Last Email...I am coming home

Yup yup we just got transfer calls this morning and I'm going home. Thursday is transfer day where i head to the mission home and do interviews with president and chill and stuff. then Friday I think i take a bullet train to the airport in Tokyo.

We had to spend some time getting my bags all put together and send them off. We did a bunch of other stuff, I just can't seem to recall any of it. Oh, I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday. it was legit and stuff. And the ramen museum was cool, pictures will happen later. nd today we're heading to Nanba which is like the Akihabara of Osaka if anyone knows what that means. It should be good times. 

So its my last week emailing. I'm looking forward to seeing the people who can make it out to the airport there and talking to everyone else on phones and on the internet. My mission has been one crazy roller coaster. All sorts of ups and downs and twists and turns, and its the longest roller coaster you'll ever ride. But I'm way glad I did it. I've learned a ton and grown up a lot (but not that much), and I'm excited to see what comes next. I loved my mission but it comes to an end. Its time to move on and I'm ready. 

Peace,

Elder Horton

Hanayashiki- second to last

me and a rainbow!

random missionaries and Maiko

Kyoto

Bailey長老 checking out this raccoon thing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man all these emails I've been getting have really not been helping me stay focused, I tell you.  But it's cool. While focusing is getting harder and the fact that I have to send off my bags to the airport this week doesn't help, we were still able to teach some good lessons this week. I was especially excited for Hayashi-san. He comes early to eikaiwa and teaches me math (kind of) and then we teach him about the gospel. He's way cool and hopefully he'll be able to come to church this next week. And we still dont know about what's going on with Kariya-shimai and whether or not she will be getting surgery sometime soon.

We went to Kyoto last P-day and saw the sakura and ran into a bunch of my favorite missionaries including Shigeta長老　and Delmege and Cloward長老 etc etc. it was especially fun to catch up on stuff with shigeta長老 We had a lot of good times being roommates in Ibaraki. I have some pictures and i guess I'll post some. 

Today we're off to the ramen museum and to get me a nice, expensive hair cut. 

Next week is the last week for emails so if there's anything you need to tell me, make it happen. 

Love,

Elder Horton

Hanayashiki 3

This week was pretty crazy busy with this and that and not much time to work. we had some sort of meeting or interview or general conference on pretty much every day of the week resulting in more knowledge of doctrine and stuff but not a whole lot of time for other stuff. But we should have more time this week. And umm conference was really good. I really liked Holland長老's talk. Today we're off to Kyoto to see the sakura blossoms so not a whole lot of time. We should have more time this next week so maybe i'll have more to talk about. OH yeah! We almost died. there was this freak storm that just came out of nowhere and there was all sorts of wind and rain and stuff and we were walking around some neighborhood and there was a strong wind that was apparently very strong because it ripped some heavy stone tiles off of the roof of a nearby apartment and almost dropped them on our heads. We just head a heavy crash behind us and started running away like little girls. good times. we were definitely protected on that one. anyways i gotta get going. maybe ill post pictures from kyoto next week or maybe ill just make you all wait till i get back.

love,

Elder Horton

Hanayashiki 4

So last week was nice. one P-day, I said we were going out to downtown Osaka and it was good times good times. we went to THE pokemon center(pictures attached). and the sky tower and this and that shopping places. But anyways the dendo for the week was also pretty good. we had a couple lessons with Kariya-shimai and she is doing really well. She is going in for surgery some time this month and after going to the doctor this week they'll know more about the situation and whether or not she can get baptized in april or if its going to have to be later in the summer. either way, she's getting baptized for sure. We had some other lessons and stuff but the definite highlight of my week was my companion exchange in Ibaraki. It was way legit to get to go back and see my old area and my old apartment and even some of the members there. And let me just say, that looking at the area book for Ibaraki, I tore that place up. That is my area book. my name and my work is all over that thing. Not boasting or anything, but it is pretty cool to know that missionaries down the line will look in that book and be like "dang, this Elder Horton was a beast." We'll be heading back over there for General Conference on Saturday so hopefully I'll be able to meet some more of the members then. Lots of stuff going on. I got my packet with all the information for going home finally. but despite that, we're still working. Love you all,

Elder Horton

 Oh yeah, and today, we went to costco. It was awesome and american(mostly).

Hanayashiki 5

Sounds like my flight plans got all planned out and stuff. Plane leaves Japan April 27th at 4:00PM and I arrive in Denver, CO April 27th at 4:08PM. An 8 minute flight! I'm excited to see everyone. But more excited to eat a delicious Chipotle burrito on April 27th at around 4:30PM! 

This week was pretty good. Taught some lessons, waved people down on the street, knocked on doors. the usual. The elder's quorum had a BBQ activity this last saturday and we had a bunch of our Eikaiwa ( English Class) students come out to it. One of them, Hayashi-san came with his mother. He hasn't been able to come to church much up till now but supposedly his work is going to change and he'll be able to come starting in April. But some of our members, the Tachi couple, were really good about reaching out to Hayashi-san and his mom. His mom had a whole bunch of questions about church and stuff and Tachi-kyodai ( a returned missionary)  was teaching her for like a half an hour. He did a really good job too. Its kind of nice being in a ward with returned missionaries. We also had a less active come who is in need of friends.  But yeah the food was really good. I love me some Yaki-niku. We are going to be heading out to Umeda today which is like the most concentrated part of Osaka, there should be cool stuff  happen so I need to end now. Also we didn’t get to go to the ramen museum last week but now we know where it is and we're going later in the transfer. Hope everyone is genki!

Love,

Elder Horton

Hanayashiki 6

His sense of Humor is Back!   Marcus told me his new companion reminds him of Brandon...

It doesn't mean I'm trunky, but I'm counting the weeks backwards from 6. So yeah I'm in Hanayashiki. the missionary i replaced is my good friend Elder Ewer. we were in the same district all the way back when i was in Ibaraki and he was here for the whole 7 transfers since. What he said is that he was 'one with the apartment' and so when he left, all hell broke loose. Seriously this apartment is a mess. I'm not much of a clean freak or anything but there's stuff everywhere. It doesn't help that there's this crazy lady, Shimizu-san who always gives the missionaries tons of random stuff. As it would turn out, Ewer and I actually found Shimizu-san on our companion exchange so long ago. I remember her but i thought she would go away after giving us those flowers. but it turns out shes been wreaking havoc the whole time i was in Niihama. All that aside, things are good. Bailey長老 is a good missionary and he's cool. I'm glad i get to work with a companion that can speak Japanese and hold his own part of the work. We met with some of our investigators this week and had two of them come to church. one is Araki-san who has a lot of questions and a smoking problem but he shows some promise maybe. The other was Kariya-san who is a member's mother and since she is quite old has a hard time understanding things some times. but she said she wanted to get baptized in our lesson with her so how about that. The ward here is big, and while its nice in some ways, in more ways it makes me miss Niihama. Someday ill head back and visit that place when i got a whole bunch of extra money lying around. We're trying to use P-days effectively since there's cool stuff to see and I've wasted the majority of my P-days up to this point. So hopefully we'll get out to kyoto and downtown osaka at some point this transfer. Today, we're going to a ramen museum. if we can find it.  

love you all,

Last week in Niihama

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Inbox

Yup, we just got transfer calls and I'm heading off to Hanayashiki for my last transfer. Its kind of silly to leave for just my last transfer, but there needed to be some sort of change so this is probably for the best. My last companion is going to be Elder Bailey. He's my kohai from the MTC so i know him a bit. It should be good times. Hanayashiki is in the same district as Ibaraki so ive been there once before on a companion exchange and its a really nice area. big ward and lots of people. also i might get the chance to go on a companion exchange back to Ibaraki if luck is on my side. that would be way fun. So all of that is good, but I'm a bit bummed about leaving Niihama. I'm gonna miss this branch. It doesn't really help too much that the missionary who is replacing me doesn't have the best japanese from what I've heard so I dont really feel like ill be leaving the area to the most capable hands. but i suppose it cant be helped. 
This last week was pretty good though for what its worth. Found a lot of people with good potential and set up a system where we can meet Mizuki-chan on a weekly basis. Hopefully the elders here will be able to follow through on it all.... i can hope. 
I'll let everyone know about how Hanayashiki is. Hey maybe this means ill get to go to Kyoto to see the sakura!

Love,
Elder Horton

only 6 more of these emails. but whos counting?

niihama - the last 3 weeks

Snowy days in Niihama

Well this week was improvement from last week for sure. We had a family home evening with the Igari's and Mizuki-chan and one other young woman in the branch, Itsuki-chan. We had stew and root beer and chips and salsa. then we played a get-to-know-you game and shared a message about the book of mormon. Mizuki-chan committed to read a little every day so she is now ever so slowly progressing. unfortunately its testing season here and the students are all really busy so she couldnt come to church or game night. but we did have that lady we found like two weeks ago, Yamanaka-san at church. she is way nice and seems to have interest in the Book of Mormon and God aso we made an appointment to share more with her tomorrow. Also Game Night special was awesome. only one non-member showed up but there were lots of members and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and liked the message we shared at the end. Oh, and it snowed for reals during game night. by for reals, i mean it snowed about 3 centimeters, but i was still like christmas.

Oh yeah. So a while back i think i might have said something about it, but Cloward長老　and I found this one lady in this shop and she had this weird pendant thing that she uses to talk to her spirit. I dont know, its a bit weird. But we visited her again and she may be some kind of investigator now. we introduced the Book of Mormon and asked her if she would like to read it. So she says 聞いてもいいですか？ and she the proceeds to wave her pendant around and apparently her spirit told her to read it because she accepted our commitment.

anyways probably some other stuff happened, but nothing in particular comes to mind.

So have a good week, everybody.

Love,

Elder Horton

 

Getting warmer in Niihama

Pretty good week this week. pretty good pretty good. We had some good
teaching opportunities with Kana-san and Yamanaka-san and the Pendulum
lady. They were all good lessons and I really was feeling like I was
teaching at the top of my game. Really the best I've ever taught. Even
so, none of them are exactly filling the font up themselves. but not
all sheep are golden. We just may have to work through a problem or
two with them. I had a companion exchange with Elder Hatch this week
which was a welcome day of having a companion who can speak english
etc. then we had Zone conference. and seeing as how it was my last
zone conference, I bore my testimony as a returning missionary. a bit
early but the deed is done. It feels a bit weird. So things are good
besides a few companionship issues at the moment. speaking of which,
he's waiting for me to be done so i'll wrap this up.

Love,
Elder Horton

 

another week, another email in niihama

 

So I don't wanna go into details, but those companionship problems i mentioned last week got a bit bad last week. And in the end, we moved our companion exchange from later in the week to that night. kind of an emergency companion exchange. I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing just because i've never had problems like this with a companion even in the slightest until now. and here i am in my last transfers and i have to worry about something so silly. but after talking a lot with elder nicholes, i started realizing some of the places the problems occurred and what i can do to avoid them. between that and having time to cool down, things are much better now. Though i've been happier. We have transfer calls next week and if it were any other mission president, i'd say there would for sure be a transfer but with president zinke, theres a good chance he'll keep us together till the end just to "teach us a lesson" or something. I guess ill know about all that next week and theres a chance you all might hear a rant about it. that or some other exciting news. one or the other. Maybe I wouldn't care as much but its been interferring with our work. this week we didnt get a whole lot done. partly because of the exchange and everything, partly because we were talking about this or that problem, partly because my companion has headaches everyday after lunch, and partly because when we do work, or heart isnt in it 100%.

Thats not to say we made no progress at all. just not really any progress  worth mentioning i think.

Sorry that this is such a lame email. if it helps, my exchange with elder nicholes was a lot of fun!

love,

Elder Horton

Cold Days in Niihama

icecream dendo!

one of those little houses down there is the Aoba's. out in the middle of nowhere.

Guess not all that much happened this week. We got out and worked but probably not quite as much as i would have liked. Kana-san got a job so its suddenly hard to meet with her. For whatever reason, the majority of out people were busy this last week and we weren't able to meet too many of them. On the bright side, we have some good appointments for this week. We're doing a family home evening at the Igari's tonight and Mizuki-chan is going to come. Also we have our Game Night special  this saturday. its basically normal game night but with refreshments. Aoba会長, you are a genius.

Yesterday, we tryed visiting our brazilian investigator, Aparecida but instead met her husband who also speaks portuguese. So I got to stand there and look stupid for a solid 10 minutes while my companion and him went off in basiltounge. I guess now i know how the majority of my companions have felt for the last 7 transfers or so. Apparently Aparecida is in Hiroshima but took her book of mormon with her. so she seems to be reading it. いいんじゃない?

But yeah Elder Sobrinho has good portuguese it seems. He's a way nice guy, just a little bit high-maintenance. I didn't even really know what that meant until I met Elder Sobrinho. It describes him perfectly. He has various things going on in his life right now and likes to talk about them. Often when we're supposed to be dendoing. I didn't think it was possible to have a conversation for 2 hours by oneself. I thought a conversation required two people. I learned something. But we've talked about it and he says he wants to work harder this week so hopefully we can. This just isnt exactly how i pictured the last months of my mission being.

So we'll see what happens.

 

Love,

Elder Horton

 

boa noite from 新居浜！！

Me and my new best friend... Tabasco sauce!

So we got Cloward長老　all packed up and shipped off to Kakogawa and now I'm hanging out with my new Brazilian buddy, Elder Sobrinho. He is very Brazilian. Also Pedro isn't very Brazilian because he speaks too much English. Communicating is fun, but its cool because when he doesn't know a word in English, I can usually guess what he's saying if he says it in Portuguese. Unfortunately, he speaks no Japanese. So we tried a couple more times to meet our single Brazilian investigator  aparecida-san, but she is never home. i think she may have gone back to the mother land. Game night was way legit this Saturday. our new ping pong table came but it wasn't assembled. but on the bright side, i now know how to assemble a ping pong table from Japanese instructions. So we had Kato-kyoudai, mizuki-chan, hikari-chan, itsuki-chan, and igari-kyoudai come out and play. None of you know who most of them are but someday, ill look back on these emails. anyways, we also played some billards which was good times all around. also it turns out girls aren't good at billiards.

Church was good too. Mizuki-chan and Hikari-chan came as we thought they would, but Kana-san did not. anyways i was starting to get frustrated about not getting a chance to teach them ever so i talked to Igari-shimai about it. she said she gave them books of mormon during the young women's hour and explained prayer and she said she'd mail her and set up a time to meet with the missionaries which she called later that night and told us she did. So now we have an appointment to teach Mizuki-chan next Monday at the Igari's. should be good. I'm really glad Igari-shimai is done throwing up from being pregnant.

Then Sunday night I had a pretty neat experience. It was raining and we didn't have coats or umbrellas and i was already feeling sick. we still had about have half hour before dinner but we were thinking about calling it a night. So we were on our way home and going down a way steep hill on wet roads and as we went by an apartment, i felt like we needed to knock on it. but if i were to slam on my brakes and turn into that parking lot, the result would have surely been bad. So I thought to myself, 'silly spirit, you're supposed to protect me, not try to kill me.' So after getting to the bottom of the hill, we turned around and went half way back up to visit all the nice people in this apartment. they actually were all quite rude with the exception of one Yamanaka-san who was one of the nicest people I've met knocking on somebody's door. We talked for a bit and she wants to come to church. She can't come this next week, so I don't know when she will, but it was good that we met her. I was glad we turned around.

Then today, I'm Emailing late because we went to the Aoba's and cut a whole bunch of firewood. TONS of fire wood. it was way fun and I built tons of character.

 

That"s all for now folks,

 

Love,

Elder Horton

 

 

Niihama week 18 (I'm going to have to get a new system for this)

So as i eluded to last week, we got our very important phone calls this morning. If one were to ask why they were important, Id tell you that since i got my date to go home at the end of april, that puts me with just two transfers left. and since it doesnt make a lot of sense for me to transfer to a different area for my last transfer, this mornings transfer call determined where my last area would be. Since I have been in Niihama for 3 transfers and my companion had been here for 4 transfers, it was kind of up in the air as to who was going to go, but as it would happen, Cloward長老　is out of Niihama and off to Kakogawa. So I'll probably be in Niihama till the end and probably with the same companion by the name of Sobrino長老 he's from Brazil. from what I've heard he's kind of struggled with Japanese and English on the mission so we'll see how it goes. Either way, I'm pretty stoked for these next two transfers. I think there's a lot of stuff that we can make happen in Niihama. Its looking like i'll be here for 5 transfers so I'm going to make this area my own.
This week was pretty good. highlights include a good lesson with Kana-san at the church on saturday; she seems excited to read the Book of Mormon. Also on saturday we were housing around in the middle of nowhere when we smelled a delicious smell of some sort of baked deserts. we followed the smell into a small shop that seemed to be run by this nice lady. we asked her what kind of goods she sells, seeking to find the source of that smell. She sold a whole variety of goods from chicken nuggets to chocolate chip cookies. So Cloward長老　got some chicken nuggets and i got the cookies. Anyways. as we were leaving, she asked us if we were Christian, seeing our nametags. we told her that we were and then she proceeded to tell us about how she's studying about how to talk to your soul to talk to God and then she pulled out a weird pendant thing and said she used that thing to talk to her soul. She asked us if we could read Japanese and offered us some book but some other customers were coming in and so she told us to come back another time. She we got Dendo'd by some weird religion which there are a lot of in Japan. She wasn't very good at it though. but hey, we might go check it out if we're feeling adventurous. Then we got a call from some random guy from Pakistan. He told us to come to his shop so we did. He bought us some Indo-curry which was really good, but we had to have awkward conversation in his unintelligible English.
We also had Mizuki-chan and Hikari-chan at church again. They're buddy buddy with all the members now. so yeah! Anyway that's all I can think of for now.

Love,
Elder Horton

Release Date i s April 27th!

So earlier this week, we had interviews with President Zinke. I had been waiting for interviews to discuss when I would be returning home. And I talked with president with it but even by the end of the interview, he couldn't give me a sure answer. I was pretty annoyed by the whole thing mostly just because of the whole not knowing thing. But I just got an email from president and he confirmed my date for April 27th. So now I know. Its a weird feeling. I think i liked not knowing better. But anyways, I just thought I'd let everyone know. I haven't thought about it enough to know what day ill be landing in America. the whole time difference thing makes my head hurt.
I think i mentioned in my last email that this week was going to be a busy one and it was pretty busy. companion exchanges with Nicholes長老　and Gardner長老　who now that i think about it, sat on either side of me at the MTC way back in the day. Its always way fun to get to work with the elders you knew from all the way back then. Crazy to see how much we've grown up and yet at the same time are exactly the same.
In terms of Niihama, things are pretty chill. unfortunately, we weren't able to make contact with Megumi-san this week so we have no idea how she's doing other than that she's busy. But we were able to have a really good lesson with Kana-san about prayer. She prayed at the end of the lesson and has really good, strong beliefs. it was refreshing. Also Shinohara Mizuki-chan and her younger sister, Hikari-chan both showed up to church. even though they were really late, they went to seminary and had a really good time i think.
So things are finally starting to roll a bit and as luck would have it, transfer calls are next week. No idea whats going to happen, not even a guess. But its going to be a pretty important call and if you don't know why, maybe i'll fill you in next week. I feel like I'm leaving stuff out, but lets just say it was a fun week hope everyone else is doing well.

love,
Elder Horton

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

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.

Niihama 4/ District Leader

So I'm emailing a little late because we just got back from Aoba会長's house where we made stuff out of clay. I got to use all my skills that i didnt aquire in that art class i took in high school so long ago. good times. but yeah I made a bold and a cup and a very lopsided vase thing. Aoba会長 is way way good at it. way better than mrs schwartz. And  we had a meal that Aoba姉妹 made and it was super good. some of the best food ive ever eated probably.

But yeah this week was really legit. last tuesday, we went to this matsuri with the Manabe family and they had us wear happys and go bounce the taiko's up and down. it was pretty fun and ill send pictures someday maybe.

Then we had to head to Okayama for the Conference with Elder Ringwood. and apparently, his wife is aunt laurie's sister. small world, eh? So that was pretty cool and it was a really good conference. I learned much.

Well Okayama takes a very long time to get to from here so it took the majority of tuesday and all of wednesday and thursday was planning. Then Friday, I did my companion exchange with Allen長老　and we had a way good day. Found some new investigators, Did some member and less-active lessons and contacted some chinese referrals who spoke no japanese or english so that didnt go far. Then we visited some random family that there was an arrow pointing to on the map in the apartment, the Noda family. The husband immediately invited us in. They had been meeting with the missionaries for a long time, the mom having first met them like 26 years ago. They have 3 kids, two twins of 5 yrs and one of 8 years of age. We talked for a while and i asked why they didnt get baptized. basically some of the commandments were hard for them and they didnt know if they could endure to the end and didnt want to go inactive. But we talked about how much the gospel helps families and would be good for their kids and after that, the mom said she wanted to go back to church. theyre busy for a while but said theyd come on the 6th of november. we'll visit before then, but that was a pretty cool experience.

Then yesterday at church, I had a talk. it was awesome. And we had a lady Aoba姉妹 has been working with who hadnt come to church in 10 years come yesterday. she was way excited and greeting people at the door and stuff. So the branch is doing pretty well. Just gotta keep things moving.

Love,

Elder Horton
Dear Brother and Sister Horton,


We are pleased to have your son Elder Horton serving in this mission.  He was recently called to serve as a District Leader/Trainer.  We thought you might appreciate receiving a copy of the letter that was sent to him .  We appreciate very much the service your son is giving in this mission.


Sincerely,


Richard G. ZinkePresident, Japan Kobe Mission





24 October 2011


Dear Elder Horton,


Congratulations on being called as a District Leader as well as a Trainer.  This choice assignment indicates that you have performed well as a servant of the Lord, and that you have the leadership ability to not only inspire a new missionary to love this work and to be successful, but to also be the leader in your district.


The Mission President's Handbook talks about the importance of a Trainer.  In part, it says:


New missionaries first companions are an important influence during their entire missions.The mission president should call his most capable missionaries, those who are effective in baptizing converts and who will be able to help the new missionaries develop good skills and attributes, to serve as trainers of new missionaries.  As senior companions, they need to train and motivate new missionaries so they begin their mission successfully. They should use the explain, demonstrate, practice, evaluate model as they train new missionaries.  Trainers should diligently follow the daily schedule and obey mission rules.  When training they should:


          1.  Cheerfully and patiently help new missionaries adapt and develop the basic skills and attributes from the Preach My Gospel.


          2.  Use the weekly companion-planning meeting to help new missionaries set goals and evaluate progress.


          3.  Make sure their new companion participates fully as a contributing member of the missionary team.


          4.  Trainers help new missionaries be successful and productive from the very beginning.  Senior companions account to the district leaders and the mission president for the training of new missionaries.


In addition, to the above, as District Leader, you will also be responsible for setting an example for the missionaries in your district in your study of the scriptures and the gospel as well as in your obedience, hard work, proselyting skills and other aspects of missionary work.  As the District Leader you will:


          *  Carry a full proselyting load in your area and strive to baptize regularly.


          *  Supervise, teach, and inspire the missionaries during district meetings and companion exchanges.


          *  Interview baptismal candidates.


          *  Look after the well-being of missionaries in your district.


          *  Demonstrate effective planning.


          *  Work with your local priesthood leaders and members.


          *  Follow up with the missionaries on referrals.


          *  Submit reports accurately and promptly.


As you embark on this very important new assignment, remember to teach your companion, as well as those in your district, the important principle that obedience is the first law of heaven.  Teach the importance of the Spirit by ensuring, through your words and example, that the Spirit is always a third member of a missionary team.  As a Trainer, help your companion to learn to teach by the Spirit.  Make sure you give Elder Singleton a chance to pray and bear testimony as you proselyte.


Remember that as a District Leader, you can have significant impact on the work in your district, and on the growth and development of the individual missionaries.  As a Trainer, you will have a responsibility to your new companion.  In all you do, seek diligently to know the will of God.  Brigham Young once said: "An individual who holds a share in the Priesthood, and continues faithful to his calling, who delights himself continually in doing the things God requires at his hands, and continues through life in the performance of every duty, will secure to himself not only the privilege of receiving, but the knowledge how to receive the things of God, that he may know the mind of God continually; and he will be enabled to discern between right and wrong, between the things of God and the things that are not of God."


Please know that you have been called under the inspiration of our Heavenly Father.  I am grateful for your faith and diligence, and have every confidence that you will succeed in your vital role as one of the Lords choice servants.  May the Lord bless you with wisdom, understanding and diligence as you embark upon this challenging and rewarding assignment.


Faithfully,


Richard G. ZinkePresident, Japan Kobe Mission