Change in pace
So we've got a new transfer ahead of us and it all looks way good. We are looking at being quite successful this transfer. I'm really looking forward to it. So, on to the weekly wrap up. Monday ~ This was Nelson’s last day here so we got him all set up and taken care of. He had his last meal at a Mexican restaurant, a rarity here. Then we hung out with Yui Kyoudai (Brother), a recent convert here, and a way good guy. After that it was talking to some peeps and then we went home for Nelson to finish packing. Tuesday ~ So we shipped Nelson off in the morning. He was headed out to catch the shinkansen (bullet train 🚄), so he set out pretty early. Then I cleaned the apartment, while the other guy decided to study. After he did his studying and most of the cleaning was done he decided to vacuum his room and call it a good cleaning day. Oh well. Thanks mom for teaching me how to put in the work actually needed to clean up a house. From there we went to pick up Elder Osmond from the eki (train station). We made our way to Nagano Station and picked him up. After that we ate some lunch and waited for his stuff to arrive. Once his bags arrived we let him unpack and get all settled in, then we had Eikaiwa. That was kind of it. Wednesday ~ We had service in the morning, but we had to head out early and get to an appointment with Kanemura San. It was way good and he agreed to come to church, but that changed on Sunday because some accident happened in his apartment. Its ok because we had a good lesson and after that the lesson Osmond and I hit the streets. Well it turned out to be a rough night and we got rejected a lot, but in the end we met a nice old man who gave us an orange and we also helped a guy, who had just moved to Nagano, find some Chinese food. So we felt good about our efforts. That was our night though, sometimes they are a bit rough. Thursday ~ Planning, need I say more. Friday ~ We did some contacting and climbed a mountain, more details to come in a later letter: “Next week in the life of Elder Williams.” Love. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老
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If you can read that then you get my feelings. So this week instead of the usual day by day breakdown I'm kind of switching it up, just going to keep it simple. So here goes nothing. So missions, for us guys, only last 2 years and then we get shipped home with a “thumbs up” and a swift kick in the butt to get us moving on to the next phase of our lives. So one of the guys here in Nagano spent his last week as a missionary, and that is crazy, because that will be happening to me eventually. Amazingly, life here in Japan keeps moving on and I wish I could pause things so I wouldn't miss anything but hey life is life. As for me this week, we spent a lot of the week with members doing lots of work with them and helping them build their testimonies. So yeah, it was pretty great. Lots of family home evenings and stuff like that. Then on Friday night the dreaded transfer notices came and went. The results, I'm staying here in Nagano and will be getting a new comp, and Elder Nelson is headed out to Toyama. He is looking forward to going there, because we got him special permission to ride the Shinkansen, Japanese Bullet Train. So he'll be flying around at 200+ miles per hour. My new comp is Elder Osmond, like as in the son of an Osmond Brother. It's way cool. He was in my last district for two transfers, so we got to know each other way good. It should be way fun. We have lots of stuff to do here and the Lord always expects more so we need be going, just like Elder Nelson, about 200 miles per hour, but without the train. Anyways, thanks for all the love and support. I'll probably end up sending out a larger email with all of the weekly events next week. Who knows, I might just give up next week, but I probably won't. Have a good week y'all. Stay safe. Stay in the gospel. And if you’re like me stay single, “. . . single to the glory of God . . .” just to quote D&C 4:5. Love, Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 I'm still alive.
Here we are again so if any of you thought I just dropped off the map and died and that's why I didn't write last week. Think again. It's just as I get to the end of my mission I am kind of done writing emails. Like don't get me wrong I love all of you guys but like man I didn't do stuff like this before my mission. Just ask my parents I moved out and would call like maybe once a week. Like yeah but missions are special and I'm glad I'm out here working but man reporting has always been one of my least favorite things, just ask me about writing book reports or lab reports Anyways I guess I'm going to jump back two weeks to see what happened. So his may get long. And always it's a wild ride in Japan. Monday 2/27 ~ Man this feels like ages ago but this was an awesome P-day. My convert from when I was serving in Nagoya city, specifically Takabata Ward, came and visited me and we spent the afternoon together. We went to lunch and talked and had a good time. I missed him. Julz got baptized on my last Sunday in Takabata and after he was baptized and confirmed I saw him only one more time and that was it. So it was good to see him again. He is so awesome and he has been to the temple to do baptisms already, which is way awesome. He is just an overall great guy. From there we wrapped up normal missionary stuff like shopping and the usual, noting to out of the ordinary for a missionary. Tuesday 2/28 ~ So we had zone conference this day. So early in the morning a member came to pick us up because members were invited to come to the meetings. So we rode down and picked up another member because they wanted to go. Once there we had a nice training and then lunch and then some trains from our mission President and it was all good. Then we started the trip home and that took forever. Man we actually made it home just in time to teach our English class. But that was literally our day. Also during the training I passed the mission wide Japanese proficiency test like thingy to the mission President's wife and I now have a pin for my suit that signifies to the members and other missionaries that I speak Japanese, kind of. But yeah it's all good. Wednesday 3/1 ~ So we had service in the afternoon and had a good time there. The old people are way funny and we just do arts and crafts with them so it's way good. Then after that we ran home changed ate some food and then hit the streets. It was fun and we talked to lots of cool people but yeah no takers. All good but we ended the night cold tired and ready to hit the sack. Thursday 3/2 ~ So in the morning we had a mougi lesson with a member and we practiced our lesson for the day. After that we went home did took he pointers given by our member and created an ultimate lesson and then we ran out the door to bike to the lesson. Once there we had a way good lesson and we got him to want to come to church. It was way good. And after that we again hit the streets and had another rough night. But it's all good. Friday 3/3 ~ So one of the members decided he wanted to take us out to visit some people who live way far into the mountains and we had a fun talk all the way there. Once there we met with a member who was way cool and was active. The thing that surprised is that this man drives an hour or so to church through the mountains by himself every week. And to top that off he's like 70 years old. It's crazy. Also he's thankful that the church is close to him. Like what?! The church actually used to be about 2 hours away because there wasn’t a building in Nagano at the time but man this guy is awesome. Then as we were returning home, our evening lesson canceled, so we had a night of visiting some less actives in the area, all in all it turned out to be a good night. Saturday 3/4 ~ So to start this crazy day off we had lunch with an Eikaiwa student and she made like a five star meal. It was soooooo good. But then again anything the members or people make for us is leagues above anything I could make. So I really enjoyed it. After that we had to hustle off to meetup with a member who was taking us to a basketball 🏀 game. All of you who know me probably know I was way excited and happy. Also while there I did lose my voice as per usual Williams’ family member at a basketball game. So yeah that was fun the member who took us really like it when missionaries aren't all robotic with him and boy did he see that I'm not a robot missionary. So yeah that was funny. He then drove us to the train station so we could make it home on time. It was way fun. After getting home all I had to worry about was maybe being able to speak the next day. Sunday 3/5 ~ A good fast Sunday and the guy from Thursday Kanemura, 金村 literally means money village, came to church and it was way good. He stayed for an hour and had a good time and one of our members talked to him and really made him feel welcome. It was way good. Then after all the meeting we had a special meeting in which the branch president and all the missionaries in which he outlined exactly what he would like us to do for the branch and so yeah we got it all clear and exactly what he wants us doing so it's good. After all of that, we proceeded to call all of the families with primary aged children and set up family home evenings with them, such a fun idea. After that not much else. Monday 3/6 ~ So we kind of emailed aka I sat around practicing piano because I kind of was done with emails. I'm repenting though. From there we went to do the regular stuff and then we decided to go out and eat and treat ourselves. And it was way good. After that we did some more random visits and tried talking to people bit it was kind of rough. Tuesday 3/7 ~ So we decided we wanted to try something called a power hour with a member. So what you do is you go to a member's house and share a short message about faith, and then you go out and do your best at working. So we did that. And while we were talking to people on the street we talked to a group of people that wouldn't mind meeting up again and they gave us their number and all the good stuff. This was the last people we were able to talk to as we needed to go back to the church for our weekly English class, way cool little miracle. Wednesday 3/8 ~ So we had service in the afternoon and after that we had dinner. After that we decided that because we went in the afternoon to try to visit less actives earlier in the week that we would visit them at night this time. Well still no luck, but only one door was slammed in our faces so that was good. That was our night. Thursday 3/9 ~ So in the morning we had another mougi, practice, lesson with a member and then we went home to make some lunch and as we are making it a member, Ezaki, calls us and says that he is almost to our apartment and wants to take us to visit some less active members that live really far away. So we quickly clean up and get ready for him. He then drives us around and we get to meet some nice people and then he buys us some McDonald's and takes us to our next lesson. At the lesson we talked about Kanemura's experience at church and what he thought about it. He thought it was good, but he wasn't sure he could go for a while, kind of sad. After the lesson we ran off to meet up with a member to take us out to one of the FHE's we had set up. Once there we did a good lesson with the family and at the end we had them all bear testimony, way fun. After that the mom had graciously prepared curry and saw to it that we were full. And then she busted out some ice cream. Man it was way good and such a cool family. Friday 3/9 ~ So we helped a member move in the morning. We thought it was going to take a while but with the man power we had we got it done way quick and then we went out to lunch with them. Where it was all you could eat and ate too much. But hey it's all good. I'm still young. After we waddled our way home, all the while feeling fat, we did our planning session for the week and then planned a lesson for that night, which was way good. The mom agreed to pray every night with her son and we will be following up with them. After that we finished our planning. But that was our night. Saturday 3/10 ~ More crazy stuff. So we traveled all the way to Ueda City for some training. While we were meeting there was a protest that came right by the church. Don't worry its Japan so it was peaceful. From there we had to hurry home in time to meet a member at a Japanese class. Once there it was way fun. And we found a way good pi who is way interested. After that we rushed back to the church for our ping pong night with some peeps. And then we went off to eat some food but that was it. Sunday 3/11 ~ So it was a pretty normal Sunday followed by some really long meetings. But yeah that's church. After that we had a lesson with an investigator followed by another FHE. Which went awesome and it kind of just turned into a giant party that everyone had a good time at. Well that is it from me over here. Have a great week y'all. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 Hello. It’s me. I was wondering....
I think that’s how that Adele song goes, but I've never really heard it but yeah Hello again. It’s been another week of craziness in the history books. Thanks for all the people that message/emailed/all of that good stuff. It was nice to catch up with you in the best way I could. Sorry if I haven't replied yet. Like I said last week I was kind of just done with the whole email thing. Any ways lets be off on another adventure of missionary life in Japan. Monday ~ So on Monday we went and did all that normal p-day stuff, shopping cleaning, emailing and the whole nine yards. We even tried to go to the bike shop to get my comps bike fixed up because it sounds like death as he's riding it around. But they we are closed so that was postponed for a bit. Then after that we did some calling of people and scheduling stuff and all the while mad Oreo balls, my easy to make treat, for the upcoming luncheon. Any ways more about that on Sunday. Tuesday ~ So we had a lesson in the afternoon but because it was snowing we dreamed it not fit for riding because it gets pretty icy here pretty easy. So we rode the train to Nagano Station and there we headed out to where we thought we were going to meet our investigator. Turns out we were wrong but before we knew that we got to talk to some really cool people and we also met a guy that will probably come to Eikaiwa. So after we redirected ourselves to the right location we met up with the investigator and had a lesson from there. It was pretty interesting as he explained to us that he is atheists and just like learning about religion. We felt like his interest is only in the English and not in the gospel so we set only one more event so we could get him an English Book of Mormon. But that would be it. After that we were just kind of roaming around the area and talking to people and then we realized we needed to get home and go eat dinner and get ready for Eikaiwa. So we rushed off to home and ate a big dinner and then had a good time at Eikaiwa. Wednesday ~ So to start obviously we had the studies in the morning and then we did some record work. And after all of that we had service that afternoon and we had a good time there and then after that we ran home and ate some dinner. During dinner we picked a less active that was deemed to have potential and after that we ran around trying to contact people because the less active kind of shut the door on us. Yeah that was fun but we kept up the good attitude and tried seeing if we could meet up with a few people. One was home and we had a great talk with them. Thursday ~ So this was kind of a crazy day. One elder was going to the hospital to get a checkup but they had lots of appointments scheduled so we did some area splits and I went with the one elder to teach a lesson and my comp went to the hospital with the other guy. After that we all met back up at lunch time and heard that the guy who went to the hospital just needed some R and R and would be as good a new so I stayed home and went crazy on Oreo balls while the other guy was asleep and the other two guys went to teach another lesson. When they got back they helped me finish up what I had begun. After that my comp and I had to run out to a lesson that had been rescheduled but we forgot that so we just did some planning. Friday ~ So we had DTM in the morning and it was way good. Finally got to meet the entire district and that’s always good. After that we finished up our weekly planning session that we started the night before and then we went and grabbed some lunch and headed out to our investigators musical performance. It was way cool. If the videos weren't way long I would send some but yeah way cool. After that we had to run home with the help of a member giving us a ride because we were pretty far away from home. And our only mode of transportation would have been the trains. But the member helped us out and it was way nice. Saturday ~ So we had lessons from morning to night which is a good feeling. So we started at 11 in the morning with our first lesson which went ok. We realized he hasn't progressed as far as we would have liked but that ok because it’s not our time table but his and the Lords. So after that we took care of some stuff, like buying the recent convert here a nice set of scriptures and putting in some money reimbursements. Stuff like that and after that we went out early to our next lesson so we could talk to people along the way. But after we get to the appointed area and waited a while we called him and we learned that he had something random come up and he couldn't come. It was all good so we rescheduled and then I proceeded to send out a mass text to lots of people about the upcoming luncheon. After all that we ran out to one more investigator who was also busy and not home. So we visited some more old investigators because that’s what we do. Then we capped the night with some food and that was the end for Saturday. Sunday ~ So we had church which is always good. And my new "calling" in the ward is to play the piano for priesthood meeting because no one else can. So some pressure on me. Anyways it’s all good. After that we had the luncheon. Everybody brought lots of food and we added 130 Oreo balls to the mix. It turned out way good and the entire ward loved the Oreo balls. The only reason that they weren't gone first is because we made so many. After that we had a meeting to discuss an activity that the couple missionaries wanted to do. So we all agreed that it would be a good activity but we were worried about the timing as their plan is to do it during the time when school is restarting in Japan, like japan school ends in late March and restarts in early April. So it’s kind of rough to do activities in that time but the couples don't really care and pushed hard for it and then they had some other things that we ended up sorting out and it turned out to be a 2 hour long meeting. I guess even when I'm not branch president i will have these types of meetings. And after that we had a meeting with a member of the branch presidency to discuss what is going on in the branch and that was good. But it took most of our time and we went home for a late dinner and tried to make cookies in time to deliver them to someone but that didn't work so we just set up some member appointments while making the cookies. All in all it was a good week. I still don't like meetings but i think I'm going to have to accept the fact that they are just a part of my life from now until forever. Well that’s all from me here in Nagano. Hope y'all had a good week. I loved hearing from you guys. Love, Elder Williams 愛する ウィリアムズ長老 Writing emails is hard, sometimes.
If you can't tell I'm kind of have no will to write this email. Any emails in fact it's kind of weird. Maybe I feel like doing it next week but who knows. Monday ~ Pretty routine but good P-day. We had lots of shopping and cleaning and emailing and stuff. It was a good recharge day. And then of course we went out and did some contacting and then that night we did some scheduling of appointments so we could work around the conference that would happen on Saturday, Elder Holland was coming so yeah it was kind of important. Tuesday ~ So in the morning we had skype interviews with our mission President. It was a good talk and like always I took a little too long. But it's all good. After that we had an appointment so we had to hustle out there and then we learned that the guy had caught a cold so he had to cancel. So we went out to lunch at a little fast food joint and then hit the streets again and talked to lots of cool people and then we had to run off to Eikaiwa to teach English. And that clapped off our night. Wednesday ~ So me and my comp decided to try dieting so he can finally lose that MTC weight. I to got a bit heavier as I probably ate a bit more as a branch president so I agreed. So this was the start day but then after we met with the senior couple missionaries in the morning to discuss less active work. After that they offered to take us out so we had to agree and there went our diet so it would start the next day. After all of that we went to service and had a great time helping the old people. Then we ran off to try and meet with our Ward mission leader but he had to work late so we didn't get to meet with him so we started the long trek home and it took a long time. But that was the night for us. Thursday ~ So we got a text that morning that the Holland conference was canceled and so We were all way disappointed and so we began weekly planning on a pretty low note. So we started making banana bread as we were planning and it was a good time spent. We re-planned all of our days that now had nothing on them and planned who to give the bread to that we were making. After all of that we got out of the house and started doing street contacting, because that's way fun. But that was pretty much our day. Friday ~ So we wake up and as we are getting ready we got a surprise text from the president. And it was awesome news. Holland was coming to visit us and the conference was back on. We were way excited and so we got ready to take the trains down to Nagoya and stay the night with some other elders. So we spent the rest of the day on the trains to Nagoya. It's kind of far away. Saturday ~ So Holland Conference was way awesome. He answered so many questions and he "interviewed" us as he shook our hands. So he looked into our eyes and I honestly felt him search my soul. Good news he didn't send me home so he sees that my conduct as good and I felt way awesome to meet him. After that he talked and it was way amazing and it was way awesome. I have lots of notes so I'll share after I get home maybe. And then after the conference I met up with some friends and then we went back to the apartment and cleaned up our stuff and went back. Another long train ride. Then after we got back we hit the ground running and we ran to a few appointments and then we went home where we hit the sack. Sunday ~ So we had church and I introduced myself in sacrament meeting, again everyone is surprised at the five sisters thing. And then we had some good classes and then after that we gave the priesthood to the recent convert here and then after all of that we had some meetings and then we were supposed to have a meeting with an investigator and that got canceled. So we went home and ate some dinner and then went back to the church to watch the Holland devotional that was for the entirety of the church in Japan. It was also way awesome. And because it went long we had to rush home and that ended our week. Well looks like I actually wrote and email so looks like I can do hard things 😜. Hope everyone is doing well and that they are having a good week. I plan to write responses to everyone's emails this week and I'll ship them out next week. Love y'all. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 |
MissionCalled to Serve in the Japan Nagoya Mission.. Archives
July 2017
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