From the set of Frozen...

Elder's Eliot and Spurling

01/25/2015
Hey everybody. Our week wasn't amazingly exciting this week, but some cool stuff did happen. We were out housing a few days ago, and found this cool extremely prepared women. She is wanting to find the true church of God on the earth. She full on believes that it's here, she just doesn't know where to find it. We gave her a Book of Mormon. We'll see where that goes. I got to go on splits with Elder Yamada, my District leader. He was way cool. He is fluent in English too so that helped a lot. 

Oh and did I mention the blizzard we had this week? No I didn't? Oh ok let me tell you about that. We walked out our front door, and I sunk up to my knee. Remember if you haven't seen me for a while I'm tall. There was a lot of snow. There still is too. There are several pathways in which the snow is above my head. By quite a few feet too. Oh and also the ocean is frozen. There are Icebergs. Lot's of them. I have pictures too. And I have really cool videos that i can't send so you'Ll have to wait till i get home to see them. We walked on Icebergs this morning. It was soooooooo cool. We also went with the rest of the district today to play a bunch of sports. I discovered, that I'm not have bad at badminton. So yeah. 

The rest of our week was pretty normal. Nothing super amazing. We do have one investigator coming to church every week again now, so that's good. Shout out to my Mom, my Sister, and my Uncle who had Birthdays (that I might have forgotten.....) I'll get you presents, but since things are so expensive to send from here, and I don't have money, I'll just bring them home with me. 

This is a blizzard!

I've got to say, I love writing in my Journal. I used to hate it, but I love going back in my Journal and reading entries, and laughing at the things that were happening during it. I have written it as though many other people will be reading it so you can all have fun with that eventually. If you aren't currently writing in a Journal, start it. It's a commandment, and it's way awesome too. Stop being disobedient, and just do it. Love you. Also Shout out to my friend Jeff. Leaving for Nagoya Japan (to be a missionary) here in a week. Good Luck Jeff. がんばてね。

Well I think that's about it this week. Love you all.

Bye bye.

Elder Eliot.

Where I live

Mountains remind him of Utah

Elder Spurling's not too strong

This is the ocean!!!

Kelson walking on the ocean! FREAK!!!

Add caption

Snow anyone?

The Seed Example

What it's all about!

01/18/2015

Hey everyone.

So this week was kind of cool.

We went to Kitami, and saw our friends, and had a cool DTM (District Training Meeting), and received a ton of revelation for 2 of our investigators, and then just did a lot of housing, and pinging, and weren't seeing to much success, but we decided, we were going to challenge our only 2 stronger investigators to baptism. We met with the one Tuesday night, and had this really cool plan to use Alma 32, and the Seed example, to get her to want to be baptized. We watched the restoration video, and then got ready to dive into it, but then she had questions about some anti-Mormon stuff she found online. So the whole lesson turned into answering her questions, and then giving her a Joesph Smith pamphlet. Didn't go so well. But we did slyly "accidentally" leave the DVD at her house, hoping that maybe she'd watch it again.

Anyway, then we decided we wanted to meet with her and our other investigator, (Higaki san, and Kanaya san) at the church. Elder Spurling Called them, and they were both way down to meet with us, and then he asked them if they could do it at the church (with other members just btw) and they were both kind of like "umm. mmm maybe... not sure... ok" and they both said they could. YES. miracle there.

Then on Friday, we went to meet with a new investigator we found named Aoki san. We didn't get to talk with him a lot, but it does seem like he has some interest and we have another appointment, so we'll see where that goes. Then we had an Old Investigator call, that wanted to meet us. Sadly we didn't get to pick her up, because, she is really busy. We had never met her, and she literally had only 30 minutes, and it wasn't normal. But she is way strong, and Golden Investigator material, we just need to have time to meet with her. We'll see where that goes. 

Then I stopped this guy on the street (pay attention, cause this part is way cool) I started telling him about who we were, and asked him if he had ever thought about the meaning of life. Per usual for Japanese people, especially those under 30, he hadn't. So I asked him, why he thought he was on this earth right now, except I messed up my Japanese so badly. It was funny, but he was really chill, and did have a question for us about Christians. He wanted to know the difference between Catholicism, and Protestant churches. We told him about how Protestant churches are branches off of Catholicism that are trying to "reform" the old church of Christ. Then he asked us which one we were. The thing that Elder Spurling then said "That is a question isn't it" So we asked him if he had some time, and he kind of did, he said Oh I've got my job, and there's time, but he was going towards his hotel, so we caught him on it, and he said Ok we can talk on the way to my hotel, and it just so happened, that the our church was right on the way. As we passed it, we invited him to come in, and he was like way excited, and we get in, and he starts looking for the cross. In the end, he started teaching him all about the restoration. Lesson 1 for those who understand missionary language. The best part is the entire time, he was talking about how cool it was, and full on understood it. He took a Book of Mormon and really wanted to read it. He was ready to pay for it, and then we told him it was free. The only bad part, is he doesn't live in Hokkaido. *face palm* He lives down in Sendai. But his job (which by the way he told us was "secret") takes him all over the country. But he did say the next time he came he wanted to meet us. He was way chill, and was using all this informal Japanese to talk about how awesome all this was.

Anyway then we taught Kanaya and Higaki on Saturday, and it went ok. In the end, we dropped Kanaya, and got Higaki to start coming to church again. *fist pump with tears*

Long story short, we only have 2 investigators now, and one of them is brand new.

We going to do lot's of finding.

Well that's it for this week.

Love all of you

Do something for someone else this week for free.

Love life, and love homework, and love oranges. :)

Elder Eliot

Since he hasn't sent any photos lately, here's a classic!

When you brush your teeth, the tooth brush goes in your mouth, not your ear!!

01/11/2015

New Sapporo LDS Temple, will be finished in 2016

Hey everyone.

So this week wasn't too exciting. We went to Kushiro for Zone Training meeting last Monday, and learned a lot of cool things. One of the cool things about that day, was it was one of my zone leaders birthdays. Elder Brackner, (who is from Payson, UT btw) turned 21. Me, Elder Spurling (my companion), and another guy in the zone made a song for him. I played "the dumb song" and Elder Spurling sang a bunch of crap he made up on the spot, and then Elder Dennison rapped. It was fun. 

Other than that we had a normal week of Dendo (contacting people). We had a cool guy that we found through a housing contact come to church yesterday. He didn't actually have a lot of interest, he apparently just promised us that he would come to church. But he did come, and that is a huge step, so we'll keep an eye on him, and keep encouraging him a little bit at a time. 

Huh?

We had fun yesterday too. We went with our Ward Mission Leader (local member that is assigned to help the missionaries) Home Teaching, and I used an example about following the prophet using Origami. I gave them all a piece of paper, and told them to make what I make. But then I didn't tell them anything I just made it. Then I told them that they needed a prophets voice to tell the people what God was wanting, and how to do so. I then proceeded to teach them how to do it, and it evolved into one persons being good, because she asked questions, and "studied" the "prophets words" and the rest being kind of meh, with Elder Spurlings being something entirely different, because they were all listening, but kind of, some only sort of asked for help while others didn't at all, while Elder Spurling didn't even watch, and just did it as well as he could with listening. IT was funny. Welp. 

Other than that, we didn't have to much happen this week. Your all awesome. I'll send you some pictures next week. I haven't had a chance to get to many. Remember to be grateful for how warm it is there, because it is colder here. Don't forget, when you brush your teeth, the tooth brush goes in your mouth, not in your ear.

Lot's of love from Japan

(still can't believe that I'm here)

Elder Eliot

Abashiri Prison (Japan's equivalent to Alcatraz)

01/01/2015

Hey everybody.

Elder Eliot here.

So really really long week eh. Our Preparation Day was moved (from Monday) for us so that we could have it to check stuff out on New Years Day, and then we needed to move it one more day because of all of the things we had planned for New Years with members. So yesterday wasn't P-day after all. Thats Today.

We've had a lot of fun out here in Abashiri. We finally got our heater fixed in our apartment, so now we won't freeze to death. That was fun! Christmas day we were actually in Kushiro (a city about 100 miles south of Abashiri). We went down to Kushiro to have a zone Christmas activity. It was a lot of fun. We played a bunch of different games, and had a gift exchange (I got a bunch of chocolate, it was yummy) Then we came back to Abashiri, and went with our Ward Mission Leader around Caroling. It was a lot of fun. We met a lot of cute young families. 

Yesterday for New Years we went to a Shinto Shrine, and did the whole Japanese culture thing where you throw the money in the box and clap and ring the bell and all that stuff (repent of your sins). It was cool. If you ever look anything up about Shintoism it is very obviously apostated Christianity. The shrine layout is basically exactly like Moses tabernacle. They have the whole washing basin, sacrifice alter, unleavened bread (which is mochi), and the Holy of Holies per usual. It was cool. We went after to eat at a church members house, at which we at a lot of food, and then after played a game. We played Scripture Trivia. It was a lot of fun. We all came up with difficult questions based off of the scriptures. For instance, the hardest one for me was: When Noah's ark finally landed, it was on a mountain. What was the name of the mountain? Yeah I didn't know. But that was a lot of fun too. 

We've done a lot of housing, and my Japanese has improved 10 fold. It's still not very good, but it's up there. I can actually tell people what we are doing. It's been a lot of fun. It's way cold though. Just on the walk over to the church my face froze. I couldn't feel it at all.

Oh just a thing to add to the achievements list. I have tasted the best Sushi in the world. The best sushi is in Japan right? Well the best sushi in Japan is in Hokkaido, and the best sushi in Hokkaido is in Kushiro, and the best sushi in Kushiro is at a place called Matsuria. We went and ate there for Christmas lunch. It was very good.

I've kind of run out of Idea's for what to write about. lol. I guess I'll look through my journal, and give you more stuff next Monday, since it's not to far away. I love you all and hope you had a very happy new year, and a very Merry Christmas.

Until next monday,

Be kind, and love your neighbor.

Elder Eliot

Drunk sleep message stuff. I'm so tired. In fact I'm so tired I didn't realize until just now that I forgot to go do!

Otaru District Missionaries

12/21/2014

Hey everyone

So yeah I'm in Abashiri right now (see map below). This week has been crazy, so I'm going to give you a run down of each day. As the subject says, I am super tired, so if my enlishs doesn't make sense, or if it isn't spelled right, good luck. And don't shoot me.

Monday: My last Pepraration-Day in Otaru. We finished emailing, and then went and bought groceries, and ate yummy food, and then we went and visited, for the last time, Watanabe Kyodai (kyodai means brother, and prefixes are suffixes in Japan) (he is one of the Less Actives that is now reactivated) It was a somber meeting. I'll send pictures. He's way cool though. He makes model tanks (which will be in the pictures) and they are really good. Those are also in the pictures

Tuesday: Last day in Otaru. We had District Training Meeting (DTM) in the morning. We had a testimony meeting for that, because it was the last DTM for 3 of the sisters in our district, and 2 of us elders were transferring. It was cool. Way awesome to get to hear dying missionaries (returning home) testimonies. I have pictures of our district too that should send. After that, we went and visited another member to say good bye, as well as a less active who is still less active. They were both really cool, and I was sad to say good bye to them, but had to move on. That night The Sakumas fed us dinner. Bishop Sakuma  couldn't come, because he was sick, but Sackuma shimai (sister) and their kids came. It was a lot of fun, and I was able to say goodbye to them. It was kind of a solumn day. I cried on the inside alot

Wednesday: Transfer day. Hey just kidding. Don't know if any of you have been following weather in Hokkaido or not, but on Wednesday and Thursday, there was a blizzard hurricane type thing. It was insane. Some people died from it. That morning, we got a call from our district leader that told us to stay inside all day. Turns out the storm only occurred on the eastern side of the island of Hokkaido, and most of the missionaries were in Sapporo, so no missionaries got hurt. Nothing even happened in Otaru. There was a fair amount of wind but that was all. We stayed inside all day. I made sure I was fully packed, and ready to go, and then we played Japanese Chess, we cleaned, I watched the washing machine wash clothes, Best day ever. (#actuallastdayinotaru #veryboring)

Thursday: Actual Transfer day. Got up early this morning, and got all of my stuff put together, and we headed for the Sapporo Train Station. We got there and started meeting with all the missionaries, when Boom. There's Elder Spurling (my new companion). He's so much shorter than I thought he'd be. But he is so awesome. He's so hippster. He pulls it off too. He is way cool. He has an amazing voice too. And I'm killing him this transfer (his mission ends in February). Yup this is his last transfer, and I am going to kill him. How fun is that. So yeah we met up and went to the city of Shinoro. Because of the Storm, we couldn't go back to Abashiri yet, so we went and stayed in Shinoro, and Dendoed there for a little while. We got to meet some of Elder Spurling's old Investigators, and member friends (he was in the Shinoro area for a while). It was fun

Friday: Also in Shinoro. Met this cool american that has lived in Japan for 10 years. He still can't speak squat. And his wife is Japanese. I don't know how that works, but apparently it does. He was cool. But yeah once again we were in Shinoro all day.

Satuday: We finnaly got to go to Abashiri. We woke up early in the morning, to go to catch a bus for a 6 hour ride to Abashiri. Soooooo long. I slept for some of the ride, and then sat there bored for the rest of it. It was long. When we got back, we spent the rest of the time making cookies, and a musical number for the Christmas party, then we went to the Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, but it was small numbers. Abashiri has a branch of about 22 members. It's so much different from Utah. But yeah that happened, and it was fun

Sunday: So Abashiri got hit by that storm, and that's why we couldn't go back yet. There is quite a ton of snow. It's higher than my head. But the biggest problem, is the Sun comes out still. It melts the snow, and then it goes down, and it FREEZES. There is solid ice all over any road that isn't a main road. I slipped 4 times. I really hurt myself on one of them. It's pretty insane. but we still had fun. I got to bless the Sacrament for the first time on my mission (in Japanese) it was fun. We went and did some Dendo after that. It was so sketchy. I hate ice I've decided. It's the worst. Ice just straight up sucks. but yeah. Then the Ward Mission Leader and his Wife fed us that night because it was Elder Spurling's BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. he just turned 21, and his birthday is on the 21st. Lol. Golden birthday. He's so old...

So yeah that was my week. Sorry I am so tired, and dead. I can't even think straight enough to write stuff. This will forever  be known as one of the worst messages I've ever sent. Oh well

Merry Christmas to all. Love you all so much. See you in what seems like a long time but actually wont be sadly enough.

Bye

Elder Eliot

Sapporo Mission Areas, Kelson is in Abashiri (north coast)

This is the beach, not Santa Cruz!!

This man makes army tank models

Last goodbye to Otaru missionaries

Funny, English sign

Transferred, Already!!

Kelson's Dad here, so as you will see below, Kelson has already got transferred to a new city.  That was fast.  Don't know any details other than all is well.  He loved where he was at in Otaru and his attitude is good about his new journey!  He is going to Abashiri. It is a city of 40k on the northern part of Hokkaido Island on the ocean again.  It has less snow, but is much colder.  Good thing we bought him those boots!

Shawn

The Abashiri Frozen Ocean

12/14/2014
So yeah. If you do bother to read the subject lines (which I believe are hilarious, but you know in janai) you would know that I got my transfer call today. No need to worry. It's perfectly normal. Rostedt Choro (elder) is still awesome, and I'm not being taken really quickly because of some weird thing or something like that (can you tell my brain is sort of fried/in shock right now?) The mission office just had trouble getting tickets for the dying missionaries (those going home) at a certain time, and so all of the transfer stuff is a day early this transfer, and a bunch of other reasons I don't understand. So basically I'm going from one beach to another (speaking of beaches I'm sending a cool pic of Rostedt choro on the beach with a guitar in the snow.) Clear across the island. Around mountains. I'm going to see Icebergs. So yeah. I got a call this morning from the Japanese AP (Sato Choro) and he said a bunch of stuff in Japanese of which I couldn't understand because it was on a phone, and it was fast, and then I got told I'm going to Abashiri with Spurling Choro. I don't know anything more than that so I will tell you more next week.

Sadly however that means that it's time for more missionaries to die (go home). Including one of the Sisters that has been in Otaru this transfer, who I kind of look at as my mission mom (Rostedt choro being my dad, because he trained me, and therefore Roopinia choro (Elder Rostedt's trainer) being my grandfather), because of the help she gave me. She was way awesome to work with, but now she's dying (going home). If any of you ever meet a Sidney Horne, tell her from me that she's awesome. We'll all miss her a lot out here. She was a really good missionary. 

So yeah now I get to cry about her leaving, and me leaving all the awesome people in Otaru. 

Oh well I can get over it. The Lord wants me in Abashiri, and I'm going there. He gave me my preference in the beginning (of being in Otaru), and now I've told him to go with his preference. So that's where I'm needed. 

Well I'm sorry I can't think of anything else to write about this week.

Just remember to always where your pajamas on the inside of your suit and not the outside. It's really weird looking when you have in the other way around. 

Love you all.

Until next week.

Final farewell from Otaru.

See you in Abashiri next week (sort of since I won't actually see you)

Yup

Bye

I'm really done

I'm not stalling.

Bye

Elder Eliot

"Lime"

Snowy Otaru Canal

 12/08/2014
Yup! another one of those subject lines that I can't think of a subject for. Classic. Therefore I hereby dub this Subject line "Lime"

Hi everyone. 

It's me. 

Yeah that guy that's in Japan.

Yeah I know that you kinda forgot about me. I mean seriously it's been like 2 months. Or wait. 1 week. Yeah that's about the same. I don't know if I've ever said this before, but I totally agree with the guy that hosted me at the MTC. On your mission, the weeks feel like days, and the days feel like weeks. So yeah another week has come and passed. How did that happen.

Oh by the way we got snow. Wow we got snow. One night it just decided to dump. There must've been a foot of snow. I'll take a picture sometime of the roads to send, but the Japanese people don't care about it. They leave the snow for the most part. They will plow main roads, and the few roads that they can't plow, but need the snow gone, are you ready for this, they HEAT THEM. They have heat systems under the roads, but for the most part the roads are all ice, and not asphalt. It's very adventureful. 

I keep getting reminded all the time that my companion is not from Utah. We were out one day and found a public staircase that is fairly steep. It had not been walked in yet (and in this area there was more like 3 feet of snow) and so I knew that it was dangerous. I go out and grab the rail and start to slowly go down. What does my companion do? He jumps. He dives and rolls down the snow. I was in shock. Why would you want to do that? For one thing it's cold, for the next, it's dangerous. 

Another example. The other day we were about to be late home, and we were already running on the ice. I was still having a hard time, and knew we weren't going to make it, already had slipped once, and he looks back at me and says "we can make it if we sprint." "NO" needless to say we were late, because I refused to sprint on ice. He's going to get himself hurt. I have to teach him Winter Survival Skills. 

But yeah that's a pretty good summarization of what our week was like. 

Well I'm out of time, (and can't think of what else to write. Saved by the bell) 

I hope you are all doing amazing, and having fun this Christmas time. BTW everyone read the Dec. Liahona/Ensign. It has some amazing stuff.

Love you all. I promise to send pics next week (I didn't take any this week. Oops)

Till Next week (month)

Elder Eliot