Elder Landon Paskett's Journeys in Japan: September 19, 2016--Another week in the books!

My most aMazing marvelous mother of mine,

So the root beer came from Misawa--there is an American military base there and we can get peanut butter, root beer, whatever. It's not in our area but it's in our zone, so the ZLs (who are our roommates) go down there to do splits every transfer. But yeah root beer would be very hard to find otherwise. I'm sure much has changed since you were here, but I don't really have anything to compare it to. We do have a washer in our apartment that is both a washer and a dryer, so that's probably different. Still no dishwasher though. And no beds or couches. One of the other Elders calls Japan the most "third-world first-world country."

Yeah we are starting to feel fall here...it was raining the other day and it was actually pretty chilly. Usually it's warm during the day, but it rains almost every evening and then when the wind picks up it gets pretty chilly. And in just a few more transfers, Aomori will be covered in snow, so we'll see if I get to stay for that or not.

Our branch isn't huge, but it's a decent size. probably 50 or 60 people that come every week. There aren't really any nearby branches--our boundaries go all the way to the outskirts of Aomori. But yes we do have our own building! It's nothing like the ones in America but there is a little kitchen and a good-sized chapel that divides into 3 classrooms. And the organ is really just an electric piano, still a blessing though. It's actually easier than a normal one because there is a sustain pedal so you can cheat haha ;) One of the families in the branch is moving to Tokyo so we had a shoujikai, that was way fun. We had tons of food, including lasagna and Oreos! Tender mercy right there. Almost no members even touched the Oreos, so I ate sooo many haha. Also the lasagna had potatoes in it, so it was like a double-reminder of the food of my home (a surprising number of Nihonjin know that Idaho has a lot of potatoes...they have no idea where it is, but they know about its potatoes).

We had to miss Eikaiwa on Wednesday for an appointment (but we got stood up...なきました). That was the first Eikaiwa of the transfer, so the other Elders told all the students that we were transferred out of Aomori. Then we showed up at the end and surprised everyone! They were actually way happy that we were staying, they said he class just wasn't the same without me and Hancock Choro. Warmed my heart. Still not much news from the lady who came to church...we invited her again but she was a going out of town. But I feel like she would not have come to church unless some small part of her was considering taking lessons. So we're just going to keep talking to her at Eikaiwa and keep that friendship going, and we're hoping that she will come to church again and we can talk more about how the gospel can really bless her life.

R Kyoudai went out of town for a work trip his weekend so he wasn't able to meet on Saturday or come to church on Sunday. But we're going to dinner and having a lesson with him tonight, so that should be good. We haven't seen him this week at all but we've called and texted him a few times. I'm actually learning a lot of kanji from texting, sometimes I'm surprised at how much I can recognize. Like there are a lot that I wouldn't be able to write, but when I see them I can identify them. Anyway, he has been reading and praying every day, and he wants to come to church this Sunday for the 2nd time! Things are going super well with him right now, if you could pray that he will continue to progress so well, that would be great! :)

We also had another lesson this week with the intercom lesson family, it was just a super short one through the intercom again. We taught the Gospel Blesses Families and bore our testimonies about eternal families, then sang Families Can Be Together Forever. That was on Monday, then we stopped by again almost every day but they were never home, so hopefully we'll be able to visit again this week. We are thinking we might make them cookies or something like that to start to gain their trust so that eventually they will let us inside for a real lesson. But for right now I think they are enjoying our little visits so that is good.

T Kyoudai returned from his bike trip and we were able to meet with him once this week--we had a good lesson about faith, we were a little concerned because it seems like he doesn't really have the same drive to get back on track with everything as he did the first time we met. But he re-committed to read and pray every day, and he has work almost every Sunday but he says he would like to start coming again eventually. He just doesn't seem super motivated right now because his job is getting busier and that's kind of his main focus. But I think as we continue to meet that will change. E Kyoudai (a member who joined us for the lesson this week) texted us after and said he was very impressed with the lesson--in his own words, "長老たちは本当にせいれいました。” Haha so I think T Kyoudai will become active again, he just needs some time to let things calm down with his job.

We met a less-active named S Kyoudai. I guess that the other Elders just randomly ran into him on the street, and we stopped by his house without realizing that it was the same person. So he met with the missionaries twice this week, haha but I think it was good because he came to church yesterday for the first time in months, maybe years. During our lesson, his main question was how there can be a God if there is so much suffering and hate in the world. So we just talked about having faith and how through that faith and diligence, we can receive answers to our questions. He seems hopeful, but his testimony is pretty shaky at this point. But he will continue being taught by the other Elders and will hopefully become active again here pretty soon.

We went to a college open-house thing to support one of the other Elders' investigators named Joseph. Malaysia but he says he goes by Joseph because that name is easier to remember than his actual name. We asked him why he chose that name and he said it's because he is a big fan of Joseph Stalin haha. But the open house was good, we met tons of people. A lot of them were interested in Eikaiwa, and even more were interested in trying to get the Gaijin to buy the food they were selling. Since it was on campus we weren't really allowed to proselyte but we made a lot of college-age friends, and it was a much better venue to meet people in a normal way rather than just stopping people on the street. We also saw H Kyoudai there! He was the kyudosha from Vietnam who was taking lessons and then just all of a sudden stopped. He would text us back sometimes but could never meet or come to church or anything. But it was super good, he was glad to see us and he said he wants to come to church because it's been a while. He has a full schedule with school and he also has work every day, so meeting is kind of hard right now but it sounds like when he becomes less busy he will start taking lessons again.

So it's been another great week! To be honest, the whole "days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days" thing has not really been true for me so far--it's more like the days feel like weeks, the weeks feel like months, and then the months feel like days. Haha but it's so good here, I'm loving it! Thanks for all you do and for being such an
amazing mom!!! Say hello to the Mitani Kazoku, and thanks so much for the advice about members and working with them. You're the best!!

私の愛のすべて、
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett