Niihama week 16

This week we had no exchanges or interviews or zone conferences or mission gatherings or anything. So we had a healthy amount of time to get out and work. For whatever reason, ever since i became companions with Elder Cloward, we havent found a single new investigator. i havent had anything like this happen on my mission since i was in Ako about a year ago. Its been pretty difficult, but we did make some good progress with some of the other people we had been working with. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with Kimura-san because she got busy on wednesday, which is the only day she can meet. and next wednesday, we have interviews with president zinke so that won't work either. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with her someday. But we were able to meet Megumi-san with Igari-kyoudai as a joint. it was a good lesson and she seems excited to read the book of mormon and find out for herself if its true. Also shes the same age as igari-kyoudai's wife and they're both newly married so they became friends. but unfortunately, Igari-kyoudai's wife is pregnant and has morning sickness really bad and so shes been jumping in and out of the hospital the last month or so. doesnt seem like too much fun.

then we had two people come to church! kana-san who had said she was going to come two times in the past but hadnt showed up and also Shinohara Mizuki-chan (not mitsuki) who manabe-kyoudai had talked to at game night last week. Kana-san brought her 2 year old daughter who was, of course, way adorable and everyone in the branch was all over her. so that was good and Mizuki-chan is good at making friends and made good friends with the few young women we have. over all, it was really good. So we should be seeing more of all of them. Yeah a pretty good week. next week we have 2 exchanges and interviews with president so i think cloward長老 and i only have 2 days to work together. we'll see what happens.

We're in Imabari right now and we just ate really fancy food at the top of a hotel for nicholes長老's birthday.

thats all!

love,

Elder Horton

 

 

peace

Live from Niihama weeks 13 and 14

cloward and mio-chan dressed up as santa to deliver presents to neighborhood kids.

Add Christmas eve and the Aoba's

makin mochi

hammer of justice

chainsaw of epic

Well it was nice to talk to the family last week for Christmas and it sounds like everyone is doing well and all. I don't remember at all what we did 2 weeks ago and this week, we didn't really have much time to do anything. With the time we did have, we knocked on some doors and also visited some investigators which resulted in the dropping of several people. But it was alright because I feel like we have a big list of 'investigators' but not many of them are investigating at this point so we need to get the list cleaned up and find the people who are going to progress. Then after that, we had our Christmas conference in Okayama which takes a solid two days out of our week. But a big chunk of the mission gathered together and played sports and got some training and it was good times. I mostly just played capture the flag and dodge ball. I swear, Im in pretty dang good shape right now but every time i play sports, my body hurts all over the next day. And the next day after that Christmas conference, we had a Mochi tsuki. which is where you hit rice with hammers until it turns into mochi, which is rice that has been pounded a whole lot with a hammer. then we played more games with the members who showed up to that and did some service at the Aoba's cutting wood. The Aoba's son and daughter and their spouses are visiting for new years and theyre way cool. But after all of that my body was about ready to give out.

We then celebrated new years by drinking some cheap 1$ sparkling cider, which i ended up dumping down the drain because it was gross, at 10:30. I set an alarm at 11:59 so i could celebrate new years but i slept through it.

In Japan, new years eve isnt that big of deal at all, but rather new years day and the following two days. its pretty much impossible to proselyte during these 3 days so yesterday the Aoba's had us over again and we ate some delicious sukiyaki. and i still dont know what we're going to do today and tomorrow. Guess we'll see.

This time of year isnt exactly ideal for missionary work, but its almost over. woo

 

love,

Elder Horton

 

niihama 12- ready for another 6?

So the mission was going on about how these transfers were supposed to be really small and nothing was going to happen. and Singleton and I were doing really well and were pretty excited to do a third transfer together, but the mission lies! For some reason they're doing transfers early this week so we got our calls yesterday. they're making the 4-man in Niihama into a 2-man. So Singleton and Stanford are off to a different area and Cloward長老　are I going to be sticking around and being companions. It makes sense for them to do it. because 2 missionaries can easily do all the work the 4 of us were doing since there isnt really much in Niihama at all. I'm cool with working with Cloward長老　since ive already been in the same apartment with him for 12 weeks, i know him well enough and hes cool. but Singleton長老　has probably been my favorite companion so far and im pretty bummed he's leaving. So the work gets a little jumbled putting the two area's together, but in the end we'll work more effectively this way. But being in a 2人 again is going to be lonely ;-; and what makes it worse is that because of this silly early transfer thing, Singleton and Stanford have to leave off to Okayama tonight.
Besides all that, our week was pretty cool. We got a chance to meet with Sho-kun this week and talk about some good stuff. He is awesome but apparently not very good at taking tests in school so his parents stuck him in cram school on tuesday, friday, and sunday. So church is a little hard for him at the moment. So his baptism is going to get pushed back a ways for sure.
On Saturday, we had our Christmas party! It went way better than I thought it would, except for the part where Manabe兄弟　turned it into a karaoke party for a bunch of high school girls who showed up. But I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the people we went around inviting actually showed up. we had the Shinohara family, mami-san, watanabe-san, some eikaiwa students, some less actives, and a bunch of people i didnt know. We made christmas cakes but they weren't as tasty as the ones i had last year in Ako. overall, it was a way good time, i think some good stuff happened. The members talked a lot with our investigator, Watanabe-san who got married recently so her name probably isnt Watanabe-san anymore. then she said she was coming to church, but once again, it seems to be a lot more difficult to get people to come to church than a Christmas party. Guess we'll go see whats up with her some time.
Then I guess one more thing, but after church we were having branch council and we talked about a girl who is living in a city far off from Niihama but still in our area. She's half Japanese and fluent in both and is teaching english for a year or two here. Aoba会長　was pretty worried because she hasnt been coming to church or returning calls and things werent looking particularly good. but then later in the meeting, a member knocked on the door and told us that this girl, Sister Oman had showed up. So everyone ran out to greet her and there were lots of tears and stuff and i wasnt exactly sure why but i was happy that everyone else was happy. then we had a little sacrament meeting just for her. it was a really special moment...
So that was this week. next week will be the same Niihama with a new companion.

Love,
Elder Horton

PS MERRY CHRISTMAS! cloward長老　will just be chillin the two of us this year it looks like.

...and pictures!
1. we had to forge a river...
2. and climb a mountain...
3. and jump on a trampoline ...
4. but we found a big slide and rode it.
5. and here's me at the christmas party with our cake and Mio-chan. isnt she adorable?

Still hangin out in Niiiiihammers part 11!

Transfer calls next week but the mission is trying to make this a small transfer due to christmas and whatnot so apparently only 5 companionships are going to change or something. So Elder Singleton and I will probably be hanging out for a 3rd transfer together. Then after that, I'll only have 2 left so who knows what will happen. I could just for for 5 transfers here and end it all. But looking forwards to calling everyone in 2 weeks.
This week was pretty aight. We met with some investigators and taught some pretty simple principles and confirmed that people could come to church. We got another 2 people to commit pretty solid to come, but neither of them showed up. Just the gaijin from Utah who I had to translate for again.
We did have the assistants to the president come around and hang out with us for an afternoon. We went out with Elder Lystrup and walked around Niihama for a bit talking to everyone. But since there arent many people on the streets, we mostly just got to hear about the mission and whats going on. Apparently someone I found way back in Tsuyama got baptized last weekend. Pretty cool stuff.
We weren't able to meet with Sho-kun this week because he apparently hit his head. We have an appointment with him tonight so we'll get everything figured out then.
But best of all, we had our first weekly game night this last saturday. Manabe-kyodai said he would come with 2 other people so we were waiting for him and just playing ping pong just the 4 missionaries for like 45 minutes until Kato-kyodai showed up. He's a less active and really good at ping pong. he showed us all up! so basically we got to spent like an hour and a half playing ping pong and since we shared a message with him, it was effective. next time, we're going to play some shogi. Hopefully we can get more people to come...
So things are good. I'll put some pictures up from stuff.

Love Elder Horton!

PS oh yeah, we also started a band that was going to play for the christmas party but broke up later in the week.



pictures
1. the band
2. Elder Singleton. the maple leaf, himself
3. I got stuck on drums
4. Nightly phone calls in my 'jammies

新居浜 10週間目

This week was pretty legitimate. I had a comp exchange with Cloward長老 in my area and we were able to get out and find two new investigators and had our lesson with Sho-kun, which went well. We taught him lesson 1 and he understood most the important parts he needed to for now. And we set him up with a baptismal date on Christmas. Before that, we still have stuff that needs to happen, like to talk with his parents since he's under 20 and he needs to get to church, but we have another appointment tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. But Elder Cloward and I had some good times.
Wednesday we had some time to bike out to Saijo and visit some people before eikaiwa, but then Thursday and Friday were almost completely consumed by studying, bus rides, train rides, district leader council, and district meeting. spent a lot of time sitting those two days... but on the bright side, we ate lunch at the Senior couple's place after district meeting and sister okada is way good at cooking. that was a jolly ol' time.
Then Saturday, we visited one of the people we found who said she would come to church, Kana-san, and she said she was still good to go.
Then walking around after that, we got a phone call from some random lady who must have gotten one of our fliers in her post. She asked if we were related at all to the Jehova's Witnesses. apparently she used to be a member there or something but some stuff went down and she wasn't going back but wanted a church so was going to come to ours. Her name was Takahashi-san.
Sho-kun as well said he was good to go to church so we thought we had 3 pretty solid people who should have showed up but nobody did. But some weird gaijin from Utah showed up. He didn't speak japanese so i translated for him during sacrament meeting. translating is still pretty hard for my but i got by. mostly just because the verb of the sentence comes at the end in Japanese so I usually cant even start translating until they finished the sentence so i have to wait and then by the time i finished the first sentence in english, they're already into the next sentence. anyways, my head hurt after church.
So that was last week. We've got hopes for Sho-kun. Though this morning, I called Delmege長老　who is in my old area, Ibaraki to see if that Jehova's witness lady showed up there. she didnt, but he did inform me that Yonezawa兄弟　is still doing really well. he's hometeaching and being home taught and meeting with the missionaries every week. That made me pretty happy. So I guess thats about it.
Till next week,

Love,
Elder Horton
oh and happy birthday grandma Horton!

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