January 3rd, 2016: 正月/New Years!

January 3^rd, 2016

HAPPY NEW YEARS! (Ugh, it's so cliché...)

Well, it is officially 2016... And I'm still in Japan! I'm gonna be

here for a while, so it's alright! I'm just gonna come right out and

say that not a ton happened this week, so if this email is shorter

than usual, don't get mad. ;)

This week we were told by our mission president that we couldn't go

out and proselyte on the 31st, 1st, and the 2nd. Therefore, we got A

LOT of study time in this week. That being said, we had some crazy

experiences too!

We got a new investigator this week, and it happened in a

very...unique...way. So, we were in a lesson with Okada (岡田) kyōdai at

the church during the middle of the day and we had just finished

reading the Book of Mormon when I saw both 岡田 and my companion looking

at the door behind me. I was like, "What the...?" So I cracked open

the door and peeked through and there, some two feet from my face, was

a man! And not just any man, a tall Japanese man! (Just so you know,

there's not a whole lot of tall, lurpy Japanese men out there...) It

scared the living daylights out of me. I'm pretty sure I screamed a

little bit... But it's all a blur. ;) Hahaha, I slammed the door and

looked at my companion and he was as confused as I was! So I opened

the door again and went out to talk to the guy. Turned out he had been

found by a previous missionary and wanted to come to our English class

and learn more about our church! It was crazy! So, we invited him in

and had an impromptu eikaiwa class. It was actually really

interesting! We did self introductions so we could get to know him

better! His name is Keiichihiro Miyashita and he is a 22 year old

college student at Kofu university, near Tokyo. He was on winter break

and visiting his family who lives in Nagano. Funny story about him, he

was actually dating a member who introduced him to the church, but the

relationship was broken off because he thought that they couldn't get

married because he wasn't a member of the church. I don't know how

long ago that was, but he told us that is when he started looking into

the church. This guy is about as golden as golden gets. He LITERALLY

walked into our hands. Hahahaha, it was crazy. 岡田ended up leaving, but

Miyashita wanted to stay and study more. We were like, "...OK!!!"

Haha, so we had an impromptu lesson with him. I shared my story and

why I decided to go on a mission, and him and I really seemed to

connect. I then shared a poem with him to explain the idea of faith

and why he had to learn about he gospel. He was already showing so

much faith, and learned about and applied the principles of the gospel

to his life so quickly! I was amazed. So I invited him to be baptized.

And he said no. Haha, but he then said that he has a desire to follow

Christ's example and be baptized, but because of his parents, he

couldn't. They are apparently like hardcore Buddhists and are super

strict. I told him that we understood. He then told us that he wants

to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it was true for himself!

This guys was basically following the PMG exactly! It was amazing. He

had to leave, and we set up a return appointment for Sunday after

church.

So we're sitting there in church, and I had just finished bearing my

testimony and as I am walking back to my seat I see Keiichihiro

standing there in the back! We invited him to come and sit with us,

and I asked him why he was at church. We weren't planning on meeting

him till it was over! He then told me that he didn't have a lot going

on, so he decided to drop in and come to church. We asked him some

questions about where he thought he came from and where he was going

after death, and before we could even begin to describe what the plan

of salvation was he told us, "I think this life is our time to prepare

for the next life so we can be with God again." For about the

billionth time, I was astonished. He basically taught us the plan of

salvation. We went over it with him in detail, and he grasped all of

the content well! We met with him again today, and it was kind of sad.

He is leaving tomorrow to go back to Kofu to finish out school, and we

might not be here when he graduates. We had a last lesson with him and

told him how much we appreciated him. We are going to keep in contact

with him over text to make sure that he is doing well and reading the

Book of Mormon.

So yeah, that was crazy! We also had 正月(New Years)! It was pretty much

insane! We went to a huge Buddhist temple in Nagano on New Year's Day

and it there were so many people there! I loved it! I love smiling at

Japanese people. It is probably one of my favorite pass times here. I

try and smile at every person I see because I think it really

distinguishes us as missionaries from other people. That and people

give me funny reactions. The best are the old people! Usually the old

grandmas will smile back at me, and it is pretty funny. The grandpas

don't really appreciate it... Hahaha which makes me laugh even more! I

think too many people get caught up trying to live life and because of

that they miss out on enjoying life. This life is a gift, and we're

here to have fun and be happy. The scripture says,

Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy.

It's true. We're here so that we can have joy. So I try and share my

joy that I have everywhere I go. But yeah, the temple that we went to

is called Zenkoji! I have some rad pictures of the temple and all of

the people! I don't know why, but I forgot to take a selfie with all

of the people... I know, lame right?! But I will attach some other

pictures.

We also went bowling with some of the men in our ward! Ok, Japanese

people take bowling pretty seriously which is crappy because I am

seriously the worst at bowling. We played three games, and my first

game I bowled a 53. Yeah, good huh? On the last game I bowled a 99

which I am pretty sure is a new personal record for me. Hahaha but it

was way fun! The place we went to is called Round 1, and it is

basically an arcade mixed with a casino mixed with a restaurant mixed

with a bowling alley. It has three different levels... It is huge! The

first two floors consist of the arcade/casino section, and then the

top floor is the bowling alley! I have some way funny pictures of some

of the guys playing games. I'll attach them all. :)

So yeah, that was my week basically. It was pretty crazy and fun! This

actually turned out longer than I thought! Oh well! Hahaha

Love you all!

Luke/パシー長老