18 december 2012::

First before i forget, i got your package in the mail on a perfect day i think. Ill tell you later but thank you. I opened the letter and read teh year letter and have the family picture. This is the first picture of the family i have seen since my B-day. ALmost 1 year. Everyone looks great. I love getting pictures. But ya it looks great. Thanks you.

 

SO my week was nothing out of the usual. FOr some reason here in TOkyo there are alot of poeple from Africa. Especially from Ghana and west Africa. Well about 5 months i met a man from Togo. He is huge. Well we called him up one day and he just keep sayin i was his boy, and his brother and just that black man slang. It was so funny. He is way cool. Well he wants to learn aobut the church and bring his family too. He is pretty tall acutally. He played pro basketball in Afirca. But he is way nice. It was a cool little miracle. Oh, right now our mission is doing a thing. We all wrote a letter to Christ giving him something. my gift is to show love to poeple more by not saying negative things about people. It has been pretty hard. But i can defintaly tell taht i am becomeing a beter person because of it. ANother thing we are doing is we all have stockings. We are filling up our stocking with SWEET things that arent Candy. We are filling them up with SWEET Miracles that happen. It has been such a blessing to me. Everyday i have struggles and hard times, ezpecially this week. But i can look back on those miracles nad see how truly blessed i am. IT is aweosem. I really enjoi. Everymorning i try to write soem miracles that happend the previous day. Let me read you some. 12 December 2012- SO i got a call from elders in Kawagoe. I was in Kawagoe one year ago and it was rough. I didnt have any investigators or PIs, nothing. We streeted everyday. Well they called and let me know that 1 guy that i had found over a year ago, started taking the lessons and is gettign baptized in January. 7 December 2012- Our investigator,Anthony, was able to find a place to live and get a job. 13 December 2012- We were streeting around a certain train station and we bumped into our investigator that we hadnt been able to contact for over 1 week. We were able to talk with him and he still wants to be baptized when he finds a job and gets a place to live. I have lots of miracles like that. Isnt that so sweet. I love it. I look forward everyday to write them nad put them in my stocking. It really has helped me so much, especially this week. Tuesday i had a interview with President Budge and i got in trouble. He punished me. So on tuesday in my warddrobe i only have 1 pair of slacksthen my suit pants that i dont want to get ruined. SO i wear my grey slacks with my jacket. They werent together but i thought that was ok. Weill it wastn. He pulled out the white hand book on me nad i thought it was all way stupid. He told me to throw away the grey pants and just wear my suit pants. So now i only have my suit. Thats it. Ibrought 2 suits, 3 pairs of slacks, and 3 pairs of shoes. Right now i only have 1 suit and 1 piar of shoes. ALl the rest have been destroyed. Iam a old missionary. SO i got your package on Thursday. Thursday was the worst day. Our golden gator, Hiro, called us and told us that he wasnt going to be baptized and that he was not coming to church anymore. We talked for about 10 min. then he jsut said thank you and hung up. I called him on Friday and he answered and told me never to call him again or there will be consequences. Ya. It sucked because i really loved him alot. Missions are hard in taht way. YOu come to love somebody so much and then they just drop you. I was wonderign if that is how being dumped by a girlfriedn felt. I have never had taht expeirence but it sucked super bad. So i am back at square one, no investigators, and no Christmas Baptisms as far as i can tell. I was really wanting one but i quess the Lord wants me to learn something else. Its a bit sad but life will go on, so i should too. But like i said, i got your package on that day and i have been really focusing on all the miracles/blessings that i get and that hleped a ton too. On saturday we made Ginger bread houses and it was super fun. Sunday was a pretty cool expirence. We were able to go and sing at a old folks home for service. It was fun. SUnday night was incredible too. We went to a part of our area i had never been to and i ahd fasted Sunday for help to find new, honest people who were intrested. We were passing our fliers and the last guy i handed one to talked withus. We talked for 10 minutes about church and he is coming next week. Then on our walk back to our bikes, we got stopped. WHAT? we got stopped? The guy had been a gator 26 years ago but lost contact and had moved. We were able to talk to him and get his phone number and he is comign to our Christmas Party on Saturday. How cool is that? I have learned something on my mission. Baptisms are great but they dont do much for me. Of course i feel successful when i have them but i feel better and more successful when i find somebody new to teach, when i am out finding people. I think it is becasue it is during that time, i get to share my testimony with them and get teh spirit. That makes me feel the most successful. SO that is why i like doing it. I thought that was cool. Yesterday the first guy we talked to did a church tour with us, talked for about 40 minutes, wants to learn mroe abotu Jospeh Smith and is meeting with us on Saturday at 1. How cool is that. Pretty cool. Last night we went to visit a member who i havent seen at church in awhile. She is 22 and a convert. Well we found the place she lived in and walked in. Well it turned out to be a ALL gril Dormitory and guys werent aloud in. haha. But we were able to get the card to her. Here is the miracle. Guys arent aloud in. YOu need a key to unlock the Door to get in. But when i pushed teh door to get in, it just opened up. For some reason the door opened and we were able to get teh card to her and i am srue it made her day. Pretty cool uh. I like to joke about it and just say that we snuck into a all girls dormitory. haha. Ill have to tell you more about it when we are in person. I went to the temple today and it was pretty enjoiable. I have come up with a goal that i want to go once a week when i get home.

 

Well i love you all so much. I will be calling onmy 26 at 9:00AM. I think that is the 25 at like 7:00PM for you guys. Just be expecting my call sometime christmas night. Make sure skype is up then. I am way excited to see all of you. I have p-day on christmas day next week. it will be fun. I am loving my mission and japan and have decided i want to date half-japanese/ half-american girls when i get hoem. So if you know any, let me know. I am so thankful for my mission and the change that is taking place in me. I can see it and am extremely grateful for it. It has been the best decsicion of my life. Thanks for supporting me. I am super excited to talk with you on Christmas. Ill have to talk more about wat is going on but i am getting kicked off now. I love ya. See ya next week on Skype.

 

11 december 2012::

Why hello there? This email has been like the best email since a couple of week ago. THey were getting shorter and shorter. But you have Bug to worry about now so now worries. I will see you in 2 months anyways. But ya,  loved your email. It was very good to read and see how everything is changing at home. Life will be so different when i come home. It is kinda overwhelming for me. Thats why i dont like thinking about it. It doesnt make me trunky but overwhelmed.

 

So my week was like a Roller Coaster. It was fast, had ups and downs, and it even made me a bit sick. I dont know where to start. Ill tell you about Hiro. So last monday we went to dinner with him. We were planning on tecahing him hte Word of Wisdom but our member didnt show up. So we werent sure on wat to teach him, so we just decided on the Law of Chastity. At dinner he told us that he was planning on proposing to his girlfriend and goign to ask her to live with him. Man God is a smart man on telling us to teach the Law of Chastity. Thats exactly what we did and he took it super well. IT was eazy for him to say yes. However the proposal didnt go so well. The girl told him taht they were never dating, that she wasnt going to marry him, and that she didnt even like him. He took it pretty hard. I felt way bad becasue on Tuesday we were way packed. We had to do study, lessons, mogi's, and then a lesson with hiro at 8 about the WOW. Well he called at about 11:30 while we were in study nad wanted to meet because he was heartbroken. My mind thought was that Elder Call needs study and we have a appointment with hiro at 8, so i told him we couldnt meet him until 8. Luckily at the church, was a relief society activity and he was able to read the Book of Mormon and pray inside the church like he wanted too. They even had aCurry which is his favortie food and invited him to eat with them. He called back saying he had become happy. he canceled the lesson at 8 because he was able to go to the church. Then on Wednesday we had an appointment with him at 2 about the WOW. He called and wanted to meet a bit earlier but we had another lesson at 12:30 and about 30 minuets away on bike. So i told him we couldnt meet until 2. He called again at 12 and said that he appreciated all that we had done for him, but he is buddhist and wasnt going to be mormon. Then hung up the pohne. I couldnt get ahold of him all day. I had fasted for him too becasue we were going to teach The WOW. That night i just thought about if i really loved him. I felt horrible. This is the sick part. I have 2 months left of my mission, it is christmas time, and i really want to see a baptism. I felt like i was focused more on the number than i was with the person in front of me. It is horrible. I have already commited to myself that if any investigator wants to meet at a time that doesnt break rules, i am going ot meet with them. I learned a way valuable lesson. Especially for after my mission when i become a father. I cant describe how bad and quilty i felt. I felt that i had let God down on not showing love to this soul. I have repented and now trying to do better. Good thing God loves us and gives us chances. Hiro called Wednesday night and we were able to apologize and set up a time to meet him. We baked him a cake in our rice cooker and took it to him and just talked wit him on Thursday. I felt so bad that i just wanted to talk with him and become his freind more. Thats exactly what we did. he really enjoied it too. On Sunday he came to Stake Conference and even stayed for the Christmas Devotional. Then we were able to talk about Prophets and their purpose in the Church. After he had given golden answers, we were able to teach teh Word of Wisdom finally. He commited to it with no problem. He had told us he had always wanted to quit since he was 13 but never had a motive or reason but now he does. He just kept saying it was the best day of his life. He is really going to need your prayers. Smoking is a huge problem for him. He is ready to be baptized now that he has commited to the Word of Wisdom. Please pray that he will not fall into temptation. He is a awesome guy and will make a great member. He is way excited to meet you guys. haha.

 

Other interersting things of the week: On wednesday, a girl called asking aobut our English Class and wanted to come but didnt know the way. We offered to go pick her up at the train station. Well turned out to be that the girl was a stripper. SO we picked up a strippper and took her to Englsih. Dont worry, she wasnt in bad clothes when we picked her up. Just thought it was funny. Oh on Friday night at about 5:20 we felt a 7.3 earthquake. THat was pretty cool. Evwerything was rattling and waving around. It was pretty awesome. Our 2 afrikan investigators are doing well. One of them found a job and wants to be baptized now that he has a income and a place to live. The other, not yet so please pray for him. His name is Fred. On saturday night after Stake Conference, a member drove us home and decided to take a de-tour. We ended up seeing all these really cool sites in Japan at night. Ginza, Akihabara, Tokyo Dome. It was super cool adn way pretty with the christmas lights and everything. We didtn get home until like 10:45. It was super funny though because he totally took a different route than when we went to the stake center. haha. It was suerp fun. Ya. That was my week. The biggest #1 learned lesson for me was that people are people not numbers. They need love and comfort. I am a missionary and will give it to them when they need it. It really opened my eyes for when i am a father. It scared me.

 

Oh one last thing. I am way scared about coming home. I htink i tell you this every week. This week i had a hard time falling asleep at night. I dont like coming home at night anymore becasue another day is over and one day closer to leaving Japna. The thought of leaving Japan is really sad to me. I love it here so much. I love speaking Japanese or at least thinking I can. I am way scared to come home and not speak anymroe. I have thought about a couple ideas that will help me though, i just dont know if those ideas can happen. But ya. I dont like reminicing about my area's or where i served becasue i have so many good memories and i have to leave the place where i made them. It is very sad to me. I think it will be harder to leave Japan than it was to leave America and home.

 

WEll i love you mom. I am excited to see you and show you the place, experiences, people, tastes, etc. taht i have had in the past 2 years. You are going to love it. I told dad but you are going to need to let me know things you want to do, eat, and buy so i can plan accordingly. I only have 2 months left and i know that it will go by super fast. SO i want to start planning what we are going to do. Just let me knwo. I hope you have a great week. I sure love you. I am healthy, happy, and doing great.

03 December 2012::

Thanks so much for the wonderful email. I love them so much. It sounds like everything is doing good. From the newsletter, it seems you have found some blessings in the flood, a new woodfloor. I am always with the way that the Lord works. Ill tell you about that later. Your question, so here in Japan, alot of stores play christmas music, have the decorations and some poepel even put lights up. I went and bought some lights last tuesday and put them in our apartment. But as for the gifts and stuff, they really dont do that. Members do but normal poeple not really. I mean they still have work on Christmas day too. But the interesting thing is this. People make reservations at KFC to get a box of chicken and a Christmas Cake. They give eachother Christmas cakes. I dont know where that comes from but it is pretty funny. SO people give cakes and stuff. Some things are pretty funny over here. I like so of them alot.

 

So my week was just crazy. I havent had a week like this in like 6 weeks. It was so much fun. Besides that it rained everyday and it was freezing or below freezing some days.Monday after Pday we were coming home and right in front of our apartmet there was a couple that was walking and my comp heard them spekaing chinese and said "They are chinese". Well i immediatley had a feeling to talk to them. So we turned around and chased them down. Turns out to be they are Chinese but they are also christian and have been married for 1 year. We asked which church tehy go to and they said none, They were looking for one and every sunday they go to a different one to see which one is the best. Well we taught them and it was amazing. The said every thursday they meet with other chinese people who dont have a church but love christ, and read the bible. So taht was a huge miracle. They cant meet until christmas time but we wont forget about them. They are prepared. But that was suepr cool.  On wednesday we got a call from our Golden gator, Hiro. He told us that he wanted to pray. SO we went with him to the church and he went to the pulpit, knelt down and said a prayer, outloud. I was wondering if he knew that he could pray anywhere so after he was done praying i asked him. He told me he knew that, but he felt a special spirit in the church and he really wanted to pray there. Well we did a lesson on prayer and read from Alma 36. He said that his favortie verse was the last one which talks about why god gives commandments. He is amazing. Yesterday was testimony meeting and he bore his testimony. A gator. haha. how rad is that? He just talked about how he is going to be baptized and cant wait to be brother and sisters with all the members. It was way cool. He does have a problem thought. Just like all Japanese poepel, he has a HUGE problem with the Word of Wisdom. We are going to teach him that tonight. He loves commandements so hopefully he will commit to it. Please pray for it. He is such a prepared person from God and a Huge miracle. He jsut called and we are going out to eat at 6:30 but he is at the restraunt waiting for us right now. He is just waiting til 6:30. He is so cool.

 

later on Wednesday was pretty fun too. During study i was really wondering what God wanted me to say to people when finding. We havent found somebody through finding efforts in over 6 weeks. So i got a feeling to study about Baptism. It was raingin way hard and nobody was wanting to talk with us. But we were trying. We called out to this one man and he stopped. We started talking and he was 84 years old and on his way to the bath house. Well what else is like a bath? You got it! BAPTISM! I testified aobut baptism and taught him right there. Well to my suprise the old man agreed to meet us agian and come to the church. Unfortuanely we never saw him again. but how cool is that? I thought it was AWESOME!!!

 

Oh here is another funny story. So on thursday we were passing out fliers and i was watching my companion and he was this little girl. Well my thoughts were the girl was a high skool student. SHe was movin here leg and doing all sorts of stuff that made me think she was a bit turned on. Then she touched his face so iwent over. It turned out to be a 55 yr old lady who worked at a massage/ aroma clinic. I came and she started talking with me. Then she started grabbing my arma nd getting closer and closer to me. Then she linked our arms together. It was suepr wierd. Then out of the blue she jsut said something smelled really good and sniffed me. Ran her nose from my belly to my chest. Then did it again. Then did it to my companion who was wearing cologne. It was super funny and way werid because everyone was watching. But after we broke away we were able to meet a black guy from Ghana that wanted to come to Church. God works in mysterious ways.

 

So saturday is the best ever. My first gator ever, Sugiyama, got married!!!! I was able to go to his wedding in Shibuya. It was so cool to see and be apart of. It made up for missing Kamas's wedding. But how cool is that? I have had some way cool expirences as a missionary that most dont get. On the way home we get a phone call from some africans referred by a previous gator. They said the previous gator to "Ask the missionaries, they can help". Funny uh?  A really long story short, he said they got kicked out of there house and stayed the night in a alley on Friday night and needed a warm place. So we met the 2 africans from Ghana and let them sit in the church. Longer story short, they came to Japan 3 motnhs ago, got kicked out of there house, have no job, and no food. They stayed the night in a alley in below freezing weather. We talked to them for like 6 hours on Saturday. I told them as a missionary i cant give them money or let them stay they night, but we can help them. There is no way that i am going to kick people out into freezing cold weather when i know i can help them. We called our president and the bishop. Bishop called teh presiding authoriy here in Japna nad he said get them a hotel until Tuesday, thats when they have a interview for something. SO thats what we did. But while we were talking to them, they were touched. They are Africans. Christiaan can testify that they are way religious poeple. Well we taught them about the Chruch and aboutt who we are and they said that they wanted to come to our church. They have seen the Church in Ghana but never did anyting about it. But they came to church yesterday and really enjoied and now they are making plans on being baptized on 30 December of this year. This is why i was saying that God works in mysterious ways. Here we have to guys that needed to come to Japan, loose everything, become homeless to find the Gospel of Christ. Man God works in wierd ways sometimes but that is how people are going to be humbled to hear the word. It is like the guy i baptized in Sendai. It is way sad but by his wife passing away, he was humbled enough to hear the missionaries. God knows what he is doing. I am glad that he is on my side. But ya. It was a way crazy and super MIRACULOUS week this past week. I have been so blessed on my mission. I am forever in gratitude. Thanks be to my God forever.

 

Yup. That was my week in a wrap up. oh i ran 3.5 miles or more in under 21 minutes. The fastest i have ever done. Pretty awesome. Christmas is coming up fast and i cant believe how fast tiem is going. I have less thna 10 weeks left. Yesterday i was thinking to myself and i am so grateful that i came on a mission. I have had a really interesting one i think. When i tell most people that when i first came to Japan, i hated the people, i hated the country, and i hated missionary work, almost everyone of them dont believe me. I have a had a huge change in the past 1.5 years and like i said befroe, i will always be in debt for it. I am so grateful to be here doing what i am today. It makes me happy now and when i think aobut hte future too. I love Japan. I love teh poeple here. I am going to be really sad when i have to leave. I love the Gospel nd how it changes poeple for the better. I love my family. Here in Japan nad on the other side of the world. haha. I love God and his son Jesus Christ. I am grateful that i could be his servant.

 

"A servant of God, yeah thats what ill be

and when i come home, he'll be so proud of me.

Ill carry his plan to the grave if i must,

its a plan that i love, its a plan that i trust."

 

Have a great week. I am excited to hear form you next week and to get your package in the upcoming weeks. I love you.