April 13, 2014

Well hey everybody! So transfers are this week and a sister in our district is going home so we have yet another district activity so my email time is sadly cut short. I also can't even send a voice recording cause we're at the other place to save time again... I guess life never really does slow down does it... But like we heard in Conference, the burden is what gives us traction! I really loved conference and we got one investigator to watch it in his house, one to come to two sessions, and one of them actually showed up unexpectedly! Man this work is awesome!

We've been riding bikes a lot lately and my legs are getting ripped again so Dad you better be ready to go on some good long bike rides when I get back! ;) It's warming up a bit, and though there is still snow, there isn't any on the roads so it's become safe again. 

Sadly since transfers are coming, and 10 new missionaries are coming, Y Choro and I will probably be split up which is super sad, but I guess it's the Lord working and this one transfer was meant to be short and sweet. 

It turns out that most of the members up here who actually remember Dad are in the Asahikawa 1st ward so I don't actually see them unless there's some special stake event(general conference) so it's always fun to hear about them and see how happy they are to see me. 

Well time's short so sadly I have to leave it at that again, but hopefully next week I'll have more time to send a good email home. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Bickel

April 7, 2014

Hey everybody!

My week went well this week!

Investigators: This week we got a few new investigators who are super
strong! One of them is Catholic, and went to a super smart college,
but he is listening to us and each time we come he says he feels the
spirit come in with us! It's so nice to not have to explain the
spirit, as well as he is super receptive to all that we've been
teaching. He is definitely prepared! We also found another
investigator who loves America, English, and Christ as it turns out.
She too has been very receptive and we can't wait to get strong
baptisimal dates set for each of them!

Fun things: Well this week we got our bikes back (Sat.) and so we
tried to ride them yesterday. Yes there was still snow... Yes it was
very dangerous, but I ended up being fine and just got some huge
adrenaline rushes! Super fun, but a little nerveracking. And yes,
we're riding them again today as well! But we're just having such a
fun time lately, and are sad that the transfer's going to end soon...

Food: We've had the usual missionary meals, as well as once in a while
we go to this grocery store nearby, and at night, so like around 8:20
the sushi and other bentos go down to half price so we've done that as
well! I had some inarizushi as well as a katsudon bento that I got for
3 bucks! Pretty good when it's usually about 7 or 8... ;)

Love you all lots, and hopefully next week, we'll be able to send
recordings as well as pictures! Talk to you soon!

Elder Bickel

March 31, 2014

So this week we had a few disappointments with investigators. One is deciding between staying Buddhist or becoming a member and apparently it's about half and half right now... Also his wife won't give him permission to be baptized which is a problem... But he's still progressing and does want to become a member so I'm excited to see that full change take place in him and his family.

 

On the good side, we found this lady yesterday who loves english and america and Christ! She told us that quite a few times and ended up saying that she's coming to Church on Sunday when she had been planning to be baptized in another church that day... The Lord is absolutely amazing! We talked to her for a while and she said that she would love to hear our message and learn more english. She's definitely one of those prepared people for us to teach!

 

We've been eating a lot of meat lately... Probably not good, but we had a All you can eat Yakiniku, so like beef and meat just cooked in front of you, as well as we had those nasty hamburgers with 5 patties and 5 pieces of cheese on them. I thought it'd be better the second time... Ya it wasn't. But I guess it is a good object lesson I can use about sin. It is terrible the first time, but you didn't know so you can just stop doing it. The second time though you just feel stupid for trying it again...

 

Ok maybe the Object lesson needs some work, but I'm making this stuff up on the spot... ;)

 

So funny thing of the week... So it started last week but happened again this week so I figured I had to tell Dad! So we were walking in this part of our area and these high school kids walked by and said I looked like Tom Cruise. At the time I thought, oh ya right. That's just once. But then it happened again this week, so I figured if Dad's Johnny Depp, I'd gladly take Tom Cruise and I might as well let him know what a stylish, cool looking son he's got serving a mission in Japan... ;) haha sorry Dad, tough luck... ;)

 

Love you all lots! Hope the week's going well, and I'll send the two week's recordings next week!

 

Love

Elder Bickel

March 24, 2014

Hey Everyone!

So this week not much exciting or fun happened so it'll probably be a little shorter than usual, but more interesting than hearing about me waking up and studying ;):

Monday: Today we actually went to the Asahiyama Zoo which is the most famous zoo in Hokkaido. It was actually a lot like an American Zoo... Except all of the animals were sleeping so it was a little disappointing, but we did get to see a hippo run back and forth right in front of us, as well as watch penguins walk past us. We also went to a restuarant for lunch which had all you can eat curry, so I definitely took advantage of that one! ;)

 

Tuesday: We were asked to come to a funeral today. We went to a lady's funeral who was in the ward, but since she was old, she wasn't able to come to church really... But it was a church style funeral, so no new customs I got to witness, but I did get to help mourn with those that mourn, and I thought a lot about life and the meaning of our message with the plan of salvation.

 

Wednesday: Ya we'll just skip Wednesday.

 

Thursday: Ya Thursday too. They were just a lot of finding. We did find some cool people, and if they become investigators I'll tell you about them.

 

Friday: Today we had Eikaiwa which was fun. I've really gotten to be friends with the Advanced class members and they seem to like me a lot. We talked about goals and dreams so that was kinda fun cause we talked about what dreams they had when they were young, and what dreams they still have. Then they asked about my dreams and found out that I want to ballroom dance on the BYU ballroom dance team and seemed to think that that was super super cool... Who knew Japanese people liked Ballroom dancing so much. My companions have all said that it's not really big here, so I figured it wouldn't be that exciting... ;)

 

Saturday: Today was a little interesting. We talked to two different investigators but both of them have studied religions and stuff for a long time and their intent was basically to weaken our faith in the gospel, but through talking with them, I realized how strong my faith really was. It reminded me of the '' When there is the most resistance, there is the most growth'' quote. Very interesting...

 

Sunday: Today was good. We talked to an investigator who is really into Yoga and like different Power Spots but is listening to the gospel. It is funny to talk to him cause he's trying to get us to do Yoga and stuff, but since we're missionaries we can't and we tell him, but everytime he does the exact same thing... But really good guy!

 

Love you all, sorry for the shorter email this week, but I hope your week went well!

 

Elder Bickel

March 17, 2014

Hey everybody! 

The Asahikawa music night was this past Saturday, and it went very well! I learned a song this past week so I could be one of the 5 missionaries singing it, and I got it well enough to make it seem like I knew what I was doing. I also had a duet on Nearer My God to Thee in Japanese and I actually hit some relatively high notes. Katherine would be laughing at how low they are, but for a low bass they were definitely a stretch. But it's finally over so that stress will be gone and I'll be able to get back to focusing on dendo!

 

We had a really good Zone Training Meeting on Saturday before the Music Night. Because of both of those things we didn't get to dendo at all, but we learned a lot about Unity and Baptisimal invites by the ZL's, AP's, and the STL's (Sister Training Leaders), so that was way good. They talked a lot about loving your companion and trying to teach half and half which is hard for an American speaking a foreign language when they're with a Japanese person, but I'm working hard and we're seeing success from going more 50% each.

 

Investigators. Right now we actually have a super strong investigator. He is in the Japanese Special Forces (JTAI) but he is super interested and has a strong desire to be baptized. He's only been to Church once, but he actually asked us today if he could be baptized this coming week. Sadly we had to tell him no, but he's willing to keep on working to get baptized soon! He is actually fluent in English and wants to become a professional English speaker and is now trying to change his job because he feels like it is the right thing to do and it'll make it easier for him to be a member of the church. He's absolutely amazing!

 

Today we went to the Asahiyama Zoo, which was fun! It turns out that Japan's zoo's are very similar (exactly the same) as American zoo's except everything's written in Japanese ;)  We're working hard lately to find a lot of prepared people and it's been going well! We want to keep on finding more prepared people, but really want to focus on one's who have that desire to be baptized!

 

My companion is even cooler than I thought last week! He is fluent in English but since I've had companions who weren't and we always talked in Japanese, we still just talk in Japanese. Except for in busses. We're hoping that speaking in English in busses will turn into a missionary opportunity. But he's teaching me a ton of how to dendo better and is really helping me with my Japanese since he can explain the harder stuff in English!

 

So that's the basics of the cool things that have been happening this week! Love you all lots! 

 

Love,

Elder Bickel

March 10, 2014

Stephen has been sending recordings each week instead of letters.  He just got another Japanese companion, who he really likes, and he loves the area he is in now. It was Jeff's favorite area when he served in that mission.  Stephen really enjoyed meeting a family who remembered Jeff.  When they saw him they said he looked just like his dad.   The family was baptized just before Jeff was assigned to that area, and he got really close to them in the five months he worked there. 

Stephen wrote a little bit about this weeks miracles….

So while we were streeting we found a really cool guy who stopped and listened to us and talked to us for about 30 minutes during a crazy snow storm. Also while we were housing, we kept on getting the door slammed in our faces without even being able to say the name of the church or our own names. But then we knocked on this last door, and a young guy opens up the door, and he starts talking to us. We talked to him for about 45 minutes, taught him about what we do and teach, and gave him a Book of Mormon saying if you read this you can know this church is true. Right now he's listening to a bunch of different churches, but he said he'd read the Book of Mormon and set up a time to meet again. So cool!

Also we got a baptisimal date with one of our investigators!  The Spirit was so strong in the lesson, and he actually told us that he was considering changing his job from J-TAI to being an English translator. He said he still wasn't sure if it was what he was supposed to do, but he said that he felt like the environment wasn't the type of place he wants to be because the higher rankers want to drink with the lower ranks to create bonds and he doesn't want to drink anymore, so it was really cool. In the same lesson we talked about how miracles still happen in our day and that we can see them everyday. He then asked if through this church and learning about the church, if he could see miracles, and when I told him that he could, the spirit flooded the room and it was really neat!

January 27, 2014

Hey everybody! This week went way well! It was also Transfers so that was kinda cool...

Monday: Today we didn't have music practice! But we still went to Sapporo to email and talk to people at Honbu (mission home)... We also went to another famous Ramen place in Sapporo so that was kinda fun too! We then went home, and had dinner with the ZL's and a member at the way good Kabob place! But other than that it was a pretty normal day...

Tuesday: Today we got Transfer calls! If you haven't heard, I'm going to Asahikawa and will be serving in the 2nd ward! The area is so big they split it into two, and there is a ward in each with a lot of active members which is great! My companion is F Choro, a native Japanese Elder and he is super awesome! It is a two man appartment though so that'll be a bit of a change for me... ;) Then we went and said goodbye to a few investigators and members and then had Eikaiwa (English class) which was super fun! Then I packed for a bunch of time tonight!

Wednesday: So today was more packing, visiting more members and investigators and more packing! One of our investigators actually gave me a little bye bye present that was a Koi(the type of fish) sweatshirt that is super cool! I'll try to remember to send a picture! ;) But ya today was a lot of packing...

Thursday: Today was transfer day as well as music practice and we were supposed to have all of our music memorized! Well I definitely got close for a few of the songs... ;) In my defense though, I have 5 to memorize, they are in a different language, and I have no time to do it! My solo is memorized though so that was a relief. I didn't say it was good, but it's memorized... ;) Then we took the 3 hour bus ride to Asahikawa and I'm very excited for this transfer!

Friday: Today was pretty good! We had DKK (Companionship Meeting) where I found out about our investigators, we planned for the week, and set goals for the Transfer! We also had Eikaiwa, so my 2nd time this week, and went home and did the usual. The Asahikawa Eikaiwa has some really good English speakers! It was kinda fun to hear English a little more than Japanese at Eikaiwa... ;)

Saturday: Great day again! We went to an appointment with a team up which happened to be the Stake President! The appointment fell through, but we went with him to visit some non attending members. Then we went to this street called Kaimono Koen which is basically a bunch of shops and we tried to street there. It was a pretty fun day! 

Sunday: So today I had to give a little self-intro as well as a little talk in Sacrament meeting, and it just so happens, that even after being Darcy in front of a bunch of people, I still have stage fright! Who would've guessed? ;) I wrote down a bullet point list of what I wanted to say and really thought it out hard, and then I got up there to speak and it was all gone. I got out a small portion of what I wanted to say, and pretended that I just didn't know enough Japanese, and went back to my seat. ;) Then we had a Takoyaki party with the Young Single Adults after Church which was fun, and had an appointment with a really cool investigator with the Dendo Shunin(ward mission leader) who is going on his mission to Kobe in March! Fun stuff!

Well my week went well, I hope all of your's did too! Talk to you soon! Love you lots! You're in my prayers!

Elder Bickel