Still inTsuyama

So I have a new companion right now! And who could it be other than my good friend from the MTC, Elder Warner! We were in the same district in the MTC so its just like old times. He went to the Tokyo mission though so we never would have thought we could work with each other but then there was this big earthquake and stuff and to make a long story short, he's hanging out with me in Tsuyama. So we were getting ready for this already shorted transfer due to the week long delay, but then last night, we got a call from the Zone leaders who informed us that the Tokyo missionaries are going back at some point before the transfer ends. So apparently my time with Elder Warner will be cut a bit short, and i dont know what will happen with Tsuyama when he leaves but for the time being, im excited to be working with him.

Elder Warner and I were able to have some pretty good lessons this week after sending Elder Nuttall off. One with this High schooler we found a few weeks ago by the name of Maeda. He's 16 and is interested in Christianity but he lives with his grandparents who are very strong Bhuddists who would throw a Book of Mormon or any pamplets they found away. So he didn't take a book of mormon. And basically he says that he wants to convert to christianity when he is an adult but until then, its impossible. a bit of a bummer.

Then we had a lesson with Sakamoto-san. We decided to review lesson 1 because we don't think he understood it at all. Normally during the lessons, he just sits there and listens and doesnt get involved at all, but this time we would ask questions to see if he understood at all and he didnt like that. He got angry and ended the lesson. Basically, he doesnt have any real intention on changing anything about his life despite how unhappy he is with it. Its sad but thats the case with a lot of the people you talk to. So at first that was a bit of a bummer but really, we were wasting time with him anyways.

Then Yesterday we had church and I gave my third talk of my time in Tsuyama. this one about the importance of preparation. I shared the story of the ten virgins and then busted out Alma 41:5-8 where it talks about the endless night of darkness and choosing good in this life and whatnot and tied it all in. I thought it went pretty well. And our branch was unusually genki. Then we had a lesson with Kajioka, another investigator from a while back. He's heard all the lessons but has struggles with faith, so we read Alma 32 with him. He's a really deep thinker and fun investigator to teach so I think he'll like that chapter as he studies it in more detail.

So Sunday was a good day. Its because i was wearing my lucky tie.

But yeah this week should be cool. we have an exchange with the traveling Assistants to the president so we should be able to learn a lot.

So thats life at the moment. hope everyone's doing alright in the States!

Love,

Elder Horton

 

Tsuyama week 13-last week in Tsuyama

View from my apartment

From the sounds of it we will be getting calls about transfers tomorrow morning. So hopefully something cool will be going down. we'll see.

Last week was pretty cool. we finally got to finish conference, which was legit. There were some way good talks that you all heard like a month ago.

And we had a lesson with Jotani-san who has been an investigator for some-odd 2 years or so. He was actually found by my sensei at the MTC, Bishoff-sensei. but anyways, he has been an investigator for a really long time now, but for the most part he hasnt been able to grasp much about the importance of our message or anything like that. But During our lesson, we talked a lot about the after life and about how it relates to us and our ancestors and what kinds of things we do for our ancestors. He, being a bhuddist and a Japanese man, was able to relate to that pretty well. He wanted to meet with us again the next day and seemed pretty anxious to read whatever we assigned him. So we assigned Alma 34 (because its awesome and my companion thought it talked more about the spirit world than it did) and we ended up teaching him about the Atonement the next day. I think he is finally starting to understand! its nice to have a progressing investigator.

I'm sure we did some other things throughout the week but i changed my planner out and i dont remember what they were. Probably lots of knocking on doors in addition to the things we do on a weekly basis.

Hope everyone is doing well. I heard from emails that easter is this next weekend. i had no idea. also when's mother's day?

love,

Elder Horton

Pictures

I got a new camera in the package from home, so i had to take some pictures to try it out. nothing fancy just stuff near our apartment

panoramic(looklolilol)

Tsuyama week 12

Last week for our Family home evening with the lonely single adults of Tsuyama branch, I taught them all that stick game i learned from Katie like 10 years ago that i'm super ridiculously good at. it looks like this:
l
l l
l l l
l l l l
l l l l l
kind of.
When i was planning it out in my head, i was like, "Ok, ill go easy on them and let them win a few times." but that didnt work out at all. I ended up just DESTROYING everyone over and over and i couldnt stop! haha but they played against eachother and i think they all had fun. i even taught them a secret or two and now they're pretty good. but yeah it was fun.
we had interviews with president, which went well i suppose. There are pictures on the mission blog from that. we got easter cookies which were wayy delicious. set up an appointment with a previous investigator, Yamamoto Yumie, who seems way nice from the phone call i had with her. we should be meeting this thursday. and we had a lesson with Sakamoto-san who talked to us about faith and turned out to be pretty good. he still isnt progressing very quickly, but he'll get there eventually.
we also had a lesson with Jotani-san which our ward mission leader attended. we started out with a pretty simple review of lesson 1, the restoration, but half way through, our mission leader, took over the whole thing and taught Jotani lesson 1, 2 and parts of lesson 3 all in about 20 minutes. So that was a bit of a mess. He doesnt think we have any idea how to teach which is pretty obvious by the the fact that he is always trying to give us training. its quite frustrating. So this next week, We'll be cleaning up that mess with Jotani-san. Saturday, we were supposed to watch General conference at the church in english in a separate room from everyone. thats what our branch prez told us anyways. but we get there and theres only one TV and they were watching it in Japanese. We didnt want to watch in Japanese partly because its much cooler to hear their real voices and partly because its really hard to be understanding japanese like that for 6 hours. So we decided to go out and Dendo that day and we still have to watch all the saturday stuff from Conference at some point this week. We went to Okayama on sunday so we hear the sunday sessions. Really liked Richard G Scott's talk.
As for transfers, its looking like they've been cancelled for this week because of earthquake related difficulties. we might be having them next week or we might not be having them at all. if we dont have them, ill be with elder nuttall for a third transfer. Please pray that we have them!
We also got the chance this week to go see the Sakura trees with Jotani-san and i took a picture or two, so I'll send those.
hope everyone is genki!
love,
Elder Horton

Cookies from Sister McIntyre at Interviews

Tsuyama 11

There are no pictures because Marc's camera is broken and He is waiting to get one in the mail!

This week. Last sunday, a bird pooped on my bike seat. and on monday we played monopoly at our single adults family home evening. the monopoly set at the church is anime themed so its extra exciting. plus i get to learn the japanese words for property and monopoly etc. Tuesday I had another companion exchange with Elder Lee which was fun and i learned a lot. He's a really good missionary and i always pick up some good tricks from working with him. Then Wednesday we did our reading activity and we read that book about that lazy mouse named fredrick who was a poet and he didnt even know it. I forget the title. Thursday, we got haircuts at the hair salon located directly under our apartment. The guy who does them is a previous investigator and is really freaking cool. afterwards we read Ether 12:27 together and i told him he should read Alma 34 because its awesome. Plus I got probably the best haircut I've ever gotten (no offense mom) for a fraction of the price he usually takes! I was happy. Friday, we had a really good district meeting and practiced teaching. Saturday we had a lesson with Sakamoto-san and we taught him the word of wisdom and read out of Mosiah 4. He wouldnt commit to keeping the word of wisdom probably because he doesn't have a real testimony in God so we'll keep working on that. Then this sunday, I fasted a little bit too hard and lost the ability to do just about anything so after church, i was recovering in the apartment. I went to Okayama 3 times this last week, which takes about 3 hours there and back so I actually spent a lot of time on trains. Which is fine because who doesnt like trains? And the rest of our time was pretty much spent knocking on doors. So we're keeping busy.
Soon the Sakura should be blooming. they're apparently a little slow this year, But the Japanese really love their Sakura trees. Everyone just gets a little happier this time of year. I'm excited to see them.
Yay!
Love,
Elder Horton