Week 6 in Japan:メリークリスマス (Joyeux Noël). I used Google Translate.

I'm running low on time so I'm gonna keep it short, which works out because Sakae 長老 and I have been meaning to spend less time emailing and more time playing around Tokyo. So it's starting today. 
For starters Christmas in Japan is AMAZING! Our ward gave us tons of food, and feed us a lot. Along with their food, I still received food from not only my parents, but the parents of my sister-in-law, Asuka, who live in the northern end of Tokyo! They came to Machida to meet me, say hello, and give me a gift. Small World.

「のでさんへ、ありがとうございます！全部は美味しかったでした！愛しています！」 Asuka, if you could text this to your amazing parents, that would be Awesome!

Also I got an awesome opportunity to FaceTime with my family for a bit, talk about all the ups and downs, and just enjoy seeing them for a bit. It was refreshing. The work is moving, I learn so much 
everyday, and each day gets better and better. It's not all sunshine and lollipops, but if it was we'd never grow, and that would really suck. There are long days, and there are hard moments, but it's all in the name of something bigger than yourself and that's what matters most. In the end the good moments outweigh the rough ones, I'm still having the time of my life, and I don't think that's gonna change anytime soon. 

I love you all, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. 

Sincerely, 
Elder Cuff 

Also here are some pictures from Christmas and our ward Christmas Party, there was more food but we've been total mooches lately...Sorry. Also thanks for the spending cash Grandma! I got some sweet ties, chocolate, and Legos. Just what every kid needs.

Week 5 in Japan

First off, transfers happened and we only had 1 guy leave the apartment to go to Takao, but the new guy in our apartment is a lot of fun, I am so excited for our district right now. It's a wonderful group of fun guys who know where their focus is. Also our investigators (that's right, we've got multiple now) are progressing wonderfully. Due to respect of privacy I'm not going to mention too much, but they've got wonderful humble hearts, and it's amazing to watch them grow and discover. 

Sakae 長老 and I have been helping each other with the languages, he helps me with Japanese and I help him with English. We've both really grown language wise, which has helped immensely in building an incredibly fun friendship. 

In past emails, I’ve mentioned how we've been reaching out to members more. We've made some amazing friends and enjoyed many faith-building experiences. The members here are so spiritually strong, and have a true love for this Gospel. Along with coming closer to the members, our work has progressed like crazy. 

Also, the ward does a thing called "Fruit Basket" where they have big ole boxes with our names in the church building, and every Sunday members fill those boxes with food. (For the wards back home, I highly suggest this; it seriously goes a long way in helping the missionaries out) 

We got to attend the birthday party of some of the primary kids, which turned out to be like a ward party at one of the members house, it was so much fun. Also this morning, Brother Honda took us to Costco to go shopping and gave us a bunch of vegetables fresh picked from his garden. We have so much delicious and fresh food right now it's insane.    

We've also done some Christmas Caroling at the train stations (which are like giant downtown outdoor malls) with other wards in the stake.  The one we did up in Tama was like a full on concert. They set chairs up at the center of the station and we had speakers and lights set up, and a narrator for in between songs. A bunch of the ward members have near professional music talent so we sounded like a professional choir. Also doing the song "ジングベル" (Jingu Beru) or "Jingle Bells” Sakae 長老 and I skipped and danced around the large crowd of people while, well, jingling bells. Many found a large dancing white guy quite amusing, and after the concert they were very excited about the Christmas Party that the silly white man invited them too.    

I'm madly in love with this place, the people, the culture, the language, and the food. Don't get me wrong, I do miss home every once in a while, but thinking about the day I have to leave already hurts. There’s so much to do, so many people to help and serve. It's such a paradox to think that, "The best way to find who you are is by losing yourself." But there is no greater feeling, then getting lost in the service of your fellow man. Take time to help and serve others, you never know when you'll be an answer to someone's prayer, or the reason they have a smile on their face.      

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I've been having too much fun.  Kind of got lost in the moment this past week. 

Week 4 in Japan; Punk Rock Grandma

So, another wild week in Machida. We received transfer calls this week, due to the holidays this transfer was only 4 weeks and the next one will be 8 weeks. Then after that we're back to our normal 6 weeks transfer schedule. I'm staying in Machida with Elder Sakae, which is nice because he's slowly coming out of his shell. Also having a native Japanese companion isn't necessarily a bad thing in terms of the language. I already learned so much in these past 4 weeks and I can’t wait to see where things go in these next 8! 

Our investigator has been following his commitments and it's awesome to see how excited he’s getting! He absolutely loves The Scriptures and his faith is really starting to build. We do have to take things slow and in detail because he has a lot of questions, but they're seriously all the right questions. Such as, "How do I build faith?" Or "What is Charity?” A lot of men here in Japan are super busy, especially with work, so we’re still working on getting him to Church. But he's so stoked it makes me so happy.  

Fun fact, you don't need an oven to make a cake. Elder Sakae and I heard a rumor that you can make a cake using a rice cooker. We wanted cake, and we wanted it bad. So, being poor and knowing that if it ruined our rice cooker we'd have to wait a while to replace it, we decided to try it. 

Totally worth it, that thing was delicious.  

In other news, we had dinner with a ward member. The food was delicious, but honestly she was the best part of the night. She died her hair bright red, has skull rings, and boots with bedazzled cross bones on them. She is also 80 years old and literally did not stop talking for the entire hour we were there. It was hilarious.  

Other than that it's been a pretty regular week, and I'm slowly falling in love with it all. The best days are the hard ones, because there’s such a satisfying feeling of knowing you did your best to serve others. It never has and never will be about you, that's the best part! Thanks for the support everyone, I'm having the absolute time of my life. Don't forget to help someone out every once in a while, little acts go a long way!  

愛しています、 

カフ長老

Week 3 in Japan; Fun Facts

Sorry for the late email we had a Temple day and it was gorgeous! Also nothing super crazy really happened this week, but we have been super productive. We have a progressing investigator! He's super nice and loves reading, he seems excited but you never know with some people. A lot of people here will tell you what you want to hear because they believe it avoids any type of confrontation, but most of the time they don’t follow through. It's a bit frustrating but we'll see how things go.

Also, the expected bike crash finally happened, the roads in Machida are super narrow and always busy, most the time I'm having to ride in the gutter since there isn't always a sidewalk. A car pulled out in front of me at a turn and instead of plowing into the side of this small old lady's sedan, I took one for the team and endoed over  the handle bars since my front brakes are stronger than my back  brakes. I'm all good though, but I was upset about the hole in my suit pants...

Other than that, my week has been pretty normal, slowly getting used to things and the language is coming in fast (Mainly  because of my awesome Japanese companion). We've been making an effort to stop by the homes of ward members and dropping a quick message while going around looking for people. It's been awesome because we’re really starting to develop friendships with the members. A lot of Japanese people are naturally shy, but once you get to know them, they become some of the goofiest, nicest people you'll ever meet. Honestly, they’re absolutely hilarious and always give us food. Always. 

Also, here are some fun facts about Tokyo, specifically the Machida area. 

            1. 7-11 IS THE SPOT, that place is always a party, has Wi-Fi, and the best snacks. Also extremely clean bathrooms. 

            2. Our apartment, 7-11, and most Japanese residences have fancy toilets, the seat is heated and there's a fun little control panel with a bidet if you don't feel like cleaning up yourself. I would not suggest it though the water is usually cold. 

            3. Along with other conveniences, there are vending machines with all sorts of fun drinks just about everywhere, including neighborhoods.  They can be expensive, and some are cheaper than others, especially the one by our church building. Just imagine, a vending machine in every neighborhood. That, my friend, is Tokyo. 

            4. Alley ways are your friend, especially if you want to find cheap and delicious ramen or curry shops (they're everywhere). Seriously, Japan doesn't really have a ghetto. Although it's rare to find a trash can, the streets are very clean, most people don't lock their doors, and the popular thing to do here is have good manners. It's a term called おもいやり(omoiyari) which is basically respect for others, or  courtesy. This applies to most situations, except for the roads, that’s where all that pent up animosity is unleashed. Seriously, it’s an absolute mad house out there. But in all honesty, people really respect their city. It's awesome. 

            5. It's hard to find bad food. Everything's soooo good. 

            6. The trains are packed, like a can of caviar. But I'm taller than most people so I can breath just fine.   

Also  a small child ran up to me with all of his friends, pointed at  me and yelled, "外人!" (Gaijin) which basically means, "White Guy!" They all proceeded to yell "Hello!" But they can't pronounce their "l" so  it sounds like "Herro". It was hilarious.  

愛していま！  カフ長老

Week 2 in Japan

KONNICHIWA NERDS,

    Gracious time flies as a missionary. Anyways, this week has been absolutely sweet and I've got a whole lot more time to talk about it.  First off, Japanese makes no sense, but at the same time, it makes sense. I honestly can't find any other way to explain it.    We went to a Chinese restaurant as a zone for Thanksgiving, it was super good, and it was on the 8th floor of a building by the train station. Which train stations out here are like little downtown areas with a ton of fun shops and a big nightlife scene. It was sweet. We also checked out a couple shrines which are super nice because they’re pretty, and they're a nice little escape from constantly being surrounded by city and not having mountains right by you. (Still getting used to that one.) We did have some crazy happening though.  First, Elder Sakae and I have been doing a lot of streeting around parks and there are a solid amount of monster hills through here (my calves look great by the way, thank you Japan) which gives us some good bonding time with our bikes. While biking I took a chunk of the curb with my pedal and lost control as a truck was coming by. Luckily I’ve got some hardcore guardian angels and I was only a few inches from getting cleaned out. I just received a graze of the shoulder. It's the little miracles that count out here.  

     Speaking of fun on bikes, myself and Elder Hawkins (He's my trainer’s trainer, from England, funny guy) decided to bike to Sagamihara in order to join a Quorum of 70 members in a big soccer game. Except Sagamihara is an hour bike ride away. And the game started at 6:00 AM.  As I was once counseled by my older sister, "Sleep is for the weak."  So it was totally worth it. Except we had to bike back after the game, it was rough, but the sunrise was sweet. And the soccer was top notch.  Also we had dinner with the Honda family, Brother Honda was very excited to show off his Honda motorcycle, it was so funny. Also they gave us a ride in they're new Prius and I sat in the passenger seat, which was weird because the steering wheel is on the other side. They made an amazing dinner and Brother and Sister Honda are this hilarious old couple who can both speak a little bit of English since he used to work at BYU-Hawaii. It was so nice since we've been trying to reach out to the members more. They gave us homemade bread and a GIANT bag of rice, it was so sweet. Machida is the Promised Land, I’m telling you.  

     Also I know some people have been curious about my companion/trainer Elder Sakae. He's from a small town outside of Kyoto, he knows a tiny bit of English, so in order to communicate I talk in broken Japanese, and he talks to me in broken Japenglish (Mix between Japanese and English). We can still somewhat communicate; it's just slow going.  He's only been out here for 24 weeks (4 transfers) and it's his first time being a trainer. He's very quiet, so I do a lot of the talking, but I can't understand a lot so he jumps in every once in a while. Not all the time, but hey, he's there and that's all good. I'm still trying to figure out his humor, but we'll get there, he's a humble guy and a super good cook. 

     We have no investigators, but that's absolutely perfect, and I'm not saying that sarcastically. There was a huge lesson learned from that. We had a former elder from this mission who visited the ward on Sunday, he's now living in Japan as an intern for a car company. But in talking with him, I found out most of this mission is going to be finding and flat out talking to everyone. But when you find someone who's ready for this gospel, you'll know. Just remember to never stop believing in miracles. The big thing we forget as missionaries is its not about the numbers. Or yourself. What matters is you're doing your best and going hard 110% of the time.  Open your mouth, teach the message, lay the foundation, and be a friend to everyone. You're here to serve and put in a full effort.  Bring it unto their hearts, but remember that it's their choice to let it in. You can only do so much, and don't get discouraged if it doesn’t go the way you want it to, people have their agency. Press forward with faith, and know that this work is bigger than you'll ever be. And don't forget to have fun while you're at it. :)    
Sorry for this being so long.   
 愛しています、  カフ長老 

Week 1 in Japan

The mystery of the missing email has been solved! In a brief message received early Sunday morning Eric had mentioned that he was sending out a mass email for all of his friends, former MTC companions, and, of course, us with more details. In doing so, he sent our 'copy' of the email to James' icloud account. James discovered it them just as we were heading out to Jonathan's house for Thanksgiving dinner! Now we're home and I finally have time to read them, crop the pics, and get things posted. 

みなさんこんにちわ,

Well, I'm here. And it's super weird and crazy, but hey, it was expected. My first area is called Machida, which is sweet because I'm serving in the same ward that Yoshizawa長老 (friend from the MTC) came from. A LOT of small world connections were happening through that.
My English is getting progressively worse, but the Japanese is slowly building. My companion 
 榮長老 (Elder Sakae) is native Japanese. Communication is really difficult, but we're slowly moving along. We don't really have any investigators, so it's been a lot of finding.
We mainly have to feed ourselves. We had dinner with the Suziki family once, which was awesome. P day we went to a squirrel park. People don't like to talk a lot here. Japanese people don't ever say "no, thank you", thy just kind of lower their head and ignore you.
Sakae Choro is telling me we've got to get going, so sorry this is a short email. 
Here are some pictures...

NEVERMIND! Slight Miscommunication. We don't need to go yet. Elder Sakae just needed to use the restroom. The church is the only place with wifi so our time is pretty limited with everything we've got to do. But, Machida is pretty wild. The cool thing about Japan is that the crime rates are pretty low so everything is super open all the time. 
I live in an apartment with another set of elders, Elder Chao and Elder Casper. It's nice having them around to help me with the language.
I went ahead and got a bike. Buying a bike in Japanese is possibly the hardest thing I've ever done.  They take their bikes super serious, like insurance and everything! It's like buying a car.
the best part of the mission is probably streeting. You get to smile and talk with everyone. In Japan people rarely stop to talk, and when they do they're always surprised that a white kid can (kind of) speak their language. We have yet to find anyone who's interested, but I've learned many different ways people say "no, thank you" or "I'm busy". Or, they just don't say anything at all. 
In all honesty, there's a ton of diversity in Machida; a lot of Indian people which is super nice since Indian curry is super delicious! 
The previous picture with dinner at the Suzuki home was sweet. Sister Suzuki made a KILLER apple pie! Also, we landed a promising referral through the Suzuki family, which is nice because we have no investigators. 
We've had one lesson, so far, with a guy from Ghana who spoke English, so I taught. But, he was dropped. The only reason he wanted to meet was to tell us the church is wrong and he refused to listen to us. So, that was a warm introduction to Japan.
Elder Sakae (my companion) is from the Kobe, Japan area and understands a little English, but it still takes a while to communicate. We just kind of speak to each other in really broken Japanese and really broken English. We're trying to teach each other, but it still takes forever! Our personalities are pretty opposite, but we still get along. He does tend to be a bit quiet when we go streeting so I end up talking a lot. 
Oh well, more adventures to come from the streets of Tokyo, hopefully it'll pick up from here. 
愛しています、

カフ長老