miracles and lots of crazy things.
So to start off the week we visited our friend Haruto. Haruto is
a sophomore in a private school we volunteered at about a month ago.
He speaks English pretty well, he can hold a conversation, and likes
us. So we'd met him a couple times before and he said it was ok to
stop by on Monday. So we went to the train station by his house and
he was there waiting for us. He came on his bike and it was kind of
messed up. Elder Purba fixed his bike (service points!) while I
talked to him. He's got a lot of homework to do (yeah, Japanese kids
do homework during their 1 month summer "break") but he's already read
50 pages of the Book of Mormon! He really likes it so far and we said
we'd throw him a party when he finishes. I'm excited, he's reading it
everyday on the train and really thinks about it. He's just a kid!
But he's so cool and prepared.
On Tuesday we went way down the peninsula to do garden work for a
member. She has a big yard and she does things old school so she
handed us a couple of scythes and said go for it. We cut the grass
and pulled weeds and fought giant spiders. It was fun and I got a
cool tan line from the gloves I was wearing. She made us some little
waffles and gave me a big thing of mugicha (wheat tea. Don't worry
it's ok) to take home. She lives on the top of a mountain and going
down is really fun and fast. I belted my iPad to my chest and rode
down while videoing but I messed up. I did a time lapse instead of a
video so you can't really tell how fast we're going. We hit 48mph.
On a bike that's really fast. We also saw some giant parade floats
and a jet pack. I'll attach videos.
The Sister's area got closed so there's no more Sisters. They gave us the
key and said we could go get whatever food they left in the fridge. They
had some good food that we happily took. Something that most Elders
don't know is what the inside of a Sisters' apartment looks like. I do and
let's just say that it is so much bigger and so much nicer than an Elder's
apartment. I guess that's because we would never see their apartment in
most cases. But now I know and the favoritism is obvious! Lol.
We were streeting by the sew wall in our area when we noticed this
white guy. Normally I'm the only white guy within at least 30 something
miles or so. I gave him the nod of 'yeah I saw you what's up' but kept on
riding. We decided to turn around and talk to him. Good choice. He's
from Texas and he has a Mormon friend. We talked to him for a while,
it was so good to speak English again. he says he wants to meet again
and play basketball or something and his friend (Japanese girl, not
girlfriend, girlfriend's friend) says she wants to come too! As we were
talking to them we noticed lots of people gathering. Turns out that right
where we were standing is a special spot for Pokémon Go and a crowd
of 60+ people come there every night to play! Who knew! We're
planning on going back later and seeing what we can make of it.
Due to the fact that the Sisters left the area, we now teach the Children's
English Class. It was so fun. There's two kids ages 9 and 7ish and a little
teeny tiny girl named Iroha (Ee-row-ha) that's like 2. We sang the ABC's
with them twice and even the Iroha got it! When we finished the 1st time
she said, "one more time!" I couldn't argue with her so we did it again.
Then we sang the Hello song from Primary. We taught them animal names
and shapes. We introduced them to Monkey in the Middle and they loved
it. It was fun for us too.
We heard music outside one night and found a festival for O-Bon going
on at the bottom of our hill. We checked it out and it was pretty cool,
though it was pretty small. On the way home I bought a pizza which never
happens in Japan because it cost over $28! It was totally worth it though
because we never eat pizza. We met a biker gang in front or our cul de sac
and they were pretty cool. I said hello, got the typical response, "Harro" and
I knew we were going to be friends. One of them rode a Hello Kitty
motorcycle on purpose. His girlfriend and dad live right next to us actually
and now we're friends. Another one of them likes English so we offered to
teach him. After biker gangs and pizza were over we went to visit Eiji, our
less active friend. On the way to is house Elder Purba felt prompted to check
a fighting gym near us. I peeked my head through the sliding doors and he
was there! The gym leader waved us in and we got to sit and watch. It was
super cool. Some of the guys were really good and one of them was as toned
as Bruce Lee. Eiji did pretty good but we think he's still a beginner. It was
cool to see him doing something he likes.
Yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting. Elder Purba and I did it and
then our only youth di it too. It was awesome to see him. Takashi, get up and
bear his testimony. Then after church he showed me his backflip he's been
working on since I taught him how to do it. He's really good. We visited
members because they almost never get visited. They all live pretty far away.
We visited Ichihara Shimai and we offered service, she offered chicken. We
were still fasting so we didn't take it then. Then we went to go visit Kobayshi
Shimai and she lives pretty far away. On the way we saw and old man taking
pictures of a flower and Elder Purba thought he recognized him. She we talked
to him and it was Kenji Tsuboi! He doesn't have a phone or email and the only
way to contact him is through Facebook which he never uses. This guy is a ghost,
a ninja that can never be found, bet we ended up going right where we needed to
be at the right time! He's going to come to our English class now and meet with
us when he can. After that we continued on and saw lanterns hanging over the
street and heard music playing so we followed it until we found a big festival.
There were more people there than in the entire area next to ours! It was crazy!
Elder Purba somehow bumped into someone he knew. It was a tank engineer
who used to come to English class. He going to start coming again. After that
we headed back to the festival in time for the dancing and music. They had
these little teeny drummers and his 4 or 5 year old girl was killing it. Later on
that night her big brother came out (I don't know if he was actually her brother
but he was pretty enthusiastic) and just went hard on those drums. There was a
stage in the middle they invited the kids to go dance on and it got some people
pretty excited.
I know we were guided by God's hand this week as we went out and worked.
We never would have met some of the people we did otherwise. I know if we're
doing what we're supposed to that God will place us where we need to be, when
we need to be there. I'm very grateful to be able to see so many miracles each and
every day and love my time here as a missionary. I wouldn't be anywhere else if
I could pick because I know I'm right where I need to be.
I love you all. Remember who you are and what you stand for. Be good.
Elder Rogers
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