You had a birthday shout.....あめだとう !

Well it was a good one, don't worry. We had our ward Christmas Party on my birthday, which ended up being SUPER fun!! A ton of people came and a lot weren't members (which is what we were hoping for). The primary kids sang and then played a few songs with bells, then we had a game. The big Japanese Christmas tradition is having a Christmas cake, so we had a decorating contest. They put each of the four of us missionaries as a team captain and had us pick a few other people and then decorate it within 4 or 5 mins. My team was boss: a bunch of sweet kids and a grandma that I think is the tops. our cake ended up looking like a b-day cake, so when they had me describe what our cake was, I of course said that because it was my birthday they made me a cake. Our team destroyed the others in votes and won the game!! After that the YM did a hilarious magic show, the YW sang, and then we sang. I sang Rudolph, Shoell sang White CHristmas, and then I sang Jingle Bell Rock and it was fantastic! Before the party started though, a sister saw me tapping on a chair or something and brought me a cup and told me to do that cup, snap, clap thing where you flip it around and stuff. I haven't ever done it before but I just jokingly did something dumb with it and she LOVED it. She told me to do it in the program and I was like, "Heck no!!! I've never done it before!" But she walked away and told the person MCing and so I somehow got roped into singing a song and doing the cup thing. I did We Wish You a Merry Christmas and then just went into Rudolph. I actually thought it was super funny!!! I've got a video. My comp also got me a few little things and of course I opened all the cards and presents from you guys. The cake balls caught me by surprise. I was WAY excited. Have a video of that, too. So that's how I spent my birthday. Probably one of the funnest I've had.

Yesterday we got Christmas presents from the ward: it ended up being 2 huge boxes completely full of food and snacks and gifts...... I wondered what people in America give the missionaries. I don't remember ever doing anything for them. Glad you are doing stuff with them this year. It sounds like you have become a favorite of those guys. We all have our go- to's. 

Not much else. Our one investigator is looking really strong and we're hoping we can see him be baptized this transfer. I think he will be. It's really been a miracle with him. Pray for him please!!

At the end of the Christmas Party they showed a great video about the birth of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity this season to not only celebrate the birth, life, Atonement, and Resurrection of our Savior, but to also share the message of it and represent him here in Sapporo Japan. I'm so grateful for him and for the love and the strength that I constantly receive because of the testimony and the faith that I have in him. I hope you take a bit of time to reflect and remember what it's all about.

I think that's about it. I'll be talking to ya in a couple days so....... cool.

Till then, Love you and Merry Christmas

Elder Spurling

Survived 1st Blizzard

December posts..........

Well it's the end of the transfer again. We'll be getting our transfer calls tomorrow and seeing where we'll be going next. The ward here seems to think I'll be transferring, but I've only been here for 3 transfers- like 4 months.... that'S not that long. I'm kind of torn about leaving: I love the ward and the people are AWESOME, but the area is super small and I feel like I don't have anything left to do here after 4 months. I think I've been to almost every block in town and visited all of the members and N.A.'s a million times over but this week my companion made a baptismal date with our one investigator over the phone! So we'll be meeting with him today and seeing how we can best prepare him. This guy has been an investigator for 13 years now, and I really think he has just been waiting for Elder Shoell to come. They are pretty good friends and Shoell seems to understand him really well. Way good progress here in Shinoro. 

 

 We got transfers calls this week! I'm staying in Shinoro again with Elder Shoell. My apartment stayed the same and my District, too, which is rare. I'll have been here for 6 months after this transfer. But I'm glad I stayed for Christmas. Christmas in a new ward would have been lonely....Well, the weather has been....something this week. On Friday we did our weekly planning and it started snowing, so afterward we went to shovel an older members driveway (about a 15- 20 minute walk). They, of course, had us come in for cocoa and a snack, and when we left 30 mins later it was snowing quite a bit. My comp was trying to fix his boots outside the door and he asked if this was a blizzard. I was like, "No. It's just blowing a little bit. No worries." About 2 minutes after we started walking back I yelled over the wind, "YEAH! THIS IS A BLIZZARD!!" We didn't know if we should keep doing stuff or go back, so I decided to go visit a less active member that was on the way back. We started into her neighborhood and the visibility went from 20 feet to almost 2 feet: I could only see my companion right next me. I couldn't even see car lights. I definitely decided to go home now. We couldn't look up because the wind and snow hurt our faces so much and we couldn't see anyway, but after saying a quick prayer we managed to get out of the neighborhood and start following the road back to the apartment. I actually had to take my glasses off because the snow kept sticking to them and I couldn't see. You know things have gotten scary when it's safer to walk around without you glasses on because you can't see with them on..... It ended up taking us about 45 mins to make the 10 min walk back and the wind almost literally blew us off our feet a couple of times. It was probably one of the scariest things ever. But me and Elder Shoell just laughed the whole time and made a ton of jokes. We sangs songs and basically just acted like this was normal. I wish I had videos of us. But we were perfectly safe. The other 2 in the apartment made it back about 2 minutes before us too and we all just hung out the rest of the night because we couldn't do anything else. Makin memories!!!

Love ya all

Elder Spurling

New skill learned on P-day..... Curling

He's How Tall????

It's transfer week so there have been a ton of changes over here. I got my call on Tuesday and found out that I would be staying in Shinoro again! I also found out that I was the only one staying: that the other 3 missionaries were transferring to different areas. My companion, Elder Nishime, transferred one area down so he's still in my district and is actually my district leader, so we'll get to go on exchanges together! WOOOO! But my new companion is on transfer 3: he just finished training...... I went senior companion.... It feels completely insane and I'm way nervous, but SUPER excited! And the kid is a total pro. His Japanese is probably just as good as mine and he's way better at teaching. All I have is a knowledge of the area and the people and the ward, but he can hold his own in everything we do. He's from Utah and is a way funny guy: Elder Shoell, "shoe with 2 L's" he says. He is also extremely tall.....2 meters. about 6' 7". Pinging doors is awesome because people open them, look up and just say, "I was surprised!"(doesn't really translate that well...). They love him. It's hilarious. I also have that Elder that I sing with, Elder Rodenberg, in our apartment which is pretty fun. All in all, it's going to be a super fun transfer. I think we'll see a ton of miracles.

Love y'all. 

Elder Spurling

(The Lord has a sense of humor for sure paring these 2 together ...... )

Seeing the Lord's Hand in this work...

This week has been very tiring. It was mostly just a ton of pinging doors and seeing nothing come from it. 
> There was one high point of the week though. On Wednesday we set out to visit a bunch of members that we've never met before. We ended up not meeting any of them, so we pinged houses for a bit. The area felt stale, so I decided to go somewhere else. We had a weak appointment set for the day so we went and visited and could see the woman in the window, but she refused to come to the door or even acknowledge us......so we left. I decided to go visit our one and only investigator who was pretty strong, but when we got there, she wasn't home. Then I felt like I should go down the street a little way to visit a member, but when I got there I very much felt that she shouldn't be visited today, so as I stood there thinking for a second about what to do this group of kids walks up. They asked if I could speak and if I was a Christian missionary and I realized that I had met them before in this same spot. We talked for a bit, and then they left. I couldn't help but feel that I was supposed to meet them there and that I planted some seeds for some future date. After that I started to ride down past where I was, but didn't get too far before I had a feeling to go back and write down the address of the house I had just been to, and then continued in the opposite direction than I had been going: back toward the investigators house. This time she was home, so we talked and she ended up dropping herself. So our one and only investigator is now gone......so we have literally no one. That hasn't happened yet on my mission..... Anyway, to continue the story, we went to a conbini (convenience store)in the parking lot I heard some poor English behind me say, "Are you missionaries?"  I turned around and saw this Japanese man with a huge smile on his face and just started talking to him, me in Japanese and him in his best English. He asked how many people we had been able to share our message with today. And I told him, "negative one." He said that he loved people like us that come to other countries and try so hard to learn a language and go around all day doing something they love. I talked about how great it is for us and how much we do love it.
> We didn't get to share our message with him, but I just turned around looked at my companion and said, "My Heavenly Father loves me. He really knows....." We rode our bikes and were on our way home, we stopped to talk to a guy on the street. He didn't care, but a member of the ward, this really old member, bumped my bike and then (after the other guy walked away) started talking with us. We found out he was walking back from a very good friends funeral and he seemed really depressed about it. He asked if we had eaten and then said we would go eat at his house together. We met his wife, who is not a member and were able to have a really nice evening with them and even share a message about Joseph Smith with her. We were put in the right place at the exact moment that we would meet him and be able to comfort him and bring him some peace through sharing a messaage with his wife. 
> We still have 0 investigators and we aren't finding anyone to teach, but we know that we are being led. We know Heavenly Father is helping us do something here. So we keep going out and pinging houses and getting rejected because we know great things are going to happen. I know great things are coming VERY soon here in Shinoro and I can't wait to see them and be a part of them. I love what I'm doing here and I'm really tired, but there isn't anything I would rather be doing.
> 
> I love you guys. I hope you all have an awesome week and are able to see His hand in your lives because it's there.
> 
> Elder Connor Spurling 

I'm a Ninja.....

Hey everyone!!

It"s  been a fun week! We had our Halloween party at church. We helped set it all up for like 4 days. It was way fun and everyone enjoyed it. I went as a ninja and got to wear the ninja shoes I bought in my 2nd transfer! One of the big games was where I would pretend to cut people with my katana and they would do their best death scene! It was hilarious.  Success

We have only taught 7 lessons this whole transfer, but this week we were able to teach 6! We have been teaching a practice lesson with a members brother and wife. They really like us, but don't really have interest in the message. They were way awesome and are going to take us out to sushi this week. 

I'll be getting my transfer call tonight. We'll see where I go and who i'm with. I'm excited but mostly terrified. The senior companion thing is pretty intimidating from where I am at right now...... I have faith that it'll all be okay. It'll be sweet!!

I'll talk to you later

Elder Spurling

(Note from mom:   Seemed like a scary little game for the ward party but afterward we received a package in the mail from a sweet sister in his ward.  She thanked us for sending Elder Spurling, and for the great support he was to the ward and their activity.  She had several others in the ward sign the card she sent- we could not read it of course but so sweet.  Hoping Mrs Bays at Columbus North will translate for us)

The Coldness........

October posts.......

It has finally happened. It has gotten cold. It's kind of a pain  because it's at a point where it's kind of okay in the afternoon but in the evening it just gets super chilly, so I have to carry around a jacket and hat and gloves and sweater. I would rather it just be really cold so I can put on my thermals and coat and boots and have a somewhat empty backpack. 

Anyway, it's been an okay week. We had a 2 Zone Conference, so their were a ton of people there and we got to do all kinds of good things and hear a lot of awesome workshops. It is actually President Evans birthday this week so every district in the mission made a video for him and we got to watch all of them. Then Elder Rodenberg and I sang a song that we have been working on for his birthday. It was a hit. 

The members here really love missionaries. People give us a ton of food on Sunday's, so we usually only have to buy a few things when we grocery shop. I actually had a member this week give me 2 handmade (pretty professional) ties and a homemade tie bar, because she knew how much I liked them. It was the sweetest thing ever! We also went to help a single mother member get ready to move and she pulled out this old kimono that her husband had made. It was flippin cool! It had a thick blue coat and then you put a thin coat on over top of it. It was a really beautiful kimono. So she asked me to try it on and was so happy to see it on me that she told me to keep it!! I was like, "Isn't this really special?" and she said, "Yes it is. But it'll probably get thrown away someday. Take it back to America and enjoy it" So I now own a kimono. I'll probably send it home before I leave Shinoro. 

Not much else this week. We're trying our best. and working to see miracles. Love you all! Until next week!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame......

How's everyone doing? Don't know what to tell ya'll. I'm doing good. My Japanese is still pretty poor, maybe it's getting better.....I dunno. People tell me it is but....

Elder Nishime and I actually have quite a few investigators right now. Most of them aren't super strong and may or may not have a lot of interest, but we keep trying. I've actually been able to teach a bit. It's pretty cool. Yesterday we had a "practice lesson" with a friend of a member who has no interest, but gave us feedback. Or technically only me because this was for my Japanese practice, so I taught alone.  My companion will make great use of the tips.... We'll be meeting with her once a week to do the same thing.

The baseball game was super fun. It's way different here. It's super clean and the grass isn't real and nobody (except American missionaries) stand up when the YMCA comes on...... We were on the Jumbotron like 4 times because we were so entertaining. It was flippin sweet! 

It has actually started to get cold now. They say it has come unusually fast this year. I'm pumped!!

Well I'm on transfer 5, so I'll probably become a senior companion next transfer....I better figure out what I'm doing. I'll keep trying I guess......

Love you all!!

The Day of Miracles and みちびき

I'm sitting in the honbu right now because my Finnish companion has just become the new Mission Recorder, so we had to transfer today instead of thursday. I should get my call tonight and find out who my new companion is. Until the transfer on thursday I'll be hanging out with Elder Rodenberg, the one that I sang with. 

But anyway, we seriously felt your prayer and fast. This was one of the best weeks ever. We had a day that we call the day of miracles and michibiki (guidance). We had 3 appointments that didn't seem incredibly strong, but we thought this couple be the changing point for us, so we started praying and we decided to follow the white handbook 100% and we went out with good plans. We prayed before lessons, prayed after lessons....we probably prayed over 20 times. And we got 3 new investigators and had a lesson with a recent convert that I've never met, but we didn't know the address so we prayed and the first person we talked to after knocking a few doors was her. Truly Heavenly Father blessed us this week!! It was amazing!

........ I stayed in Shinoro and my new companion is the other elder that was in the apartment, Elder Nishime! My first Japanese companion. He way cool and we are getting along really well. We pretty much speak half and half, so I speak a ton of Japanese. I think it"s getting better. Maybe not better but I'm more confident.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! See ya!!

Elder Spurling

Catching Up.....

Today, in honor of Elder Spurling's 20th birthday, I am going to try to catch everyone up on how he is doing.  Connor's time seems to be too limited on P-day to keep up with the blog so he has asked me to post some of his emails.  

Back to September.........

Well it's been an interesting week. We haven't really had any time to dendo because we had a Zone training meeting on wednesday, met with a member for a while on thursday, and friday I had to go down into the city to rehearse my song for the concert which was all of Saturday. It was WAAAAY fun!! I have a few different videos but they are too big to send over email, so......sorry. I actually sang it during the concert, but afterward, they asked for an encore of it!! So I got to sing it one more time (which was a million times more fun than the first!) We also had 2 famillies from our english class that we invited come and they had a great time. We were able to talk to a bunch of other people as well and my love for old music came in handy with a few old guys. It was a super fun time. Otherwise, nothing is happening here.  Have not been able to teach a lesson in 3 transfers, but we keep working hard.  ........I think that's it. Everything is cool really. 

Love Ya's............Elder Spurling

How 'bout another, YO!

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Another pic, YO!

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Pics, YO!

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Shinoro?.... It looks like home!

Summer Salutations,

This is your missionary, Elder Spurling, speaking. And I'm inviting you to come on a ride through the farming community of Shinoro, Hokkaido, Japan with me. You better hold on tight: the sidewalks are pretty rough and the shocks on this bicycle don't help much. Please enjoy.......

 

Well hey y'all! I'm doing well up here in Hokkaido. I got transferred last week from my bean area....my wonderful Muroran......up to the city of Sapporo. But i'm in a small prefecture on the very outskirts of the city, which is not city at all. It's a bunch of fields. It's nothing like Muroran: no beautiful ocean and cliffs with the cool sea breeze, no wonderful mountains to admire and ride your bike up, just flatness, fields, and humidity. But I love it. It reminds me a lot of Indiana! 

My new companion is....not Japanese. Too bad. but he is also not American. He's Finnish! He speaks fluent English and Japanese though, so I'm set. He's a cool guy: loves Japan and video games and manga, and he almost makes me want to check it all out.....almost. But I'm in a 4 man apartment and the other two are Japanese! So hopefully i'm going to learn this language pretty quick....but so far I haven't. The language barrier is really getting me a bit frustrated, but I'm trying to be patient and keep learning. We don't have any investigators at all, so we are just pingin' doors like crazy, hoping someone will talk to us. I'm starting to think it's me. I've just been pinging doors for my last three transfers and not teaching anyone. Maybe I should be more interesting. I'll learn to juggle and juggle while I ping the doors then people will listen to me!! Yeah!!

Loving it. Doing well. Singin songs and bangin my own drum. Oh! And I'm singing in a jazz concert that my mission president's wife is putting on. It took me a while to think of a jazz song without romantic overtones, but I did it! Accent-uate the Positive. I'm way pumped! Alright. Love ere'body!

 

Your always beautiful,

Elder Spurling

 

Here's some pics...........  

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6 months?!........

There's no way I'm already a quarter of the way done! It can't be true! Well it's been an amazing an unforgettable 6 months and I can't wait to see what happens and how much I grow in the next 6 months. Fingers crossed: I'll be able to speak cohesive sentences by then!!

What better way to say we miss you than a box of sunshine from home. Thanks Fam. You're the best!

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It's raining, it's pouring, I wish I was snoring.....

Hello folks, 

It's certainly been another week over here in the wet, wet world of Muroran. It has been raining for the last 5 days straight without any sign of letting up. It's actually somewhat comical I think. All the waterproofness that my rain gear possibly could have held has completely vanished much like the sun that I used to love so much. But my companion and I still hop on our bikes everyday and ping doors. We've started to go "puddle jumping" to see who can get wettest from the ride home everyday. It's like the funnest game ever, mostly because you can't get wetter than you already are after pinging doors for 9 hours in the pouring rain! HA! 

We have been able to see a miracle or two in the last couple of weeks, though. There was a certain inactive member I'd never met, who we decided we wanted to visit. So we went to the neighborhood the next day and started pinging doors quite a few blocks away from where she lived, and we came upon one house that had a bunch of dressers sitting outside with the door open. We pinged the door and yelled and could here someone upstairs but they wouldn't come down. Normally we would leave, but I told my companion to yell again a bit louder. A woman finally come down after the 3rd yell and we gave an intro and she said that she was a member! She ended up being the one were going to go visit, but was at her parent's home. Her dad　just died and she was having to clean out the whole house all alone because her family was busy and she had been praying that the Lord would send her somebody to help.....and asked specifically for the missionaries. And there we were: on her doorstep, at a strange house, having never met or even heard of her before.....She couldn't hold back the tears. We were able to help her move a lot of big things including her "Daddy's chair" and had a great discussion with her. We were able to help her move a bit more the other day in the rain and she was so unbelievably grateful to us. She even bought us dry socks!! HA! But it was truly an amazing experience to see how the Lord accomplishes his work through us. What an opportunity it was to be able to be the conduit through which he did a miracle in a woman's life by answering a prayer. He really hears us and knows our circumstances and needs!!

All right. Love you all. I appreciate everything you do for me and my family. Keep all of them happy and give my beautiful mother a big hug for me. She turns OLD next week!

スパーリング 長老

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Fwd: And another!

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How 'bout a picture or two?

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Fwd: Transfer 2!!

Hello my loved ones,

I'm SOO sorry it has taken me so long to update this! I have no excuses.　ゆるして下さい! Well it has been a crazy one full of prayer, teaching, growing, and ninjas. Let me see...... 

I started the transfer off with a mission-wide concert that we put on in Sapporo. I and another elder sang  a version of Search, Ponder, & Pray that he arranged and another missionary jammed on the guitar to. It was a pretty fast song and I got to really rock and I LOVED it!! It was SOOO fun! But all of the other songs were amazing as well and it was a great event.

I keep working on the language. It seems like an impossible task, but I still see incredible progress every single day and the most when I pray: I can say so much more when I pray. The hardest thing isn't the language, though, it's the teaching. It's a work in progress!

Elder Jones and I saw some great things! We went to an edo period city which was essentially a ninja park, a sweet aquarium, and an onsen. Oooooh it's been fun! We even had a baptism! An awesome college kid that was so ready and loved everything that we had to tell him. He even received the Aaronic Priesthood last week! That is the best thing I have seen so far: a child of God remember who he is and where he came from. That alone has made this all worth while, but I know there is a lot more for me to do here. I'll keep trying and learning and doing all that I can do to make my Heavenly Father proud! 

I have a lot more I want to tell everyone about. I'll write more next week. Until then.....

愛してるぜ  ！

スパーリング長老

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My address!!

I'm sorry everyone! I don't know if I ever put my address on here. How am I supposed to get letters from everyone?

 

Elder Connor Spurling

Japan Sapporo Mission

Sapporo-Shi, Chuou- Ku

Kita 2 jo nishi 24 chome 1- 25

Hokkaido, Japan 064-0822

 

I know I owe a lot of you letters. I don't have a lot of time to write them but just know that I REALLY appreciate them.

Thanks to: Grace Fischvogt -the doodles are sweet! I don't know when you leave for school, but good luck. Shoot me a letter with your new adress. We'll be closer than anyone else. Ha!

Kristin & Brittani!!!- I hope school is going great! Shoot me a wedding invite when it happens.  

Sarah Christensen- I think yours was the last letter I got before coming out here! It was a sweet surprise!!

Andrea Solis- what happened to those other letters you were going to send? I don't even know your address: I thought you were in Mexico, but your letter came from Illinois, and you said you were going to Utah!! What the heck is that about?!

 

Well I love y'all!! Later!

 

Elder Spurling

 

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Crispy M&M's??!!

Could it be? Is it true? I believe so!! YES!! Crispy M&M's, everyones favorite candy from the 90's (and by far the best type of M&M's), are still alive and kicking here in Japan. Apparently America is no longer worthy to handle the deliciousity contained within this wonderful blue bag. Step your game up America!

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わたし の 日本語 わ わるいです。。。。。

Howdy y'all,

It has been entirely too long and I am sincerely sorry for that. I don't really know where to start. I've been in Japan now for almost a month...so much has happened......

I'm in a city called Muroran: it's on the southern coast of Hokkaido, so ocean on one side and mountains pretty much just everywhere. It is the windiest place of all time and it rains almost everyday, but if the sun ever comes out and we can get to the coast it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I just went on a ward hike this morning and got some great pictures I'll post I think.

My trainer's name is Elder Jones and he's great! He`s from Arizona and has been here for 13 months. He`s probably aabout 6' 2" and loves to talk. He's a pretty athletic guy, so he's whippin my butt into shape. I'm kind of sore from our run to the coast the other day (worth it though!). His Japansese is super great. I`m his first bean-chan (trainee) so we`re both learning a lot. I`m pretty useless to be honest, but I like to think that I'm doing better now than I was a few weeks ago. Our is area is gigantic so we're riding our bikes a lot and since this is out in the middle of nowhere, we are mostly pinging doors. The people to don't open them though. They all have Interphones that they'll talk to us on or they'll just shout from the other side, so when someone opens the door it kind of scares you. HA! I'll knock a door and tell them who we are and that we have a message about ______ and if they aren't interested I give them a flyer with some info, and if they are I just sort of stumble around some words and never know how to continue. Oh well. It'll come with time I suppose. We teach an English class on Friday's which is SUPER fun. It's not Gospel oriented, just English and the people are awesome. Honestly though, All of the people are pretty awesome here. We met a man housing on my first day and told him we were sharing a message about the purpose of life and he was super interested, so we went inside a talked to him some more, he cried a bit because he felt something and I got to tell him that is was the Spirit and he loved it. We've taught him quite a few times since and it seems to be making a difference in his life. Streeting is the hardest part. Have you ever tried to tell a random person on the street about God in a country full of people that have never heard of God. It's pretty rough.

Well I'm running out of time, but I'm loving (almost) every minute of every day out here and I'm constantly learning. It's amazing. Truly.

 

Okei desu.

愛していますよ！！！

スパーリング　長老

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6 more days.....

I don't know what pictures I'm posting, So I hope my companionand I are in it.......

I head out in 6 days and I'll try to have more interesting posts.

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心 を あいぶかい

こんにちわ　皆さん！！,

It's has been a few weeks since I've updated everyone about my goings-on. Well I figured everyone is a bit curious and is asking my parents and what not, but I'm doing great! Exactly 2 weeks from yesterday I'll be on a plane to Japan and I absolutely can not wait for it. To be honest, I'm absolutely terrible at the language: I can barely introduce myself.....I mean BARELY. It's pretty bad. I'm trying, though, and I know that I'll get it eventually....

Well, I don't really know what to tell everyone. I was called as the District Leader for my district here in the MTC. Can't say as I particularly wanted that job, but we never do, huh? Our district has gotten extremely close and I'll be sad when we have to split up here in 2 weeks. Sister Wright from my branch says, "Ohaiyoo gozaimasu and Elder Spurling has really cool ties." My companion and I also were called as some calling I can't remember the name of, but we taught the new missionaries how to use the computers. We only did it once and they released us, so that was cool.

The MTC is great. I really love all the people here but I hate the food and the smell of the laundry room (you were right, Bishop Vincent, the smell is still atomic....). My companion is still pretty okay. He has to be more patient with me than I do with him, but I love him! Elder Denison says, "I hate it when when Spurling Choro sticks his sweaty hands on my face. He is nice to me, except when he's not , but generally he is." That's Denison Choro for you!! He's a real poop from the time we wake up until we have breakfast. He is really good at the language and generally leads our lessons. He's awesome, kind of. He agrees to go to choir with me every week which helps keep me sane throughout the week! I love singing. I don't know if any of you know that or not.

 

Shout-Out: Grandma Spurling for your letter! I loved hearing from you! Vincents for all of the cookies and letters and talks and love! The Larsons for those cute little letters and the gummy bears! Grace Fish, for all the letters and doodles. Keep sending them! There are a lot more letters that I've gotten and I'll try to write you all back as soon as I can, but I don't have a whole lot of time so I hope this little bit of an update will suffice for now. I'll do another when I get to Japan and I promise it will be more interesting!!   

I forgot my camera in the room as well so next week I'll post some pictures on here!!! Sorry Mom and Dad.......

 

皆さんをあいしてます！！！

スパーリングちよろう

 

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The MTC

Konnichiwa humans that care about my well being!,

I've been here in the Training Center for 3 weeks now and haven't told any of you about what's happening (except for the couple outside my family that have written me........). I love it here! Great people, great lessons, great Spirit! My district is awesome. Our roommates are from Australia and New Zealand and I think the choro from New Zealand (Nepia Choro) could be an Apostle one day. The shimai are also super great! 

My companion's name is Denison Choro (Elder). He's from California and so far, we seem to be getting along pretty well. We're kind of different but I think we balance each other out pretty well. And they pray about the companionships so I know it's inspired and that there is a real reason for the two of us to be put together.

 
On the very first day we walk into the classroom (which is where we literally do everything including personal study and planning), it's a small room that our whole district fits which is made up of roku choro-tachi to roku shimai-tachi( 6 elders and 6 sisters), and our sensei walks in and will only speak nihongo de (in Japanese). He also told us that on our second day we would be teaching our first investigator.....all in Japanese. So we got to work: took a lot of notes and prayed a WHOLE lot. I'm in a bit of a state of constant prayer and I can pretty well pray and bear my testimony in Japanese! But we taught our first lesson which was mostly just, "This is who God is and here's how to pray so will you do it?' And he did! he prayed with us. So then we found out we had to teach him everyday and got to work on the next lesson. We decided just to clarify the last one a bit because he couldn't really understand it super well and at the end we commited him to pray twice a day!! Third lesson was a little more difficult. We tried explaining the Godhead and who Jesus Christ was but it got a little jumbled when we talked about sin, so I felt the need to stop my doryo (companion) (who also does most of the off-the-cuff Japanese) and I just bore my testimony about the my Shukuinushi(Savior). Most of it was in Japanese but I asked him if I could speak a bit eigo de(in english) and I think he felt the Spirit pretty well. We've taught a few lessons since, but I don't think they are particularly worth mentioning. I think I forgot to mention that he's actually an American teacher that is actually a member role-playing as his favorite investigator from his mission named Ueda. So it's kind of cheating but we and he take it pretty seriously. Whether or not he's actually a real investigator doesn't matter: we just are acting as if he is and praying that we might be able to understand his needs and meet them the best we can.

The schedule is pretty crazy: 6:30- wake up, 7:00 in class, planning, 7:45 breakfast, 8:20 class and then basically either language study, class, or personal study until 9:00 in the evening. There's gym time and stuff scheduled as well as meals and devotionals, but for the most part we just learn Japanese (which I am awful at, by the way!) or Gospel Doctrine. It's pretty exhausting but amazing all the same. I certainly look forward to my P-day naps (3 hours today). Well I'm running out of time so I'll update you all in a week or two!

SEND ME LETTERS!!!! There's a thing called Dearelder.com that is awesome: just type up, basically an email, and they'll print it out and give it to me the same day! Also I don't have any addresses, so if you want a letter you need to send me a letter!!! 

SHOUT OUT: To Bishop Vincent (and family)- thanks for the letter about Seth. I really appreciate it. And the cookies you sent were positively joyous!!

 

Mina san o ai shiteimasu!!

Elder Spurling

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First Blog Post

Dear One & All,

If you are reading this, chances are: you found my missionary blog. I'm taking a page out of the Sam Fuller book of missioning and starting a blog that I can update once a week. I probably wont do it that often....you guys might get once every other week or probably worse as time goes on. It's set up so it should post automatically on my Facebook Wall as well so I hope that it will help all of you keep up with what's happening with me and get you to send me letters! Speaking of which, my address at the training center is:

Elder Connor Andrew Spurling

MTC mailbox #116

JPN- SAP 0402

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604

I'll be there for 8 weeks, so I should be shipping out to Japan sometime on or around April 2 and I'll make sure everyone knows my new address then.

Well, I want to put more but I don't have any time left so check this again in the next few weeks and I'll share some thoughts about it all. I'm so excited to see what happens next!!

Love, 

Elder Spurling