New transfer, Same comp, Same area, but only 4 weeks
So this transfer is going to be weird as we only have 4 weeks before we get another round of changes. But it still should be fun as missionary life always seems to throw new challenges at us. Seems like nothing new that we can't handle. とにか、(anyways) where did I leave off. Monday ~ Good old preparation day. I am probably going to miss P-day at home. A whole day dedicated to shopping and cleaning and overall just being ready for the coming week. Then we made preparations for our new kid’s Eikaiwa (English) class. But after all that was ready and done we set up our appointments for the week and had to call it a night. Tuesday ~ So we had service in the afternoon right after lunch, and after that we ate a quick dinner. From there we headed out to start passing out our homemade flyers for the kid’s Eikaiwa class. It helps keep some doors open longer when you mention that you’re trying to help the little kids in the area. All in all, we had a great time. Wednesday ~ We had a lesson in the early afternoon but it got canceled, so we spent the day out visiting lots of people. Lots of “no thank you” and “I'm ok” answers but it turned out well. We then returned to prep for Eikaiwa which turned out way awesome. From there our time was spent and we hurried home. Thursday ~ Was planning, more planning, prepping, some more planning, and then going to a Japanese class. Like this day felt like it was terribly long, but it can be summed up as we did lots and lots of planning. Friday ~ So we just went out to purely dendo to our hearts content and then we decided to visit one investigator and set up another appointment and the next thing we know it was dinner time. So we stopped and grabbed some food and headed to our first ever Kid’s Eikaiwa class. It went super well and the kids had tons of fun. Anyways, the moms thought it was awesome and the kids learned a bit of English so all in all it was a successful day. Saturday ~ So we didn't really know what to do or where to go so we ended up on a different side of town that I hadn't been to in a while. After we did some things which I felt we needed to do, we decided to visit a couple of less actives that live pretty far away. Anyways, to get to one of the less actives place we biked for pretty much an hour straight. So yeah, it was a long way back too. We totaled it up and we are pretty sure we got at least 55 km or in other terms 34 miles of riding in on the trip. So yeah, we were dead tired and after some quick stretching and a shower we were in bed. Sunday ~ So we had the primary program and it was a great. I gave a little talk at the end to cap it off and it was awesome. From there we had regular classes and then I had interviews and then after all of that I had branch council. So I was pretty drained but we went to an investigator lesson where we helped clean up his apartment. It was in desperate need of help and so we filled 10 trash bags full of junk and garbage and in the end we still hadn't finished tackling the mountain of trash left. After that we gave a lesson and then went straight home to shower because we felt disgusting. And so that was our day/week I'm a giant large nut shell. Sorry this got out so late. We had lots to do this morning with appointments. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老
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Hello again!
Hello! So last week I was unable to send a big email because we had a nice district activity that morning and then an appointment with one of our recent converts. So our day was kind of booked. Anyways, I'll start with last week. Monday 10/31 ~ Halloween Day. Well in Japan it was just another day. Here in Ise, there wasn't anything special or crazy going on. We met with our recent convert, Higashimoto, and played some ping pong. He was way fun and we just talked about some of his concerns and questions. From there it was a pretty normal day. We went and bought groceries and cleaned and did that whole P-Day jazz. Then we spent time calling all of our appointments for the week and making sure everyone was still okay. By the time we finished we headed home from the church. Tuesday 11/1 ~ We had our service after lunch, and then from there we hustled back to the church to give our recent convert Hayashi Shimai her last lesson after baptism lesson. In the lesson we discussed patriarchal blessings. She thought they were way interesting and would like to get one soon. The member we had sitting in on the lesson had not received his patriarchal blessing yet either, and after the lesson he asked me to interview him so he could receive it sometime in the near future. Then, to celebrate a good interview, we went out to all you can eat Chinese shabushabu, or all you can eat meat and side dishes. Let's just say I ate too much, but I had to get my money's worth. And that was my night, tons of meat, lots of ice cream, and lots of french fries. Wednesday 11/2 ~ So we had to setup Eikaiwa early and after we did that I had to make my own new set the temple interview questions, because I had trouble reading the other one. It didn't have furigana, which is when above the kanji it gives the correct way to read them. So I had to make my own set that day. It took way too long and once I finished we had just enough time to grab some food and then we ran back to finish up the Eikaiwa prep. Then we had Eikaiwa class. As always it was lots of fun. We then finished up a bit late and rushed home. Thursday 11/3 ~ We had a big planning day and afterwards we went to meet Matsuda and she was way fun to talk to and we set up another appointment. From there we went out talking to people. We found and talked to some pretty cool people, but no big takers. Overall, it was a good day. Friday 11/4 ~ So we got a call Friday morning from the senior missionary couple and they wanted to come inspect our apartment. Well, our apartment was in good shape, but definitely not inspection shape, so we spent the morning cleaning. I also made a small batch of root-beer for the senior couple and everyone coming to DTM (District Training Meeting). We had a good district meeting and everyone enjoyed having some root-beer at the end of it. After, we had our apartment inspected and we passed with flying colors. Then we all went out to ramen. From there Elder Lyman and I went out and visited and talked to lots of people. Later, our dinner appointment fell through, so we finished the night at one of our favorite restaurants and then headed home. Saturday 11/5 ~ So the night before both Elder Lyman and I weren't feeling the greatest and when we woke up we weren’t any better so we called in sick for the day and slept in until about 1 pm. Our thoughts were take time to be healthy now or be forced to take time being sick later. After we woke up, we did some studies and then prepared for some stuff. We then decided we were both feeling well enough to head out, so we went to meet with our investigator named Tetsuya. When we got here he told us that he too was not feeling the greatest and asked us to come back another time. So we left wondering what to do and we finally came to the idea to visit Tou, another recent convert. He was home and he was way fun to talk to. Then we went home because it was late. Sunday 11/6 ~ So in church we had Higashimoto Kyoudai (a recent convert) sustained as a priest and then later we had him set apart during priesthood meeting. After church I began my first round of member interviews. It was a long process and I now know what my mission President and my Bishops feel like after interviews with people. From there we went home and had some well-deserved food and then headed out to meet with Tetsuya. It was a good night. Monday ~ So we planned a district activity to go see the nearby Shrines and it was way cool. From there we had an appointment with Higashimoto. The rest was just another good P-day, buying groceries and stuff like that. Tuesday ~ So Tuesday was filled with service and visit to lots of people. Most of the people we visited turned us down and told us to not come anymore. So we lost most of our investigators, people that we taught. Unfortunately, that was our night. Wednesday ~ So our first appointment for the day was with Hayashi Shimai, and another member, Oota Kyoudai, and from there we went to sushi and she told us to eat and then keep eating and then eat some more, so it was a good lunch. On the way back Oota Kyoudai let us in on the info with the U.S. Elections and even texted us later and let us know the final results from the day. That night we had Eikaiwa and it was a great class. Thursday ~ Our night changed, as our appointments all canceled, but our day was mainly unchanged. We planned and printed and got lots of things prepared, but nothing too special happened. Friday ~ So we went to Tsu City for DTM (District Training Meeting) and then I came home with Elder Takara for exchanges. Once home we went to pull weeds with Yamazaki Kyoudai, and it took all day. We pulled weeds from 2:30-5:30 pm, and then we talked with the family for pretty much the rest of the night. We had time to grab dinner on our way home and that was about it. Saturday ~ Today we had transfer calls but nothing happened to us. And then our appointment got canceled that afternoon, so we went to the church and set up for Stake Conference. Then I had the opportunity to meet with the branch president of Tsu and discussed less active and how I could help them and how they could help us. We discussed about some really good stuff. It turned out that the Branch President from Tsu was Brother Ootani, who happened to serve in with Dad in the Osaka Mission, years and years ago. Then we started Stake Conference that night. Overall, lots of good things came out of Stake Conference. Sunday ~ We had more Stake Conference, and I had more interviews and then we had a luncheon. So my day was taken up clear until dinner time. Then we had a lesson and it went really well. After that we made a quick visit with another investigator and that was all we had time for. And that has been my past two weeks. Hope you enjoyed! Love, Elder Williams 愛している、 ウィリアムズ長老 I don't have much time
Out of a lack of time, I'm just going to say I'm alive. I'm well and I'm having fun, but slowly dying trying run a branch and keep the missionary life going. Anyways some highlights are we got one of our recent converts ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. Also we had a sick day this week where I was starting to get sick and my comp was too, so we decided to take time now to be healthy instead of being forced to take time later. Also we had some really good lessons and met lots of cool people. I'm still as tired as ever, but hey that's the life of a missionary. I don't think that there will be too many more days in my life where I won't end up tired at some point. Anyways, I'll end with this candid photo of me and my companion, Elder Lyman, walking up to our district activity this week. Love, Elder Williams 愛している、 ウィリアムズ長老 It was a Halloween smash!
So we had a great Halloween Party this year in the Ise Branch, but I'll wait until Saturday’s entry to explain the details. I'll kick off the weekly wrap up with Pday. Monday ~ So we needed supplies for the upcoming Halloween Party and by virtue of being the Branch President, I knew we had money to spare so we went all out. Lots of candy, cool decorations and all the right stuff. Then at the register, I planned on paying with personal money and having the church reimburse me, I swiped the credit card and to my dismay it was denied. Scared I tried again, and was still denied but thanks to loving parents I had a backup and was all good to go. And we started the trek back to our apartment all loaded up with big bags of Halloween goodies. We probably looked pretty funny on our bikes. Anyways that was our spooky filled night. Tuesday ~ So we had service and after our service project I got a free haircut. It's way good but it's a place I could never afford right now ($40 per haircut). But free is good. After that we got changed into regular missionary clothes and visited lots of people and passed out lots of flyers for the Halloween Party. Not much else happened that night. Wednesday ~ So I have had a small problem with my toe recently, and so I finally went and bought hydrogen peroxide and some other stuff. So for now I'm good. And while we were doing that my package from my Mom came, so when we got home I spent the next 20 minutes finagling with the post office so I could get it that day. It worked and all of the wonderful goodies of American Halloween came flooding into our apartment. It was quite wonderful. From there we went to a lesson with a couple in our ward and like always they are way fun. After that we set up Eikaiwa and ran to help a less active with their Eikaiwa (English conversation class). From there we rushed to invite a few more people to the Halloween Party and then ran all the way back to try and be a bit early for our Eikaiwa, way crazy. Eikaiwa was obviously Halloween themed but recently Eikaiwa has gotten huge, which is a problem that I like to have. So we split into two classes. After words we played a fun word game and it was way awesome. After all of it we wrapped up and headed home. Thursday ~ We had meetings in Yokkaichi all day. It turned into a pretty long day, but it was all good because there were lots of good trainings, but nothing too crazy. After that we came home and caught a quick snack and then headed out to visit the Noro family. It was way nice and they agreed again to read the Book of Mormon, way good. From there we hurried home and barely made our curfew. Friday ~ We went to the church with Higashimoto to do a little bit of prep for the Halloween Party the next day and from there we did our own prep by buying stuff for the root beer and other drinks. Then we did a trial run of the root beer and it was awesome. Man, I love root beer! Then we made Oreo balls and other treats and then we decided to go and give out the rest of our Halloween flyers. All in all, it was a pretty busy night. Saturday ~ We started the morning preparations at the apartment by preparing stuff we didn't finish the night before. Then we carried most of it up the hill to be at the church to help decorate. After a while of doing that the members took a lunch break and so did we. We ran down the hill, ate some leftovers, and then brought more stuff to the church. When we finished the final preparations and it was almost time for the party to begin. Once we began it was craziness, kids everywhere. Free flowing candy, spooky dry ice root beer, lots of curry, and tons of little sweets. It was the whole nine yards. It was great! The kids loved it and it was way fun. Like every party though, when it ends there is a clean-up, which we also happened to be on. So I was the first one there, with my comp of course, and we were the last ones to leave. And that was our night. I'll send pictures next week once I get them off my camera. Sunday ~ It was a normal Sunday. We had good lessons took care of business and then with all the leftover food we had a luncheon. It was way good. After all was taken care of, me and my comp went out to visit some investigators and a less active. At the less actives house we helped them set up their Wi-Fi and computers and stuff, sounds like my own house, but it was all good. After that we returned to the church to finish some clean up and take home some stuff but that was pretty much it. Well life is always crazy over here. It keeps moving and sometimes I feel like it goes too fast. But that is how the life of a missionary is. Anyways write you all next week. Love, Elder Williams 愛している、 ウィリアムズ長老 Still no idea what I should say here . . . So this week has been slow for some of the Missionary Work but that's how it goes, and we keep marching on. Anyways let's see if I remember half of the stuff that went on this week Monday ~ So we had P-day which entails shopping and cleaning and all that good stuff. Then we went to the church to do some planning and some prep work. So we made some calls and I set up some appointments and got things planned for the week. We also made flyers for our Halloween party, which we did throughout the week, because we gave out so many. Not much else happened that day. Tuesday ~ So Tuesday night we had quite a few appointments scheduled so we were running around teaching and helping people. We even got one investigator to commit to be baptized when she knows it's true. Way awesome. Wednesday ~ We had a member/LA (less active) lesson and we had a fun time. The couple we taught are always just so lively and funny. Sometimes it's hard to understand the husband because he speaks harder Japanese, yes that is possible to do. After that we prepped for English class and ran to another appointment. Along the way, there and back, we passed out as many Halloween Party flyers as possible. After meeting with the family for a bit, we then ran to the church for the English class which we ended up splitting in to two classes and it was way awesome. Thursday ~ So we met with one of our recent converts, Higashimoto. And we had a nice talk with him about his family and the priesthood and stuff like that. He is looking forward to getting the priesthood and is hoping his son and the son's family can be baptized in the near future. He is way awesome. After that we went to lunch and then we did planning until we went to the Noro Family’s house, a way awesome couple. We focused on the Book of Mormon and its power and then taught the lesson. They looked at us and said the equivalent of “if we ever are going to learn if the church is true then they would have to read it (the Book of Mormon”. And when I asked them what they wanted to do, they said read the Book of Mormon. So it was a really awesome lesson. And that was our entire night. Friday ~ We had DTM (District Training Meeting) in Tsu, so we headed out early in the morning. From there we had a koukan, companion exchange, and me and the district leader ran around visiting some less actives and making visits. It was kind of hard as I had some weird stomach bug or something so I didn't really feel well, but I made it through the day okay. Then at night we helped a less active with her English class and it was way fun. Other than that not much else wrapped up the evening. Saturday ~ So we ended the koukan (exchange) and Elder Lyman and I set off to tackle our day of appointments, but first was a quick lunch break. Then we headed out to our first appointment and there we were stood up. Kind of rough but oh well. We then decided to go and make more Halloween Party flyers, as we had again run out. And so as we were making copies at a local convenience store their copy machine just so happened to run out of toner and they couldn't fix it so that was that. So we took what we had made and cut them out. It was way funny but we hurried and cut out as many as we could. From there we had a lesson with Tetsuya, who is trying to quit smoking so he can be baptized. He is at the last leg of the journey, but sometimes that's the hardest part. So we are still working with him. Then we went to meet our other recent convert. Tou. He's way funny and he is just a great guy. We had a good talk and then we headed home. Sunday ~ It was church and then branch council, so lots of Sunday meetings and stuff like that. It took up a lot of our day. So by the time we got done with meetings and lunch, it was about 4:30 PM. From there we decided to do a bit of finding because we hadn't found all week. So we found. And not many people were willing to have us back, but we did find two really cool people. One who may come to church and one who said we can come back next week. It was a good fulfilling night. That's all from here in the land of the rising sun. See you all next week. Love, Elder Williams 愛している、 ウィリアムズ長老 some other preparations pertaining to our upcoming Halloween 👻 party 🎉. After that we ran to a Japanese class where they were trying to figure out Lyman's Japanese level so they really didn't teach me much, kind of boring.
Friday ~ We had DTM (District Training Meeting), but this time everyone came to Ise to receive the training. We had a little trouble at the end because the couple missionaries’, Elder and Sister Salmon, car battery died so we had to get it jumped. So we had a member come and help them out. Then Elder Lyman and I went to one of my favorite restaurants of Manpuku, which serves Karage-don, which is deep fried chicken then cooked in a sauce and then some eggs and onions are added into the mix. It's just way good, but hard to explain. From there I received some emails that were pertaining to my calling in the branch and they need some immediate attention. #branchpreslife. After that we made some Halloween party flyers to handout and then we went housing and handed out a ton of flyers, about 70-80 or so. Way good. Hopefully this party has a lot of people come. Once we ran out of flyers we had to make more so we ran out of time that night making lots of flyers. Saturday ~ So we started by getting some stuff prepped for the big devotional with Elder Bednar that would be happening the next day. I had to figure out how to log in to the broadcast and even figure it out where the broadcast was being sent, all crazy stuff. Then we tried visiting Tetsuya, an investigator, and he wasn't home or maybe not awake. Then we went to visit another investigator with a member and it was the same story, but this time we decided to go to dinner with the member and had a nice night. Sunday ~ So we had a visitor that came to our branch this week. So we picked him up at the station. The visitor happened to be Jeff from Takabata. Jeff was baptized back in May when I was in Takabata and he came down to visit me here. He also spoke in sacrament meeting and he gave one of the most beautiful talks I have ever heard. As always I had the privilege of translating for him. It was a way good meeting. Then after church Jeff went home and then we planned more of our Halloween party. After all was said and done we had time to go home and grab some food and then go back to church to set up for the devotional. It was a way beautiful devotional by Elder Bednar and all of the participants. The big thing that was really emphasized is that joy is one of the gifts of the spirit and one of the requirements of receiving a gift of the spirit is that it isn't used to bless your own personal life, but to bless others. So if we want to feel of the joy of the gospel we need to turn outwards and look to bless others with the joy of the gospel and then you will feel the full joy of the gospel. Anyways hope to see you all next week. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 I've run out of ideas for subject lines . . .
So I guess I'm here again. Another week down and another week in the books. Time marches on even though sometimes I feel like I'm pleading for it to slow down and I still remember the times when I was in boring classes begging time to speed up. But no matter our situation time keeps going at a steady rate. So our job, especially as missionaries, is to make the most of what we are given. So I'll begin by recounting my week. Monday ~ So we had all of our stuff cleaned and bought and it was a good P-day. That night we headed out to visit some less active members that live pretty far away, so that was pretty much our entire night. But while we were out visiting people I caught a glimpse of one of my favorite stores, Gyomu Super. So we slipped in and bought some peanut butter which for some reason is super cheap there. So we had to rush home because it was getting late and we needed to be home. Tuesday ~ We had some new investigators that we had to visit so we visited all of them and we dropped some of them, because the wouldn't answer or told us not to come back. Those that we did meet with they were way cool. That finished up pretty quickly so we went to this apartment complex that I had seen that I wanted to visit. We housed the apartments and found lots of people who actually asked us to come back. Kind of out of the ordinary, but it was way awesome. We found some really solid people, including a girl that pretty much accepted the whole restoration and wants us to come teach her more about the gospel. So we had a way good finding night. Wednesday ~ So we had the morning line up of studies and that good stuff. Then we had a meeting with a couple in our branch and had a good night with them. It was way awesome. They are such a nice couple and we are hoping the husband comes back to activity soon. From there we prepped for Eikaiwa early and then headed out to meet with a family that we had met the day before. They were way nice and after talking with them. One of the kids asked us to come back the next day but we told him that we would be back next week. He was a way funny kid. Then we went and taught Eikaiwa. Thursday ~ So we did a big planning session for the area, including setting some new goals and then we had to do some other preparations pertaining to our upcoming Halloween 👻 party 🎉. After that we ran to a Japanese class where they were trying to figure out Lyman's Japanese level so they really didn't teach me much, kind of boring. Friday ~ We had DTM (District Training Meeting), but this time everyone came to Ise to receive the training. We had a little trouble at the end because the couple missionaries’, Elder and Sister Salmon, car battery died so we had to get it jumped. So we had a member come and help them out. Then Elder Lyman and I went to one of my favorite restaurants of Manpuku, which serves Karage-don, which is deep fried chicken then cooked in a sauce and then some eggs and onions are added into the mix. It's just way good, but hard to explain. From there I received some emails that were pertaining to my calling in the branch and they need some immediate attention. #branchpreslife. After that we made some Halloween party flyers to handout and then we went housing and handed out a ton of flyers, about 70-80 or so. Way good. Hopefully this party has a lot of people come. Once we ran out of flyers we had to make more so we ran out of time that night making lots of flyers. Saturday ~ So we started by getting some stuff prepped for the big devotional with Elder Bednar that would be happening the next day. I had to figure out how to log in to the broadcast and even figure it out where the broadcast was being sent, all crazy stuff. Then we tried visiting Tetsuya, an investigator, and he wasn't home or maybe not awake. Then we went to visit another investigator with a member and it was the same story, but this time we decided to go to dinner with the member and had a nice night. Sunday ~ So we had a visitor that came to our branch this week. So we picked him up at the station. The visitor happened to be Jeff from Takabata. Jeff was baptized back in May when I was in Takabata and he came down to visit me here. He also spoke in sacrament meeting and he gave one of the most beautiful talks I have ever heard. As always I had the privilege of translating for him. It was a way good meeting. Then after church Jeff went home and then we planned more of our Halloween party. After all was said and done we had time to go home and grab some food and then go back to church to set up for the devotional. It was a way beautiful devotional by Elder Bednar and all of the participants. The big thing that was really emphasized is that joy is one of the gifts of the spirit and one of the requirements of receiving a gift of the spirit is that it isn't used to bless your own personal life, but to bless others. So if we want to feel of the joy of the gospel we need to turn outwards and look to bless others with the joy of the gospel and then you will feel the full joy of the gospel. Anyways hope to see you all next week. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 some other preparations pertaining to our upcoming Halloween 👻 party 🎉. After that we ran to a Japanese class where they were trying to figure out Lyman's Japanese level so they really didn't teach me much, kind of boring. Friday ~ We had DTM (District Training Meeting), but this time everyone came to Ise to receive the training. We had a little trouble at the end because the couple missionaries’, Elder and Sister Salmon, car battery died so we had to get it jumped. So we had a member come and help them out. Then Elder Lyman and I went to one of my favorite restaurants of Manpuku, which serves Karage-don, which is deep fried chicken then cooked in a sauce and then some eggs and onions are added into the mix. It's just way good, but hard to explain. From there I received some emails that were pertaining to my calling in the branch and they need some immediate attention. #branchpreslife. After that we made some Halloween party flyers to handout and then we went housing and handed out a ton of flyers, about 70-80 or so. Way good. Hopefully this party has a lot of people come. Once we ran out of flyers we had to make more so we ran out of time that night making lots of flyers. Saturday ~ So we started by getting some stuff prepped for the big devotional with Elder Bednar that would be happening the next day. I had to figure out how to log in to the broadcast and even figure it out where the broadcast was being sent, all crazy stuff. Then we tried visiting Tetsuya, an investigator, and he wasn't home or maybe not awake. Then we went to visit another investigator with a member and it was the same story, but this time we decided to go to dinner with the member and had a nice night. Sunday ~ So we had a visitor that came to our branch this week. So we picked him up at the station. The visitor happened to be Jeff from Takabata. Jeff was baptized back in May when I was in Takabata and he came down to visit me here. He also spoke in sacrament meeting and he gave one of the most beautiful talks I have ever heard. As always I had the privilege of translating for him. It was a way good meeting. Then after church Jeff went home and then we planned more of our Halloween party. After all was said and done we had time to go home and grab some food and then go back to church to set up for the devotional. It was a way beautiful devotional by Elder Bednar and all of the participants. The big thing that was really emphasized is that joy is one of the gifts of the spirit and one of the requirements of receiving a gift of the spirit is that it isn't used to bless your own personal life, but to bless others. So if we want to feel of the joy of the gospel we need to turn outwards and look to bless others with the joy of the gospel and then you will feel the full joy of the gospel. Anyways hope to see you all next week. Elder Williams ウィリアムズ長老 Conference - I loved it!
So I finally got to watch conference this week and it was way awesome. I loved the talks and I've got lots of good notes, but before getting into that I'll talk about my week. Monday ~ Elder Pope was transferring so we cleaned and played some ping pong and then it came time for us to head out. So Pope and I headed out to Tsu so we could stay the night up there with some other missionaries that way Elder Pope and Elder Walker would be able to head out together and me and Elder Takara could stay together and wait for our new companions. That night was way fun. We all chipped in and bought Matsusaka beef which is second only to Kobe beef, so it was expensive, but it was way good. Then we spent the night talking about just lots of random stuff. Tuesday ~ So we got up early and went to the beach and watched the sun rise. It was way beautiful. Then Elder Pope and Walker left and Elder Takara and I stayed home and got the Tsu apartment all cleaned up and ready to go. Then we headed out to the train station where I caught the train that my new companion, Elder Lyman was on. We then rode back to Ise together and planned the rest of the day and got ready to go. We got all of his stuff situated and then went shopping and lots of other great things. Then we spent the night finding and did pretty decent, but we had kind of got ourselves pretty far from home so we had to book it home. Wednesday ~ So Lyman got a bit of time to unpack and then we went off and talked to lots of college students. No takers, but it was really good. We then grabbed some corn dogs from 7-11 and then we ran to Eikaiwa to prepare. It went well and everyone liked meeting the new elder. It was a good night. Thursday ~ So we did a planning day and then we went and visited one of our investigators. It turned into a nice chat and then we had to head out to meet a member. Once we met up with the member we then went out to visit my favorite family, the Noro's. They are way fun to teach and we always have such a good time with them. We had a good lesson and they both seem to be progressing. Like usual we left late so we had to rush home. Friday ~ So we had to go to set up the church for the conference weekend which included getting a new computer from the stake and getting it all ready to go. We then went out to lunch and it was 久しぶり, hisashiburi look it up, indo curry. It was way good and then we went off to visit lots of people and while we were visiting people we ran in to Higashimoto who came to church with us and we had a lesson and played ping pong at the church till the night was done. Saturday ~ Was all General Conference all day long. Super awesome but no dendo. Sunday ~ Pretty similar to Saturday, but we did visit a local Matsuri (festival) as it was ending but nothing to crazy. It was way nice. No pictures though. Thank you guys so much for the prayers and thoughts. Hope all of you guys are doing well. Talk to you all next week. Love Elder Williams 愛しています、 ウィリアムズ長老 "I hope we don't get a call this transfer calls" - Every missionary ever six weeks
Hello everybody. As it's kind of obvious we had transfer calls this week and neither of us really wanted to leave but you know that's on Saturday. So you can skip down if you want to know what happened. But I'll start from the beginning. Monday ~ It's our day of rest. So we cleaned the apartment way good because it was due for a deep cleaning. It was good and we had a way nice looking apartment. Like pretty much anybody could walk in and be like, I can live here. After all the house work was done we went to meet with a member for family home evening. But it kind of just turned into us meeting and talking with them, as it is an older couple in the branch. Their kids are older and moved out, so it was just cool to talk to them for the night. But that literally took our whole night because they live kind of far away. So it was a bit of a bike ride home. Tuesday ~ So we had service like every Tuesday, and like always, it was good. Then after service we got a call from our Branch mission leader saying that he needed us to help him at the church with some stuff so we went over to the church and helped him. From there we went to visit a LA (less active) and a FI (former investigator). What we thought was going to be a fun and easy adventure turned out to have hills that were near vertical and surrounded by forest on either side. After feeling like we were lost, we finally found our way. The FI wasn't home and the LA had suffered a stroke so she told us that she probably wasn't going to ever be able to come back to church, sad, but understandable. Then we went to meet up with our mission leader so we could go and meet with the Noro family. We had a way good lesson and we even invited sister Noro to be baptized. She said she wants to know more before she makes a solid commitment, but said that if she believes that this is true that she could do it. Way good. Then we began our long drive home to end the day. Wednesday ~ So one of our investigators was moving and they gave us an address and we couldn't find it on the maps or on our iPads so we took a trip out to the general area hoping to find it. We did and then we returned to the church to do a member lesson with the relief society president and her less active husband. After the lesson they proudly announced that he will be returning to church within the coming month as it looks like his health has improved. It should be interesting to see how it goes. After that we had planning and Eikaiwa. Nothing to interesting, but that's how we capped off our night. Thursday ~ We had a koukan (exchange) and I got to hang out with Elder Walker. It was way good we taught Hayashi her after baptism lesson and she was angelic. She's so good. After we talked about prophets and General Conference we spent time discussing any of her questions from the scriptures. After that we decided to run home and make dinner. We made Mobudofu and fried rice. Sorry Dad, we ate it all. It was way good. Definitely a suggestion of mine if you know how to make both of the things I'm talking about. Then we went and did some contacting and wrapped our night a Japanese Class where they dissect our Japanese and make us feel like we don't know anything. But hey it's kind of helping, I think. Friday ~ So we had a DTM (District Training Meeting) and then after that we all went to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, and it was way awesome. The owner knows and loves missionaries so while we are eating the waitress walks up with a big plate of food and sets it down for our group, and says what in English would be the equivalent of "On the House". I love this place! Not only is the food good the owner is way nice. We then did some contacting for the rest of the day and we ended up doing really well and found four new investigators. Way awesome. Saturday ~ We did some contacting in the early afternoon, with no success, and then we had a lesson with Tetsuya where we were trying to fix any and all misconceptions or things he's misunderstood. It was good and we kind of got it sorted out. Then we went to meet with the investigator, Yuuka, whose house we searched for, earlier in the week. We get there and she's way nice, but she had just moved so she had some stuff to take care of and so she asked us to come back next week. Yuuka is so nice. So we then went to meet with Tou to do his after baptism lessons. Transfer calls were going on during the lesson and we were supposed to be called first at about 8:30, but as time went on we thought we were safe and then at about 8:50 we get a call and we were a bit aggravated because neither of us wants to leave. But the end result is Elder Pope is leaving to Nakatsugawa and I will be getting a new Elder by the name of Elder Lynmen (I think that's how it's spelled). And that was our night. Sunday ~ President Ishii came down to visit and I conducted my first sacrament meeting. Yeah, first time like ever so I'm not even sure how to do it in English, but I did it in Japanese. Then we had church and Ishii Kaicho provided some training in the third hour. After church we cleaned the building and got everything ready for General Conference. After that we went home so Elder Pope could pack. That was it for us this week. Sorry no crazy P-day activities because it is raining right now and looks like it will do so for the next long while. But hey it's all good. Transfers happen tomorrow. Love Elder Williams 愛しています、 ウィリアムズ長老 Two weeks in one, so this may be a bit long.
Hello. So last week for most of you it must have seemed like I dropped off the face of the earth, because of the lack of communication, but I'm still here. We were just kind of busy, but I'll explain that later. My head is still spinning from all the things that have gone down these past few weeks. So before I forget any more things let's begin. Monday 9/12 ~ This was a normal p-day as far as I can remember. We went to the big shrines in Ise and did all of our cleaning and shopping and all that great stuff, so yeah. Then after that we had a lesson with a LA (less active) guy named Hamaguchi. He was way cool. We talked and got to know him and it was way fun. We then shared a short spiritual message and afterwards he told us that he still believes and prays and does all of the good things, but he hasn't had time to come to church recently. So a way good guy and it was fun to be with him. Tuesday 9/13 ~ So we first had service at our favorite day center. We helped out with the games that they were doing and as always it was a good time. After that we came home and changed clothes and ate some food. From there we tried to visit an investigator, but the timing was bad so we didn't get to meet. So we went looking for some LA's (less actives) in the area, and then by chance we saw our investigator while he was biking home. It was way cool and we were then able to set up another time to meet. From there we went to a member’s house so he could go with us to a lesson with the Noro family. The Noro's are a way cool couple. The husband is a member, but was baptized young and quickly went LA (less active). The wife is way cool and has lots of good questions. They are such nice people and we had a good lesson about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and what their roles are. It was a pretty solid lesson with the wife asking lots of good questions and the member was really good too. But we ended up leaving their house late and it takes an hour to get home by car so we barely made it to our apartment in time for curfew but we made it because the member took us straight home instead of back to his house to pick up our bikes. It was all good. Wednesday 9/14 ~ So we took our morning exercise time to go pick up our bikes and once we got there the member's wife started talking to us and then brought us out drinks and then the husband came out and we started talking. We then learned that we needed to at least try and set up the new portable baptismal font that we had just got as an area, so we got on our bikes and ran to the church and he came later in his car. We then took the morning to try and set it up only to learn that we would need an air compressor to make things work, because it is a blowup font. So we decided to come back later, once we had all of the right resources. Then we had a lesson with a member family and it was as always way good. Then we had Hayashi Shimai's lesson right after that and she is so good. We then met with Oota Kyoudai about some stuff and then we went home for dinner and prepped for Eikaiwa. So that was pretty much it. Thursday 9/15 ~ So we had to go to Yokkaichi in the morning, so we could get our interviews with President Ishii and well each interview is supposed to go for about 15 min and that's about how much time he allots for each missionary, but he is flexible which is nice because my interview was about 45 min long as we talked about what I'm supposed to do as a Branch President and advice he had for me and the other great and wonderful things that come with being called to leadership. He also emphasized that I get regular studies which as of lately have been no problem. I used to prefer to go out and dendo (search for investigators) than sit inside and study, but I've learned my lesson. After my interview we waited for the other elders in our district to finish up so we could start our Kokan (exchanges). We then headed home and I took Elder Takara with me. So following the advice from Ishii we did some studies because I hadn't gotten any for almost two days, not good for a missionary. So we studied, ate some lunch and then hit the streets, but since everyone was hiding inside it seemed we went housing too. Then 7 o'clock rolled around and we went to a Japanese class to help me improve in Japanese. They have decided that I am good enough at talking so they want to improve my reading/grammar skills. As far as talking I'm am cool with grammar. But when it comes to pick which sentence is the best I can't even do that in English correctly so it pretty dang tough in another language. But that was my night. Friday 9/16 ~ So we had to go to Tsu for a DTM (District Training Meeting) and to end the Kokan (exchange). So we got up and caught a train that left at 7:01 AM, which was a bit rough. But we got there on time. After a way good DTM, where both me and Elder Pope, my comp, felt we needed to simplify things going on in the area and we needed to let go of some of our investigators. But that was yet to come for us. After DTM we rushed home for an appointment and the person wasn't even there, kind of a bummer. Then we went to the church so our investigator Higashimoto could get his third and final Baptismal interview. So it's been a process with him. He's never had any problems passing the interviews it's just showing up for the baptism. So the first one he was supposed to go to he got sick and it rained so he said no go, even though the previous Elder was really pushing for the day. Then last time he was supposed to, but his job sent him to Tokyo and that left him unable to get back. His job is that of carpentry. And not only that he is in a special class of carpenters that make the Japanese shrines and temples and he's one of 5 people who can do it, and to top it off he's the second best out of them. Pretty special, huh? But this time we were pretty sure it was going to be ok because he decided to get baptized on his birthday. So the third time really is the charm for him. After all of that we went to get some dinner and returned to the church for our weekly game night. It was a bit rough so we thought about stopping and just ending game night, but we finished the game night and decided that next week will be the last one for sure. And that was the day. Saturday 9/17 ~ We planned to meet with an investigator at the church to learn about family history with them and their family, but then the investigator decided that they didn't want anything to do with the church so they decided not to come and left me and Elder Pope to learn about family history and how to do it. It was way interesting, but I'm still not 100% on how or what I'm doing, but it was way cool. From there we went to an investigator lesson, but he wasn't there so we prepped our next lesson with Tou. Tou got baptized this year and we are just beginning to teach the after baptism lessons. The lesson was way good. He actually made us dinner and then we had the lesson and he understands it all. We are just getting him prepped for stuff like patriarchal blessings, temple, and priesthood. You know all the big cool stuff that comes with being a member. But after that we rushed home to end the night. Sunday 9/18 ~ We had church where I was conducting. Way weird. Anyways, we had good talks and lessons and then we had lunch. And to be 100% honest I don't remember what happened. And I don't have a journal with me so yep I can't remember, anyways, on to the next week. Monday 9/19 ~ So we were supposed to have a break, but instead we had a baptism. So early in the morning we got up and got everything prepped and ready to go. The blow up font was already prepped and all we had to do was have the baptism meeting and he was in. It was way good and Elder Pope baptized Higashimoto. He is finally done. Then to celebrate we went out to eat Tonkatsu, deep fried pork, which was way good. Then we came back home to shop and clean and do all of our other stuff, but not much time for anything. Oh well, it was a good day. Tuesday 9/20 ~ So I'm not going say too much about this day, but I will say this; I survived a typhoon and we were put on lock down by the President, so I couldn't do anything. Wednesday 9/21 ~ So we had a member lesson first thing. Then we returned to the church where we used the computer to make a flyer for our new English Conversation Class that we are going to try to do for youth. It will be separate from regular Eikaiwa (English Conversation Class), so we needed to make a new flyer. It got frustrating but we did it and it looks good and that is what counts. After that we took them to print out about 50 or so more, and then we returned to the church to prep for regular Eikaiwa. And that was our night. Thursday 9/22 ~ We had area planning and that took a while. Then we had a lesson with a member to help them learn English. He's slowly getting better and he is planning on going to America next year so he wants to be able to at least have a basic conversation so he can survive while in America. It's a pretty good goal. From there we went around town, exercising the “Open Your Mouth” principle. No big takers, and it was kind of rough, but oh well. Friday 9/23 ~ We had to go to Tsu for DTM (District Training Meeting) early in the morning again. Another good training and after that we rushed home for an appointment. Once at our appointment we attempted to answer our investigator's question about war. She believes that true followers of Christ would never go to war. But we gave her the churches stand point on war and then used scriptural evidence from all over, the Bible, D&C, and Book of Mormon. I am pretty sure we used almost all of the scriptures. But at the end she pretty much looked at us and said that our explanation was good and that it was well prepared and probably right but that she couldn't accept it so she decided it was best that we don't meet again. It was rough, but we agreed and parted ways. Maybe in the future someone will reach out to her and she will come back, who knows. From there we talked to anyone we could and then went to meet our investigator only to get there about 5 minutes before he had to leave, so we set a next appointment and gave him a scripture and he was on his way. Then we went to dinner and met up with our branch mission leader about doing some activities in the branch. He was all for it and thought they were good ideas. After that we hustled to the church to set up for game night. We then announced that it was the last one. We were met with some disappointment, but we both felt like that time could be used for better things than just getting together with people who have all expressed no further interest in the gospel just to play ping pong. So that's how it went. Some were not too happy, but nothing we could do. Saturday 9/24 ~ We spent time in the early afternoon trying to call old investigators and LA's (less actives) to try to meet with some people, but to no avail. We then went to a lesson with Tetsuya and we had a short message and then sorted out all of his things he's got confused. After that we went housing and found a new investigator, Yuuka. She seems way nice and wants to learn more about God. From there we had to go out and buy some Oreos so we could make some treats for the birthdays happening in the branch. And it was a good night making treats. Sunday 9/25 ~ As always church is good and we actually almost didn't have enough room for everyone that came. Some member’s family came to visit, and we had all 3 recent concerts there, and an old missionary that had served in Ise. So it was a packed house. Needless to say I choked when it was my turn to stand at the pulpit and man was it pretty funny. After my terrible Japanese the meeting proceeded with church. After that we had branch council for 2 hours, where we discussed pretty much everything possible. After that we stuck around to see if anyone would come to the new youth English class. We weren't expecting anyone because it was kind of sudden but next week there will be people. After that we went home to get out of our suits and then went to Matsuda Mie's house where she surprised us by having two guests over during the lesson. Those two were way accepting of the message and we may meet with them again. Matsuda is still stubborn and doesn't see the need for the Book of Mormon or the restoration, but hey we are working on it. And that was our day, and our week And that also wraps up our two weeks. Sorry for the length. Love, Elder Williams 愛している、 ウィリアムズ長老 My new calling is . . .
If you want to know the answer, skip down to Sunday. Well there never seems to be a normal week for me. Yeah, I'm not a normal person either. So to begin the week . . . Monday ~ A nice rainy day for us to try and get all of our stuff done. After all of the prep work we went to the church and decided to go through the less-actives in the phone and try to call and set up meetings. It was way funny. We had some less-actives that liked to talk and then others that would answer, talk briefly and be like “I'm Buddhist”. Sad, but funny. Out of it we got 3 meetings with less-actives, including one the next day. So overall, it was good time spent. Tuesday ~ We had service in the early afternoon then we went to an appointment with Tetsuya where we straightened out some of the questions he had. So it was a good quick lesson. From there we met up with a member who drove us out to visit with a less-active we had called the night before. The less-active was named Noro Kyoudai (Brother Noro) and he is way cool. He was baptized in high school, but went less active after a while. Now we are teaching him and he is trying to remember, but it's kind of hard. His wife is way amazing, though. She is so cool and definitely has an interest, as she asked, “how do we feel the Holy Ghost?”. It was such a nice lesson, but after meeting with them we said a prayer and headed home as it was drawing near to our missionary curfew. Wednesday ~ Some of our appointments canceled on Wednesday, so we decided to go out and visit some far away less actives. So that was pretty much our day. We went a total of 35 km, or about 27 miles, fun times. After returning home to get some dinner, we went to open the church up for a member so she could practice piano, with the couple missionaries that were coming done to give her a lesson. Then all of the sudden Higashimoto, a guy who is supposed to be baptized in the next few weeks, comes in and we start talking and eventually play some ping pong with him, while we talk about the upcoming baptismal date. After all of that we taught Eikaiwa and ended our night. Thursday ~ So we got hit with a pretty big rainstorm so we bought some snacks and bunkered down in the church and did lots of planning for our investigators and stuff like that. After the storm passed, we went out for dinner and ordered some gyudon, meat cooked with onions in sauce on rice. And it was pretty good and then we went to a Japanese class where they got me into some challenging stuff as I am now learning how to read, fun stuff. That was our day. Friday ~ We had DTM (district Training Meeting) and it was way awesome about faith and things and it fit perfectly with what I had recently studied so it was way cool. From there we rushed to an appointment with an ex-member, like withdrew their records and everything. But she was way nice and the only reason she stopped is because no one could answer her questions or pretty much told her to not worry about those things, but now I'm here and we are going to go over every one of her questions and resolve them, hopefully. From there we had a meeting with Hayashi Shimai. Which is always good, she's so nice. From there we prepped game night and once again Higashimoto showed up unannounced, and so we did a quick lesson and then he filled out his baptismal paperwork. Then we had a ball at game night. After game night, we got some people together who had some questions about God, and so we taught them about the God Head, because most of their questions dealt with the Holy Ghost. After that we rushed home, where we got a call from some random person asking if it was allowed to stop following Christ. So we spent timing talking to her and she said she'd like to continue to talk to us but that she would call us again later. Weird, but that is our lives as missionaries. Saturday ~ We didn't have much, but we had some more paperwork to take care of and we slowly made some headway. After we met with one of the members for a little bit and then we headed out to meet Tetsuya, but he wasn't home. So we ate some dinner and planned a bit and then went to meet with the Selvy family and set up a time to meet them at the church to do some family history work. It was always good and they were so nice. From there we went to visit a less active, but I saw a large apartment complex and was drawn to it to do some housing. It was weird because I don't like housing, but hey why not. So we knocked on some doors and we found some way cool people, only one investigator but also one Eikaiwa student and a pretty good potential investigator. So a pretty good night and we aren't quite done with the complex. From there we rushed to a grocery store and bought stuff to make Oreo balls for the branch luncheon. By the time we got home we barely had time to make the Oreo balls but we did it. Sunday ~ We had to get to the church early to unlock it for the Stake President, so he could do some interviews, but by the time we got there some members had already done that for us. Then the Stake President arrived and he did his interviews. Then when the meeting started it was turned over for stake business, where the new branch presidency was announced. And dun dun duh dun . . . I'm branch president with two counselors are from the branch, obviously. But yeah, there's my new calling. So after the luncheon I had a 2 hour meeting on how to be a branch president and such things. After that we had a lesson with an investigator. It was pretty good but the interest levels are iffy. After that we finished planning the baptism program, a member took me to a nearby hospital. It's no big deal. I had been experiencing some pain in my toe that had been getting increasingly worse so we went and got it checked out. Well it apparently had gotten infected, not too bad, but they prescribed some antibiotics and cleaned my toe up a bit and now all I have to do is take my pills and not wear real shoes for a while. So yeah, I get to wear sandals! I feel like I'm a missionary in Tonga or something. And that's my week. Here's a little thought on faith. We all know that as we have faith we can do all things. But we have to remember the definition of faith set forth in Alma 32:21. The last few words are very important. He talks about believing in things not seen and hoping for things not known and then adds these words, "that are true". Therein lays the key to true faith, we can't believe in something that isn't true or is not God's will and have true faith. It's kind of a hard concept, but as we seek to align our will with God's and act in his ways that when we know we are having true faith. But that's just a thought from the studies of Elder Williams. Anyways hope you all had a good week. Love, Elder Williams 愛している、 ウィリアムズ長老 |
MissionCalled to Serve in the Japan Nagoya Mission.. Archives
July 2017
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