Week 17 in Japan: Slackers

So it's been another wild week in Tokyo. We had Zone meeting and training with President and Sister Warnick this week, which really took a chunk out of the time, we usually spend finding people. *Sad Face*. On the upside, word has gotten out around the mission about The Free English Challenge we've been doing. I'm excited to see how it works out for all the other awesome missionaries I get to work with. I already know that they'll improve it in ways I couldn't think of. 

As far as exciting things that have happened this week, there's a ton. I'll be keeping it short though. So for starters, we've been asked by our Mission President to do at least 1 hour of community service every week other than English class. So Elder Poff and I ended up at city hall and got set up with this sweet volunteer center up in Chogo, which is near where we live! City hall is in the city of Fujisawa, so we decided to have dinner at this cool little burger shop in the station. Afterwards we decided to treat ourselves to Baskin Robins. Due to the season, they had Sakura flavored ice cream, and man, that stuff was delicious.

Lots of pictures this week!

The Art Museum, Elder Poff didn't appreciate me getting in the picture...

Downtown Fujisawa

Yokohama

Yokohama

Yokohama

Ghibli Shop

Slackin'

While streeting around a park, we came across a man slacklining. He didn't have much interest in The Gospel, but he was quite surprised to find another person who could slackline and enjoyed hanging out with us!

Sunday we had family home evening with a family in the ward who have been struggling recently. A lot of people have some pretty intense work schedules here and it's been causing them a decent amount of stress. We dropped by for a small family home evening with them. Elder Poff knows how to play the Ukulele so we borrowed one from a member and brought it with. We played and sang some songs, taught them the art of the Tim Tam Slam and gave them some Tim Tams and hot chocolate, and shared a message about Faith. 

After that night I was instantly reminded of why I became a missionary. When we walked in the door we saw a young family who seemed lost, hurt, and just plain out tired. When we left we saw a Mother, Father, and a son with big smiles, laughing uncontrollably, and a bright new hope in their eyes. I can't express in word the love that I have for them. They told us that they know we were sent to them for a reason, and how grateful they were for us coming over. What they don't know is I believe they were sent to us. Life gets rough sometimes, but I know we are never alone through it all. I'm not a be very smart person, but one thing I do know is our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us individually. We blessed everyday single day in a variety of ways, all you have to do is recognize them. 

I love you all. Ganbaroo

愛を込めて、

カフ長老

Week 16 in Japan, Part 3!

And sometimes you get even more blessed and get a 3rd email! Keep in mind he was answering some of my questions.

Well personally I'm doing absolutely dandy. The big thing that I've personally been learning is trying to build a more Christ like Character, specifically Patience. I know you've expressed that I've been good to be patient with things in the past, but it was different. I may not have outwardly expressed a lot of frustration or impatience, but I kind of just internalized it and sucked it up. But one thing I read out of The Teachings of David O. McKay Ch. 23 really helped with gaining a lot more control mentally and emotionally as I start to transition from being a teenager into adulthood.   

First, change of mindset  "No principle of life was more constantly emphasized by the Great Teacher than the necessity of right thinking. To Him, the man was not what he appeared to be outwardly, nor what he professed to be by his words: what the man thought determined in all cases what the man was.  No teacher emphasized more strongly than He the truth that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”.

Second, find purpose in the little things  "Life, after all, is made up of little things. Our life, our being, physically, is made up of little heartbeats. Let that little heart stop beating, and life in this world ceases."   

Third, pursue self-conquest  "Self-control means the government and regulation of all our natural appetites, desires, passions, and affections; and there is nothing that gives a man such strength of character as the sense of self-conquest, the realization that he can make his appetites and passions serve him and that he is not a servant to them. This virtue includes temperance, abstinence, bravery, fortitude, hopefulness, sobriety, chastity, independence, tolerance, patience, submission, continence, purity."   

Also we are going to Yokohama for sightseeing and there's a legit Mexican Restaurant that Elder Magaña has been dying to go too. But I’m not gonna spoil to details as to what we're going to check out over there, guess you'll just have to wait until next weeks email ;)   

Not much of new food, I've kind of had a taste of almost every raw sea creature, I am hoping to try some Fugu, or puffer fish, in the future though. Haven't really looked for a place. Also I heard there are some places where you can have live octopus, like you've gotta fight it down your throat cause it'll try to latch to your face. I'll send a video if I ever get the chance. But everything's so delicious; I have yet to gag since hitting Japan! So that's cool! Trust me on this one; I don't think I'll be very picky when I come home.

Week 16 in Japan; Part 2

Sometimes a mom gets lucky and receives an email from her missionary in time to answer with a few questions and receive a second email answering those questions!! 

Matsuzaki-San (19): recently we've taught him about developing Faith in Jesus Christ. He believes in God, but not necessarily Jesus Christ.  He enjoys the doctrine of The Gospel and it's teachings, in fact The Restoration makes total sense to him in the fact that we have a living prophet, the priesthood, and that The Book of Mormon was translated.  Absolutely loves it, but doesn't necessarily have much faith and isn’t really developing a personal testimony. He says he keeps commitments and asks decent questions about The Book of Mormon, but Elder Poff and I have been feeling like something is off and we can't really figure it out. Also we may have some trouble with the Word of Wisdom. Last lesson he expressed that he enjoys studying the doctrine and the more educational side of The Gospel, but that's mainly because he is also studying Culture in college. He doesn't seem to have much desire to make that change or make that change of heart since he is very satisfied with the happiness he already possesses. We won't be able to see him until April due to a vacation so we'll see where it goes. He’s an awesome guy who is already very Christlike in his character and demeanor, and loves to hang out with missionaries. Also has a great sense of fashion.    

Arakawa-San (54): Super nice and feels happy when he prays and reads The Book of Mormon. Me too! Although The Book of Mormon tends to be difficult for most people since it uses really old Japanese, he still keeps trying and takes time to review. Very happy guy, but keeps telling us that he does have some type of mild mental disability. The members who have joined us in lessons have stated that he seems like a total normal guy, but Elder Poff and I believe that it may be more emotionally based. He is going through some type of training though to help though which is why we haven't been able to meet recently and he’s canceled our last 2 lessons. Except when canceling the lessons, in trying to find a reason and seeing how else we can help, he never gave us a really solid reason, he just kept telling us he's busy and doesn’t know when we can meet again. But he's still reading and praying.   

These 2 wonderful guys are our current progressing investigators.  We've found some more people since Elder Poff and I have been getting a bit more bold and been putting a lot of focus fire into improving our ability to find people. Mainly we've been putting a lot more trust in The Lord and taking time to pray for help in our finding. We'll be meeting with more people this week and hopefully we'll be able to get them progressing. There's only so much we can do though since we’re not really the teachers in the first place, The Spirit is. But if we put our best efforts in, I know we will find those who are ready.  That's one thing we felt we weren't doing, our best. Like mentioned in my general email, we've been struggling with mental barriers; mainly the fear of being too bold, which led us to be too quiet. Then that led into the fear of being judged and it just dominoed from there. So there’s a lot of finding balance in everything and overcoming challenges which makes a mission as awesome as it is. In all honestly we’re blessed to have these 2 guys to teach, I know a lot of people in the mission are struggling to find anyone to teach. It kind of makes me sad seeing them be sad about it, but I know there are lessons The Lord has for those missionaries. Sometimes The Lord treats us like an arrow, he draws us back, and then fires us off.

Love you Mom and Dad!!!   

Your baby brat child, Elder Eric Kelly Cuff

Week 16: Stone Masters V

I'm gonna apologize in advance here. I only have 1 picture this week.  BUT, we're visiting downtown Yokohama today so next week there will be plenty.   

So to start off, Elder Poff and I have been wanting to try different ways to go about finding people rather than just your regular knocking on doors, or walking up and down the streets talking to everyone.  Well, I receive the emails of an Elder I met at the MTC who is in the Tokyo North mission and they have been trying something called The Free English Challenge. (Thanks Elder Pool, keep working hard!) And let me tell you, it is sweet. Basically we made a big sign that says  "Free English Challenge" on it and invite people around train stations to try it out. We have a jar with folded up pieces of paper that have questions on them, and the challenger picks 2 then gives them back to the missionary. Since we do a free English conversation class for service, the questions are read off to the challenger. Then the last question involves a picture, we ripped several out of an IKEA magazine and we just choose one for the challenge. In English, their job is to describe the picture. If they can answer all 3 correctly they get a piece of chocolate and a high five. Then we invite them out to Eikaiwa  (Free English Class). The best part was that most people didn't really care about the Free English. They were wondering what a couple of really young white dudes in suits were doing in Japan. That then led to some very awesome opportunities for missionary work and sharing this amazing Gospel. It's funny, most people don't stop around here when you try to talk to them or say hello, but put a giant sign that says Free English around your neck and run around town, you'll do just fine.   

In other news, in my personal studies I've been checking out The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter. In Chapter 8 he makes an analogy using the Berlin Wall. As big and protected as it was, it did eventually come crashing down. He then compares that to a lot of mental barriers we have that hold us from really reaching our full potential and leading balanced lives. Such as the "I'll do it later wall";  "Complacency Wall"; "Lack of Self confidence Wall"; "Self-Satisfied Wall"; "Indecisive Wall", etc. The list goes on. But in all honestly, the stone master behind the building of these mental barriers is mainly yourself. Sure there are outside influences that can cause the initial creation of these mental barriers. But in all honestly it's how those influences are taken that determines how they were built. But like the Berlin Wall, they can come crashing down.  There's a quote from President Warnick that I’ve mentioned before,  "Happiness is based on a set of attitudes rather than a set of circumstances". And finally I want to leave you with a quote from President Howard W. Hunter. "Does anyone really doubt that with the help of The Lord, he or she could bring those walls crashing down?"   

As missionaries, we're asked to be out of our comfort zone on a near daily basis. We're asked to help people and talk about religion in a language that can, at times, be very difficult to understand.  There are plenty of mental walls. But we are not alone, and we never will be as long as we ask in fervent prayer, stay worthy, and practice patience with not only others, but especially ourselves. When speaking Japanese, I tend to use a lot of simple sentences because, well, it's a difficult language and I've got to use what I know. But one of my favorite sentences is, "God loves us". It's so simple. So incredibly simple. But it possesses so much truth and power.    Determine your mental barriers, pick one at a time, and break them down. 

 愛してる、

 Elder Cuff