a stroll at night in the dark so we went and asked them
if they knew our friend, Kawaguchi. Now keep in mind that Kawaguchi is
a SUPER common name in Japan so chances of them even knowing the right
Kawaguchi were near zero. But they asked a couple of clarifying
questions as to who she was and it turns out that THEY ACTUALLY KNEW
HER! Turns out there's not a lot of Kawaguchis in the area who can
hula dance. Anyway they took us to her house, which was nowhere near
where google maps sent us, and we dropped off a batch of cookies for
her. She loved it! Anyway that was a cool miracle.

Then today we had another big miracle! We were teaching Bruna's mom
(in Portuguese of course, so I couldn't fully participate in the
lesson but I tried) when Elder Gubbay felt impressed to invite her to
baptism! And she accepted!!! YEAH!! This is the second time in my
mission that I've seen someone accept the invitation to be baptized!!!
This is such a big event for her and for Bruna too! I'm so excited for
them!

Monday

WOW THIS WEEK HAS BEEN ABSOLUTELY INSANE I DONT EVEN KNOW WHERE TO
START OR EVEN HOW TO GRAMMER CORRECT
We had a koukan on Friday with Ichinomiya so I got to go with Elder
Daniels. It was fun! I love Elder Daniels. We had a jam session with
some of the members that night and it ended up being a sort of band
reunion! Some of the members had gotten together and formed a band a
long time ago and had long since stopped playing music and then at the
jam session they were able to get back together and play again! It was
really cool to see them come back together and have fun. One of them
was a member that hasn't let his face be seen for a long long time. He
finally came out and started seeing people again last week and then he
got to meet his old band at the jam session! He got to reconnect with
his old church friends (and also shred on an electric guitar that he
brought). It was a huge miracle! I'm so happy for him! We didn't plan
any of that, it just happened! God works in mysterious, wonderful
ways. Isshiki Kyoudai wrote a song so we spent most of the time
practicing that, then we ended the jam session off with the primary
song Families can be Together Forever. It was awesome!

Then WE HAD TRANSFER CALLS.
I'm going to Shizuoka with Elder Wilson! Elder Arscott will be
followup training Elder Gubbay (I LOVE ELDER ARSCOTT). Elder Daniels
and Leiendecker are staying in Ichinomiya, Sister Lyman and Jensen
will be staying and becoming a 3人 with sister Henderson! Elder Warren
will be replacing Elder Despain as Zone Leader in 福徳 and Sister
Tsujimoto is coming to Shizuoka! Sister Tsujimoto will be replaced by
Sister Talbot, who will followup train Sister Imamiya.
Oh and also they made me a Zone Leader. That's way scary!
I'm super excited for Shizuoka and I'm way stoked to be with Elder Wilson!
But I'm also so so sad to leave behind Inuyama. I know it sounds all
poetic and gross but this area owns my heart. I've developed a
connection with this place and with these people that I never thought
possible. It's going to be so hard to leave these people! We've had
some tearful goodbyes, we'll have some more today and tomorrow morning
and then I'll be on a train out to Shizuoka. But since we didn't have
normal Sunday meetings yesterday, most of them I won't get to say
goodbye to.
It's been a really good two transfers with Elder Gubbay. I'm going to
miss him a lot. He's going to be an awesome missionary. He and Elder
Arscott are going to do wonders here in Inuyama. I'm already seeing a
surge of potential success coming out of the woodwork here. In the
next few weeks this place is going to explode.

This week was so full of miracles that I don't have time to write them
all but I will just write down the best one real quick. 

On Saturday night, we met with my grandparents and President and Sister Ishii at
the Komaki Meitetsu hotel. It was such an incredible opportunity! And
it was so cool to see my grandparents becoming friends with President
and Sister Ishii. In their conversation, I came to realize just how
awesome my grandparents are and just how much they love me. It makes
me want to do everything I can to be a better missionary and a better
grandson. My grandparents are truly awesome and I've come to
appreciate them a lot more these past couple of transfers.
Hey guys, grandparents are awesome. Go call your grandparents or mail
them or something and tell them that you love them :)

I'm extremely grateful for the incredible three transfers that I have
had here in Inuyama. I feel incredibly blessed to have been sent to
this mission, out of all the missions in the world, and then to get
sent to Inuyama, of all places. I will never forget this summer that I
got to spend in Inuyama and the effect that it has had on me. It's
been a dream come true and an experience that has changed me. I love
this place, I love these people and I love the God that sent me here.
This whole summer has been nothing short of a miracle.

I love you guys!
You're awesome. Never forget that.


Elder Johnson