Basketball and Splits (9/25/17)

Hey everyone this week has been a really great one but I don't really know what to talk about haha. I had splits this week with another Elder named Elder Bailey that was a lot of fun. We found a new family to teach which was really awesome! Me and Elder Schulze also found an old investigator to play basketball with. It was a lot of fun yet a little weird because neither of us have ever seen the guy before. We just texted him 2 days before and told us he would love to come. We have also were able to get him to think about taking the lessons again which was really cool. I also got to see the ward mission leader from Moiwa which was really cool. Absolutely one of my favorite members on the whole Island. We also taught a few people this week which went really well. We also biked through some really heavy rain which was kind of fun despite being on dirt back roads. Haha. I also sewed for the first time in my life so there is another mission accomplishment. Though this week really has been overall awesome. Elder Schulze and I really saw the Lord guiding us through revelation and we just happened to always be in the right place and the right time this week. In all it was a pretty cool week.

Love,

Elder Harvey

Elder Gay (9/18/17)

So much has happened this week, yet it seems like we almost did nothing. The week started off with Pday where we went to Hitsujigaoka observation hill. Or in understanble language the Boy's Be Ambitious statue. It was still as fun as the first time. Probably because I had the chance to eat Ezo prefecture deer. I must say that deer is actually pretty good, but still second to horse. Then Tuesday was eaten up by our district meeting, travel, and Eikaiwa (English class). Wednesday was even weirder. We had lunch with a member and when we get there there's like 10 people (members and less-actives) there. It was kind of packed. We taught the message of the restoration which was nice though. Then we had interviews with our mission President which was supposed to be at 4 but ended up being pushed back until 6. So we were at the mission office all after noon seeing how we had to take a train at around 2:30 to get there on time and didn't get home until 8:30.

Thursday was the same craziness that it always is. We had our weekly planning session and Ward mission council. I also got a 30 minute lesson from our ward mission leader on Japanese. He pointed out to me where I was making mistakes and gave me some suggestions of what to study to improve. He really wants to see my grammar cleaned up. He says as soon as I do that I will be Japanese because the rest of my Japanese is so good. At the same time it's so good that it makes my current mistakes worse because then people don't know if I'm really making a mistake or not and get confused. Or in other words I lost my foreigner powers because the rest of my Japanese is too high level. XP 

Then Friday was mostly a normal day. It was all normal until Eiken English class. Our Ward mission leader brought in a new book for us to use to help people practice reading and writing. We also have a member who is a proctor of the Eiken exam who was taking notes on our teaching the whole time (because we asked him to, so we could improve). Then Saturday was EVEN WEIRDER! Normal day except that it kind of wasn't. The day started out with us trying to fix the sisters punctured tires and somehow I ended up sweeping rocks out of the parking lot of their apartment complex. I also ended up being the one to fix the punctures because my companion gave up. X3 Then we went and housed in a town kind of far away and couldn't even make it through one block (which is a good thing)  because we spent most of the time talking to this one lady about the missionary lessons. Then we had to head back to the Apartment to change to go to a broadcast of a meeting of Elder Gay. And it was absolutely amazing. We also had Stake conference the next day and got to hear another talk by Elder Gay. And now we are in the middle of a typhoon. Wish I had more time to talk about what I learned form Elder Gay but running out of time so if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Love,

Elder Harvey

花火‼️‼️‼️❣️ (Fireworks) (9/11/17)

今週花火ありましたよ！There were FIREWORKS THIS WEEK!!! This week has been super busy and super awesome and I don't even know where or how to begin!

We had a zone activity of which I have no pictures haha. It was super fun and had a bunch of awesome activities. Then we met an awesome PI (potential investigator) who said he wants to read the BoM (Book of Mormon) with us! Tuesday we went to a college and got the people there to post our English class flyers throughout campus which was really nice of them. And we taught an American about the Gospel. Wednesday we went up to Toubetsu and I found Japanese Fruit by the foot!!!! I was absolutely ecstatic about that one. We also officially got a Less-active member into activity and handed him over to the ward. Thursday we set up for an activity on Saturday and set up for a last minute idea of a church tour to be going on during the activity. 

Friday we had Mission tour! Elder Gay (the new area president over the Asia north area) came and talked to us. It was absolutely amazing! I wish I had a video of it to rewatch!  We talked a lot about the prophecy that Elder Eyring made about 19 years ago. Now with an addition of a temple in Hokkaido this land is just waiting to explode with missionary work! Normally temples have 17 stakes to fill them, but currently we only have 3. And some of the branches have as few as 6 members.  Though I am certain we are about to see a really big change here. 

Saturday we had an swap-meet like thing. It doesn't really translate well. Basically bring unused stuff and take other people's unused stuff. We also had an awesome miracle this day as well. It was late at night and we were going to visit a PI when we felt an impression to go to a member's house on the way. The members were good and we talked with them and got fed suddenly which is always nice but when we left we weren't really sure why we went  Then we went to the PI's house and there was no one home :(  Right as we were unlocking our bike this man comes walking down the street and introduces himself as the husband of the house. He takes us along to where his family and 2 other families are watching the fireworks. We had a really great time talking with them and have a strong possibility of teaching these families! We also made the understanding that among the people we first met was the wife of the house and a different family was there visiting who we thought were the people who lived at the house. ANYWAY, the fireworks were spectacular. There was one that was making waves with the colors changing, really impressive.

I love you all very much,

Elder Harvey

Themed pictures for the activity.  First theme is sports/funny.  Theme of second picture is super powers (ours was running fast).

Mission Conference (Zach is center of top row)

Food for Mission Conference

It's been a while.... (9/4/17)

Sorry about last week.  We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Trying to first even get a train to get to emails and then had to shop and make a subsequent 2 trains. Though we were fortunate enough to be invited over to dinner that night. Sadly enough I am running low on time......again. Big things that happened this week is that we picked up an old investigator who wants to be baptized. We got a really old investigator picked up and showed him what prayer was like for the first time. I gave a priesthood blessing which increased the desire of the person who wants to be baptized to be baptized. He quit smoking. We had a huge party last night with members at which I made peanut butter banana bread. Other than that it has been a lot of finding recently but people are starting to come out of the woodwork!

I love you all and hope you can see the blessings in your lives!

Love,

Elder Harvey

I haven't had blow pops or gum for that matter for over a year now. Needless to say I had a ball! 

Hi!!! (8/31/17)

Bye!

This week was great have literally no time so.....sorry

Love,

Elder Harvey

With mission president and companion.

Zach is back row, 4th from the right.

Top center.