Week 63

New Area, New Comp, New Responsibility

Yup, i:ve been transferred. And it:s turned out to be a wonderful thing so far. I miss Nakatsu and the people there but i:m super stocked to be here in Yanai! I:ve been on the Island of Kyushu my whole mission up until now. I took a four and a half hour journey on three different trains up north with everything that I possess and got here last thursday at around noon. Welcome to Honshu. Had to walk from the train station to the apartment with my companion and all my stuff in the rain but, it wasn:t terrible, just annoying. Got settled in, was on the phone quite a bit with district members and Zone Leaders getting to know everyone and whatnot and ya, that was that. And now i:m here. I:m the District Leader of the Yanai district. It is me and my companion, Elder Warr, and 6 sister missionaries. We live close enough to Yamaguchi that we will have the opportunity to go to Miyajima and we also live close enough to Hiroshima to, if we get the chance, go to some WW2 stuff so... i:m pretty excited for that!

This is the biggest ward that i:ve been in so far. Between 60 and 70 members come to church each week! And we have an actual church building here! And there are primary kids! And a Young Mens group! And a Young Womens group! That might not sound amazing but for me, it is a new experience. I:m used to branches of 10 to 20 people, not wards of 60 to 70! But I got the chance to meet a lot of people and they are all so nice. Got to look at all there smiling faces from the pulpit on Sunday when I gave an introduction and testimony. I:m super excited to be here!

Some highlights:

- I shipped a box with all my books from Nakatsu to Yanai and like always, I had to ship my bike too. They both got here right after I did on Thursday so that made things super convenient.

- On Saturday morning, we had a YM/YW group activity where we played tennis and baseball. It was awesome and a ton of fun.

- My comp is a stud. 18. From American Fork. Been in Japan for 4 months. We:re already way good friends

- Elder Needs left me a third of a jar of peanut butter when he transferred. #Homie

- Everyone in the District is awesome. Our ZLs are awesome too.

- Elder Warr almost got eaten by a dog yesterday... I don:t think i:ll ever see him run that fast again!

Other than that, this week we head to Yamaguchi for training on Thursday so I will get to meet all the awesome people in our Zone and get some good training from the APs and Zone Leaders. Over and out.

Brower Chourou

Week 62

Hey So, this week, I don't really know what to say. I'm transferring
I don't know if you recall but I was companions with an awesome elder,
probably one of my best friends in the mission, Elder Needs back in
Yatsushiro. I got a call from President this morning telling me I'm
transferring and replacing Elder Needs in a place called Yanai in
Yamaguchi. I'm also going to be a district leader up there being mamma
bird taking care of 6 or so companionships. Don't know what all is in
store yet but I'm pretty excited. It's going to be an awfully big
adventure! From now on, I'm getting ready to transfer and am going to
try to meet with all my awesome friends in Nakatsu before I head out.
Still don't know travel plans but... That's what's up!
Brower chourou

Week 61

Here is a taste of the life of Tyler. Didn't write on the 16th or yesterday; got lazy but I'll go back and fill those in.

January 11th, 2016

Today was a slow Pday. It was alright though. Had myself a haircut, got elder Hardy's new bike all situated and cleaned up. Took a small nap. And... Not really sure what else happened. Oh, we went to Youme town while we were waiting for his bike to be fixed and watched the end of Star Wars 3 on the TV in one of the stores. Pretty sweet. But, tonight, we had an awesome tender mercy. I've been thinking about not having a spiritually uplifting mission somewhat lately. Tonight I got a taste! We had a meal with the Yoshimatsu Fuufu which was awesome! And then afterward, we talked and shared pictures and stories and then from that, started talking about where they stand with the gospel and what they think about our message. We shared a talk from the priesthood session of last conference, "Faith is not by chance but by choice." It was just different. It is how and what a mission should be and what I wish everyday was like. Cherish those moments. Little victory.

January 12th, 2016

Happy one year in Japan to me! It's just flying... Anyway. Had a good day; our district is way fun! Meservey, Watt, Johnson, Dibble, me, Hardy, and the Shimai Willson and Millet. It was way fun. Had some good training and then went out to eat at some Endou curry place that is way good. I like the waitresses style; cool Indian style. After getting back, we prepped for a lesson we had planned tonight with a potential investigator. We went, she told us she was Buddhist and tried to give us back the Book of Mormon... We made her keep it, bore some testimony, and moved on. Had faith for her dang it. But, right after that, we saw some awesome stuff happen! Went to an apartment and from that one apartment, got 4 return appointments for next Saturday! How dope. It was like nobody could say no. I'm way excited. We also met a sweet hipster punk Japanese guy with tattoos and a man bun; I want to teach him so bad because he seems like such a sweet awesome guy that could be a homie and find good stuff in this gospel! It's pretty hipster to be Christian in Japan!

January 13th, 2016

Had a lesson today with a lady from a few days ago who said we could come back. She seems like a really awesome lady but after having our lesson with her, she told us that she was Buddhist and wouldn't be able to change the course she was on so as far as following through with commitments, she wasn't going to do it. So we gave her a Book of Mormon, said our goodbyes and were on our way. After that, had a somewhat boring time teaching Eikaiwa to Satomi and Akemi San. We taught them how to make it rain. It was way funny. Also had another really weird "lesson" with saki Chyan and Mitsuko Shimai. She brought her 3 year old son and I gave him some Hotwheels but other than that, if she was an investigator she would have been dropped a long time ago because she doesn't give two shakes about the gospel. Too bad. Our "big lesson" today was with Rena Chyan. Her and Ishibe Shimai came to the church and we taught about baptism. It was pretty fun, talking with Ishibe Shimai is funny cause she is kinda a sassy person but other than that, it was still kinda awkward because Rena says nothing. But she answered the baptismal interview questions so we figured heck, lets get her baptized! But her mom and dad are getting a divorce and right now is "impossible" so... Can't say that we didn't try. Had normal Eikaiwa, it's hard to use all that energy at the end of the night. But, we sang the "I see the light" song from tangled with everyone; you wouldn't think it but they have fun doing it. Americans are too awkward when it comes to that stuff. It was also way cold today... The wind was killer. Other than that, had a pretty normal day. This was probably one of the busiest days I've had in Nakatsu. 

Week 60

            Went to Kumamoto!!!!!!

Wise advise from my mission Mama to my future wife!

Me: Alright, go ahead!
Her: what should I say??
Me: What kind of person is Elder Brower or like, why should you marry
Elder Brower or like...

Her: oh, got it, ok. When did you happen to meet Elder Brower? Will
she understand?? Ya, when did you meet him?
About when will you get married??
How many kids do you want??
*laughing*
Me: Only that??
Her: how many kids do you want?
Make a family quickly! Make Elder Brower important!
Me: oh ya, that's really important!
Her: Please have fun being married for a long, long time
Me: Yes yes, good stuff!
Her: Please be happy! I will pray that If you have any troubles or
interference, you will both, together, be able to overcome them! And
please, have kids quickly and spend a long time together. :)

Me: What do you really think about Elder Brower? When you first met
Elder Brower, what did you think?? You don't have an opinion?
Her: oh me? I'm supposed to say it? I thought he seemed like a fun person!
Me: What about like, him being a brat...?
Her: oh ya, I did think he was a bit of a brat...
*laughing*
Me: Ya, but like, why did you think I was a brat?
Her: Well, sometimes when he talks he says things that a brat would
say... Kinda... It seems like it sometimes but then again...
*laughing*
Me: ok, I got it! But, what do you think now??
Her: now I think that he seems like a person with very high morals who
is doing good things!
Me: ok, awesome. That's good right?? :)

I figure a different perspective of things could be good for a change!

>> Hello everyone! This week was way good!
>> So this week was a great week for weird food-eating! I ate raw horse
>> meat one day, then a few days later I had chicken liver! It tasted
>> like... chicken haha. It wasn't very good, but a way awesome
>> experience! Now I can say I've eaten that.
>> We traveled all the way down to Kumamoto for interviews with Kaicho!
>> We took an hour train to Oita then a four hour bus to Kumamoto with
>> the rest of the zone! We camped there for a night, had interviews the
>> next day, then started heading back home that same day. The bus was
>> late, so we camped out in Beppu for a night with the elders in our
>> district and left in the morning. So interviews took two days of
>> traveling for us, haha. It was way worth it, Kaicho is so awesome. Me
>> and him are bros. 😋
>> So we had an amazing miracle yesterday, my bike came! Up til now I've
>> been borrowing bikes, but my trainers bike finally came yesterday! I
>> thought I'd have to fix it up pretty good, but a member in Hamada took
>> the bike, replaced the broken seat with a brand new one, put on a
>> missing kickstand, and bought brand new tires! It is absolutely
>> amazing to be friends with these members, it's a relationship you can
>> never really recreate after your mission. Right now, one of our really
>> good friends is Mitsuko Shimai! She's probably around 5 feet tall,
>> she's in her 80's, and ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS! I don't know if I've
>> talked about her before. But she'll laugh with us, and when we tease
>> her she'll try to give us spankings, so we always make sure we have
>> our eye on her, hahaha.
>> So for church this week we had the entire Fukuoka temple presidency
>> come to visit us, and then have a lunch in after. This was the first
>> time I've met them, and they were way awesome. Lunch was hectic
>> though. We had all the sisters in our branch running around like
>> crazy, talking really loud, and trying to make everything perfect.
>> Then another sister walked in and said, "If it's OK, can we all sit
>> down!?" which made everything even more crazy. Then Mitsuko started
>> putting eggs on this rice thing and the same sister that said if we
>> could sit down started yelling, "Wait! Wait!" Poor Mitsuko Shimai
>> looked really startled because it sounded like she was getting into
>> trouble. After the sister took the eggs away, Mitsuko Shimai waited
>> til that sister had her back turned, then stuck out her tongue at her
>> like she was a little 6-year old, which made me and Brower choro start
>> laughing our heads off, and then she started laughing with us. It was
>> great!
>> It's really awesome, my Japanese has been improving a lot recently and

>> it's way fun to have awesome conversations with the members and not
>> having to worry about the Japanese part, it's way exciting!
>> Love you all, have an awesome week!
>>
>>
>> Elder Hardy
>> ハーディー 長老

Yup, that's it for me! One thing really cool here is Endou curry. It's
curry with this giant bread. It's great. The best part is most of the
places have all-you-can-eat bread so... We dig in pretty hard!

Love Elder Brower

Week 59

Yay! It's year 2016! Or, in Japanese years, it's year 28! Happy new year!

あけましておめだとうございます！

We:ve had some good experiences this last weekend (seeing as I emailed on friday, there isn:t much to report... but...). We met a really nice guy! And, he had been drinking! So, because he wouldn:t have remembered us the next day, we bore some simple testimony, handed him a pamphlet with our number on it and told him; "since you won:t remember meeting us tonight, take this and call us when you haven:t been drinking." He laughed, took the pamphlet, and we:re waiting for him to call. ;) New Years has made for some difficult dendo but, even with that being the case, we fasted on Sunday, went out, and made 3 return appointments for this week! Fasting is real. The Church is true. And that:s all I have to say about that.

Brower Chourou

Week 58 HAPPY NEW YEAR

Are you excited? Because I am!

Having a new year to start off on... What are you going to do differently??

As missionary, everyday is pretty close to the same but there are still things that I am working on and things that I want to improve.

We can restart anyday. Everyday if necessary. And that is because of Jesus Christ. Simple.

But, if you need the extra boost of New Years, take it and run with it.

Our mission president wants us to focus on the Christlike Attributes section of the PMG for the entire year. That takes me through the end of my mission. So, this year, I hope and will try to become more like Jesus. I:m aware of my defects and changing them is hard. Really hard. But there is so much in store for me and for you if we decide to change and give it our best shot.

I love you all and thank everyone for their support!

"Make that change! It:s gonna feel real good, come on; CHANGE!"

Ps. Michael Jackson is still The Man

Brower Chourou