Neverland

A few things from Alex's email to me:
I can't believe that Elder Scott died! Soon all the apostles that have been around for all my life will be gone.

(His comment when I mentioned something I saw while watching the LDS series about missionaries called The District.) The District is one of the things that is in all the apartments of missionaries, and we watch it a lot; especially as we train or get trained. It is interesting to try and figure out what those missionaries could have done better, and sometimes I wish I could have someone filming me so I could do it for myself. 

Recently the elders were having a talk in our apartment how all the
members grow up while the elders are always the same age, and how that
makes missionaries seem like Peter Pan; we never grow up. Where as all
aspects of my life don't seem to be like I'm living in Neverland,
sometimes I feel like I will be here forever, and most of the time I
wish I could. If it were not for the chance to meet my family again,
as well as the eventual saving ordinances I will receive with a to be
eternal companion in a temple of God, whoever that may be (both of
which aren't allowed as a full time young missionary of the Church), I
would more than willingly live this life, with these people, until the
day I die.

The kanji of the week is: 最近 pronounced "sigh-keen" and means "recently."

Monday we had a picnic with the ward, and an English class student and
one of our investigators came. It was lots of fun, and the closeness
of a park to the church was helpful too (there is a big pond and a
park right next to the church). Right after that we emailed for a bit
more (we didn't have too much time before hand to do so), and did all
the basic preparation day stuff. In the evening, the members left some

of the leftovers for us at the church, and it took us all evening to
get it packaged and clean all the dishes. It wasn't exactly what I
wanted to do, but it had to be done.
 






Tuesday we went to go visit a less active, but no one answered the
door. We also tried to visit Brother Yamamoto (one of our
investigators), but he wasn't home. We then went to try and find some
free English or Japanese classes to try and find that way, but that
day was a holiday, so everything related to city run things were
closed. Nearby was a sword exhibit, and there were a lot of people
going in and out, so we thought we'd try and talk to people there;
unfortunately not much came from it though. After that we went and
tried to visit a less active member, but there was a guy there who
said he wasn't the person we were looking for. So, we went to Brother
Nakamura's house (a member). We did a practice lesson, and it went
well. We also got to talk and get to know him better. He loves birds,
and calls himself the Morioka bird man, so I was happy to talk about
birds with him (yes I like birds, although I don't know much about
them). We also went and handed out fliers for English class in the
evening.

Wednesday was wacky. I don't know if that's what I would call it, but
I wanted to alliterate. In the morning we went to try and try out a
sign language circle, but it was a holiday again (this week is called
silver week in Japan), so they didn't have it. We went and had lunch
and did studies, and then went to Brother Yamamoto's house. We watched
the restoration video with him and talked a bit about it afterwards.
We then went to the church and one of the English class students
brought a kimono that she let the elders try on. She also showed us
how to properly fold it, and some other cool things about how you wear
kimonos depending on certain conditions. Not too long after that, we
had English class. Everyone is still pretty quiet, but they're pretty
good at English.

Thursday we had district training meeting in the morning followed by
going on splits again. I went back to Miyako, but this time I went
with my old companion Elder T. We first went to visit a less
active with two other members and read the Book of Mormon together. It
was a good read, and the atmosphere was good. We then went to the
church and had a lesson with an investigator that we went to last week
on splits. There wasn't too much focus this time on anyone's part
because of the investigator's kid, but that should not have been an
excuse, and isn't. After that we finished our studies.

Friday was spent entirely in traveling and weekly planning, so I don't
have too much exciting things to talk about that day.



Saturday we went over to Brother Yamamoto's house, but we didn't
really get to talk about the gospel too much, because he was very
talkative. After that we did street contacting, and got two copies of
the Book of Mormon out, and one of them we might play ping-pong with
soon. It started raining towards the end, so we abandoned our endeavor
(we didn't have umbrellas), and went to the church and set up for a
meeting on how to improve English class. That was how we ended the
night.

Sunday was a pretty normal morning and sacrament meeting. We got to
also have a lesson with Brother Yamamoto who came again during the
second hour, and a member came to help out. It really did help,
because Brother Yamamoto was very focused and could feel the spirit.
After church and studies, we went to visit a less active, Brother
Imamatsu. We have been meeting with him at least once each week, and
he is starting to really progress. He lives far away, so that was just
about all we got to do.

That's my week! I hope you all enjoyed it, and got something out of
it. Love you all! 
 Love, 
 Elder _____________ 
長老