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.

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.