Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: May 2014

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

We saw the Pizza Man

Okonomiyaki Tabe hodai thanks to Ezaki Kyoudai!

Konnichiwa! This week we saw a lot of members!

Have I told you how awesome they all are? Takei Shimai gave me a haircut for free while Takei Kyodai made his delicious homemade pizza for us! He is so creative with it too, he makes this honey pizza, blueberry jam pizza, and anything else delicious. We had food after church again yesterday and he made his pizzas, they where all gone in less than 30 seconds!

Of course some of you have heard of Ezaki Kyodai. He always goes out of his way to snatch up us missionaries for adventures in visiting people everywhere on the edge of the area (which is huge) and eating at all you can eat Tabehodais with only the most delicious food. BTW Denny's here is way good! We had such adventures last week and will visit his whole family soon.

   Then there's the Branch President Takei Kaicho and the other Takei Shimai. Takei Shimai is exactly Grandma Parker if she were Japanese, she made sure she made only our favorite foods and even sent the leftovers home with us. We all shared our favorite scriptures and why. They are so nice.

   And many other amazing members there are in the Nagano Branch. They all live really far away from the church, but they are all like a family and are always inviting us over or dendoing with us. I am really blessed to be in this area.

   Well I found a new favorite hymn, 112 "Savior Redeemer of My Soul". The lyrics and melody help me remember the peace and comfort that the Savior and His Atonement has given me in tough times. And how relying on Him has made me stronger. I invite you all to check it out sometime this week.

   Today we're off to Catz Cafe for all you can eat Parfes, wish me luck!

Love y'all bunches,
Watdawg Choro

I've taken on the name of my father.

Baskei!

Basketball at our friends house!

Me morphing into Carnival mode.

Got these from my friends the Belchers!!! Many thanks!

Nielson Shimai feeling patriotic.

Okonomiyaki Tabe hodai thanks to Ezaki Kyoudai!

This is for the boys at the Cabinets!

Mommy would like this!

Monday, May 19, 2014

We gonna throw a Bar B Que!

Took these last Transfer, thought y'all'd enjoy!

Hi!!

I'm not sure what to write about for once. Haha. I was riding my bake down a hill, and crashed it. But the Lord protected me and my bike and we only got scratches. And we found new investigators!

   One of our new friends is American and came to the branch BBQ and church on Branch Conference. It was way awesome. Speaking of, The BBQ rocked. I can't say how awesome these members really are! And the kids are so cute! We had good food and family fun.

   We also had Zone Training Meeting with all the missionaries who just transferred to the Zone. It was strange that Bills wasn't there since he transferred out. Now I'm the only member of my doki in Nagano Zone. But all the new missionaries are cool and half the zone is Japanese now. It was funny to see them all sit together and listen to the translator.

   On Sunday, Yamashita kaicho and Shimai came to Branch Conference and gave great talks. I wanted to share a part of President Yamashita's talk; He told a story of a young lion who was friends with sheep. He was raised by sheep, and thought that he was a sheep. One night he was sleeping with his sheep family when a pack of wolves attacked. When this happened the lion was scared, but he ran toward the wolves to protect his friends. He realized then that he wasn't the child of sheep, but a child of lions. And with this realization he scared off the wolves and saved his friends. Then Yamashita Kaicho asked a question to all the children and adults too, "Are we the children of sheep or of lions?" He gave us a hint, its in Hymn number 301, even though the words lion and sheep are not in the song. Think about it. I looked at the hymn and realized the answer.

   We have a great inheritance from Heavenly Father. The fact that we are His children is simple and great, and while I doubted some things in the past I always knew that this was true. And now I know that the whole thing is true and I'm so thankful for the blessings that Heavenly Father gives us all the time.

   Well today I shall rediscover free haircuts as I visit a members beauty shop and have their delicious home made pizza! Love you all very much and ganbatte as some of you come to the end of your school year!

Love,
Elder Watkins in Nagano!

Branch BBQ!!!!

So cute!

Branch President with the kids.

These kids are awesome!

These Members totally rock!

Family fun!

Got this guy for way cheap. He's from 2009. Just a chillin on my desk Kamen Rider.

Old toys!

Monday, May 12, 2014

Transfers Episode III Revenge of the Smith

All 3 of my Doryos!

My grandpa, father, and me!

Brown and I

TuAkoi and I at transfers.

First of all, thanks for skyping with me yesterday family! It was so great to see you all before church!

On Monday we had our last pday with TuAkoi and Avarell Shimai. We Had a sort of campfire party except at the church and no fire. We sang hymns, told stories, and ate bugs. Yep. Avarell Shimai and I ate soy sauce covered grasshoppers as Nagano tradition. Not sure if I'm up for that again.

The next day was the big day for the whole mission, one long train ride and bam! Army of missionaries so large, it looked like the Clone Army from Star Wars, And once again, I reunited with my doki! All of them where there except for my boy Tanner Choro who's transferring from one desk to another in his same apartment. Omoshiroi desho? I also saw some of my MTC DaiSempai and some of the Kokohai from the MTC too. And my bud from Ueda Vaughn Choro. I saw my grandfather, Tsukamoto Choro, brother of Tsukamoto Sensei. And many other friends I did see. How great it was! All of us united in the cause of the Lord!

    Sunday after church the Branch did Shuon Dendo for the first time. Basically it was an operation. A bunch of the members gathered under direction of the Branch Mission Leader and split into 4 groups, each with one of us missionaries, and visited a bunch of less actives. We talked with them and invited them to come to Branch Conference next week. It went very well and was way fun. I would like to see this done in America too. It is really great.

   This week was also my first week with Chiba Choro. He is way chill. He works hard and plays hard and makes good food. He speaks no English, mostly, so neither do I. I am starting to think in Japanese even. Its so strange. Haha. I'll tell you tho, I really miss TuAkoi and Avarell. Things just aren't the same. But I will get to see them again. Its more the time that I miss. I treasure the time I have and take photos to catch part of it for a memory. Memories are very powerful to me. Its like time travel in your mind. But its also important to make new memories. Thus today for pday all 4 of us visited Zenkoji once again. Way fun!

    Yamashita Kaicho once told me, and you can see it in my bean video, that we will see many eternal friends here. I believe that's true. The people I've met out here don't, for the most part, feel like new people to me, rather I get this feeling as though we've met before. Its like finding long lost relatives. I feel this for all the members and missionaries I've met so far.

Well time for some photos. Until next week, matta ne!

Love,
"Wat-chan", new nick name from Nielson Shimai and the Branch President