Transfers

November 29, 2015

First: it snowed sooooooooooooo much on Wednesday! This mission is the snowiest mission in the world, and it definitely live up to the name of frozen chosen. The roads are covered in snow and it's freaking so piled up.

Sooooooo I transferred on Thursday. I've been in my new area, SHINORO since Thursday. My new companion is ......... Elder Rees. So this last transfer call was a little weird. My new companion Elder Rees was my trainer (elder birch)'s MTC companion. On top of that, my MTC companion transferred to my old area in SHINKOTONI. On top of that the SHINORO area is where one of my friends (shout out to Askew ) was being trained. My MTC companion is living the exact same life I lived for 12 weeks and is sleeping in my bed every night. I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Time to break down

Sunday: had a meal at a member's house because everyone in my ward thought my companion was leaving this transfer. I showed some family pictures and get this.... I show a picture of my dad to the family, and the mom (probably in her 40s) sees it and says, "WOW! Ikemen!" For those of you that don't know: definition: lovely, dreamy, beautiful, great. Didn't know my dad still had that much game.

Tuesday: got our transfer calls, so we're pretty pumped all day. The mission president told me my hair was too long, and it looked bad to transfer with hair that long. He said I couldn't go waste time and go to a barber and seemed pretty disappointed. Later That night, I cut my own hair and it looks freaking hot! Like Hot Dang! I'll attach a picture for all my fans out there.

Wednesday: saw some miracles! I needed two referrals from random contacting to finish this program for missionaries in Japan called the Alma O Taylor. It has a bunch of requirements and is an awesome thing to accomplish. I've been working really hard to finish it before training was over, and this was the last day with two referrals to go. Prayed really hard and what do you know.....I finished it! It was truly am answer to my prayers. I was so happy, but left the area before we could contact the referrals.

Thursday: thanksgiving yep! Nope! Just housed all day and nobody fed us. moved to my new apartment in SHINORO. It's only 1-2 hours from my apartment in Shinkotoni, so I'm still in the city in Sapporo. My new companion is seriously so tight! We get along great. Weird thing is that I'm older than him. He left right out of high school, so he's on his 11th transfer (out of 16 in Japan). I'm older by a month and am on my 3rd transfer, idk it's really weird to me. Both my companions thus far have been 9th transfer and up, so I learn a lot from them.

Saturday: so first, we have really high goals for this transfer. We want to leave at 12 and return really late around 8 every day. Just over the past days, we have been working really hard and teaching a lot of lessons. I'm actually participating! Stoked baby!

Sunday: went to a members house after church and the member has 4 little kids ranging from 2-7. They're so cute and they just crawl all over you the whole time you are there. We got asked to give a blessing to a sick 16 old girl on the house, so I anointed the oil and elder Rees gave the blessing. Really awesome experience. Apparently giving blessings in this mission are not as common.

This transfer is going to be one to remember. Every night I'm super tired because we were running around all day, not going back to the apartment until we get one more lesson, etc...

I got really sick the past two days, so the walking around in freezing temperature is making matters worse. I don't want to lay in bed though, I want work hard!

The mission is getting better and better and my desire to work is getting more and more.

Thanks to everyone. Love you all! Send me some emails

Hope thanksgiving was good!

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

Transfers! This transfer I am......

November 22, 2015

Sorry about deceiving once again. We actually don't get transfer calls until tomorrow morning. Soooooo, you won't know if I'm staying or going, get a Japanese companion or not, until next Monday.

This week was great, but after our meeting with the mission coordinator at church, I realized we barely got anything done. I made it a goal to work harder than I ever have this next transfer. I know if I do that, the Lord will bless me more than i would ever believe.

So last Monday we were going curling for P day. Took the subway down and it was closed. Bit disappointing, but we did some shopping and I bought this sick Japanese shirt. Just kidding it's a billabong long sleeve, sorry mom.

Tuesday I did splits with an elder from the mission home, and had to go back to the apartment around 5 because his phone died and he needs it because he works in the mission home. We basically spent the rest of the night practice teaching in Japanese, and it was really helpful.

Wednesday we went to ishikari (if you read my other emails---> where all the members in my area live, 1 1/2hr away from our apartment, where we got ridiculously lost last week. Well this week was better. We had a meal and shared a short message about trials. I shared a personal experience about how my grandma's death right before my mission was hard, but through prayer I received a lot of comfort. It was a really meaningful lesson to me. We then heartattacked that family, and another family because they always do so much for the missionaries

Thursday was normal. 4 hours of planning and teaching Eikaiwa. Could've been my last time teaching my favorite student :( he's Japanese, and is fluent in English with an Australian accent. I always tell him I want to be him

Friday we held a movie night at the church watching "finding faith in Christ" we had our main Progressing Investigator (かたやまさん) show up, as well as the less active that has recently been coming to church again. We held a short testimony meeting after and the spirit was so strong. I really hope it touched かたやまさん's heart even just a little bit. I know it touched mine. Especially when the less active shared his conversion story and how he loves this church :) Unfortunately after this amazing activity, when walking to the subway with かたやまさん, my companion asked how he was doing with the word of wisdom. He said he's doing pretty well, but it's still tough. My companion explained how he was down to 4 cigarettes this week, but かたやまさん thought he was at 3. Yep, just like last time he lit up right after an uplifting spiritual testimony meeting. It was a bit sad, but I'm staying positive.

Saturday we had zone conference from 9-4. We had the privilege to hear workshops from the APs, as well as the mission president, and his wife. They were freaking amazing!!! It made me ponder what I'm doing right now, and really evaluate how I can be a better, more effective missionary. There are a lot of things I can change and I'm working really hard to be better at exactly obedient. It's so easy to just rationalize that no one I'll know, or it really won't make a difference. I'm going to change a lot of things and I know the lord will bless me for my effort.

Sunday we had normal church. かたやまさん came because we explained how one of us is leaving on Thursday. So he showed up, we talked, and we walked in class and noticed he was gone. He dipped out when we were walking in class :( lol I felt stupid for not noticing. We also had a fireside about the Sapporo temple. They showed us pictures, described what's currently being done, etc... I could barely understand because the speakers's Japanese was fast, so i was basically like a little kid reading a book only for the pictures. We had a meal at the members house and they made lasagna just for me, and sushi as well, just for my companion. Lasagna is rarely made here, so I was stoked, and it really showed me that this family loves me. I'll be way sad if I transfer and never get to see them again.

Thankful for the blessings his church has brought me. This gospel is true I know it! I can't deny the feeling of the Holy Ghost testifying truth! I made it a goal to read the Book of Mormon every other transfer, and I've been reading a little bit every day since I went into the MTC. It's true! Don't believe me? Read it and then we can talk about it. This is God's church once again restored by Joseph Smith.

Love you all

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

You're going to want to see these pictures

Hello again. Crazy how another week has already flown by. A lot happened, as usual, but I won't bore you with a 40 page essay like always.

So this week we met with our 1 progressing investigator かたやまさん(katayama San). The last time we met, we talked about the word of wisdom. It's had been about two weeks and he told us he has completely stopped all tobacco and all drinking in the past two weeks. I was so stoked for him. He explained it was hard and that he's struggling a lot, so I thought we should talk about prayer and how you can receive comfort through it. Well, I was wrong. After we heard how he stopped all of his addictions for 2 weeks my companion kind of freaked out. He stood up and told me "change of topic" and went to the white board. He drew out this huge detailed plan on how every week katayama San would smoke one less pack, or drink one less drink. Ideally, the goal was for him to be at 0 in 7 or 8 weeks. It was a good plan in the long run, but then katayama San was basically asking "so it's okay to smoke 6 packs this week" I thought this whole plan was a good idea, but it kind of gave him permission to go ahead and drink and smoke for the rest of the week (it being Tuesday). That's why, I didn't think it was the right path to take saying "as long as you follow this... You can smoke today and 6 more times this week" He ended up lighting up right after the lesson when we walked with him to the subway station. The lesson was 4 hours long :/ and it seemed that all we accomplished was letting him smoke. I wasn't too happy with my companion, but I can't say it was his fault because I feel like I could've done more. Please pray for him

We have a tradition where me and my companion, as well as two other elders working in the mission home, go to a sushi bar called Toriton 2 or 3 times a week, it's dang expensive, but the sushi is so bomb. Well, this week they rang their bell and announced that they had a fresh octopus and explained a little bit about the size, where they caught it, etc... You want to see the picture. I watched the guy cut it up as it was moving. I also could see the head sitting on the side breathing and to be honest, was grossed out. Of course the only logical thing to do next was..... Buy some. Yep, I bought some and it was well worth the expensive plate. It was moving a little, which was a little weird, but I had to do it so my email would be a bit more interesting ya know? It was for the email, not the experience.

Did splits on Thursday with 小和田長老 a Japanese elder working in the mission home. Only spoke Japanese all day, and I felt pretty good speaking it. I'm obviously not fluent, but it was following unusually nice. We had a movie night later that day, and had a less active and one of our other investigators come. This less active 's name is ただの兄弟(Brother Tadano) and he's been coming to church, but struggling with creating ward relationships. Please pray for him. It was hard enough to get him to church, and seems like getting him to continue going is going to be harder.

So last story. Almost every day we do an hour of advertising our English class. Last week we met this sketchy guy who wouldn't tell us his name and kept saying it was Yellow Monkey. He's a little odd in many ways. He always carries a bunch of clothes (wig, 3 hats, 2 shirts, etc...) he came to our sports night last Saturday and was using some sexual language in Japanese, so we of course told him he needed to cool it. We haven't heard from him in over a week now, but yesterday at church we got pulled aside by a ward member, and introduced to two guys in black. They were cops! They showed us his picture and asked for info about it and all the contact we've had with him. We told them everything. I still barely understand Japanese, so I thought he was wanted. My first thought was SHOOT! Turns out he's playing a witness in some trial, and they're trying to put him into a mental hospital because he's not stable and is dangerous around children. I COULD'VE DIED! Jk I'm tough I would've been good. I thought I'd share that because that was pretty intense and I had a bunch of adrenaline. Good way to end the week.

I've been studying the New Testament and I'm about 3/4th of the way through and wanted to share some scriptures.

Romans 12:9-15,21

9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good

10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

14 Bless that which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep

21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Ephesians 4:1-7

1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling

5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Please read them and think about them. They really strengthened my testimony.

Also, I found an awesome talk.

In Tune With The Music of Faith (April 2012) by Quentin L. Cook

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/in-tune-with-the-music-of-faith?lang=eng

He made mention of Lehi's vision of the tree of life, and proceeded to talk about the types of people in that vision. In his talk he said something that really stuck out. "While Lehi’s vision includes all people, the culminating doctrinal concept is the eternal significance of the family."

The family really is the most important unit in time and in eternity. I couldn't be more grateful for my family. Love you guys :)

Thanks everyone. Love you all. Of course this email is long. Who am I kidding? I can't make them short. I just have so much to tell and am so enlightening. Lol

Keep it 100 everyone

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

Perspective is Everything

This week so much happened that I can't do a day to day breakdown. I
literally don't have enough time to do so. That being said, I'm going
to attempt to describe the best parts of my week. Might be all over
the place, and if it is I apologize. I always rush these emails, but
give a good amount of thought beforehand.

So we visited a guy named (nosaka San) who my companion found on
splits last week. He was a younger guy and was way chill. He let me
play his guitar, and I even made a baptismal invite before we left. He
said he wasn't ready yet, and he has a lot going on. He seemed really
stressed, so we didn't force anything right then.

Funny story of the week: so the light saber chopsticks are the sickest
things ever. I can't even describe how much I act like a Jedi. For our
English class on both Wednesday and Thursday, we were going over
pronunciation. Basically we have a list of 10 words and we say them to
the class, and then the class repeats them. This continues 3 or 4
times per word. After that, we jump all around with the word order. We
wrote the word "star" and the word "wars" pretty distant from each
other. When the time came to jump around my companion went to star and
then wars and then star and then wars over and over reinforcing the
idea. That's when I hit the lights and yelled out "I am your father."
(I was behind everyone in the class next to the light switch so it was
pretty surprising) All us missionaries, (4 because the sisters had
some too) pulled out our light sabers and we pretend fought. Then we
all grabbed a teammate from the English class and teamed up. Way
freaking fun! Good way to help them learn important English. Who needs
to know what a car is when you have Star Wars ya feel?

Friday, was the longest day of my entire life. We planned to go out the
the northern most part of our are, which is an hour bike ride from the
church, and 1 1/2 hours from our apartment. We're trying to work
better with members and create more relationships, and all the members
live in that northern area. We went to one house and ate lunch with
some members who we are good friends with. Just a good bonding
experience. From there we visited a less active and that meeting went
really well. We then wanted to "heart attack" our favorite family in
the ward. A heart attack is where you cut out a bunch of paper hearts
and attack their door with them without them knowing. From the less
actives house, we thought we had a general idea where to go for the
heart attack. Ended up getting lost in some parking lot 30 minutes
away.

This is where the journey begins.

Elder birch and I had a different idea of where this house was. Him
being the older experienced missionary, I stayed quiet and let him
lead. We went around this huge peninsula. HUGE! It was a big circle
and ended up being an hour + bike ride. He kept stopping to look at
the map, and I just figured he knew where we were going. At this point
I knew we had been biking for too long, but I didn't want to argue or
anything, so I remained quiet. We then proceeded to get disoriented
and travel north for another hour. We pulled over at a seicomart and
asked for directions. Turned out we were 2 hours too far north of the
house. I asked elder birch to let me see the map, and oh boy we were
so far. I'll attach a picture. Where I thought the house was located,
was spot on. Nailed it! 10/10 baby! On the other hand, where we were
was exactly where elder birch thought the house was ( 2 hours north )
The bike ride back to the apartment was 3-4 hours away and it was
already 7 o clock. We have to be back by 9 so we started freaking out,
and called the APs and explained the situation. We suggested we stay
in another area called shinoro, which was about an hour 1/2 bike ride
from where we were. Ended up getting to that apartment around 9 and
stayed with the elders in that area (actually our good friends :))
In total the bike ride was about 6 hours almost non stop, and that
next morning we got up at 6:30, left at 6:45 and biked back to our
apartment for 1 1/2. My body was legit wasted.

Still haven't quite recovered tbh hahah. 
Sorry that story was way scrambled, but that was my whole Friday, for
you. I hate biking lol. 

We taught a lot of less actives and actually got one to come to church
for the second time in 3-4 months, so I feel really accomplished.

The work is great. Still not quite used to some cultural things. The
driving on the opposite side of the rode is unreal. I always feel like
I'm going to get in an accident when I'm in a car. The bowing every
time you meet some one is fun. The chopsticks are still impossible to
use.

I'm having a blast out here. Weird to think in less than 3 weeks I
won't be training anymore. I become a big boy! Sweet.

Hope everyone is killing it. Love you all

敬具 (sincerely yours)
ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

Blue dot is where we were
And the purple is near the church
The word Sapporo is where our apartment complex is

Yes we went all the way around that big loop next to the river. The
house was actually right next to the red pin :)

 When I first saw the map

Companionship in a Nutshell

Think I hit a low

今日皆さん

Boy this week was for lack of a better word "mentally tough" there probably 50 better words I could use, but maybe by the end of this email you'll understand why I used that word.

Get pumped this is a good email!

Monday: chill P day. Bought some Star Wars chopsticks. They look like light sabers, and you can click a button and they light up. They're cooler than they sound I promise. I heard they're pretty popular around Japan, and it seems like every foreigner buys some. You best believe I turned off all the apartment lights, lit the chopsticks up, and acted like a Jedi for 5 minutes. Elder birch and I kind of had a fake fight. Mine are red and his are purple, so you best believe I won from the beginning.

Tuesday: did splits with the ZL and went up to his area for the day. I was in Moiwa, which is just 30ish minutes south of my area in shinkotoni (新琴似). It was way fun because I got to teach an English class with about 20 people. My English class in shinkotni has 4 at the most, my other class in odori has 1 person show up every week. Weird story: before Eikaiwa, we knocked a door and some guy came out being really obnoxious and just causing contention to cause contention. He told us to wait a minute, and then came back with a chair and sat down in the doorway and proceeded to ask about Christian history and war history for 30 minutes. We kept trying to leave, but it was hard. My temporary companion was getting heated and I didn't have a clue like always. Haha

Wednesday: we made the coolest origami I've ever seen. I'll attach pictures. You want to see these. I think learning how to make it caused a little bit of my feminine side to come out. Probably because what we made were broaches, but oh boy they are so sweet. After I learned how to make them, I made 6 more within the next 3 days. For 英会話(English class) our topic was communication and we expressed how you can communicate without words. One example was by using music. I played "sweet hour of prayer" while a sister missionary sang. Doesn't sound impressive, but I can't really read piano music and I'm learning piano on the mission, so I think it's pretty impressive. I guess mom was right. I shouldn't have quit piano when I was 11.

Thursday: normal long Thursday of planning then Eikaiwa.

Friday: most mentally tough day for me on the mission. We did splits again, but both my companionship for the day and my companion's companionship where in our area. So 4 elders in one area. I had to be in charge, which was way stressful because I found out I don't know how to navigate my area very well. If my companion transfers next transfer, I'm done for.

So the other missionaries on splits (my companion and elder Velasquez) made a baptismal date with one of my investigators!!! I was stoked, but I was fighting some bittersweet feelings. If you recall, Every time we have taught this investigator thus far, my companion takes over and I sit there for 3 hours. Because this baptismal date was made, I really thought about if I am fulfilling my missionary purpose. I really feel like I haven't done anything in those lessons, so when I found out they made a date for our investigator, I felt useless again. It was way hard. I was happy for my investigator, but still way sad that I haven't made much of an impact. I was way low that day, and it was probably the lowest point of my mission to be honest. I prayed a lot and I've received so much comfort that it seemed a little unreal. I made it a goal from here on to make sure I am a part of changing all of my investigator's life.

I expressed some of my feelings with my companion (mainly because he noticed something was up and interrogated me) and I straight told him that he needs to talk less and let me participate. I felt bad calling him out, but he said its been told before and he felt bad. It was an awkward talk, but he said it needed to happen. Now our relationship is greater than ever! Hopefully from here on I'll get to teach. Most lessons before I would say very little.

Saturday: Halloween party at the church. None of our investigators showed up and there were probably 20 people there. Way small of a turn out. Doing a bunch of fun games. Donut on a string, fishing for candy, etc...

Sunday: normal church. Main investigator かたやまさん didn't want to come :( (same one that has the newly made baptismal date), but we're staying positive and praying a lot for him.

Pretty bipolar week to be honest. My feelings were all over the place, but I think it ended way better than most weeks, so I can't complain. Appreciate all the prayers from everyone, and all the support.

Love you all! Have a great week :)

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)