Monday, July 14, 2014

Typhoons, Earthquakes, Giant Spiders

Hey!
I am doing fantastic, like you might have known a Typhoon came in this week but it didn't do anything here in the Sendai Mission.  It basically rained for three days, which is normal here then the Typhoon cleared up.  The next morning around 4:30 a.m. the phones in the apartments started to go off like crazy.  So I woke up and it was a big earthquake alert.  I have never received an earthquake alert before so I told my companion to wake up cause its probably going to be a big one.  The apartment started shaking a little and was over. It was the littlest earthquake I have felt in Japan and I probably wouldn't have known that it was an earthquake except for the phone letting us all know. So we are all okay. I don't know about the rest of Japan, because I have felt a ton of earthquakes and that little one was a different feel.  It felt like it was deep underneath us like a wave pool. I am used to rapidly shaking earthquakes. So I hope the rest of Japan is good.
Well, I had to tell my really good friend Kobayashi goodbye.  It was actually really harder than I thought. But I am excited to work with my new companion Elder Thompson. He is from Washington state, (Seattle).  He is 19 and is turning 20 next week. He came to Japan the same time as me. So we are considered, in Japanese, (Doki). He will be fun to work with.
This week as I was talking with an investigator, we somehow got on the topic of spiders, and apparently they do not kill spiders in Japan. So there are like thousands of giant ferocious man eating spiders here! I asked why they don't kill them and she told me it is because they are scary and if you kill one then more spiders will come to haunt you. Pretty logical to me if you ask, especially with the spiders here in Japan. The last spider I saw was about the size of my palm and had the biggest body ever. I am pretty sure you can't even categorize it in the insect family. It was brown and its body looked like leather off a new baseball glove.

Since no one kills spiders in Japan, tracking when the sun goes down is terrifying.  You will be knocking on a door and then realize there are spiders crawling on you!  My companion knocked on a door and I let him take the lead.  I looked up and realized there was a spider on his forehead.  I wasn't sure what to do, So I just let him keep talking. I don't know if the lady at the door realized either, but they ended and for some reason I just forgot to tell him.  When we got back to the apartment He looked at me and said, "I feel a big bump on my forehead, is there a red mark?" I kind of laughed and said, yeah... And let him know. I thought it was pretty funny.  Apparently I failed at my duty to protect my companion.
We were able to get a new investigator from Eikaiwa, me and Elder Kobayashi set up the appointment before he left. So that was a cool miracle this week.

We visited less actives and I got so LOST! It was pretty bad but we found our way back to the apartment before 9, We were on foot because my bike is broken. Not sure if I told you that. The gear system exploded on me as I was riding my bike the first week I got to Kitakami. But Its okay because we are getting new bikes today!
Recently in my personal study I have been studying about Charity and how it is related to Missionary work. I don't think I quite comprehended how important it is in missionary work. In Moroni he states it clearly That without charity we are nothing. I like it a little bit better how it is translated in Japanese. "If you dont Have Charity you have nothing in worth." It is pretty strong, and as I studied it I learned that charity is really loving our brothers and sisters and having that desire to help them.  When we have that charity, even if the people don't accept our message they will be impacted for good by our charity.
Well that was sort of my week! A lot of things happened, We had 2 LA members come back to church this week, also Eikaiwa in Kitkami which has been only about 2 people for the past 4 years has jumped up to 10-12 active students every week. There are a lot of miracles happening and I think that the lord is really blessing Kitakami.
I love you all!

Elder Nebeker

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