日本の冒険！Week 47: Plunge into Japan 日本に飛び込む

Having a Japanese companion being in Japan is way different than being with a foreigner. Before I didn`t really notice how people talk to me different because I`m a foreigner but I`m definitely realizing that now! Also constantly hearing correct Japanese pronunciation I`ve noticed where mine needs to improve. That`s probably why people talk to me different. So I`m going to work on pronunciation as much as possible while I have a Japanese companion. ^^

Well my foot`s mostly better and I`ve been doing quite well. Its been crazy humid, feels like walking through water all the time!

Being a district leader again is good. I gave training to my district of 7 on Friday, and I can tell I`ve come far from the last time I was a district leader. I think I really can strengthen my district now! As a part of the meeting, I even (as president suggested) demonstrated how to teach some principles for everyone. The district meeting had a good spirit and I was pleased with the outcome.

So Wednesday, me and elder Hoshino got to teach a class of about 20 people about our age about our church. We did a short presentation and then showed the restoration DVD. Afterwords we broke up into 2 groups and did question and answer. It was way good! 7 people came up after and received a book of Mormon. They all had classes and such though, so not sure if any new investigators will come of it yet.

Tuesday was District leader Council in Kobe! was way fun. I went with the other district leaders in the zone, both of which are Japanese. This zone is way different than my last district, which had no Japanese elders! I really like the opportunity to work with them. District leader Council was great as always, and very helpful to the district meeting on Friday.

This morning we got to teach a lesson already. Its an investigator who's been investigating for a while, but we just emphasized the importance of the Book of Mormon and prayer, and went over the Joseph Smith experience again. We challenged him to be baptized on the 28th of July and he accepted. ^^

It should be a good week! comp exchange starting tonight and a district meeting on Friday.  Lots of miracles to fill the gaps ^^

Love you all!
Elder O`Reilly

I remember seeing this on you-tube once. Its water! deep city osaka.

finally a church-like church ^^

well hello there.

haha not good at taking pictures lately. This is all I have of my comp.

Hit my one year mark from when I went to the MTC. Elder Hoshino helped me take this strange picture. haha. ^^

日本の冒険！Week 46: swelling awesomeness. 膨らんだすごさ

So its been more than an interesting week. haha ^^

So 2 weeks ago, on Tuesday, I wrecked my bike a little. It was raining and I was going around a corner downhill. (not a good idea) The bike just started sliding on its side, with my foot under it for about meter. Didn`t really hurt too much, actually, and the wound was only about the size of a nickel or something like that. So I didn`t worry about it. Cleaned it and bandaged it and kept going.

Then last Wednesday, it started swelling up. I called the mission doctor and he said to just clean it everyday, but then he asked for a picture Thursday night and he said to go to the hospital ASAP. but.......... Friday morning was transfers and it was already 10:30 Thursday night in the middle of nowhere. so...... I just transferred. Since I was trying not to put weight on one leg, I was on the other leg the whole time in the train, and it was a full train so I was standing, and I almost passed out, but somehow I made it to the transfer point, after resting at a station in the middle so I didn`t die. haha.

Then I met my new companion, 星野長老 Elder Hoshino, and went to Hirakata. We went to this huge hospital (biking and walking actually don`t hurt), but that hospital doesn`t handle crash injuries. So we went to another one, but it was closed until 5 PM. (hospitals are complicated in Japan!)

Anyway, I finally got in and the doctor gave me some antibiotics and stuff to calm the swelling. I have to take it 3 times a day for 3 days. I`m on day 2. haha ^^.  Its still swollen.... but I think it will be ok....? The doctor seemed to think so. For now it doesn`t hurt, just feels weird.

Anyway, my new companion is awesome. He`s from the Sendai area, 2nd transfer missionary. We get along really good. He went to BYU-H, so his English is way good, but we mainly talk in Japanese. haha. ^^

Also, turns out I`m district leader! They forgot to tell me that.  7 people in the district, us, 2 other elders, and 3 sisters. Since a lot of sisters have come in, its one 4th transfer sister training 2 new sisters. yeah, sounds pretty crazy. Everyone`s good so far though. ^^

I`m realizing that I`m not a young missionary anymore! The next oldest missionary in the district has been out less than half as much as me. This week I hit my one year mark. WOAH! way too fast.

So, cool story of the day, this morning I got a call from a university professor of a nearby college in the area. Me and Elder Hoshino will be teaching a 90 minute class to 20 college students about our church! How awesome is that?!?! OH MY GOSH! haha I was freaking out. I`m still freaking out. We`ll do that next Wednesday.

Hirakata area is way awesome. Tons of colleges, young people, just people in general, etc. haha. Its way fun to just be able to talk to people on the street again, not really possible in Omihachiman. haha. I handed out a Book of Mormon just yesterday to someone after a simple 2 minute message. All kinds of missionary work is good, but the efforts are definitely more visible when you can talk to more people! We got his number too, so we`ll follow up with that ^^.

The apartment is..... not an apartment. Its what used to be the Osaka mission home. So.... its 2 two-story houses. ummm.... just for the 2 of us. haha. We only use one floor of one house, but its still ridiculously huge. 6 desks, 2 showers, 2 toilets, just a bunch of huge rooms, etc. And its next door to the church, which happens to be where I`m e-mailing from, for free. yeah. Its pretty awesome.

Well, sorry for just shooting you with the information gun, but there`s a ton of stuff going on. haha.

Next week, district leader training in Kobe, teaching a college class, and I`ll be giving training for district meeting. Lots of lessons and such planned as well. Things looking good! Now if my foot would just quit acting up and behave properly.... haha.

Love you all! Looking forward to the miracles that are obviously ahead,

Elder O`Reilly

Omihachiman church. Its only the 2nd floor, the first is something else.

A bug I found in Omihachiman. Try zooming in on it! 

Quit that right now! You know what size you`re supposed to be!

The study room. The 2 desks on the right are mine. haha. I was still unpacking, so a little messy.

Sleeping room. And more sleeping room. haha. There's an organ (the musical instrument) in there too.

Picture of the church from my chair at my desk. (yeah, screen on the window is broken. haha)

日本の冒険！Week 45 Return to Osaka 大阪に帰り

So...... I`m transferring again! Woah. Two single transfer areas in a row. I think that`s very common, but its fun to move a lot! haha.

I`m going to Osaka! And I`m going to finish the training of a Japanese Elder there! I don`t remember his name right now... I`ll get back to you on that. haha.  I`m going to Hirakata! Way excited! It will be my first time being senior companion. Although I`ve been district leader before. haha. But I`ll tell about that next week.

On Monday, we went up Omi-mountain. It has cool car things that pull you up and some kind of temple thing on top. haha. Pretty cool.

So I`m glad to say this area has seen a lot of growth in the last 6 weeks. This week we taught 3 new investigators, had 3 investigators come to church, received 3 more referrals, and planned a ton of lessons for next week as well! We have 7 lessons already planned. We`ve just been relying on the Lord and seeing miracles!

I`ll give one example. We`ve been trying to visit with this one older guy. Whenever we visit, all he says is he has no time to have a lesson with us. Which is kind of frustrating because whenever we go he`s not doing anything. haha. but this time we felt like we should just try to pray with him. As soon as we asked if we could pray with him, he said, yeah, lets go sit down and pray and stuff. Ok! haha. We were able to have a great lesson about prayer and invite him to pray often. He accepted and then asked us how he could tell us he was praying. haha. We told him we would follow up, and he could tell us then.

It`s amazing how much you can do when you just let go and let the Lord work through you!

Some thing I really thought about this week is just how awesome Family is. We all come to the world in Families. But they are more than just a way to come to this earth. They are ordained of God, we were all a part of His family before this earth. The family unit here on earth is under attack. I`ve seen that a lot here. I`m so grateful to have been born into a family that realizes the eternal importance of family relations and into a home with a solid foundation of Gospel Principles. I am so blessed! And I love my family! I want everyone to feel the same way I do about my family towards their own families.

Love you all! Have an awesome week! I`ll write you from Osaka next week!

Elder O`Reilly

The thing we rode up the mountain. (oh, I forgot to tell you! my companion decided he needed glasses, so he went and got an eye-exam. At the end, he picked frames, and the guy said to come back in 30 minutes!! The glasses were ready to be picked up in like 28 minutes when we got back! WOAH! and it was less than $50 for the examination and glasses and everything.)

Pretty cool, right?

Hey, my area`s pretty pretty.

EXCUSE ME, YOU NEED THE GOSPEL!!!

A cool building at the top

THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE! It was way fun to get. Don`t worry, I shared with my companion... and did all the other stuff on the card from mom. haha.   The shirts are all great and the belt is awesome. One of the shirts is ridiculously big though.... but that`s OK, I only needed 3, not 4. haha. They are different than my other shirts, larger, but they fit probably better actually. THANKS!! ^^ And Thanks to everyone who sent me cards and stuff for my birthday! 

日本の冒険！Week 44: Happiness 幸福

Its been a great week! I busted the bike I`ve been riding. (the bike policy changed. We don`t move with our bikes anymore, they just stay in the area. So the bike I was riding was really old, because the last missionary in the area just finished his mission) The bike just stopped working while I was riding it. So I had to walk it to a bike shop, and somehow on the way the back tire exploded. yeah, don`t ask I don`t know. haha. so then I carried the bike to the close bike shop. Which isn`t close, the only thing that`s close is rice fields. haha. ^^

But I decided this week that I need to become more happy. So I did. haha. Funny thing is it actually is that simple. Happiness is a choice that can be made. And it's a pretty good choice to make. haha. So that`s why I had a great week. When you`re happy, everything just goes better.

So while my bike's getting fixed ( its going to be way expensive! but the mission reimburses it because its not my bike...... I think. The whole bike policy is still way new) I`m riding what normal Japanese people ride..... a comfy single gear bike. haha. Its way comfy, but not good for hills at all or speed. So I have to work pretty hard to keep up with my companion.

The conference in Osaka was way cool! It was Elder 青柳 (Aoyagi), so it was in Japanese. They gave us Lunch (curry) at half time, and Sister Zinke, the mission president`s wife, reminded everyone that it was my birthday. So I suffered the birthday song in the middle of like 40 people. haha.

After the conference, we went to sushi for dinner. yeah. Still my favorite food ever. I decided that I`m only turning 20 once, so I better eat 20 plates of sushi. It was tough. haha. Probably going to a sushi place on my 30th birthday is a bad idea. haha. I`ll probably do it anyway :P

Well, we got another new investigator this week, and we have at least one more planned this week! so should be good!

Hey remember to be happy! That`s why we`re here! ^^

Love you all!

Me

The meeting right after lunch. Sorry, really random picture but its all I got. haha.

Oh..... sushi. <3

I had birthday cake at the sushi place! ^^

In honor of the twentieth commemoration of my own birth, I conquered 20 plates of happiness. Sushi.

日本の冒険！Week 43: Stake Conference: Kyoto 京都ステーク大会

So yesterday was Stake Conference in Kyoto! It was way cool to be back. I went to stake conference in Kyoto 6 months ago! I met up with the whole Joyo ward again, and they`re all doing great! I sat by Futakuchi 兄弟, the Brother I baptized on my last day in Joyo. He`s doing good! And he was glad to see me.

We have a few lessons with Japanese people set up, but most of them fell through. We did have one new Japanese investigator this week though! ...... He was a previous investigator, met with the missionaries dozens of times, and won`t accept any commitments. not even small ones. He`s an interesting guy, but we`ll be working with him.

Well, its good to know that my efforts in Joyo were good. It was evidence to me that God can work through me, because I know I don`t have the ability or power of conversion. That power rests with God.

Well, Lots of hard work ahead! On my birthday, I`ll be going to Osaka for a meeting! A general authority with be there. Should be way awesome.

Love you all!
Me

Funny thing is these pictures came from before the pictures I sent last week! I didn`t take any this week.

Pretty cool, right? the water goes perfectly still at night sometimes.

This is called melon bread. Just another delicious bread from Japan. Look, it even says delicious bread.

She drew a lovely picture of me on the board. That's me on the right. haha

So get this...... this is the bishop`s son, came for one week to visit. He was my Japanese TA at BYU! Sat next to me during sacrament meeting. Funny thing to meet him here!

Mother's Day Call :-)

We were able to call Trevor and talk to him on the phone yesterday! It was so great to hear his voice and know that he is doing well. As he shared his testimony with us, we could feel the strong conviction that he has of our Savior and of the Plan of Salvation. We are so glad families can be together forever! We are so thankful for his service and for the great example he is to our family. We are willing to share him a little longer with the people of Japan so that he can share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with other families!

We love you, Trevor!

日本の冒険！Week 42: I HAVE NO TIME TO WRITE THIS 時間がない

Hey, soooorrryyy but I have like no time. We went to kiyomizudera as a district, got back a little late, and we have a lesson a little bit before preparation day actually ends.

Here`s what I mailed to President though:

Hey President!

So.... it was an Ok week. We worked hard, and didn`t find a lot of people. But, we did get some lessons set up next week, but not from the housing we were doing most of the time. Always seems to work like that for some reason. One of the new lessons was an investigator from 2 years ago, found in the area book by me. The other was a referral from the abeno elders, that was super easy to set up an appointment with at the church. I`m excited to finally have a lesson in Japanese here! haha. There`s been a lot of Portuguese going on, and I`m excited to have a more active part in the lessons this week.

Getting a call from my family is always a blessing. It gave me a chance to remember why I`m here and what the gospel can do for a family. My family has it pretty good. (^-^)

Looking forward to an exciting week!

Elder O`Reilly



Really sorry I didn`t read and respond to all your E-mails today! I`ll send some pics and then go teach the gospel!! I mean sit there while its taught in Portuguese... haha.

2 lessons in Japanese this week planned! Yipee!

Love you all

me

Me and comp! (Elder Tores)

So funny thing.... we were waiting in line for eternity water and she was asking her friend how to ask where someone is from. I over-heard and just told her America. She was surprised.... haha!

Eternity water again!! This time I drank from all 3.  My hair looks way red in this picture! I`ve been using black shampoo to make the red darker. Is it working? haha :P