Investigator sets a baptism date! WooHoo!

That's crazy that Heidi is here! Do you know where she is in Yokohama? I bet she goes to minato mirai. That's where the big pirate ship and landmark tower and the big Feris wheel is. We are going to Kanazawa hakkei today to go to Costco. I can't meet her on purpose but if I accidentally saw her...?

Haha Kure is so hilarious! I can't wait to see him again! There are two little kids in the ward (Lio and Sou) who remind me of them. They love Me! But I can't really play with them so it makes me so sad. Yesterday, Sou held onto my finger and I was walking him down the stairs but he tripped and cried but I'm not allowed to hold him so I felt so bad. Luckily his dad was right there. 

Elder Yoshikawa leaves after the end of next transfer. So I could be his last companion! I just never want to leave kamiooka!

So we went to a place called Taya Caves last week. (videos on the blog) It was awesome! Did you get the video and pictures? It is an ancient temple consisting of a kilometer of tunnels. It is seriously awesome. They started making the tunnels in the year 1192. It took 500 years to get to the tunnel it is today. There are tons of samurai holding katana, turtles, buddha, temples, birds, other buddhist god stuff, and dragons carved into the walls everywhere. There were also bugs with huge nasty legs about the sized of an iPhone 5s. If you put your candle close to them they fall and it is actually pretty terrifying.

We had a lesson with Brother Tsunoda on Tuesday! He has been coming to church every week! Let me tell you, he is the man! He is reading the book of mormon and feels good when he prays. He loves coming to church and the whole ward seems to accepting him very well. They all think he is already a member haha! We asked everybody to start calling him Brother Tsunoda and that seems to be helping him feel more comfortable. He answers questions in Sunday school and gladly prays in class. We were able to set a baptismal date with him for June 3rd! It's a bit far away but we can only meet once a week for a real lesson and even though he is learning a lot at church, we want to make sure he hears it all from us so he has a solid understanding. He wants to get baptized and I don't foresee any problems at all! I know it doesn’t matter in the end if I get to baptize him or not, but I just I hope that I'm still here in June! We are going into Tokyo, Kichijoji tonight for FHE at the Warnick's home with him. It will be so fun!  

Went to the dermatologist to get my foot checked out. I have a wart on my foot that has been just getting worse throughout my mission so I went and had them freeze it. We went and they were on number 20 and we were 55. So we waited for a couple hours. She was all like have you had liquid nitrogen before? I was like. Yes. Hahahahaha. She started freezing my foot and asking if I was ok and I was like, "No really, this is nothing!" Haha. But I will have to go back once every 2 weeks. (if anyone knows Haydon at all he get’s warts on his face, poor kid, he has had up to 35 frozen on his face at one time!)

I gave a training on language study at a district meeting! It was so fun! Speaking of language, I got to interpret for a visitor to the kamiooka ward this last Sunday. I was doing really good and then my head start hurting and I started getting way lost haha. Interpreting between Japanese is interesting because the word order of both languages are completely backwards from eachother. So you have to wait until the speaker has finished his line and then you have to interpret it and listen to his next sentence at the same time. Anyways I was having a tough time because I don't do it very often lately. But it was way fun! The speaker started reading a scripture without saying the reference and I knew exactly where I was reading so i popped open my scriptures and it worked out perfectly!

Elder Bradford and Elder Abe splits! Me and Elder Bradford had a really really awesome night. We decided to go to an eki(station) we hadn't been to before. We have like 30 in our area and we have been to all but  3 or so. We decided to go visit kaminagaya eki because there were some HUGE danchi(a big apartment complex) up there. We got to the eki and it was actually way suteki(cool)! There was an old guy playing the guitar. So we walked up to him and he says to us, "I met missionaries down in kamakura!" We listened to him play some songs. He could play over 500 songs! We just name a song and he could play it. It was pretty cool. We asked if he could play Kiyoshi, Kono Yoru (Silent night). So he just starts playing it. We were all like, "Do you know the meaning to this song?" You know, trying to share the gospel and he was all like, "No" and then he moved on to a rock song hahaha. He was a funny old dude. We then met a chinese man named Xiao. We finally got to building 607-2. We went to the 10th floor and knocked every door. Nothing. we move down to the 9th floor and the first door we opened was a kid! We shared 1 Nephi 17:13. His mom said to him, "who is it?" He replied, "Christians!" She said, "Tell them that we are Buddhist!" Then he turns to us and says, "my mom says we are 'buddhist' but you can come back on Tuesday at 8 pm and I will hear your message." So that was cool! We had to head back by this time so we started heading back. We passed by this one guy and without our saying anything, he says "hey you guys are American! Come and help me pronounce this." He whips out his phone and types "Dive in and be free" haha. It was written on his new mug. We invited him to eikaiwa. On the train Elder Bradford talked to a guy and so did I. (Different guys). On a road close to our apartment we talked to a guy who loved American fashion. Then I finally got to talk to a guy who I see ALL the time. He always ignores me but this time he talked to us all the way to his apartment! He is 66. He had really bad legs so he had to rest for a while. We talked about his 13 year old grandson and his 50 year old son and about life and the gospel and just everything. IT was so fun. Turns out he knows another local person we see everywhere! On the way back up the mountain of stairs to our apartment we met ANOTHER guy we see everywhere but usually can't talk to. His name is Fukuhara. His dog's name is Lala. He was so nice and said we could come back and talk to him! I learned that the most important thing isn't getting to the destination. If we would have ignored everybody to get to that danchi, we would have missed a lot of opportunities. But we enjoyed the journey and did our best to strengthen the people we met along the way and we had a great time!

I love you!

ドレーパー長老

Haydon would love to hear from you!

Haydon.draper@myldsmail.net

Lots of stuff on this one! Check it out... He's having a good time!

Last Monday we played soccer after emails. Elder Abe is SO SO good. It's unreal. He was a representative for Akita Prefecture in Japan! Needless to say, we were all extremely sore after that day haha. The next morning was torture getting up off my futon on the ground.

We had Elder Choi (pronounced chay) come and we had a big conference with him. He is in the presidency of the Asia north area presidency. He is from Korea. He is so funny! Talked so much about having fun WITH the spirit. It's so true. You can have so much good fun. As a Missionary you can have a lot of fun with the spirit. You don't have to be disobedient to have fun.  Disobedient fun never lasts. It only brings guilt! But had I fun within the bounds that God has given us brings lasting joy! He told us of a story when he was the mission president in Seattle. He made his mission a singing mission. They had to sing like all the time haha. Even in the shower.  One day he got a call from a missionary saying, "President Choi! My companion is in the shower but he isn't singing! What should I do?!" President Choi said,"Don't worry. Just let him enjoy his shows. When he gets out tell him to call me." Hahaha. He called him and he said, "President Choi I'm so sorry! I forgot to sing!" "It's ok elder, just don't make that mistake again, ok?" Hahaha he was just the funniest guy ever. He taught us how to be more creative in sharing the gospel and finding people to teach and it was just awesome. He spent like ten minutes talking about natto(fermented Japanese sky beans) and kimuchi ( Korean fermented cabbage) and how people don't usually like it at first. But the more you show faith and eat it the more you love it. Later I used that analogy to connecting it to faith two times! Also he talked about if we embrace the culture more, the people will open up to us. It's true! On the train coming back I said to a guy, "nice scarf!" He didn't answer. I prayed,"what should I say?" I said to him, "have you ever been to America?" "No" "do you like American food?" "I don't really eat it much. " "Do you like natto?" "I love natto!" "Hey me too!" "What?! How long have you been in Japan?"

From that I was able to teach him a lot about the gospel!

The next day we got on a train. And I saw some garbage on the ground. Then I was instantly hit with a horrible horrible stench. Naturally I went away from it and sat down. When I sat down I looked over and saw a homeless man sitting alone. He had a huge bag and he had a big coat and beard, beer, chips and both feet were in hospital boots. One was in a Shoe the other was bare in the boot. The other foot was falling apart. . Like literally it was falling apart and bleeding. I was instantly filled with love for him. I felt that I should go talk to him. Every time somebody got in the train they instantly went over there because it was empty.  Then immediately turned around and went to the other end of the car. I stood up and sat right down next to the homeless man and started talking to him. He didn't say anything to me but I felt how God loves him and I just wanted to help him so bad.

Oh and I got transfer calls! I will be here for at least 6 more weeks with Elder Yoshikawa! I'm so so excited!

Oh when you send a journal if you could also send Nutella. Honestly just those things would be good!

I love you!

Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老

Short email... But that's ok

We couldn't meet any of our investigators this week and nobody came to church. But we will meet tsunoda in Tuesday so we are looking forward to that!

I got Taylor's email! That is so exciting! I can't believe she is getting married! 

I heard about Joey too! He went in pretty young. I guess elder hattanda did too. I saw him for the first time since the office! He lost so much weight! I didn't even know he was at the conference until after I just heard, "draper Choro, hello!" And then he gave me the biggest hug! I miss him so much! He is still covered in joy as always! :)

This week Elder Yoshikawa asked me for s blessing. So I gave Elder Yoshikawa a blessing in Japanese! That was so cool. It was my first time doing so in Jaoanese. 

This week I started studying the two Almas' lives. In the Book of Mormon, Mosiah:18:30 I found this scripture. "...the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their redeemer..." and I had a series of thoughts. I love Japan. It is a beautiful place to me. But the reason I think it is beautiful isn't because of the greenery or the ocean or the Buddhist temples or any other reason (however those are very very beautiful). It is because it is here that I have come to know my Redeemer more personally. It is here where I have sacrificed my self to share the gospel with them people so that they might receive the grace of Christ as abundantly as I have. Another thought I had was that life becomes more beautiful as we come to know our Redeemer. I know that is true. No matter how dark life may seem, coming to know your Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will fill your life with light and hope. No matter how happy your life may seem, I promise that as you come to know your Redeemer, Jesus Christ, you will be filled with more light and more love than you ever though was possible. The last thought that I had was a quote from Elder Bednar in his face to face event. "'Love' the noun comes after 'Love' the verb." He was talking about how you may love somebody just by seeing them or knowing that we are all Children of God, but you don't know true love until you give a part of yourself to that person. In other words until you sincerely try to love them by serving them and learning who they are. I think that's partly why we all get callings in the church. We are given an opportunity to serve others whether that be a primary president or a Bishop, and therefore an opportunity to love others. 

I love you all so so much! 

ドレーパー長老

PEOPLE, WE HAVE A RETURN DATE....AUG 11TH!!!

Hello this is Elder Draper.

Ya it was pretty exciting to have so many people to come to church! 

(I told him of some experiences a girl from our Ward has had on her mission. This is what he said about that) I have lots of people threaten to call the cops on me. Maybe it wasn't as intense as her case but it can be scary. I've been bit by a dog too! Well I like to say that at least. It was a super nice puppy like Whitney with really sharp teeth and he ripped a hole in my glove haha. 

We went to say happy birthday and give brownies to an awesome member in our ward. We showed up at his house at around  8:30 and he was so surprised! In Japanese culture, when you give anything to anyone you are expected to give them like double back. So he ran inside and grabbed a bag of eggs and bananas. He was so happy!

So I got my "death letter". I got the email telling me when I will go home and some other stuff to help me stay encouraged for the last part of my mission. It's pretty crazy that I'm even that far to be getting that letter.  

We had a lesson with a Tsunoda San! He came to church again! He came the first time to give a donation but he came this time in a suit to learn! This is his 3rd time coming to church. He seriously already feels so much like a member it's crazy. We had a lesson with him on Wednesday. He said that he wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true or not and that he would read and pray to find out! He read every day of last week! So he is progressing nicely and we are hoping to set a baptismal date with him next time we meet!

We had MLC on Thursday. That's always fun! It's just like a super spiritual meeting with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders and President and Sister Warnick and the assistants to the president. Kamiooka did a musical number called Homeward Bound. It was pretty good.

On Friday we had District meetings all day and were able to talk to a lot of people on the trains. It's going to be so weird in America where there are no trains! On our way back to the apartment there was a guy with all of his stuff on the ground knocked over. We stopped to see if we could help but he is Japanese, so of course he said no. We noticed he was covering his hand. We asked him to show it to us and so he did. He had a huge gash in his knuckles! There was blood everywhere. We were all like "oh my gosh are you ok!? Did you trip?" And he was all like "Drugs?" Haha ya that response threw us off too. In Japanese he said "麻薬ですか？" which just literally means is it drugs? But it has two meanings in it. He was either asking us if we wanted drugs or if we were selling. Haha. So we were like "no no no!" And then he said "oh ok. " and then we left. 

We were asked to be practice patients for 4 hours for a nursing school! They practiced taking vitals in English and then we gave them feedback. It was fun!

Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked. We walked a lot this week. I read a talk that talked about the pioneers and how they walked a lot too. When you think of the pioneers the first things that come to mind may be the more dramatic events like pushing hand carts through snow or shallow graves or whatever it may be. But it wasn't always like that. Most of the time it was just daily procedures of walking and walking and walking. In the end it was the walking day after day that got them to their land of destination. Sometimes our lives may seem somewhat boring. But in the end, it will be diligently doing the basics that will bring us to our heavenly home. At the same time we may think our life is nothing but a serious of dramatic scenes. In either case the principle is the same. I know that no matter how hard life may seem right now, it will all be ok if we follow God. I know it. If we continue to do the basics, studying the scriptures, going to church and partaking if the sacrament, exercising faith unto repentance etc, we will be ok. 

I love you so much

Love Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老

He had 6 investigators at church! Happy day!!!

Hello! 

  

  

(referring to his Dr. visit last week) I spoke Japanese with the Japanese doctor but the "radiologists" couldn't speak English and they refused to accept that I could speak Japanese haha.  

  

So last Monday after p day we had a lesson with Kishor! It was so awesome! He is from Nepal. He cares a lot about Nepal and he wants so badly for everybody there to be equal. We taught about prayer and how he can receive answers to prayers. He prayed for Nepal to get better basically and at first I had the thought, oh we need to teach him about faith and the kinds of things we should pray for, but then I thought, "why reduce his faith?" I realized that if he has the faith to make Nepal better I'm sure that God will help him. That may involve him doing certain things to help them but I had the strongest feeling of confirmation that we are all children of God and we can have an influence on others. I know that God will help him to help Nepal.  

  

On Tuesday we met with a new convert, Noshiro. He is a very interesting guy and this last lesson was so special to me. The whole time I have kind of wondered if us meeting with him were really helping him or not. Then we talked about the Book of Mormon and Elder Yoshikawa mentioned how he can tell a difference when he reads and when he doesn't. Noshiro said,"I know exactly what you mean. There is a COMPLETE difference in the days where I read and the days when I don't. When I read the Book of Mormon, my day just seems to go well and I am happier. The days when I don't read my days aren't very good." I also know that when we read the Book of Mormon we will have the spirit with us more and we will be happier.  

  

On Wednesday we were coming home by bike from Eikaiwa. It's already dark (because you know it gets dark in Japan at like 3:00) and the roads back to the apartment are really narrow and windy. We were going pretty fast around the corners because there are never any cars. Elder Riggs was up ahead and he just went around a corner and it was obvious that no cars were coming. "Go the right side of the road and stop." Is what I felt. So I did. Right then a moped sped around the corner and if I hadn't moved I would it would have ran right into me.  

  

Thursday I had another scary dream and didn't sleep like at all. I woke up at 1am and didn't get back to sleep until 4:30 ish.  

  

It's been so cool. When I first came here I decided that I wanted to kubari at the same eki as much as we can at the Same time every day if possible. At first it was way slow but eventually I realized that I was seeing the same people! And the people started to recognize me and trust me. Now every time we go we pass out like over a hundred chirashi every time. And I see the same old people and they stop and talk with me. One guy in particular I love. He is itou and probably like 90 and he moves so so slow with his cane. He lived in New York for a while so he speaks English well. I also had a very drunk guy come up and kept commenting on how small I was. He puts one hand on my chest and the other on my back, "your so small! How!? Americans are HUGE! How are yours good at Japanese? There is no way you have only studied for a year and a half. Were you born in Japan? Did you grow up in Japan? Are your parents Japanese? Are you sure you aren't Japanese? I mean your body is small like one and you speak like one! Are you eating all your food?" Haha it was very fun. He actually had known about Mormons. Then his other (not as drunk) friend came up and talked to me too. They were so blown away that I had learned Japanese in a year and a half. They kept asking how and I said, "the reason that I can speak Japanese is because there is a God and I pray to him every day before and after I study and then I preach his gospel everyday and he blesses me to get better." 

  

The other day during a kubari a guy ran past me and his was just bawling. I tried stopping him but he was already out of there before he could stop. I realized that that was the first time I have ever seen a Japanese person cry! It just emphasized to me that the Japanese people really do have things they are worried about and things that they need fixing. The Japanese have 2 faces. The Tatemae and the Honne. The Tatemae is like their public face. It's the face they show you when you first meet them. It's very polite and makes you seem like they have no problems in their life. Their honne is their real face. They tell you their worries, what makes them happy, stuff about their family etc.  but when I saw him crying was so touched and felt so much love for him. I know that God loves all of his children and he is actively trying to reach out to each of us to show us that he cares and that he wants us to be happy.  

  

Sunday was insane! We had 6 investigators at church! Valentine came and brought his friend. He is from Nigeria and doesn't speak Japanese so I interpret for him. Just a thing about interpreting that I thought was interesting. I don't know why I thought this was cool for the first time so recently haha but I was listening to the speaker and translating and I realized that it cool how I say the words I hear but I don't know the whole story, I don't know where he is going with the story. So even though I am telling the story in English the whole story is completely new to me too haha. Anyways I think that was cool. So after sacrament meeting Tsunoda came! He came two weeks ago to give a donation to the church for the help the missionaries he met 20 years ago in learning English. We told him we couldn't accept donations but we got to talk to him. He never heard the lessons but the last time he met missionaries was about 20 years ago. He came back today in a suit and a desire to learn! He said he felt like he should come back. He loved the Book of Mormon and now we have a lesson to meet with him on Wednesday! Please pray for him! 

  

I love you! 

  

Elder Draper 

  

ドレーパー長老