26 July 2011

It is so good to read your emails and hear about your week and all the events that have taken place. thanks for keeping me updated. i love reading them and hearing your advice and such. My week suprisingly went by really fast! I am so grateful for that. ANds i enjoied it too. I loved this past week.


I am super happy for Kamas and his rank. i brag about him all the time here to other missionaries who are in the air force and such. I look up to Kamas so much. He is my bestfriend. I miss him alot. I am glad to hear about Bug and his choice to stay in football. i now coach is a retard but that is not why he should quit. i am glad that he will stick it out. just make sure that he has a positive attitude about it. It is cool to hear about where all my friends are going on there missions and such. I really want to know where Jake Packer is goign. i hope he comes here to tokyo. that would be so freaking awesome. Can you look his parents up on face book and ask them. His dads name is Lance Packer. That would be awesome! Thanks!!!

So last tuesday there was a huge typhoon and it was just pouring rain! and what did we do, we went streeting and housing. WE had no success until the last door we knocked on. it was a lady who had read the bible and she was intrested. she said she had to talk to her husband about it. but it made the day knowing that we had gotten a new investigator and maybe a family.

Wednesday was very intresting. I was really gettting on myself for constantly sending you and dad emails of how hard my mission is and that i am not enjoing it. so i got to thinking on how i could change that mind set. i pulled out one of your emails taht you sent me from my 1st transfer and noticed that you were talking about Elder Oaks talk on desires. so i read it. i came out with the desciion that i need to change my desires. so i prayfully thought about desires i can write down and work to achieve in order for me to enjoi my mission. here they are:
1) Want to do missionary work
2) Enjoi Missionary work
3)Gain Christs Love for the Japanese People
4) Japanese People Salvation
5) Learn Japanese Language
6) Patience
7) Have vision of what i can become and accomplish
8)Become the missionary God and mom want me to become and be
9) Serve with all my heart

these are the desires that i am going to make priorities to gain. i think that if i can aquire these desires, i will enjoi my mission so much more. as you can probably tell, all the desires kinda correalte to one another. if i love the japanese poeple, i will desrie their salvation and i will want to do the misisonary work to save them. that is just one exampel. so i thought that these were prettty dang good desires. i am prayer hard taht i might be reseptive to the spirtit so i can go adn do the things that i need to do to gain these. please pray that i will get the direction i need to gain these desires.

On thursday i went on spilts wiht a japanese elder named elder fukushima. he is super quite. We were in an area called Togane. Look it up on google or something. i really enjoied this day becasuse i was finally able to see some forest and some mountain. it was just an amazing day. even though there was a typhooon. like usual.

Friday i had a 3 zone conference. This is an epic day. and a super spiritual one too. I was thinking to myself about my desires and how i can accomplish them. so i was in deep thought about them. President was talking about the Spirit of Revelation. The desire i was thinking about at the time he said that was number 8. i have felt like i have not been the missionary you or God expect me to be and i dont know why. anywasys, when he saidd the Spirit of Revelation, i started thinking about it. A talk me and you had came to mind. it is about football. You told me that if i wasnt getting yelled at by the coach or getting advice from him, then i wasnt getting any better. the reason is becasuse if you arent getting yelled at, you arent on the field. if you arent on the field you arent getting reps. if you arent getting reps, you arent getting any better. I then thought about that saying but for the Lord. If the Lord isnt getting on my case or showing me my problems that i need to fix, how then can i become the missionary he wants me to be and become? It then hit me hard taht all the trials i have been going through have been revealed unto me by the Spirit of Revelation. SO then i got to thinking. well if all my trials are from the Lord and his Spirit, then i hvae had his spirit the entire time. and taht made me feel so flipping good. It made me think i have had the Spirit on my mission the whole time and that i have been successful becasue i have had his spirit. NOt only that, but if i have his spirit, i am the missionary you and God expect me to be. One who works through and listens to the spirit. I am so grateful that the Lord was able to reveal this unto me. i really am. i have been waitiung all week to tell you about this exprience. i wish i could tell you in person. it was amazing. On saturday i was reading in the Book of Mormon and 1 Corinthians. in the BOM 2 Nephi 3:5 and in 1 Corithians 4:5. The main point i got out of it was the lord brings the hidden things of darkness to light or The Spirit of Revelation. it was amazing. it really was. i am so happy i was able to learn that.

On saturday we gave a church tour to a Napal person., he said he wanted to be baptized and that he had 6 other friends that would probably want the same thing. it was awesome. I am seeing so many miracles and i am enjoing them. they really do make me happy thinking about them and how much the lord is blessing us. this week was super hard cuz all of our appointment fell through and we ahd to street and house in a typoon. no fun. but we are seeing so many miarlcles.

Sorry i am getting this email off on wednesday but monday all the libraries and stuff are closed and on tuesday we had a All mission Conference. WE got LAPTOPS!!! So we decided to wait til today to email when we had our own Laptop in our Apartment. Ya thats right. i am emailing you from a laptop in my apartment. the tokyo mission is the only mission in the world with laptops. kinda cool. they will help so much. they have skype so we can get ahold of people who live far away or cant meet with us because they work to much. I also get to skype home on Mothers Day and Christmas. YYYYYEEESSS!!!! isnt that awesome. you get to see and hear me. I get to skype you 2 a year. That is goign to be so freaking cool! my mission is so different thatn my brothers!

That is all that has happened here in Japan with me. as you can tell i am doing super good. i am happy and i am loving life. i really like my companion too. there is just a couple of things that could make life better. New music, a UKULELE, actual pictures of the family. . . you know stuff like that. I would really enjoi a ukulele. i was able to play one on thursday and descided i really wnat one. That is goign on my Christmas list. haha.

well i hope you enjoi this email over all the other ones that i have sent you. iam doing super good and cant wait to read your email next week. i love you so much mom. i look up to you so miuch. you are the best mom anyone could ask for. keep safe. i cant wait till next monday to read your email. Until then, God be with you always!!!!

Love your Son, your only Kurtiepie,

Elder Kurt Arie Van De Graaff