Halloween on Miyako?

We are planning to have a Halloween party. So this week we went and visited a bunch of dropped investigators and so so investigators as well as our investigators and church members. We made invite cards and we are having an English Halloween party. We will teach kids so English vocab and have games. We think it will turn out great :)

Other than that. nothing really happened this week. We did see a miracle this week when we went to visit a less active. He wasn't there but his mom just returned home. We talked to her a bit and she was kinda down on life. We talked about how we can live with families forever and that made her really interested. So out of that she became a new investigator and I'll be teaching her tomorrow. Tomorrow we are having a companion exchange. Ill be with the other second transfer bean. But he is Japanese. Wish me luck.

S`s date dropped. We don't know when she can receive baptism. It can be anywhere from now and 4 years. Her daughter is the one it depends on. Because she wants to be married but can't. In Japan it is law to change your name if your parents marry other people. Unlike in America where you can keep your name. And her daughter doesn't want to change her name before getting married.

Here are some amazing photos.

Jameson 長老

It's amazing what you can do when you trust the Lord

I got 7 letters this week. 2 from the sisters in the ward (the missionaries) (LOVE Sister Bunnell and Hermana Howard!!) and one from sister Kuroiwa. One from Brittany, Codi, and Andrew. It was a happy week.

Other than that nothing really happened.

Shimozato hit a huge wall. She is living all the commandments with no problem. She said she is looking forward to living the law of tithing. She is perfect and ready for baptism. But she may not receive it on Saturday mostly because she took in a male friend. They have no relationship and haven't ever had that kind of relationship. She is just giving him a place to stay. Just because of all of that she can't be baptized. Becuase she is too kind she can't.

On the other side, we have two other women who can receive baptism next month. We extended the invitation to be baptized and they said they want to but they need to think about it. One of those 2 lessons was in English. Hahahaha I finally got to actually teach. She is from the Philippines and she is fluent in English, Tagalog and Japanese.

Other than that we didn't have much luck with meeting anyone so we fasted on Sunday and somehow we ran into a lot of amazing potential investigators. It's amazing what you can do when you trust the Lord. Sacrifice really does bring forth the blessings of heaven!

I have little to no time because things are kinda messed up today because we helped a less active this morning.

Jameson 長老

Take courage and stop being idle

Helloooo!

So transfer calls. were. boring. Everyone is the same.

But that means we get to work with S still.

other than that, honestly nothing happened all week. Failed commitments, "I' good", less actives not interested. Nothing.

So this week. 2 things really happened. Law of chastity lesson with S. She is the perfect emblem of faith and brightness in this world. Seriously she took off work on the 26th already so she can be baptized. She went up to Okinawa this weekend and wasn't able to attend conference with us. But we called a man in Naha that could take her to Saturday morning (she called us saying "I'm so sorry i can only go to Saturday morning... is that okay?"). If you think over all the talks for Saturday morning.... are they not perfect for a person who is preparing to become a member? I know that there is divine revelation for these talks. And all those people who talked on Saturday, they talked for S.

She came by the church while the other elders where there yesterday and she said she absolutely loved conference.

Not only that but she bought us cookies. What a wonderful person.

But we also were very concerned because we had to teach tithing next.... and she has a very tight life right now. But Bednar during his talked stressed the importance of tithing. That was Saturday morning. How is it really the only talk during conference about tithing was when our investigator was watching. Divine revelation.

Anyways the church is true. What I learned from conference is this: If you aren't opening your mouth, if you aren't doing your share of the work, YOU are slowing the work of salvation. You are not doing your duty to your Heavenly Father. Take courage and stop being idle. We all have at least one person we can bring to the light of this gospel.

Thats all I have time for today. so I love you!!!!

Jameson 長老

ps. Caught some fishies! and ate some sugar cane. The biggest fish is mine. its called ojiisan. Mostly because of the whiskers. They look like a beard. But it was really strong and tasted quite good. not like fish at all. It was like a foot long.

There is power in prayer

Helloooo all!!!!

We haven't watched conference yet. we watch it this weekend. But instead of 2 hour breaks, we only have an hour break per session. I like that. We were trying to figure out which session to invite people to.

Gandy may leave. We aren't sure but the call will come later today. I'll probably be here for 3 more transfers. Nakabe, I think will stay one more transfer and make it 5 here on Miyako. Nara choro might leave because he got into a pretty nasty bike accident last week and broke his two front teeth. It was yabai. He was bleeding everywhere.

SOOOoOOOOOOooOO this week was rough.

We had little contact with anyone because that typhoon came through on Saturday. Saturdays and Sundays are our most important days because we get the most done. But it was a really bad storm. Probably similar to a level 4 or 5 hurricane. The sugar cane fields around us were torn to bits. I took recordings of it but they are too big to send so those will come when I mail the card.

The power went out around 6 on Saturday night and stayed out til 9 the next morning. it was the worst because we were in pitch black darkness. We sang songs to pass the time. The sleep was hard because it was in 100% humidity. The water stopped working as well so I took a shower with bottled water. That was shocking because it was freezing cold.

But I offered a fasting prayer and asked to have the power back on. 5 minutes after the prayer the lights went back on. THERE IS POWER IN PRAYER!

So awesome sause with S again. So we taught the WOW last week and we asked her how she was doing. She dropped coffee cold turkey. We watched the restoration video and afterwards she said she knows that experience is true and that Joseph is a prophet and that the Book Of Mormon is true. When we told her that we might be transferred... she said it was super sad because who was going to baptize her. Man this lady is so amazing. During our last lesson I told Gandy we needed to make a prayer rock for her and give her a triple combination. We did so at the end of the lesson. She started crying. first off because when she bought her bible, it cost a lot. (for some reason) so receiving free scriptures really touches her heart (and that triple was my triple so I need to buy a new set) and her son all the time when he was young would always write God on rocks he found. (so the rock we found, we went to the beach and looked for 30 minutes for the perfect white rock.Then we wrote prayer on it.) All in all she says that it really means so much to her that there are people who are actually sent from God. She said that she knows God sent us. Every time we teach she can feel it. That brings so much joy to me. Every time we see someone hold that Book of Mormon for the first time... and they look at it with wonder brings so much joy. When they say they feel something after reading a pamphlet, that brings so much joy. After they pray they say they feel warm. My heart jumps. All I can do is smile because my joy is full. Even when people slam doors or deny our truth. The great things out weigh the sad things.

That's all I have time for today!

Love you

Jameson 長老

pictures are from the black out!

Teach people and not lessons

This week has been crazy. We haven't been able to get much done because we got a call on last Monday night that we were going to Okinawa for president interviews. There I got to meet my district and zone. I also bought my rain gear which came in handy yesterday when it was raining hard.

I love Gandy chourou and he is amazing. He has taught me so much about working hard. He worked so hard that he has a cold now. We couldn't do anything except contact 1 person and go to church yesterday.










On Tuesday I went fishing with a less active.

It was so much fun and I caught 3 of the most pathetic looking things in the world.

So this week`s amazing miracle and week`s sad lesson.... let's do the lesson first.

So the lady asked us what the significance of religion was. We sat on the question for 2 weeks before we could visit her again. I said we should base it off of Ether 12:4 - hope. Religion gives us hope for the unknown and through that hope we need not fear. That's basically what we taught her. I related how grandpa died and how I know I will see him again. Gandy`s father died when he was 14 and he used that as well. We said we have this hope and faith because of our religion. We asked her iF she wanted something like that. She said it sounds great. Gandy held out a Book of Mormon and basically said, Would you try your faith and read this book. She said she thinks it would be too hard and doesn't think she can do it. I think we won't visit her for awhile, but it was such a powerful testimony that I can't explain with words.

Miracle: S again!!!!

So this lady is straight from a gold mine. She comes to church on Sunday with her sister. She is a better member missionary than the members are. But we followed up on the lesson 3 pamphlet and 2 Nephi chapter 31. She said she thinks baptism is essential and enduring to the end is hard but she thinks she can do it. We then taught her about commandments and the W.O.W. She accepted and said she would follow it then and there. Not only this, her sister was in the lesson as well. She said she wanted to try to live it and she wants to investigate the church. But she lives on Okinawa. So we had to call the sisters in her area. But still, its amazing that the W.O.W got her excited about the church. It goes to show that you need to teach people and not lessons. Not everything is for everyone.

Anywhoooooooo

I have not gotten anything from anyone except Brittany. I"ve gotten two great long letters from her! Where are my friends? I want to talk to people! Its hard only just having Gandy to talk to. (I love him, but regardless, its nice to hear from others.)

My friends have forgotten about me :( my family too! Nara chourou got this huge package from his family last night. it makes me saddddddd!

Anywho.

Ill talk to you next week. Here are some photos. The spider one is of Gandy.

The spider is the size of his face.

Jameson 長老

Baptisms in Miyako!

Hello from the strange land of Miyako! Where you can never tell when it is going to start to rain, or stop.

Seriously that has been one of the biggest annoyances here. It starts to rain so we pull off somewhere and put our rain gear on and then it stops raining. Then we are wet and hot inside our rain gear. (Which by the way, I still don't have because I can't buy any around here!) (As a mom, I am tormented with the desire to fix this problem for my boy. BUT, I kinda' think he can get a Japanese rain suit much easier than I can!)

I never cook because the Asian here is a master cook. He won't let anyone else cook.

Gandy and the Asians and I play ping pong. We are actually extremely good and it gets pretty serious.

So to be completely honest, this week has sucked. A lot. Like none of our investigators pulled through. We made about 60 percent on our goal to contact. We didn'st have any sudden lessons or really found any new investigators (besides ones that became new investigators that we found from other weeks.) We had almost everyone reject us. Haha one case though, we ran into this old man and he said he didn't want our religion but he thought we were so handsome. His words were "why are you two so handsome:" And one investigator asked us if were married (the statement before that was that we were so handsome) and I'm not sure if she meant to each other or not. And Gandy thought the same thing. So he said we weren't married and that we only work together and that he has some girl at home. Then he said that I had choices and one of which looks like she might become a girlfriend after the mission. Then she asked us what our ages were. He said 20, I said 19 and she was like "ehhhhhh wakai desu yo!" And she had us guess her age. Gandy guessed 29. I guessed 33. She was 40 with a 16 year old daughter.

But now its time to be serious. Do you remember that woman I talked about a couple of weeks ago? She asked us to come back on the 19th? Well, we came back. And it was as Gandy said "one of the most spiritual experiences on his mission." As soon as we talked about how God was our Heavenly Father, she started crying. Then we continued throughout the whole first lesson. (Which is interesting thing. Gandy and I were going to teach the second lesson because of her dead son she told us about. But that morning we both agreed that we felt the first lesson and the restoration was what we needed to talk to her about.) She had this bible that she bedazzeled, which I thought was cute. But cool fact. The bible we use in Japanese is not the same one we use for English. For copyright problems, we couldn't use the King James version. And the bible the church uses in Japanese is the one she had so it made things easier. But anyways, we went through the lesson and everything was great. I got to testify of the Book of Mormon and how if it was true then God truly restored His church in these days. I said we can know if it is true through prayer. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to pray.

On Sunday she showed up to church. We didn't even ask her to come. She came with the Book of Mormon wrapped up in very fine cloth to protect it. We taught her the second lesson during second hour. When we explained Adam and Eve, she said she loved that way of how it is explained. And when we got to the 3 kingdoms, she exclaimed how that's how she thought it was. God`s kingdom is the glory of the sun. Later she said how she thought her dead son was leading her to the correct church.

So even though Miyako has been dry for 2 years, we had a baptism for boys of church members who went to Youth conference. These boys are 14 and when they came back they wanted to be baptized. Not only that, the other companionship got 3 new people with baptism dates. I forgot to mention how if S came to know if the Book of Mormon was true, if she would be baptized. She said yes. So we have a baptism date for the 26th of October!

This is all I have time for. I love you guys and stay strong. the lord will provide for those who are patient.

Jameson 長老

Totsuzen and a heavily burdened missionary

Hello from an already heavy burdened missionary.

I looked in the mirror the other day... and I'm glad I'm wearing glasses because they cover up the bags that have developed.

It is so tiresome. We go sometimes 4 hours and only contact 5 people. But recently times have changed.
We have this thing called a totsuzen lesson (sudden lesson) where we teach like 2-3 concepts. We contacted 106 people last week. We taught 27 totsuzen lessons. That is - one in four people allowed us to continue teaching. A lot of them said we could come back. Out of those people (some carried over form last week) we found 6 investigators this week. 3 of them said that they would come to church this next week.

The other companionship here are two Japanese elders. Elder Bakabe and Elder Nara. (Onara is to pass gas so we poke fun of him sometimes.) They are both 20 and they are from around Tokyo. Nakabe Chourou keeps us fed so I'm not starving. I'm just thirsty all day long. I drink maybe 3-4 liters of water each day and I sweat it all out. As I ride my bike or I'm walking, I feel it running down my entire body. I swear when I come home and take off my white shirt, pants, and socks, there is just this death that is released into the air and man... it is horrible.

I forgot my camera at the apato. So yeah, no pictures.

My bike, the church here has their own transportation service they use so they will ship it for me.

Letters are going to be really hard because I seriously have less time than I did at the MTC to write. We have so much we have to do each week. I'll write you guys as soon as I get your letter. But I can't write for right now.

Speaking of writing, can you send Sarah and Dylan my address and tell them to write me? It's hard being on an island with only one person that can speak English (well except John, the English teacher who teaches free English on the same day we do.) (Sarah and Dylan are his very good friends from swim.)

Can you also get into contact with Amanda Sensei? I would like to get into contact with her. Could you ask her to email me? (Amanda Sensei is his Japanese teacher from high school.)

Also can you get me Masako`s email? I want to try to keep in contact with her. (Masako is our very dear friend who is from Nagoya.)

But no I want peanut butter and I can't just ask my zone leaders. I'm a plane ride away form Okinawa. They aren't going to buy stuff and send it to me. But maybe for Christmas you can send some. And I'm still being soaked with rain. (They have rain suits in Japan. It rains horizontally there and anything we sent with him would not have helped. Because of their flight delay, he was not on the big island long enough to purchase one. He is getting soaked!)

So there have been many things that have been really amazing this week.  The other companionship got 82 contacts in one day when we only got 23. They taught 8 totsuzen lessons, when we taught 9.

Uhhh what to say... we found this older lady who is completely in love with us. She thinks we are just the hardest working kids she has seen in her life. We always go to her house when we are feeling just completely awful and she always listens. She brought her husband out and asked him if we were just the cutest things. He agreed and it actually was a funny experience. They are 2 of the people coming to church next week. We found this old guy who is retired. We taught him a little bit and we had to go. When we were leaving he said that we can come back anytime since he was retired. He said he would love to talk. But then he noticed our name tags. He saw the kanji 長老 which literally means old old and it's used for old people. He said that's a really interesting name so we explained how it was a title. That made him want to learn more.

Another quick one. This guy, we only taught about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We left him with a Book of Mormon. Usually when we leave stuff people never read it. (You know they are good when they read it) But he read all the intro and part of the Book of Mormon and said it's interesting. We invited him to church and he said he will try to come.

We have quite a bit of people who are interested in coming to church. It's amazing to see how a branch who hasn't seen any action in 2 years has 20 plus investigators and 3 people with baptism dates (not us because the Japanese companionship got all of the progressing investigators when me and Nara Chourou arrived. Gandy Chourou and Nakabe Chourou were companions before I came here so they split the investigators to favor the Japanese because Nakabe is only on his 4th transfer). But we think we can have 4-5 baptized next month.

Anywho its time for me to say my goodbyes!

Jameson 長老