So, I really don't know what to say. I kinda feel sick. I'm saying goodbye to Japan and finally going home.....however I don't really feel like I belong at home. It's a really scary thing.

Anyway, this last week I have been working hard as ever. I start getting excited about listening to music and being able to take my tie off....but I love working here in Japan. I don't want to lose this connection that I finally found with my mother country. I love these people and the culture and the language.

However, the one thing about this country that makes my heart hurt is the lack of Christmas.....mostly the lack of Christianity, but Christmas has always been the best time of the year for me. EVERYONE is happy. People in Japan just hate the cold and seem a little down. SO, it's a great time of year to be a missionary. We are going around and giving out Book of Mormon's as Christmas presents again and inviting people to try getting into the Christmas spirit. Haha, it's kinda fun. I kinda feel like Buddy the Elf. "Christmas is the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world!"

In other news, we have been working with our investigator T san. I know that mom said to stay away, but get this: we had a crazy miracle. We have been teaching her about God and church and how she can rely on God to overcome her trials. AND she quit her job. She says she wants to change her life and be a better person. Whatever her job was, she's done and wants to be better. The Branch knows her situation and how what kinda work she's been doing and we're going to try and help her get back on the road. She's had a pretty awful background.

Other than that, I had the most famous Ramen in all of Tamana.....and possibly all of Kyushu. It's a tiny little place run by a family and it's been around for YEARS. The Ramen stinks....like literally. It smells SOOO bad. I was shocked when I walked into the shop. Also, there is no menu. You get Ramen....or more Ramen. Pictures are against the rules. The Ramen recipe is a huge secret. It was like visiting the Queen of England....I didn'T know what was allowed and what wasn't.

Then they brought out the ramen. It was the most unreal experience of my life. You know the seen at the end of Ratatouille, where the Critic takes the first bite of his meal and the camera zooms into his eyes and he has the flashback of his childhood. Yeah, it was kinda like that. It was Way freaking good. I'm so blessed to have been able to eat Tamana ramen.

Well, I think that's it. I "Weekly planned" for when I go home. I already set goals and made plans for when I'm getting job and stuff like that. ;) I'm going to work my hardest and then see what happens when I get back. I'm so grateful for the support I've had on my mission. I didn't have the money really to pay for this experience and I'm so grateful that I had such wonderful parents to help me out. Thank you for every single letter and email throughout it all. All the packages. I know mom spent a lot of money and time on each one. I love you all and I'll see you in a few days.

Love,

Elder Low

 

 

SO, I will only email you guys one last time after this....It's a little bit crazy. I'm getting really scared. Haha, It's a little bit ridiculous. I had a good week though.

This last Saturday, the Omuta branch went to the Fukuoka temple so I had the opportunity to go with them. It was my first time going to the temple to do a session in Fukuoka. It was SO great. I was so happy and it was also the first time for me to go to the temple with the new changes. I had so much dendo fire after that. AND the Fukuoka temple is beautiful. I just love the temple. Also, while I was there, I ran into Nakaima Kaicho. He's the Stake President of the Okinawa stake. I was so excited to see him. He told me all about Naha and how things are. He's wonderful and it was great to get to work with him there.

This last week, we found a sweet couple to teach. The K couple. They brought us into their house and tried to give us tea and coffee. It was a great teaching opportunity and they are going to let us come back. They wouldn't stop feeding us. Haha, they gave us just about everything they could find to feed us. They were very sweet.

T san is kinda sick. It looks like we can't visit her. Maybe we'll drop off some fruit for her family or something. She just doesn't have any hope for anything and because of that she won't try anything. We're really just trying to lift her up now. We'll see how it goes.

Other than that, I'm still just going as hard as I can. I'm getting so so tired and temptation tells me that I can't really accomplish anything in two weeks, but I'm still going as hard as I can. Haha, I didn't think that the end would be this rough. I still love it though. I love sharing this Gospel and I love representing my Savior here in Japan. I'll be emailing on Tuesday next week so that will be my last email from here.

Ahhhh. that's so sad.

Anyway, I'll make every second count!

Love you all,

Elder Low

We had a really busy week. Lots of work and lots of great things going on.

Our Investigator, T san, is probably our biggest focus right now. We have been really working to meet her husband or to get her to Church. This week, the goal was to get to Church. She almost committed, but some things came up. It turns out that she has some sort of Anxiety and Depression and she has attacks when she's around lots of people. We assured her that she had nothing to worry about and that the people at church were very kind and nice. Apparently these attacks come out A LOT. She says that she would feel so bad if she had one at Church. That's also the reason she's always home. They don't happen when she's staying at home, but apparently shopping is even difficult for her. We aren't quite sure what we are going to do with her. The Next goal is find a time to meet her Husband. I think if a member drives us home after visiting her, we can meet her husband.

Also, we found some good people to meet with this week so we're getting busy with lessons again. I love it that way. It's way better than being told off.

This week, we also had a zone conference. It went really well. Kaicho asked all the missionaries who were dying to bear their testimonies. It was really awful. I got really emotional and cried in front of the whole zone. It was super embarrassing. It just sunk in that I only have a little bit more time to do this great work here in Japan. I love these people so much and I love this mission.

At Zone Conference

After zone conference, I had an interview with Kaicho. He gave me and the others in my district a special assignment to go out of our areas to go find a new area to open up. He gave us some cities that we have to go find and work in. He said, "I have to get this done before you go home. This is why I sent you here". I'm so grateful that Kaicho trusts me. It's kinda scary though. We'll be working out in the middle of nowhere with no members. Haha, I get to be a pioneer for Kumamoto stake. Haha, I feel pretty cool. It's also a good way to keep me from going trunky. So that's great.

Anyway, I love being a missionary. I keep meeting these people and It's just amazing to be the person to introduce the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

Being a missionary is the best job in the world. I can't believe how I didn't understand that before I came. I didn't realize at all what it would be. I didn't think it would be this kind of work. Everyone says that it is fun. That's not really a good word. There are times when it is "fun", but that's not the best part of being a missionary. It's just the happiest work. I hope the young men in the 8th ward (or whatever the heck it's called now) know that this is not worth missing out on. I didn't realize how blessed I would be for coming out here.

I love you all and I know this Church is true!

Love,

Elder Low

So, I really don't have much to report this week. It was transfer week and I obviously stayed. Dying here in Tamana. Anyway, the reason I don't have much to report is because I got sick with bronchitis.  I've been out since Wednesday. So, I literally sat in the apartment all week.  Wednesday night Eikaiwa was brutal. I thought I was going to collapse. Then we went home and took my temperature and I was at 102 degrees. The Asthma loves a good bronchitis so I feel like I've been running since Wednesday. I still pray that one day I'll outgrow my asthma. I had to whip out the nebulizer two or three times. I thought I was going to pass out.....and my roommates thought I was going to die. Haha, I feel bad. I finally had the energy to get up yesterday and I went to church. Turns out that everyone in the branch already knew I was sick. Word spread fast. People brought me soup and ice cream and stuff. It was really sweet.

Now, I'm doing fine. Just a little cough. My energy is back and I'm ready to get back to work.

Oh! I forgot to tell you. The mission president was called down to our stake to give a talk at Stake Conference next week. The stake president really wants to get everyone excited about Dendo. I got a call from the Stake President and he said that he wanted a missionary to raise everyone's dendo fire and the Mission President had recommended me. So, now I have to give a talk at Stake Conference for everyone in the Kumamoto stake. I'm awful at speaking in front of people in Japanese. I'm pretty nervous, but I guess we'll see how it goes. I've been preparing a lot.

Anyway, that's really all I've got. I'm sorry. It's been a pretty awful week, but I haven't had a lot of awful weeks, so I guess I had to have them sometime. Time to get back down to business this week. I'm so pumped.

Love you all,

Elder Randy Kazuhiro Low

Another busy week this week. We had the Typhoon on Monday so our week took a huge toll. We had lots of people we were supposed to meet with on Monday and Tuesday....but A lot of them bailed which was a huge disappointment. We are working hard though. This week is transfer week. It's not super exciting for me because this is my last one! It's kinda crazy. This is my last stretch. Everyone thinks I'm going to get trunky. I'm still giving it all I've got though. However, this last Sunday in Ward Council we planned for the Christmas party. I realized that everything we were talking about will take place after I've returned. I felt really sick. I love this country and these people so much and I'm scared to go back to the U.S.

Bikes on the train. I do this every day.

Anyway, we finally have a progressing investigator. Mori is now Progressing.....kinda weird though. She's about 60 years old and at our last lesson she came to the door in a skirt that was too short for ANYONE. It was way gross. She has some sort of social disorder, but she is very sweet and she understands well. She's reading the BOM and we've taught her a lot.

 

Ooooh....cool thing this week. I got yelled at again. Way hard. That's not the first time that has happened...

 

but I also got punched in the face.......that is the first time that has happened. The reason was ridiculous though. I rang the door bell and the introduced myself as "Low".....I always do that. Instantly he started yelling at me because I didn't tell him where I was from first. Then I told him that I was from America and he started yelling at me that I didn't need to tell him where I was from because he saw my name tag. I was so confused. He started yelling that I was worthless and garbage.....It was kinda hard to understand, but obviously I got the picture though. 

 

Then out of nowhere it nailed me. No worries though. Not any visible bruising. Jaw is kinda sore, but that's all.

 

It was a rough day, but it's all worth it. I am so grateful that the mission has taught me to stand firm in my beliefs no matter what. I love this gospel and I love sharing it.

 

 

 

That's all for this week, but I love you all. I miss you all. I'm going to kill it this last transfer. Going as hard as I can.

 

Love you

Elder Low

So, the reason I'm emailing today instead of yesterday is there was a Typhoon and we were all grounded yesterday. It's the worst. I get to study scriptures all day.....which is really nice, but every once in a while I'm like, "Shoot, this stuff is good! I gotta go tell someone about this book!" but we can't go out to Dendo. It's like having a bucket of waterballoons and not being allowed to go anywhere. I just want to nail something with this water balloon.

We got to watch Conference this weekend. It was wonderful....I know that's all old news to you guys at home, but I was so happy. It was the best. I love President Eyring So much. His talks were my favorites. Being stuck inside all day yesterday also allowed me to listen to most of the conference in Japanese. It was great study time. :)

This last week, we've been working with this lady named M san. Our first meeting with her was a couple weeks ago. She was a very quiet lady and we didn't think much of her. Then, when we visited last week, there was a sign on her door that told us that she couldn't make our appointment because she was going to the Hospital. So, we came again a couple days ago and she had been reading the Book of Mormon. She didn't understand it, but read a LOT. I was really grateful that she tried her best. We were able to talk with her about what she read and she understands it now. We are meeting her again tonight.

Other than that, we are still working really hard everyday. It's a very tiring area. It was even worse sitting all day in the apartment though. I just want to get to work. I was getting really antsy yesterday.

 

 

Anyway, I love being a missionary. It's the best job ever. I love the people here. I finally feel like I can comfortably connect with people in Japanese.  I regret not studying it before the mission though. I want to study it after the mission though. I love this language and these people and I don't want to lose that connection. In the meantime, I'm going to do what my roommate Elder Tabuchi told me to do. Like Nephi did, we need to gain favor of the Tamanaites and invite them into the wilderness. So, we are working on gaining favor.

Some food

I love you all and I'll do better with pictures!

Elder Randy Kazuhiro Low

So, we are still working our socks off. Things seem to be getting better, but still slow. It takes a while to work up from zero. However.....kinda cool things happened this week. The Kumamoto zone leaders gave us a call and said that the stake wants to know what we are doing in Tamana. Apparently everyone is hearing about how we are doing and the stake leaders are REALLY impressed. We aren't really seeing any success yet though. We have found a TON of investigators, but none of them are progressing. They all live 30 minutes away from us. It's really hard to get them to church or to get members to help us out with lessons. Anyway, the stake was way impressed and have been asking how we've been working.

Our work has been going pretty well though. We're just trying to get people to know who the missionaries are. One cool experience we had this week happened a couple days ago. There was a bunch of kids playing soccer in a park. They started yelling "Hello" and "I feel happy". Usually when the kids see us, they yell any English they know. Anyway....I don't really know how it happened, but they started kicking their soccer ball at us. Then we were playing soccer in our suits with a bunch of children. It was only about ten minutes. However, when we went to go housing, we ran into a lot of the kids and they started telling their parents about how we were the gaijin that were playing soccer with them. Almost all the kid's parents listened to our message, because their children had already introduced us to them.

The people here are usually pretty stiff unless they know who we are. If they just see that we are Christians, they have no interest. But when they see that we are nice people, they are way kind.

Anyway, the work is going well. I don't really have much to say. We are still just chugging along. I get to see people experience the Spirit in them every day I go out. It is such a blessing. I love being a missionary. I miss you all, but I'm running out of time out here and I've gotta make this last stretch count.

I love you all,

Elder Low

Another hard working week in Tamana. It's such a hard area. I ride the train twice a day....it's kinda fun. I feel super Japanese. I do my best to talk to people on the train, but some people really don't want to talk. We taught one guy on the train yesterday who wouldn't shut up about how much he LOVES President Obama.....Haha, I don't think he knew what he was talking about. He was talking about how impressive it was that Obama was Black and was able to go from a slave to President. .....He might think that we still have slaves in the U.S......he was a little crazy. It was fun though.

The area is picking up, but because it's so far away from the Church, people don't want to come to Church. That is our biggest struggle right now. I think we'll have to just take a different approach on how we invite people. We have one investigator who looks like we could get him to Church. He's our strongest investigator right now....which isn't saying a lot right now, but he looks like he might progress.

We also had an open house at the Omuta branch yesterday. It was a blast. The members made a little lunch for non-members and we had a lot a fun videos about the church with music and stuff. I played the piano.....haha just a little song I made up. I re-arrange "A Child's Prayer". It went pretty well though. The High Counselor started crying and stood up and shared his testimony about how much he loved that song. He talked about the meaning of the first line. "Heavenly Father, are you really there?" It was a super powerful.

Anyway, that's pretty much my life right now. I go to Tamana everyday and we find all day. We are seeing great successes though. We are finding people and people are listening so I couldn't ask for anything more.

Things are going great. I love being a missionary and I love feeling the Spirit guiding us daily. Can't wait to report more to you next week. I love you all.

 

Elder Low

So, Elder Kikuchi and I are working SO hard. I come home so tired every single day. It's a good thing though. We have to carry our bikes in bike bags on to the train every day and then we can't come home for dinner. There is too much work to be done. However, we found a lot of cool people this week. We ONE lesson this week. Haha, it was THE first lesson that has been taught in our area.....baby steps. Things are picking up though. :)

We found a couple this week. They are Lutheran, so they have a good Christian background. They seemed really interested in the Book of Mormon. That was really good. They also gave us really expensive juice. I was happy.

We had English class and I was in charge of the Kid's English class. It was the cutest class. Nobody is older than 12 and they are all very energetic. We did body parts for the class. So, we sang "Head shoulders knees and toes" and played a lot of games. All the moms loved it. Apparently the last missionary who was here got angry easily so they were all super happy last week that there was a new teacher. Elder Tabuchi was so happy that he wants me to teach children's class every week.....Haha, it takes a lot of energy, but I guess I'll do my best.

I don't know what else to tell you. I really just go and work every single day. It's great though. We are super busy, but it's fun. For a lot of people, we are the first missionaries they have seen. It's great to represent the Savior everywhere we go. One of the investigators we found this week was by playing soccer with a bunch of kids in a park. We were finding and they started yelling English words at us so we went and talked to them. They were pretty cocky about soccer so we showed them our skills (haha, I don't have ANY soccer skills). They had so much fun and then their mom came out and asked us to come back to explain what kind of volunteer work we are doing......Haha, it was perfect.

Last thing, living with the other two Elders is the best thing ever!  Elder Nara has a book of 100 Donburi recipes.

He decided that it can be our countdown for when I go home. A new Donburi every single day. It's been so much fun! Cooking in this apartment is SO fun. :)

 

 

Anyway, I love you all. I love this work. It's hard right now, but things are picking up. I'll have more to report next week!

 

Love,

Elder Low 

P-day last week in Nago

At the Nago Aquarium

 

 

I left Naha. It was the hardest transfer I have ever had. The  ward came to the Church for Eikaiwa, because that was when I was leaving. I left with Elder Glover and Sister Sharp (She went home. Just finished her mission). I haven't had that hard of a goodbye since I left you all in Utah. Before Eikaiwa, I went to see Sunagawa Kyoudai (our blind member) and I thought that was hard. At the Eikaiwa, there were lots of tears. Everyone told me to come back to Naha. It was especially hard saying goodbye to the ward mission leader. He's been the best. Naha just became my home and I didn't want to leave. 

 

However, now I'm done with being a Zone Leader. I have a new "special assignment" from Kaicho. I'm in an area called Tamana. It's in Kumamoto, but I live in Omuta......which is in Fukuoka. In other words, I take a 45 minute train ride to my area everyday. There are 0 members that live in my area. I'm part of the Omuta branch, but I can't work with them a ton because MY area is so far away. The area was opened last transfer and nothing happened. Literally. Not one investigator. Kaicho wants me to pick it up. So far, we're doing good. We're finding investigators and stuff, but It's going to be hard getting people to church and stuff like that. Member present lessons will be almost impossible. It's going to be a challenge. However, this will likely be my last area. So, I don't intend to just "Find" every single day. I am going to do everything I can here. 

 

I'm living with Elder Nara and Elder Tabuchi. They don't speak English. And then my comp is Elder Kikuchi from Utah.  There isn't lots of English spoken here. It's fun. I hope I can learn lots of Japanese here.

 

SO, unfortunately, I don't really have anything to tell you all. So far, we've found 2 investigators. It's tough though. We'll see where it goes.

 

So, I hope I have lots to report on next week. I am working my butt off. I hit my bed hard everyday which is a good feeling. I love being a missionary and I'm not going to waste any time.

 

I love you all.

Elder Low 

Me and Elder Glover in downtown Naha

 

As far as this week, we were in the rain a lot. It was kinda rough, but we saw some good things happen. First, we went out to eat with the couple missionaries. We had the cleanest  apartment in the zone so they took us up on base to eat. It was way fun....but kinda crazy. The Military bases are pretty strict. I thought that it would be nice because everyone is American and we would fit in.....Haha, I was wrong. We weren't allowed to wear our nametags, but EVERYONE knew who we were. It was still nice though.

This week, we had a mission wide goal to have 200 non members in Sacrament meeting. It was a pretty huge goal because this mission has never broken 100. We got the whole zone pumped up and we all worked hard to achieve this goal. Elder Gordon and I were able to take C san and F san to church, as well as a couple older investigators. In the end, the mission was able to achieve the goal with 208 non members at church. It was a miracle. I'm sure Kaicho is having a party in the Honbu.

So, you remember how I told you about how C san is kinda interesting? So, he went to his Baptist church last week and broke his foot there. He thinks that it might have been God punishing him. Haha, so he's getting easier to meet. It's been great.

Today, our wonderful Ward mission leader is taking all the missionaries to the Aquarium. That one up in Nago! :) I'm pretty excited. Nobody else in Naha has gone, so they are all freaking out. However, today is transfer day. I'm pretty nervous. I'm the most likely to leave the zone. I've been here the longest. ....but I don't really want to go. I'm pretty nervous about it. I would be fine finishing my mission here, but I don't think that's what's in store. I'll go wherever I'm asked.....but I'm kinda scared.

Anyway, that's pretty much how my week has been. Lots of working hard in the rain and sun. I love Okinawa and the people here. It's the best.

The district

Dinner at the Camachos

 

I love you all.

Another busy week this week. The month of August was a difficult one. I'm really excited to start up a new month.

Interesting thing happened this week. Do you remember me writing home about a C san? He had a Baptismal date a while ago, but we had to drop him because he's a Baptist and doesn't "need" to go to the Mormon church. He was dropped back in March or April. This last week, he came back. He called me and asked if we could meet. He's kinda a awkward guy, so the conversation was very quick.

"Hello?"

"This is C. Can you meet at the Church?"

".....Oh. Hi.....right now?"

"Yes"

"....Yeah, I think so"

"Ok"

 

Then there was a click and it was over. Haha, he showed up and we were lucky to have a member there with short such notice. He came and sat down and started talking about how great the Baptist church is and that we should go see it. I asked him why he wanted to meet and he said that he had a question about the Bible. He opened it up and it was marked up like crazy. Then he told me that recently, he can't feel God when he reads the Bible. I asked him if he had been reading the Book of Mormon. He said that he hadn't because it's not the word of God. So, we gave him the challenge to read the Book of Mormon to see if it was the Word of God. Then we testified that it was and promised him that he would feel God if he read it.

 

Long story short, the Book of Mormon won. He's meeting us again. That was exciting.

 

Also, we took F san to church yesterday. However, he couldn't come to our ward so Elder Gordon and I did six hours of church Yesterday. It was LONG. I was way tired, but It was WAY good to have F at church. He's progressing again. 

 

We also had an activity teaching "District meeting" to all the young men in the ward. It was really great. We taught companionship unity. It was so fun. We did "Duffy san Mogi lessons" In other words, I took my little stuffed Duffy to the church and he was our investigator. It was fun and the young men got excited. I thought it was a blast.

 

Last night, we also had a dinner with a ward family. The Yoza family. Brother Yoza was the brother who fought in the war of Okinawa when he was 16 years old. Also, his daughter lives in Machida! He is the most interesting person. I could talk to him forever. He's REALLY intense too. He is SO Japanese. 

 

Dinner at the Yoza's

The Food

 

 

In all, it was a pretty good week.

 

Elder Miyanishi is ready for his steak.

At Han's Steakhouse

With Elder Kemp overlooking Naha

 

 

 

Love you all,

Elder Low

Naha skies. You never know when it will rain.

So, another tough one this week. Mostly busy, but it was good. We had interviews on Wednesday with President which was great. I spent the entire day at the church translating for the Japanese Elders and Sisters. It was a pretty long day.  I was the last person to be interviewed and Kaicho was pretty worn out, so I didn't have lots of time to talk to him. It was a quick talk about the Zone and what we were going to to do.

AP's and the Naha Elders

Also, I had the chance to go out to Itoman to do splits. It was a really good exchange. I was really impressed with the Elders there. I worked with Elder Silver. He's a really hard worker. Elder Silver has a lot of confidence and he knows the vision. I had a lot of fun working with him.

With Elder Silver on the beach at Itoman

In other news, we saw Brother K yesterday. He's really struggling. He has a hernia and can hardly move. His diabetes is also getting pretty bad. He didn't come to church. He seemed pretty upset about that. He really really wants to go to church because he gets depressed when he's not there. We're working on getting him there.

F san is doing well. He also didn't come to church this week, but we were able to meet with him and talk about some more commandments and he is willing to follow them. He's pretty solid. I think he's still a little bit nervous for Baptism, but we still have a little bit of time with him.

Surprisingly, I find that the more I learn Japanese, the harder it gets to talk to people. I actually know that they are denying me. Haha, it's forcing me to be a lot more bold, but I think it's a good thing. I'm learning to be "politely bold". Haha, I had a couple bad experiences before. I'm getting better though.

Dinner at a member's house

So, we had a the worst garbage experience ever. Because of weather, the garbage person wasn't able to come for a really long time, so we've kept our garbage bags out on the balcony. They rescheduled a day, but we had Elders staying in our apartment that day and totally forgot about it. We remembered when we heard the song (In Japan, icecream truck songs are played on garbage trucks) and we freaked out. We ran out to the balcony and grabbed all the garbage to take it down. As we were running down the stairs, Elder Miyanishi broke one of the bags and a REALLY old onion and it's juices started to poor out. Elder Miyanishi started freaking out! "うんこよりもくさい!!!!"　I'm sure everyone in the apartment heard it. In the end, we missed the truck and had a HUGE garbage clean up. Because the garbage broke at the top of the stairs, the juices dripped ALL the way down and the entire apartment complex from floor 5 to 1 smelled worse than......Haha, well, Elder Miyanishi said it best. We had to clean the ENTIRE apartment complex. It only took about an hour, but it was crazy. Everyone in the apartment was really kind and had a sense of humor so we didn't get into trouble, but it was nuts.

Anyway, that was my week. It's going well. Still loving the work and the people here. I love you all.

Elder Low

So, I had a busy week this week. Not a lot happened. I'm still in Naha.....and I am happy that way. I was really worried to leave. This has been my longest area, but I really really love it here. BUT because of transfers this week, I got to do the big Airport day on Thursday. All day long waiting for new missionaries in the Airport. I didn't take pictures this time because it was really boring. We just....sat. At one point we tried to weekly plan, but that didn't work super well. It was a long boring day. We're really excited about the new missionaries in our zone though. They are all way cool! We also have a new bean sister missionary. We'll see how that goes.

This last week, we met with F san twice. He is progressing like an animal. He said that he knows God is guiding his life and he LOVES to pray. Before, he was telling us that God doesn't exist. So, that is huge progress. Here's the problem. He has lots anxiety problems and he came to church a couple weeks ago.....and he knew one of the members that gave a talk that week. He said that he didn't really get along with the member because the live across the street from each other and are always fighting......so now, he doesn't want to come to church because K kyoudai is there. So, there's something we need to work on....

Typhoon season is getting pretty crazy. We had another day inside. President called me and told me to assign the zone to teach three hour long lessons to their companion and then report back to him that night. I'm sure Jake and Jon can testify that teaching lessons to your companion is SO awful. Nobody likes it. But the whole zone did it so that was good. :) I didn't want to have to tell president that nobody in the zone did it because they don't like to practice with their companion.

Some other sad news. There is a convert in this ward....she baptized maybe a week before I got here. Her name is A. Everyone just calls her Popo. She left for Virginia to do a nanny job. She's been really struggling with the church. I also found out that her Baptism was WAY too rushed. There wasn't even a member of the ward at the Baptism. Not even bishopric. So, now we can't really help her. We gave her addresses to churches around where she lives. I really hope she goes.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for the week. From what I hear, there is a huge Typhoon coming this next week so we probably won't get to work a ton on Wednesday and Thursday. It's supposed to be worse than the last one. We'll have to get all emergency stuff ready and stuff like that.....Ugh. I would much rather Dendo.

Anyway, Love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Low

Sunset in Naha

So, first things first, I have to ask you for a favor. Our mission has asked every missionary to complete the "my family" pamphlet by September. We're starting to use them for family history. I'm sure you've seen it, but in order to fill it out, I need Kanji for all the names on Mom's side of the family and I also am going to need pictures of the grandparents. I need to get that packet filled out ASAP. If you could do that it would be really appreciated.

Anyway, I had a crazy week with almost no time for normal dendo. We were in Fukuoka last Sunday through Wednesday. It was the funnest time. Probably too much fun for missionaries.

Zone Leaders at the Fukuoka Temple

On P-day, after we emailed, we went back to the Honbu and asked what we could do for President and he gave us four tickets to the zoo across the street. He told us to have a good time and then at six go find some investigators for Fukuoka. So, we spent the day at the zoo and having fun around Fukuoka.

At the Zoo

It was SO much fun. Elder Chung is one of the Elders in Okinawa and I don't know if you remember him, but he's pretty much my best friend in the mission. I've really been able to work with him a lot and he's one of the funnest people I know.

On bikes in Fukuoka

A hot day in Fukuoka. Two of the bikes broke....so we had to walk back to the honbu.

That night, I had the chance to work with Elder Fender in Fukuoka and we had a really successful day. We found 3 new investigators that were all really solid. It was wonderful. The next day, we had an awesome training from President and the AP's and then we went home to Naha to prepare for two trainings for the Zone. It's been a lot of training here. It has gone really well though.

We weren't able to really teach any of our investigators this week. It was really slow, but we had a little bit of time to go finding and we found quite a few cool people. We found a cute old couple in a tiny apartment. The Husband was watching Sumo and told us to leave and that he didn't need our message, but the wife said she would love to hear the message. We were able to teach her a little and make a new appointment. She said that her husband was going to yell at her afterwards, but that it was ok. Haha, it was way funny because right after that, we said a prayer and we could hear them bickering. He was saying that they had their religion and she was saying that she wants to hear what we have to say and that we had such pure hearts and all this sweet stuff. Haha, I hope the next lesson goes ok.

Our Eikaiwa students

So, as you know, today is our transfer calls. I don't know what's going on yet, but I hope I stay. I really love this area and the people here. Of course I'll do whatever the Lord has in store for me. I just have come to really love these people.

Anyway, that was my week. It was a busy one. Maybe next week I'll be somewhere new. We'll see. I love you all and I'll talk to you all next week.

Love,

Elder Low