Akita Transfer 2 Week 4

Minasan-

Hope you all are enjoying/ enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend! This week was pretty fun!

We had basketball on Thursday night which was crazy! Tons of people were there wanting to play with us gaijin (foreigners)! The zone leaders who both play basketball arrived from Morioka just in time to be able to play! Elder Anderson also plays so it turned out to be a great time playing some fun, easy going but competitive basketball. There's this 12 year old girl that's always there when we go and let me tell ya, she is talented. She might be 4'8" at best but that doesn't stop her one bit. She'll drive inside and put it up over the top of us tall white guys, even with our arms stretched out and it will swish every time. Or she can shoot from outside and nail it.. Can't leave her unguarded, she's incredible. The only way to stop her is to block her shots which is too mean haha.  

Anyway, went on "splits" to Morioka with Elder Reynolds, one of my zone leaders while Elder Anderson and the other Zone leader stayed here in Akita. After the 4 hour train ride, we got to Morioka and had one of the most if not the most fun day of my mission. Elder Reynolds is probably the most affable missionary I know, so he talks to everyone and sees a lot of success from it. We picked up 2 new potential investigators, both super cool super nice. The highlight of the day tho was probably the first celebrity experience I've had here in Japan! We were riding along and this group of girls all stopped, waved, said hi and looked all star stricken so we figured we'd go ahead and make their day for them, turned around and started talking to them. They were so stinkin excited. They loved One Direction, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, all that pop culture stuff. They told me I look like Nile from 1D, thanks. We invited them all to come to our english class, and by the end, they had all added us on facebook, followed us on twitter, they were facetiming their friends as we chatted, they took pictures of us, with us... it was insane. Pretty funny stuff.. Elder Reynolds and I had a lot of good missionary fun that day. 

Food of the week: Reimen and Sukiyaki. Reimen is a cold bowl of noodles in a kimchi broth with boiled egg, watermelon and a piece of beef in it. It was actually really really good. sukiyaki is where you have a bunch of raw meat and vegetable and you throw them in a pan of boiling broth, let it cook, then take out pieces of meat bit by bit, dip it in raw egg and eat it. Also delish. 

This week I learned about the importance of doing things out of a willing and loving heart. To smile and talk with people, to love one another and lift each other's burdens. This will often take some sacrifice on our part, but I've witnessed this week that those sacrifices are worth it. Putting other people's needs first will, ironically, take care of your current needs in one form or another. That's the challenge of the week! Look for ways to help one another out and do it out of the good love in your heart.

Love always,

Elder Dallin Robins

Robinzu Chōrō

ロビンズ長老

Akita Transfer 2 Week 3

Hello!

Highlights of the week - experienced my first japan earthquake early Wednesday morning. It was a 7.1 at the epicenter which translated to a 3 or 4 magnitude here in Akita but it was a solid 15 second earthquake, kinda fun! There were a couple days of rain and thunder too! I love that stuff. That is your weather report for the week!

We had a conference at Morioka Saturday and Sunday so we spent the night at the Morioka apartment- 12 elders were able to fit in one apartment, it was a blast! Had my first McDonald's "Tankatsu" Burger, my first bowl of "kimchi" (fermented cabbage and hot spices) with rice and chicken, and last night I made ann at home version of tin-foil dinners! That is your food update for the week.

This week's work was super slow because we had to input our whole area book (records of people that missionaries have taught in the past) into our iPads which took hours on hours on hours to do. It was awful. But its over now and we can over back on with normal mission work! We should be getting facebook opened up, allow us to use it on our iPads in a few weeks so I'm looking forward to that!

So this week was kind of sad too cause we dropped our only investigator that had a baptismal date set up! He is a 38 year old man but unfortunately acts more like a 7 year old girl.. We did our best to be patient and loving with him but it just boiled down to him not being ready for the gospel in his life. It's too bad. Our other investigators are moving along slowly but surely.. Our Papau new guinea friend Thomas is looking really good to get baptized in the near future! And Jerry got back from hhis trip to Korea and is doing well too! We are really pushing for him to set a baptismal date as well but he understandably is taking it slow and making sure he understands everything well.

I've made some bigg steps with Japanese this week and have really been relying on the Lord to help me learn this language. Exciting stuff. 

Everyone have a great week! Japanese Proverb: 七転び八起き。Fall down 7 times, get back up 8.

Love ya!

Elder Dallin Robins

Robinzu Chōrō

ロビンズ長老

A picture of a turtle chilling in Morioka :)

Akita Transfer 2 Week 2

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers out there and to everyone else, hey,

This past week we have been doing a lot of work on our iPads- took a trip to Morioka for another iPad training and since then we've been devoting a lot of time transferring our million and a half records (exaggeration) into the iPads and yada yada. So that's been fun and very time consuming. Elder Anderson and I have been having fun working with each other trying to fill the shoes of Elder Hoskyns, working hard and trying our best to bring our investigators closer to Christ. We even found a couple more people to teach this week! Thomas, from Papau New Guinea, he's a stud. AND speaks English! which rocks. And a student named Naoki, cool kid. Haven't had a lesson with him yet but hopefully soon! 

I haven't mentioned this earlier but the McDonald's here are tons better than America's, something about it and the quality workmanship that goes into each item of food. Thought I'd mention that.

It is actually the day after Mothers Day here as I write this but as I reflect upon yesterday's church experience I realize how there was hardly even a mention of Mother's Day during the 3 hours. Pretty interesting. My companion gave an impromptu talk during sacrament meeting and made sure to talk about Mothers to do the day justice in Japan but that was about the only mention of it. So I would like to quickly express my love and gratitude for my mother and grandparents- my mom IS the best. She's patient, kind, works her tail off for her kids, loves and cares for us like no other, the list goes on. I'm sure we can all say that about our own mothers, but I can also say I'm grateful for the way my mother has shaped me. She's taught us (her kids) since we've been young to WORK and to be self reliant. Tedious and tough Saturday chores, annoying daily kitchen chores, study and account for our school work on our own, to get a job and make our own money, to do more jobs outside of that job etc.- it all sucked at the time but I am for sure grateful for it all now. Retrospect is great. Im grateful she taught me all these hard things, it built my character and has made me fit to deal with the world on my own. For a kid from Danville where things are often handed to us without having to work for it and truly appreciate it, it is something to really be grateful for. I love my wonderful, beautiful mother. She's got the best smile in the world, makes me super happy, and is always there for me. And I know she is that way because of her mother (love you grandma:)). Let's all do something nice today to our mothers- make them smile and show them your love!

Well, I'm continuing to learn and grow and learn and grow here in Japan and seeing a lot of miracles in my life and in other people's lives. God is amazing! I'm grateful for yall, love yall, feel free to shoot me an email, and have an awesome week!

Elder Robins

Me talking to the fam this morning! They are all so healthy and happy. so glad to see Jake still Jake-ish even after his mission ;) and to see my niece (averi the cutest ever) sister and brother in law in Florida- they're doing great. Love you fam!

Elder Anderson and I would like to wish everyone a happy and joyous Mother's Day full of wonderment and flowers.