Domo Domo (Greetings)

Hey Family! I feel like each week just flies by! Wow!

Anyway, I will just update you right from where I left off. 

On Monday we had our lesson with our investigator Miura san which was really good. We talked a lot about the worlds' problems and we talked about the teachings of Jesus Christ and how we need to be charitable and loving to one another. We opened up to Moroni 7 and talked about those Scriptures. He then opened up the Buddha bible and shared with us Buddhas teachings. They were very similar and very good. After doing this for some time, he said to us, "well I think the thing we can do is try to be the best men we can. Let's help each other become great". I thought it was really cool and I realized even more that day that every religion does have a lot of truth. I think the problem we have in the world is that no one is living what is preached. If people were to follow Christ's example they wouldn't bash against other religions. They wouldn't do those things.  But it seems like people are falling further and further from God. 

Well later that night we met with a less active who hasn't been to the church building since she was baptized like 30 years ago. It was way cool we got her to come to the church and we talked with her and taught a little bit about prayer. We ended up praying 3 times with her that night. It was super cool. We have an appointment with her today again. Both of her parents died of cancer when she was young, and then when she turned 20 she got 2 types of cancer that hopitalized her for a long time. She dealt with this for 20 years or so and never got married. But before she got cancer, she lived in California and traveled the United States. When she went to Hawaii she saw the temple and met with the missionaries, came back to Japan and got baptized. And then for some reason never came to church. So we are going to work with her. She has so much light about her. I hope that we can help.

On Tuesday I had splits with the zone leaders so I went to Morioka. While we were riding the train I guess a couple of earthquakes happened, and then when we got to the apartment 2 more earthquakes happened that day. I thought it was pretty cool. I missed that. The splits in Morioka were really fun. We just did a lot of Eikaiwa Flyer handing out stuff which was actually really fun. I tried to make as many people laugh as I could so even though they might not have interest in Eikaiwa at least they will remember the missionaries and have a good image of them. Oh, I also got see Elder Kugai, who I trained in Hirosaki. He is in Morioka right now. That was really fun to talk to him again.

Wednesday and Thursday was just a lot of Housing door to door contacting, nothing too exciting happened. 

But on Friday we met with our Islam friend and we mostly just talked a lot because we still don't have permission to teach him. I think we could turn him into an investigator if we get the permission. 

Saturday was also similar to Wednesday and Thursday, but Sunday was really good. Except for we had to kick a crazy guy out of the church.... but anyways, we decided to show the Mowers how to do housing (Door to Door) and while we were doing it we found a man that asked us if we were Mormon Missionaries and then he began to tell us that he used to go to church every week in High school with his friends. He really liked that everyone called each other Brother and Sister. He heard someone say something bad about another religion and so he was turned off because he said the people aren't living what they are preaching. But He was super nice and asked about members that are still around in Ichinoseki from when he used to go. So he knows a lot of members and he said we can come back and teach him! So YAY! another investigator to teach. That was really cool. I feel like it is a lot easier to Proselyte with couple missionaries because instead of 2 tall scary Americans in Black suits you have an older couple that make things look harmless so people are willing to open the door all the way for us and talk. It is super cool. But the Mowers are doing great and will be great missionaries for the Ichinoseki branch.

Well That was pretty much what happened this week! Love you!

Elder Nebeker

Breakfast - Yes it's real

Love and Charity - The Resolution

Well, this week was incredibly fast.

And...can I just say it is FREEZING?  Holy cow!  I have never been in an area where the wind constantly blows and is mixed with the snow.  It's just no fun. 

But other than that, this week was actually really good. 

On Monday we met with one of our investigators named Miura san.  He is older maybe in his 60s but is a really cool guy. He is very stubborn when it comes to religion because he believes that religion is what is causing wars and people fighting. He said he is concerned about his children and grandchildrens' future and what this world will become and if there is a resolution. So we talked about following Christ's example and teaching a lot about love and charity. We committed him to study Moroni Chapter 7 and to really focus on what is taught about Charity in that Chapter. So we will be meeting with him today at 3 to follow up on that. 

This week we have also been working a lot with the couple missionaries here in Ichinoseki. They are awesome and super funny. We are trying to help them so they can start proselyting more and finding people to teach. Luckily we haven't had anymore naked men answer the door... But it is actually really nice to Dendo (proselyte) with them because they have a car and we can visit a lot of people and get so much more done in one day and we stay warm. :)

On Tuesday we started hanging up some Eikaiwa (English Class) posters up in some buisness`s and shops. We stopped at a crepe shop and decided to eat there, when two men who didn't look Japanese started talking to us. Come to find out, they have lived in Japan for a really long time.  Their Japanese was way good, and they are Islamic so we have to get special permission to teach them.  They are very nice and we have already met a couple times and talked. So we will get permission from our mission President maybe to start teaching them.  The one guy I feel really bad for.  After his first Child was born here in Japan, his wife passed away and he couldn't take care of his daughter so he had to give her up to his friends who took her in. He hasn't been able to see her much since. He says the last he knew she moved to Boston and is living there. We will be meeting with him on Friday this week.

Oh I forgot to tell you that everyday here in Ichinoseki a song plays at 5 p.m. through out the whole city and me and Elder Drenk swear that it slows down time. Like we knocked on pretty much an entire neighborhood and looked down at our watches and it said it had been five minutes. We think the song has a curse in it or something. 

Wednesday was pretty slow, but still a very effective day.  We were able to knock on a lot of doors and talk with people but unfortunately, no one came to our Eikaiwa class. We want to make that a focus here in Ichinoseki, so we are actually thinking of moving the time and date of when we do our Eikaiwa and maybe change it to Sunday nights.  That way busy people here in Japan can actually come to English Class. 

We get to volunteer at a hospital every Thursday from 9-12 pm which is pretty fun. We wear some very beautiful pink scrubs and a pink mask and help old people walk and carry their things. So we look pretty official yet don't do much... hahaha.

Friday we had a zone conference in Morioka which was fun except for we drove there with the Mowers and it was a complete blizzard.  We missed the exit and basically were driving to go to Hachinohe, when we decided maybe we ought to plug in the GPS and make sure we didnt miss the exit. Sure enough we did. So we took the next exit and when we went to get back on the freeway they told us that the freeway was now closed. So we had to take back streets that took about like 2 hours to get to Morioka. We missed a lot of the meeting, but its fine because at least we made it there alive. And I got out of having to give the opening prayer.

We also got to watch the Meet the Mormons at zone conference so that was pretty fun. I enjoyed it but it was more a documentary than anything.

Saturday we went to a members house and ate dinner with her and her husband, whom we are currently teaching. It was really fun. He is a good man he is just super busy so trying to get him to church and stuff is really hard.

Elder Drenk and I are known as the "Handsome" missionaries in Ichinoseki. They just refer to us as the "Handsome Elders" - Ha Ha.

Well that was pretty much this week. oh and I will probably start doing the Prelude music in sacrament. So good thing I got about 2 songs I can play over and over again! Thanks mom!

Well, Love you and take care.

Elder Nebeker

Back To Japan!

Hey Family! I made it to Japan!

Hmm, well 'Im not to sure where to begin. 

I'll start with the plane ride here. So I got to Portland just fine - it was all good. We boarded the plane to go to Japan and then we sat in the airplane for an hour.  They finally came over the intercom and told us that there was a malfunction with the system but the mechanics were fixing it. So we waited about 30 minutes till they said they fixed it. And then as we are pulling up to the runway the pilot came over the intercom again saying we needed to go back because the gas gauges aren't working and he doesn't know how much gas is in the plane. So they had to manually check it and I thought for sure we were not going to be leaving the airport that day. But we did and we didn't crash and burn. So that was good. Oh and one of the flight attendants kept hitting on me.... It would have been okay except for it was a man...... Hahaha that was a long flight!

So I am here in good old Ichinoseki. It doesn't have very much snow and it stays about 32 degress here. I can't believe Utah is that warm! You should be wakeboarding in no time! Elder Drenk is really cool. He is from California. His dad owns a company that transports camera equiptment for Hollywood, so he has met a lot of cool people. The town is small but it was fun to find a connection with Barbara. The couple missionary's name is The Mowers and they are from Vancouver so I just asked if they knew any Lays and they said "Barbara?" I was pretty happy they knew her. So there are 6 missionaries; me, Elder Drenk, Elder Thayne, Elder Tsushima, and the couple missionaries, The Mowers. It's pretty fun. 

So my back is doing just fine. No problems so far. President Smith was very excited to see me. He said it was like seeing an old friend again. Told me about Ichinoseki and the hope for it. So I feel blessed to be here.

Oh and uh I found out my new return date, they are saying Mid November. 

But anyways. This week was really good. The first day I got here we found a new investigator and the next day 2 new potential investigators and handed out a couple Books of Mormon. So I felt pretty good about this week. 

It was pretty funny we were kind of out late like around 8 knocking on doors and just as we were about to knock on a door it swung open and the lady saw us and just dropped to the ground and she was trying to scream and but couldn't cause she was so frightened but then she recognized who we were and just started laughing. I felt really bad but it was pretty funny it was like her worst nightmare just came true or something.

Also This week we went with the Mowers to go find some less actives that live far away.  So we went to this one house that is pretty big but in the middle of nowhere and all the lights were on so we knew they were home. So we knocked and no one answered so we knocked a few more times.  Then a guy came to the door naked, and just looked at us and says "Im naked, I was just going to bathe." It was pretty hilarious... But it was the right guy.  

That was pretty much what happened this week.

I didn't have jet lag too bad except for I did sleep at the mission office the first day and all the other missionaries took the blankets so I just shivered the whole night. But I think it was good because I got used to the cold and I think it actually helped my jet lag. 

It feels like I was never even gone - it's pretty weird. But it was really good to see all the misionaries again. I also got to meet Tokyo's Mision President and some of his missionaries while I was in Tokyo. So That was pretty fun. 

Well I love you and I am happy to be back. 

 

Elder Nebeker