Sneaky Kids.

Rebekah (the daughter-in-law formerly known as The Zombie Bride) and Nathan surprised us by showing up a day early.  We now have 4 full weeks of them to look forward to.  Four. Full. Weeks.  Many thanks to Taylor for giving them a working vehicle.  Let the games begin.

In other news, Andrew gets home one week from today.  In fact, by this time next week, we should be driving home from the airport (if he makes it through customs in a timely manner).

Our Man in Japan

Dear family,


I'm sorry to hear that you're sick Dad, I hope you get better soon.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to do email next week because the place is closed next Monday. We'll see.

As far as things that happened this past week go. Yes I did register for classes, I need to register for a few more but I'll probably figure that out when I get home. I registered for the important ones already.

I really don't know what I feel like writing right now. Hmmm... have you gone to the new www.mormon.org?

Oh yeah, my bike is having trouble again... I'll see if I can grab a random old wheel from the mission office tomorrow. If not I'll just throw my bike away on Wednesday.

Love,
Elder West

Our Man in Japan

Dear Family,

It sounds like you're still all doing well. I'm glad to hear that.

This past week we had an all mission conference with the 30+ missionaries who came from the Hiroshima mission. Everyone got along great and it was pretty good. Unfortunately that's probably the last time I'll see most of them considering I go home in August.

There's not really much to write about this week. On Tuesday or Wednesday I should be registering for classes, hopefully that goes well.

Love,

Elder Andrew West.

Our Man in Japan

Dear family,

Sorry about not sending any email last week. We wanted to but when we showed up at our email place it was just randomnly taking a day off.

So there were transfers. I'm still in Miki, but my new companion is Elder Cannon from Payson, Utah. He's a nice guy, we're getting along great.

As far as things that have happened go... After English Class we played the telephone game to teach about the Great Apostasy. It worked out pretty well. We did 2 sentences in English and 2 in sentences in Japanese.

We are children of a Heavenly Father.
We are became big people.

Jesus Christ is our Savior, the Son of God.
Jesus Christ is our Savior/Rescuer.

We are spirit sons and daughters of God.
We are spirit.

Through prayer we can communicate with God.
By the prayer of God our bodies get better.

I thought it worked out pretty well and illustrated how some things were completely lost and parts of others were changed.

Well things are going well here. I really feel good about things.

Love,
Elder West

PS. Sorry I had to send that picture, I found it trying to crawl into my closet...

Our Man in Japan

Dear family,

Happy Father's Day. I thought I had missed it, but it's still Father's Day over there for you.

I found a Dr.Seuss tree as well as a Ramen bus. The first one to figure out what the other picture is gets a cookie.

Yesterday we went to Stake Conference. This time it was one of the broadcasts from Salt Lake to all of Japan. Before they started the broadcast they mentioned there was a room to watch it in English. Figuring I'd rather here it direct without a translation in English we went to that room. Unfortunately it was full and we missed most of the first talk before they got another room set up. Elder Evans, the former North Asia Area President, was one of the speakers. He spoke in Japanese so we ended up hearing a translation to English... He spoke about the importance of deciding to serve a mission and shared some personal experiences. He also showed a video of a group of Japanese missionaries in the MTC right now. It was pretty interesting. One of the Japanese Elders said 'The best thing about the cafeteria is that you can drink all you want... And you can eat all you want... And you eat all the ice cream you want on Sunday and Wednesday. I really like ice cream. I love ice cream.' I think that made everyone laugh.

This morning I was writing down the words to the hymn 'Love at Home' in my planner so I could memorize it. I was just about done when I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye on my desk. I dismissed it but imagined how bad it would be if there were a cockroach on my desk... A moment later a cockroach skirted out from under my hymn book and down the side of my desk.. It got out of my sight and I couldn't find it. After study I cleaned my whole desk out and wiped it all down but didn't find it. Still I imagine it's less likely to come back to a clean desk than one that's covered with dust bunnies along the back.

I went on an exchange to Awaji, the island in our mission, again. When we got there on the way to the apartment I saw a big snake crawl into some bushes by the sidewalk, I got the feeling it wasn't a friendly snake. This time I was with Elder Matsuoka, a Japanese Elder. We had a pretty good exchange together and were able to see some success. They're doing well down there.

Well I hope you have a great week,

Elder Andrew West.

Our Man in Japan

Dear Family,

I hope things are going well for all of you. This past week was pretty good. The main thing of note was probably Lu's baptism. I think I mentioned him in my last email but he's a 25 year-old from Vietnam. He's been in Japan for a year and a half and has another year and a half to go. We started teaching him a little after I got here around May 22 and he's come to church every week since, twice in the rain. Fortunately we were able to find a Vietnamese Book of Mormon in our apartment and an old 1980 Vietnamese Gospel Principles book in the church library. He's really doing well and it's been great meeting with him. I look forward to continuing to meet with him from now on. He's pretty Tech-savy so I'll probably keep in touch with him on skype or messenger after going home.

Here's a simple translation of his testimony after being baptized. He's really trying hard with Japanese.

`Hello everyone. I've been in Japan for 1 year and 4 months. I still don't understand much Japanese so if I mess up please let me know.
I'm happy that everyone came here today. Today is the day I received baptism.
I'm very happy because through baptism my past sins have been forgiven by God.
Now I have a new life again. So following in God's way and so so I don't waste the things everyone has taught me from now on I'm going to do a lot of good things. I will follow the Lord's commandments.
(He read the 10 commandments here)
Besides these there's also some other various things but I'm going to do my best.
Next so everyone knows a little about me I'd like to introduce myself. I came to Japan last year on February 19th. I'm working here with the goal of helping my family and my future. Now I have another family, that family is all of you. I'm really happy.
I have 3 years to work here in Japan. After 1 year and 8 months I go back home. When I first came to Japan and lived in Kobe this lifestyle and environment was very interesting, big roads and lots of cars with beautiful scenery and good weather. There's lot's of places I want to visit.
However, after living here for a year I wanted to return to Vietnam but I had to continue working. But now I've gotten used to it and don't want to go home(early). So now with my remaining days here I'll work, study, I'll especially study Japanese, and want to talk with everyone more.
I want everyone to teach me. Please.
I say and testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.`

He's a wonderful person.

As far as going to Hiroshima goes, the chances are slim. I probably won't transfer again.

Elder West

PS Tell Jordan I'd be happy to room with him.

Our Man in Japan

Dear family,

Sorry about forgetting to send my email last week. I wrote it and then saved it in case I thought of anything else to write before getting off, and well...

These past couple weeks we've been having a lot of lessons with investigators and it's been good. I really feel like the Lord continues to bless us. It's not necessarily that we're working a lot harder than before, because the mission has been working hard the whole time I've been out here. But the Lord blesses us more and more as we prepare and increase our faith so we can receive his blessings and guidance.

I mentioned we've been working with a Vietnamese guy these past few weeks. Right now the baptismal service is scheduled for this Saturday at 3 PM. We're not quite done teaching him all the lessons, but I think everything will work out in time. On Saturday we taught him about tithing and the Word of Wisdom, mostly out of an old Gospel Principles book. We had him list up the things we're told not to partake of on the whiteboard and asked him if he had any difficulties with any of them. He said he used to drink alcohol at parties with friends before coming to Japan, but he's stopped that. He doesn't like the taste of coffee. Tea makes him sleepy. And he fully understands the dangers of misusing medicine or illegal drugs.

Yesterday my companion almost got hit by a car. We were riding our bikes along and went behind a car that was sticking out a little without the driver looking in our direction. My companion remarked on how it's dangerous to go in front of cars like that. Less than a minute later we came across another car where the driver wasn't looking in our direction. We both noticed it but... anyways the driver only bumped my companion a little bit, he didn't fall down fortunately. The lady driving was really surprised and worried but my companion was fine so after accepting a couple little bandaids I gave her a little flyer for our English class, maybe she'll come. I know I've sent one of those flyers home before, but I really like them because they introduce who we are, what we're doing, and a little bit about our message. I think the Spirit probably warned us through my companion to be careful but we didn't really think about it.

You asked how many people attend the branch here in Miki, I think it's around 20. If we bring some people with us it goes up a lot.

Love,
Elder Andrew West