Desho?! TIME IS FLYING! This transfer particularly
is going soooo fast. The last 5 days have been like a rocket. I
mean weeks. I literally just wrote days and meant to write weeks.
That was a bonafide... what do you call it, Freudian slip...?
Anyway, every week I've been in Japan has been accelerating and
getting faster. But so much continues to happen. This week there
were a few disappointments, but nothing beats the good!
So. Fuji disappeared.
Dang it.
We've called and called and texted and texted and his phone
seems very much dead. He must've either gotten a new number or just
hasn't been using it for a week, but he also got a new job on the day we last
met him, so we know he's probably really busy. But we're really bummed
that he just disappeared. Elder Morris and I were on splits yesterday and
we prayed to be able to find him like 6 times and road all over. We met a
lot of really nice people out in the rain, but no sign of Fuji yet. A
little frustrated, especially because of how good he was doing. Please
pray for him. You and dada, and anyone else who's reading this email!
Relationships with the youth have been getting soooo good!
Elder Goldsberry (a missionary in our zone,) gave an excellent training in a
meeting on working with young ward members, and we've been applying it.
One thing in particular is just actually being their friends like we were back
home with our quorums. It's easy to fall into the trap of being a smily
missionary who asks 「元気ですか？最近どうですか？部活楽しいですか？OK、じゃまたね〜。」("Hey, how are you? How's life been?
Having fun at school? I'm glad. Ok, see you later!") We've
just realized that that's your natural instinct, but it's so unnatural. We've
been avoiding saying generic things, and have tried a little more joking,
playing around, friendly shoving— suddenly the youth are actually starting to
like us!! We're gonna go get sushi this week with 3 of them!
Just for the record, working with the youth is becoming critical
in Japan. The church is struggling in a few areas here, and helping these
young saints find joy in the kingdom of God has become a really big focus of
our mission. They are the future of the church. Honestly, it's one
of my favorite kinds of missionary work because it's literally just making cool
new friends and having fun together so that they can see the good in the gospel
and realize why they would want to serve missions themselves.
President Dorff's son Ren has become a particularly good friend
of mine, I've started calling him my "Japanese brother." He's way
funny and I could see us hanging out in high school! The other two are Yu
kun and Neito kun. They're brothers and they’re SO funny! I love
them so much. We have lots of fun together at events and church and
stuff. I always tease Neito: he's just 15 and we had a lesson on dating
in Sunday school, so we made sure to give him a hard time ;) Another kid's name
is Tomoru-- he loves Harry Potter and always wears the same Gryffindor tie to
church. He is SO funny. Reminds me of Max Liechty. Lastly but
not leastly is Ryou kun. He's way cool like Chris Stoddard. Just
the cool cat figure, but him and Ren seem to get on really well, so we're all
buds. Anyway, they are becoming like my own Quorum; it's been great!!
 |
| This pic is visiting Yu and Neito at their house with their AMAZING mother and adorable lil' sister Rara Chan. |
We had a matsuri indoors which was so fun! Spent the whole
time talking to TONS of members cuz this ward is huge, but I haven't taken many
pictures recently. Sorry, I need to repent and get better at that!
This week was a lot more just like, raw information than fun stories, I'm sorry
about that. I'll be better next week....
I'm jealous you got to hang out with Mark! I'm praying that
he'll go to Idaho too!!! That would seriously be the best EVER to have
'em so close. Oh, that's so exciting that Carson's married now!! He's
another hero of mine. I know for a fact that I know his wife, I just
forgot like, what classes we had together and such... oops. :P
I'm sorry to hear about Uncle John. (Shauna’s Uncle John,
who also served his mission in Japan, passed away last week.) Is everyone doing ok? I hope Grandma and
Grandpa are doing well. It's been raining lots here, maybe Japan is
crying for them.
Can't wait to hear more from you and I'll be sure to write next
week! Love you all!!
Elder Stout :D
スタウト長老 ^o^
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