Monday, July 1, 2013

Hello Everyone!

   Well, today is the official day of the mission split. Technically the mission already split the day of transfers, and President Wada technically took over when he returned from the Mission President training two days ago on Saturday night. But, July 1 is the date that they announced as the mission split back in February, and here it is. So, that being said, any and all mail needs to be sent to the Tokyo South mission home from now on, and then they'll forward it to me like usual. Here's the new mission home address:

      1-7-7 Kichijoji
      Higashicho
      Musashino-shi Tokyo-to
      180-002
      Japan

   So, yeah. That's that. As far as the rest of the week goes, it was a pretty quiet week. We had a final "training" with President and Sister Budge on ThursdaySaturday we had another softball activity, and this time was the largest turnout I've seen so far. That probably had something to do with the fact that there are 8 missionaries in the Fujisawa ward alone, and the Fujisawa ward hosted the activity, which means they were all there. It was really good though. The Bishop of the Atsugi ward has a son who's less active, and we had a chance to meet him and talk with him at the softball activity. Every Saturday we have bible study in English with a man named Hirose. He majored in English back in college (but somehow became an insurance salesman...), and he says he's not interested in hearing the missionary lessons, but wants to study the bible in English with us as a way to practice and improve his English. Even though he claims to have no interest, he still comes to church (which is in Japanese, so English practice is not a valid excuse) nearly every week. So, he really is interested in something, he just won't admit it. Anyways, this time, he ended up asking about the scriptural pronouns thee, thou, thy, thine, ye, etc. What do they mean? If thee and thou both mean 'you' then what's the difference? Well, I certainly didn't know. So he pulled out his dictionary, and we figured out the nuances in difference between all those fun old words nobody uses anymore. So now in the future if somebody asks what the difference is between "thee" and "thou", I'll be able to tell them.
   Last Sunday there was a broadcast on missionary work given by the leaders of the Church, and because of the time difference, we got to watch it yesterday. It sounds like there's going to be quite a few changes to the way missionary work in the upcoming months. Missionaries will be able to start using the internet to email investigators, contact investigators through Facebook and other social media, etc. It was kinda funny though, because all the missionaries in the zone were all together in one little room off to the side so we could watch it in English, and quite a few of the things they announced we were just like, "been there, done that." The Tokyo mission has laptops in the apartments after all. Emailing investigators? Every day. Sending videos and links to articles on the church websites? Check. Granted, we can't use Facebook or blogs yet, but it was pretty funny to see the faces of some of the missionaries at the broadcast, and how excited and shocked they looked, while all of us Tokyo Missionaries are just sitting in our chairs all calm and relaxed. Funny stuff. After the broadcast, the member who gave Elder Hoshino and me a ride was super fired up. Instead of taking us home, he took us out right then and there and we went and visited some less active families, and we were actually able to meet with them and invite them to some upcoming activities. That was pretty cool.
   Sorry this week's email is kinda short. Hopefully next week will be a little longer. Take care everyone! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Blake

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