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, 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

The Typhoon was totally fine! I spent all day on the sixth floor of our apartment. The entire mission was down for a day. It wasn't that bad though. Just crazy wind and rain. There were a lot of trees that came down and the streets were pretty messy. In the end, we were all just kinda upset that we couldn't go and work. 

Elder Glover on Tuesday while we waited out the storm. We lost our minds holed up in the apartment all day. 

This week, we had to fly down to Ishigaki for a baptismal interview. It was crazy. We were only there from 7 pm on Saturday night and then we flew back at 7 the next morning. The interview went well, but I was tired after sleeping in Ishigaki. I was sweaty and I didn't really have anything to sleep on. I don't love sleeping in other Elder's apartments. However, the Ishi couple were down on Ishigaki. I don't know if you know Elder Ishi, but he was  and area seventy and he is AWESOME. His wife is too. They drove us around and were the sweetest couple. Sister Ishi doesn't speak any english so every once in a while Elder Ishi would start to talk in english and she would start freaking out. Then he would have to explain what he was talking about. It was really cute. They are awesome.

Also, we were able to meet with F San and talk about his situation. It sounds like he really has a tough situation. We made a deal with the ward to figure out how to get him a job. We're working on that now.

The work here is hotter than ever. It is now impossible to go outside without coming home completely nasty. It's pretty terrible. We shower three or four times a  day and we buy so much laundry soap. People have started to comment on us sweating at there door. They always give us drinks.....but usually tea which is hard to turn down. People are way nice about it but I always feel disgusting.

This is where I live and work. It's hot. 

Even at night. 

Other than that, we really haven't had a lot go on this week. Just a lot of hard work.

I'll send some pictures, but I love you all so so much. I hope you all have a great week.

We got stopped by the flower helmet guy. He asked if we were friends. I said yes and then he asked if we could take a photo. Haha, priceless. He's really cut down on flowers though.

Love,

Elder Low

I've  had a really busy week. It was a little rough.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up and had no voice at all. Nothing but air coming out of my throat. It was awful because my body wasn't really hurting or weak. I had plenty of energy to work, but because I couldn't talk to anyone, Sister Gustafson had me grounded. I had to stay in the apartment all day long. The voice was still way bad on Wednesday so I had to have a member take me to the hospital. We went in and the doctor gave me all these meds.....but failed to tell me what was wrong. I guess he knew what he was doing though because the meds fixed me right up.

On Thursday, we had to go to the airport to pick up all the Elders from the two islands. They came up for Zone Conference. It was really really busy with them because we had 10 Elders in our little apartment and then in Oroku they had about 10 Elders. It was really rough....especially cooking. I made SO much Curry. It was really good though. Also, Zone Conference went really well.

Zone Conference (Click any photo to enlarge.)

After Zone Conference, we had a meeting with the entire Stake Presidency, Ginowan Zone Leaders, the AP's and Kaicho. It was such an intense meeting. I can tell that Kaicho was a pretty serious business man before the mission. At one point, he had everyone in the room on the phone. He really gets down to business. He also wants us to double our Eikaiwa in Naha. That's a pretty big task that we are about to jump on. It's going to be exciting.

After the meeting, Kaicho asked me for our Zone actuals for the month of June. I was so excited to report them. We had more New Investigators and more Baptismal dates than any other zone in the mission. He was so impressed. I was so Ureshii. This zone is doing so well.

Also, Elder Gordon and I found 7 new investigators this week. One of them came to church. Her name is Suzuka.....but she goes by Suzy.She's 20 years old and she's a friend of one of the members here in Naha. She came to sports night and said she's always had interest in the church. It was pretty fun having her at church. There are LOTS of young men, but not lots of young women so the young men were all excited. Haha.

Dinner at a member's house

The only tough thing about this week is we made about three appointments for tomorrow.....and we are not allowed to dendo tomorrow. Apparently, there is a huge Typhoon coming in. Kaicho called and said that the winds will be strong enough to knock a bus over. We were given assignments to prepare today for tomorrow and to not even open up our doors tomorrow. I'm a little concerned. I think everything will be ok though. It will just be a little disappointing to stay inside all day. I already did it twice this week. Maybe we'll play shogi or something.

Anyway, the work is going really well. I'm loving the work.....I really want to go out and work, but it looks like we might be stuck here a little bit. Don't worry about me though. Everything is going well.

I love you all,

Elder Low

So, I have had a really long week. The saddest part is that not a lot of things happened. We had a cleaning check....don't worry. We passed with a 'Celestial' rating. As you may have seen in my pictures, I also went to a Branch Camp. It was kinda a long thing....We spent all day up in the mountains just to share a short message. I felt like it was a little too long. BUT I got really close to my Branch.

 

Our branch at Branch Camp. The Branch President is wearing the red shirt.

(Click on any photo to enlarge.)

 

 

 

 

Right now, I'm in Nagasaki because we were going to pickup Elder Anderson's bike....but now we have a problem and probably can't get his bike. There is a huge typhoon coming and....we might all be stuck in the church all day. I'm actually pretty excited about it. My branch president called me and let me know about it and told me to stay inside. Haha, so here I am.

 

I'm kinda struggling with the area. We don't have lots of people to visit so we're trying super hard to find new investigators.....but it's been tough.

 

Here we are out on the street, doing our job.

 

 

 

Also, R has been a little bit difficult to meet. He doesn't have a car or anything to transport himself around for work so he's always walking around......and he's really hard to meet. But he's doing some great things with his life. He quit alcohol and he's working on tea. Also, he's going to see his family in Kagoshima pretty soon here. :)

 

At the station, headed to district meeting

My district

 

 

 

 

We've been trying really hard to fix up a bunch of the things in the area. When I got here, there were a lot of things that were being done on a weekly basis. Things that .......are not super important. So, we want to cancel them.......but it's hard because people in the area are really comfortable with these weekly things....but we need to be doing more important things!

 

So, today is transfer calls. I'm not too worried about it. I am pretty sure I'm staying. I'll let you know though. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm losing one of my comps. Elder Just has been here for a while and I think he's going to be heading off to another area.

 

Anyway, I think I'm staying with Elder Anderson which I'm really excited about.

 

I don't have anything really to report on. I'll let you know how the transfers go. I love you all and I'll try to stay safe in the Typhoon!

 

Love,

Elder Low