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Miracles that Don't Bite

Whoa I have so much to talk about this week!

 

I'm not sure where to begin....

 

Alright so I talked about Tom last week, he is way cool.  We have been teaching him as though he is a normal investigator until we find out otherwise. So that was Mondays news...

 

The next day was Tuesday and the days are long when we don't have an appointment.

 

So me and my companion sat there during daily planning thinking hmmmm..... Wonder what we should do. So we had planned to visit a few less actives and old investigators and talk with everyone. Well we started our plan on Tuesday and were done within in hour because no one was home!  So we thought we would go hit up mainstreet. We started talking with people and everyone that we talked to and gave BoMs to were all from Tokyo! We were a little jealous of the Tokyo Missionaries. So we decided to go to the Eki (Bus and Train Station) and see what we could do there. We stopped and talked to 2 young college students that were really good at English and got their numbers and were doing really good. Turns out they were from Tokyo going home that night....  Ughh! Everyone is from Tokyo! is what we thought. So we look down at our watches and  thought that it was about time to go home so we started walking back.  I thought let's make our way home an adventure. So I found a tunnel and told my companion lets go! So half way down the stairs I hear a guitar playing. I got really excited and stopped on the stairs and looked right at my companion and Say GIIITAA! (Guitar) My companion is obssessed with guitar so we run down the stairs and find a young man singing and playing the guitar in the tunnel. So We stopped and watched him and start talking to him a little bit. I didn't know what to do because we couldn't stay much longer or we would be disobedient with time. So I just thought "Nike" (Just do it) And I said, "Can we exchange numbers?", right out of the blue with him. He looked at me and said, "I dont have a phone." So I looked at him a little longer and then he replied well I have a company phone.  He exchanged numbers with us and then that night gives a call and asks if we can meet the next day. We met him at the church and taught a lesson to him. Got a new investigator!

 

So the next day was splits.  I went with my Zone leader Tsushima Choro and after our service, with my some of my favorite old People, we got a text from Our new investgator (Fujita) and asked if we can meet.  We went to the church, played the guitar, and taught him the plan of Salvation.  He said that it was very familiar and it was exactly his thinking. So we asked him very softly if he believes that this is true, will he recieve baptism. He said YES! Whoa! so Cool!

 

So after the split I tell my companion, we got really excited and decided that we would make a baptisimal date that we want him to aim for. So We called him up and asked if hecould meet on Saturday for a lesson, He said yes. So we got a member there and taught the Plan of Salvation again and Baptism asked him if he would be baptized on April 19th, he said YES!

B.A.P.T.I.S.M, HE said YES mom!

 

He also Attended Church with no problem.

 

We also have an appointment with him today!

 

Anyways that was just a few of the cool things that happened this week.

 

This week on Friday we also went to the Castle here in Aizu with a less active.  It was so busy at the castle because it was spring break here in Japan. But While there I saw some Foreigners and started talking to them.  There was only a couple that I was talking to at first. One was from Germany and his friend was from Indonesia. Then more friends started coming.  An Italian man came, a Puerto Rican came, Finland, Brazil, Chinese, Korean, and they all kept coming.  Everyone was from a different country, not one of them was from the same country! So I basically met people from the entire world in like a 40 minute span talking to this group of people. Dont worry I got a picture with some of them.

 

So that was way cool and talked to alot of people about the church. So it was way cool.

 

Also that night our friend Tom had invited us to one of his non profit work meetings. So we went and we had no idea what we were doing.  It was way fancy, inside of a huge hotel with business men and they were all exchanging business cards and stuff. I learned a lot about Japanese buisness culture it is very interesting.  We ate at a table and got to meet Tom's wife and best friend and started talking about the Church with his friend. His friend gave us his number and when he is available to meet. Tom's wife really liked us and unfortunatley she is living in TOKYO right now so we won't be able to teach her with tom.  However, she said that she wants to visit more frequently. So good things might come from her. We felt so out of place at that meeting though. Luckily Tom's wife was super nice to us and talked a lot with us during that meeting.

 

On Saturday we also had a sports activity so we could interact  with a lot of people.  Last week me and my companion had invited a group of young teenagers to come to the sports activity and they all came to it! it was way Good! We got their numbers too, so we can stay in contact with them. It was way good and way fun!

 

This Sunday we got to go to church in Koriyama and work there too on Sunday.  There aren't missionaries in Koriyama because of Radiation and stuff but the City is HUGE! So that was really fun. Except for it rained all day.

 

Anyways that was my week! 

 

Love Ya,

 

Elder Nebeker

Miracles that Bite

So this week I really don't have time to email but I WILL do my best to try and tell you what happened. This week was full of crazy things. The internet has been down in Aizu all day so I just barely got to use it.

 

This week we were in a lesson with a member at the church and we had been talking for about 25 minutes when our investigator walked in unexpectedly and asked if we could talk. She sat down and we started talking when she stopped us and said "I have a lot of things in life that I wish I could get rid of " I want to get rid of them. I want a remission of sins." We were way shocked, she said that she comes to church because she feels that her life needed it, that she was guided here to become a better person. So we talked to her about Christ and how He can help her and talked about baptism with her again. She wants to recieve baptism but is worried about her family relationships and thinks that her family and her husband's family won't be accepting of her decision to become a member. She thinks that our commandments make a lot of sense. She took the Word of Wisdom and applied it to her child.  She said If I don't want my child drinking beer, smoking, and doing bad things in order to protect her, I understand why God desires the same things for us. It was way good. So we want to strengthen her faith in Christ so she can make the decision.

 

But this week we had to cancel something that we had planned with her and her husband. So she was kind of mad but there was nothing we could do about it. She is a little upset and it will take some time before she will cool down. So that was kind of bummer because she was so close to making the decision but now it is going to be some more time I think.

 

SO that was a Miracle that bites.

 

We also this week had a friend Tom come to Church who is the Japanese Painter man. I asked him if he would listen to our message. He said yes, but then when we went to his place to go and teach him we came to find out that he was baptized into our church when he was 19 but he was never taught anything about the church. SO we thought we had a new investigator but no, just a man who had no idea that he had taken on covenants with God. But we are teaching him and He loves the Gospel he says he feels the spirit strongly when we talk to him. He is a great man.

 

That was another Miracle that Bites.

 

But I loved this week so much! We talked to a lot of people and handed out quite a few Books of Mormon. The people are slowly starting to open up to our message.

 

Sorry really short email but that is basically what happend this week.

 

It was a lot of fun and hard work.

 

Love you all.

 

Elder Nebeker

Follow and Show Your Faith

Well,

 

Today the sun is shining! I haven't seen that since coming to Aizu!  It's amazing!

 

Thank you for the unexpected package! That was awesome! I've actually had a weird thing for drinking pancake mix.... I'm so weird.

 

I found out that you can order stuff through Amazon Japan from my companion and it will save you shipping costs (free shipping), , also I've heard things about costco Japan too that you can order things - not entirely sure. But thank you, I feel the love in every package.

 

This week we were able to teach our cute little family.  The mom, Izumi, is awesome.  She read 1 nephi 19 and had a hard time understanding it so we went through it with her and it tied into our lesson just perfectly. We were talking about the plan of salvation with her and really teaching for her understanding. I think that she was able to understand it really well and she wanted to share the chapters that we shared with her to her friend who joined one of our discussions about the plan of salvation. She just is struggling to find the faith in Christ right now. She just needs to make the decision herself to follow and show her faith. We can be her guides and invite her to do it but it is ultimately her choice.

 

This week we did a lot of Gaijin hunting (foreigner) hunting and found a ton of Gaijin.  Probably like 5 in one day which was crazy because that never happens. We talked a lot and we were able to get in to some of the activities that international association holds for Gaijin. So we're hoping it will be a good effective way to find people to teach and talk with.

 

This week also our awesome Japanese friend Tom, who is a painter and lived in Paris, came to church and he told us that when he comes to church he feels the love and feels pure and cleaner and likes to discuss the Gospel. We will begin teaching him in probably a week or so. I'm really excited to work with him.  He is so funny and he is an amazing painter.  The members love him too, because he is hilarious. Definitely prepared by God.

 

That's too bad Jamie will have to move, she had a pretty sweet set up. But man the things that a stupid dog can do. Me and my companion walked into a bike store the other day and attached to it was a pet store and the puppies in Japan are so cute! They are all miniature wolf dogs! They are so stinking cute!

 

Ahh, I almost forgot, me and my companion had an epic bike fall on Monday.  As we were going to a members' house we were running a little late.  So we were going basically as fast as the bikes would let us when all of a sudden I hit some black ice on the road and it took me down. I slid for, no joke, a good 12 seconds. I probably slid like 30 yards. It was so COOL!  The only thing that broke was the back button on pants. It was just a solid span of black ice that we hit and I thought my companion had stopped but then I look behind me and he had slipped in the exact same spot as me and was sliding towards me. It was pretty funny. We were lucky that it was later at night and that not too many cars were out. Definitely blessed on that one.

 

Yesterday we decided to go and contact some less actives and when we had picked one and gone to his house we were so surprised.  It was the same house where the drunk who let us in lived! But before knocking on the door a 90 year women looked at us and said, Ehh! Ehh! so we stopped to talk to her and come to find out she lived 1 house away and she said that the drunk man was her son. But that he wasn't the less active we were looking for but said that the less active we were looking for used to be his roomate. SO she said that we could talk to him about the less active we were looking for because he knew him well. So we knocked on the door with his mom and had a good talk.  He fed us dinner again. He was super nice and we tried calling the less active together but he didn't answer and the kind drunk man asked if we can come back sometime. So he gave us his phone number and said let's make an appointment for the next time.

 

That was basically my week.

 

Love you all! talk to you next week :)

 

Elder Nebeker

Bitter Cup

My new companion came this Thursday.  He is from Salt Lake, his name is Jacob Bailey. He served in Odatte before coming to Aizu. It is one of the smallest branches in the mission, he worked with my last companion Elder Kuiken too. He is only 2 transfers ahead of me and is in the same group as Elder Thayne, (Timothy Thayne) that came to the Sendai mission. He has a good drive to him I really like it and am way excited to get a lot of work done with him.

 

This week has been pretty crazy with the transfers and things so there isn't too much to talk about but I'll tell you about some of the fun things that we were able to do this week.

 

1st: So every week me and my companion do a family Home Evening held at the church. It's on Friday nights at 7. So me and my new companion thought about a really good message we could share because we had recieved news that a less active would be attending that night. So as we did our personal study and began starting to talk about what we thought to do for Family Home evening in companionship study, we had both had the very exact same idea. It was crazy! So we felt that we needed to talk about Christ and doing it by using an object lesson. So our idea which was the same was to do a "Bitter cup". And this bitter cup is the Atonement. Because Christ has partaken of the bitter cup for each and everyone of us. So we got a glass of water and all the ingredients we had in the apartment, and took them to the church and asked everyone to make a nasty drink with all the food we had. So they dumped chocolate sauce in the water, a Japanese BBQ sauce, Habenero powder, Miso (Japanese soup powder) Parsley and a ton of stuff. And they were having fun and we asked them who wants to drink it. And obviously, nobody wanted to drink it. So we opened up to the scriptures when Chirst was in Gethsamene where Christ asked Heavenly Father if he he would let this cup pass from him, "but not my will but thine be done". We read that and then my companion gives me the look and that was my key to drink the bitter cup they had made. I drank it, and we opened up to our next scripture in D&C where it talks about Christ partaking of the Bitter Cup and that if men Repent they too will not have to taste of the bitter Cup "which caused God even the Almighty to sweat and bleed at every pore". We then bore our testimony that no one wants to partake of the bitter cup and that Christ has done it for us. That if we rely on him and his Atonement we don't need to suffer. That Christ has suffered for all of us. It was a really powerful experience and certainly a memorable one.

 

Definitely not going to be drinking too many more of those in my life.

 

2nd: This week there has been so much snow! Winter will never end. But this week because there was a lot of snow me and my companion could not use our bikes. And yes my bike is still broken, but as we were walking to go and visit a less active we said konichiwa to an older lookin fella`.  He then looked at us and in Japanglish said "come here". So we walk up and he says come in. First of all this never happens in Japan. People do not invite you into their houses randomly. But he says it's cold, come in. So we go in and sit down at his table. There was a lady making food in the kitchen and prepared it all and then gave it to us with some tea which we didn't drink.  I was so shocked. Then he offered us beer. I told him we don't drink beer. He was shocked then he looks at me and tells me the Japanese YOLO (you only live once) Which is Ichigo Ichie! in Japanese and starts pouring me a glass. So I tell him again, I can't drink. He then looks at me and  told me we are some of the weirdest people. And then offered us coffee. We had to kindly turn down that too. He was shocked so he grabbed his liquor and poured a huge glass and told us to eat. SO we did and started talking to him and went through all the stages of his drunkness. It was great. He got way Cuckoo. But during this whole craziness I talked to him about why he let us in and then I saw a picture of his family. So I asked about his family. It was just him and his daughter. He told me that he hasn't talked to his daughter in a long time. That she moved to America and he doesn't know anything other than that. I felt really bad for him and I felt the impression that this man is trying to drown out his sorrows in alcohol and drugs. I talked to the Lady who was there too. I thought it was his wife but she says I am just a friend that is trying to take care of this man. I know the Gospel can help him so much but he thinks that we don't need God. But he is allowing us to come back to his home and I think that even if he can't make a change in this life, that God put us in his path for a reason. Because he really does need help.

 

I don't think I told you about our music night! So there is a Sister in our district who can play anything on a violin piano guitar. It's crazy.  She just has to listen to a song and can pull out everything and play it right there in front of you so we decided to use her talent and make a music night that we could invite members and friends investigators.  We found out that one of the members husbands can do the same thing too, but on a saxaphone so they had a duel at the music show! It was so sick! They wanted all the missionaries to participate in the music night. Well I have no music talent but I can tell you what, my countless hours of playing viva lavida on the piano paid off because that's what I did with a saxaphone and Violin to back me up! It was so Sick!

 

Anyways, that is a report as of right now!

 

Almost forgot our investigator Izumi and Tatsuya got an answer to their prayer! We had a lesson with her the other day going in with the intent to talk about prayer and asked her how her prayers were and she told us that recently she was in a hard situation when her husband told her that they can pray and do what the missionaries say. So they prayed as a couple and she said that she felt an amazing feeling come over her and immediately found peace. I thought it was so Cool! She is slowly progressing but is progressing!

 

Love you all hope to here from you soon!

 

Elder Nebeker

Doing Service Blesses Your Life

So transfer calls came and I am still in AizuWakamatsu!

 

Anyways,

 

I love Aizuwakamatsu!

 

This email will probably be really short. I'm so sorry. Anyway, I will stay in Aizu and get a new companion. His name is Bailey Choro. I know him a little bit because we talked a lot at zone meetings so it should be really exciting. I think that we will be able to see a lot of success.

 

So I have to tell you about my favorite service place. Well I have a lot of favorite service places because in Hachinohe, working with the Mentally challenged was so fun! But here we go to an old people service center and we get to hangout with the old people there. And me and the Grandmas are best friends. They tell me stories of how Japan was so stupid during World War 2. It's really funny. And then they take my hand and rub their faces in it. I love it.  I just talk with them and tell them all I'm doing and they are so happy. They are always sad when I have to leave and tell me Matte imasu! (We'll be waiting for you.) They wait for me to come every Thursday so I'm glad that I didn't transfer.

 

I really feel the spirit so much when I do service. I love service and it blesses your life and the lives around you.

 

This week we had one of our Eikaiwa students come to church! I love him so much. He tells us to call him Tom. He is a famous painter and used to live in Paris. I got to teach him the Gospel Principles class on Sunday too.

 

There are so many miracles happening in the Sendai Mission.

 

We had Zone Conference this last week and we had an Area of the Seventy, Aoyagi Choro come. One of his talks is in February's last Liahona. He really focused on the spirit and how that it is the most important thing. That we can't do anything without it.

 

It was a very Inspired talk.

 

Anyways, I'm about to just go and buy a new bike The spokes are breaking off left and right on my back wheel and the tire is flat 90 percent of the time. But I might just take one of the missionaries bikes that are going home. But Oh well.

 

Anyways love you all.

 

Take care,

 

Elder Nebeker