Christmas party and goodbyes (12/18/17)

Hey everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! Once again somehow a few days turned out to be a week. This week how fast time has really gone has finally hit me. This last Tuesday was our zone conference. It was absolutely amazing and I learned a lot! President McClure is the best leader that could possibly be here. We learned a lot how to bring more miracles into our mission and have increased our drive to do so. At the end of zone conference though, we have all the dying missionaries give a testimony. What really hit me though was that one of my MTC district sisters was up there too! It's official starting today that all my sisters will be done. It really doesn't feel like they should be leaving yet but that time has already come.  Pretty soon it will be me up there and I will probably feel like it's a bad joke of some sort.

This week we also had the Christmas party which was really awesome!  Before the party started we had a non-member volunteer to come early and help with the set-up. We very gratefully accepted his offer. What we had not expected though was for him to turn out to be a self-referral. We met this guy in the grocery store and he called out to us. It turned out he was a friend of a member. We exchanged numbers and a few weeks pass and he shows up and is like I would really like to hear more about your church. He is an awesome guy who has gone from church to church trying to find a faith he can really believe. What he was most impressed about our church though was how often we use words like "love, appreciation, amazing, thank you" and so forth. It was a really great lesson. As for the party, a lot of people came and it went really well! As the missionaries we did the "Helping Hands" comedy performance. We did it on the daily life of a missionary. It went really well and we were able to share a message on Jesus Christ and the meaning of Christmas. At the end of the party we gave Books of Mormon in which we had members write their testimonies and wrap as presents to the people who came in attendance. In all it was really great and really tiring! The best kind of day.

That pretty much sums up my week. The rest of the time was mostly spent finding or preparing for the Christmas party. Anyway I hope you all have a great week leading up to CHRISTMAS! I'm looking forward to writing to you all again on Christmas (Monday).

Love you,

Elder Harvey

The Hakodate Zone Conference (a regional training meeting for missionaries) took place this week and the mission president's wife posted pictures on Facebook.  Here are some with Zach in them.

The Dentist (12/11/17)

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty short thanks to Temple Pday but SO much has happened! To start things off, the temple is just amazing! I was able to meet with a bunch of members from all the places I've been to. It was great to see a bunch of my friends again! I also got invited back to Moiwa (first area). There's a rumor that if someone invites you to Moiwa you end up going there. So I just might end up dying there like my breaker did (he was also a Moiwa bean). I also got to talk with some people from Shinoro (most recent area) which was great!

The next day I was on Splits with Elder Hess. Not a whole lot happened but the one thing of note is that attached to our apartment is a card shop. We were able to talk with the people inside thanks to my knowledge of Magic the Gathering.  Sometimes really weird things just come in handy. （笑）

Then things got crazy on Friday. We had our weekly planning session but just as we were ending Elder Kikuchi decides to floss. As he is flossing I just hear him start repeatedly saying in a loud voice "Elder Harvey" I quickly walk over to find him holding a filling and a part of his tooth. Luckily there was no bleeding or any pain but that afternoon was pretty much us trying to find a dentist to go to. So we go to the dentist and are there for about an hour and a half just for them to tell us to come back again, because Elder Kikuchi's tooth is rotten in the inside. So we just move on, go to Eikaiwa (English class) for nobody to show up and made a an advertisement video for the Christmas party.

The next day (Saturday) we go back to the dentist and they work on Elder Kikuchi's tooth for about 30 minutes and tell us that we have to come back 3 more times all about a week apart. Poor Elder Kikuchi has to wait for his filling until it's all over. Then we continue dendo. We found some special mochi (rice cake) only sold in Nagoya and went to a ramen shop named Ikki. Just about everyone we have talked to has recommended this store, now I know why. Then we also had a Facebook class for the members on how they can help us on Facebook and how they can dendo for themselves on Facebook.

Then Sunday rolled around. It was a really busy day. We had Church, the Christmas devotional, trying to make appointments with members, and more. As usual Church is CRAZY for missionaries. We also had a dinner with an investigator family. They made us lasagna. It was really great because we also had a bunch of members there. In all it was a great time and we had a message about the meaning of Christmas.

Anyway this week has been awesome and very exciting. I love you all and am thankful for all of your guys' love! I love you All! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Harvey

Christmas and Hosts! (12/5/17)

Hey everyone this week has been so fast! It's really starting to look a lot like Christmas here. Mostly because of how much it snowed yesterday.... Though the members are getting really pumped up for Christmas here. I've already helped put up 3 different Christmas trees! It's really great to see that no matter where you go that the Christmas spirit is alive! It's really a special gift we have been given to be able to celebrate Christ's birth in such an amazing way. I have been really glad to see how well people are reacting to the light the world videos, it really brings a lot of happiness to everyone who is a part of it. Truly happiness comes from forgetting oneself and working to help another!

This week a ton has happened (as you can expect from it being longer than a week X) ) and a new month is here! I've been on three splits this week which has been really fun. Weirdly enough though, on one of the splits we were called by an investigator to help him move and made an appointment with him. Though he never showed up for us to help him with the appointment he made. We also haven't heard from him since...really makes me wonder if he's alright or not. We also were able to talk with an amazing member family that day as well which made the day amazing.

My companion and I are also working really hard to clean up our area book and we found an awesome high school kid and his family from it.  They have an awesome name too which means ash field. We also had a ping pong tournament which was really fun! Although it wasn't quite the turnout we were hoping it still went fairly well. From there we went to help a member put up their Christmas tree and had a great time with them.

We also found quite a few interesting people as we were finding (although it really is inevitable that you find weird people as a missionary). We found this one really sweet catholic grandma who really wants to learn English for some reason. We also found out that on her husband's side of the family everyone is Mormon! It was really bizarre especially since missionaries have never contacted her before!

We also found a host that night. If you are wondering what a host is imagine a girls bar. Now instead of girls it's guys so basically its a boys bar. He is a really cool person though and has stopped working as a host.  We also talked with another member family and it turns out the Husband is a total Star Wars nerd! He even had some small figurines, which is how we found out. In all it has been a really awesome and interesting week!

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season and can always feel the love of your family, friends, and those around you! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Harvey

Pink Stew, deer burgers and other delicious food! (11/27/17)

Hello Everyone I hope you are all doing fantastic this Thanksgiving season! We have had a great time this week with our White Thanksgiving! I never thought I would even dream of a white Thanksgiving let alone experience one. Although that doesn't mean I'm not happy to have winter come under way. Anyways, This week has passed by in a blink of an eye. This week consisted a lot of being at the church though. We started off the week with a thanksgiving feast as a district! We had a lot of great food like stuffed mushrooms, Chicken (no turkey X/ ) and the like.

This week I also had splits with Elder Burton again! He is an awesome missionary. We also had a thanksgiving lunch made for us by our amazing new convert Sister Yui! Her husband made us deer burgers with homemade buns, salsa, and smoked cheese! It was delicious! She also made us clam chowder which was a special bonus for me! Also we had an activity with the young men which went really well! The power of Gatorade attracted 4 potential investigators which was amazing! I also made home made French fries which were a hit as well!

We also had a lesson with an investigator family which went really well. They made for us a pink stew. We had heard about it the last lesson we had with them and all week were able to make contact with them through guessing what was in it that made it pink. (Not strawberry syrup.) It was actually squid and shrimp that made it pink. It was really good! In all a lot has happened, snow is here and I'm really excited to be doing a lot of snow shoveling again. :) 

By the way this week is temple Pday so I won't be emailing till Wednesday!

I love you all and am thankful for all of your guys' support! 

Elder Harvey

A short video explaining what raining cat's and dogs means. I learned from this that I can't English anymore. I have completely gone engrish mode.  (Also serves as a public service announcement forth English class the missionaries teach.)

ピンクシチュを忘れました。

Picture Dendo! (11/20/17)

Hey everyone! I hope all of your guys' weeks have been great! It's crazy to think that Thanksgiving is this week! I hope you all have a great time celebrating this year with your families or friends! Today we had a Thanksgiving district party which was really fun! No turkey but plenty of other delicious Thanksgiving food! I hope all of us can see the things we are thankful for more in our lives as we approach Thanksgiving!

This week has been a lot of trying to find new investigators. We started trying to do some new contacts since we have Line (kind of like Skype but a bit cooler and more hi-tech). We have been going around and talking to as many people as we possibly can and trying to hand out as many Books of Mormon as we can. Recently we have also been taking photos with all the people we contact! Everyone that we talk to has been super awesome people! We have been trying to contact a lot of High schoolers and College people recently. We have met some pretty awesome people that we hope will become strong investigators.

We had an interesting experience this week as well too. This last Thursday right after we got finished with splits with the AP's My companion and I forgot our keys. Our keys were with the other Elders by accident so we were locked out of our apartment. So we decided to head out once more and try to find some people. There is a card shop that is attached to our apartment so my companion and I decided to see if we could find anyone there. We somehow accidentally got into a conversation with someone that knew the missionaries because he has been streeted a bunch of times but has always rejected the missionaries. However this time he listened to our message, gave us his line, and we decided that we should go out to dinner sometime together. It was quite a miracle that we were locked out of our apartment, though we were late getting back X3 Anyways I hope you all have a great week and feel a spirit of love as you search out and find things you are thankful for! I know that as you look for things you are thankful for your day will be brightened!

Love,

Elder Harvey

Oh, by the way it is finally winter here! My face is already frozen. Everyone in my apartment is already using thermals except for me (I'm too tough for that XD) Though I will need to start breaking out some winter gear like scarves and the like. You probably already know but I don't have much hope in the near future of getting out of the negatives (of Celsius not sure about Fahrenheit anymore) We had a snowball fight after church yesterday with all the primary kids! Haha anyways I hope you all enjoy the winter!

New comp, New area, but same ole Eniwa (11/13/17)

Hey Everyone this week was transfer week! To my surprise I was transferred out of where I was. But even more surprising was that I transferred down the hall of my apartment! This transfer I am working in the Eniwa Elders 2 area. My old area is being white-washed by the Elder that I am replacing and his new bean (brand new missionary). That's right, I traded places with an Elder in my apartment. My new companion is the other Elder that was in my apartment, Elder Kikuchi! He is a Japanese Elder from Tokyo and has been out for quite a while. He is quite famous in this mission for his love of pigeons. He is also a black belt in Karate and overall a very fun elder.

This week consisted mostly of Elder Smith saying good-bye to everyone in the area because he is being transferred to Obihiro. It was really sad to see him go but we had a really great transfer together! Then I caught a pretty bad cold which really sucked. Though the Lord blessed me with the strength to keep going and I was able to get a lot of good done this week. It has been really interesting to transfer just down the hall because now the area just seems so different. We have been working really hard with an investigator who is pretty close to baptism and have been doing a lot of knocking on doors. I am looking forward to really seeing this area grow and doing the Lord's work! I hope all of y'all guys have had a great week and are safe!

Love,

Elder Harvey

Fire and Steel (11/6/17 part 2)

(In response to a message about missionaries in Germany leading up to WWI discussed in the book, "Fire and Steel", Zach wrote the following:)

That sounds like an awesome book, I really respect missionaries like that. It certainly takes a lot of courage and faith in the Savior to make it through discouraging times as a missionary. This week we watched Meet the Mormons and I had a similar experience. It was the story of the WWII pilot who started the candy drop. They never talked about it but the story so clearly stated the hope that comes with Jesus Christ's and Heavenly Father's plan vs the despair that Satan's plan brings. The little children whom the pilot met said that they were ok because they would have food someday (eternal life) but keep fighting so that they don't lose their freedom. If they lose that everything would be over. It just so clearly brought into my mind the importance of the Savior in our lives and how by Himself He changed all of our lives. In the story the man also got a lot of help and the candy drop spread and eventually brought down the blockade and stopped further war. Likewise Missionaries are needed to spread the good news of the Gospel so that people can come unto Him and partake of this amazing gift. 

Love,

Elder Harvey

Ice cream in Japan

The First Vision in Japanese that I wrote out.