Last week on Tuesday we went on splits with the Assistants, after they came to our district meeting. We talked about using the Book of Mormon during lessons and had some fun practicing that, and then we talked about focus, and the "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you" scripture.
Then I went on splits with Elder Akamatsu!!! (My companion for 3 months, almost a year ago!) Elder Akamatsu is one of my most favorite people, and it was so so good to be back with him for a day. I am so grateful that God allowed him to be my companion, and allowed our missions to be at the same time. Elder Akamatsu taught me a lot about how to help people that are different then us, and really expanding ourselves to be able to help all people. He is so smart, and so fun. We found a college student that showed some good potential. We were able to teach him quite a bit, bear testimony, and give him a Book of Mormon. Then we exchanged numbers, and they should be able to meet him again. We taught a really cool role play lesson with a member, and it was incredible that without any preparation, Elder Akamatsu and I were able to teach in perfect unity, with such a rare balance and respect for each other. It was really cool to see that after a year, as expected, we are still the greatest companionship this mission has ever seen.;).
It was a fantastic day full of memories and very inspiring discussions. We reviewed our contract; we made a contract of the ways that we were going to improve "Spiritually, language, personality, Etc. from then until we become companions again. We made that contract 9 months ago when he transferred form Toyohira. It was really cool to see how far we have come, and how much we have been changed by our mission experience. I love you Elder Akamatsu!
Then on Wednesday we had a really fun day, and ended up having a fun water balloon toss, and water balloon fight with first some kids, and then a bunch of our younger investigators showed up and we had a fun war. Then we went and visited Takahashi kyoudai, our awesome investigator who is really progressing. He was so nice, and we were able to make a really solid commitment with him that he would give God 15 minutes a day. Pray, and read the Book of Mormon, and just see what God will do for you if you give 15 minutes to Him. After visiting him we went to Matsuo obachan (Grandma)
She is like the grandma of the missionaries, and the members in this ward here. Hilarious old lady. Super sassy, and way rude, which is just the funniest thing ever. She's way good at cooking, and knows what missionaries like, and what missionaries have a hard time eating, and so she often makes food that is really hard for missionaries to eat, just because she thinks she's hilarious. (That is our theory about her.) But we had a birthday party for matsuo obachan, and for Sister Morita, because their birthday's are only 2 days apart. It was so fun. I made banana cake, and each missionary besides Morita shimai all made/prepared something, so we ended up having a really good assortment of food. Elder Stone kept on saying to Matsuo obachan "I know you understand english. I know you understand what I am saying!" He said this in a really loud and intense voice and it was the funniest thing ever. She just kept on laughing and was such a character. She is the funniest Grandma I've ever met in Japan. (All though not the first; there are a lot of awesome/crazy Grandma's that I love in Japan.)
This week was crazy because then on Thursday I went on splits with Elder Graham! Haha it was a little bit too good to go on splits with my favorite missionaries only two days apart. This was Elder Graham and I's first actual split! First time actually doing missionary work together without our companions also there. Really fun! We rode bikes from Chitose to Eniwa (the two cities in our area, and about a 11 or so kilometer bike ride.) We saw a couple kids playing basketball, joined their game, played 2 on 2 with them, helped Elder Graham learn how to play basketball a little bit more, and then taught them about Heavenly Father, and about Prayer. It was really cool to watch these 15 year olds really feel something, and have a desire to pray to God, their Father in Heaven. We made an appointment for today, but it is raining, and so we are hoping to meet them later this week. We biked the rest of the way to Eniwa, met with a member, talked about reactivating her husband, and bore testimony to each other about Jesus Christ. It was really special. Fujita shimai is so awesome, and I asked her what she thought we could do to help missionaries who struggle with confidence, and it was really cool what she said. She talked about a talk that she had heard recently, by a member in shiroishi. That member talked about how she was doing everything that she could be doing, and was struggling/wondering why she couldn't do them all well, despite trying so hard to be so good. She then realized that she was so busy, that she wasn't reading the Book of Mormon, she hadn't been going to the temple, and she wasn't doing the basic necessities. She took a second and pulled her life together, took time out of work to go to the temple, and from that she actually had her workload at work go down, despite taking 5 hours out of her day to make the temple work. She got back to work, didn't have any built up work, and had more time to read the Book of Mormon! The basics are truly the key to living the gospel. Focus on the basics, and everything will work out, and you will not get too overwhelmed. This is very important in missionary work, and in trying to be the best member possible. The most important is the basics and the fundamentals of living the gospel.
We got surprise fed, right after we had bought food at a super, with the sisters investigator and 4 sisters, because two other sisters were here for splits! Hirata shimai, who came to Japan from the mtc at the same time as Elder Graham and I, was here! We had a good reunion with her! She is the funniest Japanese sister ever, and is going to be so fun to be friends with after the mission.
Then we were able to meet Takahashi kyoudai; the guy that we had met the day before. We followed up and strengthened our commitment with him. He gave 15 minutes the day before, and I am pretty sure that he is doing his 15 minutes for God each day. I Invite all of you as well to make sure and truly give at least 15 minutes a day to God; Study the Book of Mormon and pray.
Finally we went to the yokoishi family's house but Yokoishi papa was having a late night at work, and wasn't going to get back until 9, so after a bit of talking with yokoishi mama, and fuyu chan, and then when the sisters showed up too, we left and rode our bikes home. It was a beautiful night, and just us and our lights, and the dark fields around us, on the rural road back to Chitose. I love riding to and from the two cities in this awesome area.
On Friday we had another Crazy day. We started the day with Yokoishi papa. We taught him English, and then asked him if he had any concerns or fears. He just asked a little bit about his daughter, and how she would be able to balance extra curricular activities and church. We talked about it, and helped him understand the sabbath day, and taught him how they can seek guidance from leaders etc.
Then we taught the last couple potential hard to follow commandments: Keeping the Sabbath day holy, and the law of chastity which was more of a review. He accepted both of them, and has such strong faith and devotion in following the will of God, and the word that is written in the Book of Mormon.
Straight from teaching him we had a big activity at the church which a bunch of our high schooler investigators, and the yokoishi family all participated in. It was so fun and so good for everyone that came. They asked us to do a singing performance at the last minute, and so we sang I'm a child of God in Japanese and English, and then Love at home, in Japanese. It was a really fun activity. We played soccer and then taught english class.
On Saturday we got fed by the angel grandma of this ward, Sister Kurashige. She fed us ramen salad; it was so good. Then she gave us as many different kinds of amazing different ice cream bars as we could eat, and they all realized for the first time that I have way sensitive teeth, which especially the sister missionaries could not stop laughing about. Then when we were coming home we heard some music, and kind of changed our route a little bit to go check it out, and ended up finding a summer festival in the street, with a bunch of performers singing and dancing, and eating food. We started talking to this guy that was super into biking, and we were able to become friends, and then while we were talking to him, this guy comes over and gives us these two long ticket type of things, and points over at an older lady, she just looks at us, smiles, and points towards the food. We kind of realized that these tickets basically equaled money at this festival, and so we took it over to the stand, and found out that our tickets each represented 11 dollars! Haha coolest thing ever! We bought a bunch of stuff, and then ended up after buying that stuff being befriended by this other booth, a mom and her daughter, who should come to our english class, and got free snow cones, and then also free drinks from them. (Each being sold for 2$) Then we got passed a plate of fresh cooked meat and onions from the same lady that had given us the tickets. Lastly I decided I should actually buy something, and so I got as many zucchinis as I could fit into a bag for 3$ which ended up being so many, and then the mom just gave me a bigger bag to stuff it in and stuffed like an extra 5 in, and was still trying to stuff more in when I told her that she could stop! Haha so nice. I love having healthy food. Then we taught the other guy that likes bikes, and ended up making a plan with him to go for a bike ride with him, and to share more about God and our message! We are doing that tomorrow with him, so pray that that will go well!
After the matsuri there we booked it back to the apartment, finished cooking the bananas cake that I had made for reima (one of our high potential junior high school investigators) and then rode our bikes faster than we ever have to eniwa. We met Reima and some of the other kids, and went to go meet Reima's parents. We met his parents, and gave them the banana cake and the card that we made saying thank you for when his dad bought the stuff for reima to make soba for us the other day. We talked to them and were able to get permission to teach reima more about our church! Super awesome.
Then we had an activity with the young men at the church, but it was the same time as the eniwa summer festival, so that was kind of bad timing, but we made tacos, which we don't get to eat very often in japan, and it was a really good activity, especially for our young men who are less active. We finished there and then went to the summer festival to meet all of our investigators and basically the entire city at the biggest park ever. Everywhere we went people would stare at us, or recognize us, and shout out KONOBA!!! My name, Conover, in Japanese is pronounced konoba, which also means "this place", and so I always explain my name using that word in Japanese, and it makes it so that everyone remembers my name, which is cool, but its sad, because some people shout out my name, and I can't even remember their face, let alone their name! Haha it is awesome to really be apart of the community and know so many people, especially the younger generation. The summer festival had some of the coolest fireworks, and we really had a special time being with so many awesome people there. We also gave out a ton of english flyers, and had a lot of people really seem like they will come to english class. So fun to be American in Japan.
Yesterday we had a really good day at church. Reima, Ayumu, shouma, yokoishi family, and another family that is the sisters investigator's, the mizutani family, all came to church! We had 8 investigators at church! So special. Yokoishi papa wore a suit to church today with which he had bought a tie the day before that his wife had picked out for him. He is so amazing and so prepared to become a member. After church we planned the program with Yokoishi papa and fuyu chan and yokoishi mama. We made the assignments and everything, and it looks like they are officially getting baptized on August 12, at 11 am. Please pray that everything will go smoothly, and they will be able to have a special baptism. Yokoishi papa asked me to baptize him, and so fuyu chan asked Elder Jensen to baptize him, so we are very excited. It is going to be such a special experience.
We did an FHE with the Yamamoto family; Brother Yamamoto just got released last year from being the stake president. We had a really awesome time with the Yokoishi family and their family in the Yamamoto house. Such good members. We played two truths and a lie, and then had a little lesson from the sisters, and Yamamoto shimai asked yokoishi papa about how he had gained a testimony, and when he decided that he wanted to get baptized, and it was just one of the coolest nights as a missionary! And that was the week!! Sorry this emails was so long. I haven't been able to write in my journal, so I just tried to put down a record so this amazing week of my life won't be forgotten.
I love being a missionary and I love this work. I am so happy to be here and to have the opportunity to be a missionary serving here. I know that this is God's work. I know that God is guiding his work. Big things are happening in Japan. Japan will someday soon astonish the world with the numbers of people that will accept and follow Jesus Christ.
I love Jesus Christ. Think about who Jesus Christ is to you. What Jesus Christ do you know? Think about this question. I love you all and appreciate and love you so much!!
Love,
