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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