Konichiwa! Sounds like everyone is doing well. Thanks for the email and the pics. But I actually didn’t get the pictures. There was nothing attached. Sorry. Maybe just send them again. Did you get my Pics yet? When you get the card just send it back and I’ll send the other one. . Oh, before I forget. Remember the lady that couldn’t use her arms very well that I was prompted to go help? Well she and her Family showed up to English class! The Lord works in mysterious ways. But ya Harris choro goes to Kobe this Thursday. I get a new companion that same day. I will miss Harris choro but change is good. We went to a castle in Kyoto today. It was way cool. You’ll like all the pictures. Well, this week was another busy week. We had the baptism on Sat. and it went well Kitaoka san did get baptized! It was a great experience. The sisters’ investigator Yuko also got baptized. The ward is really helping out and I think they will fellowship very well. Speaking of fellowship, we have another one tonight. The first one went way well. Friday, the member let us use his shop after it closed at 8. so it was me and Harris and Oscar and Friday. We taught the restoration. It was good and the spirit was very strong. Tonight we will teach about our purpose in life and the atonement. Mamor is really progressing. Mamor is the guy that didn’t show twice because he couldn’t find the church. We finally got him to the church and taught the second lesson. He is getting baptized on the twelfth. He isn’t in our area so we transferred him over on Saturday at the baptism. He is an awesome man. I’ll send pics of his baptism. Things are great.-- there are prepared children of God everywhere. It is exciting to see baptisms because I know that anything is possible. These peoples’ lives are changing. I am very blessed to be able to see it. I have to cut this short because I still have a ton to do but I love you all. Keep studying! I love hearing that everyone is reading the Book of Mormon. Well I’ll talk to you soon! peace.
Hard work and Blessings
August 31, 2009--The much awaited letter--we wondered all week if Brother Kitaoka would get baptized, and he did! He looks like such a nice young man.
Baptism
Brother Kitaoka and Sister Yuko Nagao were baptized on Saturday, August 29th. What a sweet picture!
I'm so glad his hair had grown out a bit! He looks so great! We checked our email I don't know how many times Sunday night and finally we just had to go to bed. When we got up, it was here and had arrived at 2:30AM our time, 5:30PM his time. He must have had a very busy P-day!Bird Poop and Not So Great Japanese
This is another picture Grady sent on his camera card -- we're not sure where or what this is, except that it's in Japan!! (My clue was the cute Japanese man on the left!)August 24, 2009 Grady's letters are getting more and more informative. This week I read his letter outloud to Lenzi and we both were laughing so hard, then we both were wiping away the tears. Grady is so happy and I can't even begin to express how happy that makes me. I'm also glad that he still has his sense of humor and can laugh at himself and his "crappy" Japanese!
Hey! How is everyone! The Middle Fork looked fun. Good memories. Have you found a business Dad? Oh, and where did you serve your mission in the Philippines? Thanks for the pictures. I am sending my card today because we are going to the zoo here at Toniji. Oh, and sorry. We got our P-day switched because the zoo is closed on Mondays. Pres. Mckintyre is nice. I hope you didn’t cry too much. I’ll answer your questions first. Harris choro hasn’t gone to Kyoto yet. It has the best castle in our mission and I guess it is pretty cool. This is Harris choros last transfer. He is going home in a week. Pretty sad actually. He is a hard worker and is very good with people. We work hard. He helps with the language mostly by how he sounds. He sounds like a Japanese person. I have made it a goal to work on sounding and talking like a Japanese person, but of course still be polite. We still haven’t found Fujimoto san but something will happen. We are meeting with Friday on Wednesday. His name cracks me up. We have handed out a lot of English Books of Mormon because we found a lot of Africans. They all work down in this place we call American town. Friday owns a shop there. They are really humble people. They call church services "fellowship" so we decided to start one. Our first meeting is tomorrow at Friday’s place. We will hopefully have about 3 or 4 there. Oscar, Friday, Timmy, Charles, Junior, and Godwin are some of the guys we have met. They are all from Africa. Oscar studies the Bible everyday and we are trying to help him study the Bom too. Hopefully tomorrow will help. Ya I gave the music to the girl. She really liked it. Thanks a lot. Well I really don’t eat very much and nothing that cool. Sorry. I have oatmeal, toast and an orange for breakfast. And for lunch Ill have either noodles or rice with curry or goma sauce on them. Pretty boring but it works. If I eat dinner it is like an ice-cream treat on the way back or something. The peanut butter is great. I’ll let you know when I need some more. Thanks. This week has been pretty wild. Lots of lessons and trying to get people prepared for baptism. We think Fujita san may have dropped himself because he hasn’t answered our calls. Kitaoka san is getting baptized on the 29th. Everyone is excited. He stopped smoking and drinking teas and coffees he is doing well. When he prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he got an answer. He felt a burning in his chest. We were supposed to teach the rest of the commandment this morning but he didn’t show so we are a little worried. He sounded good last night but really tired so we think he slept in. He comes to English class every week so we will see him tonight. Mamor is awesome! He has like 6 little braded cornrows things in the front of his hair and really long hair in the back. He has a huge tattoo on his chest and back. He is pretty wild looking. This story is pretty funny but way cool. We were teaching him in the middle of a park where all the smokers go and lots of music was playing. Lets just say there were distractions. It is hard to find a good place to teach other than the church. I was in the middle of teaching the first vision in my crappy Japanese when a bird pooped on Mamor. It was very surprising. Me and Harris choro just looked at each other and Mamor was way cool and he just wiped it off and we went on. After the first vision we read a verse in the Book of Mormon and then asked him what he thought about Joseph’s experience and the Book of Mormo., He said "100 percent true" He said he felt something in his chest. The spirit is very strong. It can cut through anything. My crappy Japanese, bird poop, nothing will phase it if we want it. We have had two appointments. with Mamor but he hasn’t shown up for either of them. He got lost both times so we are going to be better and take him to the church. He said he found it the first time he got lost but we think he found another church. The mission is going great! I really love it. The culture is definitely different but these people are amazing. They work really hard and will help out anyone. People ask why are you here? or why do you believe in God? The amazing thing is that it is because of a simple prayer. I believe in it because of many experiences and things. But it still comes down to the fact that the Book of Mormom is true. Because it is true everything else falls into place. It is very hard for people to realize this no matter their background in religion. There will always be opposition but the Lord has provided a way. The Book of Mormon is why Kitaoka san is getting baptized in a couple of day. It is simple but true. He read and then prayed and received an answer from that higher being that knows all. It is hard to think about sometimes, but my testimony has not been rattled. I am firm in what I believe. I have become more bold since coming on a mission. I say things now that I wouldn’t have said in the past. I am trying to find that good balance and I hope I never cross that line. I met an atheist from Switzerland the other day. I boldly told him that his thinking was wrong and that only through God can we be happy. Harris choro is pretty bold so I am learning a lot. I love you all and I really hope to hear from you soon.(He writes this every week and it sounds like we're not writing him--but I promise we are-and I know he's getting our letters, because he answers our questions! I guess he just really loves hearing from us!) I am doing great! I hope you all are too Matta nei
Sweating, Ironing, but Still So Happy
August 16, 2009 I can't begin to describe how much I love getting Grady's letters. I love how he tries to answer all my questions, how he tells about what he's doing, and especially how he always describes his love for the gospel. This week was a little disappointing, but he is still so positive and so happy!
Grady sent us his camera card, but we have no idea what these pictures are?!? I'm asuming this is a view of a Japanese street!!
Hey family! Thanks for all the emails. They were great. Ya I really only eat breakfast and lunch. It is all right though. I really don’t get hungry. I still can see good and my headaches are all right. That is cool that you all are reading the Book of Mormon. That is impressive. 10 pages a day. Olivia straight A's huh, go get em tiger! Rudy that is sweet that you are playing soccer, and you got a VW! You lucky devil. Good luck with everything and send pics. The language is still about the same. I am working hard still. I haven’t eaten any sushi. Crazy huh. It is expensive and I have to budget these last couple of weeks. Oh, and tell Phillip and Gloria thanks for me. They sent some Reeses and they were good. I got all the peanut butter. Thanks. My apartment is pretty good. We have 4 missionaries in it. Most of the mission only has one companionship but we have 2. The shower has good pressure and everything works well. The toilet seat broke the other day so it kinda hurts to go to the bathroom but oh well. There isn’t a dishwasher but there is a clothes washer. It works all right I think but there isn’t a dryer. We hang dry everything which means I have to iron every morning. Yes, you heard me, I am ironing. We all sleep in the same room on our futons. O and I don’t need blankets or anything. there are extras here. I don’t sleep with anything over me. It is way too hot. There is no insulation here in Japan and we have one little ac unit that works all right. But it gets pretty hot at night. I sweat quite a bit. During the day I use my sweat rag a lot(I keep forgetting to ask what that is--but I read in book about Japan that in the summer everyone carries a handkerchief to wipe their faces so that the sweat doesn't drip! Apparently it is this hot and humid!! This must be what he's talking about. This book said that some men even wear dishcloths on their heads to stop the sweat! I haven't told Grady about this--he might want to try it! ). Oh and dad good luck with everything. Sounds like you are pretty happy. Oh and Lenzi send me the pics when you get married. Don’t forget. (This is my favorite part of the letter, -like we’d forget to send him pictures!) Well I have some pretty good stories for the week. First off Fujimotto san. He is a 24 year old hobo who was ready for the gospel. We taught him lesson I and 2 and he committed to be baptized on the 26. He really seemed sincere and a good guy. He really changed from the first time we met him. He was really happy and was enjoying life more. On Saturday we gave him some church clothes, fed him, took him to a bath house to get shaved and showered up for an interview he had that night. He looked great! He was all clean, his countenance was different. That night he was supposed to show up for another lesson but he didn’t. He said he was coming to church too, but he didn’t show. He doesn’t have a cell phone so it will be difficult to find him. This has been a little rough because he knew God existed. He was reading and praying and God was blessing him through us. He had a job interview, a brighter future, and baptism to look forward to. I don’t know what happened but we are going to try to find him. The Lord wants his children to live with him again. After church yesterday we went dondoeing in our favorite spot called Namba. It is the richer part of town and there are a ton of people there. We ran into a black man named Friday. He was baptized about 7 years ago and is really nice. He is supposed to be coming to our ward but he didn’t know where the church was. We are going to meet with him sometime this week. I can tell he has a strong testimony. So those were the two things that happened this week. I hope both experiences turn out well. The days seem like they all run into each other. It is pretty wild. I love it and I feel very blessed to have everything that I have. I work hard for God and for the Japanese people. I can’t wait till I can understand more and really try to relate better with them. There are prepared people everywhere. I love this work and I love all of you. I guess till next week. Talk to you soon!
Email Number Three from Japan
August 9, 2009 We received Grady's third email from Japan tonight. Wow--we sure love checking the computer on Sunday evenings! Lenzi found it this week and it was a couple of hours earlier than it has been. As usual, he sounds great and we all ended up shedding a few tears as we finished reading his letter. Last week we got Grady's email right before Rudy went over to Davis' to get ready for his 4 AM departure for the river. When he came home this week he told me that it killed him reading Grady's letter right before he left. Lenzi informed me this week that we need to take down the pictures of Grady on the fridge because every time she looks at them, she starts to cry. (I didn't take them down!) I know we're all missing him a lot, but we're all really enjoying hearing from him and we are all so happy because he is so happy. Here's his letter from this week:
Hey family! I liked your emails again this week. I'll answer the questions first. Anybody can email me but I can only email family. The language is coming. I definitely can't understand what people are saying but I am improving. I can only pick out vocab and some phrases in the sentence. It is hard because I actually know alot more than what I hear. The other day a sister that knows English was talking to me in Japanese. She said a sentence and I didn't recognize one word. I had her say it slower and I knew every word and phrase. I really just can't understand because I can't hear the prununciation. It will come if I work hard though. Last sunday was a little rough because of the food. I had lunch and dinner at members' houses. At both places I had soumen. It is cold noodles in this watery sauce. It really isn't too bad but I ate a ton of it at lunch because it was fast sunday. Then I barely made it through the dinner apt. Along with the noodles I had this chicken stuff which wasn't too bad. The meat here is a little rough. They don't cut off the fat so everyone just eats it. I can't cut off the fat because I only have chop sticks. I am kind of stuck. It is allright though. I am actually losing weight. I have probably lost 3 to 5 pounds. I was even below 160 for the first time in a long time. They weigh in kilos here. I only eat breakfast and Lunch. The Lord is really blessing me with strength and health. I don't really get hungry and when I eat I can't eat very much. I like it because it is more time to go dendoing (finding new investigators by walking and talking to everyone.) And I haven't gotten the package yet. Maybe today. I hope it wasn't too much. If it is too much just tell me. I can survive without peanut butter and shaving cream. O and before I forget I need another white temple tie. I think I accidentally donated mine to the Provo temple. O and dad I haven't noticed my legs getting bigger yet. I ride my bike a lot. My favorite place to dendo is called Namba. It is like 20 to 30 minutes away on a bike. It usually takes us like 2to 3 hrs though because we stop people on the way. Riding bikes is way fun. People probably think me and Elder Harris are crazy because we talk to and say hi to everyone. I mean everyone. It is really fun. You can really tell that a simple Konnichiwa brightens peoples' days. The other day I saw something that was pretty inspiring. A lot of the moms here don't have cars so they carry their babies on the bikes. It is really common. I saw this one women with three little babies on her bike. She was really happy but I could tell her life was pretty hard. The other day we were at a buffet and a woman was struggling to get her food. Her hands were deformed and it was very tough for her. I helped her out and left. Once I sat down I had a strong prompting to go back, so I did. She needed help with her drinks so I helped again and took her and her daughters food and drinks to her table for her. Her daughter was about 9 or so. She was really cute. I told her about why I was in Japan and about the free English class I teach. She was very happy and I hope I see her again. I kind of broke down in the restaurant because of how blessed I am and how much I really can help others. I made a goal to follow every prompting but I messed up the other night. We were late getting home because we were teaching this British guy. We started riding home and I saw this young college aged kid. We pretty much only contact the younger generation because they think more openly. I had a prompting to stop and talk to him. It was past curfew, very busy with lots of people around him and Elder Harris was pretty far away so I decided to not stop. It hit me again to turn back after I was pretty far away but I still went on. I felt awful afterward and I was beating myself up the whole way home. I know the Holy Ghost prompts us for good reasons. I really messed up and I hope I don't do that again. Peoples' salvation really does depend on my decisions. This is frightening but I know the Lord provides a way. Time is flying! I can't believe that I have been here for almost a month. Time really is going fast. I really am busy all day and I don't really have anytime to rest. I don't see how someone could waste time because this really is the Lord's time. It sounds like everyone is having a good time. I am kind of sad about the car business but I am sure it is the right decision. Give me some details about the new business thing. I want to know. O and dad they have lots of diesel Land Cruisers here. They are pretty sweet. It is cool that Olivia and Rudy have both had good experiences this summer. Well this email is pretty long. sry. It was good to hear from you guys. I guess until next week. Love you
Elder Harris and Elder Bowman and a couple of monkeys!!
Getting Used to Japan
August 2, 2009
Grady with President and Sister McIntyre
Grady with his trainer, Elder Harris
This is Grady when he first arrived in Japan. I'm thinking that that must be Kobe in the background. He looks so good to me!
Grady was so hot that he had his companion cut his hair--or rather shave it!! I'm thinking they must have finished the top after they took this picture!! He said it was shorter than he thought it was going to be! I like him with hair much better, but I guess he'll be a lot cooler without it for a while. I hope he lets it grow a bit before he cuts it again!!August 2, 2009 This week we received an email from Grady and a letter from President McIntyre with a couple of pictures. It was so nice to see Grady with President and Sister McIntyre and to see him with his new companion, Elder Harris. This week we sent him some pictures in a small phote album, violin music for a less active sister, some peanut butter and some shaving soap with a brush. Gus said it was the kind he used on his mission and he thought Grady might like to use it also. Here's his email from this week:
Hey family! How is it goin? Sounds like everyone is happy. Good to hear. Dad tell me more about the trash can thing. I am kind of lost. Sorry. Olivia how was Girl's Camp? The youth program in Japan is very different. They don't have many youth, so it is hard. I'll get the boring stuff out of the way first. I need photos of our family and some fun stuff we did. Pictures of me in sports etc. I don't have a book thing for them so that would be nice too. Thanks a lot. People here love pictures. I also need some violin music for a member in the ward. She is really good. I was thinking like "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" or Josephs Smith First Prayer". Thanks. She is less active and Ithink this will help her. Other than that I am good. Japan has been really good. The people are nice and are pretty receptive. We have one investigator who has a baptismal date. His name is Fujita San and he is awesome. He is 37 and has never been married. He has a good heart and is looking for a better life. The men work so much here. It has an effect on them and their families. Their schooling is really diferent too. They have to study a lot in high school to enter college. We focus on the younger generation because they are more willing to change. This can be dificult because they are so busy. They want to listen but they sincerely don't have time. The days go by really fast. It was really good to hear from you guys today. It is a different world our here. At times I feel a lot of pressure because this work is so important. The Japanese way of life is very different. They need love. Many people are unhappy. I am trying to find a good balance and the best way to help. The best way to help is to share the gospel with everyone. I love it here. I have to go-- sorry. We are going to a zoo today. Thanks for teaching me well. You are great parents and a great family. I'll try to send pictures but if not I'll send my card in the mail. Thanks again and I'll talk to you soon.
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