Last Prep Day at the MTC!

Hi People! Well today is my last Prep day at the MTC!!! So everyone is so excited to get outta here! Anyways

Tuesday last week, I finished transforming my Book of Mormon! It's pretty awesome! I've got a little book of mormon inside of my japanese one, and it's awesome! The devotional on this tuesday was pretty awesome! It was on Faith and how faith is the foundation to everything. There is a reason that Faith is the first principle of the gospel! And from being here I've learned that concept pretty readily. It's the foundation for everything! Without it your not getting anywhere. The devotional review that night was really good too. We all bore testimony and the Spirit was ridiculously strong. It was a good time.

Wed. Today we got to host for the new missionaries coming into the MTC. I got to host a few of them so that was pretty fun! You get to take them around to the different places on campus and show them their classroom and stuff. It was pretty fun! We also watched a movie of Elder Holland giving his missionary talk from way back when, but it's ridiculous. He is obsessed with his mission and you can really tell! Obsessed in a good way, but he really sticks it to the man, like he always does. I also finished reading the Book of Mormon again. Our district goal was to finish it before we leave for Japan, and I finished on Wednesday, so that's good.

Thursday. Travel plans came today and everybody was freaking out! It was crazy! Everybody is so excited to get outta here. I leave on August 2nd and I go to SLC airport and fly strait to Narita airport in Nippon! Then I get to take the Shinkansen to Sendai! I'm stoked! Usually people don't get to take the train, but our group gets to! Woo! It's going to be awesome! The TRC was today too and it turned out pretty good. Pretty regular if I do say so. Felt the Spirit and taught our best, but nothing too amazing happened. We're also hearing a ton of our teachers stories about Japan and it's getting everybody even more excited! So it's going to be awesome.

Friday, I learned that if you have the spirit of contension with you, you can't feel the spirit, and if you try the best to supress the contention then the Holy Ghost can really calm souls. We also reviewed all of the super-awesome Analogys me and Shaw choro have for the Lessons. We have like 20 different ones, it's crazy! But so helpful to explain.

Saturday, Not much happened. We had our last Teaching Evaluation with Durney sensei and it was awesome! He is a "genkisugiru hito", but he is great! The TE went wonderfully.

Sunday, Always the best day of the Week! Priesthood was about Lesson 3 in PMG and we pretty much just went over the concepts, it was great! Then Sacrament, the talks were on repentance, and I did NOT get called up to speak! Yes! Muahaha...just kidding, but seriously, I didn't so I was happy! ^^ We also had a travel meeting today about Pre-departure stuff, and that got everybody even more stoked to get outta here! Great advise for traveling and it was good. The fireside this night was on LDS Homefront comercials. Well it wasn't on the commercials but we got to watch a ton of them and some of the ol' school ones are hilarious! It was a good time! He talked about Bad cultures that we get from home, and anything that is not Christlike culture should be surpessed or better yet gotten rid of. Things like contension and lazyness etc. It was a good talk non-the-less. I love the Homefront commercials too, they are the bomb!

Monday, In the morning we had another meeting about Japan, but this one was a much more spiritual one. He talked about how if we don't think we are going to baptize then we won't. It's amazing how much they emphisize this fact here. But they are not lying about Japan being a baptizing country! Japan is going to boom! It's on its way as we speak! There have been prophecies about Japan that have been made, that are only going to happen if we make them happen! Elder Grant...first Elder in Japan, made so many prophicies that are being fulfilled right now! We just have to believe we can baptize and we will. If there was even 1% of the people that are ready to hear the gospel thats like...well I can't do math right now, but you can do the Math. It's tons of people! Even .01% of the people is tons of people, so the Elect are waiting and they know not where to find it. They showed a slide show of Japan and the Japanese people and my heart burned. It burned with a fire like I've never felt before. i dunno if anyone else in the room felt it, but it was real. There are people waiting that God has prepared for me, and they need to hear the message. I'm getting so excited. The LGM was on baptizing people too, so all the meetings were set up specifically for us to have Faith in our work, have Faith in the Lord, and have Faith that we will have success. It's great here, the zone is awesome, the district is awesome, and my companion is awesome! I can't wait to get to Japan and find the people that have been waiting for decades for this message of hope. I wish you all farewell and good luck with life! Kami, good luck with your talk! Maybe it was last Sunday, but I hope you did good!

I think, 2 more weeks left!

Hey Everybody!!!! It's bright an early in the morning and a great looking Prep day! 6:15 doesn't look so good! So I hear that I'm getting a Chinese cousin!!! That's so awesome! I'm so excited! Thanks for the news Tobin!

So Tuesday of last week. A brother Halverson spoke to us about finding people. There was a young missionary who was complaining that "My job is not to find people, it's to teach people" and Brother Halverson being the mission president said something like, "You can not teach those you can not find." We are the Fishers and Hunters of men. Our job is to find people and to teach people whether they be in flocks (fish) or individually (hunters). I just remember that part from Bro. Read's class, but yeah. He did talk about that scripture too. So we have to be really good finders. He told us that if we want to see baptisms on a regular basis that we need to keep our investigator pool big! Always look for people. Always try to find people even if you thing you have a ton of investigators! And he also taught that if you open your mouth, words will be put in by the Spirit. So yeah Talk to everybody was the lesson here.

Wed. We gave a blessing to Morrison Choro, the aussie, and he is going to have surgery tomorrow, so yeah, we gave him a blessing and we are all praying for him and hopeing he will do good.

Thur. TRC was today and it was good. We were answering tons of his questions and he was talking a ton so that was good. Today in class Bradley and Baba sensei were telling us stories from their mission and it was just so cool to see all the miracles and blessings. I'm always praying for miracles to happen on my mission and I have a hope that they will.

Fri. So today I got the opportunity to skip class and help Morrison Choro study. So we were sitting there eating lunch and I was just trying and trying to figure out what he needed help with, because we talked about it before a few times about what exactly he needed. So I tried and tried and we just weren't getting anywhere! So he decided to go get a drink a this moment and I decided to say a pray helping me to know what help him with. A simple prayer, and right when he came back we instantly found the exact thing he needed. I all-the-sudden figured out exactly what I needed to do to help him in pretty much every aspect of learning Japanese! We went over conjugating verbs, grammar patterns, speaking the language, translating the language, particles...in the same tecnique. Amazing way to study! and to make it better, he was in a wheelchair, needed the "drowsy" pain killers for his leg, just had surgery and he managed to stay 100% focused for 3 hours strait. It was so crazy. So I officially count it as a miracle whether or not it anyone else thinks so.

Sat. I learned today that closing with a prayer when teaching really puts a stamp on what you teach. Me and Shaw choro always have trouble remembering to open our lessons with a prayer and always forget closing with one too. So today I remembered to close with a prayer and really felt the spirit put a stamp on what we said. So we decided that opening prayers can be optional, but closing prayers are a nessecity! Anyways...I really felt the power.

Sun. fireside was on Inviting and Helping people come unto christ. Our job as missionaries are to Invite and Help Nothing more, nothing less. It's the investigators job to Come unto Christ and Recieve. Our purpose is plain and simple. We invite and help people. He also told us a bunch of things about how we need to be more of a Preach my Gospel missionary and the MTC is working to change the way we teach drastically from the olden days!

Mon. LGM was about helping people recieve the restored gospel. It was pretty much about testifying. You don't wan't to bible bash, you don't want to argue. Our job is to Invite, if they don't accept the invitation then move on. The elect are waiting and the people around you are watching. The only thing you should do is to testify, and this can be applicable in you lives as well. If someone decides to argue with you about the doctrines, then don't argue back, just testify and walk away! I also learned last night that God answers questions to things you never knew you had questions too. I got an answer to something I didn't even know I had a question too last night and it was pretty awesome.

Anyways, one extra thing I have learning just from everyday is how important working with members is. And this is really applicable to everyone. Be kind and friendly to new members and investigators. They really need someone to help them out. They need a friend to help them feel welcome. A good example of this is my Dad, I just always remember him saying hi to new members and being friendly to them. I really appriciate the example, but we can all do better! Really fellowship them, because that's the way to help them feel the spirit in their lives even more! Anyways, someone is messing with my laundry, so I gotta go! Peace and Eternal Families!

3 Weeks left!

Hey sorry for the wait! The computers here at the MTC are ridiculous...I don't know why but I suppose it's hard to keep a network like this up and running. Anyways, so Tuesday of last week...So in the morning on Tuesday we had the opportunity to help clean the Temple! since it's been down for some time now, we got the opportunity to go and clean it! It was kind of weird seeing the Temple all run down like that, but they are doing a good job and they are putting a new chandaliar up in the Baptisimal font which is pretty cool. They let us see it! So all we did to help clean the Temple was we cleaned the lockers! they handed us a bunch of q'tips and toothpicks and had us clean the missionary lockers! So yeah they are pretty serious about making the House of the Lord a clean place! It was a good expierience! I loved it! So then Tuesdays Devotional was pretty amazing! Bro Dellenbach talked about evidences of the Book of Mormon. It seems like we've been getting a ton of these lately, but if I can remember right, he talked a ton about the Witnesses and different things like that. Anyways, the testimony meeting after the devotional was so great! Everyone's testimony was so strong and it was such a spiritual uplifting time. A few of the Elders in my district are having so many troubles with health as of late. One just got an eye infection and the other is having bone spurs, and they are companions and there could be a question of whether of not they get to come with us, but hopefully they do. That same night we did a blessing on Dick choro's eyes that they might heal. It was good.

Wednesday. Today we did some more blessings. There is an Elder Christy that was having trouble with health too and I gave him a blessing and we also gave Morrison Choro a blessing for his bone spurs. Since Wednesday they are doing really great! Except Morrison choro has to get surgery so we're praying that he can heal in time before we leave for Nippon.

Thursday. TRC day, we taught the Plan of Salvation in Nihongo for the 1st time. It went really good!

Friday. Service day, we cultivated the grounds. We also started a progressing investigator with Kimikosan! It's kind of like we go to teach her every week and coninue meeting where we left off and such. They don't give us any feedback or anything, so it's kinda like real life! It's pretty awesome though.

Saturday. We started another Progressing Inves. with Tanakasan...same deal! Teaching the gospel is awesome!

Sunday. Always a great Sabbath day. Jenny Oaks Baker came to talk to us and she is the daughter of Elder Oaks. She is a world renoun violinist and she is amazing! She has played for ever and even played at Carnagie Hall. So her fireside of course was of her playing her music. She was amazing. I actually felt like we we're chasing off the spirit when we sang the closing song...haha. It was beautiful! I suggest you buy her stuff...I don't know if she sells any, but if she does I would recommend it. During this fireside our district had the opportunity to usher at the devotional so we got to show people where to sit and stuff. It was cool, but more cool then that was that since we were ushering we got good seats and we sat 4 rows behind Elder Oaks, so our whole district got to know the back of his head really well! haha...but it was amazing! I can't even say it better then that...

Monday. So today we got some new international Nihonjin. We got to see them all before anyone else! Ha! Again! haha....they are pretty awesome! not all of them are here yet...well maybe they are here now, but last night we talked to them and did Jikoshokai's and stuff...(introductions) and they are pretty awesome! One is like exactly the opposite from me. He is half and he speaks a little english, like just as much as I speak japanese. But this new batch of Natives are pretty much all half japanese or not japanese at all! Everyone has an un-japanese name, so it's kind of funny. The Shimaitachi (sisters) are all full, but none of the elders are full! haha...I thought that was funny! Anyways, the LGM (Large Group Meeting) today was was good. It was about learning how to feel the spirit and when you are feeling it and how to know what to do when you are feeling it. It's awesome! The Lord works on his own time and you are just an instrument. He will do it when he wants, how he wants and where he wants it done. So you just have to be ready all the time just in case the time comes. Anyways...wow, I'm like done already and I still have 8 minutes...crazy! Well....thanks everyone for all the letters I appriciate them. And I hope me reply's are satisfactory! If not let me know and I will repent! Anyway's Everyone is doing great and we are all praying that everyone can get outta the MTC safely and with no more problems. The New Native Nihonjin are finally here which means we have 3 more weeks, and we are off! I'm so excited to get out of here! It's a great place, but 12 weeks of the same thing is getting tireing...Anyways, I've been running a 5k pretty much everyday during gym so that's pretty awesome. Not that it's doing anything cause when we get back to the room's everyone has junk food that they feed me and so it pretty much even's out...haha! Except for yesterday I ran a 10k so that was way legit! I was pretty much running 75% full capacity the whole time in order to get done in 50 minutes! It was intense and I felt like dying afterwards...anyways, haha this is not even important. Yes, so the Gospel's true and Monson is our prophet today and he does talk with God about what we need to do to return to him. The gospel changes people in ways you would never believe! It's amazing how much there is out there that you don't know until you hand yourself to God and let him take the ropes. I hope everyone is doing great. I'm always praying for you all! Be safe and remember Him in all you do! Peace~! ^^

New Missionaries!

Konnichiwa! So this week was way awesome! We got some new Missionaries and it was the 4th of July weekend and Canada Day! haha...just for my companion...So yeah, I don't have way too much today but I figured it was boring without some colour anyways...haha.

So on Tuesday this week the devotional was with Sis Elaine Dalton, the young womens president or something along those lines. She talked to us about Faith and Virtue and Diligence etc... It was an interesting talk and I got some interesting things from it. There was one line in there that I especially liked. It was about a guy from Tazmania that had a broken leg but he was running in a marathon or something. And when he crossed the finish line way way in last place they asked him why he even decided to keep going and this is the quote: "My country didn't send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race." I really really like that quote because it teaches that when we start something the Lord tells us to do, or even just anything that we start we should always have the will to finish it. It's especially prevelant on the mission, but I figured it could be applied to anything!

Wednesday. 29 atarashii senkyoshi!!! (New missionaries) Woo! They are pretty awesome! The new missionaried have only been here a week tomorrow, and it made me think of my Sempai (older group of missionaries) and it made me think of the experiences that I've had since then! Awesome. There are two of them that are way good at Japanese so they came into our district! It's pretty awesome. And for those of you that know Elder Sheehan, we met like the first day and we run a 5k together like every day, so yeah. We're pretty much tight!

Thursday! So today was the TRC again! It was our 2nd time teaching in Japanese with the first lesson. It went way awesome as it always does! But on a brighter note (to my companion) Today was also Canada Day! His mom sent him a Canada tie and he wore it to see if any Americans would say anything since it was close to the 4th of July...haha.

Friday! Today we read over The Canon and Bible, History of in the Bible dictionary today because thats what they wanted us to read before the special fireside on Saturday. So it was way interesting. If you happen to find yourself with a lot of nothing to do, I would suggest reading that. Other then that, don't. But yeah way interesting!

Saturday was pretty awesome! In class we played a game where we would give each member in the class the attribute what we thought they had the most of. It was pretty cool! Everbody contributes in a different way and it's amazing! I got the most of Charity and Love which was pretty cool! Anyways, the fireside was way cool too. It was a special fireside about the founding of America and how it brought to pass the restoration of the gospel! It talked about how the Founding Fathers created this country specifically for Joseph Smith to restore the gospel! It was way cool! The circumstances were just right for him to restore it which gives me an even greater testimony that this Church is true!

Sunday, today was fast sunday again! We did another group fast which was pretty cool! Except for we had 2 new missionaries with us. Speaking of which, I'm so glad that I got to stay another 8 weeks! The MTC is one of the best places to get way good practise and to learn how to teach to needs of people. I now know why God wanted me to stay another 8 weeks and why it didn't work out that I would've got to go early. Thank goodness! Anyway, yeah Then on sunday we had another fireside which was way good! It was about the Book of Mormon and about how the testimonies of the 8 and 3 witnesses are pretty convincing truth that the Book of Mormon is not a hoax. The Brother talked about how we have some technology to test to know how to count specific types of words in a letter or something and how if you really research the background of the 8 and 3 witnesses it's crazy to see how firm they were in their testimonies. Oliver Cowdry and David Whitmer even were excommunicated and they still didn't deny the Book of Mormon was the word of God! So That's something I want to research a little more when I get back is the history of the 3 and 8 witnesses! Because there is so much power behind it! But non-the-less even without all the convincing evidence that the Book of Mormon is true there is always one thing that you can count on is God telling you by his Spirit that it is true. And this is a vey important point because this is how people come to know that this is God's church and that the Book of Mormon is the Word of Christ!

Monday, Like always the LGM's are always a blast! We talked about how the Book of Mormon is pretty much the only tool you need to convert someone. When you have the Spirit guiding you and the Book of Moromon with some verse applying to thier life, it's instant conversion! Bro. Willmore (Awesome!) Always gives us stroies and stuff about his experience in Sendai and it's so awesome! He told amazing miracle stories where he would use the Book of Mormon and the person he was talking to would instantly have their heart Softened! It's amazing what the Book of Mormon can do when you apply it to the Investigators life rather then just giving them stuff to read. And not even investigators, but anyone you find on the street that has a problem in their life. Anything anyone says will be relateable to the Scripures and a truth of the gospel! And that tool is one of the most powerful things you can get!

Anyways I've got to go, peace everybody! Thanks for all the support! I love you all!