I'll talk about the rest of the week first.
First thing was we had the Emergency Transfer and traded Elder Smith for Elder Otani. It also happened to be our Splits day. So I said hi to my companion, took his bag, gave him to another Elder for the day, and told him I'd see him later. We met up at the apartment that night but he did a Splits Review for five-ever with his temporary companion and I had Reporting so we actually didn't talk. But the next day we were able to talk and he's a pretty cool guy. We only speak in Japanese which is awesome because usually my companions won't do it even though it's a rule or they just are unable to understand me when I do it. So that's cool. It hasn't been all Japanese though because we have some Filipinos we work with here. There's our Recent Converts Jonivar and Arnold, and this new kid Rio that Elder Purba found a year ago that the missionaries re-found! We had a good Restoration with Rio and he seems promising.
Jonivar got us dinner twice and the Sugimotos gave us cake and root beer (that's super rare in Japan) to celebrate Sugimoto Shimai's birthday. Turns out they were from the same Stake as Elder Otani back in Osaka and their daughter knew his brother! Small LDS world, huh?
We went finding and ended up talking to a group of like 20 high school students. I don't know what it is about me and group dendo(proselyting), it's just so delicate because nobody wants to commit unless everyone does. You just have to find the leader and convert him and it's all good. You also have to be super fun and interesting to keep them there long enough to sledgehammer them with the Spirit so they'll meet again. It's fun but nerve-wracking because you have so much potential and don't want to mess things up. Anyway, I didn't do it. I didn't get 20 new investigators in one swoop, but it was close. Maybe next time.
We got ahold of Tai and she hasn't been to church since the sixth month. That's June in English right? So that's a little while. She wants to come back though and since she's looking for a boyfriend right now we mentioned that we have a young reasonably handsome Chinese investigator coming to church right now. If she can get off work she wants to come, probably mostly to see Yoshi-kun, the Branch President's 2year old son, but that's fine. She'll remember the Spirit when she gets here. We also got ahold of Liu and she's ready to move on with the lessons. Wenting gave her all of the pamphlets so we'll need to start doing some 'splainin' soon. And I got ahold of Yang, our young reasonably handsome Chinese man. I say reasonably handsome but I have no idea because I've never met him. But I got his contact info from Elder Smith before he left and was able to contact him and fool him into thinking I speak Chinese! It worked! So now he likes me cuz I'm a Chinese bro but not really. He just thinks it's cool I tried.
So now for the cool part about the surprise.
This past Sunday was the birthday of one of the girls in our Branch. She turned 12 so she's going to go to the temple before Tokyo Temple closes. Anyway, we were going to celebrate her birthday after church with a cake and stuff. I was in charge of making a back up/extra cake and not letting her find out. So I made 2 cakes because I go big and I get to clean up leftovers anyway. So Higashi Shimai tells me to go get the stuff and set up secretly upstairs so Kaira doesn't find out. We're also celebrating Wenting passing the hardest Japanese test in Japan so it's supposed to be a big party. Anyway, I'm running around the church like a ninja setting up decorations while Takashi distracts her in another room. I go and grab the 2 cakes I made out of the fridge and put them upstairs. Then I come back a second time and grab Higashi Shimai's cake. I'm taking it upstairs and notice that Kaira's name is not the only one on the cake, it also says "E. ROGERS!" What!? My birthday was like 2 days after I got here and nobody noticed.....but they did! And I was setting up my own surprise party!! No way! I was so touched (I don't know if that's actually a thing we say in English but it's the equivalent of what I would say in Japanese. Or maybe moved is better.....hmmm). These members are so nice to me! So Higashi Shimai sees me walk in holding her cake looking at it and says, "No! I told you not to grab it!" I ruined my own surprise party. But it was ok, I still enjoyed it. It was a great time with my good friends and lots of love and CAKE. There were 3 cakes!
They asked me what my goals were for this next year of my life and I said finish my mission. Apparently that wasn't enough so I added that I wanted to get into a Japanese college. They seemed a little more satisfied but then gave me another suggestion. "Elder Rogers, give this cake you made to a girl and marry her!" Hahahah! My mom sent me cake mix that was so easy to make not even I could screw it up. There was no cooking skills involved whatsoever. But then they kept going on and on about my qualities and so I had to tell them, "Hey! You're 2 months fast!" First is the remainder of my mission, which I am ready to enjoy to the fullest. I don't want it to end, so I'll just have to not waste any time!
Elder Rogers
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