Pokemon Go has helped Missionary work.

Hello woman! (That was really polite in the time of Christ)

This week we had staff meeting and I've started already for the next wave of missionaries and their iPads. There are 26 coming in hot! Last time there were 15 and it felt like a big group. I have no idea what this will be like! Although I have already got two Elders in the MTC being stubborn about giving me their information to set up their iPads. I wanted to just send them a real short message saying, "look kid if you don't give me your info right now you ain't gettin an iPad, aight?" But instead of that I said the exact same thing with a bit more professional language and a bit more explanation. Oh well if they continue to be stubborn I just won't give them an iPad. I have the power to hold iPads from people! They are not a right, they are a privilege. They aren't even ours they are the churches! 

I'm so glad to hear that the calf is doing better! 

Hahaha. The icecream truck. Good times. People always think it's pretty cool that my job was an icecream man. It's a lot like dendo in a way. 

Wow they are already doing the music festival thing again? Was that already last year??? That's so cool! That would be something I want to go to someday. You can just have a random huge massive country festival in your tiny town that no one knows about without going to it once right?

I haven't felt any earthquakes lately. But a 5.4 is pretty big! They say at 6 is when buildings start collapsing and stuff starts going down. (there was another one but he didn’t feel it I guess)

The other day we were in yodobashi camera buying air cons and the whole building started shaking. It went on for like ten minutes! Nobody else reacted though. Hattanda choro didn't even notice it. I'm not sure if it was a 地震or not but it sure felt like one! 

By the way, yes the mosquitoes here are rather large! I'm sure the bugs here aren’t as big as the Philippines but they are definitely bigger than America’s! The suzumebachi (the giant hornets) are still around. Nobody pays attention to them. As long as you mind your own business they don't attack. I guess. I'm still screaming like a little girl inside. 

 I've only seen like three lightning storms. It rains a lot but usually nothing more than just a lot of rain. But taifuu season is coming up soon! I'm pretty excited. Partly because I'll be in the office and I can just watch through the window haha. 

Ya so this week was way fast! I swear everyday I wake up and then BOOM it's already time to sleep. It's so crazy! 

This week we had a lesson with Hideki San. His baptismal date is still set for September 27th but he still kind of views it as a legend. But we're working on it with him. He's about to go to kamawa for work so he will be gone for three weeks or so. Please pray for him!

We have found a couple cockroaches in our apartment so we need to be cleaner. Not that that's entirely our fault. Cockroaches are just common in Japan. 

So ya this week we needed to go take out the dryer from the Fussa apartment and take it back to the honbu (mission office). It took almost 4 hours. It's so weird to see my first Japanese apartment with nothing in it! We got the dryer out and then I took elder Hattanda and elder Nichalson over by the train station to get root beer out of a vending machine( which is way rare here. The Japanese HATE rootbeer unless they are from Okinawa for some reason.)   Then we got some yakitori which just means fried bird. It's on a stick. It was raining a bit and we didn't have umbrellas but it was so nice to be back in my Japanese hometown! 

I love my companions so much. I have been so blessed! We have all become much closer lately. It's fun to have Elder Nichalson be from Idaho because we know what each other is talking about when we talk about the weather or like the fire seasons or the potatoes or whatever it may be! Elder Hattanda is just the happiest missionary you could ever find. He is a transfer and is already in the office with by far the busiest job in the office. He feels no stress. He says he is 喜びだらけwhich means he is covered in joy! Haha. He always tells me I stress too much. It's true. He gives me massages to get rid of the knots in my back. Every night I go out in the kitchen to pray.  Every time I come back into the room he is hiding somewhere. He always tries to scare me haha. He's pretty good! Then he gives me a hug goodnight and then goes to bed. Man seriously everybody in the office right now is just so great. Elder Rose and Elder Freschknecht are both amazing and so kind. 

We had splits this week. We completely forgot.  Elder Richardson and Elder Matsumoto showed up after MLC (mission leadership council) which got over at like 9:45pm and then they showed up to split with us. So elder Nichalson went to Hibarigaoka. Elder Matsumoto came here. We planned to go through the park and walk about an hour to get to mitaka. We used Pokémon Go as a way to talk to people. It scares me how widespread it got so fast. But it is seriously helped missionary work SO MUCH. We've been able to talk to so so many more people by asking about their Pokemon.! It's HUGE there were hundreds of people at a complete standstill in park. Hundreds! But yes while we were talking to this one kid I saw an old man staring at me. Then he came closer. Then he backed away to the other side of the road. Then he left so we kept talking normal. I look over my shoulder and he is literally like 2 feet behind me! Elder Matsumoto was like"can we help you?" He said "do you know elder Belnap?" Apparently he had plans to meet him today. We waited with him. After Belnap Choro came the old guys friend came and talked to us for about 40 minutes about who knows what. Literally didn't understand anything he said. Old men are so hard to understand. It's like a different language. We found some other potential investigators who were all Chinese. It was way fun! 

This week I've been trying to focus on serving others out of love for God and for them without any complaining thoughts at all. It's been so humbling. Like tonight we had planned out our PDay and everything and then right in the middle of emailing we get a call that the one week new senior couple got a flat tire over in Zama. After realizing they didn't have a jack we decided we needed to drive the two hours to go help them. It was a good thing too because they don't speak any Japanese what so ever. He's a very stern military man. Quite intimidating really. When we got there he mainly just told us all the things to prepare for in the future so nothing like this happens again instead of saying thank you for driving two hours in the middle of our pday to save them. But I felt really good about being able to help someone in need. He drove us as we guided him to a nearby tire store. That was terrifying. He drove way slow and got honked at, almost hit a wall, almost rode on the wrong side of the road, and scraped the bottom of the car all in about a 5 minute drive! But all is well in Zion. I was glad to be able to help somebody! We stopped by Costco on the way home. 

The year has felt like a week, the weeks feel like seconds and the days feel like weeks. Time is weird out here. It literally doesn't make any sense to me but I am grateful for ever minute the lord has allotted to me to be here. I love these people and I love my Father in Heaven. I want everybody to know that He loves them. That's why I'm here. I love it so much. And I love all of you! 

Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老