Elder Landon Paskett's Journeys in Japan: January 16, 2017

So glad the letter made it on time! Happy birthday my wonderful Momma :)

And that is so exciting about Rachel and Taylor!!!!! Ahhh that is so soon!!! Can't wait to see my nephew Landon Jr. coming along 2018... :)

So this week has been crazy! Like usual. Transfers didn't happen until Thursday this week, because no new missionaries came in this week! Crazy right?? Around 7 missionaries left but no new ones came in. We will get 1 new Nihonjin sister next week, then that will be it until the next transfer. That means a couple areas that used to have 2 companionships now have 1 trio instead.

So I got to have a couple extra days in Aomori, we were able to visit a few members and have one last lesson with S, and one last Eikaiwa as well. I didn't get much of a chance to pack, so I got up at 12:30 Thursday morning to finish up packing, then went back to bed for a few hours. We had to go to the Eki to drop off Elder Morris for the 7:10 bus, so our ward mission leader told us he would pick us up at 6:40. But then he showed up at 6:25, and I was just getting out of the shower when one of the other Elders told me he was at the apartment already!! So I threw the last of my stuff together super fast and my hair was still wet as we drove through the blizzard to the eki. My train wasn't until 9:20 so I had a couple hours to be with Elder Hall and Elder Mimaki before leaving Aomori! There was so much snow on the way down to Morioka that the bus got delayed about an hour and a half, but I eventually met up with the ZLs and with my new comp メインズ長老！(Maynes Choro) We rode the train from Morioka to Yokote, and literally the first person we talked to on the train became a new investigator! We were still in Morioka so we referred him to the Morioka ZLs, but that was so cool. I think it's an omen that this will be a great transfer!!

That night (Thursday) we had a lesson with our investigator R, he's a 17 year old and he loves English. He's pretty good too, so our lessons are usually in half English and half Japanese. He has a baptismal date for this December when he turns 18, but we feel like if he really wanted to be baptized then he would want to be baptized now instead of waiting almost a year...which leaves us in kind of a pickle. He tells us he wants to be baptized, but he thinks it would be good to wait until he is 18 because his parents probably want him to wait. Often it feels like he just answers our questions the way he thinks we want them answered, rather than really speaking from the heart. He always does his reading assignments and keeps all his commitments, but I think it's mostly just because he likes us, rather than having that desire to draw closer to God. So we're still working on him, he is such an awesome kid though, it is fun to be able to teach him.

We went up to Akita on Friday for DTM, about an hour and a half train ride. I am realizing how much we will be riding trains this transfer. It's good though, trains are way good for finding people. We found two new investigators last week, who have appointments for tomorrow and Wednesday, so that is exciting!

A less active member took us out to Yakiniku on Saturday! That was so nice, but we felt super bad because he works in a factory and he just kept ordering more and more plates, and it was a pretty expensive place. It was so delicious though. We tried to pay but he insisted that he would. His name is T, he's in his 20s and he loves death metal music. He is the only Nihonjin I have met with gauges, lip piercings and a nose ring haha. He was baptized like 3 years ago but then became less active really quickly, then just recently he saw an Eikaiwa chirashi, called the Elders and told them he wants to start keeping all the commandments again. Awesome right!! It is weirdly similar to the situation with T Kyoudai (in Aomori). T has work usually every other Sunday, but wants to come to church when he can. We shared a lesson at dinner and set a goal for him to go to the temple eventually! After that, he insisted on paying for us to take a taxi to the Eki (again, he works in a factory so we felt super bad!), then we were supposed to catch the 8:45 train to get back to Yokote (he lives in Oomagari, a neighboring city) and get back to the apartment by 9:30. But, the trains were delayed because of snow and ice, so the train didn't come until 9:20! We were near severe panic mode after everyone else at the Eki had left, and we were just alone in the freezing cold a half an hour after our train was supposed to come! We were worried we had missed it or misread the schedule or something, and were stranded in a city that was a 15 minute train ride from our apartment. It probably would've taken us until past midnight to walk home through the snow and the wilderness haha. But it
eventually did come, and we ended up getting back at like 9:45.

Another miracle we saw was on Friday, we got a call from this guy whose name Maynes Choro had never seen before. But his name was saved in our phone, so we assumed it was a member or something. I answered and said my name, then he asked if I was a new missionary in Yokote, so I told him yes and he said he wanted to meet with us that night at 6. We looked his number up in the area book and it turned out it was a former investigator, who had been dropped and restored 5 or 6 times. He ended up cancelling that meeting, but wants to meet sometime this week instead.

So Yokote is pretty awesome, there is sooo much snow here!! It just never stops coming down. The parts that aren't touched are up to my waist, and in the spots where they pile up the snow it is well above my head. The Shibu Kaicho and his wife didn't come to church this week, and one sister had 2 sick kids, so minus those 4 we had a record low of 13 people in attendance at church. Usually it's around 17 or 18. I know almost all of their names already, which is good! There are mostly older people, then there are 2 young couples--the Miyakawas and the Bundys. Miyakawa Kyoudai is the Dendo shunin and Miyakawa Shimai is an RM so we will be working with them a lot! Then the Bundys are an American couple who are here as Assistant Language Teachers. They don't speak any Japanese. He was giving a talk in sacrament meeting so I got to translate it, that was an interesting experience. I was actually surprised that I managed to find a way to say everything though! Sometimes I had to simplify his sentences, but the branch members said they understood it all. They also had me play the piano since the usual accompanist was gone! So I had no advance notice and no practice time and they started singing before I finished the intro and I messed up a lot and it was rough but I was glad to help haha :)

So, Yokote is great and I am so excited to work here! Our area takes in basically all of Akita Ken expect for Akita Shi itself, so we will be riding trains to different neighboring cities almost every day.
Loving this transfer so far!

Thanks for the email, I love you Momma!!!!!!

パスケット長老
Elder Paskett