Subject: New Area. Welcome to Fujisawa
Date: Jan. 18, 2015
From Elder Conner Carlini

Hello family and friends. This past week was fun and heartbreaking
all at the same time. I have now fully transferred over to the
Fujisawa area and it is beautiful. If only I could take my apartment
mates from Hibarigaoka here, it would be awesome. Last transfer was a
ton of fun with those Elders. I also wish I could take the apartment
from Hibarigaoka because now im back to the dumps, haha! Although
because it's got the same layout of my first apartment in Kamiooka
(that was also old and moldy, but now they have a new apartment) it's
like coming home. Just, to a more moldy and pretty messy version of
it, haha. But yeah, I have no problem with it. Anyways, because I've
been in Hibarigaoka for the last 7 1/2 months, a new area was kind of
expected. And boy does it look nice! I've only been here for about 4
days now but I really love what I've seen so far. We have a beach! It
was great seeing the waves and all the surfers out there enjoying a
good time. We also had the chance to talk to some awesome people that
were looking at the scenery as well and met a man who is the manager
at a nearby beach shop. He was really friendly and I had a good long
talk with him and a friend of his that also showed up. It's great when
I can finally connect with some of these people and really find out
there interests and what they want more of in life. It makes me feel
like I can make a bit of a difference for them and obviously as a
missionary, give them a chance to hear the gospel. Although everyone
may not want to hear our message, it feels great to just make
someone's day a bit better. I love making these Japanese folk smile.
Even when their teeth look terrible sometimes.
Anyways, my new companion is American and his name is Elder
Fenton. He is only on his third transfer (in the field for a bit over
3 months right now) so I am helping to train him up a little bit and
help him get out of his comfort zone hopefully. His Japanese is pretty
solid for a transfer 3 but he still feels like it has to be way better
for him to talk to people. I'm sure he can have simple conversations
and invite people to things so I'm going to do my best to help him go
for it. Its also a great opportunity to go completely out of any shell
I have and talk with all types of people. Slowly but surely, my
ability to start random conversations and make them meaningful is
going up. And whats better is that there are a LOT more students and
kids around our age here to talk to compared to Hibarigaoka. I like
talking to Grandpas and whatnot, but there's nothing better than
bro'ing it up with a Japanese teenage guy and inviting him to church
because it's "cool". I can see some good things going on in this area
soon.
So although the area looks great, I do have one slight foreseeable
challenge to overcome this transfer. And that would be...some of the
missionaries I'm around. I hate to say anything bad about others, but
I just happen to have a different way of thinking then some of the
others here. Mainly my apartment members. I'm not gonna say much, but
they just don't seem happy. They do good missionary things and go to
find people to teach whenever they can, but it's just different being
around quiet, not so happy looking people. Quite different from my
last apartment. I was able to enjoy the work, and enjoy being at the
apartment with my roommates. But anyways, I see this as a great
opportunity to find happiness from within for whatever I do in life.
I'm learning bit by bit that when we have hard times and look for the
opportunities to grow from them, God will help us that much more to
get through it. And then we can make the best of each trial we have.
It'll still be rough, but I can see the chance to change for the
better through it. I'm sure the transfer will be over in the blink of
an eye anyways. So might as well grow from it!
That's all I can think of for now, but I'll send pictures and stuff
from my last week in Hibarigaoka to my first in Fujisawa. I am
incredibly grateful for the things I've learned on the mission and the
people I've met that will change my life for the better. I hope you
all have a good week and here's to a full one in a new zone! Fujisawa
✌️

多分何回もこれを言ったけれど。。試練によって私たちは成長と改善する機会があります。

皆さん頑張ってね。私も頑張ります。

Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老