So, we had a pretty eventful week.  I got to go up to Fukuoka on Tuesday which was a blast.

Arriving at Hakata Station in Fukuoka

We stayed in the Fukuoka house (6 Elders in one house and then we added another five....It's pretty big) and I got to eat at McDonalds.....I had something called a "Hot and Groovy Burger"....I don't know about America but the Japanese Mac's are doing this vintage burger thing.......It was sooo good.

Then, the next morning, I went to the Fukuoka Stake center and had an interview with Elder Aoyagi of the First Quorum of the Seventy.....He is such a boss. He asked what the biggest struggles in my mission are right now and gave me some awesome advice. He committed me to finish the "Lesson Mastery" program. I'm finishing that up tonight. However, he promised that if I did it, people would listen to me. He asked me to say a prayer at the end of our interview and then he said, "Elder Low...I love you . You have such a light about you. You are a very special Missionary."  It was such a special experience.

Then we had a missionary conference with him. He's amazing. I was so pumped at the end of the conference and the Spirit was SOO strong.

Click on photo to enlarge.

 

On top of that, I got to see Elder Redd AND Elder Wirthlin. It was the first time we were all together. It was a blast. We ate lunch together. It felt kinda weird though.....haha, Elder Redd accidentally called me Randy. I love those Elders.

Elders Wirthlin, Low, and Redd

Well, after coming home from Fukuoka.....I got sick. Haha, it was a real bummer. I had to spend the day at the Apartment and I felt so bad for my two comps because they had to sit and stay with me. I also got to wear one of those masks all week.

I announced to the branch and Eikaiwa (English) class that I will probably transfer this week. They were all SOO upset. It was really hard to say goodbye to my Eikaiwa class. Haha, all the moms started crying. Most of our English class students are teenage boys and their parents. Apparently all these teenage boys talk about me a lot. Anyway, the parents want to change this whole "transfer" system because it is terrible.....It made me really sad that I'll probably leave them.

My Eikaiwa class.

Also, today I have a couple appointments with branch members so I can say goodbye....Haha, I haven't even got the call yet....I think  I'm out though.

Then yesterday, I got to go on splits with Elders Coelho and Malcom. We found two new investigators! It was miracle. We had a wonderful day and worked really really hard all day long.

It was a really good week. I guess I'll let you know how transfers go....but I think I'm out of here. I can't wait to find out!

I Love you all,
Elder Low

So, I had a pretty rough week this last week. We set high expectations as a companionship....and it didn't turn out so well. Haha, lots of appointments fell through and we are getting rejected quite a bit.

Wearing out our shoes in service......

I don't have a whole lot to report.....Oh! Tomorrow is Elder Chantry's birthday......he will be 19. Haha, He's super young. .....or I'm just a really old missionary. ;) BUT we celebrated with some sushi the other day.....That always makes me happy. I'm kinda scared for when I go home. I don't know what I'm going to eat. Cooking in Japan is completely different from cooking in the U.S.....And yeah.....I eat Natto. Every day. Everyone keeps telling me it's really healthy so I eat it a lot.....I actually like it now. Elder Chantry and I buy a different type of Natto every week. Today we bought some with some kind of black liquid......It's WAY good. :)

That's one big piece of sushi

 

 

On Tuesday, we are going up to Fukuoka. I'm pretty excited. We are having a conference with Elder Aoyagi....That isn't until Wednesday though. On Tuesday (I don't know why) Elder Aoyagi wants to interview me along with a couple other missionaries in the mission.....I'm kinda freaked out. Haha, I think it will be good though. I just have these bad thoughts that he's going to put me in front of a camera and make me speak Japanese and then show it to a bunch of other missionaries or Japanese leaders and show them how bad my language skills are......I'm sure that's not his intention though. ;)

That's the big thing of the week though. It's looking like it will take a lot of time out of our week. Also, I have no more district meetings for the transfer....so that's a downer. Speaking of which, next week I will be emailing on Tuesday because of transfers.

Our clean apartment

I love this branch so much. I love all members, but I feel so bad that we aren't bringing Investigators to church. They seem to be very supportive though. They still ask us to come eat with them and visit their friends. We'll find the Investigator that Isahaya deserves.

I love you and I'll keep pushing forward.

Elder Low

 

So, I'm doing a lot better out here. Still need people to teach, but we got a new investigator this week. She's awesome. She scheduled a quick English lesson with us and came and only asked questions about the church. She has lots of interest and we are meeting her again on Wednesday.

Yesterday I spend the day with President Asato from Fukuoka. He drove us around to a bunch of less active families and it was so great. We gave priesthood blessings to every family we met and it was way powerful. Also, we visited an investigator that has been our investigator for YEARS and he has interest again. He's coming to church again. He's a boss.

I'm loving my companionship now. Tri-panionships are rough, but I really like my two companions so it's good. I still get to be the translator but it's really good for me.

I have Elder Nara in my companionship now, so my Japanese is flying. I love it. Haha, Elder Chantry and I had a fun conversation with Elder Nara. Elder Chantry asked Elder Nara what his favorite Japanese word was. Elder Nara said the word for Fluffy.....Then he asked Elder Chantry his favorite. Elder Chantry said 罪悪感  Which means Guilt. He's pretty funny.

 

Another quick funny experience with Elder Chantry. We were riding our bikes and we passed a car. He called out to me and said, "Did you see that guy in the car?" I said "no" and just kept going.

 

"He was smoking," said Elder Chantry.......I was super freaked out......I gave him a look and he said "No....like with a cigarette. He was smoking". We had to pull over I was laughing so hard.

 

Also.....this is going to sound really lame, but Elder Chantry and I have been working out a LOT this last transfer. Haha, we have a schedule and everything. My body is always sore, but it's good! I feel a lot more healthy....most of the time. I still need to figure out how I'm going to stop eating so much Ramen. ;)

Man, I don't have lots to report on. OH WAIT!

I bought a suit this week. Before you start shaking your head listen to this.

I went to a Aoyama. It's a pretty expensive suit place. We just walked in because...I don't know. Maybe it was revelation. I walked in and found a 400 dollar suit.....The guy there said that he needed someone my size because nobody fits in this suit. Get this....he sold it to me for 30 bucks. My suit was cheeper than my train ticket to Zone conference. I'm pretty pleased. ;) Maybe dad is still shaking his head.......PS your office looks pretty sick dad.....Especially the tiki statue. I'm pretty jealous. The only cool think on my desk is my Okinawa Shisa and my white board (haha, I have a pretty big white board. It's cool.....don't judge me.....it makes me feel important).

Lunch at McDonalds

 

Anyway, I love you all. Keep me all updated on what you're doing!

Musical Experiment

Elder Low

Elder Chantry and I have been fighting to find new investigators...We have about 30 friends who love us....but won't listen to the message at ALL. We go visit them often and try to get them to try it out for a little bit, but most of the just say they are Buddhist so they can't.....It's kinda a lame excuse.

We had the opportunity to eat mexican food last night with some members. It was excellent.

BUT we had ZTM and I got to talk to Elder Wirthlin. He's doing great. I love talking to him and he gave me some really good ideas. He's doing amazing things right now.

 

The Zone

 

Ice cream chaser to a sushi lunch.

That's gross.

 

 

I really don't know what else to tell you. Elder Chantry and I have been doing this door to door business all week and it's been difficult. Lots of rejections. I'm really grateful that Elder Chantry is such a boss though. He's really positive and I love that about him.

 

OH! My Eikaiwa class wants to know the Kanji for Kazuhiro.....I never learned it. Haha, my bad. My Eikaiwa class loves me. It kinda worries me because they keep saying that they won't come if I leave.......and I'm bound to leave sometime.....but I love them all.

 

I'm carrying two asthma inhalers all the time. It's been worse than it has been for most of my life....BUT, I'm doing really well with it. No big attacks. Just lots of wheezing after riding my bike. Isahaya has lots of hills and the cold wind is a little rough. I have to take little breaks sometimes. BUT I have a sweet new scarf from mom. (Thanks mom. I love it!)

 

Yeah, that's me. Had a tough week, but I'm not getting down on that. We'll keep working hard and you better believe we are going to see success.

Love,

Elder Low

So, transfers were this week. Yeah....I'm still in Isahaya. I am actually really pleased to stay. I love this branch.....and this branch needs a lot of work so I'm excited to help out the branch as much as I can.

Also, I've really been diving into the Book of Mormon with Elder Chantry this week. Maddy sent me a triple combination for Christmas to go crazy on. It's actually a little bad. In our companionship study, we almost spend the entire time talking about the Book of Mormon. We barely had enough time to prepare the lessons for the day. Haha, that is one of our goals for the week. We really need to slow down the Book of Mormon study. I know that sounds impossible, but we are having crazy awesome discussions about doctrine that has nothing to do with our investigators.

On the other hand, the thing that our investigators need to be is a converted disciple of Christ.....and the Book Of Mormon does that. It has been so much fun. Also, I have never read the Book of Mormon with so much focus and I love it so much. Haha, our Dendo has also been really unbalanced. The ZL'S said that we are doing really well passing out the Book of Mormon....but we need to also make Baptismal Invites on the street. It's just easier to testify about the BOM when we are both studying it so intensely......So, now Elder Chantry and I have been assigned to make more Baptismal Invites. Haha, but I love Elder Chantry. He's a great missionary.

Elder Nara from Fukushima is the only change to the Isahaya apartment. He is now companions with Elder Tagawa and he's hilarious. I'm forced to speak A LOT of Japanese now because they are always speaking Japanese.....poor Elder Chantry gets lost a lot. I think his language is growing though. Haha, during  language study, Elder Tagawa and Elder Nara were studying English and Elder Nara was reading in 2 Nephi 28 "A Bible, a Bible. We have got a Bible and we need no more Bible". He showed me that scripture and replaced "Bible" with "Language". He's pretty funny.

Also, they split my district. Haha, now I only have the other Isahaya Elders and one of the Nagasaki Sister missionary companionships in my district. I like it though. I don't have to spend so much time doing reports. Now I can do things that I didn't have time for before. I can write letters and stuff home again.

As far as the work goes, we are still working with S. He says he doesn't have time to read the Book of Mormon, but we are just going to really stress it's importance and that he will not receive an answer to his questions unless he shows some faith. We'll see how that goes this week.

Also, we found a new Investigator. She has a lot of interest and Elder Chantry had the revelation to go visit her. I'm so glad we did though....because I thought she had no interest the first time we met her. I'm excited to work with her.

Other than that, the work continues. I'm doing my best and I'm sure we are going to see some miracles this transfer.

Love,
Elder Low

At the branch Christmas Party

(Click on any photo to enlarge.)

 

Gift Exchange at District Meeting

 

So, I'm glad to hear you all had a wonderful Christmas. The highlight of my week was Saturday. We had a service project at an orphanage.

We had a big discussion with the branch and President Gustafsen about this service Project. As you know, you are not supposed to do service in places like day cares or schools......so the Orphanage was .....sketchy. Long story short, President allowed us to go and it was the best experience ever.

Before we even got to the front desk, all the children came out and grabbed us and pulled us over to the mochi bowls and handed us hammers. They all were so excited. I had a blast.

 

 

In this video I sent of the game I was playing with the little girl.....

Yeah, after her, I ended up playing with all the little kids. They all wanted to play against me. I'm so glad I learned that game. I learned it with  the Ka family in Nago. It was so cute. Then we played Soccer with all the children.....and they were SOOO good. Elder Coelho from Brazil was so shocked at their talent.

 

 

 

 

After that, we went to Sushi

Sushi comes via conveyor. You pay by the plate.

And then had the baptism. It was a nightmare. We had to fill up that whole font with buckets and empty it with buckets.

 

 

 

The font is also really shallow so when I baptized K, I had to push him down quite a bit because he didn't fit. HAha, it was nuts. He's really happy though.

Also, Elder Chantry and I have  been working to get the Branch back into missionary work and they love us. Which scares me because this week is transfer calls and I just love this area and this district so much., I don't want to go somewhere else. Maybe that's a sign that it's time for me to leave, but......I don't know.  I feel really worn out from this last transfer because I worked my butt off, and now I might have to leave. It's all a mystery now. We'll see what happens.

I'll let you know how the transfers go. I'm super pumped. I loved the photos and videos from Christmas. (Sam is wearing my sweater ;)) I'll keep working hard and I'll talk to you all next week.

Love,
Elder Low

 

With Elder Wirthlin

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

My Zone

 

At church, waiting for English class

 

Thanksgiving dinner

 

Christmas decorations downtown