I am not in Naha right now. We flew up for Mission Leader Council. So, I'm spending P day with the Okinawa zone leaders in Fukuoka. I'm way stoked. It's going to be pretty fun.

Forgive me for today's email. I don't have a lot of time.

This last week, we had a exchange with the Yonabaru Elders. That is a tough area. The Elders there are working so hard. There is just not a lot of people home during the day. Also, with all the hills and heat it's really easy to get tired. However, those Elders are working super hard and they know what they are doing. I worked with Elder Miyanishi. I was so impressed. He had planned his day so well. We never had a second of time. We were going the entire day. He packed the day in so well, and he had his travel time down. I was really impressed. He's also a really good teacher.

Also this week, F came to church. I was really nervous because he's a really shy guy and he really doesn't like being in front of people. He really liked it though. He was taking notes during Sacrament meeting and he also had the chance to talk to the bishop about his situation with work and his physical problems. He has a mild back injury. The bishop was really good to him and we were able to figure out a game plan for F san and he seems pretty hopeful. We'll have another chance to meet him later this week as well. Things are just looking good with him.

Along with all that, we're still working as hard as we can. It is so hot. There is no way to not smell bad. I always have deodorant and all these other things to keep the sweat down, but it's not possible. I just feel bad knocking on people's doors looking like I just ran a marathon. It makes people wonder why we are out here though. AND we get lots of free drinks. Sometimes they are tea, but it's always nice to have people watching out for us. Okinawan people are either really really nice.....or SUPER rude....Or sometimes just crazy. It makes dendo fun though.

Anyway, I'm really sorry about this letter. I really don't have lots of time. I just hope you all know I'm super grateful for your support and I love you all! I'm doing the best I can. The church is true!

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

Well, the weather here is about as strange as it gets. Mother nature just wants to humiliate us missionaries. Every day we've gone out this week, it has been hot and humid as it gets. Remember me telling you about the heat here last week? It's back. Sweating from every single part of my body. However, this year is a little bit strange. Randomly, for about 2 minutes, we'll get buckets of rain. Not even kidding. We'll be in the middle of a street contact and suddenly we are soaking wet. There isn't even time to pull out rain gear or anything. By the time the gear is out, the rain has stopped. Haha, it's crazy!

We have also been meeting with our Baptismal date F san. He's had a pretty awful past. His depression is severe. Basically, three years ago he had a girlfriend that he broke up with. That day, she jumped off a bridge and died. So he feels like he killed her and he walks every day for about 5 or 6 hours thinking about suicide. We're kinda worried about him. He doesn't have a lot of hope that these things are true. It makes it really hard for him to keep commitments and such. However, we're doing the best we can to help him out.

Also, this week was our first week as a combined ward. It was quite a mess. People are still getting used to it. This Friday, Elder Gordon and I have a meeting with the Stake President, Mission President, the AP's, and the Ginowan Zone Leaders in order to figure out what we are going to do with the missionaries. So, that will be fun.

Anyway, That's really all I have for this week. I love you all and I'm working hard.

 

Love,

Elder Low

Well, I didn't get to go to Disneyland. That's too bad. It looks like you all had a lot of fun. I don't recognize Sam anymore.....except that he's wearing my shirt. ;)

I had quite the week. Let me get started.

Transfers. Nothing happened to me. SO I got to spend the day in the airport waiting for people to come in......it was especially stressful because there was a rainstorm so nobody had correct times. So, Elder Gordon and I got to spend the entire day with Elder Chung from Okinawa. He's possibly my favorite missionary in the mission. I just love hanging out with him. He's so funny and really gets how to be a missionary. Because we had so much time, we had to eat TWO meals in the airport. SO expensive. I hated it.

Zone leaders waiting at the airport

Eating at the airport

Eating out

Ice cream!

So, here's the big news this week.

We had a Okinawa conference. All the members for the entire Island. First, we were separated into stakes for the Saturday session. I was translating for an American woman who had a talk. Sister Jennifer Chenney from Logan. She has lived in Okinawa for 7 years and is the best member missionary I've ever heard of. It was such a pleasure to translate for her. While we were waiting for the meeting to begin, I just talked to her about all the people she knew. All the missionaries she'd worked with.

Then we had a surprise visitor interrupt our conversation. Elder Aoyagi came up to me and shook my hand and said, "Elder Low. It's been a while". Then he gave me a big hug. He is the greatest guy. AND his Japanese is SO easy to translate which was a relief.

The next day, we went to Okinawa to meet with everyone on the island. Every missionary in both zones were there. I walked into the meeting and I heard someone calling my name. Brother Miyagi from the Nago ward came up to me and gave me a huge hug. He bought me two little notebooks. Haha, it was a very thoughtful present. Then he grabbed my hand and dragged me around the HUGE church and introduced me to everyone he knew among the members....which I was surprised at how many that was. He apparently talks about me a lot. All the Nago missionaries laughed and said, "We know, Brother Miyagi. You've told us before". I was so Ureshi.

Then, in stake conference, it was proposed that he would receive the Melchezedic. Priesthood. It was the greatest experience. He was so happy and everyone knew him. He's now building the church.

In other news, the two Okinawan stakes combined and so did the Naha wards....so we now have 8 missionaries in our ward. It's getting really busy over here. We might grow a little bit as a zone as well because of the reorganization of wards. It was pretty nuts. We watched Elder Aoyagi release entire wards. It was kinda sad. Entire wards closed and were combined with others. Nago became a branch. We have lots of work in Okinawa.

Anyway, that was the big news my week. As far as the work, it's SO hot. We sweat all day long. It's great though! I love talking to people. We've met some really awesome people in the last week and now that we have so many missionaries in our ward, I have some really cool Dendo ideas. We'll let you know how it goes!

 

Exhausted in Weekly Planning

 

Weekly plan like a BOSS! Elder Otani always said. 私たちは末日のくみちょうだよ！！！

(We are the boss of the latter-days.) He's way funny.

Love you all. Thanks for photos!

Elder Low

We had another busy week this week. This last Tuesday and Wednesday we had to do Zone training meetings with all the missionaries here on Okinawa and the ones down on the islands. It went really well. We did a training on teaching people without a Christian background. All the missionaries seemed to like it.

Also this week we had a lesson with F. I wrote about him forever ago. He called us because he wanted a job and he's getting desperate......so I told him to meet us at the church and he came. We talked about his situation and....He's in pretty bad circumstances. Every day, he walks for hours because he can't sit down. He's almost always thinking about suicide and his family situation isn't very good either. When we meet him he doesn't seem like he has depression, but whenever he talks about his personal life, it is very clear how bad he's doing.

We promised him the blessings of the Gospel and he said that he didn't know if he could believe it, but we didn't want to give up on him so we asked him to try. He was able to make a Baptismal date for the 24th of August. He's not super interested, but he agreed to give it a shot.

On Wednesday, we went to English class for the first time in a very long time. It was really fun. However, right after that we had an appointment with the Stake Presidency about all the Baptismal dates in the zone. I was very pleased to report that we had one in every single ward in the zone. The Stake President was very impressed. The Missionaries are working very hard. I was so excited. The zone is doing very well.

Me and my companion in the rain.

The heat has gotten a lot worse in the last couple days. Humidity is so high that we start sweating the second we step outside. I'm getting really tan though. Even though it is getting super hot down here.....I don't really want to leave. I love it down here. Also, today is our transfer calls. We'll be finding that out later, but next Saturday is a huge conference with ALL the members on Okinawa. If I don't transfer, I'll get to see Brother Miyagi from Nago! I hear he is the best member missionary up there. He gives me a call every once in a while (Technically against the rules, but nobody gave him my number.....I don't know how he knows it. President laughed when I told him about it). He always invites me to Nago ward activities. I don't think he understands that I can't go to them, but he called me and said that I had better come to the Okinawa conference. I hope he doesn't get mad if I transfer.

Naha at night

The last Monday, we got to go to Zone p-day and spend the day with all the missionaries in this zone and Ginowan zone. It was so awesome. We played dodgeball for an hour and then watched an approved movie. It was called Ephraim's Rescue. It was probably the best Church film I have ever seen. It was about Ephraim Hanks. It had two people that I knew as well. (James Gaisford from my EFY company and my English teacher Mr. Anderson) I was absolutely amazed. It might have been because I haven't seen a movie in a year and a half.....but I would recommend it to all of you. Maybe watch it for FHE or something.

In other news, I'm translating more than ever now. We now have 2 Japanese missionaries in our zone that don't speak English at all so I had to translate ZTM for them. Then, there are also about 7 non-Japanese-speakers in our ward and now I'm translating for them. Also, I was assigned to translate for somebody in Stake Conference next week. I feel so bad for everyone that I translate for. It is SO hard. I always fall behind and then start simplifying everything. It also wears me out. Haha, it's a mental battle to think of words fast enough. When I translate into English, I often say the words in Japanese on accident. We never say "Study". Missionaries always use Japanese for that word, so the poor people listening to me ask what the heck I'm talking about and then I fall behind. However, I  do feel pretty cool when I remember really difficult words. I think the missionaries in my zone just think I have Horrible Japanese though.

Anyway, that was my week. I love you all and hope you had an awesome Father's day. Things are going really well out here.

Elder Low

So, this week was a little rough. We got a surprise call on Tuesday afternoon. President called all the zone leaders for a Mission Leader Council. So, Elder Gordon and I left the next day to Fukuoka with the Ginowan zone leaders. Those Ginowan zone leaders are the best. They are fun and fun to be around, but they also know how to be missionaries.

So, we all went to MLC thinking that we were going to get yelled at. However, it was a really good meeting. Kaicho asked everyone to share specific plans in order to achieve our goals. We shared that one of our goals was to get the missionaries every teaching opportunity as possible. There are so many wards in the zone that ask the missionaries to teach Gospel Principles and we usually try to give that to the ward, but we talked about how maybe that's a really good teaching chance for the missionaries. When we shared that at MLC though, it seemed that a lot of the missionaries were bugged about it.

Some of the other zone leaders were talking about how Japanese isn't important to be a successful missionary. I think they might have had the impression that I'm leading a Japanese school. In the end, President backed me up and said he really liked the idea. Later in the meeting, he actually committed all of us to be teaching as many lessons as possible....including Gospel Principles in order for the missionaries to be able to speak more fluidly. I think a lot of the missionaries in the mission aren't learning this language. It's so difficult.

So, this Sunday, I gave a talk in church. I talked about the blessings of sharing the gospel. I talked about Mom and Dad and their "How they met" story. (by the way, all the missionaries in my mission think my parents have the cutest story. KACHAOW!) The ward seemed to be really touched. It was wonderful. After that, we taught Gospel Principles class, because the ward asked us to and then we taught a special PMG class to the youth of the ward. That's going to start being a thing here. The bishop was really pleased with us this last week.

As far as the work, our area has had a lot of neglect recently. We had the week away in Miyako and the week away with the Yonabaru issue and the trip to Fukuoka. All of our investigators have kinda disappeared. I was so upset with our numbers last night. However, we are going to pick it up this week. We still have our couple and we're going to go find a couple more people this week so we can start teaching people again. Our golden couple's appointment was the day that we were scheduled to come to Fukuoka so we had to postpone our meeting, but they are doing really well. I'm SO excited to meet them again. They are SO cool! I can' wait.

Anyway, thank you all for your support. I am overwhelmed with all your emails of encouragement. I feel pretty special. So thank you. I love you all so much.

Going to make you proud,

Elder Low