Ibaraki week 11 and 12- District Leader

 

Fireworks in Ibaraki

 August 14th-

Yup so we got transfer calls this morning. Elder Barker and i will be working together for another transfer in Ibaraki. But Usui is getting transferred and replaced by an Elder Delmege who is Basilian. Usui is going to the new segregation zone that is all Japanese elders. Im gonna miss that guy. But he was district leader and since he's leaving, i got left with being district leader. So i guess i get to go on a whole bunch of companion exchanges this transfer.

This last week was good;

monday we went to a members house and ate some way good hayashi rice and curry that he had been making for 3 days and watched fireworks from his balcony. it was a splendid evening.

Tuesday, Shigeta and i had an exchange and it was waaaayyyyy hot. But we got to meet with Sugimoto shimai who is my favorite less active. she gave us stuff to make tacos and we talked about burn notice and house. she really likes american tv.

Wednesday we had Eikaiwa but it was pretty lame this week.

Thursday. So on thursday. we were supposed to have the lesson with Uekubo-san, but he had given us that Hashimoto-sans phone number if you remember. and just backtracking a little bit, i called Hashimoto-san back and i wont go into details but he is a way interesting guy and said he wanted to come to my house and called the church and talked with the sister working there by the name of kobayashi-shimai. Then we actually had to miss Uekubo's lesson because we had district meeting and we couldnt call him to reschedule because he gave us the wrong number. We figured he wouldnt show up anyways... but he did. and then he called us asking why we didnt show up and even though we explained the situation to him, he was super pissed. he was throwing tons of dirty japanese at me. ive never been called 'omae' so many times in my life. He demanded that i apologize to his face, but i was in a different city. Then he called the church and talked to Kobayashi-shimai. then she called me. and i talked to her, told her the situation, and told her that the number he had given me had been that hashimoto-san who had called her earlier. and she was able to see that the numbers were completely different. apparently she talked to uekubo-san because he called us back and apologized for the way he acted. it was pretty cool to see the guy humble himself like that. i gained some respect for him and thanks to kobayashi-shimai, i guess everything worked out. but man that whole ordeal was a pain in the neck.

sometimes, i feel like the english translations of the japanese word i want to use are so lame. like 'pain in the neck.' what is that?

Then we can pretty much skip to sunday. We had church and it was the Takakura family's last week, so there was a bit of a farewell for them at church. Then after church, we had a farewell party for Sonomi before she goes back to BYU on tuesday. a bunch of the youth were there and it was good times.

So now its like The Takakura's are leaving, Sonomi is leaving, Usui is leaving, the sister area is getting closed so their leaving. everyone is leaving it seems. a bit sabishii.

love,

Elder Horton

enjoy the pictures

August 7th - part of Marcus's letter to Mom....answering the question what have you learned....

I’ve learned a lot about patience and dilligence and developing Christ like attributes.

I’ve had companions who have pushed me, stretched me, and annoyed me to no end.

Recently being a trainer with new missionaries who can’t speak japanese, ive been forced to rely on my own abilities, my own determination, and on the lord.

Theres a lot of things i could say about the mission. most of them arent super flowery and sweet, but i will say that every area and every companion that ive had has taught me something i needed to learn. i can already see how the mission will change my life and i still have 9 months left.

August 7th

Hello Hello,

Pretty fun week this week. it went by fast. We had my japanese 1st birthday and ate some delicious yaki-niku and timtam slammed which is always awesome. Also had a lesson with Yasuda-san to which Hashimoto-san (who is not a member) jointed. She has been investigating the church for like 6 years and knows more than most members, but she still has a lot of questions. theyre all just really hard or unrelated. so those lessons are always a blast. And then we had a new girl come to Eikaiwa and she was way cool and way nice and said she'd want to hear our message. We'll see if we can meet her some time this week. Eikaiwa has been a way good tool for finding in Ibaraki. Then we had zone conference where president Zinke and the assistants came and talked for a very long time about a lot of stuff. afterwards, we had an exchange with the zone leaders, and Elder Draper and I went out. It was way nice to have a companion who could speak japanese. we taught a whole bunch of lessons and found some new investigators. One of whom, named Uekubo, it seems gave us a misleading phone number. because when he gave it, i gave the number one ring and hung up so it was in the phone. Then later that night, i get a call from the number i stored as Uekubo, but it was a man by the name of Hashimoto. We had a conversation like this

me: hello is this uekubo?

him: no this is hashimoto

me: oh really? sorry i guess i have the wrong number...

him: what do you want?

me: ???? i think i have the wrong number. I thought this was Uekubo

him: I dont know Uekubo. what do you want?

me: .......i thought this was uekubo. Im a missionary. my name is horton.

him: where are you from?

me: ....texas.

him: what do you want?

me: I cant really talk right now..(it was past 10:30)

him: OK call me back when you have time.

me: ?????? ok ???

Im still way confused about the whole thing.

Then on saturday, we had a shogi party for Takatsuki's recent convert. it was way fun, but Usui was the only person i managed to beat. there were a lot of the old-timers from church who were way good.

Then finally at church a guy from vietnam came and he didnt understand japanese so we couldnt really talk to him. but we did our best.

the end

love,

Elder Horton

WEEK 9 & 10 -IBARAKI

Good morning!

we had a fun week this week. We met with Hondayama-san and gave the letter i wrote for his mom to him. Could be the last time we'll see him if nothing changes with his mom. We got an email from Ou-san. His mom says he cant be baptized because they're bhuddists. I didnt know that they were bhuddist in China as well, but apparently they are. I dont know if its bad, but all Bhuddism is to me is an excuse. Its kind of frustrating but its whatevs. We were supposed to have a lesson with Kawai-san but he didnt show up and his phone is broken or something. So we havent talked with him.

So. then at Eikaiwa, not this week but last week, we shared about the book of mormon and a lady who was there for the first time came up after and asked if she could buy a book of mormon at a book store and i told her "no."

Then i gave her one and by this week's eikaiwa, she had read over half of it and wanted to come to church. So she came to church and we taught her a lesson and she says she wants to get baptized. her name is Sawanishi and shes way awesome. we have another lesson appointment today after pday.

we also had Hayashi-san, who is an ojii-chan of 75 years who we found housing, come to church. he is way interesting. first time we met him, he told us he was going to print out giant silk pictures of the pictures in the book of mormon and hang them on his wall. I think he likes the book.

We visited a less active named Ribeka and she said drawing pictures is her hobby, so I asked what kind of anime she liked and she said her favorite was dorarara. i was just happy that i knew what that was. I asked if she had seen baccano! and she hadnt. i was disappointed and told her to come to church and repent. haha only sort of.

There were probly some other stuff but we're going to Kyoto right now. I think we're going to see Kiyomizu dera. its pretty famous. ill send pictures. So later, everyone!

 

Love,

Elder Horton.

So ever since i got to Ibaraki, ive been on a search for a good yaki-niku tabehoudai (all you can eat grilled meat) place. Occasionally, we'd get fliers or whatever, but they were usually like 30$ so that wasnt happening. but yesterday, we were walking down a street pretty close to the church that we had never walked down, looking for some elect. And we stumbled on a pretty good looking place with a yaki-niku tabehoudai for 15$. And it just so happens that this week is my 1 year in japan mark. so we're going to go celebrate on wednesday. Im excited.

This last week was good. Things kind of fell apart with Sawanishi-san so we arent meeting anymore, but we had some less-actives and two good investigators come to church this week. one in particular who we're excited about. Kijima-san is a friend of a member who we first met at a dinner appointment with said member. She's way cool and has a 4-year-old son named isaac who is a little gangsta.

And we had a way good lesson with the Imanishi family, who are way awesome. they have an 8 month old son who was pretty fun. i was freaking out at first when i realized ive been in japan longer than him though.

Other than that, it was just normal stuff. though yesterday we did house into 7 chinese girls. they werent very good at japanese, but i think i managed to get it across to them that we taught about christ at church and we had books of mormon in chinese. They probly understood.

I don't know, it was a good week. oh yeah, we also went to Kyoto. it was legit. I dont think i want to serve there though because there were a lot of Gaijin. But it was fun, ill post some pictures.

 

Love,

Elder Horton

 

1. a gate

2. me and usui in front of kiyomizudera feture man in blue shirt

3. waiting in line to drink the holy water

4. about to drink the holy water

5. drinking the holy water

 

Ibaraki week 8

We were supposed to go to Kyoto today, but its raining so we're going next week. at the beginning of my mission, i really wanted to serve there, but now i just want to go to Shikoku. it seems pretty legit. But thats a different story because i still have a lot of time left in Ibaraki and we're keeping busy. Our zone leaders are really pushing this thing were everyone gets 20 lessons a week. it might not seem like a lot, but basically, in order to make it happen, we spend all day going from house to house of members and less-actives and investigators looking for someone who is home and will listen to us. But I guess its fine by me. Its been pretty fun to get to know some of the members better and talk with them about their personal dendo and about what they feel like the ward needs help with. Ibaraki ward is awesome. And the other ward we work with, Takatsuki, is also way good, but yesterday Elder Usui and Elder Shigeta had a baptism in Takatsuki and it was the first convert baptism they had had in 7 years. The investigator is a pretty weird guy, but it was still way good for the ward. And one of our investigators, Ou-san got out of bed to come and see it. He's way cool and we taught him all about Christ's doctrine and a bunch of really good stuff.

Elder Barker is doing well. I'm still struggling to get him to jump into lessons and contacts and stuff more, but i guess i need to be better at making the opportunity. He needs to get speaking or his japanese is going to suffer. But he'll get there as long as i have something to say about it.

So it was a fun week. we worked hard and talked to a lot of people. Its really really hot though.

 

Love,

Elder Horton

Ibaraki 7 & I felt an earthquake!

Good evening, America.

"Good evening" isn't something we say that often in america, i feel. But thats how they translate "kon ban wa" here so we always say it a lot at Eikaiwa and i feel silly. So this week at Eikaiwa, we asked a member to interview all our students and see if they wanted to meet with us and here our message. The member we asked is a girl named Yoshino Sonomi-shimai and she is japanese but served a mission in the salt lake city spanish speaking mission. We're pretty sure she was supposed to go to temple square but got misplaced. anyways, she's way good and got 3 people to agree to meet us, who we should be meeting with this next week or two.

Then the next day, I went to Kobe to meet my new companion. His name is Elder Barker and he is an awesome bean. the exact opposite of my last companion. actually reminds me of a younger me. anyways. we had a lesson with Hondayama-san that day which basically was just him meeting us to say that him meeting with us has been causing his family relationship to suffer so he thinks it would be best if we dont meet until he is independant from his mom. We're still going to write a letter to his mom, so we'll meet to give that to him, but that will probably be the last time from the looks of things. So i wanted to give Elder Barker a good experience for his first week, but things have kind of not been working out super well. Though he was really happy when we found one investigator who we have an appointment with tonight. We're working on getting him opening his mouth and he's improving fast. he studys hard and is going to make a really good missionary. I'm excited to be working with him. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but it is really hot in this room and I want to be done emailing, so byebye, everyone,

Love,

Elder Horton

Here was the email to Dad:

In response to the earthquake, remark, ill paste an exhert from my email to katie.

"YEAH! i felt an earthquake! it was just after we ate some pizza hut at a members house but it was japanese pizza hut so it was a bit weird. so then we went and sat down on the floor, and i started feeling some weird motions going on in my stomache and i though "oh, man that pizza is doing a number on me" but then Elder Usui was like "oh its an earthquake" exept in japanese. Thats when i realized, i had experienced my first earthquake."

And yeah i heard about your trip. kind of a bummer, maybe it was for the best. also let the record show that i suggested we sell the suburban years ago. but youll get another chance to go backpacking. i wont go. but when i get back, if you wanna go fishing, i might be alright with that. as long as we dont have to walk far.
haha

love,

marcus 

Last training conference with Pres McIntyre- June 2011

Ibaraki week 5, new bike & Week 6, new president

Last conference with President McIntyre

First conference with President Zinke with (Usui-sama in the background.)

Week 6  July 3

This week was pretty sweeet. Talked to a lot of people found some promising new investigators, but weren't really able to meet with our current ones much. It was a bit of a bummer. Hondayama-san's mom is still in cahoots with satan it seems. But we were able to have some really good member lessons and had a less active family come to church along with a member's friend who was referred to us and is now a very promising investigator by the name of Hayashi-san. Yesterday, we met with the Ikawa family and had some pretty dang legit mexican food. it had just about everything except for sour cream which does not exist in Japan. But man it was sooo good. Good day. We also, with permission from the mission president, were able to go to another Movie Night activity. So yeah I saw Toy Story 3 and didnt even cry that much. it was awesome.

This past week, we got a new mission president, President Zinke who we got to meet on Friday. McIntyre was very powerful, but President Zinke is i think softer and more of a spiritual man. Already, little things are starting to change. like for instance, We were expecting to get transfer calls tomorrow, but we got them today. My companion, Elder Hale, is off to Matsue. And I'll be training a new missionary. From what I hear there are going to be no Japanese Beans so I'll be with another companion with low level japanese it seems. Its not really a problem just that it is more work for me. It should be a blast though. Apparently President Zinke makes a big deal of being a trainer so im expecting a call from him later today to let me know about all my new responsibilities. should be good times. I hope my bean has a good brain in his head for serious. I'll let you know next week.

Love,

Elder Horton

 

Week 5  June26

 

Well hello, hello!

So I went to Asahi and got a new bike. I had a warranty so It only cost be 20% of what the old one costed but after the expenses for the light and basket and lock and insurrance, it still came out to around 15000yen. So I had to take some funds out of personal funds and im completely broke. But on the bright side, I got a new bike just as I'm getting near my half way mark in Japan. It works out pretty nicely.

This week, Hondayama-san was sick so we weren't able to meet with him, but we've been calling him and emailing him to keep up on his BOM reading. Similar situation with Kawai-san who hasnt been able to meet in June but says he'll come to church on Sunday. He read in the Book of Mormon all the way up to 2 Nephi 4. so we're pretty happy about that. I was also committing him over the phone to throw away all his drugs and alcohol so he could quit. It took a couple tries but eventually we called him and he said that he did it. So he's getting on his way. We also met this last saturday with a new investigator by the name of Ou-san. His name is a little awesome because he's originally from China. But we had a way good lesson with him and committed him to baptism on the 31st of July. So as things are now, we're looking to see 3 baptisms this next month which would be pretty sweet. After Ou-san's lesson, we had a ward sports night activity. We played Badminton with Ou-san and he destroyed me. I didnt know someone could be that good at badminton.

We also met a brazilian guy. So he's obviously an investigator. His name is Raffael and i dont think he owns a shirt.

All in all a pretty fun week. We even got to eat pizza that still wasnt quite american pizza, but was actually really good. nice.

well thats all for now.

 

love,

Elder Horton

 

I'll have to take some pictures sometime.

 

Ibaraki 3

Kon Ban Wa (chinese for good evening)

I think we had a pretty normal week for the most part. I had a couple of exchanges, one with Elder Usui and one with Elder Colburn. both were super. This week we made a goal to start working a lot more with the members so we had a lot of lessons and stuff with them.  Member lessons are way fun. between those, church, dendo, and being in a 4-man apartment, Life is just a party right now. might be partying too hard because im way tired.

This week we had lessons with people like Kawai-san. He's still addicted to drugs. So we'll try and help him get over that. We also met Hondayama-san and taught him tithing. He is way awesome, and came to church yesterday and seemed to enjoy it.

I guess there were some other things but we'll see if I want to talk about them some other time.

がんばれ

 

love,

Elder Horton

Ibaraki 2

Hello, Everybody!

 

This week I went to this leadership training thing in Kobe and learned about this new program I'd be working on with my companion since he is a new missionary. This transfer, We have 2 hours of companionship study and 1 full hour of language study in the morning in addition to our hour of personal study. And if we have something in the morning that interferes, we have to do it later in the day. Basically all it means is that after eating lunch, we dont get out of the apartment until 1 o'clock and we have much less time to work. Its actually quite lame for me, but I think its good for Elder Hale. He'll be a better missionary for it.

After that training thing, it was Wednesday, and I got to go to my first Eikaiwa in Ibaraki. We had 9 new students come. around 16 people in all. NEEWWW RECORD! desu. it was way cool and way fun. One of the students even became an investigator. The next day, we went to a Japanese class to study some Japanese and meet some people and met a Philipino guy by the name of Ken who speaks no Japanese but is also now an investigator. Ken came with us to the movie night that the Young Single Adults in our ward planned. We got permission from president and were able to watch the new Karate Kid movie with JACKIE CHAN in it. it was awesome. and I was pretty trunky for a few hours after watching it for sure.

In terms of our other investigators, Hondayama-san didnt keep his commitment to read the book of mormon because his mom burned his book of mormon. So thats a bit of a problem. We're going to work on that. He still has a date to be baptized on the 25th. Another investigator we met with by the name of Kawai-san has a date for the 16 of July. He says he's meeting with the missionaries because he cant quit drugs. So we taught him the word of wisdom and whatnot. Teaching him should be good times.

Yesterday, I finally got to meet some of the members in my ward and they're awesome. we set up some appointments and whatnot so I'm way stoaked.

Well thats probably about it. though I did find my camera. It wasnt in Okayama, just in my bag. So I guess ill send pictures.

 

Love,
Elder Horton

The pictures are from last transfer in Tsuyama with Warner