Sunday, December 31, 2023

the one with Christmas

"Boom you looking for this?"

Monday was Christmas!! And man did we have fun. We started the day with opening lots of gifts and eating a ton of candy. After that we went to the church and called pur families. We then left the church and met up at a ramen restaurant with the sister missionaries and Makoto. After we finished eating, we went to a mall and all picked up gifts for a white elephant gift exchange. After that we all went back to the church and did our white elephants and then played lots of games. It was super fun and a great way to spend Christmas. At 6:00 it was back to missionary work so we went to a nearby train station and sang christmas carols with the sisters. And by the end of the day, elder hall was feeling a little sick. 

Wednesday, elder McMaster woke up sick and him and elder hall were both pretty miserable. 

Thursday me and Elder Perkins both woke up sick so now all of us were miserable. We all had fevers, stuffy noses, and headaches which was not fun. 

Saturday was a big mission wide cleaning day and we spent a big chunk of the day just cleaning our apartment. Which was good because we all just felt like dying. We also taught Makoto the Plan of Salvation which she really loved!

Sunday we taught Makoto the final lesson which we usually teach at two separate times because its ALL the commandments but when we got halfway through, she wanted to hear the rest of them. After teaching her the last lesson, we all were talking with some members and the sisters missionaries and I was thinking about it and because we finished all the lessons, Makoto could get Baptized this next Sunday. So I asked her if she wanted to move it up a week or if she wanted to keep it on the 14th and she decided to move it up a week! So now she is going to get Baptized next Sunday!! After all that, we went to a ward family's house for dinner and it was a ton of fun! The sister missionaries and Makoto were there and it was a blast!

Spiritual Thought:
2 Nephi 2:25
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

Man that verse is something else. This week we taught Makoto the Plan of Salvation which has been her favorite lesson so far. She especially loved hearing about the spirit world and how everyone is given a chance to accept Jesus Christ. 

I love this verse so much because everything happend for a reason and it all happened accoring to God's plan. Not only this but the reason God's has this amazing plan is so that we can feel eternal peace, joy and happiness. Even the bad things we go through, are there to make us happier in the end. Even when we can't see why God is making us go through something hard, he is doing it for our benefit.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. "

‐C.S Lewis 

Well thats all I got for this week and man was it a long week. Being sick really is the worst and I hope I get over it soon. But Sunday was sooo great and I cant wait for next week!

party time

our Christmas tree in all its glory

Christmas morning gift opening

"Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer"🎡

After Christmas District council

Really good pie and ice cream...some of the best I've ever had

Our friend Tadashi that took us there!

Christmas Eve Christmas party!

Had a blast with everyone!

Ah yeah we back at it. 16-14

Had to get some McDonalds for my dad

Yeah we are both sick but that can't stop usπŸ’ͺ17-15

Sunday, December 24, 2023

the one with the overalls

"Boom you looking for this?"

Monday we went to more shrines for P day and ate some really good ramen. 

Tuesday we did some service and I was finally able to use my Noah's ark overalls!! I also got a straw hat and it really completed the look. 

Wednesday we had a Christmas district council and we went up to Kobe for it. It was super fun and we opened some of the packages that we got. I'm waiting until Christmas for most of mine cuz I gotta have something to do. It was a super fun day and it was like Christmas pt.1 

Thursday we played ping pong after eikaiwa with some fun kids and it was a really good day.

Saturday we started out with doing some more service so I was able to whip out the overalls again! We also had our ward Christmas party!! It was awesome!! Me and Elder Hall were in two different choirs and then us and the other elders we are living with sang jingle bells and it was so fire. I've got a sick video of it on the album you should go check out. 

Sunday we had a super fun Christmas sacrament meeting!! We sang the song that we sang at the Christmas party again and had lots of other musical numbers and talks. We also had a lesson with Makoto but more on that in a minute...
We also had another Christmas party at a member's house! It was a ton of fun and we played lots of games, ate great food, and had Makoto over as well!

Spiritual thought:

Per some of my family members request's, I decided to huck a quick spiritual thought at the end of the email. Also I should note that I am writing this during sacrament meeting. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about one of our friends named Makoto. I've talked about her a little bit in my emails but I haven't talked about her very much. One day she saw the missionaries (my comp and his old companion) and wanted to learn more about them but she is very shy so she tried following them so she could get to our church. But on the way, they stopped at a convenient store so she looked on her phone and found the nearest church and beat the elders to it. After talking with her she seemed very interested in the church and wanted to come to church that Sunday and wanted to start coming to eikaiwa. This is when I came to Japan so she came to church and also started coming to eikaiwa. We have now been teaching her since then and her faith is unbelievable. After some time, she decided to text and tell her mom what she was doing and what she believes. Her mom was less than happy and started ignoring her. When she got home that night her mom asked, "Is it the Mormon church?" "What?" Replied Makoto. "Is it the Mormon church!" Her mom said again. Makoto responded by saying, "We don't go by that name. We are members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." When she first told me this, I was esctatic! It was so amazing to hear how much she really believed in the church and how, even thought it had only been a few weeks, she was willing to stand up for our church. Since that day, she has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and has been praying so many times a day. She really is amazing and she was so well prepared for the gospel to come into her life.
 
Well midway through writing this, we had a lesson with Makoto! And, drum roll please.... She's now on date to get baptized on January 14th!! We are so excited to see her get baptized! Miracles really do exist! 

Well thats all I've got for this week! It was a really fire week and we had a ton of fun! I can't wait to see Makoto get baptized in a few weeks!!

The completed fitπŸ”₯
more shrines for pday!

I'm running out of captions for shrines

Look! A gate!!

the biggest shrine!

another sick pond

My mom has been asking for this pic for a LONG time🀣

Yeah, they are Noah's ark overalls😎

yessir an absolute party

service--cleaning up some flowers

the gift we got for serving!

11-10 still up on him

Most dogs I've seen at a convenience store so far. 13-11

Did some かんばん and met these sick kids

Another girl we met doing かんばん

The Amagasaki castle (sorry, it's a little far away)

all the boys together

Christmas district council! とてもζ₯½γ—い

More dogs 14-12

Sick new friends we met and played ping pong with after eikaiwa

Everyone tat

Singing in the Christmas play πŸ˜†

The final song we all sang together

Dinner at the party...lots of Christmas tree potato salad

Pics with our friends! Top left is Makoto さん

Christmas party 2023!

More pics with our friends

More pics!

Kobe Mission Christmas card




Sunday, December 17, 2023

the one with the new elders

"Boom you looking for this?"

Starting with Monday we went to a zoo for P day which was super sick and I got tons of pics on the album. After the zoo we went to the Kobe church and played spikeball. That was pretty much the whole P day but it was still a ton of fun.

Tuesday we ate a new restaurant for district council and tried some good korean chicken. Pretty much everyday is following the usual schedule. 

Wednesdays we met up with this sick dude named Yaw and hes african. Hes super sick and seems kinda interested in the gospel. We went to lunch with him and we are hoping to keep meeting with him. 

Saturday was a big day! During lunch we had two new elders that pulled up to the apartment. One of them is a brand new elder and the other is gonna be heading out in February. So now we have them living with us! Its super fun having 4 elders at our apartment. We also have sisters in this area so there are now 3 sets of missions all over the same area. 

Sunday was a pretty regular day but it was super fun to have 6 missionaries at church! We also had a member meal for dinner which was awesome! He ended up feeding us okonomiyaki which was super good but we had eaten it already for lunch which was pretty funny. 

Super fun week but man was it long. We've been looking forward to next week with Christmas and everything so it was such a slow week. 

Dinner with the new elders

went to the zoo for district pday

I'm up 6-5

lots of zoo pics upcoming

an absolute chiller

got myself some dippin dots

sloth ig


best companionship out there

the sickest monkey of all time...just chilling

koala

big boi

banger Korean chicken

ah yeah we back at it 7-6...yours truly is up

8-7 to end the night

he got one but we forgot to get a pic 9-8

10-8 I'm gonna be so poor

pic of the pic of the dogs

Sunday dinner with Nishiyo Family

the one where he became a DL

  "Boom, you looking for this?" Starting with Monday, we had district P day, and we all went to the aquarium! It was a fun day, an...