Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Life in Tokorozawa

Weekly journal

Momday and Tuesday: Pday, hung around, did some cleaning, slept a lot, Tuesday packed pretty much all day, went and streets for an hour or so. On the way back got stopped by a man who spoke the foams test Japanese that I've ever heard. It was crazy. His English was super crazy too and he went back and forth between the two so it was impossible to understand.

Wednesday we finished up packing. I spent a quite a bit of time trying to,figure out how to take my bike apart so it would fit in my issued bike bag. After finally figuring out how to get my bike into it's bag, we left the house and decided to do one last big loop of Kamakura taking in everything before we were supposed to,return home for dinner. We crossed the train tracks and headed over towards the big Buddah. At the big Buddah we talked to a friend Muhammed who owns a kebab store. I told him goodbye and we took some good pictures and then left. We walked around the beach for a little bit since it was nice out and then we met up other our foreign friends who enjoy hanging out on the beach Phil and Merrick. Phil, the retired Marine told me stories about TBS and his experience in Vietnam. We talked for a long time and then I gave them all my business card and they gave me their emails. They're not so much interested in the church as more about making good friendships and learning from each other. They want to know what'll happen to me in the future I guess? We walked home, and spent about 40min getting the whole place ready for the two new elders who are moving in. Then we had dinner and went to English Class. It was kind of bittersweet knowing that this would be my last night with all the cool people that I've met here in Kamakura. But I do know that as one door closes, another will open. I'm excited to see what kinds of adventures await me in Tokorozawa.

Thursday was crazy. We woke up early and grabbed our things and headed but the door to the train station to make our respective trains for our new areas. I traveled with my bike and my silver small suitcase. It was awful being on the train. After two stops from Kamakura the train became completely packed. I felt bad because I took up a lot of room in the train car with all of my stuff. After I finally got to Tokorozawa (a whole hour later than anticipated) Elder Suzuki and Elder Strain came over and liked me up and took me to the apartment. It's about a 6 min walk away from the station. We set up our bikes, went to lunch at Sukiya and then we hit the ground running with zone leader work. I've never been so exhausted in my whole mission. Every second was filled with something or other. It was pretty ridiculous how much planning and paperwork and what not we had to do before we could go out and proselyte. It's crazy to see just how many things go on in the background. I can already tell that it's going to be a busy transfer. The word has some high expectations for us missionaries and now that I have a new responsibility with leading the zone it'll make for a whole lot of fun. I'm excited to see what kinds of miracles we will see this coming transfer. My new companion, elder Connell is really awesome. He is really soft-spoken but is a hard worker. He's not as intense as I am with things, a whole lot more laid back, but I feel that as we learn to work together well be a powerhouse of a missionary companionship.

Friday was extremely busy. We woke up and studied the Book of Mormon until about 6:15ish and then ran as a companionship. We then headed
out to the chapel to hold a district leader training followed by the real zone conference. It was really weird being on the other side of the zone meeting tables. I had to present several things to the zone. It's a whole lot bigger than I originally though 20 people would be. After the meeting, we had lunch in the kitchen and enjoyed some rice and curry. We met the new sisters in the area and went as a district to Tokorozawa to pass out some flyers. I talked to several people. It's hard talking to people about the gospel while passing out flyers about the Church/English class. It rained really hard before hand and it was super windy so a whole lot of Japanese people were walking around with broken ¥200 umbrellas. It was kind of amusing. After dinner, we went to the church to do this thing called "out-reach" it's where people come to the church and do different things each week. This week we played of bunch of rhythm games and hung out and ate food. We got home around 21:30. Then we planned and I crashed in my bed. Life is pretty active as a Zone Leader

Saturday and Sunday were a blur. Sunday was pretty crazy. The Ward is SUPER big and super nice. We went to church and met with the Bishop and the Ward mission leader. I didn't  have to speak in sacrament meeting because it was a special Mother's Day sacrament meeting but I feel like that I'm going to speak next week in sacrament meeting. After church we went and sat in the Ward council meeting for a bit and tried to organize some things for the missionaries here in Tokorozawa. We then went and passed flyers out in front of one of the stations and went and ate dinner at the Matsuoka's house. It was really really good. The spiritual message was about sharing our talents and our abilities with others. It was really good.

Pics: Sakura, us at the temple, me and Brother Adachi the recent concert, Me and one of our crazy English class students. A picture that one of his ancestors drew.






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