Small World: Week 60 in Japan

All right, time for a bit of catch up.

So New Years was very similar to last year. The main people that we've been teaching have gone out of town and we deep cleaned our apartments. Our main man who's building the sports car brought The Book of Mormon with him on his road trip down to Kobe and he's been reading! As far as missionary work goes things have been going pretty smooth, finding hasn't been bad despite the holidays and we've just been cruising along.

Elder Call is a wonderful missionary and it turns out his parents know my sister Asuka's family. Also there's an older lady (松下姉妹) in our ward who knows Asuka's brother because she was the mission president's wife when he was an AP in the Kobe mission. In fact she gave me Asuka's brother's email yesterday at church. I've noticed that every ward I serve in there is at least one or more connection to the Node family, so that has been a ton of fun meeting these people throughout my mission.

We had a fun moment this past week. Our apartment is literally next door to a Soba shop. (Actually turns out it's one of the best shops in all of Hachioji! Yes!) During the bike taxi service, someone gave the other elders a giant bundle of raw Soba noodles, the only problem is we didn't have any soup. We've made the broth for Soba before, but the Soba at the restaurant next door is so much better. We're pretty good friends with the owner so while coming back to the apartment one night he was out back of the shop getting some stuff. So I asked him how to make the soup. He told us and everything but then he was like, "but it takes a lot of time and is just a pain to make, so just come on by tomorrow night and I'll give you guys some." I asked, "Oh, okay, how much is it?" He simply responded, "don't worry about it." Then he smiled, handed us a couple oranges, scurried back into his shop, and closed the door before we could say anything. The next night he gave us a giant vase of the stuff. It was amazing.

I've always enjoyed the gift of giving. It's just an overall positive action that feels good on both sides, whether you're giving or receiving. There's a thing here in Japan called O-Miyage (お土産) where someone usually gives a gift or some type of food or a letter whenever someone helps you out or invites you over for a meal. It's kind've a way to return the favor. But anyways, it always helps me look back at the doctrine of Christ and how we should always give of ourselves, that we should help someone feel better by simply giving. And the best part is that there are so many ways to give. So I hope we can all take a little bit of time this week and help someone out. Love you all, be safe.

愛しています、
Elder Cuff

Sagamiko Lake during studies

Mission Christmas Conference

Fujino