Hey everyone, how's it going!? Week #2 in Japan down! It was a pretty cool week! I got to meet a lot of new people and do some fun stuff! My Japanese is still really bad, haha. I can barely understand anything still.. Oh well I'm trying! Narita is a pretty sweet city! I like it
here. It's so funny in stores and on signs when they try to spell stuff in English and it's completely wrong.. Makes me laugh sometimes! Wow, Kels is finally a missionary huh!? That's super crazy. She's gonna be such an awesome missionary. It's awesome Kels and Kelly got to have their farewell/homecoming together! There's another typhoon hitting us
right now! It was supposed to be worse than last week but it seems to be not quite as bad. Thanks for the pictures. It looks like everyone is doing awesome and getting so big. But y'all look great. I'm doing good too! It's tough but I'm pushing through! I love and miss you all so much!
Love, Elder Snyder
These are Jake's journal entries for the week. It's long, but there are some pictures at the end if you want to scroll down:
Sorry this is very long and you don't have to read it all but I copy a lot of it from my journal every night of things that happened each day!
Week 2
Monday, P-day! Today we woke up and did our studies and then did our p-day routine. We went to 7-11 to load our emails and then came back to clean our apartment and reply to emails. Then I took a nap which was great! Then we went to the church to send our emails and then
played basketball with some teenagers which was fun! After that we went housing. We did this for about 45 minutes before we had to go to a lesson and only 1 person opened the door and he didn't seem too interested.. Bummer. Then we went to a lesson with an investigator a
man named Miyazaki San. It was pretty awesome! My companion said it was the first time he ever read the Book of Mormon in a lesson and allowed us to pray. So he's making great improvements! We invited him to baptism but he denied it. We're going to keep teaching him and hopefully he'll continue to accept what we teach. I didn't understand a lot of it but when I did understand I testified what I could! So that was fun! It was a good day!
Tuesday was a normal day. We did our studies in the morning and then went finding! We found some people that seemed maybe interested. Hopefully some of them will contact us! Then we went to teach a lesson with a man named Nakamoto San. He was baptized the Sunday before I got here, but he's still considered an investigator cause he still hasn't gotten confirmed yet! He was supposed to get confirmed this past Sunday but he was sick. But that was a good lesson and I learned a lot. Then we did what's called mitsuketaikai, which is when we go to
the train station and hand out Eikaiwa flyers and try to stir up a conversation about the Gospel with someone. After that we went to McDonalds!!! Haha a Big Mac never tasted so good! It tastes just like in the US and it was just so good. Then we went to the church and
looked for addresses of less actives in our area book. There are sooo many less actives here. We're gonna try to visit some of them and get them back to church!
Wednesday was a busy day! After our studies in the morning we went to visit a potential investigator that we got a referral for. He lives in an apartment building about 30 minutes from where we live. We went to visit him and then he wasn't home, so we decided to just knock on doors. Most people don't answer the door, and when they do they just
say no and close the door. Then we saw a guy painting a staircase and decided to go talk to him. He didn't have much time to talk since he was working but we told him about eternal families and turns out he just had a child and was really interested. So we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and gave him our number so hopefully he calls us! We did more housing and met a Christian man (very unusual in Japan) that told us the Bible is the only book he needs... So that didn't go anywhere but it was cool talking to him. We found a few more people to talk to and gave one man a Book of Mormon. Then we visited one of our
investigators which is always fun. Then we headed to the church to plan our Halloween Party that's in a few weeks with some of the members. It was pretty funny cause they don't really know anything about Halloween, just what they've seen and heard on TV or something.
Then it was Eikaiwa! It's fun teaching English to old Japanese people who wanna go to America! Haha! Pretty awesome day!
Thursday we had our first zone meeting. We took about an hour long train ride to Inage and I got to talk to a lot of people on the train. Most Japanese trains are super packed so it's fun talking to a bunch of different people and it's good Japanese practice haha. Sometimes they just look at our badge and see Jesus Christ and just turn and
won't even respond to us... Oh well! So after that we had our first lesson with a man named Hoshi San after we met him on the street a few days ago. When we met him we gave him a pamphlet so he had a lot of good questions! It was a really cool lesson. We then had weekly
planning (which takes like 2ish hours) and then went housing for a while. We had a few people answer the door but none very interested. We then went to the church for a lesson with one of our (now former) progressing investigators named Okada San. He didn't show up for the 3rd lesson in a row now :(. When we tried calling him he answered and
then hung up so I guess he's no longer interested. He actually had a baptism date for the 26th so it stinks! Oh well though we were able to give away 3 Books of Mormon today so hopefully they go somewhere!
On Friday during our morning run we found some old Buddist worship temple thing.. It was pretty cool and I took some pictures of it. After our studies we decided to go out to eat on our way to a visit with one of our investigators. We went to sushi-ro for my first time! (Sushi on the conveyer belt). It was pretty good! Haha a lot of the crazy kinds I wouldn't touch but a lot of it was really good! We then went on a long bike ride to a little town to visit an investigator and a less active member. We had some good visits and then did a little streeting. We found a couple cool people but none too interested. We
had to rush back to our apartment to grab a bite to eat and then go to the church for our ping pong/FHE activity. It was really good cause we had 5 or 6 of our investigators there. It was a pretty cool day.
Saturday started off with Eikaiwa in the morning and then taking the train to Inage, which is our stake center, for Soutaikai (General Conference). The Saturday sessions were pretty sweet! It's awesome when we get to hear the words of our Prophet and other leaders. All
the American elders and sisters get to watch it in English in a room and the Japanese go to the chapel to watch it. In between sessions we went and did some proselyting and were able to give out some flyers. On the train back I gave away a Book of Mormon too which is always
awesome.
Sunday was day 2 of Soutaikai! We went to Inage again and watched the 2 sessions of Conference. They were pretty awesome! I'm glad we get to hear from our prophets every 6 months! We came back and had a lesson with a member and then another awesome lesson with our investigator Miyazaki San and the Bishop came with us. It was pretty awesome. Bishop said some awesome stuff that really got him thinking. Fun day!
Week 2
Monday, P-day! Today we woke up and did our studies and then did our p-day routine. We went to 7-11 to load our emails and then came back to clean our apartment and reply to emails. Then I took a nap which was great! Then we went to the church to send our emails and then
played basketball with some teenagers which was fun! After that we went housing. We did this for about 45 minutes before we had to go to a lesson and only 1 person opened the door and he didn't seem too interested.. Bummer. Then we went to a lesson with an investigator a
man named Miyazaki San. It was pretty awesome! My companion said it was the first time he ever read the Book of Mormon in a lesson and allowed us to pray. So he's making great improvements! We invited him to baptism but he denied it. We're going to keep teaching him and hopefully he'll continue to accept what we teach. I didn't understand a lot of it but when I did understand I testified what I could! So that was fun! It was a good day!
Tuesday was a normal day. We did our studies in the morning and then went finding! We found some people that seemed maybe interested. Hopefully some of them will contact us! Then we went to teach a lesson with a man named Nakamoto San. He was baptized the Sunday before I got here, but he's still considered an investigator cause he still hasn't gotten confirmed yet! He was supposed to get confirmed this past Sunday but he was sick. But that was a good lesson and I learned a lot. Then we did what's called mitsuketaikai, which is when we go to
the train station and hand out Eikaiwa flyers and try to stir up a conversation about the Gospel with someone. After that we went to McDonalds!!! Haha a Big Mac never tasted so good! It tastes just like in the US and it was just so good. Then we went to the church and
looked for addresses of less actives in our area book. There are sooo many less actives here. We're gonna try to visit some of them and get them back to church!
Wednesday was a busy day! After our studies in the morning we went to visit a potential investigator that we got a referral for. He lives in an apartment building about 30 minutes from where we live. We went to visit him and then he wasn't home, so we decided to just knock on doors. Most people don't answer the door, and when they do they just
say no and close the door. Then we saw a guy painting a staircase and decided to go talk to him. He didn't have much time to talk since he was working but we told him about eternal families and turns out he just had a child and was really interested. So we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and gave him our number so hopefully he calls us! We did more housing and met a Christian man (very unusual in Japan) that told us the Bible is the only book he needs... So that didn't go anywhere but it was cool talking to him. We found a few more people to talk to and gave one man a Book of Mormon. Then we visited one of our
investigators which is always fun. Then we headed to the church to plan our Halloween Party that's in a few weeks with some of the members. It was pretty funny cause they don't really know anything about Halloween, just what they've seen and heard on TV or something.
Then it was Eikaiwa! It's fun teaching English to old Japanese people who wanna go to America! Haha! Pretty awesome day!
Thursday we had our first zone meeting. We took about an hour long train ride to Inage and I got to talk to a lot of people on the train. Most Japanese trains are super packed so it's fun talking to a bunch of different people and it's good Japanese practice haha. Sometimes they just look at our badge and see Jesus Christ and just turn and
won't even respond to us... Oh well! So after that we had our first lesson with a man named Hoshi San after we met him on the street a few days ago. When we met him we gave him a pamphlet so he had a lot of good questions! It was a really cool lesson. We then had weekly
planning (which takes like 2ish hours) and then went housing for a while. We had a few people answer the door but none very interested. We then went to the church for a lesson with one of our (now former) progressing investigators named Okada San. He didn't show up for the 3rd lesson in a row now :(. When we tried calling him he answered and
then hung up so I guess he's no longer interested. He actually had a baptism date for the 26th so it stinks! Oh well though we were able to give away 3 Books of Mormon today so hopefully they go somewhere!
On Friday during our morning run we found some old Buddist worship temple thing.. It was pretty cool and I took some pictures of it. After our studies we decided to go out to eat on our way to a visit with one of our investigators. We went to sushi-ro for my first time! (Sushi on the conveyer belt). It was pretty good! Haha a lot of the crazy kinds I wouldn't touch but a lot of it was really good! We then went on a long bike ride to a little town to visit an investigator and a less active member. We had some good visits and then did a little streeting. We found a couple cool people but none too interested. We
had to rush back to our apartment to grab a bite to eat and then go to the church for our ping pong/FHE activity. It was really good cause we had 5 or 6 of our investigators there. It was a pretty cool day.
Saturday started off with Eikaiwa in the morning and then taking the train to Inage, which is our stake center, for Soutaikai (General Conference). The Saturday sessions were pretty sweet! It's awesome when we get to hear the words of our Prophet and other leaders. All
the American elders and sisters get to watch it in English in a room and the Japanese go to the chapel to watch it. In between sessions we went and did some proselyting and were able to give out some flyers. On the train back I gave away a Book of Mormon too which is always
awesome.
Sunday was day 2 of Soutaikai! We went to Inage again and watched the 2 sessions of Conference. They were pretty awesome! I'm glad we get to hear from our prophets every 6 months! We came back and had a lesson with a member and then another awesome lesson with our investigator Miyazaki San and the Bishop came with us. It was pretty awesome. Bishop said some awesome stuff that really got him thinking. Fun day!
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