Baptisms and Transfers

Our emails from Jeff have been several days late for the last three weeks. Due to temple day on 11/12 and transfers on 11/19 we got 4 short emails from him each of those weeks. Hopefully now we'll be back to a normal schedule. We did get more pictures on the 21st that cover several weeks. It's really nice to get pictures regularly, especially when he's in them :) We think he needs to get a hair cut soon but other than that he's looking great.

Email from 11/13

"So this week was a little bit of a bummer, we had a few of our lessons fall through, and didn't find anybody this week. :\ This coming week though we're really looking forward to a much better week. We think we'll even be able to exceed the standard if we really work for it.

Brother T didn't make his baptismal date this week because at his interview on Tuesday he was still drinking coffee. I guess when we taught and reviewed it that we didn't focus on coffee very well. Regardless, he quit the day after his interview and hasn't had any since. We probably could have gone ahead with the baptism and it would have been OK, but we wanted to make sure so his date got moved to next Sunday. He's looking very promising though. :)

______ still is having a lot of problems. We were able to do a short lesson at a member's house with her, but we haven't heard from her since. I'm really worried that she might not make it to baptism anymore. She still hasn't really recieved her answer, but she does want to know for herself. She hasn't been coming to church because she doesn't think it's very effective if she hasn't recieved her answer yet. :( Apparently we didn't teach her how important coming to church is for recieving answers. She's still planning on coming to the baptismal service next week to see a confirmation.

______, the Mongolian woman that we found through Eikaiwa, was able to come to the Family Home Evening that the Single Adults had Sunday night. It went really well, and she was able to get to know a lot of the members her age. I'm hoping that she'll be able to come to church this next Sunday, but she has work in the mornings, so she may not be able to."

Ninja boy with his origami star

Christmas on Nov 2? Near Tama city center

Tunnel of lights with ocean animals on it, must be Japan :)

Tama is home to Hello Kitty Land

Email from 11/20

"Here's a really brief update that I'll finish later: I'm follow-up training an Elder named Elder P. He's from California. We're serving in Fussa, where there's an American Base. We have two wards, English and Japanese. I'm also District Leader over two Sisters, six Elders, and a senior couple as well as Elder P. I'm not sure why I got so much leadership responability put on me all of a sudden, but I'm excited to work hard. ... other than the lack of time I'm going to start having. *shrug* oh well!"

And the follow up the next day, some of it he duplicated :)

"When I got the call from the Assistants that I'd be follow-up training Elder P. and that I'd be District Leader I was so excited! We're serving in Fussa, where there's an American Base, and we have two wards, both English and Japanese. I love working in Fussa so far, even though we've been SUPER busy it's been very nice to get to work with so many people already. I love all of the missionaries in this district as well! I'm District Leader over two Sisters, six Elders, and a senior couple and of course my companion.  I think I've met almost all of them before and I'm excited to get to work with them.  I'm not sure why I got so much leadership responability put on me all of a sudden, but I'm excited to work hard. ... other than the lack of time I'm going to start having. *shrug* oh well, I'm not complaining!

In recap from what happened last week in Tama though, Elder O. and I a lot of work to do, but we fell short of the standard sadly. We weren't able to find anybody new, and we didn't get to teach as many people as we'd hoped. For some reason a lot of the people we were working with we lost contact with. I'm really sad that I've not been able to contact them recently, but hopefully I'll be able to still email them from Fussa. Plus I know that Elder O. and his new comp. will be able to take over the area very well.

We were also (as you already know I'm sure) able to see a baptism the Sunday before I left. Brother T's baptism was amazing and was a lot of fun to see happen. The ward was so excited, and they all were so happy to have their first baptism this year. Everyone in the church was so happy that day, it was WONDERFUL!"

"Tama Eikaiwa, the last week with me"

Brother T at his baptism.
From left to right, Brother T. (Ward Mission Leader), Elder O., Brother T, Elder Mosdell

FHE at a member's house, fellowshipping the new member

Finally more photos!

Yet another crazy week here and in Japan! Our email from Jeff was late so that makes this post even later. He's doing well and is very excited for the work they are accomplishing. We do have some photos from last week, but not this week. And emails for the next two weeks are going to be late due to temple day and transfers. Here is an excerpt from his email.

"Odds are I'm going to transfer in two weeks. No official word yet, but 4 transfers is a long time for someone to stay in an area, and I'm coming to the close of #4. Also, I'll be at the 1/2 way point in my mission and I'm still in my second area, which is also very rare. :) 3rdly, I'm on transfer 3 with Elder O, and as of yet there hasn't been a companionship that has stayed for 4 transfers together in like 3 years, so I don't think it'll happen. :) I suppose it could, but I don't think it will, it's far more likely that I'll be packing my bags and dealing with the messy paperwork of being a foreigner and moving in Japan... gross >.<

This past week has been another fun, busy, and crazy fast week. I'm surprised that it's over already, and that we're now almost a full week into November.

We were able to meet with ________ a few times this week, and everything seems to be going great for him! Sadly he had to go to work again this last Sunday, and so was not able to come to Church or meet with us, but he has still come enough times to be baptised. We're having his interview on Tuesday this week, and then he'll be baptised on the 11th (this coming Sunday). I'm super excited for him, and for Elder O to get his first start to finish baptism. ________ was truly prepared for baptism. We went over the questions with him yesterday to prepare him for the interview, and he did great. I'm so excited for the interview today, and then his baptism on Sunday.

Yesterday for P-day we went to the Studio Giblee Museum (the group that made Ponyo, Castle in the Sky, My neighbor Totoro, and other such movies). It was a lot of fun! I won't be able to upload many photos since I forgot my camera... but I'll be getting some photos from the missionaries we went with instead. I'll probably upload them next week. In anycase, it was a blast. :)

I think that's it for this week, other than maybe that yesterday I rode on the most crowded train I've been on to date... It was CRAZY how many people were on that train... wowz'ers..."

Birthday cake from Eikaiwa (English language class).

Origami made using the books he got as gifts.



Halloween party at the church.

Elder O is helping with the pinata.

Looks odd... tasted odder, still no clue what it was.

More origami, interlocking cubes and a happy boy!

We've been running a bit behind lately

Sorry, we have been more than a little bit over scheduled lately.  This post is nearly a week late, but hey - at least it's here.  It sounds like Elder M is expecting to be transferred this time, I guess a 4th transfer with Elder O is very unlikely.  We should receive regular email on the 5th, but email for the following two weeks will most likely be at least a day late.  We'll get some of those photos uploaded soon.

Weekly Update:

This last week was interesting;

Sister ___________ has been busy and hasn't been able to meet with us for over a week now. Not exactly ideal, but she's still progressing. We've kept in contact, and she's been reading the Book of Mormon daily. She's still waiting for an answer about if the church is true or not, but she truly wants to join a church because she likes the teachings. Hopefully we'll still be able to help her be baptised before I transfer on the 19th.

Brother ____________ has been doing great! At least spiritually that is... He got the flu this weekend, so he was unable to come to church, and also missed a lesson, so his date will have to be the 11th of Nov. Thankfully however, he's been having several spiritual experiences, and is extremely dedicated. He wants to be baptised so bad, and was really sad that he had to wait an extra week because he got sick. He's amazing, and I'm super excited for him.

Other than that, there was a Halloween party this last Saturday at the church. I've uploaded photos (for reals this time) of that, and of the origami stuff I've done recently.

We had a chance to go on exchanges with the District Leader again this week. This time I went with Elder ___________ to Sagamihara. It was a pretty good exchange, and I was really excited that I was able to help him learn. I love newer missionaries, they're so much fun to work with!

I think that's about it for now... sorry I forgot to upload photos last week.. I got busy afterwards and forgot to upload them.