Earthquake

Sorry I really don't have time this week!

But yes, we totally felt the earthquake it shook all of Japan. I actually woke up like 10 seconds before it happened. Not sure why but I did. It shook for about twenty seconds it was pretty big. I thought it was pretty cool. 

This week we were able to visit a family who is deaf.  It was a very spiritual experience. They definitely needed help in their lives. I think that the Lord had some mercy on me because I was able to sign exactly what I needed to to get my message across to them. It's amazing when you know the Spirit it working through you. I am so grateful for that experience in my life it will be something that will change me for the better.

I will try to tell you more next week.

Love,

Elder Nebeker

Typhoon

Wow I don't even know where to start with this week!

Well this week we had a typhoon come through so we weren't able to proselyte for a day or so and the typhoon certainly brought winter with it. I went from wearing short sleeve shirts one day to the next day wearing really big coats. It's crazy what a typhoon can do! It really wasn't that exciting though, there is just a lot of wind and rain that never stops... like never.... basically every book that I have ever put into my backpack is ruined because of the rain, but I love it!

I find it funny that you talked about nachos... actually there is a American air base about an hour away from Hachinohe and recently we were able to get peanut butter from there.... Let me just say that is the most delicious thing I have had in the longest time. Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches are basically a delicacy here. Oh and cereal too. Very hard to find. So Nachos sound super delicious too because cheese doesn't exist here.

This week while we were housing we found a lady who was really fun to talk to and certainly has interest. I really hope we can start lessons with her but it might be a little hard....

Her husband is a Buddhist temple priest and she says that if he finds out that she even talked to us she would certainly get in trouble. But when we talked about Jesus she really lit up and was super happy.  I think she is trapped by her husband but she really does have a desire to learn about Christ.

I'm sorry I only have 25 minutes to email today!

But anyways I want to tell you about patty san next week! Don't let me forget!

Love you all sorry I cant talk longer! 

Hachinohe

Wow, this week was a good one.

 

 Since a lot of people have been asking about where I live and what my arrangments of life are like here I will tell you a little.

 

I live in a apartment which is small, but for Japan it is actually a pretty decent size. I do sleep on the floor and at first my back hurt but now I wake up just fine. I have noticed since coming to Japan my body is much more limber. I certainly am more flexible than when I came. I sit Japanese style with no problem anymore. if you want to know Japanese style sitting, look it up and try it. Its very uncomfortable at first. Oh and food.  The food I have eaten is pretty basic, Ramen, Pasta, and Curry, Rice. That is basically my diet. One thing that has taken me some time is that they really don't drink much water here. They drink a lot of flavored drinks. It's delicious though. They don't have garbage cans anywhere here.  I don't know if I have told you that or not yet. We are all walking trash cans.  Anything that you want to eat away from home you need to expect to keep the trash for awhile. 

 

Just to tell you a little bit about the landscape. It's hills everywhere! My legs are going to be ripped! At least my quads. My hamstrings will need some work later on but that's all good. In the city there are a lot of building and the houses are very close together. I think this is a huge place, but for Japan Hachinohe is like Montanna or Wyoming. Its kind of the Hick town of Japan. I love it, its a bit of a cement jungle in the city but when you get outside of the city there are beautiful Mountains where every inch of the mountains are covered in trees and vines that drape down from the top of every tree going to the ground. The Rice fields are beautiful.  They beautifully place them between mountains and hills. There is a big river which runs through all of Hachinohe. The river comes from the ocean which is maybe 35 minute bike ride to get to. Its not that pretty because Hachinohe is very much known for the fishing industry, and there are power plants by the ocean.  I have hardly eaten fish here, just squid every once in awhile. 

 

Okay this week,

 

This week we weren't able to get ahold of our potential investigators but we did a lot of tracting and finding and just when I thought there was no luck we found someone who would listen. It was actually today. My companion doesn't really like street contacting because he says it's really weird for Japanese people to go up to strangers but he said that its okay for Foreigners to do it. So I am the contacter and he is the saver when I don't understand what they say.  We went to a large park and I saw a lady sitting with her daughter having a small picnic and I contacted her and handed her a simple pass along card that had a picture of the temple and she asked me about the temple and I was able to tell her that thats where families go to be sealed so they can live together forever in happiness. She seemed intrigued but anything that has to deal with religion people aren't too interested here in Japan. But I talked to her more and got to know her.  She apparently studied English for a little bit so I gave her a Family English Program thing that we do here in Japan. What that is, is we offer to teach english to a family and after we get to practice giving them lessons of the Gospel in Japan even if they don't have interest in the gospel. She seemed interested in that so I gave her my missionary card and we were able to get her phone number which is unheard of here in Japan not very many people give out there phone numbers according to my companion. So I have high hopes for her.

 

Well I love you all I don't have much time so I'm sorry but I love you and I will continue to do my best here. I'll do better at giving you more details next week of what tracting and contacting is like here in Japan.

 

Elder Nebeker

 

 

 

Week 3 in Japan

Wow, weeks go by way too fast here. I am learning the language a little bit better. I can speak, I just cant understand. It's certainly different.

Oh and I am an awful son and a brother! Kelsey, Dad, Happy Birthday! I literally can't remember anything about home anymore. Sorry if my typing is horrible because I have to use a Japanese keyboard that is a little bit weird. So forgive me in advance. 

This week I was able to participate in a blessing that was pretty cool. I didn't understand exactly what the problems were and why she needed the blessing but I know that during the blessing I felt the spirit. It's an amazing feeling. 

So we might have an investigator or two... maybe... We're not sure yet but we have been visiting a lady and we gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to pray about it and she said she would. So I have high hopes and faith. She is a very nice lady, the last time we visited her she gave us a owl that she had sewn.  It's really cute and she told us she gave it to us because she likes to make people happy.  And well it worked, so we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that this book makes us happy and it can make her happy too. We had a pretty interesting conversation with her. Her father had passed away when she was only 7 years old but she said that she feels as though her father has been guiding her throughout her life. We shared the love that Heavenly Father has for us with her and told her that just as she feels her father guide her so does Heavenly Father. So I will report to you next week on how that goes!

The other person we contacted a while back and didn't think too much of the contact, but she had heard of the church. When she was in Junior high school her friend was baptized but that was the extent of what she knew about the church. This was all during the first contact. We decided to make a second contact and when we were planning for her we just weren't getting anything. So my companion let me have the opportunity of acting on my faith and knocking on the door and leading the discussion. I said a prayer in my heart that all would go well. Well certainly Heavenly Father is mindful of his servants. I started to talk to her and found out that she teaches English at a High school! So as I was struggling with Japanese she kindly smiled and said, ``I can Speak English``.  Wow what a relief that was. So I was able to really tell her how I feel about the Gospel. As I was talking to her I found out that she had attended a Christian High school and college. It`s the first person I have met on the street or in a house that actually has some belief in God. So I continued talking to her and her thoughts about religion. She said it is hard because her family is buddhist but she believes in God. But then she added she thinks religion is just about love. So I talked to her about the Love of Jesus Christ and the power of His Atonement. She was very nice, so I gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her if she would read the introduction page and pray to God to know whether or not it is true. We set up an Appointment with her and I will let you know how that goes next week.

Anyways, Recently we have had a lot of zone and district meetings so I have been traveling a little bit around in Japan. This past week I traveled to Aomori. Its a beautiful City right next to the ocean so I got to see the ocean which was cool. Oh and also in Aomori they have the biggest spiders I ever seen in my entire life they are super cool! They are Neon yellow and about the size of my palm. They make huge Spider webs and not like the little stringy spider webs we see in Utah but like Spider man Spider webs but they have a brown web, not white. It's pretty cool. You should try to look it up.

So I cant believe Utah already has Snow That is insane! I am actually still in short sleeve shirts right now, believe it or not.  It's not that cold here yet it just rains a lot.

I'm going to send some pictures. So I will end this emaill now.

But love you everyone make this week a fantastic one!