26 November 2012::

I am right with you. I hope Bugs first transfer is better than mine was. But i am sure grateful for the transfer that i had. Mom hasnt emailed me yet and that is a bit of a bummer but i am sure it will be coming. But it looks like you are the winner that gets the long emial this week. YAY!!!! I love ya dad. Before i forget, i wanted to ask, how are the chargers doing? Thats it. Man it sounds lkike you are all doing great and dandy. That is good to hear. I love it when my family is doing great.

 

My week was pretty great actually. It was a bit difficult in some points but when i look back on it and think about it, it was a great week. So we didnt find any new investigators while we were acutally finding. That bugs me a bit. I have been really thinking this week why the Lord is not letting us find those who are ready to hear and stuff like that. IT was good to get reaffirming words from D&C 122. It is for my benefit. But man, it was sure a bit of a trail this week. I had everything going against me to tell me to give up or not work my hardest. On Wednesday, on the way to church my tire popped. That is inconvinent. My companion also was puking his guts out. That is pretty inconvinent too. So we had that trail. Well on Thursday, Thanksgiving, my comp was still puking his brains out so we were in the Apartment all day. I called people adn worked in our area book for over 6 hours. That was way hard but this is where some of my joy comes from. During that time, i had thoughts of like, you are tired and need a nap, or just take it easy, you deserve it. I honestly was about to take it easy and take a break. But then i remembered in PMG a part about Diligence taht stats that you work effeciently, even without being watched or supervised. I thought about that. Then i thouht to myself, i am always being watched by God. I was thinking maybe this all happened becasue God wanted to see how serious i was about finding new people to teach, a test you know. I didnt take a break but i worked all day. While i was calling pepole i got a reaffirmation that this work is Gods work and it makes you happy. I was so happy even thought it was hard. But i felt like i passed Gods test. On Friday my comp was feeling a bit better, a good thing becasue we had a thnaksgivign dinner at an americans house. It was so good. That was the first Thanksgiving dinner i have had since 2010. It was so good. I think my stay in Japan has made me more AMerican. Like before i hated stuffed potatoes but they were so good. I am getting around cheese too. It isnt so bad. Man it was just a great night. We also had american made pie. SO GOOD!!! ILOVE PIE!!! I love eating at Americans house but at the same time i hate it. This is the reason. We were on an American Embassy Houseing complex and we had american food adn around americans and it was aweseom. But everytime i looked outside, i could see rain, hundreds of people, and i knew that i had to go out there and go back to work. I didnt want to. Everytime i never want to becasue i feel like i am at home and what not. It is just bad. But it was super good. It got me excited to go home. Saturday the trails continued becasue the bike i was using, well the tire popped. The 2nd one this week. Talk about trails. But since i read D&C 122 i knew it was giving me some expirence. I also knew that we were going to get some reliefe from this hard time too. Just needed patience. This is where it gets cool.

 

On saturday night, we get a call from the sisters and they told us they had a kinjin for us. We watched the Restoration with him and testified to him big time. I testified to him about Families and how much God loved him and how much he meant to us and to God. I knew he was being touched by the Spirit. IT is so cool to see people be filled with Joy. This man was so joyous and happy to hear what we were telling him that it brought him to tears. This is the 3rd time i think where this has happened on my mission that a person has started crying becaseu they were so happy to hear. I knew that he was filling the Spirit. His name is Hiro. Hiro went on to tell us that even before he watched the Restoration, he knew this church was differnet becasue when he saw all of our faces, he said "they are all different and have a different light than everybody else on the street. You have a light coming from out of you.". Isnt that cool? It was an awesome lesson. We invited him to church and he accepted. Sunday morning we got a call from him at 5:55. At 6:30 we got up and called him back, he had gone to the church. He was so excited to go to church taht he couldnt sleep. He got up, said a prayer, read from the Book of Mormon that we gave him the night before, and got a feeling taht told him to go to the church. Well we met up with him at 8:30 in the morning and watched "Finding Faith in Christ". He loved it. After the movie was over, he randomly asked us about Baptism. He said he saw Christ get baptized, and in the Book of Mormon, they talked about Bapitsm. Then he told us, without us answering his questions, that he wanted to be baptized. WHAT???? How cool is that? He had studied it by himself and wanted it!!! FREAKING COOL!!! We told him we would teach about it during church and turned on General Conference. Well when President Monson stood up to speak, he looked at me and said" This man has a very specail power that the others dont, who is he?" I told him the prophet and he was way excited and said that he knew it. We continued watching and he asked about what  a temple is. I told him and he resonded telling me that he wants to go to the temple as soon as he can and he wants in. DUring his lesson, another way spiritual one, we taught about the Doctrine of Christ. Well to be short, he gave perfect answers for everything. He told us some way cool things, way sad things, but we all felt the Spirit. We invited him to be baptized on the 23 December and he accepted. Hiro is way prepared by God. It is amazing. I am so grateful that i am worthy to teach him. I think about what if i didnt work hard when my comp was sick, or if i didnt work hard becasue we arent finding investigators, would i be teaching this man? I know God was testing us to see if we can be trusted. I am happy to say i passed the test and am a better person becasue of it. It is amazing and i cant put everything into words. I wish i could. It is just a miracle. Thanks for your prayers. On Sunday night, we talked to some girls because if we didnt, it would of been super awkward because we were walking down a dark path and they were like 2 feet behind us and laughing. So we said hi and then the conversation started. It was pretty funny. They were typical japanese girls. Falling for the americans. It gave me confidnece though fro when i go home. Hopefully i will be able to do just that when i go home. We shall see.

 

Yup. That is my week for ya. Pretty exciting at the last part. I have a list for mom of things i would like for Christmas. Here it is: Cologne, Ties, Teeth Whiteners(strips to make your teeth white), Money. That is what i have thought. Like i said, i get home 6 weeks after Christmas so some of things i wnat, i can wait til i get home. But Cologne, Money, Ties, and Teeth Whitener woudl be nice. I love you so much. I hope that you both have a greta week. I cant believe i have only have 11 weeks left. TIme has gone by so fast. It jsut blows my mind. I will be seeing you and mom in no time. You are going to love it here in Japna. It is the best place ever. I love it here so much. I am super excited to talk with you too on Christmas. That is in 4 weeks. Crazy!!!! Well i hope you have a great week. Tell everybody i love them.

 

20 november 2012::

I just have to say that i Love you so very much 結構愛してるよ！！！I love how you talked about me coming home and then said not to get trunky. Well, you blew that one. You got me exctied. All this talk of what is going on is making me trunky just becaseu i have less tahn 3 months left on my mission and i will see it very very soon. もう終わるか？残念ね！Ya, i am very excited to come home but like i have said in the past, i am very scared to come home. TOday i took a Christ like attribute thing in PMG and one of the questions asked if i was optomistic and peaceful about the future. In some regards yes, but in alot of ways HECK NO!!!

 I am terrified of going home. Everything sounds like it has changed so much. I am way scared to go back to america too because i love JAPAN!!! I am going to miss it here so much. I really am. I have so many great memories and expirences that i will never forget. It makes my heart hurt even thinking about leaving. I am almnost crying. Time to change the subject.

 

So for christmas, i will have to tell you later becasue i have no clue. I htink you are right. Cash would be the best. I mean 6 weeks after christmas, i get released. But i do want something for Christmas. Everyone does. I just dont know yet. Ill have to get back to you on that one. Oh wait maybe an iPhone. That would be cool. haha everyone here as one. And as for sizes of clothes, i have no idea. I think my pants are still 34x30 and my shirt size a Large. But i am not sure. I havent worn normal clothes in so long. But i think that is what it is.

 

My week was very interesting and very expensive. Let me tell you why. We ate alost everyday. It was the last week of transfers and taht is always the most expensive. But anywho. On wednesday we had DM and it was super good. We testified about why we came on our missions and it hit me how much i have changed on my  mission and my motives too. It was super cool to see. Fridaywe were doing a 配り会at a 駅 and there was this one person looking to buy girls. ANyways i was passing out chirashi and minding my own business and he walked right into me while trying to get this girl to do bad things and i gave him a bit of a shoulder and he almost fell to the ground. He deserved it. I dont like tohse peopel. But they need the gospel too. But he was mocking me, so i 直接gave him his reward. It is a good story. Saturday sucked really bad. It was rainign all day. But right as we left our apartment it wasnt rainging so i didnt wear my rain pants, and elder call doesnt have any so i didnt want him to suffer too if it started to rain. Well right after we crossed the street from our apartment it started pouring. I got soaked and he got soaked too. Not only do i hate rain as a missionary but i hate rain even more when it is COLD!!! It is the worst and you have to ride your bike in it too. It was literallly a typhoon. It was raingin so hard. It is a cool expirence now, but in it it sucked. That night i did a handstand for like 45 sec. I have gotten really good at them. Also we ordered pizza becasue my favorite Japnaese person, Elder Nakamura, got a transfer call to be a ZL. So after we were in our Apt. we had a pizza party. It was super fun and i felt like i was in America. I didnt get a transfer call. I am in the same place. Going on 5 transfers. I hope i die in this area. It is aweseom. I really love it here. I also really love Elder Call too. He is the best. I only have 2 transfers left CRAZY!! 11.5 weeks. Thats nuts. Monday we had to clean our apartment. and what not and it was good. We went out to sushi too. We still havent found a new gator in a long time. So on Sunday i based my fast off the Scripure Alma 17:9. I know the miracles are going to come. I really want to have somebody to Baptize by Christmas. It will be so cool to baptize someone inthe Christmas season. I know the Lord is just testing me right now. So They are coming. Today we went to Costco and it was awesome. i didnt buy anything becasue there is no point. I am going home in less than 3 months. That is my thought process right now. Ill jsut wait till you guys are here to buy stuff. But i do need some new white shirts before i go home. I want to buy those here in Japan becaseu they are much cooler than America shirts. Well that was my week. It was pretty cool. It went by way fast. I know this transfer will go by fast too becasue we are way busy with activities and holidays. My goal for this transfer is to stay focused, i feel that we didnt find as many people to teach last transfer is beacseu i wasnt as focused and God couldnt trust me. So i am going to Burn out rather than fade away. I am way excited about this transfer. I feel really good about it. In all aspects.

 

Ilove you mom.　僕のお母さんの聖で僕は神様の道具になることができました。またたくさんの人の救いをもたらすことができました。いつも感謝しています。アメリカの帰るのは悲しみですけれども帰るまで一所懸命働きます。またたくさんの奇跡を行います。僕の伝道はまだ終わっていないので伝道します。イエスはキリストだとよく知っています。イエス様によって僕は救われ、僕の家族とともに永遠に住むことができます。それのせいで心から感謝しております。お母さんに心から感謝し、ま た愛しておられます。いつもありがとう！！！Well i got to go but i hope you enjoi this if you can fiqure it out. Sorry it is in Japanese but everyone else does it sometimes so i thought i mihgt as well. I am excited to hear from you again. Have a great week.

15 november 2012::

It is good to hear or read from you guys even thought you are still in the deep south within the walls of your home. You both sound like you are doing pretty well and excited for the seasons to start. I am sure time is going to go by super fast for the both of you as you have plans. I dont really have any becasue i am lacking the people if you know what i mean. But ya. Glad everything is getting a move along. This is sad to say but i am happy to say that i am glad that you guys are done going to the cabin for the year. No more to hear about that for my mission. Next time i will be there and i wont have to read how it was. I am happy about that. So i have decided that i really like Native American History. If i cant make it as a Doctor, i would like to study that in a little more depth. I mean i live where they did. What a perfect oppurtunity right. I also want to study Japanese. So many things to study. Which one can i do???

My week was pretty good i guess. Nothing really interesting happened. We still have not found a new friend to teach the gospel. In fact we found the exact opposite. People who think it is funny to mock people. But thats ok with me, because after my personal study the day after, God told me that they have thier reward. It was somewhere in Ether 12. So Elder Call seemed to be seeing the hardships of not finding new poeple to teach. He was pretty down this week for a couple of days. So during planning one day, i felt like i should fast for him. So i did. I dont know how it worked but i am sure it was for the better. I mean it involved faith and God right? So it will work. I really like Elder Call alot and i am really happy that i have the oppurtunity to be his companion. Here are some interesting things for the week. On last monday night Elder Call was talking to a way drunk man. Well i came over and we started talking in Japanese. He said that he like Christ's teachings but could never doing anything becasue he was so bad. I told him about Repentance and how he was a son of God and how he can recieve forgiveness. Long story short, after saying that he burst into tears and it was neat to see that little part of the Atonement give a man who had no hope some hope. We havent seen him since but i know he has felt the power a little and i fulfilled my purpose. Wednesday i was riding no hands on my bike and then i tried to go up on the sidewalk and my bike tire caught an edge. That sent me flying into the pole that was right in front of me. It was pretty funny, didnt hurt to much. Friday we had some way good Okonomiyaki. Saturday we played basketball with about 15 chinese people and it was way funny becasue it seemed the only word they knew was the "F" one.  Ya that was pretty much my week. We havent found any new investigators now for over 4 weeks and we havent taught a lesson in over 4 weeks either. It is getting really hard. It is a bit easier for me because in hard times, i just tell my self "Only 3 motnhs left and then it wont matter". Or i wont have to do this. But it is a bit harder for Elder Call. Thats why i fasted. We could really use the prayers.

I love the both of ya lots. I am way stoked to see ya on Christmas and when you come to get me. I hope i can have some fun things planned for when you come. I aint trying to focus on it right now, but a bit later when it is closer. Do you guys want any ideas of things to do for that 1st monday while you are here without me? I can give you some things that you might think are fun but i might not want to do becasue i have done them. Just let me know. I hope you gusy are preparing some people for this Elder when he gets home. When i say people, i mean girls. I am expecting referrals. You can tell that to my siblings too. haha. I like prepared ones (pretty).  Well i hope that you guys have a great week. My p-day next week is on tuesday becasue this up coming weekedn is transfers. I could be transfered becasue i have been in my current area for 6 months but beacsue i am traingin i might not transfer. We shall see. I let you know. I love you guys.

05 November 2012::

 

Man that is a bummer about the house. I am sorry for that, but the only thing i would have to say is the Lord destroys the old stuff to bring in the better and newer stuff. But i am sorry. That sucks. It seems like you all had a busy week though! That's way cool that Kamas and Brie are having a baby boy. I thought they would have a girl first. Guess I was wrong. Tell them congrats!!!  My week was pretty normal up until Saturday night. Oh, I want to tell you that i broke my land record. On Tuesday I ran 5.4 kilometers in 20 minutes and 44 seconds. That is way fast. That is over 3 miles in under 21 minutes. I am in way good shape. haha. I am super tired right now from my trip but i want to tell you about it. The rest of my week was okay. We still haven't found a new investigator and we had another week of just finding with no success. But we are moving forward with faith expecting all will be well, because all is well in Zion.

 

Anyways, on Saturday night i got on a bus at 10:00 at night and rode 7 hours north to a place called Ishinomaki. It was a long bus ride. I didnt sleep to much because of excitement of leaving my mission and going to go baptize someone.  It was super pretty though. I could actually see the stars and everything. It was really neat. The branch up there had about 25 solid members and they were all so strong. It really touched me to see that. Ishinomaki is actually the very spot where the Tsunami hit. They had to rebuild everything. But it looked really good there. You couldn't even tell. The only person i think that would of been able to tell is Uncle Wayne. Yup that is right. I met alot of members who knew uncle Wayne when he was there. I told them i was Elder Ban Di and they all said that about 40 years ago there was a taller elder but with the same name and from California. Some of the names are "Watanabe Shoji" and "Date" . How cool is that? I got to meet some of the people who knew Uncle Wayne when he was a missionary over 40 years ago. It was super cool. But the main purpose I was up there for was to baptize Abe. The service was incredible. It was really neat to see all the support of everyone. The Ishinomaki branch building doesn't have a font so we had to go 1 hour by car to a place called Tagajo. It was there that I baptized him. He gave an awesome testimony and i know that he will be a solid member here in Japan and that his family will one day get baptized too. He wants to come to Tokyo when you do so he can meet the both of you. So i am going to try to go to the temple with him when you are here. After the baptism we went back to Ishinomaki to have dinner and get on our bus home. We left Sunday night at 10pm and got back to Yokohama at 7 in the morning and I didn't get back to my area until 10am. The bus ride home was good but i had a hard time sleeping on the bus. SO i am very very tired right now. But it was such a good weekend i might say. I attached a pic so you can see. I am glad that i went up to do that. It meant so much to him and everybody up there. They all knew my name and everything and were very excited to see me. But ya.

 

SO that is about my news for the week. I am doing pretty good. This week was much more focused but still not the results i wanted. I felt bad for my comp over the weekend. He stayed with an Elder that he didn't like and actually threatened him if he didn't dendo. My comp is pretty big and that elder is pretty small. I just cant believe some people and the way they think. Oh well, one day they will learn their lesson. But he is excited to be back with me, I can tell. I love you mom and dad. You guys are the best. I appreciate all that you do. I really do. I cant wait to see you when you come, it will be a blast but I have no clue what we are going to do. I still have to think about That. haha. I will figure something out. In the meantime, I could use some prayers to be lead by the spirit in finding those who are ready to hear the message of Christ. That would be awesome. I am getting tired of just going out day after day and not finding them. I know the miracle is close. Thanks. You guys have a great week and know you are in my prayers. I go to the temple next week so my p-day will be on Tuesday. Yup. I love ya.