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Thanks for the Ride⛩🏆 (Week 102 - Last P-day!!!)

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Today is a day of mixed emotions. As we come to the end of this two year adventure they call a mission, my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude and joy. The past two years have been an experience like no other, but I’m just grateful that the Lord saw fit to let me be a part of it and see his hand bless the lives of folks through me. There is a quote I saw once that I think sums things up pretty well. “Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey: delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” It has been truly h
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One For the Books🇯🇵🏆⛩ (Week 101)

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This past weeks has definitely been one for the books. A lot has happened and we don’t have a whole lot of time to write today so I’ll cover the highlights. 1. Last Monday, we had Zone p-day and zone blitz over in Machida. Got to ball up a little bit on the court and top it off with some family history dendo that night. We asked everyone to prepare and bring their own pedigree chart and then a couple blank ones to hand out. It was a lot of fun and a huge blessing to be able to use my own family stories to invite the people of Japan to come unto Christ. 2. Tuesday, we had a combined Kofu and Hachioji District Meeting. Had lots of good trainings and learned a lot. Also had the opportunity to write a gospel haiku. Anyone who knows me, knows that language arts isn’t my specialty, but I think it turned out pretty good. 善に向けて、悔い改めを、清めなり 3. On Wednesday we taught a lesson to our friend Sanosaka San. Talked a lot about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how faith leads to repentance and repentanc
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Ministering to the One🏆⛩🚶‍♂️ (Week 100!!)

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What’s up everybody!? Hope everyone had a great week! We’ve got some big plans over here today, so not too much time to write, but we had quite the adventure this past week. It seems like we’ve been around the world and back this past week, but one way good experience was this past Friday. So we went out to Takao to go on splits with our amazing District Leader, the one and only Elder Thorin, hailing from South Dakota. Now, for anyone who knows anything about the Takao area, you know two things: the delicious soba shop right next to the apartment and the legendary number 7. Basically, on the Takao area map, there is one mountain man of a less-active member who lives ridiculously far out and is labeled as number 7. Eventually, we decided that we had to make the most of the opportunity and hit up both. So we plan accordingly, hop on our bikes for the two hour up-hill journey, and get to work. It was a beautiful ride, right along side a river in the countryside, but biking in slacks and a
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The 3 Day Party🎉⛩ (Week 99)

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おはようございます！ Hope everyone had an awesome week! This past week in Hachioji has definitely been one to remember. For most of the week, Elder Matsunaga and I were running around from district to district for meetings, going up to Kichijoji for MLC, and teaching lessons, doing baptismal interviews, and so on in between. It's been a blast but the real party was going on this past weekend. Now usually, Japanese people are very much the “stay in your own lane” type, and typically aren’t big fans of causing a scene in the streets, but let me tell you, when the annual Hachioji summer festival rolls around, they know how to turn up. The prep for this festival has been going on for several weeks now, and the turn out was huge. The actual party started Friday morning and didn’t end until Sunday night. There were so many people on the streets, you literally couldn’t walk. It was just a matter of friendly shoving and foot shuffling until we made it through. It was a lot of fun though. There were
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Typhoons, Lady’s Baseball, and Zone Conference⛩🇯🇵 (Week 98)

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Well, it’s been quite the week over here in the Land of the Rising Sun. Once again, we’ve been stretched pretty thin with not a whole lot of time to come up for air, but it’s been a blast and we’ve been blessed to see all kinds of miracles. To start with, the beginning of last week was all meetings and planning for Zone Conference this past Thursday . Elder Matsunaga and I and the STL’s gave a zone training on becoming experts in PMG which went really well and lined up perfectly with President Warnick’s trainings, and then Elder McDonald and I did a musical number with President Warnick in guitar which went as well as it could with zero practice lol. Either way though, we sang “I’ll go where you want me to go” and the Spirit was strong, so that’s all that matters. Next pretty big event this past week was our typhoon this past Saturday . We talked to some pretty concerned Japanese people and got lots of calls from leadership, but everything was completely fine. I tried explain
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The Beginning of the End ⛩ (Week 97)

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Have you ever just walked outside and been like, wow, you know, it’s really really hot out here and it probably can’t get any hotter than this? And then you walk out the next day and realize it got even hotter... We’ll, if I had to sum up our week this past week, that’s how I’d describe it. Hachioji truly is 太陽の町. It’s been rough, but we’re hanging in there and having some fun along the way. In other news, this past week was transfers, and there has been some major changes. First off, I’m still here in Hachioji (blessings from Heaven), but Elder Gill transferred to my old area Yokosuka, and my new companion is the one and only Elder Matsunaga from Yamaguchi-Ken. On top of that, our zone has doubled in size and now we cover the entire Machida Stake rather than just the western half. Yea, I just thought last transfer was busy. We’ve been running around like chickens with our heads cut off working with Stake leaders, organizing all our districts, planning zone conference, and coordinatin
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Life’s a Fiesta! (Week 96)

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Well, another week and another transfer have come to an end. It’s always crazy to see how fast time flies. This transfer definitely ended with a bang though. We’ve traversed hill, valley, and dale running back and forth from meetings, visiting members, dance practices, the doctor, and various exchanges throughout the week. Needless to say, it’s been busy, but we’ve been having a blast. So this past Saturday , we had a big mission wide event that earned the name of “Fiesta”. Basically, everyone got together, had a big party, and was able to learn little bit about South American cultures and Family History along the way. The events were broken up into different countries including, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and few others. I got roped into performing with team Brazil and let me tell you, it was a blast. We had a couple different showcases including, soccer, capoeira, and some Brazilian jujitsu. The soccer was a questionable, but the other two were right up my alley. Overall, we had lik
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