Weekly Wrap-up
Good morning everyone. Hope y'all are doing well. If you're wondering about me, I am still alive and kicking. It's been another week in the books and I have now spent more time on my mission than I have left. It's weird, but that is to come later. So let's begin. Monday ~ Well, it was P-day (Preparation Day) and it was pretty cool, we had an investigator lesson in the morning, and then we went shopping and did cleaning and all that fun stuff. After all the things were taken care of and put in order we headed out to the streets and had a really fun time trying to talk to people. We did not find anybody new to teach, but hey you give it your all and don't look back. And that was our day. Tuesday ~ So we planned on meeting an investigator, but we couldn't get a tachiai, member to come with us, so we had to cancel the lesson. Really hard, but we see this investigator later in the week. So after that, we went to service at a hospital for the mentally handicapped, always a good experience to work with those wonderful souls. After all was said and done there, we went out housing because street tracting was not fruitful the day before. Regardless, there were lots more rejections and some crazy grandmas that told us that we had the same religion even though we believe in Jesus Christ and she’s a Shinto. So yea, some people are funny. But that was pretty much the day. No one was really open to the message so we keep trucking along. Wednesday ~ We did all of our studies and then we went out after lunch. We did a lot of searching for less actives and some more housing. Still nothing to crazy happened. Anyways after all of the insane contacting we did, we finally got to wind down with Eikaiwa (English Class) and had a way fun time with everyone there. The students are so nice and we had a wonderful time. We then ran home after all was said and done. Thursday ~ Well, we got a call in the morning from the ward mission leader saying that he needed some help. So we packed up, ditched the studies, and ran off to his house. Once we got there, he told us that we just needed to help him flip over this old boat. It was way heavy and I was definitely the one bearing quite a bit of the weight. It kind of reminded me of weight lifting class, because I felt like I was doing dead lifts. From there we went to lunch at a famous Ise restaurant. It was pretty inexpensive, but it was way good. I got the famous Karagedon (fried chicken over rice). From here we went to the church and did planning for the area, and then after all of that, we did street contacting before our Japanese class. One of the people we visited was the person we had to cancel on during the week. When we knocked on her door we had no idea why we had decided to visit her, but when she opened the door she told us that the night before she had prayed and was told that the missionaries would come see her the next day. Pretty cool miracle. We then headed out for Japanese Class and it wasn't bad and we were almost able to get an investigator out of the class. Just not enough time before they kicked us out. After that we went home. Friday ~ So we shipped out early to get to Zone Training in Yokkaichi, but because of train problems we didn't get there until right when it started. So in missionary terms, we were way late. Anyways training was good and the president was there and we got to listen to him. I actually sat next to him and got some extra advice. From there we had some lunch and then rushed home for a member appointment and due to more train problems we were a bit late. Trains, you got to love them or got to hate them, sometimes both. Anyways the member lesson was awesome. After we did some prep for our game night and then we had game night, which turned out awesome. I got smashed in ping pong. It was way fun. Saturday ~ So this morning we had a lesson and it turned out to be a beautiful lesson with him. This man truly wants to change and it is amazing to watch him work through the gospel. After that we grabbed a bite to eat and then went to meet another investigator and their family. They were way nice and at the end we set up a time to do a family home evening with them. So it was way awesome. From there we went to a matsuri, Japanese festival, where we randomly ran into another investigator. From there we went to dinner and did some denwa dendo, phone tracting. And that was our night. Sunday ~ Always a good day. We had a good set of classes and lots of things got done / learned. After church I did some record searching over lunch and pulled out four people I wanted to visit that night. So we set out to make the visits, and two of the four said come on back, another wasn't home, and the last one said to come back later, but the feeling was more like please don't ever come again. Then on our way home, we ran into a member and set up an appointment with him. From there we just chatted for a while. He's a young single adult, so I told him to go to my old ward in Takabata and start dating the single LDS girls there. He never had heard that there were young single LDS women there, but after I told him he said he might make a trip up there to meet them. Score one for the match making missionaries. Anyways, that's the week from the Shinto Capital of the World, also known as the City of Ise. Love all of you guys, and I hope all of you guys are enjoying your summer break. Love Elder Williams 愛しています、 ウィリアムズ長老
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Well I missed last week so here goes nothing
For all of you that patiently wait for my emails, which I suspect is not that many, I'm sorry for missing this past week. Anyways, where to begin? Let’s go back to the Fourth of July. Monday ~ So we had a Fourth of July party with the district. It was way awesome. Lots of food and good times. Then we had a cool lesson with an investigator and his friends. Way awesome. We showed them around the church and taught some English. But that was pretty much our day. Tuesday ~ So we headed out to visit some people and that night we hung out with the Filipinos and started filling out the baptismal record for that week. We then shared a quick message and had some fun with them. Then it was back to the apartment. Wednesday ~ We went finding at the college and park and did some scouting out for our next barbecue. It was way awesome. We met some cool people and had an overall good time. Then we went to Eikaiwa and had a fun last time with those guys. I received some presents and stuff. It was all very fun. Thursday ~ We met with some Eikaiwa students for lunch and the after all of that we had a large planning session. We then had a lesson with some way cool guys. They came and gave a church tour and we even went out to dinner at Indo curry together. It was a way fun night. Friday ~ We had DTM (District Training Meeting), where we said some goodbyes to members of the district and then we headed home, where me and Pollister began prepping for the next day’s barbecue. We both made chicken marinades. I used the Williams family recipe and Pollister made a teriyaki version. It was a cool idea to give everyone two different flavors. Then we went to the Filipinos and finished the paper work for baptism. We then all went out to attempt the King’s Challenge (an eating challenge) from Sukiya. It's a place the serves gyudon, or sliced beef with onions all cooked up with some sauce and served on rice. The King’s Challenge was huge, but I conquered it first. After that, with very full bellies, we hurried home. Saturday ~ We spent the whole day prepping for the barbecue. We made 40 hamburgers from scratch. It all culminated in the large barbecue that night where the rain miraculously stopped right when we needed it to. It ended up being a way awesome barbeque, lots of people came and we had plenty of food. During this time I received the call that I would be transferred to Ise (an area southwest of Nagoya) and finish training a half-way trained bean. Sunday ~ To start off Julz, our way cool investigator, received baptism and he was baptized by his friend Mark. I later gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a very awesome baptism. After all the goodbyes were said at church, I ran home to pack. Then we went out to Jeff's house with the Filipinos and celebrated the day. We then ran home and I finished packing. Monday ~ The day was filled with going out to lunch and then rushing home to finish packing and shipping my stuff. Then we had a party at an investigator's house and then a lesson at the church. It was all good. For my last night it was a fun time. Tuesday ~ I woke up, showered and put on what clothes I had kept. Then at 8 AM I stepped on a train with my bean knowing this would be the last time we were companions. I then got off and changed trains and headed toward Ise. I took a short break in Yokkaichi Train Station, as that was where I was meeting my new companion, Elder Adams, from Melbourne, Australia. Once he arrived, we headed down to Ise where I got semi situated and then we did a mini planning session to catch me up on some things. After that he started to show me around our area in Ise. Wednesday ~ We had some member appointments and we went all around for them. The members are way nice and it was good to get to know them. We had Eikaiwa and usually when I first go to Eikaiwa, they aren't the greatest, but Ise has a really awesome and big Eikaiwa. It's way nice. Anyways, its way fun here and we played some really fun games. Thursday ~ We had lots of member appointments. Again it was like a go around and meet the new guy type deal, which is cool. Anyways, after that we went out and talked to people, which is a bit harder than it was in the city, because I'm back in the country. After that we headed on over to a Japanese learning class where they sized up my abilities in Japanese, aka they gave me a ton of kid Japanese books and asked if I understood. It was way fun to watch them be like, “What? The white kid can speak.” So it might get harder from here on out. Friday ~ We had our studies and then we did a large planning session to look at who needs to be focused on and that type of stuff. Then we went to a guy’s house to help him fix his computer and then we went to our game night where we got to hang out with some awesome people. Saturday ~ We did some LA (less active) and past investigator hunting for a while, all the while talking to anyone who would give us the time of day. After all of that we met up with an investigator and went out to a fireworks show and there we also met up with a member. It turned out to be a way fun and a cool experience. From there we rushed home because you know fireworks are at night and we had to get home. Sunday ~ We had church and I got to meet most of the branch and it was way cool. There are only like 15 members down here, so they have some room to grow and it should be way awesome. During sacrament meeting I gave my first testimony and introduction. And it was way nice. After church we had lunch and then went and had two lessons with investigators. One who is progressing towards baptism and the other who has been investigating a long time and still doesn't get it, btut she's going to pray about the Book of Mormon. That's good I guess. So that's all from me here. Catch you all next week. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 It’s the Fourth of July
To start this email off let’s just say Go America! Land of the Free and Home of the Brave! I would like to recognize all the men that took upon themselves to fight for our freedoms, and no matter how bad the odds were they continued on. They took on, at the time, the world’s largest army and they fought for Liberty. Those men that braved many battles and were forged in the furnace of affliction, like the winter at Valley Forge, brought about a religious freedom that brought about the ability for this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to be restored in America. So once again, Go America! Anyways, let’s get started with the week. Monday ~ It was a prep day but we got to go to the Nagoya City Aquarium. We went there with an investigator that we found and the sisters. We had a good time at the aquarium. While there, we watched a dolphin show and some other cool stuff. All in all, the aquarium was a way good time. After that we had some errands to run. This was a crazy start to the week. Then we went to an appointment with an investigator who brought a friend to the appointment and it was way fun. Tuesday ~ So we had some appointments with people, but no one showed or wasn't home. So we spent the day housing and trying to find potential investigators, but we had this feeling like there was something that we needed to do. Eventually we decided to go visit a less active family, but they weren't home either. As we were riding away, one of the daughters stopped us and we proceeded to talk her for about an hour. Her family situation has put a lot of stress on her. Her parents were recently divorced and her whole world is still kind of in free fall. She's not sure if the church’s teaching about Eternal Families even applies to her anymore, but we got her going a bit and she promised to come to church. That was the end of our night. We went home feeling like we accomplished what God wanted done that day even though we really didn't find anyone new or meet with any of our investigators. We just knew that God wanted us to talk to that young women and help and that's what he needed done that day. Wednesday ~ So we studied like normal and then hit the streets. We went out and went towards the missions largest train station to the institute house to pick up some materials for a less active. We were still on a bad streak, but it was all good. Later, we had a lesson with an investigator and then we went to Eikaiwa, English class. All in all, it turned out to be a good night. Thursday ~ Started with a very long planning session and then after we ran around trying to talk to people, but we just kept getting rejected. So we visited an investigator and that was good. We had a good visit with them. One of them will be baptized this coming Sunday and he's really looking forward to it. Friday ~ We had DTM (district training meeting) and we had a good time there. We then did more contacting to no avail; it's kind of the theme for this week. Lots and lots of rejection but we’re still good. We then went to seminary in our ward and waited after that for an investigator to come, but he never showed, again story of my life. But all is good for now. Saturday ~ We went and had a lesson with our Filipino friends. It was a good lesson and got them all to promise to come to the upcoming baptism. After that awesome time, they decided they wanted to still hang out with us so we went to dinner with them. After that we rushed home changed clothes and went to basketball for probably my last time in this area. I killed it and was scoring ridiculous amounts of points. Pretty much anything I shot went straight through the hoop. It was a way good feeling. We then rushed home to end the night. Sunday ~ We had meetings before church. And then in the middle of our meeting a member comes in and informs us that there is an American family upstairs. So we take off to go and help. We get there and we set up all the translating equipment and get them all squared away. We then helped the family throughout church in all their different classes. Also this week was fast and testimony meeting, so I translated a lot of testimonies even my companion bore his and I also had to go up and translate from English to Japanese for one of our recent convert's testimony, which was way cool. Also that girl that was from the less active family actually came to church with her sister and her dad. That was a cool miracle. Anyway, after church the American family took us to ramen we helped get them on their way. After all of that we went to visit the Filipinos and give another lesson as one of them is prepping for baptism. After that we went home and that was the week. Thanks for all the love and support. Love, Elder Williams 愛, ウィリアムズ長老 |
MissionCalled to Serve in the Japan Nagoya Mission.. Archives
July 2017
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