the one where he got a hammock

Had my first full week in Japan!! It was awesome and I love it here!

Starting on Monday, we went to a super awesome shrine and I got lots of pictures on the album! We also went out to eat and got some REALLY good food. One of the best things about Japan is everything is sooo cheap. The massive meal I got was like 7 bucks :) 

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the APs which was so awesome! I went with Kawada長老 and it was an amazing day! He's native to Japan but he still spoke English so I was able to learn a lot of Japanese from him. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving! We had to do something special for dinner so we went to KFC! Which was good? It was just SO much less food than the one we have in America. It was still good though and pretty much the only place where you can get slabs of meat🤣

Friday was a pretty regular day but at the end of the day on Fridays we go to the church and play ping pong with the members and anyone that wants to come. It's was super fun but I definitely need to practice ping pong more🤣

Saturday was a regular day and we had a couple lessons which went really well. One of them is with this dude named Ismael and he speaks english and Turkish which means we teach him in english and its WAY easier. We also tought our eikaiwa (english class) at the end of the day and had an awesome lesson with Makoto さん. 

Sunday was awesome! In church, we had the primary program! Man I don't think there's a lot of things more humbling than having a bunch of 4 year olds get to pulpit and start dropping bars that you cant understand. They did sing "love one another" in english though and it was absolute gas 🔥. We also got tons of food from the members from the basket in church. We got lots of super good oranges and chocolate and tons of other food. 

Monday was ZONE CONFERENCE!! Which was so fun! We got up and went to Kobe, which is where the mission home and church is, and spent almost the entire day there. We talked so much about how the mission is doing and some of the things President Sano wants to do differently. Overall it was super fun and super spiritual! After ZC we went back home but on our way back, we stopped and I snagged a hammock from this place called Daiso. Its basically a dollar tree but the stuff there is actually good. Now me and my comp both have one! We finished the day with setting the hammock up and getting pumped for P day! 

Sooo this week was super awesome and its been a blast being here so far. I'm in SUCH a good area and there's really nothing to complain about! 

Feel free to email me anytime!!

hammocking!

first real meal in the field

pday on a massive hike to a shrine

fig bish

dope views near the top

probably the coolest thing we saw on pday

sick statue

massive spider that my mom would love

cool gates close to the top

some fire drinks Elder Hall told me to get

another sick pond--this time with a bridge

finally the view from the top

another sick shrine

the main shrine

the coolest fountain of all time

another view on our way to a different lake

the lake

super dope Gundam

more food

natto...yeah it's pretty nasty

SUPER fire ice cream

Exchanges with the APs

Thanksgiving dinner!! 美味しい

First Thanksgiving in Japan...gotta hit up KFC

sick fountain where we do our studies

fire donuts

your boys with banger donuts

Kobe Zone Conference

the one where he got to 日本

Well *pause for effect* I finally got to Japan!!! Its sooo sick and its been so fun being here. Its definitely not Lincoln Nebraska. Also with the time difference, my emails will come on Sunday night. 

Starting with Monday we went to the capital buliding at the beginning of the day. We also went to Popeyes for lunch which is super fire! The rest of the day we chilled at the church and then I started packing that night.

Tuesday we spent more time packing and then we went around to lots of people we were teaching and said goodbye. It was sad to say bye but I knew they were in good hands so it wasn't too hard. 

Wednesday we drove up to Council Bluffs and stayed with some missionaries there that lived close to the airport. Elder Wynn from my MTC district also stayed with them so we spent some time catching up. 

Thursday we woke up at 3:30am so we could get to our first of 3 flights which was at 6:00am. That flight was pretty quick and we got onto our next flight at 10:40am. This was a düzzy (no idea how to spell that word) it was a 14 hour flight and man could you feel it. I may or may not (but definitely did) have watched some movies on the flight (when I say some I mean 7) also no regrets, movies are so good 10/10 would recommend to a friend. 

On Friday when we got to Tokyo we met up with a member that was there and he helped get us onto our last flight which was short but the plane was bouncing around so much and it kinda made me sick. When we landed, we found our mission president, his wife, and some other missionaries waiting for us. President Sano is such a good dude. Like such a great person. That dude has mastered Love and Charity. He is without a doubt, the most loving person I've met in a long time. They took us to the mission home where we had dinner and then from there, we went to some apartments across the street and stayed the night.

Saturday was a looonnggg day. We started the day by waking up and going on a hike with all the new people and President Sano. It was super sick to walk through Japan and see what it's really like. We then got ready for the day and ate breakfast with Sano in the mission home. After eating and talking, some of the senior couples showed up and then a bunch of regular missionaries came. We then got assigned our new companions and areas. My new comp is Elder Hall and he is super sick. I kinda feel bad for him because he has only been out 6 months and he is now training me and this is his first transfer as a district leader. The man is a stud though so he should be all good. We then went over a lot of logistics and then went to our areas. On our way over, we snagged me a bike. After all that, we made some lunch and did some service for a member fixing up the trees outside the church. We also did eikaiwa (英会話) which is when we teach english to a bunch of people. It was mostly members but there was this one girl there named Makoto さん who is super elect and speaks really good english (lets go 👊). After that we went home and made some dinner and ended the night. Here, my comp eats dinner at like 8:00 so that'll take some getting used to. 

Sunday we got up and after doing our studies and eating breakfast we went to church which is always at 10:00am in Japan. When we walked in, I had soooo many people come up and introduce themselves and ask me tons of questions which I didn't understand, or know how to respond. Luckily I would tell people that I was new and had been in Japan for like a day and they would just tell me my Japanese was good and start asking my comp questions. My comp also showed me that there is this basket close to the front doors of the church and the members just fill it with groceries for us to take home. There's also this little board with sticky notes so we can make requests. When we got into sacrament, I was given the amaaazing opportunity to give a talk 😐😑😐. Luckily I cracked some jokes and told everyone that I was new to japan and stuff and after my talk everyone one telling me how good my japanese was (not true) But all things considered it went well and could've been much worse. Also our ward is pretty big, especially for Japan. We have like 30 kids in primary which makes sacrament meeting way more exciting. After church we had some meetings and then went home and made some lunch. At the end of the day, I finally got my two big suitcases, which had been shipped from Tokyo (I've been living out of my carry-on which did not have the things that I needed it to have but, we survived)

Sorry its a long email but Japan is sick so you get to hear more about it. Some of the big differences between Japan and America are:

Almost everything is better in Japan. The water, toilets, eggs, apartments, people. You name it, its probably better here.

The people are soooo nice and its way less stressful giving talks in sacrament meeting.

However, the metric system sucks. Good job America on that one. 

The water here does take forever to get hot. 

Alright that's all I've got. Overall Japan is super sick and I'm pumped to be here. Also now that I'm taking more pics and videos, heres the link to the google photos album:

Context for pics:

Just gonna send one each week in the email... the rest will be on the album

The Sick hike we went on on Saturday morning

the one with the sick sweater

Well, had my final full week in Nebraska! Next week I'll get to Japan and man is it gonna be different!

On Monday, we went to Scheels first and then Canes for lunch. After that, we went to the church and played lots of basketball and other games like usual.

Wednesday we went to the thrift store to help out like usual. While there, we found a pretty dope sweater (pictured below). At the end of the day, we had another meeting with Darlington and I told him that I was going to be leaving, to which he responded with, "That's terrible news." XD... He was happy that I got my visa but he is REALLY sad to see me go. 

Friday we went on exchanges with the ZL's. It was a fun day and Elder Memmott and I were put together with one of the ZL's named Elder Hackett. He was actually the very first person that I ever went on exchanges with, and in this mission, that's who they call your "mom." So its kinda fun that my first and last exchange were with my mom. 

Sunday we tried to get a lot of people to church and, as usual, very few people came. But it was a good day and we had a really good member meal and we spent most of our night talking with them. It really was nice to talk with some not so crazy people for a change XD.

Well it's a pretty short email for the week but next time you hear from me I'll be in Japan! I'm super excited to go and its going to be so different! Can't wait to see what Japan has in store for me!

 

Feel free to email me!

Context for pics:

- We found the sickest christmas sweater of all time at the thrift store this week

- Your Boys at Canes

- Some fire pics we took at some random light in the street XD

- Elder Benson had a $35 gift card to Village Inn so we went and got some pies.

- More sick pics at basketball