BIKES! SPORTS! WHIPPED CREAM! (4/24/17)

I honestly don't remember a whole lot of what happened this week so I will try to make some sense of what my week was like. So Wednesday we had Zone training meeting which was really great. We had to go into Toyohira which takes time but that's OK. We also got news that we were going to get our bikes sometime between the next day and golden week.

We also did something for dendo, but all I remember is that we had a no show who told us he would come tomorrow and we also had a Book of Mormon given back to us by a new investigator :( 

Thursday we got our bikes which was really awesome! We also had apartment checks. The Arringtons loved how clean our apartment was and it went really fast because they  just had no comments.  Also that no show investigator once again was a no show. 

Friday we did something, at this point everything about this week has pretty much blurred together. What I do remember is making 3 appointments over the phone. Saturday we also had a bunch of dendo. I think this was the day we had a really good visit with an NA (non-active member), worked with a member and made a new investigator and an appointment, had yet another no-show and made a pass to the sisters (meaning they passed along an investigator for them to teach).

Sunday as always was super tiring. I talked with a ton of members trying to remember their names. We also found 2 KINJIN!!! (golden investigaotrs)  One was a 14 year old boy from Nepal and the other was an Old investigator who pretty much invited us in as soon as we started talking! It was great and he wants to hear the lessons again! Also today we had zone activity which was sports stuff. It was really fun and we contacted this lady in the park and taught a bunch of kids why we call everyone brother and sister. I also pied (with whip cream) my companion because he is dying this transfer (i.e. he is finished with his 2 years and is going home).

Love you all,

Elder Harvey

Happy Easter!! (4/17/17)

Hey Everyone! I hope you all had a great Easter this weekend! It was a great Easter for me and the people in the area I am in! Oh, and this week was transfer week! And I actually transferred. Elder Seki stayed in Iwamizawa and is training a new missionary that he actually knew from before the mission. We found out while we were doing a Yakiniku (grilled meat dishes) party for dinner at our apartment. Trainer calls actually come earlier than other transfer calls. They come in on Monday night so we were celebrating what we thought was going to be our last P-day together...we were right! ;) I also found out where I was being transferred to as well. I transferred back to Sapporo!! But, I am in the "countryside" of the city. I am in an area called Shinoro. It's pretty much just all houses and a college. Well after we got that call it was already 10:00 so we had to get ready for bed because we had DTM (district training meeting) the next day.

Notable thing about DTM was that we all had lunch at a hole in the wall ramen place - really fun! I also made arrangements to go to Shinoro the next day because Elder Seki had to pick up his bean (new trainee) which was gonna take all day anyway. So I started making a bunch of phone calls to investigators and members to let them all know that I was going to be leaving Iwamizawa. We also had a lesson/goach (dinner) by a member and their home-stay referral. It was a ton of fun! I taught English and then we had an awesome lesson and finally dinner. I was shocked to find out that no missionaries had ever visited them at their house before. Then we headed back and I had to pack everything to leave the next day.

Wednesday: We started out waking up early so we could meet with Masaki San for one last time. It was really sad saying goodbye but I know that he is in good hands. Then we were off and on a train. The funny thing is though I had to stop at Ebetsu first (city between Iwamizawa and Sapporo). In the short time I was there we had 2 lessons and a sushi goach by a part-member family. We 3 elders sat with the Non-member husband who is about 70 years old. He kept commanding me to eat more which was really funny. He also started to order things just to force it on another Elder hahaha. It was really funny to talk with him and eat together. Then after that I was on another train down to my new area. I arrived and dropped off my stuff to go to an appointment with an investigator which was really fun. To get to know me he wanted to arm wrestle. He also accepted the word of wisdom pretty well. He has already quit smoking 10 cigarettes a day down to 4.

Thursday: Don't really remember a whole lot. We had DKK (Doryo (companion) Keikaku (plan(ing)) Kai (meeting)), it was blizzarding again and we went out and froze one last time before spring really got here.

Fri: We had to prepare for an Easter party for the next day. It gave me a chance to get to know the sisters in my area so that was really nice. Then we went out to meet a bunch of NA's (non-active members) and I was in charge of finding the way there which is always fun. :) We also found a KINJIN ("gold person" - golden investigator) at the last house we knocked on.

Sat: EASTER PARTY! It was really great to get to know a few of the members and to talk with a bunch of non-members. There was one youth there who is absolutely awesome! After the party we went streeting out side an outlet mall like thing and their family saw once again. We continued to street (I used gaijin (foreigner) power to the max and handed out a lot of Eikawa (English class) flyers) and this youth comes riding in on a bike to give us some caramel corn. I swear this youth (his first name is Ken which is actually a common name) is a boss. We also had a great lesson with an investigator that I met for the first time. It was great and it was really easy to break the ice seeing as he had an anime towel and a lot of video games. We also had a really great lesson on the plan of salvation with him.

Sun: Went to church for the first time. This Ward is huge! I introduced myself to all the members which actually went pretty well.  The Bishop accidentally called me Sister Harvey so that was a great way to get everyone to laugh in my introduction. I also shared a testimony of Easter and the importance of the sacrament. Then after church we went around with a member and visited a bunch of NA's but almost nobody was home. :( 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and I know that Jesus really did live again so that one day we too can rise up from the grave to be able to live with him and our families for all eternity.

LOVE,

Elder Harvey

PS  Oh and I forgot to mention my new companion is JAPANESE!! His name is Elder Tamioka. This is actually his last transfer and he just finished being ZL (zone leader) for our zone.

General Conference!! (4/10/17)

Hey everyone! This week has been crazy busy! We have had our schedules almost so packed that we had nothing but appointments! Though we did have some time to go around talking to complete strangers this week.

Mon: One of the few days for finding! We went near a collage to go around and find NA's (non-active members) and just do some regular housing. We found a place with a bunch of really cool houses and found some new people who were interested! I also got to see a kendo hall because the back wall was a huge window!

Tue: We had DTM (district training meeting) which always eats up our time to dendo. Though we were able to talk with Katayama San and a new investigator. This day really was just a lot of walking.

Wednesday: This day was awesome! We went to Bibai (town north of Iwamizawa) to have a lesson with a NA which was really good. She seemed to really gain a better perspective of why we have commandments from God. We also met with a member referral for our Free family English program. It was really great! The person we are teaching has actually been coming to church since before I got to Iwamizawa and wanted to take the lessons because of our BRT with her. It's actually her first time taking the lessons even though she has been coming to church for I don't even know how long. But because of that the lesson went really smoothly and she seemed to understand a lot of things a lot better.

Thurs: We met with a member to start of this day. It was really good and I think it was really good preparation for the member to listen to General Conference. Then we had our weekly planning and then FFE with the same member referral! It was actually so good she wanted to meet again this day. This time we also had her church friend as a team-up for both English and the lesson. Once again it went really well and I think it helped her a lot. We taught about the plan of salvation and everyone was really surprised when I pulled up my family tree that led all the way back to Adam and Eve. Then our Eikawa (English class) was the biggest yet since I have gotten to Iwamizawa. We also heard from an investigator that he decided to quit smoking!!

Fri: We had a lesson with another really good investigator named koukai-San. Then we had some time for some finding around that area.  We found 2 new PI's (investigators) and came really close to a service opportunity but maybe the next time we meet him. :) Then we had Kid's Eikaiwa which is and probably always will be a blast! We had a member family and their nonmember friend family. It was SO much fun! I love teaching little kid's English. It's really funny to hear a bunch of Japanese little kid's say "She sells sea shells on the sea shore" really fast. XD

Sat: pretty much our entire day was eaten up by general conference (satellite broadcast of Church leaders speaking to everyone in the world from Salt Lake City).  Our dendo time was taken up strengthening members and phone calls to investigators and NA's. Though General Conference was really awesome!!  I learned a ton from the various talks.

Sun: Other than GC (General Conference) we had time to find in Horomui. We went because that is where the member we visited felt as we asked her to pray as to where we should go. The wind was SOO strong this day. It was chilling down to the bone. We knew that Satan did not want us to work in this area. We ended up finding someone towards the end who literally said I have no idea what you are talking about but you can come back again to talk. It was really cool!

Anyway I hope you all had a great week and for those who watched General Conference I hope you learned a lot and felt the spirit as much as I did.

Love you!!!

Elder Harvey

"BUSY BUSY BUSY!" (4/3/17)

This week has been a very full week! It feels like I have done so much that I cannot even remember what happened this week because some of it feels like 2 weeks ago! BUT, that is a really good thing in my opinion! :) Being busy is one of the ways to happiness as a missionary. Otherwise you spend 8 hours knocking on doors which nobody enjoys :3

Tue:  This was a really good day. We had DTM (District Training Meeting) in the morning which was awesome! It was a really good spiritual boost and also went really well with my personal study. It's almost weird just how well these DTM's have gone so perfectly hand in hand with my personal study. Then back to Iwamizawa to DENDO!!! We finally met with Iidzuka San. We haven't met him for the past 3-4 weeks so we were getting pretty worried but, we had a really good talk with him. He even wants to come to church and almost came on his own but then thought it might be rude or weird to walk in uninvited. To which we told him that was completely false and that we will welcome him with open arms and that we wanted him to come next next Sunday. We also set up an appointment with him which was awesome. Then we visited some NA's (nonactive members) and PI's (potential investigators?) and then off to a members house for some home teaching. It was really great and these members had a great time and opened up a lot to us.

Wednesday: We met with an NA member named Niiyama kyodai again. It was pretty good, we talked shared our favorite scriptures and shared a general conference talk. At the end he even gave us some handmade frogs from a friend. We also met with a investigator couple. Their church has some really interesting doctrine. We talked about the plan of salvation with them and they learned a lot of things that they didn't know.

Thursday: We visited another NA who we just picked up. We did a lesson invite and he said he would really like to talk about church stuff with us. Then we did DKK (planning meeting) which is always kind of boring but was really good. We even had a chocolate eating punishment game. SOO MUCH CHOCOLATE! Our Eikawa (English class) was also really weird. We started off with 2 people but ended with 6. We also somehow got asked to sing a hymn during the class in English. I quickly chose "O My Father" (Shout out to Mom) which was really good. One student asked us to teach them how to get to Motab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) and the rest of the hymns. We also were told "Next week you are singing it in Japanese so PRACTICE!". Needless to say I have already begun. It's really hard in Japanese :S

Fri: This day was splits!!! I was senpai to a transfer 3 elder (i.e. a senior companion to a missionary that has been out for about 4 months). It was really fun working with him and this day was AWESOME! We visited an NA, a member, and did some housing. Then we had an amazing lesson with Masaki-San. He progressed so much in this one lesson it was crazy. We taught a lot of things but he really gained an understanding of who the Holy Ghost is and how he talks to us. It was so amazing! He has problems with tobacco and alcohol. Though once his faith is a bit stronger he will be ready to tackle those things.

Sat: This day we went to Bibai (city north of Iwamizawa). We had a lesson with another different NA (we meet a lot of NA's haha). It was really awesome. We taught about the power of fasting to find out that even though she doesn't go to church she still fasts every 1st Sunday of the Month. That was until her Granchild started living with her. She felt the need to fast the next day to which we agreed (as that was going to be our commitment). Then housing and visiting PI"s.

Sun: Another super busy day. At church we ended up making three new appointments, taught a referral in gospel principles class, and talked with a bunch of members. Then we met with ANOTHER NA! He used to be the Branch President but right now he just doesn't have faith that God exists anymore. He is very knowledgable on doctrine and loves to read the Book of Mormon. All that is next is really building some faith.  Then off to another investigator which was a really long walk. And then off to a KINJIN ("golden" investigator, i.e lots of promise) which was an even longer walk. Along the way we felt much tribulation in our legs and backs. We took this as a sign that Satan really did not want us to go to this investigator. The lesson was absolutely amazing! It was his first lesson but he already has such a great interest in learning more. We both felt strongly on a baptismal invite as he asked about it a lot but the rug got pulled from under us on timing. Next lesson for sure he is gonna have a date!

Anyway that is a bit of how my week went. It was a really hard working really fun week. Everyday was super tiring but to me that is a really good thing. I love seeing the fruits of our laboratory and also knowing there are also many unseen fruits to boot! I hope all of you find as much joy in the everyday chocolate bar as I do. I also hope you find great joy in the every so often golden ticket. (President Uchtdorf; Forget Me Not October 2011)

Love Elder Harvey

A message from Harvey Choro.  (You'll see that spring is finally arriving if you make it to the end of the video.)