The Zone is Green in the Other Area!!

So I went on a one day companion exchange this past Thursday and for the first time on my mission, I got to dendo outside of my area!  What an adventure!  So I went with my district leader Elder Callahan who came up to Matsumoto last transfer on an exchange down to his area in Suwa, just south of Matsumoto.  It was pretty weird not knowing my way around a place again but it was great to follow Elder Callahan around.  We taught a lesson to an old, eternal investigator and asked some Inspired Questions about God and his belief in God.  Then we went to try to find a less active but no one was home.  There was a dog barking over at the neighbors so we went to check it out.  We asked an old guy outside if he knew the less active that lived there.  Sadly he spoke old man Japanese so we couldn`t understand him at all.  So in the moment of silence and confusion, I notice his baseball hat with Michael Jordan`s name on it.  So I compliment him on his hat and then ask him if he likes basketball but he said it was only a gift.  Even though it was a no though, he opened up his heart to us and we talked about Christ a little bit and he asked us if we believed in being saved.  He said he thought we teach good things so when Elder Callahan asked if he could return the next week, he totally agreed.  We got another guy`s phone number on the street and then had FHE with a Brazilian family who made great food.  So it was fun.

The next day, we went back to my beloved Matsumoto for a zone gathering where we got... IPADS!  I was super excited but then I got it and realized we really only had Gospel Library and the area book so social media aspects of the Ipads will have to wait a little bit.  And the first day we had them we got super distracted during our Weekly Planning at the church but we have been doing a lot better now.  You never knew how good seminary videos actually are until you become a missionary.

So this week`s GC talk is Elder Nielson`s `Waiting for the Prodigal`.  I have realized as a missionary that when you get personal, your lessons are better as you testify of your own experiences and knowledge instead of just broad topics.  So I think this is why I loved this talk because Elder Nielson used his own experiences.  Towards the end he said that after his experience with his sister leaving the church and coming back, he read the story of the Prodigal Son again.  This time, he read it and realized that he was the Prodigal Son.  Usually I read this parable and think of how I am the jealous brother or how those trying to come back to church are the prodigal but in reality we all are.  All of us have sinned.  All of us have made mistakes.  We have all left the path and all missed out on our Father`s blessings for us, whether we have been off of the path a mile or a foot, we have all become prodigal.  We all need Christ`s Atonement and our Father`s forgiveness to get back.  So with thought that, we are all lost in a since.  From the most vilest sinner, the most normal person, to even a missionary, we all are on the same team and wear the same jersey.  No need to judge others for the amount of sins they have committed because we too need Christ`s Atonement to be made perfect.

Everyone have a great week wherever you may be throughout the world.  Love you all!

Elder Hall

Pictures: My Ipad and my new tie I bought for a dollar at Daiso, the best dollar store in the world!

And I forgot to tell everyone that my companion Elder Martini in Matusmoto on the day that I was gone set a baptismal date with our Chinese investigator Tommy for May 31st!  It would be pretty cool to have my first baptism exactly a year before my release date.  Very fitting for a halfway mark celebration.  My companion and I invited him to the date a couple weeks ago but it was when I was gone that he accepted.  Pretty big thing to forget in an e-mail so I had to put it in for you all.  

And here is more pictures of Matusmoto Castle I went and saw last week!

Super Sunday!

Yesterday was definitely one of the craziest days of my mission life.  We woke up, had studies, and then went over to the church in order to attend Priesthood Executive Meeting where we discussed dendo and stuff.  That went over long so our weekly meeting with the Ward Mission Leader got cut short.  Then, a random guy we had stopped and talked to on the street randomly showed up to church.  I stopped him `SUMI MASEN!` and before we can say anything else he asks us `Are you guys from Utah?`  Turns out he was fourth generation Japanese-American and is from Salt Lake but isn`t a member.  He is learning Japanese a little bit and we invited him to come to church but we didn`t think that he would come since he didn`t seemed too committed.  We exchanged phone numbers too so were going to invite him to FHE.  But then he randomly came and we just taught him the first lesson in English which was really weird.  It was a temptation to go off on a tangent about the Atonement and deep doctrines of the Fall but I resisted as best I could.  He declined our invite to read the Book of Mormon so it was kind of awkward but next time we just need to share scriptures from the Book of Mormon.  Andrew had to leave early in sacrament meeting but he said he would come to FHE this week.

Then we had an appointment with a referral from our branch president fall through after church.  Then the branch president called us right after we left the church to help a member teach some of her friends English to tell us Hanizawa San could come.  So we get to the church and it is canceled again!  It was too bad but we had another lesson that night with a random guy that came to the church while we were doing Weekly Planning and wanted us to teach him English for a test to enter a college in Hawaii.  So that was busy and we didn`t have anytime for once to talk to people in the street.  It was just, teaching, then running to the next place, then teaching again.  It was pretty crazy.

So it has definitely been cool to see how the area was dead-in-the-water last transfer and just see how all these crazy miracles are happening now.  We are actually meeting new people and Weekly Planning is not just the same every week because we are meeting with more people so all of our investigators needs and concerns change.  Now I just got to work on my teaching!  But seeing all this stuff happen has helped me reflect more about everything that happened last transfer.  It has made me think of the Conference Talk by L. Whitney Clayton.  Now that my previous companion is gone, I have worried about him a lot.  I realized that the one thing that derailed him from the obedient track and kept him from seeing miracles as a missionary was that he had not chosen to follow Christ fully.

I think we can all relate in some part to the story of young Sailor who was stranded out in the wilderness after her family`s plane crash.  Everyone has been lost or alone, faced with a trial that we can`t quite see how it will turn out.  I loved Clayton`s analogy of the Lighthouse and how it represents Christ.  Sometimes we don`t see the light because of mountains that we have to climb in our life.  It is easy for us to give up when we don`t see that light.  There seems to be no hope, no way back.  Even though we have seen the light before and hope to see it again, Satan convinces us that that light is too far out of reach.  When we choose to not follow Christ, we won`t be able to see that light.  My view was blocked for awhile last transfer as my companion was struggling with his faith.  I didn`t see much of a way out except to keep moving until transfer calls.  I am so glad that I decided to keep pushing, to keep trying to get over that mountain and see Christ`s light again.  As a famous singer once said, `There`s always going to be another mountain.`  I will face doubt and fear again as most of us will but now I know that in those moments, if we choose to follow Christ, if, we like Sailor, keep moving on to that place of safety, we will one day reach it.  If we stop because we can`t see the light or in other words we can`t see Christ`s hand in our lives and his blessings to us, we won`t get anywhere.  Life surely is the climb and Christ` example and Atonement is how we get back to safety, to live with our families and Heavenly Father once more.  I hope everyone keeps on holding strong to the rod and help another in need this week.

I love you all SOOO much!



Check out the Cherry Blossoms........

Call Me Elder D.J.

Well first off, this past week was General Conference!  At least for us folks living in Japan.  Most sessions were AMAZING but to be honest I was kind of nervous all of Sunday morning session.  All the elders in the Nagano Zone came to watch conference in English so they all came Saturday morning, watched Saturday conference, stayed the night at our place, watched Sunday Conference, and then they left Matsumoto.  One elder`s first area was Matsumoto and we went on a one hour companionship exchange in order for him to introduce me to a couple past investigators and a cool less-active.  It started at 9 and we were going to go back to the church in an hour at 10 to be in time for the morning session.  I had invited my around 27 year-old friend Calvin that comes to the Japanese class we attend every week and since he is a Canadian from Vancouver, he is awesome and totally came!  Me and Elder Bills (the other elder) came walking in as President Monson was talking and there I saw Calvin.  I hope that the other elders had explained a little bit to him about the conference as when I invited him I told him it was an English broadcast from our church leaders.  I pulled up a chair next to him and apologized that I was late as the sweat trailed down my face.  It was a very good session but I was getting worried as I tried to find the right balance of explaining things to him and letting him listen.  Not interfering with the Spirit was my main goal.  I explained stuff mainly during the lovely musical numbers by MoTab (sorry Grandma Hall, I know music is not a break time) and let him listen for the rest.  I was kind of sweating it as I wondered if he was enjoying this or if he was just thinking `I can`t believed I got roped into this crazy boring Mormon religious thing`.  As I was thus worrying, none other than Elder Holland came to the podium.  From the start I could tell it was going to be good.  The way he told the story of the two brothers rock climbing would have gotten even one who doesn`t care about religion at all on the edge of his seat.   And then he explained the Fall so clearly and the Atonement that I was like afterwards, `Wow, I am pretty sure Calvin enjoyed that one!`.  So afterwards we asked him what he liked about it and he said he really enjoyed the one about the rock climbers.  Calvin also said it had been awhile since he went to church as he went as only as a little kid to a random Christian church but he thanked us.  I wasn`t able to turn him into an investigator but I will have plenty of opportunities to see him again.

So while Conference was awesome and I want to talk about it all, I would like to instead give all of my thoughts over a period of a few e-mails by highlighting talks so that you readers can be reminded of Conference at least once a week.  The one I`d like to talk about today is Elder Andersen`s `The Music of the Gospel` talk.  I heard in that talk the perfect analogy for missionary work.  While sitting at a stoplight, you see the driver next to you rocking out to his favorite tunes but you can`t hear it and think he is weird.  We are the one dancing and singing along to the wonderful music of the gospel.  As missionaries, we often try to teach others the steps of the dance.  `First you pray, then you read the scriptures.`  `God is our Heavenly Father, he created this Earth for us and we need to obey his commandments.`  These are great and you need the proper dance steps or else, well, you can`t join in the joy of the gospel.  But a lot of the time we forget that the people we talk to or teach, don`t know the why.  Why do we do the dance steps?  Why do bother doing the right ones while we can just go freestyle?  What good does it do?  

Most Japanese people have an incorrect or maybe even no concept or image of our church or any Christian religions.  They see us dancing the waltz and wonder, `Why are they doing that?  That looks too hard.  And where is the music?`  The music is the reason why we dance and the blessings of living the gospel is why we do the spiritual dance steps.  As missionaries and members, we must bring others to an understanding that there is in fact music, that there is in fact real-life blessings in living the gospel.  Because just as if we can`t hear the music and won`t see any reason to dance, so it is with the gospel.  If our investigators, friends, or less-actives don`t see the blessings of living the gospel, then there is no need to dance.

Even though it was before conference, I tried to help our investigator Tommy hear the music as he already knew most of the steps that other missionaries taught to him.  We do the lessons in English because he is Chinese and we used the special Temple Liahona to invite him to baptism.  We bore testimony as a companionship of the not only the importance of temples and living the gospel to be worthy to enter it, but as on how our parents` temple marriage has blessed our life.  Our invitation to pray about a May baptism date was put in a way in which by doing so and accepting, he could one day see the blessings of living the gospel in his life and his family`s life.  He keeps saying one day, one day I will get baptized but I hope to help him hear the music today so that he can join the dance before the music comes to an expected close.

I hope that you all have a great week getting back to school or finishing it or doing whatever you are doing.  I love you all!

Pictures of Eikaiwa and P-day selfie!

Eikaiwa....English Class

P-Day Selfie

Why is there a building named after me??

The Daily Gripe

In my senior year of high school, I had two classes that were very similar: AP Government and AP Comparative Government.  Both were taught by great teachers, Mr. Fish (whose favorite football team ironically is the Dolphins) and Mr. Gallagher respectively, both were AP classes, both talked about the structure of government, and both were very fun because they were interesting classes and I had a lot of my friends in them.  Though similar, every class period, both classes had a different way of starting.  Mr. Fish would do his `Good Things`, which is when students would have the chance to announce anything good that has happened recently.  Some were `I got accepted to college` or `My team just won the Super Bowl` or `Today is Friday'. Mr. Gallagher, following the spirit of being comparative, took a twist to Mr. Fish`s Good Things and started doing `The Daily Gripe`.  This was in essence the same thing as Good Things but instead, they were a chance for us students to take the first five minutes of class to complain.  Most of the times they were funny and helped us look at our real problems in a good light.  Both exercises were so different but both helped me to be more grateful for what I have.  Sometimes I would use the same thing for my Daily Gripe as I would for Good Things.  In Mr. Gallagher`s class my comment of `BYU is in the Final Four... OF THE LOSER NIT!` would turn into a good thing in Mr. Fish`s class `BYU is in the FINAL FOUR!!!!...*of the nit*`  Most of my mission I have shared my good things but in today`s e-mail I want to explore the other side side.  Welcome to my daily gripe.

My daily gripe today is this: this past week has been the hardest week of my life.  Last Saturday, we got our transfer calls a week early, even though we would transfer at the normal time.  Usually you have only three days from transfer calls until transfers but this time it was 10 days.  My companion has big problems with mission rules and is struggling to have faith.  He is a lot like the trainer in The Best Two Years, counting down the days before his mission ends and he can just be done, even though he has already quit working.  I half wanted us to stay together so I could help him but the same time I wanted someone who would work with me.  I got the call, he was staying and I was to get another old missionary and stay junior companion.  My new companion Elder Martini was my first district leader and while he tries and hasn`t lost his purpose, he isn`t super.  This week I felt like my time of hardship will just transform into something just as bad or just worse when I get my new companion this Tuesday.

 It has been hard this transfer, not knowing what to do and not being able to speak the language well at all so I couldn`t just do everything on my own.  It wouldn`t have been that effective anyways since God calls us to go two by two for a reason.  In planning he would leave everything up to me even though my only suggestion was to talk to people on the street which was something he refused to do.  When the choice is to go out and do everything by yourself, to be forced to lead when you don`t even know the city, and let your companion drag out language study or lunch, the easiest choice is clear.  I`ve honestly tried my best to go out but I haven`t been perfect.  While I have been studying the scriptures, my companion has used his tablet to read non-church materials and watch T.V.  I never thought I would have to stand up for my beliefs against a companion but I had to.  I have feared him ending his mission and going back home to land on the less active list but I fell helpless.  I have felt he is my investigator and not my companion most of the time.  I feel stuck between whether I should force him to work with me or whether I should be his friend in a time of need.  While this debate is going on I feel so guilty for not giving my all to get out and work.  It has been so hard to be away from family and friends doing nothing.  I didn`t sacrifice two years to push an old elder out the door.

It has been a really humbling experience.  I read e-mails from my friends back home now out on missions about how they are baptizing, speaking fluently, and speak of great lessons and I just feel so crappy, so helpless, such a failure.  I look around the mission as my friends from the MTC go district leader or senior or the Lord trusts them enough to train while I am stuck carrying dead weight elders on my back when I don`t know what is going on.  It is so frustrating.  Why me I sometimes ask, why now?  I can`t speak Japanese for crap and I can`t be obedient for crap in my situation either.  I am trying so hard because I know that when I give up, I will be that one being dragged around against my will, rationalizing why I am not doing my best or anything at all.  In this state of guilt, despair, hopelessness, and grief with no light at the end my of tunnel, I read the letters I got while ago in the MTC.  I don`t know what is was, maybe the hope, the confidence I had back then, that made me tear up as I read the strengthening and uplifting words of encouragement.  `You are doing great, keep doing what is right and follow the Lord.  He will not let you fail.`  It was then I remembered my Savior and remembered how much he has done for me.

On this Easter, I am truly grateful for the Savior`s love.  In many times this past transfer when I have felt I can`t dendo or leading us to a less-active will kill me emotionally, physically and spiritually, when I have felt I am not fulfilling my purpose or am not worthy to, I have felt my Savior`s love for me and for my companion as I push forward.  As I write that e-mail to an investigator in that language of kanji, as I stop people on the street and invite them to church, as I plan commitments and the lessons to be planned around them for our few investigators.  Sometimes I would fail and let my companion get the best of me.  But there are many times in these past six weeks as I have struggled, as I have chosen the right path, even though it was the harder one, and I have felt an indescribable force pushing me.  Sometimes I think it is the prayers of loved ones back home, other times I feel like it is angels and those in my family who have passed on, and sometimes I feel like it is Christ himself taking his time to help me just get out that door.  Whatever it is, I have been blessed in this time of hardship.  Who knows how long I will see other missionaries seeing baptisms, learning languages, teaching good lessons to progressing investigators and gaining the respect of members before I will but someday I will.

Even though this week has been so hard, I have come through it with the undeniable truth that Christ lives and loves us each individually.  He died for us but most importantly, some 2000 years ago, he was resurrected and still lives for us.  Whenever we have fallen and wonder if we ever can get back up, whenever we are hopeless and doubtful, there is always a hand stretched out for us to grab, a hand with the imprints of nails.  I bear my testimony that Christ today lives and that like those apostles after his death, we will one day see Him for ourselves and that we can feel his saving influence in our lives as we turn to him for strength and the enabling power of his perfect and infinite Atonement daily.

I love you all and I know that Christ is there for you to always.  Happy Easter!