Niiiiihammers 8 & Niihama 9

Carrying the Arc

they keep the triforce in that bhuddist shrine

at a bhuddist shrine place. they fed us weird bean soup

Last Moday, after P-day, we made a call to the Tan family to see how they were doing and talk about bringing a member to their next visit. When I asked if it would be cool to bring a member to the next appointment, there was a long pause and the mom was talking to the daughters and then they told us they wanted to stop everything. And when i asked why, she gave the normal excuse of being bhuddist and whatnot even though we had already established that she believed in God. When I pointed that out and asked what she believes, she just said she didn't know but didn't really care. And I think that just about sums it up. They don't know. I think it was probably one of the daughters that was stopping the whole thing but who knows. But it was for the best that they got dropped now as opposed to later. But we met a bit with our other investigators like Kimura-san, who we taught about praying and reading the Book of Mormon and she seems like she wants to give it a shot. And after Eikaiwa, we got a chance to teach Sho-kun who is way cool and has interest in God and happiness so we have an appointment to meet him again tomorrow and have a more proper talk. We're stoked about that.
Thursday was thanksgiving and we started a companion exchange with the Imabari Elders that night. So before splitting off, we went and ate some delicious Osho's. and I ate... chinese food? I think it's chinese food. But it was good stuff and I spent too much money and wasn't going to have enough to travel to Imabari and back so I had to sell my nuttella spread to elder singleton. but its alright because the stuff wasnt exactly helping me in my efforts to get a six-pack. So then my exchange with Wright長老 went pretty well. He's a way chill guy and we had lots of good times and worked hard.
Other than that, not a whole lot happened other than me giving an awesome talk in sacrament meeting about fasting. which of course was awesome.
Next week should be a busy one, so until then!

Love,
Elder Horton

I copied the pictures from the other elders here so maybe ill send some out...

more pottery

November 21, 2011
They moved our P-day a day for some Zone Conference thing yesterday so I'm emailing a day late. I guess it was a pretty good conference, though I didn't enjoy having to wake up super early to get on a super-slow train all the way to Takamatsu. Then the super slow train on the way back took up our entire day. But in reality, I do love trains. who doesn't?
I guess not a whole lot happened this week. We had appointments and got to talk to most the investigators in our nice little teaching pool that we've built up since we got here. We gave Kimura-san a Book of Mormon and gave her a good place to read from, met with the Tan family and read and explained good parts out of 2 Nephi 31, met with Tojo-san and she is still praying and started reading the Book of Mormon but doesn't want to come to church, etc etc.
In Eikaiwa this week, we made turkeys and explained to all these Japanese people the awesome American holiday of Thanksgiving! and it turns out they have Thanksgiving in Canada too, but its just in October. Also Canadians pronounce the letter 'z' as 'zed.' I seriously thought Singleton長老 was pulling my leg on that one. But I guess I'm learning a lot about Canada. Then we had one of our members, Igari姉妹 interview all the Eikaiwa students and we got appointments with 3 of them. 2 of the 3 are going to be taught by the other 2 elders in Niihama and Singleton and I will teach one 15 year old kid named Sho-kun who is pretty cool. during eikaiwa, we asked people what super power they would want and he said he wanted to be able to make people happy. and he was all asking me if i was happy and why im happy and stuff. So we're going to teach him about happiness. should be cool.
So thats about all thats going on at the moment, or atleast that i can remember.
Hope everyone has a good thanksgiving!

Love,
Elder Horton

Niiiiiiiiihama 7 and Pottery pictures!

Since there were no transfers last week, we had absolutely nothing going on. No district meeting or Zone conference or companion exchange or nothing. So we actually had some time to work. And I changed my planner at transfers so I dont remember the majority of what we did. But I do remember that we biked deep into the mountains to visit Aoba会長 and to share a message with some of his pottery students. Which went alright i guess. The one girl, Usuki-san, mostly just talked about how she prayed to trees and stuff. So I don't know if anything will come of that. But we did get to see the pots and stuff we made a few P-days back and theyre sick. I made a sweet mug that I'm gonna use forever and a bowl that i'll probably send home and a vase that can only fit one flower but is sure to win the heart of anybody who receives it.
Then after that, we went and visited the Tan family and set up an appointment to meet on friday. It was a pretty good lesson, but they didnt accept the invitation to be baptized on Christmas. But they say they'll keep studying and we're meeting again this week. We visited a former investigator/eikaiwa student by the name of Shinohara-san and made an appointment to teach her and her two daughters for tomorrow. That should be interesting. her daughters are 10 and 13 years old and the mom doesnt act much more mature. Should be good times.
Then one other person we found was originally a referral from Aoba会長． she is the lady that had been praying everyday since she met with the missionaries 10 years ago. We assigned her to read Alma 34 and she read it and had some questions. We saw her book of mormon and she had lots of stuff highlighted with notes and whatnot. So when I asked what she thought of the book, she pretty much bore testimony oh how it has given her guidance and stuff when she has needed it. Then she asked who wrote it. So after explaining about that, we set up a time to meet and talk more. Tojo-san is pretty awesome.
So that was about our week. Things are pretty ballin in Niihama. yeahhh

Love,
Elder Horton

新居浜 ６ & 新居浜 ５

新居浜　６

転勤発表が来た！
This morning, we got transfer calls! Singleton and I are going to be together for another. I'm pretty Okay with it. It looks like we could even be working for 3 transfers and I'd probably be down. He's getting better at Japanese pretty quickly and he's one of my funnier companions. So we have lots of good times. Allen長老， however. is transferring to Sakai to be with my ol' buddy, Elder Burhoe. So we're getting a new roommate, who's name is Elder Stanford.
So last week was nonsense. I was away from Niihama for all but 3 days, of which we still spent of lot of time studying due to the training for new missionaries Singleton長老 has to do. Which by the way, I'll be starting my 5th transfer straight of doing the new program. which is by far the most of any missionary in the mission and probably the world. I think i deserve 10, 20 or even more nobel peace prizes. Basically, we had very little dendo time. I was going to Matsuyama for district leader council and Imabari for district meeting and also Imabari for my exchange with Elder Nicholes which was awesome. We contacted a bum and learned lots of important life lessons after wards. It was way cool to work with my MTC companion in the field though.
In the small amount of time we did have, we visited a former investigator and met her family. The Tan family. Its a mom and two daughters, one of the daughters being a less-active member. We should be teaching them, and I have high hopes. But since we aren't transferring, we should have lots of time this next week. hopefully I'll have something interesting to write about. Till then,
Love,
Elder Horton

新居浜５

This computer is quite so this may be a little shorter. Really not much happened this week that i can remember at the moment anyways. We spent some time preparing for the branch halloween party which went really well... sort of. Pretty much the only people who werent members who showed up were a whole lot of high school girls and two middle schoolers who had come to eikaiwa the last couple weeks. We played this game where you had to get people to guess what you are just by gestures and stuff and one of the things they had to gesture was a pirate. nobody had any idea how to gesture a pirate. i was in shock. it was at that time i realized: im not in america anymore. Overall it was a success. some less-actives came and everyone made some good conversation. Other than that, I did my companion exchange with Burner長老 this week and that was a good time. Hes going to be a french chef when he grows up. This week is going to be a busy one. After P-day today, im going on an exchange with my old MTC companion, Elder Nicholes. its gonna be good times all around.

Not much more to say. Hope everyone is doing well. Send me letters, fools!

 

love,

Elder Horton

 

someday ill send pictures maybe.

 

Marcus asked me what the cost of an airline ticket form japan to the american coast cost?  I replied around 2,000 round trip.. The ward asked for a  Christmas experience to share at the ward party...

Here was his letter to me...

Yeah i got a package from you but i still havent gone to the post office to get it. hopefully it will be the one with the toothbrush? we'll find out. yeah i thought that might sound like i was thinking about leaving. but even if i were, that would be way too much money. My companion was talking about how his family was thinking about coming and getting him and was wondering how much it would cost. that is a lot of money. gonna have to start saving up for my 2013 trip here.

a letter about Christmas? I guess i could write about what I did last year... Last year for Christmas... The 6 elders in my district all met at the church in Himeji and went Christmas caroling to various less-active member houses. A lot of them weren't home or were just really awkward about it, but we sang songs merrily along the way, wearing Santa hats and Elder Akina had a beard... hehe that wampsack. Riding our bikes back to the Himeji apartment, It started snowing which isn't a common thing that part of Japan. I remember thinking it was a Christmas miracle and just being filled with Christmas spirit. I forgot all about the fact that we were in a non-christian country where people worked and had school on the 25th of December and knew nothing about the holiday other than how delicious Christmas cakes are(they are way delicious here). Then the 6 of us had a little Christmas program where we sang hymns and read scriptures and then we Timtam slammed which is always awesome. Then Christmas day was P-day so we relaxed and talked to our families and had a splendid time. Then I was way trunky the rest of that day as we worked. So yeah people here don't really know much about Christmas or do anything special for it, but I guess we managed to make it special.