12 June 2012::

It seems like i just emailed you like you a day ago. Time has been really going by super fast. i want to answer some questions before i dive into my email. First off, Grandma E. I do know the Elder taht knows Jay. He is actually in my Zone. I am his district leader. That is super funny. I will mention to him about Jay when i see him again. My President hasnt changed yet. President Budge comes on the 29th june and President Albrecht leaves on the 30th June. It is going to be very sad having that change. I am in a daze of what it is going to be like with a new president. Things will change and stuff will be different but i am sure the work of the Lord will be the same. Mom, Lili is doin good i think. This week on the 12th she has her big test that has been keeping her from coming and being confirmed. So this upcoming sunday she should be confirmed. That is what she told me before i left. Please pray for her. Just a side note, I have been in contact with the Kawamitsu's for awhile now. I actually arranged with them a good bye concert for President Albrecht just like you asked me too. So no worries there.

 

OK. I will tell you know about my new calling. only two words can describe it. ALWAYS TIRED!!!! I have never been so tired my entire mission. It is constantly work, work, work. I dont get a break. haha. The area i am in is on FIRE right now too so that doesnt help at all. THis past week we had tons of planning to do for our zone vision and stuff like that. Our vision is "fear departs when faith endures" from hymn #128. We really want to focus on not being afraid and just doing it. So we planned about that alot but some how we managed to get 7 other lessons, 3 member lessons, and 6 new investigators. I dont think i went out streeting once but that is what we got. Pretty amazing uh? The four man apt. doenst help at night either because we all talk until about 11:30 at night and then fall asleep. It is super hard, but i am sure loving it. I am really intimidated by this calling. I dont want to screw up at all. I fasted on Tuesday or wednesday (i cant remember) so that the Lord will help me in this new calling and give me strenght, guidance, and just help on what to do. I really hope i can be the best ZL i can be. I really want to hlep this Tokyo Zone alot. I have decided in order to do that, i just need to be myself and do what i have done in the past. If i worry to much about being good or bad, i get stressed. And if that happens, i do dumb things. So i have decided just to work hard, smile, and laugh everyday. It seems to be helping a bit besides being tired. I dont know how i will ever overcome that one. I think that will have to wait until after my mission. I am sure that as i get used to being a ZL, i will be more accustomed to things and thus in turn be less tired. We shall see.  Please pray for me. I really need the prayers. I am constantly doing something. It is nuts. But the time is sure going by fast. I cant believe how fast this past week has gone. It really has gone by so fast. It will only go by faster too. 

So we do have a couple of investigators like i was telling you about. I wnat to talk about 2 in general. The first is Tsutomu. He is really cool and reminds me of Kamas. He loves motorcycles and having nice things. He has been a gator for aobut 6 years and in the past month has had a complete changed heart. He wants to be baptized now more than never but has a habit of drinking coffee. So please pray for him ahtat he iwll be able to stop doing that. He si way solid and will be baptized on the 30th of June. The next is acutally a miracle. His name is Michael. He is from Canada. He lives right next to our church building and hte missionaries have met him before and asked him to come to church and he never did. So we never thought to much aobut him. We saw him on tuesday or wed. and asked him to come to game night on sat. He showed up and sadi he would come to church. We were wondering if that was the truth. Well he came and turned out he is total golden investigator now. I taught him on splits and it was awesome. He was so open and willing to learn. I never thought that people from the American Continent, living in Japan, could become a golden investigator but i am wrong. He has a christian background so when i started teaching he understood everything righ away. He asked about the one thing he didnt understnad wich was the gift of the Holy Ghost. I testified to him that with this gift, GOd can tell us anything and everything that we need to know in this life. I told him that theHoly Ghost will guide, direct and comfort us. He told me that he wanted that because he needs direction right now. He really is humble. I am butchering this story but bear with me. He committed to be baptized on the 14th of July. Please pray that he will feel the Holy Ghost in his Life and that he will be able to make the right descions and be baptized on that day. He is awesome and i am excited to work with him.

 

SO sunday was super hard on me. I decided to start fasting on every sunday that more people can come unto christ. Well this sunday after church we had a linger longer. I really wanted to eat the food. But i was determined that throught my fast, we would find people to teach, commit and baptize. It was really haard and like torture. Well sunday night within 2 hours we found 4 new gators, 4 other lessons, and 4 new baptismal dates. Isnt that CRAZY????? I am so glad that i stuck to my fast. I know the Lord is blessing us so much right now. I love it when my faith increases like that. It is amazing!!!!

 

So my week was way good as you can tell. Super busy, super tired, but lovin life. It is really good and i hope it stays that way. I am sure it will. I love you guys so much. I am grateful for your support and everything that you do for me. 2 days ago i hit my 1 year and 3 months in the mission mark. Pretty crazy uh? Going to fast!!! Oh, i get up and workout then run every morning at 5:50. Well my comp has something on his bike that tells him how far he goes and how fast he is going too. SO one morning we used it. I thinkyou will be supiresed. I ran 3.2 miles in just under 24 minutes. Isnt that awesome. He said i was going about 9 mph the entire way. I was way proud of myself.

 

I hope you have a great week mom. I love you so much. I am excited to get a letter from ya soon. I am going to be sending my current camera card home. You know what to do when you get it. I am looking forward to this transfer so much. It is going to be suepr fun. I just hope that i can be the best i can be and do what the Lord knows what i can do. My prayers are always with you. Stay Classy!!!

04 June 2012:

Man i am so sorry that this weeks email is later than usual. Today has you know has been transfers. Before i tell you want has happened to me and my new companion i want to tell you about this week but more in particular of a huge MIRACLE!!!!

 

So i loved your emails like usual. It sounds like everyone had a blast at the cabin. I was praying that everyone would do good. Glad it went well. I did get the Newsletter but like Kelly i cant see the pictures.

 

 Well Last week i told you that our grandma investigator didnt want to be baptized. I fasted for her all day on sunday. After she told us that, i knew she was WRONG. I still had a feeling that she was going to be baptized. I still had lots of hope. Monday was a normal day. We went to Jennys house for dinner and was way fun like usual. Tuesday we went to the temple. Of course all day Monday and all day Tuesday me and Elder Chne were just thinking about Suzuki shimai. Or the grandma. It was a great temple session adn i focused and prayed just about her. I had a great feeling throughout the entire session. Well after eating all you can eat pizza me and elder chen both had a feeling that we should fast for her again. So Elder Chen started his fast right then. He fasted until lunch time on Wednesday. I started my fast Wednesday morning and finished by dinner on Wed. On Wednesday though we had a lesson with her just about baptism and its purpose. It was so great. We both studyed for her in the mornign. After study we both felt like the problem that was holding her back was being forgiven of her sins. Well WE had a 2 hour lesson. To be short, a miraculous miracle happened. Her heart was softened and she said taht she wanted to be baptizedd on the 3rd of June. Yesterday for me, by her son. ANd she wanted me ot confirm her. WHAT A SUPRISE!!!!!! It was great. WEll, sunday came around and i was nervous as any one in the world. Do you wanna konw why? Quess who showed up? Elder Yamashita of the 70 came to our ward. His son is in my ward and they were visiting. I was so nervous. WEll, Suzuki shimais son didnt want to baptize her, so i did. It was a great last sunday for me in Yamate. I was able to baptize someone before i left. SHe asked me not to forget her. I dont think i w=ever will. She is one of the biggest miracles i have seen on my mission. It was great. She is an amazing woman with a strong testimony. I will definatly bring you to Yamate when you come to Japan.

 

Saturday we got transfer calls. I am going back to the TOKYO Zone as a. . . . . . . .ZONE LEADER!!!!! Yup, i am in the biggest zone in our mission, the busiest zone in our mission, and i have to take care of over 30 missionaries. I am way excited but way nervous. THis is a HUGE calling. I am in the heart of Tokyo as a Zone Leader. I have never been so nervous on my mission. I got up at 5 this morning because i was so nervous. Elder Chen wanted to take me to a all you can eat for our last time, and he ate for food than me. I was nervous. I am definatley going to need your prayers. on this one. My new area is called Urayasu. It has a baptism in it almost every 3 weeks. I am also in a 4 man apartment. My new companion is Elder Ren Hansen. He is acutally on the same transfer as me. We were inthe MTC together. Its funny because when we were in the Mtc We told eachother we were going to be ZL comps on Transfer 10 in TOkyo. Well that came true. I am way scared. To make things worse i had to give a goodbye at Yamate. THat was way nerve racking too. It was testimony meeting and quess who was on the stand? Yup thats right, Elder Yamashita of the 70. I was nervous as anyone. It was so hard to say good bye. I love that ward so much. It is my home here in Japan i think. Panda gave me a really cool plaque that has kanjis on it. THey mean: Healer of the Heart or Soul. It has two meanings. One is i want to be a heart doctor and the other because i changed is heart and soul. It is way cool. I love it so much. Elder CHen also gave me a pair of new running shoes. I love them. I will be honest though they arent comfortable and they are cheap so they wont last very long. But it was still way super nice of him and will wear them until i cant anymore.

 

I love you all so much. Sorry this eamil is so short. My new area is busier than my last area and i am zone leader so i wont have as much time as usual. I really need your prayers. I am super nervous about htis calling and yeah please pray for me. I want to do my very best. I love you guys so much. Hope you have a great week and i cant wait to hear from ya next week. Love you!!! stay classy!!!

01 june 2012

It is good to hear from ya, both through email and skype. First off i just want to say how excitd i am for Bug. That sounds like it will be a really fun mission. I think one of my friends is in that exact mission. I think. I have heard that name before. I am also excited for the news that dad told me. You guys coming to JAPAN!!!! I am so excited. YOu will love it here. Last night i had a dream about having a homecoming and all that. In my dream i could feel how badly i wanted to be back here in Japan. I really love it here so much.

 

My week was pretty good. THere isnt to much to say becuase i talked to you on Friday. We were yelled at again by people. Being yelled at here in Japan is really rare. THe culture doesnt approve of it. But i have been yelled at at least 5 or 6 times in this one area. Its babylon. But alot of really cool things did happen this week. We made some food with our investigator at the church and then played Ping Pong. THat was super fun. He brought alot of food too. I was full. I have tried a new streeting approach this week and it turned out really well. I ask people if they know Jesus Christ. of Course they say they have heard is name. I thne ask how long ago he lived. They say 2000 years ago. I say thats a long time right? and then ask why is he still famous? Its perfect because it leads me into testifing about almost any gospel principle because Jesus Christ set them all up and thats why he is still famous. We used that and a guy wanted to go to the church taht minute and have a lesson. It was way good.

 

So we had a miracle day. After talking to you guys on Friday we left the Apartment about 2 in the afternoon. in 1.5 hours we found 4 new investigators. Another one shortly followed. Thats not the miracle though. THis is. We were on our way back to our apartment for dinner. Well after dinner we had planned to visit a member, but we had also planned a kubarikai or passing out fliers. Well i had a mini battle on which one to do and we decided to visit the member. On the way over to the members house i had a thought to get some chocolate for that member. WEll we stopped by and talked for like a good hour adn laughed and just talked. Her husband isnt a member so it was suepr good. Here is the miracle part though i want to share with you why it was a miracle. this is what we got from the member after we got home. Thank you very much for visiting us tonight. Did you plan it in the morning or just decided to stop by right before?Anyway, we had a bad thing happened today and were depressed during thedinner.And there you came, it was very fun and we laughed a lot. Shingo(non member husband) said he saw a little miracle and you must be led by something. Then I said, yeah I think God was watching us. plus, you brought chocolates! We have just decided last night not to buy sweets to save a little money ! :) You brought us a lot of happiness and spirit with your big smile tonight.
Thank you very much.
May the Lord bless you.

How great is that! THat is why i am so happy on my mission. I think it is at those moments i am the happiest. When i know that i have helped somebody feel the spirit and bring happiness to others. And follow the quit whisperings of the spirit. I love it so much. That was our miracle day. It truly was amazing.

 

The past couple of days i have been really concentraiting on our grandma gator, Suzuki. She told us on Saturday night she doesnt want to be baptized this upcoming saturday because she doesnt feel ready. Well i fasted for her on Sunday, and i am planning on fasting for her tomorrow. I really feel she is ready to be baptized and i know if she keeps saying no, she will become eternal. I also want to see her get baptized while i am still here. I only have 5 days left in this area. SO please pray that she will have a change of heart and want to be baptized either this Saturday or Sunday. She really needs it.

 

The other girl we baptized like a month ago told us she cant be confirmed until 17th of june. SHe is way busy in skool and stuff. We told her we could do it on another day and she said no because she wants to be confirmed in Sacrament meeting like it is supposed to be. So please pray for her too. She really needs to feel the spirit in her life and have a change of heart too.

 

I got your letter today. I will answer the question you asked/ I did not ask to be AP. I would never do that. But just like you said in my letter. Satan is tempting me with that thought. SO i wanted to discuss it with President. That was all.

 

I am doing really well. I am going to be transfered next week so my pday is on tuesday. 来週庭訓して行きますので来週の火曜日はPdayです。I love you all so very much. I appreciate everything you do for me. Please pray that i will continue to be a good missionary. I am feeling lots of pressure from who knows what. Please conitnue to pray for my japanese too. I can see myself improvin but i could get better. Most of all, please pray that i will stay HUMBLE!!! I really dont want to become prideful in anyway. Today at the temple i told my self that i just wnated to be the missionary who doesnt care what anyone elses think except for the Lord. Please help me achieve this. I hope you guys have a great week. I hope the cabin was good and everbody enjoied themselves. I cant believe i am going on Transfer 10. Only 5 more to go. Time is going by so fast. Youll be in Japan in no time. Stay classy!!!!

22 May 2012::

I love you so very much. I am glad that i was able to read your email today. I cant believe all that is happening at home. I cant beleive that Bug is in his final year of High School. THat is so weird. No more kids in High Skool for you. I was telling everyone how you are an AMAZING Mom!!! Everyone thinks the same thing.

 

I am very happy for Nick and him going through the Temple. I love the temple so much. I actually get to go on the 29th as a mission. Its not the same though as going with the family because there are so many people but it is still fun.

 

So my week was good. Tuesday was a really good day. We went to Tokyo for a All mission Conference with a member of the 70. Elder Clarke. He was super enthusiastic and sarcastic. It was way funny. Definalty different than what i thought General Authorities were like. He gave great advice that i want to pass onto Bug and Nick when i get home. I then went on splits with my Zone Leader Elder Miura. Ya he is japanese but i lived with him when i first came to Japan. SO it ws super fun talking with him and seeing how his mission has gone and stuff like that. I also got to sleep on a bed. 1st time in over 5 months. I was suepr happy.

 

Wednesday after splitting back we had a lesson with Sister Suzuki. We taught her aobut the Restoration. It was such a spiritual lesson. She told us she just didnt understand and went on like that for like 5 minutes. Then another 5 minute pause with nobody saying anything. THen i was able to testify to her just about how that is all how it begins. In order to grow, we dont and cant konw. If we already knew, then we wouldnt grow. It was amazing. Really good Lesson. After our English class we had about 15 minutes. I usually go in but i felt like we needed to keep going. Good thing i did that. WE found a referral for another area. He was suepr nice and wanted to learn.

 

Thursday was probably the hardest day in the week. I was super sick. My throat hurt, my nose was clogged, and i had the biggest headache ever. Despite all that we still did work. I have a thing, if i am healthy enough to exercise and do stuff i want to do, then i am healthy to do the Lords work. It was still hard though. We made flowers for the Bishop and our Mission Leader adn then took it to them. I think they liked that because on Saturday night, our Bishop brought us donuts, Krispy Kreme too. We streeted pretty much all day on Thursday and didnt find anyone. THat is what made it hard. Elder Chen really likes talking about Kess and really wants me to talk about it with poeple alot. Well after he tried to get me to talk about it with somebody who had no interest, i told him i didnt appreciate him sharing my life expirences. I said that if i feel i need to share it, i will. It isnt his expirence to share. Well i think i could of handled it alot better than i did, with more love you know. Well i really didnt feel the Spirit anymore and thats when the day started getting hard. I apologized like 2 hours later because i felt way bad and i knew i needed to.

 

ON friday we had planned going to the temple with Panda to do baptisms for the dead but the temple only does it at night and Panda has work at night. So instead we went to a all you can eat meat place. It was super good. I didnt eat that much though. I got full fast. I aint complaining. It as fun though. We then streeted for like 3 hours and visited a member who just had a baby. It was fun. We didnt find anybody to teach though. I went on splits with a young missionary too. I think he really enjoied. it. I hope he had fun but worked hard too. I really believe in having fun but working hard. He told me his thoughts aobut me were way different. He thought becasue how successful i have been in Yamate that i was a missionary who was just work, work, work. Like 15 minute lunch and dinner, no breaks, strict, etc. WAY WRONG!!!!! I like having fun. We have to be ourselves right? I do what works for me and apparently he liked it too.

 

Saturday was way busy. We had a lesson with a gator who i havent seen in 2.5 months. He saw us on friday and told us he wanted to meet today at 1. We jsut pretty muched talked and asked how he had been. (reading the BOM, praying, etc). He is way good. He wants to meet us once a week and we are going to start reteaching him everything. Then we had to go and meet a Korean who we called. He took us to get Udong, super fat noodles. It was pretty good. We split back and me and elder chen had dinner, then went to chinatown because there was something going on. Chinese holiday. It was a pretty fun day and i enjoied it.

 

SUnday was a miracle. My testimony for sure grew. THis is why it grew.  

I fasted because we dont really have anyother investigators expect for Suzuki shimai. I really dont want to be transfered and leave Elder Chen with nothing either.  SO I fasted so we could find some new ones. The testimony builder is I know fasting works. Today we were doing a kubarikai at Yamate eki and a chinese girl came up to me and we just started casually talking about where english class is and why its free. That got into me talking about me being a missionary. I told her that I am a missioanry for our church and we believe everyone is sons and daughters of God. She was fasinated. She just kept saying how cool that was and so on. Then she asked if I am a missionary where do I get money. SO I told her about tithing and of course how I saved. She was once again facsinated with tithing. She kept saying how sweet and how awesome that is that the money we give to God helps the poor and needy. She then really wanted to come to church and see. She knew there was lots of churches where our church is and asked why. SO I told her we have a great message that can answer that exact question. She wants to hear. Elder Chen heard she was chinese and came over and just started bearing his testimony and how his life has gotten better from coming to church. She soaked up everything better than a sponge. She asked Elder Chen if she became a member, would she have to come to church everyweek. Well of course Elder Chen said ya and she told him that she will start coming. I then started talking to her about Eternal Families. She was just agreeing with everything i was testifiing about. She is awesome. I really feel that she is so prepared by God. OF course I have a lot more things I wish I could tell you aobut her but that would take so long. At the end of the conversation her friend came up and long story short is now planning on going to go to Kamiooka's eikaiwa and meet the missioanries. That was my testimony builder. How great is that? I really feel like one of the missionaries out of the Book of Mormon. Prayed and Fasted much. Her name is Lee shimai. She is a very AWESOME person and our newest friend. God really does see our faith and will bless us. It was an amazing expirence for sure. THe only bad thing about Sunday was Lili didnt get confirmed. I am trying so hard to get her to be confirmed but she doesnt come. Please pray for her.

That was pretty much my week in a nutshell. Alot better than the week before. This week i hit my 1 year mark in Japan. I cant believe that i have been away from America for 1 year. CRAZY!!!! I love you so much mom. I am so excited to get to call and find our where bug is going for his mish. My quess is here in Japan. I can totally see him here. I hop that you hve a great week. SOunds like you are goign to have a busy one. We are going to dinner wit Jenny on friday and i think they are goin to do something special for me. THey were tlaking in chinese about it. Elder CHen has something up his sleeve. I have something up my sleeve for him too. We have a base couple here and i am going to get Elder Chen 2 12 packs of AW Rootbeer before i leave. I think it will make him happy. I only have 2 weeks left here. Time goes by so fast. It really does. I will be calling for Christmas in no time at all. I love my family so much. I cant wait to see and hang out with them all again. I love you mom and dad. THanks for all you do. I gotta go but you have my prayers and my love.

Love ya. . .

07 May 2012::

I am so jealous. I really want to go to the cabin so bad. I hope that there is still some stuff for me to do when i go there. I really want to help restore it. I hope there are now fires either up at Graham this summer. Ill be praying for the rain here to go to AZ.

 

So what part of CA is Nick Keels going? YOu didnt tell me. I am so going to visit him upon my return to the USA. GO AMERICA!! I am so excited for him. He is going to get fat. Missionaries who go state side get fat becasue they get fed all the time haha. He better run and stay in shape haha. I am so happy for him. I couldnt be mad today because of this news.

 

I am so excited for dad about his weight. He was telling me that he was feeling really good about it. I am tryign to loose weight as well. Or at least my love handles. I really want them gone. But i dont htink as a missionary i will be able to do that. I will tell you why. Because i go out to eat with people to much. All you can eat's are cheaper than most restraunts so that is where people take us and i eat my moneys worth. IT is horrible. THis week was my worst week by far. I will tell you later why. But i need to get away from this city and go to the countryside where there is no all you cna eat. I am managing to maintain somehow though?

 

Bug is going to GRADUATE!!!! That is so cool and he is going to get his mission papers. I am so excited for him. He is so going to come to Tokyo Japan. I am going to train him. It is done. There has to be someone in the family i can communicate with in Japanese. I am praying for

 

Talking about calling home. 6 or 7 is really early in the morning here. Last itme i called it was like 10. Ya if i call at 10 A.M. it will be 6 P.M. Sunday night for you guys. You have my skype name so you should skype me first. But i really belive that i need to skype you on my monday morning at 10 AM. We shall see. But i am looking forward to it too. I really want to talk to Kelly and her kids too. So please help me out with taht.

 

Ok my week was pretty crazy. Ill start off with the details. It was raining all the way up until friday non stop. I HATE THE RAIN. It is so hard to do anything in the rain. NO one wants to listen to you. NO ONE!!!! It makes it so hard. Well, Tuesday we had interviews with President Albrecht. I love that man. I am going to miss him os much. I really love him so much. It was my last interview with him until the new president comes. He told me that i was going to be transfering. (no duh, i have been here for 6 months) BUt he gave me a papaer to read when i go home. It is jsut a bunch of stuf he tells returning missionaries. That was that day. Kinda bitter sweet day. Oh, I had to translate for a couple missionary. It was really hard. But it was my first time and i did it. I translated from Japanese to English. It is super hard because Japanese is backwards than englsih. FOr example, we say the dog went to the store. In japanese you would say, the dog the store to went. Its kinda like Yoda from Star Wars. I will be able to understand him way better when i get home. But i thought that was cool. I alos got a new Japanese Grammar book. I thought i would neveer be happy to say that but i am. It has so many helpful grammars in it. I am way excited. But it cost 60 bucks to buy. That is the only downfall. It should help alot wehn i come home though.

 

Wednesday we were planning and Lili called us. Remember, she got baptized but not confirmed. Well she wanted to go to lunhc. So we went to a All you cna eat Pizza place.  THis is why i dont think i will be able to loose my love handles as a missionary. All you can eats are way cheap here and people go to them alot. Well we wnet and 4 other members showed up too. IT was like a party. It was way cool. WE found out her problem. She is super busy with skool here. Skool here is 7 days a week. THey kill themselves. WEll she has to go to skool 7 days a week adn cant come to church for about 2 months. She said it is really hard for her. We ahd a member share a expierence about how he had to choose between God or his work/skool. He said that when we put our trust in him,He will help. I hope she accepts this. She didnt come to church this week either. REally sad. THe Ward is really trying to get poeple to fellowship her. IT is way cool to see.

 

Thursday we met with our other chinese investigator, Wang. He doesnt speak englsih or japanese. So elder chen translated for me. We met at 5 and Wang to us to a all you can eat chinese restraunt in Chinatown. Once again, this is the reason i will never be able to loose my love handles. THankfully, reall chinese food is not like American Chinese food. THey are completely different. Real chinese food is packed with vegietables. But they have one American like dish. It was all so good. I didnt eat to much becasue i didnt want to dissappoint myself when i weighed. It was fun. I really wanted to eat at a all you can eat in chinatown before i left too. So now it is done and i am happy. After that we went to the chuch adn played Ping Pong. I am happy to say that i beat a chinese person in Ping Pong. I am happy. I have gotten really good at ping pong. We are meetin him again this week. He ahs interest in church alot.

 

Friday we got caught in the rain so we housed. Upon our return, i bought a new bag to carry my stuff in. It was needed. It is really nice. But it was 40 bucks. I am feeling so quilty right now for buying it. But i know when the money gets restored i will be happy i bought it. It is really nice. We were coming home and i was saying hi and stopping people. Well i saw a guy, drinking a Jack Daniels bottle of Whiskey. I simply said hello and he called me Bakayarou!!! You can probably quess wehre  this was at. Yup. You quessed it, it was in HELL!!!! That area is just way sad. It was a good laugh for me and elder chen though. Friday night we spent calling peopel up for 2 hours. From 7:30 to 9:30. It was tiring but way good. Saturday morning we had a BBQ so that is why we were calling. We called Former Investigators, Potential Investigators, anyone. It was way good. On our BBQ on Saturday, 3 Formers showed up, 6 Englshi class students, 1 investigator. We also contacted 2 referalls. Oh, a family came too. It was great. ALl the people we got to go said they are going to come back to our eikaiwa and start learning agian. Slowly but surely we can get them to come to church. It was super good. The BBQ was good too. WE actaully had Hot Dogs. My first time in Japan. It was great. REally good day.

 

Sunday we had a normal day. I made the Mothers Day gifts but i jsut need to send them now. I hope that you like them. They shoudl get to you sometiem next week. There are eight. 1 for you, kendi, kelly, janalyn, brie, both grandmas, vicki. So please pass tehm out. We then went ot an americans for dinner. It was good. TOday was great too. We went out in the moring time to do work. AT 11:30 we met with our whole zone to go to a all you can eat Taco place. I really dont like all you cna eat anymore. Everytime i go threre it turns into a competion and i have to be the winner so i always over eat. I had 12 really big tacos. I out numbered everybody by 6 tacos. GO ARIZONIANS!!!! It was worth it. I really wanted to go tehre before i transfered too. It was suepr good. THey were homemade tortillas. So good. AFTER eating we went to the top of Landmark tower. It was fun to talk with everyone. We went running this afternoon too. I felt really fat. So i went running. BAD CHOICE. It was the most painful run i have ever been on. It was just cramps the entire time. I was determined to burn some of those taco calories though. But ya. I am trying my hardest to maintain 175lbs.

 

I have decided i need new running shoes. THe ones i have now are from 1 and 1/2 years ago. THey are trashed. My right running shoe has a whole hole in the side of it where my pinkie toe hangs out. I also need some new workout clothes. ALl the ones i am currnetly using are getting really bad and are no good anymore. Running shoes here are about 120 bucks for a good pair. I really need some.

 

Mom, can you send me some pictures of me in my senior year and even after i graduated. I really want to sow poeple what i looked like before i started the diet and lost all my weight. If you could send me my ones from Facebook. It has my before picture. That is the best. But i want some from before my diet and after my diet. That would help alot. I would love it.

 

I am doing really good. Just trying my best to be the best i can be. I hope that i am making someone happy! I could really use some prayers on the langauge. I really feel like i am not good enough at it. Or at least speaking. Please pray that Lili will come to church to get confirmed. We are trying so hard for her. I really dont want her jsut to move on without the confirmation. Please pray for her. We are going to the tmeple with Panda and Suzuki in 2 weeks. It should be fun. I am way excited to go with them. I am in pretty good shape and still working my best. I love you so much. I am so excited to talk with you on Mothers Day. I should be calling at around 10 Am my time and 6 PM your sunday night. I am so excited. Have a great week. Always remember you are in my thoughts and prayers. Stay Classy!!!!!

 

30 April 2012::

Hello dear mother of mine!! It was good to get your newsletter and the brief paragraph of your week. Sounds like you are just being an otsukaresama and doing your best. I love you so much. It sounds like dad had quite the week going to the cabin and all. I want to go so bad. My time will come though.

 

So i think your prayers are being answered. YOu said that you are praying for mine and ELder Chens success here. Well I think they are being answered. Please dont stop praying whatever you do. We found 5 new investigators last week. It was amazing. We talked to a lot of Chinese poeple too. haha. almost 1 out of every 5 was chinese. But i will start from the begining.

 

THe past 2 weeks have been nothing but clouds and rain. I hate the rain as a missionary. I told you last week that it was raining a ton. Well it carried over into this week as well. It rained all week. I think i might of seen sunshine once or twice. I dont like it. Its no wonder why everyone here is so depressed all teh time, The weather sucks!!! AZ weather is so much better. Anyways, monday like said was raining so we went and housed inside china town. We had to buy bananas too and they are cheaper in CHinatown. Well It was super funny. We were on the 5th floor of a 10 floor building adn we had just knocked this door and then all of a sudden the door next to it opened up and a bunch of guys came up. They lined teh hallway to the elevator. THen a guy walked out of the elevator and all the lined up men bowed and said something. THen they all went inside the house except for 2. THey came to our door and opend it up and it was the same room and building. After all said and done Elder CHen looked at me and told me that that was a Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) Boss man. We housed his house. hahaha. Way funny right!!!! COol story. ANyway, on the 3rd floor a lady opened up and she was of course chinese. Elder CHen adn her talked for like 40 min in chinese adn i was just smiling and saying yes to everything. Turns out that the lady had been converted to a different Church but hasnt been going. She loves Jesus CHrist and she wants to be the better person. She seemed really cool. I cant tell you everything because i dont know but htat was pretty much the whole of it. We said a prayer with her and exchanged info and then left. She is  a super good P.I. as of now. We are having a BBQ on Saturday with the ward and she said she would come. So it should be fun.

 

Tuesday we had a nice talk with a member about Faith. He converted about 11 years ago. He is one of my favorite members. We shared expeirences and stuff like that. It was fun. It rained tonight too. But i liked it. It was a thunder storm!!!! It was the first one i have been in since coming to Japan. It was so cool and the rain was coming so hard. It looked like an AZ rain storm. It was really cool and i really loved it so much!!!!

 

Wednesday it was raining like usual. We had to be at the church at 4 for some preparation and then a lesson at 4:30. Well it was about 3:30 and we were more than 1/2 an hour away. We just got done stopping somebody and ELder CHen said we should go. Well i thought we still had time and i stopped one more man. Good descion. His name was Komuro. He had just moved to Yokohama from Sendai. His entire family of 18 died in the Tsunami last year. Thats why he moved here. He ahs been to prison too for 3 years. He spends all his days drinking sake. We met him when he was drunk but he liked us and told us he wanted to meet us again. We met him on friday and had a great lesson with him. But hard work pays off. Hopefully he will be a good investigator. 20 minutes before English started a 60 year old man walked in the door and said that he wanted to study the book of mormon. WHAT???? He had met the missionaries a year ago and they gave him a flyer for eikaiwa and he lost it. Well this mans hobby is studying the bible. He really wants to study the book of mormon and the bible at the smae tiem. He found an english flyer in a gas station and he came. It must of been an old flyer because the type of flyer he showed us, i havent had in over 5 months. Pretty crazy uh? The Lord sure is blessing us alot here. We quickly set up a lesson with him for this week on wednesday.

 

Thursday we ahd a zone meeting and on the way home we went and did work in the very north part of our area. Of course it was raining. Well everyone was super nice. We met a 21 year old who said he would meet us again for Ping Pong and to hear our lesson but he never showed up. It was good for Elder CHen though to finally see some success right after success. It sure makes a mission easier. That night we had a lesson with Tamari. We taught him about Repentance and the Atonement. I thought it was a good lesson. Tamari isnt too smart so we teach through lots of examples. I was thinking of a good one when i stumbled upon one in the Aaronic Priesthood tecahing manual. YOu have  a bag. YOu tell them that they always have the bag. You explain that in your bag of life you have nessecary things like clothes, food, water, etc. You dont want any unnessarcy stuff in the bag. But when you sin you put bad things in your bag. and then you add rocks and heavy things into the bag. But you then tell them taht through Jesus Christ Atonement, our bag becomes light because He takes all our rocks away. I thought it was a good example but i didnt have any rocks at the church. So i loaded my bag up with all my wieghts and then started the trek to our church. It is a 20 minute walk. It was SO HEAVY!!! Elder Chen fell down trying to put it on. It was so funny!!! But Tamari understood the lesson really well. I was happy.

 

Friday we went out and worked in the morning and found a super nice chinese man who had been to church before but has a bad image of church. Someone told him that all churchs hate eachother and he didnt like that. He really wants to go to a church too.  Well we told him we liked all churchs but we just want to add knowledge to what he already has. He liked that. He said he would have to talk to his wife. He was super nice. I had such a good feeling when i was thinking after talking to him about him and his wife and family getting sealed in teh temple. It made me super happy. Friday it was of course raining. Our 21 year old didnt show up for his lesson so we went streeting. I saw a guy walking behind me, so i turned around and started talking to him. Turned out he was chinese and didnt understand anything so elder chen took over. THis guy had been to 2 different churchs but didnt like them. He was cool with meeting us again and we are going to meet him agian on thursday. He is looking for the right church i feel. Our lesson with Komuro was great. He commited to read the book fo mormon, come to churc and pray. He also said he wanted to meet us 3 times a week.We shall see how it goes. After his lesson we had dinner. A new PIZZA shop opened up and it is super good. Just like america. Well i decided taht me and Elder CHen are going to do Pizza Friday. GOod mission memory right? SO we had pizza for dinner and i was suepr happy!!!!

 

Saturday we were in our apt pretty much all day planning and doing stuff on our computer. But we also had FHE at teh church. It was super fun. I am getting good at ping pong. I can beat japanese and chinese at ping pong I am dangerous ahah.

 

Sunday was super great but super sad too. Lili got baptized last week and her confirmation was today, but she didnt come. I was super bummed about that. Her and Panda broke up and i am wonerign if she will come to church again if he is there. I hope that isnt the case. I think i overthought a bit much and it made me sad adn kinda depressed. I really like Lili and want the best for her. Now the good part. After sacrament, we talked to a lady who had recieved a english flyer adn thought the class was on sunday so she came for all of sacrament. Well she turned out to be chinese from Hong Kong with a 16 year old son. We talked about when eikaiwa was and all that. She made friends with all the chinese people in our ward. There is a chinese corner and it is super fun to sit in. haha. She was about to leave and i asked Elder CHen to invite her to the Gopsel Principles class which she came. She really enjoied it. She read teh G.P. Book alot and told Elder CHen that she had tons of interest in the stuff we were studying and that she wanted to come to church every sunday. CRAZY!!!! Chinese people are so GOLDEN!!! When china finally opens for the work, it will be crazy, i just know it. Hopefully before the transfer is over, we will have enough chinese members to make a branch. How cool would that be? It makes me happy!!!! We spent the rest of the day streeting and doing work. But ya church was super good!!!

SO that is my week in a wrap up. WAY BLESSED!!!! Hopefully we can see another baptism by the end of this transfer. We have a ton of good PIs that we are working with that will hopefully become gators and get baptized. We shall see. With all this success i still feel really down about something but i dont know what it is. I have a interview with president tomorrow and i will talk to him about it. This will be my last interview with President ALbrecht. I am way sad. I love President so much. I am planning ot keep in touch with him for a long time. I love him just like i love dad. Of course i love dad more though!!!! I will really miss President Albrecht though.

 

So i think i have sent you home 2 camera cards! If you could send them both back to me. I really need them. I sending you one back in a letter for Kendi tomorrow. Please send it back as soon as possible. I want to send them to you once a month. I am sending them at the very begining of the month. But ya. Aprils camera card is way good. You will like it. I love you so much mom. I cant wait for Mothers day. Only 2 weeks. CRAZY!!! TIme is really going by so fast. I hope that you have a great week at home. Thanks for everything. YOu are amazing. YOu are probably done reading this now, it is super long. haha so i will go. I love you so much. Stay classy!!!

23 April 2012:::

お母さん、

愛しているよ！！！本当に感謝しています。あなたのメールが大好きですよ！！！送ってくれてありがとうございます！！大変な週みたいですよね！！ごめんね！けど、僕は本当にあなたのメールが大好きです！！

I really mean it mom!! I really love your emails so much. I love reading them. I am sorry that you had a hard week. But dont you just love moving people around. I really wish I had the oppurtunity to help move people out of their house or even do service. It is super hard to do that here in Japan. The Japanese people are very to themselves. Someone was telling me that since Tokyo is so populated, people just get sick of eachother. That is why they are quite, shy, and dont want to do anything with other people. Sad right? But I really want to do service. You are lucky. Maybe that is why I got sent to Tokyo, to learn how to love service. Haha. Good lesson I think. That is crazy that our stake is splitting but it really doesnt matter to me beause I never really did stuff with the Stake anyways. What I think is really really cool is that Dad and you have lost some weight. I cant believe that dad has lost 12lbs already. I am so excited for him. I hope that he continues to loose the weight and has more motivation to do more exercise. I know that is how it was with me. I am his son too so maybe. Mom, I dont think you need to do a diet because you are already skinny but congradulations. I am excited for you. Maybe I should do this diet when I get home. I am kinda doing a diet right now. I really want to loose my love handles and the belly pouch that I have. I still weigh 177lbs but I really want to loose that fat. I quite buying soda last week and drinking it. I also quit drinkin so much milk. I am trying to eat more vegies and fruits too. I cant do to much of a diet becaue I am a missionary and it is super rude to decline somebodies food here in Japan. I also quit eating sugar. I never was a bigger eater after the first diet I did but I got off track. I am tryin to get back on track. So we shall see.

My week was again hard as usual. We went out finding for hours on end at least over 25 hours this week and didnt find one person to teach. I dont know why it has been this way. I think it is because the Lord is teaching me a lesson that this is His work and that it all depends on Him. It is a really good lesson that I needed to learn. Maybe He was testing us to see if we would still be diligent even if it was hard. I hope I passed. I think that this upcoming transfer we are going to be blessed for our efforts. The blessing always comes after the trial right? That pretty much tells you of the week. It was also cloudy and raining all week. Actually, it is still raining right now. I hate it. I dont like rain as a misisonary. I quess I will tell you the details of the week now. On monday, we went to the huge slide and messed around over there. I really wanted elder chen to have fun and we went to that park. We also played some badmitton with some college students. It was pretty fun. Then we went to Jenny's house to give her s a present because she is so nice to us all the time and I really felt like we needed to do that. I dont know when the last time the missionaries just went to visit. SO it was good I think. Tuesday we went to temple. Wednesday we had another full day of streeeting with no success. We had eikaiwa or englsih class and I have something funny to tell you. So there is a really cute girl there. Well all japanese girls love american guys. Well it is a dangerous situation now. I think she really likes me. We were walking home and then she came up and started walking with us. It has slowly gotten that way I think. When she first came I noticed her mom would pick her up, then she would ride her bike, and then I noticed she was walking. Dont worry! I am not stupid. Ya, she is really cute but the thought of doing something stupid and ruining this great blessing called a mission almost made me puke. I dont want to ruin it because of some girl. I am not dumb. I just think it is super funny. It feels good to be admired every once and a while. Haha. Thursday was tons of fun actually but very scary. So we have Lili, our gator. Well we wanted to meet her one last time before her baptism but after her interview. She is super busy with skool and work and crap like that. Well she told us that on thursday after 6 she can do something. So we decided to do a sushi making party because that is her job. She makes sushi. So we went and bought the fish we wanted to eat, seaweed, and vegeis. Then we went back to her house and did it. She taught us how to do it. It was super funny because everytime I would do it wrong she would yell at me. There is a certain way that you have to do it. But it was super fun to make and then eat your own sushi. I now know how to make sushi. It isnt that hard. But we had Wasabi eating games. We played rock, paper, scissors and the loser had to eat a piece of sushi with tons of wasabi on it. It sucked. You will love the videos. Here is the scary part. We asked Lili if she lived with anyone like 2 girls because missionaries cant be in one room with one girl, there has to be a priesthood holder or 2 girls. Well she said it was fine and that she lived with her friends and they were both home. We went in a met them. Quess what? One was a chinese girl and the other was a chinese man. They were siblings and Lili was living with them. Well gators cant be baptized if they are living in the same house or apt. of the oppisite sex if they are not married. I was so bummed because I didnt want to tell Lili she couldnt be baptized until she found somewhere else to live. I was thinking about it the whole night, how I would tell her. Well we left and I called the Zone Leaders and they calld president. President told us it was ok to baptize dher because they are friends and she is living with a family. The other thing is it is a huge economical thing here in Japan. SO we got the OK. I sure was relieved and full of thanks. Her friedns want to meet us and have dinner and play ping pong too. SO it was a great night. Friday we had another full day of streeting in the rain with no success. Jenny had us over to see her friend from England and a RM sister from Russia. Then we went to District Meeting. Well our DL was going home so it was a Farewell party. We had a missionary couple who works on base bring some american pizza and we partied. It was so good and fun. Then we did a sleepover because transfer calls were the next day. So now you are wondering about transfer calls. I am now in . . . .. Yamate!!!! Yup I didnt transfer. I am still in the same area. This will be my 4^th transfer in this area. 6 MONTHS here. That is a very long time. I was kinda bummed because we dont have any investigators because they all got baptized. I really wanted to move to another area too. But I got confrimation from the Lord that there is still work here for me to do, so I am happy. But ¼ of my mission here in this area. WOW!! Saturday night we did a launch of our FHE. It was the 1^st time this ward has done FHE. We had a great turn out. 1 Recent Convert, Suzuki, and 5 non members came. 1 nonmember just happened to be that girl from english class I was telling you about. We played Ping-Pong and had a great time. Sunday was AWESOME but very very scary. Panda called us at about 9:30 and told us that Lili wasnt coming to her baptism. We called Lili and she didnt answer. Well church started and Lili wasnt there. We were way bummed. Well Lili showed up at about 10:45. She forgot her white bra for the baptism. I thought I would never here that word Bra on my mission but there it is. That is a good reason to be late I thought. Her baptism was great. Panda did it. It was all in Chinese too. It was AMAZING!! I felt the spirit so much. We now have 10 chinese members in our ward. 3 of the 4 people that have been baptized are chinese. I feel honored that I have a part in the work for China. I just think it is funny. With all the work with chinese people we are doing, we can start a chinese branch here. It would be the only one in Tokyo. How cool would that be? We only need about 5 more people. Pray please. Haha.

So those are the highlights of my week. It sounds really fun doesnt it? It sure was, but at the same time it is very hard going forth and doing the work for the Lord. I have wanted to call it quits a couple of times this past transfer because of nobody listening. But I stuck with it and now it is a new transfer. I am excited. Everyone tells me that next transfer I am going to be ZL. Thats in 6 weeks, so we shall see. I love you so much Mom! I am very excited for Mothers Day and to call you! I have been working on a Mothers Day gift for all the girls in our family. I just have to finish it and send it off in time. It might come late but this is something I have wanted to do ever since I got my call to Japan. 3 weeks and I will call. I am so excited. I hope that everyone at home is doing good. I sure love my family a lot. They are the best anyone could ask for. Thanks!

Well, I cant think of what else to say. I am all out of ideas. I hope that you have a great upcoming week. You better konw that I pray for you daily. I love you so much! Tell bug he needs to write me and draw me a cool picture haha. I tell everybody he is a artist. He is going to come here to Japan. They love art. How is Kendi doing? I havent heard about her in quite awhile. I cant wait to get home and hang out with her if she is not married. I love her a lot. Well, you have my love always! Stay classy!!!