August 27, 2013 - Transfers this week...

So, I'm sorry, but I still don't know where I'm going....or if I'm going at all. I do know this though: The AP's called me the other day. (Elder Monson. He's the one who's related to the Baer family. He's a boss) He said, next transfer I'll be training......again. Haha, I'm only 5 transfers into the mission and president is making me trainer again. I'm kinda worried about it. I've been really stressed recently. I'm really upset that Elder Alger and I aren't going to be comps next transfer. He's an awesome missionary and I loved working with him. :)

 

Elder Alger hard at work. 

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

 

 

Now I'm all worried that they are going to give me a comp who is a picky eater or is hard to get along with. I think Elder Alger was pretty easy to train because He was such a great missionary and soooo easy to get along with.

 

Also, if I do transfer, I'm worried about Y-san. I guess that's something I need to get used to. I'm going to transfer many times in my mission. I can't stay in the same place forever, and I don't want to. I just hope that she keeps meeting with the missionaries. She's so close!

 

In other news, my zone leader Elder Hammond is the new AP. He's perfect for it too. I'm really excited for him. I'm a little bummed that he's not my zone leader anymore, but that's ok.

 

So, this week, there was this man who came to our church. He said he needed our help so we sat down with him. He then went on about how the Nuclear Powerplants in Japan are going to be the end of the world and how he needed our help to call New Zealand so he can immigrate there. He said we should leave Okinawa ASAP. We barely were able to teach him anything. He didn't really believe us because he said that if there was a god, we wouldn't have the nuclear problem. I felt really bad for him. I don't want to live a fearful life and I refuse to. I'm happy and I want to stay that way.

 

Also this week, some English Class students took us out to Yakiniku. It was the best. They are the sweetest people. We tried to share a small message, but they weren't super interested. They said they had their own ways of life. They were very sweet though.

 

Our English class students and their son.

 

And then there is L. She's the one I was talking about that said she can't be happy because her son is missing. She's getting worse every day. I asked her how she spends her days. She says she sits on Youtube and watches what a terrible world this is. Then she tried to show me and Elder Alger a video of people being burned alive in Kenya. I was freaking out. Haha, I just told her we couldn't watch but she kept trying to show us. I then started thinking about Mormon Messages. I asked her to look up Mountains to Climb. She stopped watching those horrifying videos and pulled it up. I think it really impacted her. I hope she sees that there are thousands of reasons to smile if she just lets herself. I assigned her to stop watching horrible videos that make her sad and she agreed. I hope she watches more Mormon Messages.

 

Our clean apartment. (Parents are stunned.)

 

 

That's all the news I have this week. I might have time to drop by the church and let you know where I'm going next transfer. If not, I'll let you know next week. Wherever I am, I'll do my best to work hard!

 

 

 

Elder Low

August 19, 2013

Pretty exhausted this week.

(Click on any photo to enlarge.)

So, next week, you'll be getting emails from me on Tuesday instead of Monday because we get transfer calls next week again. I'm starting to wonder if I'll still be in Nago. My zone leader was talking to me about it and said he thinks I'm going to be replacing my district leader. I think that's a little too much, but I don't know.

Here are the sisters in our zone.....yeah, there are a lot!

 

 

So, at zone p-day. While the sisters were over eating by the couple. I was stitting by these goof balls. Haha, I love them.

 

 

 

 

I had a really successful week with Elder Alger this week. We had more contacts than any other missionaries in the zone this week. It was really awesome. We also have 4 new investigators that look really really promising.

 

In other news, Y-san called me again this week. I've been really worried about her because we really haven't had a specific lesson in three weeks, but she called to tell me about her stituation. She says that she thinks her cancer isn't very serious, but that she is still freaking out. She actually finds out today whether or not she can meet with us THIS week. However, she did tell me some really good things. I asked her how she was handling her stress and she said that she's been praying like crazy.

 

I asked her how that has helped her. She said that she feels like it usually calms her down, but she had a really bad worry about her mother. Her mother had to go have another check up in the Hospital. (Yeah, they both go to the hospital ALL the time) She said she was praying for her mother so hard and praying that she would be able to function that day and not worry about her mother. That day, her mother came back from the hospital. The doctor was surprised to tell her that her sickness had gone from dangerous to full recovery.

 

She told that to me and it didn't register at first. I was absolutely shocked. Her mom is fine now. When she was talking to me on the phone, she was just bawling and thanking me and telling me that she really REALLY needs to meet us. I was so happy to hear that and I'm so excited to meet her again. The only problem is she is always going to the hospital. We are having the whole ward pray for her. She's been prepared......we just need to meet her.

 

Elder Alger and I gave talks about the temple yesterday. He was pretty upset about it.........Haha, I remember my first talk in Nago didn't go so well either. He is freaking out about language. Haha, he's doing good though. That's our major focus. I feel bad, but I keep throwing him in the deep end and make him contact people and see how much he can teach on his own.....I think he's learning fast though.

Other than that, we are excited to work with these new investigators. We'll keep working hard.

 

Love,

Elder Low

August 11, 2013

Sunset at Nago Beach

(Click any photo to enlarge)

 

 

 

So, I got no email from you guys this week. I'm sure it's because you are enjoying the happiest place on earth. The picture wth Brothers Monson and Wirthlin is the best. I'm super jealous that you're there.

 

I got the photo album and it's perfect. Thank you so so much. I'm already putting it to use. The pants also work great. I'm 32-34, but I think I'm good on pants right now. I went to Uniqlo recently and got some really good ones. :)

 

This week was pretty boring actually. Not a lot happened. We had a cleaning check from one of the sister missionaries and it was not so good.....not because we weren't clean.....but for really dumb reasons. Let me give you some examples. I know you're probably thinking we just weren't clean, but this is really some of the things we got marked off on:

 

• There is no air conditioner in the sleeping room.....I don't know how we can fix that for her. It costs about 400 bucks.
• Elder Alger got in trouble because of the way his suitcase was laying in the closet. It was laying flat. She marked him down because it wasn't on it's side.
• Our front room closet is full of tools and stuff. They don't belong there. They need to be somewhere else (I don't know where else we can put them......when I came to the apartment, that's where they've always been and I've been here for 5 months.)
• She said I need to find a new place for my machine for my asthma.....I don't know why. I just keep it on the top shelf of my closet
• Ok, this is the one that gets me the most angry. The first thing she did when she walked in was told us that she wasn't going to take off her shoes because she's old and American and so she didn't take off her shoes......and then, she started leaving dirt around our floor and she said, that we didn't clean our floor. Her husband said, "Well, we didn't take our shoes off....I think that's the reason there is dirt on the floor". If he wouldn't have said anything, I might have blown up.

Elder Alger was so ticked. My other cleaning checks have all been really good. That was another thing. She was going through our past cleaning check lists and they all said things like, "really good apartment" and "Everything is in good shape" and she complained about that too. Haha, so Elder Alger and I were really bugged by that.

That cleaning check took a good amount of time and so our work that day wasn't so good. Also, this week we had a zone conference in Naha, so we had to spend Thursday night in Okinawa city. That wiped out two more days of work in Nago. Our numbers were really bad this week. Anyway, we had a really good conference in Naha, and it's always nice to see all the missionaries and President. President bragged about us and how we have been growing.

At Zone Conference. 3 generations of missionaries. My bean and my trainer. :)

Also, this week we had a ward bbq and was actually really good. The bishop opened up to us. Things are looking better.

One last thing. Y-san called us this week and canceled her meeting with us. She has to go to the hospital on the day we had set.....turns out she has cancer. She's freaking out. I'm really worried about her. She still prays and reads everyday, but we haven't been able to meet her for TOO long now. I hope we can keep helping her.

Anyway, I got to go catch a bus. We're spending P-day with the zone today. Until next week

Love,
Elder Low

August 5, 2013

M-san was Baptized and it was amazing. I'm so happy for him. I'm just happy that he made it. He's so happy. He keeps calling us and telling us thank you. He's such a funny guy.

Click any photo to enlarge.

 

 

After the actual Ordinance, M-san started crying and bowing and thanking me. I was so happy. I'd never seen him cry before. It was so powerful.

Our president asked all the missionaries to take a break on Thursday because we made a goal for every companionship to have a baptism in July. On August first, we all took a break. It was really nice. My District went to the Aquarium.

 

 

 

 

This week was crazy. We were very lucky to have a break on Thursday. President is so awesome. Everyone in the mission had a nice break and then we worked hard again on Friday.

This week before the baptism was pretty intense. We have a couple new investigators and they are looking pretty good.

 

So, I got the package with the Pants. Thank you. They are super helpful. I still have to do laundry every three days but I am glad I don't always have to wear suit pants.

 

Other than that, Elder Alger and I are having a blast out here. He's really easy to get along with.

 

 

 

Also, I get to go to Naha this weekend for a surprise zone conference. So I get to see President again. I'm really pumped.

I'm going to keep trying to survive the heat. I have to drink so much water and I shower everytime I enter the Apartment. We are always sweating.

We'll keep pushing forward

Love,

Elder Low

First Baptism

Hello Low Family, 

I just thought you would like to see what your son looks like heading to his first baptism....

Here's the newest member on the island and the 2 Elders from Isikawa and the 2 Elders from Nago and Elder Williams.  (Click on any photo to enlarge.)

It is such a pleasure to serve with your son, we just LOVE him.. He is such a great missionary....
Elder and Sister Williams

July 29, 2013 - Crazy week. Things are looking great!

 

I had a lot happen this week so listen in carefullly.

 

First, training the bean. I didn't realize how much I could have improved my relationship with my last two companions until now. Yes, I got along with them and I love them both....but Elder Alger and I have so much fun working. He's a blast. His Japanese needs work but I'm so grateful that he laughs off his mistakes and keeps pushing forward. He doesn't get discouraged very easily which makes me want to work with him more. This week gave him lots of chances to be angry but he was great. Here we go!

 

On Monday, we spent P-day going to Okinawa to buy him a bike. He's been using a bike that belongs to a missionary who went home before Christmas. It's a piece of Junk. So we took a bus to Okinawa. The stupid bus took 3 hours though. It's normally an hour and a half but it was super long on Monday for some reason.

 

We finally got there and met the Williams couple and bought Elder Alger the same bike that I have. It's a good one. The Williams then drove us back to Nago (which only took 45 minutes by car) and then we worked hard that night.

 

The next day at District meeting, we went out to eat with the district. When Elder Alger and I walked back to the church to get our bikes, Elder Alger's bike had been slashed. Yep, he had the front tire slashed the day after he bought it. So today, we have to go buy him a new tire. On top of that, Elder Alger doesn't have any rain gear.....and on Tuesday, we had a crazy surprise rainstorm. It was so bad that the upper part of my shirt got soaked. I had my rain suit and everything. The rain just leaked down my neck all day.

 

Keep in mind that Elder Alger was still pretty happy and pushing hard the whole time.

 

One Wednesday, we taught Y-san. She committed to come to church finally, but canceled on Saturday. I was super bummed. On top of that, she's going to be in Kin every day from today until the 14th so we can't meet her. I told her I was still going to call and make sure she's doing good......but I'm really concerned about her....She's still very optimistic and keeping other commitments so that's good.

 

On Thursday, Elder Alger and I went down to Futenma to meet the President for a training meeting. It was awesome. I love being with President. THEN, after that, President had to go meet with the Stake President of Ginowan Stake so he assigned Me to go with Sister Gustafson and the Williams couple to translate for them for the day. Sister Gustafson had to go talk to some of the sister missionaries in Okinawa and then I had to help her check into a hotel. That was SCARY. I don't know any hotel vocabulary. It went ok though. After that, the Williams took us back to Nago to meet President and our investigator M-san so that President could interview him one last time.

 

President showed up while we were teaching Eikaiwa. The Stake President drove him up to Nago. I went and grabbed M-san and showed President a room that he could interview M-san in. After that, I asked if the Stake President was going to sit in on the interview as well. Then President said, "No....you are".

 

I was kinda surprised. I had to leave Elder Alger to teach Eikaiwa which kinda scared him but he did fine. Miyagi was very open with President and at the end of the interview President turned to me and asked why we were still waiting for him. He's ready and anyone can see it.

 

So we'll have a baptism this week. :) As the President left, he shook my hand and told me that he was really impressed with me which made my Dendo Fire go through the roof. It was an excellent day.

 

That's the big stuff of our week though. I'm having a lot of fun with Elder Alger. Good things are happening. My biggest concern is Elder Alger's Japanese. But he'll learn. He always says, "I can't Sprekkin" (I don't know how to spell that exactly but....he's so fun).

 

A dang good bowl of Ramen. (Click on any photo to enlarge)

With Elder Alger

 

We'll keep working hard. I also bought a pair of machine washable pants and I LOVE them. :) I got the package from Clint. Thank you so so much.  :)

 

Thanks for sending the new tie.

We had the Nago festival which had lots of fireworks. It's kinda hard taking a picture of fireworks.....it's like taking a picture of a movie. Makes me miss 4th of July.

 

 

Love,

Elder Low

July 22, 2013 - Training a bean . . . it's crazy

The Night before transfers. Last night with ALL the Okinawa Elders. It was so much fun. :)

 

 

Some ice cream and hot fudge we had that night. :)

 

The reason I'm making that face with Elder Sugimoto is Elder Hammond was behind me trying to make me laugh.....It kinda looks like I'm angry though

With Elder Zimmerman

Me and My Zone Leader Elder Yamanashi

 

 

 

I would go buy pants today but I have to go to Okinawa to buy my bean's bike...so let me tell you about him.

 

His name is Elder Alger. He's from Eugene, Oregon and he's a pretty great guy. He's still getting used to the fact that he's in Japan. He's kinda quiet, but I'm trying my best to make sure he's smiling lots. I remember my first week was rough. I think he's doing good though. As far as his Japanese .......it..... needs help. It actually wears me out because I have to do most of the talking. It's a little diffficult but it's helping my language tons.

 

Elder Alger and I both had talks yesterday. The subject was Kami no Yogensha (prophets). It was really difficult for me. It was even worse for Elder Alger. I felt they both went pretty well though. Elder Alger gave a brief testimony and I talked about the prophets words in the last year about missionary work and member work (because our members don't help us a lot). It went well. After the talk, a couple members set up some dinner appointments. :)

 

M-san has a baptimal interview with the Mission president on Thursday. I called the Bishop and told him that we wanted to be prepared for the baptism on the following Sunday.

 

P-san is gone. We can't get a hold of him at all. We can't go to his house because it's on the college campus and we can't go. He won't answer his phone. It's heartbreaking. I feel like we should have been more bold but at the same time I feel like we did everything we could. He just....stopped.

 

Y-san had a great-ish lesson this week. The lesson was on Obedience. We started talking about it and she brought up the word of wisdom. Then our Joint-members started talking out about it.  At that point, I realized that she doesn't have a strong enough relationship with her Savior to do that yet and that maybe we should have talked more about Jesus Christ. We committed her to continue reading and praying and she's excited to do so.  BUT Y-san also said she wants to be baptized but that she's just not ready to commit.....so that's good. :)

 

Other than that, our other investigators are struggling to keep commitments and to meet. It's a little rough, but we're having fun in Nago......It's hot but fun. Elder Alger was pretty surprised by the heat.....and the language. He's a great elder though and I'm excited to train him.

 

The language is still difficult. I feel like only crazy people speak Okinawan Hogan though. Basically, we'll contact them and then they get really mad.......AND I don't have a clue what they are saying. Then Elder Alger asks why they are mad and all I can do is say "Hogan". We don't hear Hogan a lot though.

 

That's all I have for this week though. I would love to see pics of Clint.

 

I'll keep working hard.

Love you all,

Elder Randy Kazuhiro Low