Food Blog

Happy Thanksgiving! (Our feast) 


 Thai curry from a can? With Tuna!


Why is it that SPAM is such a huge deal everywhere but America?


Quesadilla Pizzas

My companion's worst idea ever. Corn, pumpkin ice cream, evaporated milk, plus chocolate syrup


Yum.

weekly mission email

There’s way too much going on down here; the highlights will be cut short but multiply. 

Service Activity

The problem with raking leaves next to a shedding tree and a busy thoroughfare is that all the leaves you just raked are blown apart from your neat pile by any passing Semi, and then afterwards the tree decides to release more leaves just to spite you. Literally no progress. 

Eikaiwa last week

Japanese bread is sliced specifically for toast. Not sandwiches. I learned this. Like, it’s an actual thing that the bread in Japan is not made for making sandwiches. People just want a thick slice of bread with butter and jam on it in the morning. 

Casual Proselytizing 

Japanese people honk at each other to show the other cars gratitude for graciously pausing and allowing them to enter the roadway. Too much politeness here. 

Frederiksen mud baths 

We're Helping a member who's moving into the area fix up his house before the big transition. Pictures below. 

FHE for the Recent Converts

We were in charge of making pizzas. Not too hard, we're American, after all. Well, you'd think. It didn’t actually go like that.  

The pizza dough was ...tough. It didn’t rise. Either the flat pizza's were the old baking soda's fault, or else Elder Shiraki's recipe, but in the end we basically had the equivalent of Broke College Boy Quesadilla Pizzas. 

But the FHE went great, no problems on that end. 

Exchanges with Elder Mossman from Hawaii 

There was a lady we found in the Records last week whom I’ve been dying to meet for a good while now. I finally had the chance. 

We went the mile to Check out the nonexistent pin. 

It turns out that the apartment was completely evacuated. You could see why. Nobody in any right sense would want to live there! The whole thing was cankered with rust and I’m pretty sure I felt the stairwell shift when Elder Mossman started climbing it. The place was a ghost town probably filled with actual bogeymen. 

Primary Program!! 

Tsu Branch actually has enough children to hold things like a Primary Program. Ah! It’s been over a year. I was so touched by the small, high pitched, off-tune voices as they sang an over-welcomely extended program which almost took half of our second hour, as well. I forgot how funny kids can be. It was great.  

Last Sunday 

Up up up we climbed on our bikes towards an area of potential investigators. We started knocking on doors, and on the second one we accidentally housed LA Sister Uenaga. Haha she came out to give us a schpill about her life circumstances right now, and we were humbled and learned a lot, but left on good terms and with a tentative plan to come back. 

At church one day 

The church got a phone call. I’ve always wondered who, and why anybody would ever call the church directly, but I guess there's some mysterious force out there that brings good things to those who wait. 

Some lady named Amy called the church and inquired about the Sunday services. She has recently moved to Japan, and isn’t a member or anything but is genuine interested in finding a church. We took her contact info, and will follow up with her later this week through a meeting at her house.  

Lastly, both of the baptismal candidates had successful confirmation in the last Sacrament Service. What a wonderful spirit which filled that room! 

Loving the work down here. 

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon

weekly mission email

Maegawa Akiko got baptized! Pictures attached. 

Also, my companion baptized Kendorian Martinito! It was a good day. 

Also, we had District activity today. 

food blog

Philippine food has increased 

weekly email

Things in Tsu last week wrapped up to about three people

Koji 

Our apartment leaks during typhoons, and the commisarian called a guy to come fix it. The guy came last Tuesday. I don’t know what we were expecting, but it was actually a good thing that our apartment leaks! 

Several surprises. So Koji, the handyman, isn’t a member. He's actually a local shop that came for the repairs. Koji made the business himself. 

When Koji walked in to looks at our sliding doors, he looked over at the bookshelf in plain view to the left. His first comment was something like, “You have a lot of BOM's in here!” 

And then he had something to keep conversation going, and kept referring back to something connected to BOM. Thus, he kept asking about us, our job, our beliefs, and such as he worked. No problem from us there. 

Well, it turns out that Koji also loves Jesus Christ! He wouldn’t call himself Christian, but he reads the Bible everyday and even has seminars for Japanese people on it. He has been to Jerusalem 18 times, and proofed it with several magnets and pictures which he kindly gave to us. Koji is what you would call a saint. 

And before he left, we asked if he knew anything about Christ's ministry in the America’s, and he replied no, but was curious about it, so we ended on a gift exchange of magnets for one of the nice BOM he first saw. 

Koji generously fixed a giant pothole in the parking lot on the way out, without saying a word to anyone or asking for any thing. He is seriously the most interesting, generous man I know.

Frederiksen 

We have a new couple moving into our Branch boundaries. The brother is Danish, and his wife Japanese. They bought a traditional, 100+ year old Japanese house for free and were told that the only thing they were responsible for was the possible renovation costs. This house was literally built before WW1! 

Well, we got a nice tour of the spacious grounds (it was a RICH house) and there are a lot of mistakes made over the years of the people who “upkept” it. The water isn’t draining, the grounds are flooded, neglected holes in the roof of the secondary house threaten the bearing beam, the neighbors are encroaching on the property, the porcelain outhouse just isn’t doing it for the wife, the animal stalls and silkworm farms are nice but old fashioned, the traditional garden's sculptured boulders are positioned perfectly too close to the house and are hindering... etc. 

But, anything that the last grandma left behind are their inheritance! Lots of old treasures, and nice bedding included. 

We are helping them move in, but it may be a bigger project than just moving a piano and fridge. On the upside, 

 I learned all about traditional Japanese house construction, and that was cool! 

Maegawa 

This week we were all around getting things prepared for this lady's baptism next Sunday. It’s been a long time, and many people have forgotten all the protocols that go behind a baptism. There's a lot of work to be done! 

But I had the opportunity to interview her this morning, and I cannot deny that she is prepared and fully willing to take upon Christ's name. What a wonderful woman.

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon 

weekly email

Another week in Tsu: 

Imai FHE

There’s a family here who recently made a huge comeback in returning to church, and they are all fired up for helping us. We meet with them often, and they take us around to visit members, investigators, and focus people. They’ve fellowshipped the newest baptismal candidate beautifully, and are taking a lot of proactive thought into planning for the candidate's wellbeing. It’s so great!

Eye doctor 

Maybe the guy I went to in Utah was old school, or maybe the technology in Japan has just skyrocketed, but whatever the case the clinic I went to to get my eyes checked beyond anything I’ve experienced. It was a sensation. Like, the waiting room was the hardest part because there were so many people crowding inside, wanting a minute with the doctor, that we needed to sit down for almost an hour in plush, stuffed armchairs for our own turn. How terrible. 

When I was finally ushered inside, the doctor sat me down at one small eye machine for twenty seconds, and then another. In the first, I looked at a small hot air balloon going in and out of focus for a bit. At the second, a small blinking green light grabbed my attention, and then I was slightly startled when a puff of air was blown into my eye. It was like somebody had blown a bit of frosty breath into my face, Puff. 

I was almost relieved when I sat down in the third chair and across from me was a traditional screen that I could tell was for the classic ABC test. I wasn’t sure I was getting my money's worth from the first couple tests. Doctor had me read the letters once with, and once without my glasses. Except, I wasn’t reading letters (not even in Japanese), but pointing up, down, left, or right where the C was open. The C just got smaller which each answer. What is this magic! 

And then I was told my results. That was it. It was over in less than five minutes. 

Mission Conference 

Brother Brian K. Ashton and his wife visited our mission last Thursday as part of their tour of Japan. What's funny is that the introductory speaker gave an eloquent speech on how we would cover Teaching, using the Spirit, and asking Inspired Questions today (as part of retaining investigators), and then Sister Ashton got up and announced that she felt a much different direction was needed. 

We had a wonderful conference on faith, finding, and the commandments of the Lord in relation to our efforts that day. See D&C 82:10. 

Matsusaka Saturday 

My faith in Member missionary work has redoubled recently due to a couple experiences from the last week. 

We were asked to accompany a couple members in visiting a coworker who recently had a baby girl. The coworker warmly welcomed us all in, we had a nice time chatting and admiring the baby, and before we left the members looked to me expecting that I give an invitation of some sort to hear the missionary lessons. Well, it wasn’t the most beautiful invitation I’ve given, but because of the nice environment and the friendly encouragement we had backing us up, the lady warmly accepted and we are welcome to come back next week. 

The members, happy with our success, took us over to visit someone who recently hasn’t been coming to church. That someone wasn’t there, but we knock on his neighbor's door and were received into another small family's home for a bit. Complete strangers. Again, this probably would never happen if we weren’t out with friendly members. We all sat down in the small living room, and my companion and I taught the Restoration lesson on the spot. It was great! A very spiritual experience. 

And so we continue to see great improvement in the general well-being of Tsu.

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon

Maegawa is the one closest to me. To her right are Sister and Brother Imai



Hey, happy birthday Claire!! 

Just to inform you, I celebrated out here by buying a new coat! At the secondhand shop, I found a wool jacket for about $15. And, a new wool tie for 3. It was quite the bargain! I absolutely love it.