Becoming a Member Missionary!

This week was fast and had some up and downs.

Monday we had a cool experience where a less active in our area is about to get married and his parents came into town. We sat down with him and gave him a blessing. He isn't coming to church because of his job. For some reason I feel like a lot of Japanese church members don't fully understand the Sabbath day. Granted if they told their boss they couldn't work on Sunday, they could get in trouble. But if more and more Saints were to press forward then it could start a culture of Sabbath worship in Japan. It has to start somewhere, and that's our faith.
Later K had his baptismal interview. It didn't end well. The zone leader wanted to hear more of his testimony and K doesn't do well with explaining things and being asked a bunch of questions. So he freaked out and ran out during the interview. Needless to say, he wasn't baptized. But he will soon. He just has to work out his problems.

Tuesday we met H again! It's been a while but we called her and she said she was at a nearby store so we went there. When we got there, there were three college students that she caught and told them to talk to us in English and about the gospel. So from here out I think she will start meeting us again.

Wednesday we worked pretty hard. There isn't much to report on this day other than we were being soaked in the rain.

Thursday was amazing!  We met with this lady named A. We found her a few weeks ago when her and her daughter were trying to find a cat. We helped and it turned into a pretty good experience. Well we came back and this lady is super cool. About 10 years ago she had a vision of Christ and he was doing everything that she was doing. She assumed that he was in her heart. We told her that everyone has the light of Christ in them and it tells them from right and wrong. And when she looks at people, it's kind of like the older pictures of Christ, where there is a light or a glow around their heads. After that we basically introduced almost every other doctrine that we had and we testified that it was true. She said, "around your heads the light is enormous. I know that what you are saying is true because I feel in my heart that it is true."

 Hopefully she will come through. But she brought 2 friends to have us talk to as well. They all had pretty good interest. They told us, the things that we teach a lot of Japanese people have interest in, but when we knock on doors, people just see us as people trying to get them to church. It made me realize the importance of members who can introduce the gospel to their neighbors and friends. Member dendo is the best way to go!

Friday we again set out to try our hardest. Taught some lessons with some new investigators. We found this one guy named Ha. He is in his 60s and he is Christian. His wife is from the Philippines. They are from the Church of Christ and they don't believe in resurrection. Which gave us a great chance to teach through the bible. I know that there will be a resurrection and we will all rise the last day because of what the scriptures teach. If others teach differently, they, as Moroni says, they do not read the scriptures or they do not understand them.

Saturday we dendoed a lot and saw some new potential investigators. Nothing too crazy happened. It was another good day.

Sunday was good. N worked super hard to be able to come to church. It was really good of her. I'm so happy she is such a great person and I know she will go far in life.

Later we had a meal where we got to teach N about temples and we are prepping her to go to the temple next month to do baptisms.

I'll be coming home soon but I hope that I can always remember the things I have learned here so that I can be the best member missionary I can be.

The Lord is blessing the area

Hello! This week was super good. Had some really heart felt lessons and things are going really well for Miyazaki.

Monday night we met with these two people from Nepal. They are Hindu but they wanted to learn about our religion. It was so hard to teach them because of the language barrier. But they accepted a Book of Mormon.

On Tuesday we met with this new investigator named Ki. He said that he wanted to be more happy in his life. We gave him a pamphlet and he said he would read it. We came back and he actually read it. Lots of Japanese people say they don't understand the pamphlets. I can read them and understand them. They are super simple. But he read it and actually understood it! So w challenged him to be baptized on 25th of July. He said yes.

Thursday was really good as well. Sad because we went to visit S and she told us she would be going to her parents house for a month so she won't be able to get her baptismal date. Then we dendoed really hard in the rain. The rain is nice when it's not cold. I'm just glad I have multiple shoes to wear.

Friday we met with K. He is looking good for his baptism date next week. He is really trying his hardest to be baptized!

Saturday we met with N, the guy from Syria. He is really upset with what is going down in Syria. He isn't doing so good. He said that hearing all of that makes you think that God isn't there. He said I just don't think God would just be silent about things like this. To that we said, God isn't silent, he sent prophets today to help us. He really liked that and took a Book of Mormon. He is such an amazing man and I am so grateful to meet him. I love that man so much.

We also we out to eat with the K family that came to church 2 months ago. We just need them to come to activities and the kid needs to tell his dad he wants to go to church. The dad will do anything the kid wants. So we need to work with the kids.

Sunday was great! N came again! She is amazing. S came. Then K came as well. S recently got a new job that works nights and she thinks that she can't come to church anymore. Up until now I didn't realize the blessing of working nights at Amazon. I was able to bear a strong testimony about how the Lord strengthens you even if you are out of your mind tired and come to church. We promised her that if she were to pray specifically for help to find a different job and to come to church, that she will be able to enjoy the blessings of church, be baptized, and find stability in her life. She said she wanted to see what kind of blessings come from it.

We dendoed after and found two new investigators. They are both in their 20s and we set up appointments with them. We met Ki and told him the expectations of baptism. He accepted it pretty well. Lastly we met with the M family and they said yes to doing family home evening with the Ma family. They are perfect for each other. The Lord is blessing the area!

It is a great opportunity

This week was pretty great. At the beginning it was a little slow just because we didn't have any appointments.

Monday night we went up north to visit some people. Most of them weren't home unfortunately but there was a great miracle on the way home.the less active we have been working with, we met her on the street again! It's been a huge blessing to meet her so many times. She actually came to the baptism service on Sunday.

N isn't looking too good. We went to the hospital to check up on him and he kept saying how he thinks it's against the rules to talk about religion in the hospital. In response to that I said to him, let's just go ask the doctors right now if that is okay. He immediately rejected that and told us it would probably be impossible for him to be baptized. As we left we talked to the front desk and explained the situation. They said it's okay to talk to him but not others. So we will go and tell him that this week.

On brighter news, we found 5 investigators this past week. All of them were in their 20s and one was in his 30s. Super amazing blessing. Most of them were families and they agreed to a return appointment pretty quickly. No hesitation sometimes is the sweetest thing to hear. That and hearing someone say yes to an invitation to baptism. It is just a great opportunity to work for these people and try to help them find happiness.

There is this new investigator named S. She is 20 years old and she is amazing. We invited her to be baptized on the 25th of July and she said yes. She wants to feel God's love and wants to have peace in her life. I don't know exactly what she is thinking during the lesson so we need to ask her more.

K is good. He said yes to follow chastity, word of wisdom and tithing. But he is a character. During N's baptism, during her testimony, he interrupted to testify what she was testifying about. He is hilariously out of control sometimes. He has a kind heart.

Sa.... She is struggling. She is just working so hard to find a job and a new apartment. It's almost like the blinders horses wear. She is so focused on those things she forgets the rest. She found a job that works nights and because of that she didn't come to church. Interesting because she quit her job to go to church and now she picked a job that won't allow her to go. I called a member about it and talked about what we should do, Elder Hunsaker and I felt like the member should talk to her about it. So we talked it over and the member is going to try to help her find a job that will keep the Sabbath day and show her the way to rely on God when it comes to trials in life. The member went through the same thing of trying to find a job. They are the same age so it's perfect.

But on the other hand, N got baptized! Holy cow she is an angel. The thing was perfect. I had the chance to baptize her. It was really great! And the service was great.

It was a great fast Sunday. But for some reason it was really hard on our bodies since we had to wake up early to fill the font. The rest of the day I was fine but as soon as I sat down for dinner, it hit really hard. During the day Hunsaker threw up. It was awkward because it was in the middle of a contact. But the blessing of it is was we were able to find some prepared people that accepted the message really well.

The most pure person

I guess I will cut down to the investigators this week. This week was spent well and we worked super hard. Got to see many cool people and hopefully we can start to fill our teaching pool with the elect.

First is Na. He is still in the hospital But we met him and he was super good. Changed his baptismal date because we didn't know if he could get out of the hospital on time. But then he told us not to visit him for the rest of the week. I'm not quite sure what is going on with him.

Then there is K. He came to church on Sunday. We met him on Friday as well. He is a talker but he really wants the best for himself. He said on the lesson on Sunday that he was going to prioritize God in his life. He is looking good for his baptism on the 20th.

S. We didn't met her this week. She did come to church. I called her on Saturday to ask how she was doing with her prayers and if she was ready to be baptized on the 20th. She said she didn't know. I asked her how many times she prayed. Only once, she said. So we challenged her to pray everyday at a certain time. She said she would.

No. She is amazing! She is looking good for her baptism for next week. She is the most pure person ever! She is so willing to be baptized. We tell her what she needs to do and she makes sure to do it. It is a complete miracle to be able to work with her.

Y isn't doing hot. We may give him a break for 2 weeks.

We found a new investigator named T. He is 26 and has a 4 month baby. He is pretty cool. We will try to meet him again tonight.

We have been working with this less active named Ka. Total blessing. We passed a light and it turned green to cross. We had a strong feeling to cross. We crossed and ran into her. Then we invited her to a meal appointment we had. She came and had a great time. The member asked her to say the closing prayer and she said "I'm sorry I haven't been coming to church but from here on out I want to become closer to you" it made me really happy. She is starting to warm up again!

That was basically the main work we were able to get done. We have some new people we are trying to meet. I'll try to report on them soon.

Exact obedience brings blessings

So my new comp is Hunsaker. I don't know if you know this name but apparently it's pretty common in Utah. He is a really good kid. Really quiet. His trainer was a transfer 3 missionary so I'm basically in training again. He is transfer 2. Everyone thinks he is like 14 years old. He is 5 foot flat and is just so cute. Everyone asks how old he is. They treat him like a child. I had this guy ask me if I wanted to drink beer I said no and he turned to Hunsaker and looked at him. Then just didn't even ask him. He walked away. But he is an overall good kid. I like him. But he is super silent. But if I ask him to testify or to teach, man he knows his stuff.

This past week week was spent finishing last minute things for Kikuchi. He wanted to say goodbye to a lot of people of course but in that process we were able to build better relationships with members
and less actives. A couple of weeks ago we talked about a member who just straight up told us not to come again. But we randomly visited her and were able to talk to her for a bit. Eventually it lead to her coming to see Kikuchi on Thursday and then coming to church on Sunday to talk to the branch president during church. It was awesome.

Other members trust us more now and we spend more time planing with them to help the ward and our investigators. I feel like they are starting to warm up to dendo. Well they were before but now it feels like it's starting to come together.

Thursday Crawford choro and I dendoed while we waited for the other elders to come. It was really good. We had 3 lessons overall to go to: H, N and one of their investigators all of which have
baptismal dates. The lesson with H went really well. We talked about tithing and she said she would pay it. But later that day apparently her son came to her house and talked to her a bit and she freaked out thinking if she pays tithing and joins this church her son would disown her. She also has a concern that she can't pay the whole tithe. So she called us telling that she wants to take a break for a bit.

N is doing good. Still in the hospital. We can visit every oncein a while. He was happy on Thursday but upset on Friday. So the two lessons were really opposite. We are trying to figure out what he
needs. But for now we are prepping him to answer the baptismal questions.

On Saturday we went to visit Y. She was the lady who's son tired to commit suicide a while back. It's so weird. The thing has calmed down a bit and now she is kinda being hard to teach. She says she wants to have all the blessings of the gospel. But she isn't willing to try the things we ask. I tried talking it out with her but she would just bring up excuses. One by one we took them down and it is sometimes so interesting how some people choose things. Even though there are all these promises and feelings of the Spirit, they choose not to change because they don't like change or they don't want to take a step in the unknown. I understand the latter is one of faith. But I don't understand why people wouldn't want to take the steps if the promises are so great.

Anyways we had a good day and we had Sunday. Great day. Izumi shimai came. S came. K came. S said that she changed to not wanting baptism to saying that she will receive it one day. So we challenged her to pray if she should get baptized on the 20th of June. She said she would. We will send her scriptures and read with her so she can find an answer. She said she hasn't felt the Spirit in a while but when she was at church last week, she said she felt it again.

Throughout the day we saw some cool miracle. It truly pays to make a detailed plan and to trust the plan to be able to meet Gods prepared children. We were exactly obedient to our time and met this guy who lived in America and was fluent in English. He gave us his number and we will meet him next Sunday. We met a former investigator on the street and he said he wanted to continue. This couples car was broken down and we helped them push it into the parking lot. This man brought
us back to his house and eventually said yes for us coming back. All of these were because we were exactly on time to where we needed to be and if we were a moment later or if we decided to change, we would have never met them. The Lord works through being exact and specific. If we do things in a vague manner, the result will be different. You get what you put in.

This Elder just came off Miyako. We are having a blast talking about it!

The gospel lifts you up

Man this week was pretty crazy. We went on junkai with the elders in Miyakonojo on Tuesday. It was good to be with some of the elders there since I've known them since the beginning of my mission. We worked hard and talked to many people. One great thing that happened is that I was able to do the baptismal interview for the shimai investigator named T. She is doing great, passed the interview, and knows so much about the gospel.

Wednesday we had a lunch with H. She took us out to a buffet. Great place. We talked about the word of wisdom and she said she would follow it. Later we just dendoed hard and started to set up for eikaiwa. H sure can talk. She can talk about anything from a or z. But when she talks about the gospel it is amazing.

Thursday we had a lesson with S. What a wonderful lesson! We just talked about the application of the gospel can do for you. Rather than weighing you down, it lifts you up and allows you to pull through your trials. She loved he lesson and there was something light about her after the lesson.

Friday we taught H again. Man she can talk. We got through half of the plan of salvation and she brought up word of wisdom again. She had a hard time to understand why it was given but the members did a great job explaining it and she said she is okay with it now. We will have to meet with her more often to help her get to her date. She did bring up some points that led to the fact we need to focus on the Spirit and teach her what that is.

Later we visited Y. He isn't ding well. Let's just say he will probably be dropped.

Saturday was great. We did some service for a member and it was really great to help him. He is like 94 years old and can't do much for himself. After we went and visited N in the hospital. He recently went in but he is in there so that he can find some rest. He will probably make it to his baptismal date. Later we were waiting for K at the church,  A man that we had met a week before came to the church to talk with us. It freaked us out. But at the same time K came to the church. So we had the member teach K about repentance and we taught the the first lesson to the man. He really liked it.

Sunday was the baptism of T. I was able to perform the baptism. It took 5 times because she was wearing a temple dress instead of a baptismal dress. She stepped in the font and her dress spread out like a Lilly pad. I thought at that moment.... Oh no this is going to be hard. It went well. Six investigators came to church and enjoyed it. Later K asked if he could be baptized as well. N had a great experience and said she wanted to be baptized too. Things are looking great. S said too that baptism is a lot more simple than what she thought. She is thinking about it too. The work here in Miyazaki is great!

This work is amazing!

So this is something that happened this week we had a lot of fun and found some cool investigators.

Monday we went to Y and  talk to her about prayer. She was really happy to learn about prayer and she said she would try to pray. Other than that we dendo really hard and we met some really cool people.

On Tuesday we went to district meeting and came home we talked to a lot of old people and some young families because it was a national holiday. We were able to meet N and meet his dad. We got
permission to teach him the gospel. Over all it was a normal day packed with lots of dendo. The last contact was sooooo long we talked to this guy on the street for over an hour. We asked him if we could
talk to him on a different day but he said he wanted to talk at that moment. He was a Protestant by birth and had lots to talk about.

Wednesday we had some cool miracles. We stopped to talk to Na. It was about 2 months ago since we have really been able to talk tohim. He said he was busy so we left. We contacted this 17 year old boy named K. He was awesome. He wanted to learn how his family can become eternal. Right after the contact, Na called us and told us to come over. So we went and set us another baptismal date with him. 6/6.

Thursday. We had a lesson with S again. She really opened up and said, I don't have a job now and I don't have any money. I don't think now is the time to study religion. Isn't that the best time? Don't you need help the most when you are struggling? That's exactly what we taught her and the lesson went well.

Later we went to visit a potential and everything fell through. I don't know why. But we rounded our shoulders and took the blow. We had 4 appointments that fell through.

We learned why on Friday. Amazing day. We met his lady named H. She is Protestant. Hasn't been baptized and wanted to know what the difference between her church and ours. We mentioned prophets and she freaked out. She said she wanted to learn more. Later that day we met this man on the street who is the prefectures main person for the study of religion. He wanted to study the Book of Mormon and see what it had to say.

Saturday, we go to visit H. She had read the entire Book of Mormon in one day. She loved it. Said it was so easy to understand compared to the bible. And she loved how it just testified of Christ. She
accepted a baptismal date for 6/20. She said she would come to church as well.

Sunday. H came to church! She had a great time and she is looking good. I'm so glad that the lord truly leads this work. I know we couldn't have done it by ourselves.

Funny thing is we met another guy who is Protestant on the street. He said that he has interest and will come to church next week. This work is amazing!

My morning breakfast

It Was Glorious

Hey family and friends this week was awesome I got sun-burnt a lot and currently my nose is peeling. We had two days this week where we were outside a lot and doing things with the ward. It was supper fun but my face and neck aren't saying so.

Monday we went and tried talking to Y about his baptismal date. He is still having problems with smoking, which we were able to set a plan with him on Friday of how he can quit.

On Tuesday we had Juneau with the zone leaders. I went with elder Vance. It was really good! We worked super hard and found some great areas to dendo in. One cool miracle was that we went to go teach I's, our new investigator, and I had written his room number down wrong. But for some reason we felt that we needed to knock on the next door. And it turns out to be him. We taught him a good lesson on prayer and introduced baptism.

Wednesday we had a stake meet and did a bunch of games and races. It was super fun and we were able to build better relationship with the members. Overall Miyazaki branch won! It was a great turn out over all and it was a great to bond with people that weren't members.

Thursday we had some appointments fall through and we just dendoed the rest of the time. We got rained on hard. It's starting to rain a lot again so we are going to go through our shoes really quick.


Friday was a really good day. We were able to still get 2 member present lessons and 2 other lessons. One with Y and one with M, an investigator from Miyakonojo. The shimai asked us to go visit her in the hospital. It went super good. She has this problem with an eternal yawn. But as we were teaching her the yawns went away. Later we had a lesson with K. We showed the first vision  and it went super well. He said he blocked the other religions phone calls. So he can be baptized soon. Then lastly we had a lesson with I. He has no idea about religion and it took him a long time to understand that God is our loving Heavenly Father. But when he did it was glorious.

Saturday we had a bbq and it was fantastic. So many less actives and investigators came. Our friend from Syria came too. He had a great time and now half of the ward knows him pretty well. Things are looking good. But My comp may have broken his finger and we went to the hospital to get it checked out. We were late by two minutes and they people wouldn't take us in. Just nothing felt good for the rest of the day and yesterday too he was in the mood of I don't care I go home in 3 weeks. It's not a good felling to be in but I'm going to try hard to change it or at least help him get through the next 3 weeks.

Sunday he was still kinda of a bad mood. He broke his bike tire spoke and has a rental bike. I have offered to switch him bikes. On good news, S came to church. An amazing meeting. One of the best ones I have been to. It was amazing.

We dendoed the rest of the day and tried to work hard. Things seem slightly strained right now but I'm doing good.

Crazy Cool Blessings

I actually wrote all of my week basically on my notes on my iPad. (So translation may be a bit rough)

We met this this less active on Monday named I. She was awesome! Recently she hasn't met us but for some reason she said yes to meeting us and we had a great talk about how God helps us through different ways. She thinks God hasn't helped her throughout her depression. But in reality she realized that every time when she was at her lowest, the missionaries came around. She recognized that! She may start to progress!

The next few days we spent in Kagoshima for getting the iPads and other training. We learned so much!
Today we were in Kagoshima for a training called common sense dendo. Elder Mcclain, who is a transfer above me, and Elder Boyden, who is transfer 6. They nailed a lot of simple things that we tend to forget. It was really good to recap and I hope I can master these things before the end on my mission. Then I can tell other missionaries the same thing. Then we went and did some dendo with some other missionaries. I was paired up with Elder Bunker from Colorado. He is a transfer 1 missionary. We were by the church so we hit up a lot of people that have been taught before.  But we almost got the cops called on us.  It wasn't the best experience for the poor kid but it taught us to be more respectful to people who are angry. Then we came home and taught eikaiwa. The kids are wild and it is so hard to teach them. Especially when you are tired. I made a lot of new friendships in the mission. So many kind people here in Japan. One thing I learned today is patience when getting angry. It was hard towards the end of the day to be more kind. But I hope I can always do better. Through a heist and trying my best, I can overcome this!

A cool miracle was when this girl named S brought her friend to eikaiwa. Her name is Yu. Hopefully we can start talking to them about the gospel.

Thursday was a good day! We had weekly planning but before that we were at the church waiting for an investigator to come, but he didn't. But we did talk to the guy who lives right next to the church. He was super nice and we got to invite him to the bbq that is coming up soon. Then we had weekly planning. We headed out and started to dendo. We are trying really hard to focus on working 50-50. We did pretty well and met this family called the M family. They liked how we were there to strengthen families. We will meet them on Saturday.

Then we met Ya. We were able to have him say he was smoking but he says that he wants to try to quit for one day. What a blessing! We will meet him tomorrow.

We had a few lessons in the afternoon and dendoed at night. We first met with S San. It was ma ma lesson. (I have no idea what he meant by this.) Just because we didn't tell the members what we wanted to talk about. So it became really barabara.she was really cool about the whole thing. (Again, no idea what he meant. Lets blame it on auto correct on his iPad.)She still doesn't know what God to believe in. It's a little hard for her right now just because of her grandma was hard core Buddhist. But in the end we just look at the fruits of the gospel. Hopefully she can pray and really feel for herself what is true.

Then we headed to Ya. The lesson was really long because we were both really tired. But he said that he would live the law of tithing if he were to get baptized.

Then we talked to Y shims. We talked about tithing as well. She is so incredibly kind to us.

After dinner we headed to N, streeting  along the way. N wasn't there or rather his dad was busy with dinner. We started to house and we met this man that was going to a different church that he doesn't really know if it is true or not. He is only going because his wife is going. Hasn't gotten baptized yet but is still learning. Another guy was from Vietnam and he said he has learned about Christ. He said he wanted to meet so he will call us. Met two young people who said they would meet with us. I'm super excited!

Saturday we met a guy from Syria. He was soooo cool. We will met him soon. Also met an American who came here a month ago. It turns out that Maris kaicho knows her. So things look good for her.

Sunday was amazing! Sa is still uncertain about baptism because she doesn't want eternal life. She doesn't understand what it really is. She thinks it's just an extension of this life including pain and suffering. In reality it is a rest for eternity from those things.

K came out of no where and came to church. He changed back and wants to come!

Also this really old lady we housed into yesterday came to church as well. She came just to listen and she loved it. Crazy coooool blessings.

I'm so happy to be in Miyazaki

Any-who this week!!!!

To be completely honest we worked super hard but there aren't a lot of things to report on. Kikuchi is a great missionary and helps so much. Tt seems when you get better at talking to people it gets harder for some reason. When you are a bean you see miracles like crazy. When I was with Davies it was easier to talk to people but now the Lord is stretching us to really reach for those people who really matter.

Tuesday we had some upsetting lessons with Y and K. Y is most likely lying about his smoking problem. On Thursday we talked more about it but he keeps asking why the word or wisdom is needed. We just told him to pray about it and see what he feels about it. He wants everything from the gospel but he hasn't made a huge commitment in his life so its hard for him.

K went to go quit his religion and the lady there totally convinced him not to quit and now he wants to wait things out. He wants to stop the lessons too so he can wait it out. Ugg! He was easily convinced. It was really hard for us to try to teach him.

Wednesday we dendoed quite a bit and met a less active. Its always awkward - to be completely honest is super awkward. But I love it! We figured out her work and her free time so we told that to the branch.

Thursday we taught Y again. Same as listed above. We came home from a training and found a really cool man. He liked how everything we were doing was free so he would like to learn more. The things that interests people are amazing.

Friday. We were finally able to meet the media referral. Well it turns out she didn't really have interest but that's okay. We were able to dendo around her and meet some great people.

Saturday was all dendo. We tried meeting people but things fell through. So we went around town to different spots and found some great areas, met a lot of college students. We are looking forward to this next week since we found good areas. We were able to meet the Ks and introduce Kikuchi. They are doing good. We invited them to an activity that will be coming up soon. They said they wanted to come. Honestly I think their interest will start will grow as they see other members and see how happy their families are.

Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!! People came to church. one came late so it didn't count for the numbers but Y and N were in time. S came later. It was great!!!!!!!!!! S said she would make time this week to meet. She is amazing. N is one of the most pure people I have ever met. We started to teach a lesson and talked about baptism. she said from hearing how it has blessed everyone so much, she wanted to receive it as well! We set a date for June 7th.

We went from church and ran into this guy from the Dominican Republic that was so incredibly drunk. I have never seen someone have such a hard time riding a bike. But he hasn't found a church yet here and wanted to go. Well... we would love for you to come.

We dendoed hard the rest of the day. Its been a long couple days but things are going great. We called a former investigator from China and he agreed to meet with us. We also called a less active that just completely opened up with us and we will meet with them both. The work is going well and I'm so happy to be here in Miyazaki with Kikuchi.

A message that has no end or sorrow

This week was really busy with a lot of things and we weren't able to get a lot done since we had transfers and general conference.

Tuesday night we ran to the K family to say goodbye since Davies was leaving. They were happy to see us but they are starting to not like talking about religion. I'm a little concerned.

Wednesday was spent trying to get last minute things done. We had luck with S - the girl from Nepal. She brought 3 friends again!

After a while we went to M, it was good to see her but she is not willing to budge on her opinion. Its really rough but now we can redirect our time on other people.

Davies actually got a call on Wednesday changing his transfer. It was weird but the Lord needed him somewhere else.

Thursday Kikuchi Choro came in. He wants to work super hard and make this last transfer his best. I hope this thought continues. We have planned to see 3 baptisms this transfer.

We went to teach Y. It is so weird being with someone who is fluent again. Its like being a bean but understanding everything. I don't know how to join in and help. Its a future problem we need to fix. He likes to teach and he is a great teacher. He taught Y really well and he committed him to com to general conference!

Friday,the bikes came so we were ready to go. We dendoed a bit and then had a lesson with Ki. He is doing great! Willing to meet and ready for his baptism on the 9th of May. He really wants an eternal family soooo bad! It makes me realize that we are sharing a message that everyone should be excited about! A message that has no end or sorrow! How incredible that is!

Saturday was spent for general conference. Speaking of which, it hammered hard on families. It wasn't leaving a good feeling as a missionary. I'm not supposed to be thinking of that. So I just made a mental note to read all the stuff later. Y came to the first session on Saturday and Sunday. He looked so good in a suit.

Later we headed to F. The poor guy. He just wants friends. We would love to be his friends but he doesn't want to learn. He is stuck on the fact of that since his is sick, everyone needs to care for him. He has no desire to do anything. We told him to call us if he wants to listen to the message. Since then he has called us around 5 times - each time saying that he doesn't believe in God. But each time, I feel like it gets closer to him wanting to learn. The last phone call he said "it would be good if God existed." We can only encourage him to continue to learn.

Sunday S and Y came to general conference. S had some confidence and doubts. but the conference speaker in the morning really hammered on its okay to have doubts. Just focus on the things you do know. She thought it was just for her and she looks forward to talking to us. Right now she doesn't have a job so we can meet her more during the week. I can't wait! I'm really excited to teach people, especially if gaining a testimony or finding salvation is important to them. I want to help everyone find salvation. I wish I could declare it better so that they can understand the feelings of my heart!

We were able to dendo a bit and we met N. He was super good! He doesn't seem like he has interest but he actually does in the end. Its weird. The kid has no emotion on his face at all times.

We were blessed by a family who gave us dinner last night. They were talking about how there used to be 200 people attending church years ago. It drove the Spirit inside of me and it really makes me want to help this branch to grow. We just need to get things together!!!!

The power of the member present lesson

SO this week was super amazing! We had 4 investigator came to church, the other Elders had 2, and a member's parents came.

On Tuesday we went to visit a recent convert and it is such a privilege to talk to these people.  She has grown so much and she has an amazing testimony. She actually jointed for a lesson yesterday which went really well!!! I'll tell you about it in a little bit.

Tuesday we found a new investigator named F. He yelled for us to come in. We walk in and his house is a hot box of tobacco smoke. It was pretty rough to stay in there. The poor guy has nothing, just sitting in a room smoking tobacco all day long. I'll tell you more about him.

Wednesday. Lots of things learned. When you call an investigator for a lesson, and she says she wants to bring friends, make sure she knows that it is a lesson we are teaching. We didn't do that with our friend S. She brought her friends and they were expecting to hang out. Nope. We had an awkward lesson. They were all Hindu. We explained the first vision and they kind of were surprised something like that would happen. S turned out to be really cool about it. She said "I've thought about why there are so many religions and which one is true." So in the end it was good. At the start.... not really.

Thursday was super good! We went to meet a young investigator named N. He wasn't really seeming like he had much interest. That is just his personality. But we went there and talked about the restoration again and how he can find an answer. It was so good! He said he wanted to know if Joseph Smith saw the Father and Christ. He also said he would be baptized if he came to know it was true. On the way home we found a new investigator on the street named H. He is 16 and thinks because our bodies are too complicated, there must be a God here.

Later we had lessons with Y and F. F is so hard because he has depression and doesn't do anything. He says he wants everything we have to offer but doesn't do anything about it. Y went well. Buuuuut still something was missing. We finally found it out yesterday, but all the previous lessons were missing something. We were focusing on baptism but not the right parts.

Cool miracle. During the lesson with Y, both Elder Davies and I felt that we needed to visit a past investigator that was apparently really amazing. We rush to her house with 5 minutes to spare in the night and she said "Wow! I was just on the phone with a member from your church. Right as I hung up you guys rang the door bell. I'm quitting my job and I'm coming to church on Sunday." WOW~~ That's missionary work!

We really dendoed hard on Friday. Honestly I don't really remember it. It was straight dendo.

Saturday we ended up with some extra time because an appointment fell through. We decided what to do through prayer. It was really cool. A single apartment came to mind and that we needed to do the bottom row. So we went there and found a contact was pretty normal. I was thinking "oh no, what we are we going to do with them. The son in the background was being goofy and the mom said sorry. I said no problem he just seems happy. She started to cry and started to tell us how he tried to commit suicide the day before. She really wants more peace in her life and to have a happy family. Well I'd like to testify that the Lord watches all of our families and wants that same thing for us.

Saturday night an old investigator named N (not our investigator, the shimai investigator from a while ago) called and wanted to meet. She gave us the time and said she was so excited to finally have time to talk.

Sunday was great! The K family came! S came! And Ki came. We set a new baptismal date with Ki. He really wants to find an eternal family. He is a members friend. He has a date for May 9th. We also met him yesterday. He really wants to get baptized.

S was amazing!!! She apparently quit her job because the wall of her work place was peeling off and she saw a cross in the wall. It reminded her of church and she said "I need to go to church to feel the happiness that I felt before" So she quit and came. We didn't have time to talk about baptism but next time for sure. She is an amazing person.

Later we taught N. She is so amazingly pure as well. She lives far but she wants to com to church and continue to change. Apparently the shimai who taught her never went over baptism so she doesn't really understand what our purpose is. We reviewed that a lot and will introduce baptism next time.

Monday!!!!!! Great 2 lessons with Y and K. We had a recent convert talk about her baptism. Through that we figured out what was wrong with why he didn't commit to things. He said a while back he thought the Book of Mormon to be true but he didn't actually know. We didn't dig enough and this time is just came up. He said he thought it was true because it was the word of God but he never really prayed for it. Now we are pretty excited to teach him. The past lessons felt like something wasn't there or we needed to think of something different. Thanks to the member, we now know! I love member present lessons.

Dendo Hungry

Hello friends!!!!!

This weeks had a huge down but it came right back up and things started to progress really well.

On Monday we talked to this kid named N. He is a 16 year old kid and he is a Christian. The hard thing is he is really connected with his own church. We expressed how we knew that his church was really important  but that is exactly the reason why we wanted to share the message of the restoration with him. We had only 5 minutes. Not much time to do anything but enough time to share the first vision and bear witness of it.

Later on Monday we tried to contact a media referral. She wast home. She visited a visitor center in New Zealand. Really cool miracle except for the fact we haven't been able to meet her.

Tuesday, the zone leaders came and we got some work done. Learned many things and had a chance to talk things over with them about the area. We went to teach Y with a member. It was a pretty good lesson all together. We hammered in how he can rid his guilt through baptism and how his parents would be happy if he was baptized. He really like it and finally he prayed just a little bit about baptism.

On the way home we ran into a less active on the street. At first we didn't know he was one but he said too many things that made me think, "this guy knows way too much about the church to just be a random guy" so I straight up asked him if he was a member. He denied it but then we figured he didn't realize that through baptism you become a member. He was baptized 30 years ago and stopped coming soon after. Sad story!

Wednesday, so we met this really awesome girl named S from Nepal. She actually kind of contacted us on the street. People from Nepal are crazy nice. They reach out and are soooooooo incredibly willing to listen. They want to come to church. They just don't know where to start. So on Wednesday we met her and gave her a Book of Mormon. She doesn't understand English and Japanese is hard. We need to teach incredibly simply.

Thursday, we met Y again. The lesson went really well! We don't know if he is lying half the time but it seems good. He said he would commit to not smoking for one day.  We were ecstatic! We also were able to go finding a little bit and found this really cool 14 year old boy named M. We asked if we could come back to meet his parents.

Friday we went to an area where we haven't gone in a while. Remember W? About 3 weeks ago we met. We visited and he was sick but he said "please come again! I want to listen. I'll be waiting for you." Then we walked across the street and met a lady that we haven't been able to meet since the beginning of the transfer. She was super happy to see us. We set something up for today. Not only that but we met E. Maybe 2 weeks ago we met this 20 year old guy who likes reading the bible. He said he was reading the Book of Mormon almost everyday. We shared the first vision and he said he would pray. That day ended really well.

Saturday. We are trying to start up a sports activity. We had a great day with this kid named A. He really had some fun. So much that he wanted to introduce his girlfriend to us. She happens to go to a Christian high-school. I love how missionaries are so blessed. They are both really good kids and they said they wanted to come to church activities.

Sunday. Great day at church. A returned missionary moved into our ward. He is 24 and dendo hungry. Our branch president is crazy for it too. We had a lesson later in the night with him. After the lesson he talked how he wants more missionaries and he was going to bring it up at the next ward council about how they can get the work going. The branch is willing. They just need the leader who is fired up. I can see Miyazaki blowing up soon. Anyways we housed a little bit and met a woman from the Toitsu church or the unification church. I haven't heard good things about this church and heard they were slightly crazy. I want to figure out how we can teach them better. We taught Y and he is keeping the word or wisdom! We also met the K family. They are reading the Book of Mormon together and we taught them prayer.  They said they would come to church next week. We have around  6 people saying they wanted to come to church next week. Next week should be good :)

The Lord is never disappointed if you are trying to repent

Hello!

On Monday and Tuesday we were on splits. I went with elder Krebs on Monday and after district meeting on Tuesday we were with  Elder Young and Sato from the other area.

Krebs is a ball of energy. He always has good ideas and he is going to be a great missionary. We had a cool experience where we went by an area and felt prompted to go visit an investigator we both haven't met. We went, it was great and we have another appointment for today! This kids name is N. He has been a Christian for 8 years and wants to learn more about Christ. Such a nice kid. Later we visited another investigator and talked about the Spirit with him. We hammered it hard and asked him if he would like to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said yes.  YES!! We set a baptismal date for the 18th of April. It sounds like he has a bad word of wisdom problem. We will talk about that in a moment.

Tuesday we were up in Miyakonojo. The Elders recently found this amazing college student who read the Book of Mormon in a little over a week. He wants to know the path he should follow. I went with Elder Young to visit him. We talked to him about how we want to help him find that path and then told him that path was baptism. We were able to set a date with him as well. It was super cool to spend time with their investigator and be in their area. They are working hard and seeing miracles!

Wednesday. Just a day of dendo. We tried to visit Y again *the guy from Monday night*. But he told us to come on a different night so we went and started to dendo. We met this really cool kid about 15 years old who wanted to learn how to talk with God. Sad thing is he is moving to a different area. Then a little later we talked to a different kid about the Book of Mormon. He said he wanted to study more but.... he is moving to Nago! Lucky Elder Olsen! The past few weeks we have been finding some great people but every one is either from a different area or they are moving soon. I guess that is one way to spread the work of salvation. I'm glad I could help. Just imagine those other missionaries having this guy call them asking to meet. I would want that so we need to talk to everyone!

Also on Wednesday we tried visiting a less active. Its been hard to meet her recently because she only wants to meet the past Elder that was here, saying that he was so kind and wants to meet him. She sent that in a text to us on Friday which we weren't able to respond to. Then she sent one on Sunday saying it would be good if we were to transfer. Hmmmmm..... She hasn't really met me all that much. It kinda hurts to hear that. Oh well, we will try our hardest to get in contact and rebuild that.

Thursday we went and visited Y and the K family. Y didn't keep his commitments. He struggles with it. I have no idea why. He also wants more time to think about baptism. He has been asked since November about baptism and still says its too hard. We think its because he doesn't have a testimony of the word of wisdom. That is a problem. We will make a pro and con chart and show the blessings of not following and following the word of wisdom.

The K family was awesome! They committed to come to church on April 5th! We were also able to give them a Book of Mormon. They said when they first met the missionaries they believed in God about 10 percent. Now its about 40 because they have been thinking about how there are so many miracles these days. We will meet them again on the 24th.

Friday we were traveling up to Fukuoka. We got to dendo a little bit before but nothing really happened. We stayed at the AP apartment and it was good to see how they did things especially for Davies choro.

Saturday we were blessed to hear from Nelson choro. He came down for an iPad training - trying to prep us for receiving the iPad. Lots of things were spoken about but probably my favorite thing is one phrase. "The lord is never disappointed at people who are trying to repent." Sometimes in many different situations as a missionary you feel like you lack.you messed up. Didn't do the best you could. That tends to weigh you down. You feel unworthy. But the Lord is never disappointed if you are trying to repent. It seems like a simple phrase but it really hit hard when he said it on Saturday.

We traveled back to Kagoshima on Saturday night. I got to talk with Knighton choro. It feels like not a day has passed since being with him. Good to talk with him and catch up. It was a good bonding for the zone too. We went as a zone and were able to review the taikai as we went. Usually the buses have videos playing so you can watch something. Since everyone at the back were missionaries, we decided to cover up the one TV with paper so we didn't have to watch it. It felt great to use our agency to feel the Spirit more.

A cool thing that happened is we actually had an investigator at church. He has a baptismal date but I
have never met him until yesterday. He says he will come to church next week and all next month. He loved it. BLESSINGS!

Sunday we had district conference for the Kagoshima district . It was great! An area seventy came in and just went to town on member work. Afterwards I was talking to some of the members and they talked about they could apply it to their lives.

We got home from the conference and the branch president called us over for dinner and asked us to help him make a ward mission plan. It was wonderful. I was so happy. In my past areas they didn't really do the plan to the depth we did it last night. It was so nice too because he is American. He knew Preach My Gospel well and was just on it. Ideas were flying back and forth. I feel really good for the growth of Miyazaki under the the direction of Maris Kaicho.

Children soften hearts

Oh buddy this week has been rough but at the same time we saw some great things happen. Of course the Lord will provide. I am very thankful for that. The district is going well too. It has been slow the past few weeks but this week really went well for the other companionships. These other missionaries in my district are so good! I'm a lucky leader :)

Anyways, on to this week.

Monday we visited a man we gave a pamphlet to last week and he said he read it and loved it! He was feeling good from reading it. So happy about that. He wants to review the pamphlet with us on a different day. We also met this guy who is reading the bible because he likes roman history. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. Then as 4 missionaries we went to go sing for a less active. It went really well.

Tuesday Just dendo. We tried to meet other people but they fell through. We met this extremely genki woman who wanted to read a pamphlet about God. She said she believes that something created her and wanted to know more about God.

Wednesday we had a great day. Found 2 new investigators on the street. One was 18 and the other 20ish. Have both their numbers. The first was T. He has really long hair and he wants to receive inspiration and be guided by God. We told him how we were guided to stop to him on the street. He said it was luck. The other is To. He wants to be resurrected! Holy moley that was so cool!

Thursday was planning and a little bit of dendo. We got to give a blessing to a member that was sick. Giving blessings is such a great blessing. I remember when I had to give my first blessing at BYU. I was so scared but now I love to help people with blessings. I know its not easy to ask for blessings so I am so glad they asked.

Friday. That was crazy. We brought members to a 67 year old woman and she went crazy on us. She said it was okay to bring people but when they came she freaked out on them. She later called and said sorry but I felt so bad for the members. I was just trying to help her build relationships with the members. Apparently she didn't want that. Haha. We met with an investigator that hasn't been met for a while. He has been praying for a while and likes the church still. He may have a problem with the word of wisdom. He thinks its too hard. We are going to try to build his faith in Christ and help him feel love towards the Savior.

Jarom hasn't been sending pictures. Luckily I found this on Facebook!

Saturday we went to the temple. That was super good. I got to talk to the the members along the way and build a pretty good relationship with some. I was able to ask them about a few past investigators. Since the sisters area was closed here a few transfers ago I was asking about their investigators. One of which a member here still keeps in contact with and when we got back from the temple we went to visit her. She wasn't home but we left a note saying we were thinking about her. The temple was awesome because I was trying to think "what does it mean to be a true disciple of Christ?" Thanks to Adam's example I was able to learn better what a true disciple would do. I want to be a true disciple.

Sunday. The person we went to go visit the day before texted the member and said she was so happy we came by and that next month she will try to come to church. She actually thought about the missionaries a few days ago and was so happy that we came by. I'm so grateful for the Spirit that helps us. I'm grateful for the promptings it gives me.

We dendoed and met 2 great kids who wanted to learn about the gospel. But they live in different areas. We gave them the Book of Mormon and ways to contact the missionaries in their areas. They were so cool! I'm so jealous for those missionaries that get to teach them!

Lastly. Cool miracle. Sunday night we visited an investigator family called K. They let us in and we talked. They said at first they won't go to church because they don't believe in God 100% (they are about 40 or 30). Then the kid busts in the room saying that he believes in God and the dad said "well lets try to go to church once." Yeah for children softening the hearts of parents.

Swimmers and Studs

The highlight of the week is that the other elders investigator got baptized on Saturday!!!! It was so cool. The kid is a stud. Hopefully he can help us soon move the work of salvation.

To be honest, a lot of the investigators we are working with aren't that very strong, they dropped a bunch of people before I came and the ones the had left before I came were on the line. So we need to start hitting the pavement hard to find those people who will listen. In April the colleges start up again so we can look forward to that. But until then there are still millions of people we can talk to!

Monday we tried to visit this one man named W, He talked a lot about what he believes which was exactly what we believed, just different terms and different ways to explain it. He just wouldn't give me the time of day to explain that they were very similar.

After him we did some dendo and found some new potential investigators. Hopefully we can talk about that some other time.

Tuesday we were able to meet with N, our baptismal date. He really understood repentance and the Spirit very well. He is doing well. We asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon is true. He said it was the most correct book on earth so I guess that means he thinks its true. Je is interesting. I'm not exactly sure where his testimony is. It seems like a lot of people liked the previous elder a lot because he was super kind. That's all that people say about him. Its really hard to fill a space that another
Elder has created, especially if that investigator or less active is only meeting us because of that Elder.

Wednesday we met with this woman named M. She is exactly like W from Miyako. Old and hilarious but very stern in what she believes. Which is nothing. Honestly we may just stop teaching her because she isn't really making any progress. She isn't meeting us to know if this is true, but rather because she wants to know why in the world we would believe in something like God.

Later that day we met this cool 85 year old who said he wanted to learn how to have a pure heart. His name is F. We brought a member to meet him on Thursday and it went really well. Hopefully he will progress but he is 85 years old. He has a really hard time walking.

We met this 16 year old on the street that is a drop out working for a painting company. He is super cool. He freaked out that we were missionaries. Also that we could talk to God. We met him on Wednesday and talked to him again on Thursday. He has free time on Sunday but he didn't come to church :( We will report more on him this next week.

Well our baptismal date N hadn't told us for weeks that he has suddenly decided to get heart surgery the week of his baptism. So he wont be able to be baptized since he will be in a hospital. But we gave him all the study things he basically needs to be baptized. Hopefully he will read it in the hospital.

Saturday and Sunday we dendoed. Saturday we had an activity where we played soccer with a bunch of people. We invited them to eikaiwa and some said they would come.

Random thing, I met a pro swimmer on the street. I told him I was a swimmer too and he said that it must be luck that we met. If we ever need anything he will take care of us. People here are so kind!

Sunday we worked super hard and no one really listened until the very last contact. An 18 year old boy who would love to have someone to talk to. Someone to rely on. We told him that he can do that with God and he said he would love that. We will try to meet him very soon.

That's about it for this week. Nothing really happened. The elders in our apartment are hilarious and I'm having a good time. The work is going to start picking up soon!

Transferred to Miyazaki

Well!!!! I'm no longer in Nago. It was quite a struggle to call all the members and say goodbye. Especially since that on the day we got our calls, we set a baptismal date with K. Leaving Nago when we have 3 baptismal dates and the other elders have 2 is really hard. Not because of the numbers but because of the people and the love you have put behind it. But now I am in Miyazaki and its quite a huge city compared with Nago. Its massive. Endless things to do. I have no idea what to do with it mostly since its been only my first week. I'm training again. Elder Davies. I'm with a transfer 2 missionary. Its slightly rough because he has no idea really what was going on with any of the investigators and appointments since he is so new. So its just stabbing in the dark right now. I'm also District Leader for Miyazaki and Miyakonojo. Its really interesting. Looking back on training with Knighton, I was super lucky to have a bean like him. Also I was very lucky to have a companion like Elder Olsen who understood things and we could teach well in unity. Now I have to train all over and think of what I need to say and then think of things the bean can say. The poor guy, he beats himself with the language and dendo. I look back and he is a lot of what I used to be like in the beginning. Well, some things that I used to do. 

Anyways, Monday,

We had one great lesson with S. Y. He was awesome!!!!! He said that he was going to pray to know if God exists. He really wants to know. Sad to see him off. I had a pretty rough feeling that I would leave him.

Tuesday we set a baptismal date with K. We said "would you want to have this happiness through baptism?" She said yes and we told her about a date and she went and wrote it on her calendar saying "what time would be best?" She is a great woman. SO very kind and hopefully she can be baptized on april 4th.

We went and dendoed after that. Set up some appointments for Sat and Friday.

Then we got our transfer calls. That ruined the mood for the night. I wanted to stay and continue the work Elder Olsen and I worked so hard to set up. But I know the Lord needs Olsen there and me somewhere else.

Wednesday we got to meet C. We reexplained baptism to her. She said that the feeling of wanting to get baptized is growing and growing. She also said she came to church on Sunday but was scared and walked away from the front door! Ahhhhhhhhh so close. Hopefully she came this past week.

Then we met M for a little bit then egawa one last time. K came to the church to say goodbye to me. T came too. I finished all my things and I headed to Okinawa city.

Thursday was all traveling. I got to Miyazaki at 6ish. then we went out to eat with the Branch President at 7. The BP is an American! He is so cool. The branch has about 60-80 people in it. So weird to have a big area and more people in our branch.

Friday planning and off to go dendo and visit a less active named I. We got there and she got a letter from her boyfriend's lawyer saying that she was a stalker. She was crying and saying how it was such a bad time for us to visit. But then we testified how Christ knows all her feelings and knows what she is going through. Not only that but he loves her. She said thank you and she said come back a different day.

We dendoed basically all Friday and Saturday. It was a little rough without Olsen. I don't know how to add my bean into the contacts. I would start to translate for him and say, what would you want to say to this? He would just say, I don't know, you take it. hmmmm.

The branch is super cool! I tried to memorize as many names as possible before Sunday and tried to talk to a lot of the members. The branch is hilarious. Very organized. Very warm. Its a really good place.

One thing that did happen is that we had a lesson with a man they have a baptismal date with. His name is N. Mid 40s. Little bit eccentric but a really good guy. He reads everything you give him and he wants to be baptized because he wants to be happy. His date is for the 14th so we need to get through the lessons. I can't really tell you the whole details mostly because I'm not quite sure myself.

We had a meal with members in which we invited that I shimai. She had a blast and kicked it off with the members. She wants to go again and she asked anytime we have a meal, she wants to go. yeah :)

That's all I can really say right now. I hope I can say more next week.

Love Elder J