FROM: ELDER CONNER CARLINI
DATE: FEB.23, 2015
SUBJECT: IT’S TRANSFER WEEK
Heyyy, so this week was full of little events that I can barely remember. And since I am using my planner for this new transfer and I don't have the old one with me, I can only remember a few things that happened! So let's go over those shall we?
Last P-Day (after writing emails) we went over to a cool island in our area called "Katase Enoshima". It has a whole bunch of Shrines and some really great views of the ocean. I have some pictures of that which I'll send as well. We saw a whole bunch of white people and it was weird to hear people speaking a lot of English and whatnot. But yeah, we got to talk to some of them which was nice. We also had a Japanese girl approach us and try asking in English if we could take a picture. But we just switched to Japanese and said we could do that. It was funny because she was with a guy who we thought we would be taking the picture of along with her. But then she stood next to us and gave him the camera to take a picture, haha. The power of foreigners. I also talked to the owner of a little shop on the island for a while and bought some way sweet chopsticks at his place.
Another thing that was awesome about this week was meeting a new friend. I can't remember if I've said this or not already but me and Elder Fenton met a group of some breakdancers and we've become good friends with them. And one in particular was interested in Heaven and stuff like that. So this week (can't remember the exact day) we planned meeting him where the breakdancers normally go to dance at the station and waited for him there. However, his work went later than usual and he wasn't going to be there till much later and after our missionary curfew. So, since he wasn't coming, we talked to the new breakdancers that were already there and made friends with them! They didn't seem like they had any church interest at all at first but I got talking to one of them about what we do and where I'm from and he thought it was all so cool. He searched me on Facebook, we became friends, and then he was asking me about America and why I came to Japan to be a volunteer. At this point, it was just about 9:00 and that's our regular curfew when not teaching a lesson. But when I told him we had to go, he didn't seem like he wanted us to leave yet. So I just told him that if we were teaching about our church and if he wanted to hear, then we could stay until about 9:30. So he's like, yeah let's hear it! Haha, so I had a great chance to teach the Restoration and it went great. He doesn't know hardly anything of religion and it was all so new to him. But I think he felt good about it and I know I did.
The next things I remember this week was Interviews with the President and also something called Questions of the Soul we brought our investigator from Okinawa, Toguchi, to it and it was a cool talk about faith. We also got to teach Toguchi that day so it was a double gospel serving. But, since he was quite tired from working a night shift, he dozed off a couple times during the presentation, hah.
Another special thing about this week was going to the Tokyo mission (I'm in Tokyo South) and having a double mission conference in the Nakano church. Elders Ballard and Rasband came and talked with us about several gospel and missionary topics. They focused us in on the Restoration and it was pretty cool to hear. It was also great to see my good friends from different areas and reunite with a bro hug. Elder Bates is a great man.
And now the thing we've all been waiting for I'm sure, is my Transfer Announcement! Yeah, so even though I have only lived in Fujisawa for a transfer (6 weeks), I am transferring to Machida this Thursday! It's pretty close by and I heard its a really great area. I'm just not sure about the apartment I'll be living in, hah. Anyways, my companion will be Elder Kojima, who is Japanese. So I have been quite lucky and blessed with the challenge and opportunity to speak a whole lot of Japanese in a day, hah. He will be my 3rd Japanese companion and I'm grateful for it. I actually know him a bit as well, because we lived together for a couple transfers in my first area Kamiooka. He had kind of a rough time there and didn't get along with us that well so hopefully it'll turn out alright. As long as we can have fun and focus on some of the awesome people that are living here in Japan, it should be good. So, I'll be in a new apartment with a new comp this Thursday. Fun stuff. Gotta pack my stuff already, haha.
That is all. Have a great week!
素晴らしい週があるように！
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
Monday, February 23, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
From: ELDER CONNER CARLINI
DATE: FEB.15, 2015
SUBJECT: THIS WEEEEK
Yeah, so this week was pretty cool. It went by pretty fast.
Yeahhh, we got to meet with a couple investigators and teach some
more. We also did a Blitz with just 4 missionaries because our
District is quite sick at the moment. But that was a lot of fun and we
talked with some great people. Cool high school kids and whatnot.
Oh yeah and I hit my 1 year mark in Japan!! I have now officially
lived wayyy far from home and in an awesome Asian country for over a
year now. Pretty cool to say. Japan and the Japanese people are just
amazing. And speaking of amazing people, I got to go back to
Hibarigaoka for a double baptism yesterday!! I wasn't sure if it was
official or not until Friday night so it was a great surprise to take
the hour and 45 minute train ride down to my old area and see some
sweet friends again! And the two people being baptized were people I
had been teaching for a long time in the area! So it was good to go
back and see them baptized. I also got to do the introduction and how
I met one of them (Nakai Yuuta). And that was about 6 months ago. Even
when you don't get to see the influence you have on others sometimes
(although I got the chance to see it) we can know that we do have that
influence. It was good to see him, as well as my man Sarunosuke get
baptized on the same day. And then seeing all the ward members again
was great. There were a bunch that were surprised to see me and had to
take some second looks to realize it, haha. Awesome people.
And we got to bring our investigator Toguchi to that so it was
good for him too. Although he says he can't make any promises right
now, he has been diligently studying with us each week. He's our man
from Okinawa by the way. Super chill guy. Annnnd yeah, we found a
slide this week (in the sent video) and also went to a ward members
house for a lunch appointment. They are way nice and they knew ward
members in Hibarigaoka which are also super nice. Yoooo, that's it for
now. Pretty soon I'll be beginning my 10th of of 16th transfer as a
missionary. Dang does the time fly. See ya!
良い一日を！
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
DATE: FEB.15, 2015
SUBJECT: THIS WEEEEK
Yeah, so this week was pretty cool. It went by pretty fast.
Yeahhh, we got to meet with a couple investigators and teach some
more. We also did a Blitz with just 4 missionaries because our
District is quite sick at the moment. But that was a lot of fun and we
talked with some great people. Cool high school kids and whatnot.
Oh yeah and I hit my 1 year mark in Japan!! I have now officially
lived wayyy far from home and in an awesome Asian country for over a
year now. Pretty cool to say. Japan and the Japanese people are just
amazing. And speaking of amazing people, I got to go back to
Hibarigaoka for a double baptism yesterday!! I wasn't sure if it was
official or not until Friday night so it was a great surprise to take
the hour and 45 minute train ride down to my old area and see some
sweet friends again! And the two people being baptized were people I
had been teaching for a long time in the area! So it was good to go
back and see them baptized. I also got to do the introduction and how
I met one of them (Nakai Yuuta). And that was about 6 months ago. Even
when you don't get to see the influence you have on others sometimes
(although I got the chance to see it) we can know that we do have that
influence. It was good to see him, as well as my man Sarunosuke get
baptized on the same day. And then seeing all the ward members again
was great. There were a bunch that were surprised to see me and had to
take some second looks to realize it, haha. Awesome people.
And we got to bring our investigator Toguchi to that so it was
good for him too. Although he says he can't make any promises right
now, he has been diligently studying with us each week. He's our man
from Okinawa by the way. Super chill guy. Annnnd yeah, we found a
slide this week (in the sent video) and also went to a ward members
house for a lunch appointment. They are way nice and they knew ward
members in Hibarigaoka which are also super nice. Yoooo, that's it for
now. Pretty soon I'll be beginning my 10th of of 16th transfer as a
missionary. Dang does the time fly. See ya!
良い一日を！
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
From: Elder Conner Carlini
Date: Feb. 9, 2015
Subject: What a WILD Experience!
Hello everyone! I'll tell ya what, this whole experience is wild
sometimes. Even though we do a lot of the same type of things
everyday, there's always new things happening. This week had a few
memorable things to it and the craziest was right at the end. So I'll
go real quick and in order.
First, on Tuesday, we went down into the train station to begin
walking around and talking to whoever we could, and we saw the usual
break dancers practicing in the corner. So, I suggested we go over and
see if we could talk with them and that ended up being awesome. We
went over, started up a conversation, and the guy was shocked that we
spoke any Japanese. And so he called his friend over and we had a way
sweet conversation about what we do and they thought we were way cool.
They're in their late 20's and one didn't seem to have much interest
in religion, but he thought we were way awesome and said we should
meet again. And the other, actually seemed a bit interested in what we
thought about heaven and stuff like that. So we had a little deep talk
with him and now have planned to meet them tonight at the station
again! They practice breakdancing there a decent amount so they said
we could join in if we want. And this last time we got to learn a bit
of breakdancing from them so that was fun. I'm terrible at
breakdancing though, haha. I hope to learn bit by bit about
breakdancing as we teach them bit by bit about the gospel, haha.
That's the Funnest way to do it! Be friends, and teach what we
believe.
Next day, Wednesday. We were going to do a District Blitz but it
kind of fell apart. So, me and Elder Fenton just headed down to Katase
Enoshima and had a great time proselyting. I love that place! It looks
way nice and there has always been people to talk to. We talked to
some more old guys this time so that was kinda cool to hear what they
had to say. Yeahhh, good day.
On Saturday me and Elder Hernandez were on splits and we walked
down towards a College in our area and talked with some cool students.
They didn't seem interested a whole lot but we were able to get some
numbers and it would be sweet to see them again!
And lastly, the crazy experience to finish off the week. This
happened yesterday and I'll try to give the full story without making
it too long. Basically, we met this guy about 3 weeks ago who gave us
his number and said he wanted to meet. We finally were able to set up
a time and met with him yesterday. We actually had another
investigator named Toguchi who came along because he was heading in
the same direction anyways. So we sat down at a place to talk and I
initially tried to ask him some questions about what he's interested
in and what he wants to learn more about in the church. But he just
kind of ignored me and started telling us this long story about
something that happened 700 years ago in Japan. And that because of
this occurrence (sorry, can't say too much detail) it meant that there
wasn't a lot of time remaining for Japan. So I asked him some
questions to try to figure out what exactly he was saying and we
discovered that he was a part of something called "Nichiren ShouShuu"
which is a crazy religion type of thing in Japan. It's an offshoot of
Buddhism but they normally don't consider it a "religion". I had heard
stories about these guys, and until yesterday, that was all I had. But
now I have experienced the infamous people that essentially sit you
down somewhere, bash your religion and tell you it's all a lie. So
after asking more questions and him going on about how America could
be destroyed by the Chinese (this was all a very well prepared thing
and he had materials/newspapers to try and prove his point) I asked
him about his beliefs and why he was telling us this anyways. And holy
heck this is where the spirit started to kick in. I knew that this was
taking a wild turn and after him using more strong comments, I put out
some questions that I'm sure were brought about by the spirit. He
mentioned how in our church we believe Jesus Christ to be great, but
he said that he died on the cross. And that Buddha cannot die, so he
is more powerful. I told him about the resurrection of Jesus Christ
and he told me strongly and suddenly that it was a total lie. And then
he went on to tell us that we were being deceived by our church... And
dang, I probably bore the most strong and simple testimony on my
mission to this man and my Japanese just went. I told him I knew God
lived, and I can't remember much of what I said after. But it was a
heated exchange and he told us that we had to test his power by coming
with him to a nearby Buddha and try to see who has more power. And let
me tell ya, you don't just compare something to God. And you
definitely don't say to me that Buddha or anything is more powerful
than him. So we said things were going to far, grabbed our stuff, and
walked out. At first I thought this wouldn't be so great for our man
Toguchi but I think him hearing my testimony to this man could help
him out in the future. We booked it out of there and Toguchi knew it
was a bad situation too. So dang, there are definitely some wild
religious stuff going on out there and it makes me feel good knowing
that I'm happy giving people just a chance to learn. And not being
like this guy trying to tell people they are being deceived and you
need to come with them. Phew. Crazy experience. This experience was
over the course of about an hour but that clears up most of the
content I think.
That's all I have for now. See ya later!
I know God lives.
神様がいると知っています。
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
Date: Feb. 9, 2015
Subject: What a WILD Experience!
Hello everyone! I'll tell ya what, this whole experience is wild
sometimes. Even though we do a lot of the same type of things
everyday, there's always new things happening. This week had a few
memorable things to it and the craziest was right at the end. So I'll
go real quick and in order.
First, on Tuesday, we went down into the train station to begin
walking around and talking to whoever we could, and we saw the usual
break dancers practicing in the corner. So, I suggested we go over and
see if we could talk with them and that ended up being awesome. We
went over, started up a conversation, and the guy was shocked that we
spoke any Japanese. And so he called his friend over and we had a way
sweet conversation about what we do and they thought we were way cool.
They're in their late 20's and one didn't seem to have much interest
in religion, but he thought we were way awesome and said we should
meet again. And the other, actually seemed a bit interested in what we
thought about heaven and stuff like that. So we had a little deep talk
with him and now have planned to meet them tonight at the station
again! They practice breakdancing there a decent amount so they said
we could join in if we want. And this last time we got to learn a bit
of breakdancing from them so that was fun. I'm terrible at
breakdancing though, haha. I hope to learn bit by bit about
breakdancing as we teach them bit by bit about the gospel, haha.
That's the Funnest way to do it! Be friends, and teach what we
believe.
Next day, Wednesday. We were going to do a District Blitz but it
kind of fell apart. So, me and Elder Fenton just headed down to Katase
Enoshima and had a great time proselyting. I love that place! It looks
way nice and there has always been people to talk to. We talked to
some more old guys this time so that was kinda cool to hear what they
had to say. Yeahhh, good day.
On Saturday me and Elder Hernandez were on splits and we walked
down towards a College in our area and talked with some cool students.
They didn't seem interested a whole lot but we were able to get some
numbers and it would be sweet to see them again!
And lastly, the crazy experience to finish off the week. This
happened yesterday and I'll try to give the full story without making
it too long. Basically, we met this guy about 3 weeks ago who gave us
his number and said he wanted to meet. We finally were able to set up
a time and met with him yesterday. We actually had another
investigator named Toguchi who came along because he was heading in
the same direction anyways. So we sat down at a place to talk and I
initially tried to ask him some questions about what he's interested
in and what he wants to learn more about in the church. But he just
kind of ignored me and started telling us this long story about
something that happened 700 years ago in Japan. And that because of
this occurrence (sorry, can't say too much detail) it meant that there
wasn't a lot of time remaining for Japan. So I asked him some
questions to try to figure out what exactly he was saying and we
discovered that he was a part of something called "Nichiren ShouShuu"
which is a crazy religion type of thing in Japan. It's an offshoot of
Buddhism but they normally don't consider it a "religion". I had heard
stories about these guys, and until yesterday, that was all I had. But
now I have experienced the infamous people that essentially sit you
down somewhere, bash your religion and tell you it's all a lie. So
after asking more questions and him going on about how America could
be destroyed by the Chinese (this was all a very well prepared thing
and he had materials/newspapers to try and prove his point) I asked
him about his beliefs and why he was telling us this anyways. And holy
heck this is where the spirit started to kick in. I knew that this was
taking a wild turn and after him using more strong comments, I put out
some questions that I'm sure were brought about by the spirit. He
mentioned how in our church we believe Jesus Christ to be great, but
he said that he died on the cross. And that Buddha cannot die, so he
is more powerful. I told him about the resurrection of Jesus Christ
and he told me strongly and suddenly that it was a total lie. And then
he went on to tell us that we were being deceived by our church... And
dang, I probably bore the most strong and simple testimony on my
mission to this man and my Japanese just went. I told him I knew God
lived, and I can't remember much of what I said after. But it was a
heated exchange and he told us that we had to test his power by coming
with him to a nearby Buddha and try to see who has more power. And let
me tell ya, you don't just compare something to God. And you
definitely don't say to me that Buddha or anything is more powerful
than him. So we said things were going to far, grabbed our stuff, and
walked out. At first I thought this wouldn't be so great for our man
Toguchi but I think him hearing my testimony to this man could help
him out in the future. We booked it out of there and Toguchi knew it
was a bad situation too. So dang, there are definitely some wild
religious stuff going on out there and it makes me feel good knowing
that I'm happy giving people just a chance to learn. And not being
like this guy trying to tell people they are being deceived and you
need to come with them. Phew. Crazy experience. This experience was
over the course of about an hour but that clears up most of the
content I think.
That's all I have for now. See ya later!
I know God lives.
神様がいると知っています。
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
Sunday, February 1, 2015
From: Elder Conner Carlini
Date: Feb 1, 2015
Subject: Another week in Fujisawa
Hey it's been real mates. So we had another week go by already and
it was pretty good. I got to talk to lots of great people and things
are going better now. I also got to go on Splits with one of the
Traveling Assistants Elder McCarty and we got along swimmingly. We
went out to find people and we talked with some awesome Japanese guys.
How about that. There's tons of Japanese people here. We invited our
new friend Hideomi to English class and he couldn't come at first
because of work. But then it got cancelled and he came to an event the
same day we met him! That's pretty rare. Really cool kid.
Unfortunately my new good friend Elder McCarty is on his last transfer
and will be returning to America in less than a month. Luckily 90% of
missionaries are basically from Utah. So Elder McCarty is. And I am.
So I'll probably be able to hang out with him and my other Utah
missionary friends when I return, haha! Good stuff.
Also, we were able to meet with our friend Toguchi a few times
this week. He came to church and we had a member present lesson which
went well. He still thinks a whole lot about the Gospel and he doesn't
want to jump into it if he doesn't know about it or feel anything. So
we're doing our best to help him feel the spirit and be happy for
dayyyyyz.
That's pretty much what I have for now. Sorry it's short this
week. The Mission is difficult but well worth it. I learn little
things each day, and over time I'm learning great principles of life.
What a crazy experience, haha.
Love from Japan.
愛してますよ〜
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
Date: Feb 1, 2015
Subject: Another week in Fujisawa
Hey it's been real mates. So we had another week go by already and
it was pretty good. I got to talk to lots of great people and things
are going better now. I also got to go on Splits with one of the
Traveling Assistants Elder McCarty and we got along swimmingly. We
went out to find people and we talked with some awesome Japanese guys.
How about that. There's tons of Japanese people here. We invited our
new friend Hideomi to English class and he couldn't come at first
because of work. But then it got cancelled and he came to an event the
same day we met him! That's pretty rare. Really cool kid.
Unfortunately my new good friend Elder McCarty is on his last transfer
and will be returning to America in less than a month. Luckily 90% of
missionaries are basically from Utah. So Elder McCarty is. And I am.
So I'll probably be able to hang out with him and my other Utah
missionary friends when I return, haha! Good stuff.
Also, we were able to meet with our friend Toguchi a few times
this week. He came to church and we had a member present lesson which
went well. He still thinks a whole lot about the Gospel and he doesn't
want to jump into it if he doesn't know about it or feel anything. So
we're doing our best to help him feel the spirit and be happy for
dayyyyyz.
That's pretty much what I have for now. Sorry it's short this
week. The Mission is difficult but well worth it. I learn little
things each day, and over time I'm learning great principles of life.
What a crazy experience, haha.
Love from Japan.
愛してますよ〜
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
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