Elder Dylan Sadler's Adventures in the Japan Tokyo South Mission

Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad! メリークリスマス! What's happening everybody!? Sorry it's been forever but the good news is, I'm still alive! It's been a very eventful past few weeks but long story short, I'm now in Kohoku with some awesome missionaries (ex. Elder Budge) and an awesome companion named Elder Low. Today, I am suffering from a severe case of writer's block and I honestly have no idea what to write, but things have been good. We have been crazy busy with Christmas parties, Sacrament meetings, emergency transfers, and all the other holly jolly activities of this wonderful season. Also had a great opportunity to Skype home yesterday morning as well. I love my family and I love modern technology that allows me to call home twice a year. I love the Christmas season and I love being a missionary here in Japan sharing the true meaning of Christmas with the Japanese people. Second and last Christmas as a missionary but it's been a lot of fun! Sorry I couldn...

Note from Barry:  Once again Elder Sadler wrote a very brief email to family.  He said this last week has been eventful with Christmas coming up and the normal activities of serving a mission.  Here is a brief quote: "I love the Christmas season, and celebrating as a missionary just makes it that much better. Being able to go out and serve and teach a non-Christian country about the true meaning of Christmas is an opportunity like no other. It can be difficult, but I wouldn't have it any other way." He will be transferred this Wednesday to a new area - Kohoku, with a new companion, Elder Low.  He expressed his gratitude for the love and support that he continues to receive through your emails.  We look forward to our opportunity to Skype with him next weekend. I am including a mission map so you can see where he will be.

Hello my wonderful family. Glad to hear things are going well at home and the snow looked like a lot of fun! We haven't had any snow here in Japan yet, but it has definitely been cold enough, haha. I'll try to type a real weekly email next week. I did really appreciate all the great emails this past week. Lots of love and support from everyone and it really meant a lot to me. Keep being awesome. I love you all!  Merry Christmas!

Note from Barry:  Elder Sadler did not share a public email this week.  He did email our family to let us know that he arrived safely in his new area (Sagamihara) on Thursday.  He also shared that this has been a very challenging week.  I would ask that you please keep Elder Sadler and his companion in your prayers.  Thank you to all of you who continue to love and support him. 

What's up everybody!? It's been another great week here in the area of Yokosuka. Another transfer has come to an end as everyone anxiously awaits transfer emails today. It's crazy to see how fast time flies. I can't believe it's already been four transfers in Yokosuka. In all honesty, I hope to stay in Yokosuka one more transfer. We have seen lots of miracles and exciting things are happening! This past week was a long one. First of all, it was the last full week of the transfer so everyone has been a little anxious. Second off, not gonna lie, the dendo was pretty rough this past week. Not a whole lot of people wanted to talk to us. We went out everyday and tried to stop as many as we could, but not too many people were having it haha. Third off, it was Thanksgiving! So glad I got to spend it in little America. The Serrano family has us over for Thanksgiving dinner and it was awesome! I definitely ate way too much and then some, but it was great (especially the pe...

Konnichiwa! Hope everyone had a great week! Not gonna lie, this past week for Elder Thomson, Elder Ota, and I was not that fun haha. The seasons have changed here in Japan and let me tell you, it is cold! One of my companions is from Brigham City, Utah and the other is from Sapporo Japan so they think I'm just being a baby when I say I'm freezing, but for a good ole' Bama boy like myself, I didn't find it that funny. Anyway, long story short, all three of us have managed to catch colds. We have been pretty under the weather this past week and we are still working on getting over it. We haven't let that get us down though. Despite being punched in the face by colds though, it was a pretty decent week. We were unfortunately not able to meet with our boy, JT, this past week because of his work schedule, but he messaged us saying that he wants to meet this week when he has some time. I'll keep you posted on that one. We were able to meet with Manuel though. Because...

¿Que pasa amigos? Hope everyone had a great week! Elder Thomson and I were back at it again this past week with lots of business and lots of miracles. Because I'm not a big fan of writing though, I'll just cover the good parts! So, we'll start with last Monday. It was a lot of fun. Elder Thomson and I trained up to Kunitachi (my previous area), met up with my trainer, Elder Dowdle, ate some of Kyo Shimai's delicious ramen, and did some shopping around. Kunitachi is pretty far so it took a while, but it was a fun. Monday night, we were doing some housing around and found a way cool guy from the Philippines. He will be out of the country until next week, but he said he would like to learn about the gospel so we will visit him again then. Tuesday was all kinds of busy. Study and prep in the morning, correlation meeting and district meeting in the afternoon, dinner with the Whittier Family, and Japanese Class in the evening. Productive day. On Wednesday , we had intervi...

Once upon a time in a land so divine called West-Side Yokosuka...  What's up my home skillets? It's been another one here in the land of Japan. Elder Thomson and I have been going out every day putting in work and seeing miracles all the time. We are headed up to Kunitachi (my previous area) today to meet up with my Trainer (Elder Dowdle) before he goes home this Christmas. In other words, we don't have much time to write, but I'll do my best. Due to the lack of time and my desire to write at all, I'll just share one miracle we saw this week. It actually happened yesterday. It all started off as a beautiful Sabbath day. We attended church, were able to partake of the Sacrament, had some great Sunday School lessons, and got updates on the Alabama scores (Roll Tide). Everything was going great. After Church, we were able to attend the baptismal service of one of the children in our Ward. Always a touching experience. After dinner that night, we had plans to go out ...

皆さん, waaaazzzzzzuuuuuuup!? How was everyone's week? The past two weeks here in Yokosuka have been interesting to say the least. We have had two typhoons now so Elder Thomson and I have basically been swimming around in it trying to get stuff done. If anyone doesn't know where Yokosuka is, look it up on google maps. You will notice that the peninsula sticks right out into the middle of the ocean and is just begging for a good Typhoon to come through and wreck it. Well, these past two weeks, it finally happened. Eventually you get to a point where it doesn't matter if you get wet anymore. It just doesn't even phase us anymore haha. We could probably take a fully clothed dip in the ocean and it wouldn't make any difference lol. Despite the never ending buckets of rain though, this past week has been really good! I'll just highlight the major events. Last Wednesday, we had Zone Conference. It was pretty good. Lots of great personal and District revelation. There we...

Hello! How was everyone's week? If it was anything like mine, you must have been busy! Elder Thomson and I had a crazy busy week this past week with apartment cleaning, transfers, trainings up in Kichijoji, and Stake Conference here in Yokosuka. Being a trainer and a new district leader has been fun, but it is busy. So this past week, a lot happened, and truth be told, I don't remember the details of a lot of it because it went by so fast. We'll see if I can cover it though. Last Monday, was p-day. We just took it easy and stayed inside all day because of the seemingly endless torrent of rain. Tuesday was our packing and cleaning day (packing for Elder McDonald and cleaning for the rest of us). That wasn't so fun, but we got it knocked out. On Wednesday , we saw sunshine for the first time in almost two weeks! It was nice to know that the sun still exists. That only lasted for a couple hours though, and then it went right back to those little blessings from heaven th...

(Note from Barry:  Google translates the title above to "Still More".) Hey, hey hey! This is Elder Sadler coming at you from Yokosuka, Japan!  How was everyone's week? Elder Thomson and I have been living it up over here in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's been raining for a week straight now. No joke! It hasn't stopped, like at all. But that hasn't stopped us from getting out in the service of our Lord and our fellow man! To be honest with you, not a whole lot of interesting stuff happened this week. Our investigators all fell through again, for the third week in a row. That was pretty frustrating, but we found the gold lining! One great thing that happened this week was a guy named Jospeh that we talked to on the street a few days ago. Way nice guy. He said he had met missionaries back in the states and had been going to church for a while, but since coming to Japan a year ago, he has not been. He said that he wanted to get back into it so we invited him...

皆さんこんにちは! Another week down here in Yokosuka, Japan. To tell you the truth, I can't believe this week is already over! Time is such a weird thing on a mission. Some days you walk around for and hour, look down at your watch and it's only been five minutes. And then there are some days when you blink and then the week is gone! It's quite the emotional rollercoaster. Elder Thomson and I are both buckling up and hanging in there though on this ninety to nothing rollercoaster of an adventure. This past week, we had lots of finding time. For the second week in a row, all of our investigators got busy or fell through and couldn't meet. Not going to lie, it was pretty frustrating. The beautiful thing about the mission though is that, our success is not based on the decisions of others. No matter how many baptism we get or how many doors are slammed in our face, our true success is based solely off of our efforts and our commitment to the Lord. I have seen that a lot as I h...