Week 23 - Back on My Bike - 26 September 2016

First off I am back on my bike. I only had to ride the pogo stick bike for four days. That was a pretty neat experience. I'm not really sure how I punctured it. I was just being regular me on a bike and it....um popped.

We actually found two new investigators this week! One of them is about a college aged kid and he said yeah I'd like to meet. So we set up an appointment and he didn't show up. So sad day there. But the other guy lately we have been reviewing previous dropped investigators from our area book and we've been calling them and one of them said he wants to meet and so we have a lesson with him next week. Also a college student. Things are going really well here in Joetsu at the moment. If we get one more Melchizedek priesthood holder in the group then we will become a branch. We just found that out like last week so kinda exciting. Right now we are teaching a kokosei named Youta Kun. He is 17 and really wants to learn truth. Ogata Choro and I taught him at the beginning of my second transfer. He's been way busy so we just had our second lesson on Tuesday. We had to do it over Skype but it was a good lesson and he has admitted to feeling the spirit. He is so nice and so prepared for the gospel. We are going to invite him to baptism if we can meet this week. And he will probably accept if we explain everything right. 

We have also been trying to find new Dendou methods as a lot of people seem to know us or have talked to us before. We have a big area so this past week we went and tried to find some other areas where we can Dendou. It was super beautiful in these other areas but there weren't really any great spots to Dendou sadly.

As far as cooking goes, if you want to send recipes you can but we are good, we kinda just make every meal together so it is not bad at all. However in my next package if you could send some salsa, Taco Bell sauce, and
in n out sauce that would be great!

Will you tell Ben Maughn to email me and have the priests email all the missionaries for a mutual activity or something. We did that for the missionaries when I was a priest and then that way I can really talk to them. Have them send like questions about missions, life, the gospel, anything they have interest in really. I think that would be most beneficial. Also that way I know how I can help them rather than send a bunch of emails that are like 97% the same thing. Tell him to make sure I get all of their emails. They can just send it to me if they want. They don't have to send it to all the missionaries I guess. Ma whatever Ben thinks is best.
Also with that how's Alec doing? Always want to know what's up with him.

Thanks love you!

This weeks photos/videos
My companion sounds like an apostle sometimes. Crazy neh?

Rice Field's

Thought for the week:

Week 22 - New Companion (Elder Broberg) - 17 September 2016

I just want to say for the record that a little while ago I was thinking about Will Watanabe and I pretty much decided my self that he would come to the Tokyo Japan mission so no surprise there.  Will's family and ours have been friend for many years.  We met them when we lived in Tokyo the first time in 1989.  They were also living in Japan when we lived there in 2000 and we have kept in touch all these years.  In fact Will and his dad stayed at our home last year while attending a Stanford Football camp.  So we were so excited that he was called to the same mission as Mason and hope they get to serve together at some point.  Just some fun other trivia - 6 out of 7 (one sister did not serve a mission) member's of Will's family have served in different missions in Japan.  Travis served in the same mission as Will's older sister, she had just come home when he went out.  They currently live in Provo and have been there since 2002.

Ok as for exciting news. Not much. My new companion is great! He's kinda a goofball but I love him. He told me he doesn't know what it is but he tends to bring the weird out of all of his companions hahahah.  We are getting along real well hahaha

Well I never actually got to say goodbye to my companion cause we had to go to Niigata for transfers cause that's how it works and he and someone else that was getting transferred had to leave way early in the morning and he didn't want to wake me up. He did how ever write me a note so that was nice. Anyway he was great and I miss him but this new transfer has a lot of new opportunities and new things to learn.

Friday night I punctured my bike's back tire so I've been riding basically a pogo stick on wheels. It's kind of humiliating but I'm embracing it. Hopefully my bike will be fixed today but for now I'm working hard on the one geared pogo stick.

As far as other things go this week went by so fast. Elder Broberg and I set some high transfer goals for Joetsu and we are trying to find some more effective Dendou ideas. It's been raining the last three days and soon winter is going to come and it is going to be way hard to do regular Dendou so we are trying to find some new effective ways.

Anyway if you could send me more of those little Jesus pictures/postcards that you sent me in the MTC that would be great. You don't need to rush on them but next time you feel like sending a package those would be great. I am going to leave them as like notes for investigators and less actives when we visit and they aren't there.

A little about Elder Broberg- He's from Provo.  He is in transfer 11 I think. Works way hard and yells at people in English to get their attention. His Japanese is way good and he's a great companion. We laugh a lot and sometimes we lose focus but we decided as a companionship we are going to be better about that.

I'm way excited for this transfer as I think we will really start to see some big miracles take place.

Also in October Elder Bernard is going to come and talk to the two Tokyo missions. Usually the Niigata Zone doesn't get to go to mission conferences as we are so far away and it costs so much, but we get to this time! I'm way pumped for him.

Also shouts out to Sister Nagano and her flattering message about me. I loved it. If you could send me a picture of it that would be great! Like the whole conversation please!  I have added the picture with the conversation below so you can see what Sister Nagano (She is his Missions President's wife) said about him.  It also includes messages with Will Watanbe's mom.  It is truly a small world and I love when we get to cross path's with those from our past!!!!!

Love you!
Here are some pictures!
Elder Broberg's mom wants him to take more pictures so we are making it a companionship effort!

Facebook conversations

Thought for the week:

Week 21 - Ogata Choro goes home - 11 September 2016

Ok here is this weeks email. A lot is going to change before the rest of my week is over.

First thing is first. I got your package on Tuesday! Yes the Oreos are gone. I taught Elder Ogata how to eat them properly. You know dip it in milk for a few seconds until it is just right, you know  all of that stuff. He also enjoyed them.  We ate them while we finished watching the 12 weeks program video for me as a celebration of finishing
training. Picture included.

He has been such a great example to me and I'm so thankful for him. He's a little upset and sad he's leaving. One of the people that was supposed to be leaving with him called President Nagano and apparently you can extend for 30 days so he did that. Now Ogata Choro is a little upset as he found out too late and can't do that. But guess who can. Yup! Me!!! So add an extra thirty days to your calendar. Thanks love,you!

Next thing my new companion is also a blonde gaijin. I think he's from Provo, Utah. He's around his tenth transfer right now and has been a Zone Leader for the last five transfers so I think it's safe to say I got another dang good companion. Maybe because I did my time in the MTC I will be rewarded with good companions for the rest of my mission. Also I've heard he's pretty bold and crazy so this should be a fun transfer. Now that I'm done with all my training I'm pretty much fully accountable. I realized today I think I've almost been in Japan as long as I was at BYU-I.

Well that's all I have to report for this week. Just a lot of Dendou and not much success, yet. I really liked Demitris email about how we have to be patient and work hard and eventually the success will come.  I may not be in Joetsu long enough to see it but I know that in some way I have helped to contribute to it.

Also this week I happened to have the opportunity to read all about Moroni and the Title of Liberty and how he was such an example of faith and diligence. He fortified the Nephities so well that when the fiery darts of Satan came they couldn't even make it over the wall.  That is amazing. He had so much faith that and if I and like him and if I work diligently now and do all I can to be prepared, when the challenges and trials come they were but a scratch and the Lord helped and strengthened them like he will me.

Also for Bishop Paul and the church thing I would send him a kind email (Our ward has gotten very noisey and irrevent and it is difficult to hear the speaker and feel the spirit on Sundays.  We had some non-member friends of Olivia's come and they had a hard time hearing and asked,  "Does everyone just do their own thing and not listen?"  I mentioned this to Mason in my letter and that is what this response is), very kind email cause I know you happen to get fired up some times. But for investigators to feel the spirit and gain a testimony and for members to continue to strengthen their faith they need to be able to feel the spirit. If we just got to church and go home and
don't feel anything we eventually just won't go at all. We all get out what we put in. If we show up to learn and listen then listen and learn. That's the purpose of church. Every one can talk after church or do their home teaching if the want to talk and visit so bad. Church is to be strengthened by the spirit. We have to put our full effort in
to it. We will learn something new every time we go to church if we actually listen. That I can promise. Just tell Bishop Paul boldness with kindness. It's necessary. Moroni had to do a lot of things to get everyone to rally around him. The members will see the purpose and importance and everyone will eventually follow suit. Best of luck!

As far as needs go. I'm good. I don't really need anything. I'm just livin the best life ever!

Love you! Talk to you next week!


Ps Quick shout out to Joni Haddad (Joni is a dear friend of ours that has decided to go through the temple)! That's a really exciting and an important decision!

Eating Oreo's the "proper" way (dipping them in milk) and watching training video.

Thought for the week:

Week 20 - Zone Conference - 4 September 2016

Man the weeks are just flying by! Next week I will no longer be a trainee! That's insane!

Sounds like things are going good at home. We had to drop Aoyama as he just wants to be friends and isn't really progressing anymore. We had Zone Conference this week and it was great! We had President and Sister Nagano and the AP's come. They all gave some training's and we learned a lot! 

Here is my email to President Nagano. It talks a little bit about Zone Conference and a miracle we saw last night.
This week was great. We had a lot of time to Dendou last week as we don't have any progressing investigators at the moment. We also had Zone Conference. At Zone Conference I really enjoyed the five points Elder Anderson shared. They all seemed to support the idea that you can find and baptize as long as you have faith and believe that you can. If we don't have faith or get discouraged we won't even be able to see miracles or have a strong desire to work. If we plan, work, and have faith to see those miracles we will see them. It was especially
faith boosting as this past week or past two weeks have been full of trying to find new investigators and people who are prepared. I know that as we continue to work and show faith the Lord will guide us to the people who are ready to receive the gospel or he will guide them to us. Last night we saw a wonderful example of this. We went to go visit a less active sister who ended up telling us that she was busy but we made an appointment for tonight. Miracle 1. Miracle 2- We decided to go housing nearby since we didn't have a lot of time to travel to the place we had planed originally. The first and only house we knocked on ended up being a 26 year old girl who had a ton of
questions. We had gone past this house multiple times and never once even noticed it. But last night we noticed it and knocked and she answered. She has a half Christian background and was really interested in what we were teaching. She asked so many questions from "How do you know you have repented?" to "What happens after death?"   To "Why did you leave college to come on a mission?" It was an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong and I know that she felt it as well. We ended up giving here a Book of Mormon and 2 pamphlets. She
said she learned a lot and for right now she will read the Book of Mormon but that later she would contact us. She also gave us her Facebook. I know that we will be seeing her again soon as she has found the truth and will want to get more. I am so thankful for the chance I have to be a missionary and to spread the work of God. People may not always be willing or ready to hear it but I will continue to do my best to share it.

So right now in Joetsu we are trying to get the work rolling again. We met a guy earlier this week and he was like yeah I have some time if you guys want to teach me right now. So we taught him the restoration and he really enjoyed it. The spirit was way strong and he agreed to pray at the end! Afterward we invited him to meet with us again and read the Book of Mormon. He said he would read but doesn't know if he wants to meet again or not. He said he would call us. He was a super nice guy and really had a desire to learn about Christ. He also has some interest in the Book of Mormon and will probably read it. We invited him to church and he said he would probably come but he didn't show up. I know that we or other missionaries will see him again.  We also saw another miracle. We have tried to contact this less active man like twice a day since I came to Japan and there is always no answer or anything. But this week we visited and talked and we told him the church might be moving closer to his apartment soon and he seemed pretty excited about that. He also said he might start coming to eikaiwa.

This week was a week of hard work and miracles. I know that with anything in life, if we work hard and prove to the Lord we care he will provide miracles to help us accomplish those things.

This week will be my companions last week as a missionary. Very sad but I know that we will see lots of miracles and that we will work harder than ever this week. I am so thankful for him and for his great example.

Also next week I will be getting a new companion. So I'm pretty excited for that. At Zone Conference President Nagano said we are getting a lot of new missionaries so transfer two and three missionaries don't think that because you are young you won't be training. So maybe I will be a trainer. Who knows. He also said that by the end of next transfer 1/3 of the Tokyo missionaries will be under 4 transfers!!! That is insane!

While we were traveling to Zone Conference we stopped to rest at a park by the sea and it was so pretty.  Here are some pictures. The guy in the picture with us is Brother Takigawa. He's pretty crazy but a great guy and really loving.

Well that's all for now. I'll try to get a picture of me on my bike and send it next week. 

Love you!

Elder Bloomfield

Thought for the week:

Week 19 - Hayai - 29 August 2016

This week was too fast. Things needf to just slow down here in Joetsu a little. We met with Aoyama and his mother and talked about what we do as missionaries and what we believe. She was very kind and not against Aoyama joining the church at all. She just wanted to make sure that he understood everything and new what he was doing. Turns out he doesn't. We reviewed the restoration and he pretty much didn't remember it at all.
He also said he really doesn't want to get baptized but when he reads the Book of Mormon he has a good feeling. So sadly I think things are done with Aoyama. 

We have a lesson this week with those two boys we had a lesson with a while ago so hopefully something will come out of that. But for the most part right now we are in complete finding/searching time.

This Thursday is Zone Conference.  President Nagano, Sister Nagano, and the AP's will be meeting with all of us so I'm excited for that.  Hopefully we can learn a lot and apply it to Joetsu.

My companion is on his last two weeks as a missionary so that's kinda sad but he's working hard.

On Friday we had exchanges. Our District Leader and his companion came to Joetsu this time so it was nice to be able to Dendou in Joetsu on splits for once. My companion for the day was Elder Title. He was my kohai in the MTC. He is in his first transfer right now and he's from Orange County. He's a good guy but he talks a lot about non mission related things. While we were dendou-ing he told me all about his plans for after a mission and who his roommate options are for about an hour and a half. Anyway we had a fairly successful day as we talked
to a lot of people and found a few people who said they were some what interested and took some pamphlets and said that they would read them and get back to us. So we will see about that. It was a real miracle to see how the Lord strengthens your abilities so that you can accomplish the things he needs you to do. There wasn't a single
situation where I didn't know how to handle it that day. Since we are both still trainees it could have been a very unsuccessful day but through our faith in the Lord we were able to invite people unto Christ.

Today we went to a historic park in Joetsu. It used to be a Samurai's Castle but pretty much everything was destroyed by an earthquake. The founding Samurai was from that video game I played before my mission. Hahah.There was still this look out tower so we got to look at that and there was a museum in there with a bunch of cool stuff like Samurai swords and an armor. Everything was in Japanese and most of it was
Kanji so I couldn't really read it. Probably a good thing cause we would have been there all day if I could have read it.

Here are some pictures

"Looking out the window from inside the Castle."

"A lot of huge fish and a turtle if you can find it."

"View from inside the Castle."

As far as the typhoon goes, we haven't really got hit by it. It's actually been way hot this past week and today it is super hot but the typhoon is supposed to hit us tonight or tomorrow. I'm actually pretty excited for it. It'll be insane!

Well that's all I've got for this week! Have fun with the boys and juggling the girls schedules!

Love you!

"Random knife we found while Dendouing."

"Also it rained a tiny bit on Friday and my handouts got wet so this is how I dried them."

Here is the email Mason sent to Steve this week.

A lot of people here are the kind of people that join the church love it and are so happy. Then something happens, the missionaries move on, whatever it is, they stop coming to church and don't know why they did it in the first place. They all have testimonies and they all saw miracles that God provided as they were trying to join the church and they just for get it. This group could be like three or four times the size it is with more work and success but slowly they let those cracks get bigger. 

I also have seen the blessing and the difference in preparedness in missionaries. I've met missionaries here and in the MTC where it was just baffling to see that they are missionaries. I feel as though I have truly been blessed already for my preparations before my mission and I will probably continue to be blessed.

Lately it has been a little frustrating as Aoyama is pretty much finished. He has a mental problem and doesn't even remember the Restoration. It's a great opportunity as we have about two weeks left in the transfer to see if we can rekindle that fire we had going in Joetsu. 

Here is your patience and persistence analogy. An area is like a deck (Steve is in the process of building a deck on the back of our house) or learning a language. At first it is rough, slow, rocky, uneven, unsatisfying, and all around not what your ideal dream for it was. At first you don't have investigators, ward members don't want to help, your young and don't even know what you should do half the time, your language is slow, your vocabulary is small, your pronunciation sounds like a drunk Russian man who is missing half his teeth, the boards don't line up, they don't fit, you have bad nails, the foundation/ base is cracked and uneven or molded. But as you work at it and set goals and then set goals to reach those goals, you will see success. You will know who to visit, and what to say, how to help people so that they are interested, people will see the importance and help you, your vocabulary will be wonderful, your pronunciation will be impeccable like an angel, you will know how to fit things together that make sense, the boards will fit, you will know the measurements, you learn the process, probably be able to hold one board in one hand and nail in some nails with the other, you get faster and more efficient, and eventually it isn't even work it's fun and enjoyable. You will probably want to see what you can do next, how you can improve it and eventually it will be better than you had dreamed. 

Well that's about it.  Hopefully we see some real big miracles in Joetsu this week.

See you later love you!

Oh also my reading skills are getting pretty good. 

                                                           Thought for the week:

Week 18 - 青山さんは野蛮人です - 21 August 2016

Alright first off mom, I eat out maybe once or twice a week. We usually eat ramen when we eat out because that is my favorite thing ever. Usually we eat at home and usually it is some sauce thing that you put with vegetables and meat and then put it on rice. Looks like this:

 These two are my favorites. We also have curry and different kinds of noodles once a week. It's pretty good. Oh also I ate octopus this week. Wasn't bad at all actually. My companion makes most of it but I'm learning how. Most meals are actually pretty simple so that's nice.

As for language things are going good. I had splits with one of my Zone Leaders and he's on transfer 10 and from Spanish Fork, Utah, maybe, kinda forgot. Anyways he told me my Japanese is probably about where his was around transfer 6. He said my Japanese is pretty good and I'm working hard at it and speaking only Japanese so things are good there. I still have a ways to go. My understanding is worse than my speaking. It is hard for me to understand people some times cause they speak so fast and kinda blend everything so that makes it hard sometimes but overall it's going good and I'm not worried at all.

Also mentally I am doing fine. Sure there are days where things are hard but I think that people who say there are more hard days than good days maybe think about themselves to much. Sure people don't listen and reject you a lot but if you start thinking about how difficult it is and get upset and frustrated then it will most definitely be a hard day. So what if someone rejects you, it's real sad and there goes their eternal salvation (for now, the work in Japan is still getting started), but there's more people to go talk to and there are more people who are prepared and waiting and you just need to find them. You can't sit and whine or cry about it. Go to work, focus on you purpose "with an eye single to the glory of God." Maybe this sounds a little harsh but it's what I've been doing, or trying to do and I've been happier here than I have ever been in my life. So "hard days" is a term that I don't believe in. Maybe that was all over the place but I'm fine and won't be leaving anytime soon:)

Here is part of my letter to President this week.

Our investigator Aoyama is doing really good and is trying to keep all of the commitments and commandments. Yesterday we meet him and his mom. She is a little worried about him because he apparently has a little bit of a mental problem. So we are going to meet with him and his mom this week and answer his mom's questions and figure out what our next steps should be. We are working towards the 4th of September as a baptismal date so hopefully we can reach that goal.

I really enjoyed the Sapporo Temple Dedication. The spirit was so strong. It was a great experience and will hopefully give everyone more dendou fire to keep the church growing in Japan. I was so impressed with the strong faith of the Japanese people and the people of Sapporo. I never felt such a great appreciation for the temple until I saw the joy that it brought to the members of Japan. This is truly a pioneer work here in Japan and it is such a blessing to be a part of it. Also during the Temple Dedication I really truly felt love for the Japanese people more than ever and had this overwhelming desire to help them as much as I can. I have been trying to have real love for the people of Japan and those I serve and yesterday I was able to have that Christlike feeling which helped me to realize how important these people are to the Lord and how important it is for me to work my hardest and do my best to serve and help them come unto Christ.

I love this gospel and the work that I have the pleasure and blessing to be apart of. These people are special and truly loved by the lord. I'm so blessed to be one of the Lord's instruments in this work.

So yesterday was the Sapporo Temple Dedication. It was way spiritual and super exciting for the work here in Japan. Japan's membership might be small but I guarantee it is not even close to finished. I'm so happy to be here and to be able to serve them. Every time we come out of the temple, we leave better than we were before. It is such a blessing to have a temple nearby to go and visit.

Here is a link with more information about the Sapporo temple:

https://www.lds.org/church/news/13000-participate-in-public-temple-open-house-in-sapporo-japan?lang=eng

We also went to teach Aoyama yesterday. A bit of a wild experience. Apparently his parents are worried about him. He never really informed them that he was meeting with us or anything so they thought he was acting strange. Anyways he met us at the Aria Eki. We got off and we're about to leave the Eki and he stopped us and told us wait a second and walked out and told his parents to leave. He then came back to us noticed that they didn't leave and yelled pretty aggressively at them. So we went in to the Eki waiting room to teach him and taught him about tithing and fasting and he agreed to both of them real easy and had no problem. Then out of no where he spotted his mom, who is probably about Cassi's height maybe, and left the room in a rage and on the right of the waiting room there are windows that you can look out and see the Eki parking lot. Out of those windows we see Aoyama, who is some what of a big guy, shove his mom and then again and we see her go flying out of sight from the window and we heard a pretty loud thud. Ogata Ch¨­r¨­ and I just looked at each other and said maybe it's time to go. Hahah Anyways after Aoyama said what he did, he basically destroyed his mom, he helped her up and whatever and they came in together and we talked to her. She explained that he has a little bit of a mental problem and she was concerned for her son. Makes sense. Oh also the whole time we talked to her she had a rag on the back of her head which was covered in a fair amount of blood. Also her neck and shirt had blood as well. Pretty scary!! Anyways we agreed to meet with them this week and we would answer her questions and figure out what is the next step we should take. Pretty wild!!!!!!!! That's the first time we have ever seen anything like that from Aoyama. He is usually a super nice guy and humble and genuine but yesterday something had him a little upset.

Also Dad, I totally agree with you about Buddhism. How can anyone believe that. It's mind blowing to present this gospel to some one and hear them say I'm Buddhist. Oh my goodness. I think because we have the true gospel and fullness of the gospel it is impossible for us to think that there is another way. That's why less actives blow my mind too.

Anyways love you guys!

Elder Bloomfield

Week 17 - Group BBQ - 14 August 2016

So this week was pretty solid. On Tuesday we had splits with the District Leader and his companion. Kind of a frustrating day. We had a mogi lesson with a lad from the ward and every time I would try to say something my District Leader and the sister would try to tell me how to say it, even though what they told me wasn't what I wanted to say.

On Thursday we had a barbecue and only one active member showed up.  Kinda frustrating when the ward doesn't participate in ways to do missionary work. However we did have a less active lady who came and brought her family and her daughter brought two friends but they are all like 12 and kind awkward. We had our one regular eikaiwa student come and Aoyama came. We were able to teach Aoyama before the barbecue with the one member about the word of wisdom, law of chastity, and following the prophet. Then we had a barbecue with everyone. Haha

Aoyama is kinda funny. He would get some food eat and then go off by himself and play Pokemon on his ds. One of the little girls that was there was playing the same game.  hahaha. Love him! 

On Saturday we taught Aoyama again about the word of wisdom cause he didn't get it the first time. But we asked him if he had any problems with it and he said I smoke a little bit everyday. And we said of how much and he said "just a little". Then we asked how many cigarettes a day? And he said about 14. What?!? That is not just a little. Haha   We committed him to decreasing the number by one each day until he was done. He agreed that he would try and also agreed to the 4th of September for a baptismal date. So that was great. Pretty excited and he's reading the Book of Mormon a little bit every day. Like one or two verses but he says he feels good when he does. So that's also good. 

Well that's all I have for this week. I'll be in Niigata a lot of next week but hopefully we can still make it a productive week. Also Sapporo Temple dedication is Sunday so I'm pretty excited for that.

Love you guys!

BBQ Goods

Aoyama is the one hiding in the back with the hat on.

Thought for the week:

Week 16 - Goal to be a Consecrated Missionary - 8 August 2016

Well not a lot happened this week. We had a really good lesson but I talked about it in my letter to president so here is that excerpt:

This week was amazing. We had a lesson with a seventeen year old boy named Youta. When we met him the first time he expressed his interest in learning about Christ. When we met with him to teach a lesson the spirit was so strong. Every time we asked him questions or what he thinks he would hold/grab his heart and say it is so warm or it feels good. It was truly amazing seeing the spirit work on him like that. He said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon too.  Unfortunately he is pretty busy so we haven't been able to meet with him since that lesson but hopefully his schedule will free up soon. He has a real desire to learn and hopefully we can help him to change that desire to learn about Christ into a desire to live like Christ.

For this new transfer I set a goal to become a consecrated missionary.  Not just a good missionary or an obedient missionary but a consecrated missionary. I want to be able to please the Lord and help as many people as I can. As I have been attempting to fulfill this goal I have realized that I must strengthen my Christ like attributes. In order to consecrate my self I have to sacrifice a lot of things. I have to focus on others more than myself, I need to have the purest thoughts, I need to always be charitable and willing to submit to the lords will as well as being diligent in following it. There is so much that I can do to become a consecrated missionary rather than a good missionary or a decent one. I know that as I strive for this goal and consecrate myself I will be able to follow the Lords will and help those he needs me to help.

Also that video you saw is from when I found out who my trainer was not transfers. We just get a phone call if we are getting transferred.

Well Aoyama is good. He came to church yesterday and we are trying to teach him again soon so that he doesn't forget everything. Also we have a lesson tonight with the mischievous 19 year old so hopefully that goes well.

Well it's getting pretty hot here but I've only actually gotten sunburned once since being here so things are changing and I have a dang good watch tan.

Oh also hahah,  I had a weird dream I think cause I distinctly remember waking up in the middle of the night sometime this week and saying "dang that was some good mugicha" and then I went back to sleep. Hahaha   Yeah I don't know????


I know this church is true. I know this gospel is the truth and every time people reject it my heart hurts. I'm so thankful for the Savior's atonement and the opportunity we have to use it. Anything is possible if we just open the door and let him in. Nothing is impossible if we trust in him. Open your mouths and talk to people. You never know who needs the gospel. A lot of people don't know or think that they are missing anything.  He lives!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya, Have a great week!!

                                                           Thought for the week: