Just Sapporo........

Hey folks,

This week we went to Sapporo for a big meeting with one of the Area Presidencies members. He gave a super awesome workshop. He actually didn't prepare anything for us. He asked for questions and then decided that he knew what he needed to talk about after answering a few. It was really cool. It seemed like he received real revelation for all of us and knew what we needed as a mission.

Otherwise, we made some big English Class posters and went around town and asked if we could put them up in all kinds of businesses and stores. Almost no one said No, probably because I put a lot of emphasis on the words "VOLUNTEER" & "FREE". Hopefully we'll get some new people coming soon. There are 2 Japanese Elders that are trying to make an English Class like....guide book.....for the mission. They asked me for a couple of ideas about teaching it and on the 6 hour bus to Sapporo I wrote 8 pages about how we could improve it and make it really effective, along with some teaching ideas. I didn't realize how passionate I am about the English Class......

Cool experience this week. My companion got a crazy bad headache on Monday night. He looked terrible and couldn't concentrate on anything. It actually ended up with him sitting in his desk chair trembling with pain holding his head. I told him he needed a blessing and then gave him one. He tried to lay down to go to sleep but couldn't do it. So I gave him a bunch of water to drink and then turned on a hot bath and told him to get in. At this point he didn't even know where he was (maybe I should have called someone.....) He got in and I went in to the other room and got on my knees and started praying for him. After about 30 seconds I got some kind of strange confidence (the Spirit, of course) that as soon as he walks out of the bathroom he would be perfectly okay and would go to sleep quickly. The very second I ended he walked out, was perfectly fine and fell asleep within a minute. Heavenly Father loves him. I know He does. And I know that He hears me when I pray. He wants only what is best for me and ALL of His children. I am so grateful that He really does liten and know me.....

Until next week, Loves'n'stuff,

Elder Connor Spurling  

Ammon----->ALMA!

Hey guys!!

It's seems like this week I've made the transistion almost fully from being an Ammon missionary, teaching those who know nothing of Christ, to an Alma missionary, and teaching those who are already members of the church of Christ but choose to not keep up with it. We met 7 less active members and taught them all lessons. We found out why each of them is not coming to church and they seem to be just a bunch of simple little things that we can try to help work on with them and the ward. It's been really interesting to talk with them because they all have a ton of faith still. They all still read the Book of Mormon and pray and rely on Christ as their Savior, they just have small......people problems...... that keep them from being able to receive all the blessings Heavenly Father has for them. But we get the opportunity to help them and strengthen them and it's AWESOME! I learn so much when I get to talk to other members about their faith and how they try to grow in the Gospel!

 

Otherwise not much else happened this week. My comp has depression and so we stayed in our apartment for a couple of days because he wouldn't speak. Things haven't really gotten much better. He still doesn't really talk to me at all (I think he's tired of me) but at least we can go outside and talk to some other people. We have transfer calls tomorrow so we'll see what happens I suppose. I do have this super strange feeling like next transfer is going to bring some even harder times though.... I don't know why I think that but.....

 

Last week we went to the zoo. It was sweet. Today we are going to go bowling at an "all you can throw" place for about......6 hours. I'm gonna get SOOO good and SOOOO sore!!!

 

Hope you have fun with Uncle Brian! It'll be sweet!  Also, don't worry about the BYU essays. I just need to finish writing up one more. They'll all be in the computer next week. Sorry for taking to long and stressin ya out Ma....

 

Love y'alls.....

 

Elder Connor Spurling

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Is this what banishment looks like??

​Hey folks,

It's a new transfer and I got the boot. I am in one of the most isolated places on the island....Abashiri. But I might be happier than I've ever been in a new area!

It took 6 hours by bus but..... I'm on the beach again! It's been over a year now, but I have an ocean view and it is Oh! so wonderful. Also this area is known for being one of the 2 hilliest areas in the mission: it's like nothing except these ridiculously long steep mountains that our apartment  seems to be at the uttermost bottom of. I love it. I'm sick of flatness. If I wanted to ride my bike on flatness I would have stayed home, in the flattest place on the planet Earth! I love these mountainous cities.

My new comp's name is Elder Fujisaka; don't let the Japanese name fool you he's super American. He's on transfer 5 and trying super hard. And his try-hard is a lot harder than my try-hard: he's a miltary man. He's straight up Navy, yo. And he loves to talk about it. He's done an awful lot in his life..... a heck of a lot more than I have. He's had some pretty crazy experiences, yo! But he's a way nice guy and we get along really well. It's only the 2 of us here in this area- my first 2 man since I was a bean 10 transfers ago.

The ward here is actually a branch of about 20 people. Definitely the smallest I've been in before. I love them already! Like....probably more than I've loved any ward after the first week. Everyone loves the missionaries a ton and they want to help us so much! It's one of the best feelings ever!

Oh! And I'm not a Zone Leader any more. I'm a District Leader again, which makes me SOOOOO happy.

I actually had a dream the night before we got our transfer calls. That might be the reason I am so happy here. I saw in the dream that I was coming here with this companion and would be the DL. I think the Lord needs me here right now so badly. I feel really really strongly that there is a reason that I am here and I have been working harder than I think I ever have to make myself worthy and obedient and work really hard. This feels like the beginning of what could be one of the best transfers of my mission and I'm really not going to let myself mess it up by not putting in everything I've got. I'm going to make Abashiri my home here in Hokkaido.

Love you guys,

Elder Spurling

   

Music Fireside pictures.....

Sis Evans loved music and had several concerts for the community. These are pictures from a couple of the events. Rockin the Primary songs!!

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A heaping helping of rain to help me feel nice and cool....

Hey folks,

 

It rained this week. I got real wet. But at least it wasn't burning hot. We had a ward BBQ anyway. We played mafia inside with the sisters investigators. They will both be baptized. We had a cool 19 year old guy come to church on sunday too. His name is ishii- rock well- and he is searching for something. He'll be baptized too I think. He is super interested in the idea of faith. That is kind of refreshing coming from a college kid. I got a flat tire today. It actually was a tear in my tire so I had to buy a new one. A guy tried to make me pay 60 bucks just to take off my wheel and put the new tire on and tried to convince me that it was just as cheap in America, so I walked 30 minutes to another place and they got me a better tire and tube and gear maintenance and put it all together for me for 50bucks. We have a zone activity in 30 minutes which will be a big FHE with games and spiritual message and I have prepared root beer floats (which they don't have in Japan btw). I hope its fun.....dunno. gotta go. need prep. Tired of typing. Still love yall.

 

 

BYEBYE!

Elder Spurling

 

I'm drowning in Japanese......

Hey folks,

Well it was transfers again. I get to stay in Asahikawa with a new comp named Elder Miyaki! He's a boss: way diligent, super obedient and way chill.... I think he compliments my excessive hyperness quite well. He also deals with it well. HA! Still the ZL- transfer 3....I'm one of 3 Americans with a Japanese mishpres.....mission leader conference should be fun this week. I'm also in an apartment with 3 Japanese that don't speak that much english and have 3 Japanese DL's, too......I think the Lord wants me to learn Japanese for some reason......  It's actually super fun, but I can't cook at all because I can only cook JApanese food but am way too shy to cook it for actual Japanese guys... I totally don't know the area that well after only 5 weeks so I'm constantly checking my map and it annoying....

Last week we went out to see the beautiful nature. I'll show you pictures. I got to go back on a special split in SHINORO!! My favorite area. It was so fun and I'm so excited because the guys there are seeing nothing except good things.

We have this way cool investigator right now that I'm doing an english gospel combo program with. He was an investigator way back in the day and remembered Pres Kimball. He also remembers nephi and lehi, and the gold plates and Joseph Smith and the Word of Wisdom and....everything.....and it fluent in english.....and I'm going to baptize him. I hope. He's way prepared and I'm way excited to see where we go with him. I have a ton of cool experiences here meeting cool people and when I get to tell them that I know our message is true, I really do know it! It's true and I'm grateful for it.!

Love ya's,

Elder Spurling

I'm kinda hungry.........

Well not much to tell you for this week. We had Mission Leader Council with the new President which was a little differerent. He's a cool guy, very observant, just soaks everything in without speaking too much. Straight from there we went on splits with Takikawa. I had an awesome day with a new senior companion and we were able to teach a bunch of lessons and met a ton of cool people. It's times like those that being a ZL is fun. However times are not so fun when some of your missionaries decide that they want to be Anakin Skywalker from Episode 3 and you have to become Obi-wan to help them realize that what they are doing may seem right, but there is a better way.... They had a talk with Yoda yesterday and hopefully things are okay, but we are still getting a lot of push from Mace Windu to get them back on track...... We'll see what happens. We all know what an awesome Jedi Anakin is, but his stubborness could lead to big problems.....

 

We're teaching this nice little man that loves english right now. We still aren't exactly sure how much interest he has in the Gospel, but he seems to like to talk about it sooo....

 

We visited a super sweet family that is not very active in the church (or so we thought) and found out that they have a TON of faith. They let us in and gave us food and we got to share a message with them and the next day the husband and 9yo son came to church. I asked if we could do a Family Home Evening and the mom agreed as long as I make American food....which will either be tacos or pizza. HA! I love this town.

 

thats it probably. love ya

 

elder spurling