Hirosaki

Hey!

 

Just to give you update in the mission life.  Hirosaki is huge! It is also a Samurai Town so there is a castle.  I thought it was going to be like Aizuwakamatsu because it is also a Samurai Town.  The Samurai often made their towns in a grid format so all the streets connect, but Hirosaki is different.  They made it a maze so no one can get to the castle. White washing is very fun, we get to do  a special Proselyting style called "Losting". When we get lost we ask people for directions and then start a conversation about the Gospel. It's actually a really easy way to start talking with people. Since we don't have any investigators right now we use every possibility to talk with people.

 

It was so amazing to go to church and instead of seeing 15 members seeing 60 members. I felt like I was back in a ward in America.

 

The District I am in is awesome.  There are 2 baptisimal dates right now, so there should be a baptism soon! The members of My district are; Elder Timothy Thayne, Elder O`connor, and Elder Takeda. You all know Elder Thayne, he is very fun always full of energy. Elder O`connor is from Arkansas.  He is half Japanese - really nice. Elder Takeda is a fairly new missionary and is Japanese. I love him, he is so funny.

 

Then there are the sisters; Sister Valentine, Sister Moon, Sister Kurokawa, and Sister Takata. Sister Valentine is from Lehi Utah, we know some of the same people, she is really funny. Then there is Sister Moon who is from Alpine really nice.  Her  father is a mission president right now. Sister Kurokawa is Japanese and is graduated from College. She is really nice and fairly new to the mission. Then there is sister Takata who is also Japanese and she is farily new to the mission too.

 

So funny story, The last day I was in Kitakami we decided to visit some Old investigators and we went to one that was about a 30 minute bike ride away.  Once we arrived we locked our bike and then my companion Elder Thompson dropped his key and it went straight into a rain gutter that you can't lift up and is way deep. So we got to carry his bike all the way back to the apartment. A lot of people looked at us like we were the weirdest foreigners. It was pretty funny. My companion wasn't too happy.

 

It was sad saying goodbye to the investigators I got to work with. Hamato was pretty sad. I hope that he will be able to stop tobacco sometime soon. Also I said goodbye to Kudo san.  She was really suprised and couldn't believe that I was transferring. She was a little bit shocked but thanked me for teaching her that she can see her family again after this life. She gave me one of her father's ties that passed away. And then a family called the Ito`s that I worked with bought me dinner before I left. It was hard leaving friends behind but I have high expectations for Kitakami in the future, especially the young daughter of the less active Anri.

 

I love being able to help people around me who don't know about the Gospel.

 

That is really unfortunate to hear about Grandma. I hope everyone in the family is doing okay. Since coming on my mission my testimony in the Plan of Salvation has increased so much. Being able to teach it often and help people realize that there is so much more to this life, it is such a wonderful thing. I know that Christs' atonement and Ressurection made it possible for us to overcome death. So grateful to have the knowledge of the Gospel.

 

Love you all!

 

 

Elder Nebeker

Ehhhh....drum roll

So,

I am not sure where to start off!

So the transfer ended this last Sunday and as I was sitting in personal study reading about Nephi`s family murmuring when randomly the phone started going off.  I didn't think too much about it but then I looked at who was calling and it was President Smith! So I answered figuring it was transfer calls not thinking that our district would change because I just got there and so did the other Elders.  My old companion Elder Kuiken was leaving for home so we thought that it was just an announcement for our new roommate.  But nope, I am being transferred to Hirosaki where I will be the District Leader.  I will be white washing the area and my companion who will be accompanying me is the one and only Elder Timothy Thayne. Hirosaki is a lot bigger than the area I am in, it is sort of like Aizu and is by Hachinohe too! There are 8 missionaries in Hirosaki - 4 elders and 4 sisters. It is probably the biggest area I will have served in up until this point. So that is kind of exciting!

I feel really sad to leave Kitakami, I really just started loving the place and got used to everything. Now I am being transferred.

Well this week was "Obon" which is like Memorial day in America except it is for an entire week. So all of our investigators were way busy and couldn't meet with us.  We couldn't have lessons, but we were able to do a ton of finding. My companion and I decided that we would ride our bikes to the next city over to dendou (proselyte) which is about a 1:20 minute bike ride.  As we were on our way, I just stopped abruptly and pointed to a small billboard out in the middle of nowhere.  I think I found spider Planet or something. You couldn't even count how many spiders there were. It was insane. But anyways, to continue with my story, we reached our destination and stopped off at a store that some of our Friends work at.  It is called Pick n Roll, Basketball store. They had a lot of other friends there too and they asked if we could take a picture with them.  We took one and than one of the workers brought up a man and said he can speak English, make him speak English. So I started talking to him but he didn't want to speak English.  He was kind of being shy, so I kept on trying, and then we got into a big conversation. Turns out he is a member that knows all the old missionaries from like 3 years ago. He was baptized and he moved from Sendai to Kitakami and just lost all track of the church. So we found a lost sheep! that was pretty cool.

Okay back to spiders... this week as I was in the middle of nowhere. I parked my bike when I saw the most giant man eating spiders in my life. They were terrifying, but way cool to look at. There were about 4 of them, but then I spotted in the middle of the four spider webs a frog - yes a frog.  I wondered how the frog got up there, then I thought it is crazy because the man eating spiders could easily kill him. I realized , he may have put himself in risk for complete and utter failure, but he also had a life time supply of food. He just has to stick his tongue out when one of the bugs come in the spider web and he has dinner, what a Genious!

One day I would like to use that and relate it back to the Gospel or life but haven't thought that far yet...

If you have any good ideas let me know.

So as we were looking for an old investigator this week we also ran into another less active member who we have been trying to teach her daughter. She allowed us in and we were able to teach her and her daughter! It was way awesome!  I think she will be baptized sometime, but I guess I won't know because I am transferring :(

Well I love you all and I will let you know how Hirosaki is!

Elder Nebeker

FARMERS TAN!

Dear Family & Friends,

It is so hot here in Japan, its has been 95 degrees with probably 80% humidity. I'm getting a nice farmers tan on my arms.

This week was awesome! I am finally starting to get Kitakami a little figured out! at least I think...

This week we had a joint with Hamato san who has been trying to stop tobacco.  He is still having a hard time but this week we taught him Christ's Doctrine; Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. He really enjoyed the lesson and I asked him if "When he can stop tobacco would he receive Baptism?" He said "Yes". So he is actually really doing well. He didn't show up for church though :( That was disappointing but other than that it was a really good lesson. And I think we are going to try to set up a date for him to aim for this upcoming week!

Also Kudosan - We met with her and her son for Free Family English Program that we do with them. (30 minutes English, 30 minute Gospel lesson) and so I felt impressed to read the Book of Mormon with them and we started with where they were at and read Lehi's vision. I explained to her that the fruit is happiness and that the Iron rod is the gospel path. She thinks that she is in the dark mists right now but wants to have happiness. It turned into a really good teaching opportunity.  We set up an appointment with her to just hear the gospel and we taught that today. We got a joint with her and ended talking about the Plan of Salvation. It went really well and she is set up to progress. She really likes it and learned a lot of new things today. We also cleared up a lot of misconceptions she had. She thought that we we would go straight to hell if we sinned after baptism. So that was really good. We explained the Atonement and sacrament to her. And she really liked it. It was a little bit of a long lesson, but the joint helped us so much. The joint we chose was perfect for the lesson and had a lot of personal experiences to share. It was absolutely awesome. So every week from here on out we will be teaching one lesson that is just gospel and one that is free family English program. 

Also this week we had a huge festival in Kitakami! It was so cool, I have never seen so many people gathered in one spot yet on my mission. We went to work and handed out Book of Mormons and all the pass along cards that we could. We did streeting till we felt we were going to pass out of dehydration. It was so much fun. I felt really bad because we started talking to some young kids and there was about five of them but me and my companion only had 2 Book of Mormons. We explained our purpose and how cool the Book of Mormon was and gave the 2 we had and the other boys were really upset we didn't have more. I felt a little bad but told them to call us and we can get them more. So hopefully the boys will call.

I took a lot of pictures to of the Matsuri (Festival) it was way cool, they have people dress up as monsters and they dance with swords, and have beasts march. It is pretty cool. They have live Japanese drums lined up all the way down the street just pounding and people shouting and the drums just vibrate your whole body. It was really fun. The name of it is Onikenbai. You might be able to find it on youtube. Not sure. 

We also ran into a ton of less actives at the festival and they were all nice and willing to meet with us. So that was really cool, we got a lot of Appointments set up.

This week we identified some part member families that we wanted to start working with and we decided to visit a less active that has two daughters who are not yet baptized and we met her and her daughters. I asked them if we could teach them as a family and they accepted and seemed to enjoy our visit. So I hope to see some success from that too! 

Also today we had a member introduce her husband to us who is not a member. We just talked with him. You could tell he was a little nervous but I am hoping to be able to work with him more. The member who introduced us to him just became a branch Missionary so I have high hopes for her husband!

Funny story; today as we were about doing some shopping a little kid came up to us and started talking with us and he was so excited to see "Gaijin" (Foreigners).  He asked if he could take a picture with me and afterwards we started talking a little bit more and he got a little quiet and just looks at me and said, "I need to use the bathroom" and booked it away, he pooped his pants....... But he came back and I printed out the picture for him that we took. And he took us back to meet his mom but his mom was in the bathroom but he wants to meet with us more and wanted us to meet his family. So were hoping we can introduce the Gospel to his family too.

That was pretty much my week. Also the thunder hear is so SCARY! i love it!

Love you all,

 

Elder Nebeker