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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