NO TIME! (7/19/17)

Alright I am running low on time so I will try to be informative yet brief. Sorry for having no time again. XS  Anyway let's get down to business to defeat this email.

Monday: We celebrated a YSA (young single adult's) birthday this day. It was us, the sisters and the YSA brother and 1 more brother. AKA our whole YSA. It was super rad and we ate Pizza Hut. We even had a only cheese pizza with maple syrup sauce. Japan Pizza Huts are really weird to say the least. Then we had a surprise Mogi (roleplay) but it went really well.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Nothing really interesting happened this two days but they were pretty good days. We had DTM (District Training Meeting) and just had time to find and whatnot.

Thursday: We talked a lot about the new Eikawa (English class) stuff and preparation stuff with the ward mission leader. It went really well and we had a lot of stuff prepared and were super excited for the next Eikawa after that meeting. Then we had FFEP with the Kudo family which was as fun as ever. We even had a youth there who tried to invite one of the sons to a young men's activity. Unfortunately soccer got in the way.

Friday: We had service at a members house which was awesome. We had a lot of time to talk with this youth who started to start being late to church. His mom was really worried about him so we snuck our way in there with this service and got to really know him and become his friend.

Saturday: This day we had an awesome lesson with a member about member missionary work. It went super well and we got to know this member a lot better because of it. I may of mentioned this before but this is the member who went on his Mission to Chicago. This was also the time where all the lessons were memorized word for word. You know like all the way back in my dad's era. Then we also went to an investigator's house to find that he really hasn't been home in a while. Probably down in Tokyo but we don't have his phone number :(

Sunday: Really awesome day. An investigator came to church, we talked a ton with members, and I also helped plan out a little portion of a wedding. Then I also helped make a video for the Youth conference of the temple district. Ourward mission leader was in charge of making it and he just could not figure out why it wasn't showing up on DVD and why it was so ugly when he did. Turns out he didn't even know he needed to render the clips. Anyway basically we were at the church until 5:00 ish

Monday: We went cherry picking with the whole ward. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! Basically it's like normal cherry picking but it's all-you-can-eat as you pick off the fruit. And the ones you don't eat you can buy for really cheap. Anyway I have pictures at the bottom

Tuesday: It was DTM and a sister's birthday. It was super fun. We did something similar to a bean shower and sang happy b-day. We also learned about the power of the Book of Mormon and how to use it to answer people's problems. We also had an amazing Eikawa! The lesson went smoothly, people were having fun and overall it was a great atmosphere. The real kicker is we got a new FFEP (basically English and lessons program thingy) going with a really awesome family, and a member gave someone else a copy of the "to the temple" video. The members were so helpful and wherever I looked I saw members talking and making relationships with the Eikaiwa students. The members are so nice to us.

Wednesday: I went to the temple! Sorry forgot to tell you guys, and forgot that we needed to buy groceries for these extra few days........needless to say it was rough not being able to buy groceries.

Anyway This week I really learned the importance of talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ. A lot of people don't know that there is someone who loves them and can forgive them and take away all the sadness, guilt, and heavy things from them. I know that Jesus is such a person and that he has taken upon himself our hardships and pains.  I know he loves us all and is waiting for us to come into his loving embrace!

I love you all and hope you all have had a great week.

Love,

Elder Harvey

Clever name insert here (7/10/17)

Hey everyone how was y'all guys' weeks? Mine was a super busy one. We went crazy visiting members and finding like crazy. Our member work is going really well too. We were able to talk with a bunch of members this week at there homes and were even fed a few times. We also made a ton of notes for people because this last Sunday was fast Sunday. So, we made notes for everyone who gave their testimonies thanking them for their support and love for the gospel. It was super awesome to see all the reactions we got yesterday at church! Everyone was super thankful for our work and showered us with love. It was really cool. I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting on how Jesus Christ is the light of this world. I connected that to the atonement and member missionary work and it all went well I think. I may have made some mistakes in Japanese but I think the spirit conveyed my message pretty well as I got a lot of comments and thanks for my talk afterwards.

This week we also got to meet our new mission president and his family which was super awesome. We got to hear all about their life, including their children, church service, how they met, their married life, you name it. President McClure is a very transparent person who loves telling the truth even if it's hard to say or hear. I think that is an amazing attribute and great character trait. President McClure's Japanese is also starting to come back thanks to his hard work, but it was funny having all the translation be for the Japanese missionaries this time instead of the young English missionaries. We also heard a bit about his vision and method of doing things. We could tell right off the bat his love for us, the Lord, the strength of his faith, and determination to do what's right. It was an amazing meeting filled with the spirit. Certainly everyone's spirits were raised after meeting with President McClure.

We also got fed twice this week which was a huge blessing! The first one was at a Viking restaurant. In case you don't know what that means yet, basically a buffet but the main attraction is the large variety of meats that they have. Which you also cook yourself at your table.

It's really fun and delicious. Then we had a meal yesterday at an amazing family's house. They made a ton of food but the main dish was lasagna. Interestingly enough despite not having an oven it was probably some of the best lasagna I have ever eaten in my life. Maybe I have just missed that food long enough but needless to say this sister was a great cook.

Anyways I hope you all have amazing weeks filled with joy.

Love,

Elder Harvey

Everyone in a food coma afterwards. :) 

Member Work! (7/3/17)

Hello Everyone!

This week has been a lot of talking with members here in Shinoro which has been amazing! We have been fed a bunch of food for dinners and we have been thankfully allowed into the houses of many of the members!

All the members here are amazing and are so nice to us all. We had a bunch of lessons and gospel talks that the members were so thankful for. They are so nice to us and take super good care of us. We also have been working really hard to help our investigators and find new ones! Though there is no spotlight points on that line of news. :(  I also got to go on splits with Elder Thurston this week in Toyohira as well! It was super fun and I had my first real service project, other than talking to old people. :) We were just pulling weeds for an hour and a half but we got to talk to this old guy forever, though he wasn't interested in the gospel. Then we biked up and down hills for forever and visited a bunch of LA (less active) members who actually didn't live there anymore which was really interesting. Though all in all this week has been a pretty good one. Sorry about the lack of details but I love you all and am so thankful for all of your support and love!

Love, Elder Harvey

Allergies!! (6/26/17)

Hey Everyone! Sorry this might be a short e-mail this week too. I have been dying from allergies and probably from all the crappy Japanese medicine I have been taking this week. But the highlights of the week are nice. Mostly everything that happened this week happened on Sunday. Overall it was a busy Sunday just talking to various members.

Elder Bachman and I are working hard on building relationships with members this week and I talked to a bunch of people. We even got a new dinner appointment out of it.

We also had a super long meeting on the new English class that we will be starting up pretty soon. All the rest of Japan started forever ago but Hokkaido is a slow place. Probably because of the effect of the cold weather or in other words a frost debuff. Anyway, It was pretty much decided that we will continue the regular Eikawa class on Tuesdays but will have the addition of the new Eiken course (a huge and super popular test taken by Japanese High Schoolers to show that they are smart and know engrish). We are going to have to advertise a ton for this but hopefully we can hand out 3,000 flyers in a week. We also expect to get a lot of members because of just how well known Eiken is. Whether it be young kids or older people it will probably attract them all.

Then we had a super long meeting with Bishop Ota. It was super nice because we got a lot better vision of his goals and vision for the ward. We also got a lot of support from him in our ideas and what we brought to the table. He is by far one of the best Bishops in Hokkaido. He also probably knows a lot more because of his leadership background and also being the ward mission leader once. (It was a really successful ward at that time.) 

Lastly We had a dinner appointment that night which was awesome. I made a banana cake the night before which was gigantic. I used almost 3 pounds of bananas on this thing. Even though we had us (the elders), the sisters, the kikuchi family (family of 5) and one YSA member we only made it a little past halfway through the cake. It was a ton of fun being over at their house and I feel I built a lot more trust between that family and the YSA member.

All in all this week has been pretty nice. Now that I am off all the Japanese medicine I should be back and hitting the streets like none other. I hope you guys all had a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Harvey

(Side note:  Zach sent home a video answering a lot of questions.  I wrote to him and told him that I could hardly understand him because of accents, speaking style and how he kept throwing in Japanese words and phrases.  He replied:

Hahaha yup! It's simply because I use it (English) so little and the people I use it with (e.g. my companion) are even worse than I am. Mostly because they are older missionaries or they are Japanese. It is really embarrassing when you forget how to spell a word in English when you are teaching a bunch of Japanese people and then they correct you. I am hoping for a bean (brand new missionary) soon though so I might have some practice, and have more Japanese practice too.)

Transfers! (6/19/17)

Hello Everyone!

So this week in the adventures of Elder Harvey we have transfer week!  I will be staying in Shinoro!!! And I have a new companion. His name is Elder Bachman, and was my previous ZL (zone leader). My last companion (Elder Thurston) swapped with him and became a ZL in Elder Bachman's old area. I haven't really gotten to know him yet though as I have been sick all week. It's kinda funny though because in my district (there's me and my area's sisters and Higashi's elders and sisters) all the senior companions were sick with the same thing. The only thing really to note is that I may have developed allergies and on Saturday we had Basketball! Of course I went ham and then felt even worse the next day. (^_^;) But oh well, I am going to an allergist today and hopefully will get better by tomorrow.

(As a side note, Elder Harvey mentioned that you can't just get over-the-counter drugs for simple things - even Tylenol.  Everyone has to go to the doctor or the hospital.  He went to the hospital for his allergies and received "an Army's worth" of medicine and it cost him $12.)

Love y'all

Elder Harvey

I don't have a title (6/12/17)

I didn't know what to write for a title, but a TON! has happened this week and I don't know where to start. We had an awesome Eikaiwa (English class) this week which was massive! We set up at least 18 seats and more had to be set up for people to sit down. It was tons of fun and always passes by so fast! We have two littler kids in the class which actually makes it way more fun! Little kids learn so fast and are so full of energy!  Haha. We also taught another family Eiakaiwa to an investigator family with a bunch of kids. After that we taught the kids and they had tons of deep questions about the scriptures and partially about life after death. It was amazing to see their faces light up as they understood and were like, "this makes so much sense!" And then one of them kinda ripped on Buddhism for not making sense, but we just were like, ahuh, cuz we didn't want to make any comments, especially since we don't really know all that much haha. They also planned a popcorn party for us this Wednesday which is going to be AWESOME! Their littlest kids were also hilarious, maybe because they were beating up the Colombian (Elder Thurston). 

Thursday was a slow day and not a whole lot to talk about there. Friday I had splits with a Nihonjin (native Japanese) named Elder Yamazaki. It was tons of fun! He also likes anime and what not so we had some cool discussions about that, missionary work, life, and gospel stuff. I love how I can always continue to learn new things about the gospel of Jesus Christ and progress as a person. I also learned a ton of cool things about Japan and dancing. 

Saturday was super weird. We had interviews with President Nakatuska which was super awesome, but that wrecked us time wise because splits plus interview travel took forever. Though we did have an awesome lesson with an investigator. We watched "Hope of God's Light", one of my favorite Mormon messages, and helped him put away some fears and really start to learn for himself.

Sunday was also awesome and the Ward is great! We had 2 members invite us over for dinner/lunch this week which was so sweet of them. I am looking forward to the last few days of the transfer. By the next time I mail I may be in a new area so look forward to see what happens!

Love

Elder Harvey

Pics from the past 2 weeks

I'm 20! (6/7/17)

Whoops sorry I forgot to mention that this week was temple p-day (meaning he wrote on Wednesday instead of Monday).  Haha. Though I legit have no time cuz I was sending replies to personal emails.

Quick rundown. This week has been awesome. This last Sunday was my birthday and we got fed by a member because it was Fast Sunday. It was also the member's b-day on June 1st so we had cake. Right when we were about to sing happy birthday, the member's wife who is also a member asked if there were any other b-days in June. Timidly I said that today was my b-day and the members were like WHAT! and the sisters had forgotten and their faces just looked so sad and almost guilty. It was kinda awkward. We also got an appointment for next Sunday with a less active which has turned into a dinner. We found a new investigator, had a huge Eikaiwa (English class) and lots of stuff happened. Sorry this is short, Next week I will write on Monday and maybe put more information in.

Love you all,

Elder Harvey