Training is pretty sick no lie

April 10, 2016

Haven't done a good breakdown in a while, so here's a mediocre one

Monday: once again did our bistarai bistari Nepalese curry run like every Monday. Might be the last for a while because I weighed in recently and boy was I surprised. I got up to 165, so I'm actually on a strict diet right now trying to get back down to 155 before I regret anything. (Let's be honest I can't do it) Visited an awesome less active and introduced my new companion. Basically all of missionary work lately has been introducing my companion to everyone because he literally has been here less than 2 weeks now.

Tuesday: had a zone conference and had a bean shower for my bean. Bean is this mission's common term for new missionary. Every time we have a new missionary in the zone, everyone buys something cool and we attack the bean after ZTM with goodies, toys, candy, etc... My comp. has been chowing all his snacks from his bean shower like its no one's business haha. Makes it even harder to lose weight.

Wednesday: did our normal Wednesday routine and went to the old folks home for 2 hours. Those little old ladies never get visitors and it is just awesome to watch them light up when we walk in. The literally wait all week for us to come visit them every Wednesday. We sing songs together and just talk about lots of things. One lady always brings up religion and will ask you what religion you are probably 5 times in 10 minutes. She doesn't like being the only Catholic in the old folks home. They forget things after 10 seconds so sometimes I tell her I'm Catholic too and then she'll say something like: "so sad it's just us two. We're the only Catholics in his place." She then forgets and asks you for the 9th time and you tell her you aren't Catholic haha so fun.

Thursday: we stayed in suehiro to dendo (missionary work) and met a less active at the church named Brother Uchida. I feel really bad for him because he just moved, is looking for a job, in his 40's and not married, and just seems really lonely. I've really come to love him a lot. It's awesome when you start to love the people you interact with because you really do 100% forget yourself and there's nothing better in this life than 2 years of devoted, selfless service. Right now we're just doing our best to show him Christ like love and be his friend.

Friday: it's days like today that I live for on my mission. We taught two people at their door (in their room in front of their door called the genkan) and had 2 awesome lessons. One lady has had a lot of deaths in her family so we emphasized eternal families after this life and it really got her excited. I could see her progressing a lot from her on if she really commits. The other was the message of the restoration (Joseph smith, Book of Mormon). The spirit was so strong and just made everything awesome that day.

Saturday: basically spent all day sitting in the church with another group of missionaries watching conference. I got lucky to be watching it with other English speakers. Some missionaries watch it alone because they're the only American for miles. Glad I had the opportunity to listen to our beloved prophet. Truly called of God.

Sunday: basically like yesterday, but watched Sunday conference. It's cool that Japan gets everything a week later because if you want to, you can read a long with the talks because they came out just before we started watching conference.

I'm already loving training. Believe it or not, I learn a lot from a new missionary with a lot of what we call "dendo fire" he wants to work hard, and might be working me more than I thought I could haha. He loves yelling out "konnichiwa"or "hello" to everyone we walk by. It's the first time I have really been talking to everyone I see and not just the people that are easy to talk to. I've seen lots of miracles out here and every day is getting better.

Love you all

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Had a meal at probably my favorite member since coming to Japan's house yo!]

[First Mexican food in over 9 months baby!]

[This is the bean shower.]

I can't believe it either

April 3, 2016

Yep, so transfer calls came, and it was probably the most shocked I've been since coming out here.

To say the least.... I went trainer. I just moved on to transfer 6 and for this mission going trainer on 6 is pretty dang fast. Most people go trainer around the 8th to 10th transfer range. The second youngest trainer this transfer was a transfer 9 Japanese missionary and the youngest American besides me was transfer 10. Looks like our mission president has a lot of faith in me. Let's just hope I don't screw it up.

So, I got the call on Monday and was not expecting it at all. Freaking scared me to be honest haha. Went to Honbu on Wednesday and met my companion. His name is Elder Conover and he is from Apline, Utah.

Side note: he is my 4th companion from Utah. Keep in mind he's also my 6th companion. Typical Utah. More than half of my companions are from Utah.

We get along super well and I can definitely see why I am the one training him. Our personalities are basically identical. He went to BYU Idaho for a semester before the mission, so that might cause some problems (jk) but it's all good. The only problem is he's way freakin tall, so I feel like he's training me all the time haha.

Basically this last week was going to the mission home and me trying to make Japan an awesome first experience for a new missionary. He has never been to Japan before, so I'm showing him all the cool stuff the cool kids are doing and just having a blast watching him soak everything up. He loves the mission so much. Sometimes I think he has more missionary fire than me, so honestly I'm already learning a lot on how I can be a better missionary.

It's nerve racking because he looks at everything I'm doing. I'm his first impression of missionaries in Japan, so my missionary work and obedience needs to be 150%. It's good for me because I've been making sure I'm doing the literal 100% best that I can do recently.

We are going to need many prayers for the next 12 weeks because let's be honest. Only studying Japanese for 9 months is not enough to get by. His Japanese is what you would expect from how much you learn at the MTC and I'm still a young missionary, so I'm still getting there too.

Thankful for this opportunity and I guess Heavenly Father really is humbling me over this 2 year period. I think it's good for me. Missionary work is the best, and this gospel is true. No doubt in my

mind.

Hope everyone has a good week! Love you all

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Me and my bean (only pic we have together sorry)]

[Made this sick iPad case with one of the sister's investigators. Doraemon is a kids show in Japan]

[ Everyone that was at the sewing party. Investigator is bottom left.]

[Got a pic with the Nepalese worker (bisatrai bistarai) we treat him like he's famous hahahah. I love NAN!!!]

Christ is truly our Savior

March 27, 2016

We get transfer calls tomorrow and I think we are going to stay together, but you never know.

This last week was definitely the a harder week in my mission.

Thursday was probably one of the harder days of my mission. I was on splits with my district leader when I got some bad news. Here's how the day played out: We went to the church so my district leader could sync up his area book and with the 5 minutes I had, I decided to check to see if I had any emails from the mission. I saw an email from my mom telling me that my dog died from end stage liver failure. I didn't even know he was sick, so I was straight up crushed and spent the next 10 minutes in the church crying. Of course I had to continue with missionary work, so I basically just followed my companion around the next 2 hours without saying a word. To be honest, I couldn't focus at all. He decided it would be best to go back to the apartment and I couldn't have agreed more. It sucked being in another missionary's area during all of this because I didn't want to be the reason our splits weren't very effective. That being said, we did head back and I spent the next hour in the bathroom crying. It might sound stupid to some of you, but that dog was part of our family. Still pretty bummed, but I'm okay now. I think the bad news and the fact that I've been under a lot of stress lately from the ward and other things kind of bundled up, and then finally just erupted. Looking back now, I feel like a little girl for crying, but I am 100% now.

We taught a lot about Jesus Christ this week, and showed a lot of videos about his life. We learned something in a broadcast to missionaries last transfer that said "if you don't know what to teach, teach about Christ." We have lots of investigators that just aren't progressing, so we're at the point where it's... What do we teach? That's why we talked a lot about Christ. It sounds crazy, but you can see how touched people are when they learn about Christ. Even if they have been Buddhist their whole life and don't really know a whole ton about him.

Lots of other things happened this week, but I'm extra tired today for some reason, so this email is going to be shorter.

Hope everyone has a good week. Being a missionary is truly a privilege, I've learned that a lot out here.

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Us and our Eikaiwa class]

R.I.P. Ozzy [March 22, 2016]

What's Up!!!

March 20, 2016

What's up everyone?!? Hope everyone enjoyed my lovely pictures. Let's get to the update of this last week

Monday: went to bistari bistari (Nepalese curry and NAN). Think it's become my favorite food in this area, and I swear I crave cheese nan every time I get hungry. We're trying to become regulars and I think it's working because the guy told us about a special they had today, but no one else. ;) Also have our normal spot in the restaurant. went super hard In the 3 hours of missionary work and got 3 lessons. Actually gave out a Book of Mormon! Super rare for me, so it kind of made my night. Excited for bistari next week (meaning today in about 2 hours!)

Tuesday: went out as a district and ate sushi. I ate a lot. Dropped just about 20$, but it was sick. You click a screen and select your sushi and then it comes around on a conveyor belt. I ordered a lot of cake haha. I'm getting fat this transfer haha. I've probably gained about 5 pounds. I think the same 5 pounds I lost last transfer... Taught some good lessons that day as well. Finally met with one lady we've been trying to meet with for the whole transfer. She has potential, just so dang busy. Also gave her a Book of Mormon! This week we taught a lot and it was awesome to see progress.

Wednesday: we go to an old folks home every Wednesday here and talk to old ladies for about 2 hours. It's hard enough to understand old people English, let alone Japanese. It's near impossible. I nod a lot and say "right" or "yeah yeah yeah" a lot. I love doing service because Japanese people are too stubborn to let you help them with anything if you don't know them. So, my service opportunities here are way small. At night we tried visiting some people, but no one was home. Bummer! I always make origami and give them to people. The old folks people loved them.

Thursday: we met with Takada San. He has a baptismal date for the 27th of this month, but still hasn't been and won't come to church, so the date went away. He's a 70ish year old man and is very content with being rich (he's filthy) and happy. Right now he's doing everything right, but has a problem with the law of chastity. I won't go into detail, but he's being difficult. We're trying to teach him the blessings of following commandments, but he always says rejects it and whenever you start to talk all serious or testify to him. He always looks down at his phone and kind of stops listening. please pray for him. He is so close and just needs to make those final steps towards Christ. I love him. Probably my favorite investigator haha. Watched finding faith in Christ with him, and it kind of slapped him in the face and woke him up. He knows what he needs to do, just needs a little more faith.

Friday: cool moment of the week. We had a lot of housing time because another baptismal date investigator (yamahata San) doesn't answer our calls. We tried visiting her anyways because she has a date for the 27th this month, but isn't prepared yet. Don't really know what to know if she's not really contacting us back. Anyway, She wasn't home and so we started housing. It was getting really rough, so I decided to say a silent prayer asking for at least one nice person to JUST LISTEN to us. Here in Japan no one really listens. They heard Jesus Christ and it's "yep no thanks, I'm Buddhist" (and then turn off their little speaker box). It makes it rough sometimes, but those people that just listen, even if they don't have interest sometimes make the rough times a bit easier. We found a way cool guy named sato san and we're going to visit him next week. Tender mercies of the Lord are what make missionary work all worth the while.

Saturday: tried a bunch of people and no one was really home. Still hadn't done our 3 hour weekly planning session for the week, so we went back a bit early and did that. Pretty boring day to be honest.

Sunday: my companion had a talk at church today. The Japanese comes a little harder to him than a lot of other people, so he basically a lot of Friday and Saturday asking for my help to translate it to Japanese. Also taught three lessons that night to the same people on Monday. We hit an all time mission high for me!!!

GREAT NEWS!!! The snow is melting like crazy. I'm up in on of the more northern areas and it's almost all melted. It started a couple days ago, and has been working really hard. We get our bikes back next transfer, so I don't have to walk 1 hour to the area and 1 hour back anymore (if I don't transfer). One day I was actually sweating a lot, and I don't think my body remembers what sweat feels like.

The language is going alright. I'm the senior companion, so no matter what I need to at least act like I understand. In Japanese, when you ask a question it's the same as when you're stating a sentence. The only difference being "Ka" at the end. It's the best, when i sit there listening to a member or investigator ramble off and i just think to myself "freak! What are they saying? I really hope this isn't a question" and then they let out KA and its game over. Some days I understand a lot, some almost none. I still really hate Japanese haha.

Elder Pace and I get along really well. We're so different but  it hasn't caused any problems this far. We haven't even been mad at each other once yet, which is an accomplishment if you spend 24/7 with someone everyday for 5weeks. Still hard teaching because he's so quiet and afraid of messing up, so I basically am doing most, if not all of it.

Mission life is good and I'm loving it out here. I'm working really hard this transfer. Hard work brings big rewards. Kk this email is huge, but I feel like I could have given a better idea of the environment I'm in right this week, so next week will be shorter sorry. Have a good week!

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Actually had a wedding couple weeks back I forgot to mention. The missionaries in this area all sang families can be together. The cake was legendary. So much cake was leftover, but we didn't get any and I'm still confused on where it all went. The hunt continues.]

[Sushi.]

[District at sushi. My hair looks way short with a little fuzz on top. Yep.]