November 14, 2016--Baputesuma!

This week was crazy! Definitely the craziest week of my mission so far. Also probably the best! We had snow, and our pipes froze, and we moved apartments, and we rode a taxi for the first time, and we had all-you-can-eat yakiniku, and we are teaching a guy who sees dead people, and Ryouma got baptized! So many cool miracles and also just unusual experiences.

To start from the beginning...first, on Tuesday, I had the chance to give a blessing to one of the sisters in our district. It was the 2nd time (the first was in the MTC) and it was still just as scary. I think it went well though. That day it was pouring rain, then Wednesday was a blizzard. It snowed so hard. We were walking into the snow for probably an hour or two, just totally blinded by the snow flying in almost parallel to the ground. It was crazy. The snow was good snow too--it was like little dippin' dots. Tons of 'em. Everywhere. In the snow we had a cool miracle! There is guy named M San who was a PI from like May or June. We have been trying to visit him off and on but he has never been home when we visited. Then this week, we were going to try and visit again. Right before, we met a couple in the parking lot of his apartment building. They were changing the tires on their car, so we stopped to help and we figured we would knock on M San's door after that. But as we were talking, we found out it was actually M san that we were helping! So that was pretty funny. We had a good chance to get to know him and his wife a little bit, they have read from the Book of Mormon they received and are interested in learning more! We weren't able to set up a specific appointment but we will definitely stop by again sometime.

Another miracle this week! We were sending out a bunch of texts to invite people to the baptism, and I sent one to all of the former investigators in our phone. One of them, O san, responded! As if that wasn't miraculous enough, he called and said that unfortunately, he couldn't make it to the baptism, but he wanted to start taking lessons again! We looked on his record and he has a tooonnnn of stuff--most of it was from paper records from 2010, added into the ipads in 2013. Apparently he was super close to getting baptized multiple times. He was dropped twice before in the digital record, maybe more before his records were put into the ipad. Basically he would be keeping all the commandments and ready for baptism, but his father was opposed to it. So the missionaries would keep trying to meet but just couldn't gain any ground with his dad, then eventually dropped him. So we met once, and it went well! I think. Apparently he sometimes hears voices in his head (in Japanese and sometimes English) and sometimes sees his dead relatives...Murakami Choro didn't seem at all phased by this so maybe it's common in Japan? I don't know but we'll find out more about everything this week. He told us some seriously creepy, weird, spiritual visions/experiences that he has had. But he and Murakami Choro were just conversing about it like it was a normal conversation topic, so I just kept it cool while I was kind of freaking out on the inside.

Overall it did go really well, we got a good feel for his understanding and expectations. He still understands the gospel and the commandments well, the main thing still keeping him from being baptized is his father--who hates all religion. O is in his 20s so he can be baptized without his father's permission, but he personally doesn't want to go against his father. O wants us to knock on his father's door, but act like we are just doing regular tracting and just happened to run into him. So we agreed to, we'll see how it goes! I feel like he is just going to have to confront his dad about it and make a stand eventually, but hopefully this "coincidental" housing idea will soften his dad's heart.

So after the blizzard day, it got warm again. Still cold enough that we are wearing sweaters and jackets, but warm enough that it has been raining on the piles of snow on the sides of the road. On that one really cold day, something got damaged in our water pipes. That night all we could get out of the sink was a tiny trickle of water. Before we realized something was damaged, we were visiting the Funahashi Kazoku and they decided to send us home with some rice and curry. That was super nice of them, and then when we got home we found out that we wouldn't be able to make any rice or pasta because the water wasnt working! So that random dinner was a lifesaver. Definitely a miracle!

That night we called the landlady person and we figured out that the damage would take a while to fix and it would be pretty invasive, so we needed to move apartments! We spent most of Friday moving. We are still in the same apartment complex, just on the second floor. That morning I took the coldest shower of my life (they fixed the water enough that we could get a full stream, but it was ice cold--and if you turned it to hot water it just turned into an ice cold trickle instead of turning warm). It was like an ice-bath for my entire body. I went numb all over, just like when we would do the whirlpool ice-bath after track practice. Except for track it was just my legs. Seriously, I could see my breath forming clouds. It was frigid. After that, the other 3 guys didn't take showers that morning haha.

Moving went well, the ward mission leader came and helped us take stuff up. The apartment people hired some guys to take the fridge and washing machine up and install them, so basically everything is the same except the apartment is so new and clean! The layout is exactly backwards from our old apartment, so that has been a little weird. Also, our desks are still downstairs...they are too big to fit through the doorway without taking them apart so we can't really move them on our own. We have just been doing studies sitting on the floor this week.

Finally, the baptism! It went so well!! The night before, a bunch of members were at the church so we had a joint lesson with 4 members and Ryouma. We had a little testimony meeting kind of thing and it was so good! We were so busy that night that we didn't end up having time for dinner, but one of the members who taught with us brought us food! Another little dinner miracle. At the baptism, I was a little stressed out to be honest. That morning Ebina Kyoudai asked if I could play the organ for the baptism, He showed me the songs I was playing on the organ and one of them doesn't exist in he English hymnbook--I had never seen it before in my life until like 30 minutes before I was supposed to play it on the organ. So I was trying to fit in little bits of practice here and there while we were prepping everything else. He also asked the 6 missionaries in our district to do a musical number. We had decided to sing I Need Thee Every Hour. We were practicing that morning and one of the Shimai was way sick and her voice was gone--but we wanted all 4 parts and there were only 2 sisters, so I ended up singing alto and she sang tenor haha. I was so preoccupied with all the music stuff, trying to figure out how/where I would change, and trying to memorize the baptism words in Japanese, that I totally forgot he had asked me and Murakami Choro to introduce Ryoma Kyoudai to the branch over the pulpit. I remembered when he invited us and Ryouma up to the stand. I said a little bit about him but quickly realized that I did not have the necessary vocabulary to do an adequate introduction, and Murakami Choro still didn't know him super well. So after the first awkward 30 seconds of me stumbling through a brief introduction, I told everyone that we wanted to do an   interview type of thing and we opened the floor for questions about Ryouma. I started off by asking where he would pick to travel if he could go anywhere in the world. Then the branch participated really well, and we had a fun time listening to his answers.

So that part ended up way good, and my organ playing wasn't terrible, the musical number went well, and I said all the baptism words right! The ZLs told me horror stories of missionaries having to repeat it 10 times before getting everything right. But luckily we only had to dunk him once! It was such a cool experience though. Right after, I kneeled down in my make-shift changing room in my soaking wet clothes and said a prayer of thanks that everything went so well.

Overall, I was just so overwhelmed by how much the Lord really loves us, and how perfect His plan is. As Ryouma bore his testimony at the end, it really hit me how little I did. He mentioned some things that I said during lessons that I had forgotten about--things that I had said just in passing, but were things that he needed to hear or things that had a profound effect on him. Things that the spirit said, through me. I don't have what it takes to convert someone--not even close. I don't even have the capacity to tell the barber how I want my hair cut. But the Lord knows exactly what each of His children need, and I am just lucky that I get to have a front-row seat to see the Spirit converting Ryouma. This work is real! It was also comforting to me to reaffirm in my mind that I do have what it takes to be a successful missionary--because the Lord does all the work! Alma 26:11-12 became real to me that day.

God lives. He loves us. He has a perfect plan for our eternal happiness. I know it. I am so grateful to be able to a part of his marvelous work!

I love you so much, thanks for all you do and all you sacrifice for us!

XoxoxoxoxOoxXoOooxoxoXxooOoxXoOoooOxxXxoOoOooxXoOoxXooxoxoxoxo
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett

Highlight of the week! All 3 of my eggs were twins!

The beginning of the snow

The Branch--the ones who came to the baptism

 Also there was a baptism:

November 7, 2016--Gengo Immersion

Gengo immersion has had mixed kekka. It's muzukashii because it doesn't really feel like I'm learning a whole lot very quickly, but I probably am. Like any kind of growth I guess, it's just hard to see it happen little by little. But I have been learning some useful phrases that Murakami Choro uses a lot, so that has been good. On the other hand, I still feel like I don't know him super well as a person. He doesn't really like English, usually doesn't use his language study time, which means our conversations are usually 100% Japanese. Which, again, is good for my language but not necessarily good for our relationship. Not that we have a bad relationship, just that it is taking a lot longer to get to know him that it did with an English-speaking companion.

The food is pretty much what I expected--on a day-to-day basis we don't eat anything too weird. Lots of rice, and stir fry, and chicken. Lots of curry too. I was definitely shocked the first time I went to a grocery store. There is so much crazy stuff. But as far as what we actually eat in the apartment, most of it is pretty normal.

Things with R are going so well! He had his baptismal interview yesterday and he passed! So we are good for this week on Saturday!!  We had a scare last Saturday though--apparently he had a pack of cigarettes in his pocket during our lesson (I didn't see them but Murakami Choro and Ebina Kyoudai both said they saw them), so after we were worried that he either didn't understand or just wasn't keeping the word of wisdom. Since neither of them wanted to draw attention to it during the lesson, we decided Sunday morning we would go over the word of wisdom again. Our lesson Sunday morning ended up starting 30 minutes late, so we were hurrying to get done before church started. It turned out that he was totally fine, I guess he carried around a pack of cigarettes after
work so that when people offered him a cigarette he could just say no because he already has some. So we talked a little bit about how it's good to let other people know what your standards are, and that people will respect them if you are firm in your beliefs. So that was a huge relief!!

After that, we had to rush to get him in an interview with the ZLs, and then decided on a time for the baptism with the branch president probably 10 minutes before sacrament meeting started. But he announced it in Sacrament meeting, so we should have a good turnout with the branch members, and everything is looking good for this Saturday!!

We visited T Kyoudai again, and we invited him to attend R's baptism. I was thinking that we really need him to come, because it would remind him of his own baptism and also help him meet the branch, so it could be a huge help in re-activating him. I had an idea to invite him to give a short talk at the baptismal service, to make sure that he comes, and also so that he feels like we need him, and knows we trust him. So we extended the invitation and at first he said that he wasnt sure if he was a good enough person, but we reassured him of our confidence in him and he said that if he could make it, he would do it. So I thought that was a good idea, but the branch mission leader was a little alarmed, saying that T Kyoudai hasn't been to church a single time since he moved to Aomori, and he's never met T Kyoudai before, and neither has R, and he doesn't want him to make R's baptism less spiritual! So that kind of made me second guess myself, made me wonder if it was a mistake to invite him to give a talk? But I feel like if we want him to become active, we need to not treat him like a liability, and emphasize that the branch needs him, rather than just the other way around. But at the same time, the branch mission leader is kind of in charge of the baptismal service and I probably should have cleared the idea by him first... So I'm not totally sure what will happen there, but we will probably end up taking Ebina Kyoudai (the branch mission leader) to meet T and they can talk with each other about how to make sure that R's baptism is a spiritual experience.

We also had zone conference this week which meant I got to go on splits with Nathan Choro! That's always a fun time. I love hanging out with him. Unfortunately, Livermore Choro's is no longer companions with a DL so he didn't get to come on the non-DL splits during the DL meeting.

Today we went to a fresh fish market called Nokkedon! The fish is so fresh, and it's all raw. It's set up so you can try a bunch of different fishes. Some of the fish are so fresh, they are still alive until you order them. When you order it, they grab it out of the tank it's swimming in, cut it up, and put it on some rice. So fresh!! I tried not to think about it too hard. I tried some whale and octopus, whale is actually not super good. And octopus us good but only if it's in really small pieces because it's impossible to chew. Right after the fresh fish market we went to an aquarium (I know, I know...) and it was way fun. It was our district p-day so it was with all 6 missionaries. We saw sea turtles and dolphins and penguins and basically every fish from Finding Nemo.

So that's been my week! Sounds like you have had an exciting week too! So glad Grayson bore his testimony, that's way cool! He is really growing up too fast. And glad you had a fun time playing ultimate and watching Taylor beat the old man at the half marathon!

Thanks for the email, I love you!!!
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett

nokkedon!

nokkedon!

from the Halloween party last week! Its a little blurry,
but i dressed up as a missionary wearing a wig

this was a special meal I made called "use the very last scraps of
whatever type of food is left in our apartment the day before grocery
shopping"-stir fry. It actually wasnt bad.

Zone Training Meeting

Oct 31, 2016--Happy Halloween!

Monday, we dropped off Hancock Choro at the Eki, and became a threesome for that evening. We had FHE with a member and he made us a super nice dinner, he made us sashimi and some pasta stuff, it was so nice. And he gave us a thing of ice cream to take home! 本当のきせきですね。Tuesday morning, we dropped off Hawkley Choro and me and Murai Choro became comps, we basically just did finding all day. Talked to lots of people, but nothing too special happened. In the evening we were able to visit T Kyoudai, things are looking good with him! Mostly because he is answering the door now haha. We mostly just talked about his life/did BRT then shared a scripture and invited him to read every day. He hasn't been doing that lately, but he re-committed.

Then that night we picked up the two new Elders from the Eki! We walked back in the rain and I had a chance to talk with Murakami Choro for a bit. He is 26, and he went to a technical school to be a car mechanic before his mission. He is a little on the quieter side normally, but is totally fearless on the street. I was expecting (from what President Smith told me) for him to be shy and timid, but he's definitely not at all. Or at least doesn't show it. He is really good at talking to people on the street and making them feel comfortable. On Wednesday,  finding went really well. The next day, however, when we met with a new investigator we had met our lesson was just so bad. It wasn't planned well and he wasn't super engaged and it went really long and at the end he was just not really interested. I think that part of it was that from the beginning, he was mostly being polite rather than actually being really interested, but if we had an opportunity to get him interested then we definitely botched it. It is so much harder to take cues from each other and teach in unity. I think part of it is because I understood Hancock Choro's Japanese during lessons, while I'm still picking out bits and pieces of Murakami Choro's, but I'm also realizing that I understood Hancock Choro and his personality much better. I didn't realize how much of a difference that actually makes in teaching until now. So that is something we are working on. We can communicate well enough
to plan out the day and stuff, but there's still definitely a barrier there. As far as him being timid or shy though, that's not really a problem. If anything, it's the opposite, that he is independent and feels like he doesn't need a gaijin accompanying him around and trying to help. So we're working on that too haha. Other than that, there are just a few issues with getting to bed on time, starting studies on time, sending texts without telling the other person, just kind of little things that are still really important. It's just different because with Hancock Choro, exact obedience was never even a question. We just did it, and when we had things to fix, we would talk about it and fix it. But now I feel like I have to hold myself accountable, rather than my doryo holding me accountable, so it's been kind of a test for me. Like at 7:59, when my comp is in the shower, no one except the Lord would know if I started
personal study on time or if I decided to have a 2nd breakfast instead. But just having that option has made me realize that I really do want to be exactly obedient, and it gives me an opportunity to really show the Lord my faith. It helps me be more joyful about following the rules as well. Anyway, so we have things to work on as a companionship, but it has been a good learning experience so far! I have been loving it and loving him!

We also had a Halloween party this week, and it went really well! Lots of people came, we had a good time. Mostly Eikaiwa students and branch members. We had fun scaring people at one little game. Then we bobbed
for apples and everyone enjoyed watching the Elders do it haha. (((By the way--Aomori apples are so delicious. It's not like the Georgia peaches or the Utah mormons where people think they're special but they're really just normal. It's like idaho potatoes--people know they're special because they actually are amazing. They're huge too. I bought an enormous apple for ¥220 the other day and it was worth every yen. And know that they are really getting in season members keep giving us apples and it's just amazing))) I also made good friends with the 8-year-old son of one of the Eikaiwa PIs, he dressed up as a ninja. We played a lot of the games together and we are buds now. I think there are some good Eikaiwa PIs right now, lately some new people have been coming so hopefully we will be able to slowly get their interest in the gospel piqued.

On Sunday church was good. I played the organ and I could barely hear myself for some reason. Something was different with all the speakers or something--I guess I was plenty loud in the congregation, but there was no sound up front. Which made it much harder to play, I had to rely on my eyes instead of ears to check for mistakes. I think it went well though.

We visited J Kyoudai in the afternoon, he was sick but we were able to share a little message from the doorstep. He is doing well, and has been reading every day! He still has the goal to go through the temple
eventually.

In the evening, we had the lesson with R! He wasn't able to come to our appointment Saturday night, so this was his first lesson with Murakami Choro. It went really well, we spent most of the time just answering his questions. He asked us about the difference between opening and closing prayers in our lessons (why we kneel for the closing prayer but not for the opening prayer), which I hadn't even thought about that before but I guess we have always done sitting prayers to open and kneeling to close. It's so good that he is so curious though! You can tell he is observant and really wants to learn. He had some other questions about the priesthood and the temple and baptisms for the dead and stuff. We directed him to some good places in the Gospel Library app so I think he will have a hay-day exploring that. We asked him why he wanted to baptized, and he said the biggest things were because he wants to become a church member and he wants the aid of the Holy Ghost in learning the Gospel. He actually said that. He wants to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost so it can help him learn and absorb the truths of the Gospel. He definitely understands the Spirit better than I did when I received the Gift of the Holy Ghost haha. Sometimes I'm surprised how fast and how deep he is picking everything up, it's awesome. Such a stellar guy.

So that's been my week! A lot has happened, mostly it's all been good :)

Love you!
XOXOXooxoXOXoxoxoxOXOXoxoxxXOoXoxoOOxXoX
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett


My most magnificent, marvelous mamasama,

Hey sorry I just sent off my write-up of the week and then I got this! But to answer your questions...

I am staying warm! I broke out the scarf yesterday for the first time. Usually I have a sweater over my shirt and a jacket/rain coat over the sweater and that keeps me plenty warm. Haven't broken out the big winter coat yet but probably soon. It has been super rainy, and there is a little bit of frost at night, so I'm sure the snow will be coming
soon. As of now, still just rain though.

Have fun tomorrow for Halloween! We told everyone at Eikaiwa about Halloween in America, and they were pretty surprised. They celebrate Halloween here by having costume parties and stuff, but they were all shocked that the kids in America just go around to tons of random houses and get candy from everyone.

Peanut butter and jelly huh?? Was that inspired by the inside-out song?

Lots of changes in the stake...feels like it wasn't that long ago when the Settler's bridge ward was first formed. Exciting though!

Brent Wissenbach!! Enagaged!! What a stud. Make sure and tell Taylor to tell him that I said congrats, and that he is a stud.

Thanks for everything!!!

Love,
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett

Last night with Hancock Choro

October 24, 2016--Transfer 3!

We are writing in the morning so I haven't read your emails yet! We are sending them in the afternoon, I don't know if I'll have time to read or if I'll only have time to send my drafts.

Anyway...New transfers start today! Hancock Choro is leaving me. I'll sure miss that guy. But I'm excited for this next transfer. I am staying in Aomori and Murakami Choro will be my new comp! I haven't met him yet but he is Nihonjin and has been out for around 20 months I think. Pres. Smith said it will be a very unique opportunity because he wasn't always active growing up, so he will benefit from my testimony and I will benefit from his Japanese. Exciting times ahead :)

So you're probably wondering about R's baptism...we have good news and slightly less good news. The slightly less good news is that it didn't happen. But the good news is that it will! We are now planning on November 12th. I hate to keep pushing it back (this is now his 3rd date) but now we know what we need to do in order to make sure that date happens, and it won't be rushed like it would've been this weekend.

So he is all prepared for baptism in terms of the commandments, the only thing holding him back was that he had only come to church one time (it's supposed to be at least 3 times). We called President Smith and he said it is up to us--that we should not worry so much about the number of times he has come in the past, that we need to focus on his personal commitment and use our judgment to gauge his readiness. But we kind of had some resistance from a zone leader who didn't believe he was ready this week, and then we we were having district conference in Misawa so he wouldn't receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for another week, and since everything was last minute it would've been hard to invite members and plan the service. 

So, long story short, we decided that we will wait a couple weeks so he can attend church and we can make sure that he's ready and we're not rushing into it. He's doing so well, he asks us questions about his Book of Mormon reading--like who the Lamb of God is, if the Spirit of the Lord is different than the Holy Ghost, stuff like that. Shows that he is reading with a sincere intent to learn, and he feels comfortable enough to ask us questions.

We did a mission-wide fast this week! It was my first 24 hour fast, it was a cool experience. On Wednesday, all the missionaries across the mission said a district prayer at the same time, for the Lord to pour out His spirit on this people. Then we were each able to end our fast with individual prayers, and I felt closer to God during that prayer than I ever have before. I know He is here helping us and guiding this work! I am trying to work harder to be a more consecrated missionary, and I know He will help me and magnify my efforts. I'm excited to see things in this mission improve!

We went to sushi as a district to end the fast, and it was so fun! We went to one of those places where you order it plate by plate and it comes on a little conveyor belt. I tried some shrimp, salmon, octopus, eel, and some other random fishes. They also had one with steak so I tried that. And they had ice cream so you know I got some of that!! And I tried rice-flavored soda. It was weird. But all the sushi was delicious, I ate soooo much. It seems so cheap when you order it one by one but it really adds up haha. It was ¥100 per plate, each plate had 2 pieces of sushi, and I spent about ¥2300 so you can do the math and figure out how much sushi I ate ;)

We went down to Misawa to watch district conference, with our area seventy presiding. On the way there, Murase Kaicho was already giving 4 people a ride (including us) so his car was full. But a member came to the church and did a joint lesson with us, then he said he could come to Misawa if he could get a ride! We decided it was worth it so we rode there for an hour and a half with 3 people in 2 seats haha. Hancock Choro was like halfway on my lap, and the member kept falling asleep and leaning his head over on Hancock Choro's face on accident haha. It was a very funny car ride. I was pleasantly surprised that I was still able to walk when we arrived.

The conference was god, I am getting better at understanding church talks. Still hard through. IT was way fun to see my doki again though! Nathan Choro is doing so well! We'll still be in the same zone so hopefully we'll be able to do splits again after Zone Training meetings. Love that guy.

So that's been my week! Looking forward to an exciting transfer ahead :)

Love you!

パスケット長老

Elder Paskett

My first Japanese written testimony! Gave this Book of Mormon out on
Tuesday to a girl who is now an investigator for the shimai!