weekly letter

Happy New Year's! 

Our Christmas Week in Tsu 

We splurged and spent money on Japanese pizza for Christmas. Worth it. P

I thought to Skype home early Tuesday morning, but alas I arrived at the church building at 7:00 am and discovered that there was an automatic garage door locking system which didn’t suspend until 8:00. We still had a fun time standing outside talking over half-decent Wifi. 

There is a new calling in the mission with a special assignment. The Roaming Assistants to the President go around and conduct two day exchanges with companionships to elevate faith and see miracles. Even in the holiday season, the effects are astounding. We were blessed with an exchange this last week, and the area has exploded with new people to teach, 伝道FIRE, and ways to improve beyond our dreams. Honestly, it was probably the best exchange I’ve ever had. 

The Branch President also come out on Sunday and announced a new mission plan for next year. It’s the best thing I’ve seen, we're so excited for it. Every single member will become tremendously involved in the missionary effort. 

There was also a belated Christmas party held at the church. Some guy brought a Pig's Blood Stew thing. I don’t know whatever inspired that terrible idea. 

Also, I guess there's a special soba for New Year's in Japan, and we were treated by a member. I didn’t notice much of a difference, but they were exclaiming about how wonderful the thing was and so we just rolled with it. 

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon 

Sorry I talked a lot about food this week. 

I opened my presents

Merry Christmas!

weekly mission email

Tsu is on ｆｉｒｅｂａｌｌ．

Elder Miole and I have decided to Revise our morning schedule. Mostly, we are working towards an effective exercise time. So, the personal study goes first, then planning, then exercise and prep. Whereas before, I would wake up and force my muscles into rigorous action, and the struggle was real. Now, after my mind has had time to uncloud for a bit we go out for a stroll. 

There is nothing better than running on a beachside.  the white shells and morning ocean breeze will be missed. 

We had a thing in our Zone for a bit where everyone was asked their favorite color. But, it had to be specific. Like, what shade exactly. I’ve gone with a good Pine green. 

Two referrals came in last week. One literally walked himself into the church door asking to see a priest. I love those type of people. 

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon 

weekly mission email

It was a good week in Tsu, but basically I’ll only be sharing one story today. 

- - -

I went on an exchange with Elder Higashi in Ise this week. It was pretty eventful. 

We were out for the evening knocking on doors in the neighborhood of a member who lives really far away by bike. As we pulled up and were preparing to get started, that same member drove past and stopped in front of us at the stoplight, and then rolled down her window and exclaimed her excitement at seeing us! It was a short exchange of remarks, as she was out on her way and the light soon turned green again, and we wondered at the uncanny timing of it. 

Well, two hours later, as we were pulling out of the area, we got a call asking us if we wouldn’t come over for a bit and share a message to the member couple there. That same member. 

The brother was very nice, and the sister talked a day. We received the Okinawa special Ginger Hot Cocoa and some souvenir French Biscuits for our trouble. Overall, a pleasant time. 

After a bit of this, and gleaning information from the elderly couple, we asked if the brother wouldn’t help us in one of our purposes for being in the area that night: visiting a nearby Less Active. The brother ended up being coaxed into it by his volunteering wife. 

We went by car down the road a ways for the visit. We then proceeded to pull into a nice neighborhood off the side of the road, and then into a nice, grand mansion-type house with extended pull-through driveway and several large houses on the property. This was it, we had arrived. 

A little intimidated, we rang the doorbell together and waited for a reply. A large man whom you could tell ate feasts for meals (he had a belly to show it) stepped out into the cold and asked kinda gruffly what we wanted.  

Tenderly, Elder Higashi explained who we were and our purpose for visiting tonight. He introduced the member, and then asked if the man remembered going to church in Ise Branch. 

The man perked up as he recalled a member, then two, and then started listing off names and families, asking about their welfare and happenings. The conversation turned really good at the point, and as it continued we were able to invite him to the upcoming Christmas party, hand him a new copy of the Book of Mormon, and tentatively exchange schedules for appointments. 

This Less Active had refused contact from the church for about 30 years, yet simply having a member whom he was familiar with beside us changed his countenance and led to such great progress. For an upcoming while, the mission will be emphasizing working together with members to accomplish miracles, and I heartedly affirm that this can change everything in terms of success. 

- - - 

The work is good down here. We have four people lined up for receiving baptism, and  were recently given a lot of Emergency Foods meal sets as Christmas presents. What more could a missionary want? 

PS(I would bet that the reason behind the meals would be the fact that they expire in January and missionaries will eat most anything. ) 

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon

The emergency food works like you put a chemical pouch inside the ziploc between the two foods (rice and sauce), pour over special water and seal the bag. The chemical reaction creates steam, which vents out the top for about 20 minutes until it’s all cooked. And done! 

weekly email

Last week in Tsu ,

Brother Iwamoto's cousins 

One day, a door opened up to a 13 year old boy who was home alone. Can’t do much there, but we asked if we could come back the next day when his parents were home. Actually, he doesn’t live with his parents, he lives with his two older sisters. 

The next day, we came back late and caught one of the sisters just as she was returning home from work. Having contact with the boy was kind of our “in” to starting a conversation, and as the talking went long the other sister joined us in what turned into a lesson on the Restoration. When we pulled out the BOM to present to them, they all made the connection with our message and the Mormons. “Ah! I know Mormons! My Aunt is a Mormon.” Kind of thing. 

We found out later in the week that these people were actually related to one brother in the ward, and had asked questions before about the church but had never met with missionaries. 

John Peter 

A referral came in from the sisters. This boy has actually learned a lot, but because of his part time job the sisters could never take an actual appointment with him. This week, we were finally able to catch him at home. 

One of the biggest problems is that although John Peter speaks English, it’s not quite good enough for the vocabulary of the lessons. The same goes for his Japanese. 

So finally, Elder Miole was able to clear up all the parts that he didn’t understand before. 

John Peter met with us at chance when we actually were just leaving from his apartment after talking with his dad for a while. On the way out, we found that although he doesn’t have a phone (which is why it’s so hard to pin him down), he has a Facebook, so we were lucky to trade that. 

Then, later in the week, we invited him to a basketball activity. The activity itself wasn’t so good, and we hardly even played any basketball, but there was a lot of chances to talk during the down time, and it turned out that John Peter didn’t have work the next day. Ah, miracle! We invited him to church. 

We picked him up, brought him over, and walked him through church. All the members were fabulous fellow-shippers. John Peter wasn’t expecting the service to be three hours long, haha, but it was ok. During second hour, we sat down and talked about baptism and following Christ. John Peter accepted the commitment to be baptized. 

Bread Ears パンの耳

In Japan, everyone is a spoiled little child when it comes to their sliced bread. There are no butts! And, oftentimes the crusts are pre-cut off of the sandwiches. Japan is missing the most nutritional value of bread! It doesn’t even offer wheat or anything like that. 

This last week, we went hunting to find where all these pieces were mysteriously disappearing. Most stores simply throw the crusts away, but at last we found one who had neglected to do so. They willingly gave us a bag of the leftover, free of charge. Maybe we should order our bread every week like this. 

愛しています！

カードん長老より

Elder Cardon