Church Organization and Other Salvation Saving Stuff

Wow, what an interesting week!  Nothing out of the extraordinary happened but WOW, did this week feel special for some reason.  I guess every week is pretty special and something quite unique when you are a missionary but yeah!  Cool beans I guess.  This week started off with our usual "English Club" where we teach our friend Tatsuya San (who works at a nearby hat shop).  Sometimes our less active friend Asakawa San (who is planning on coming back to church in one and a half years instead of three years now) takes over the lesson but he has a good testimony and helps his friend Tatsuya out a bunch to understand things.  They are both definitely on the shortlist of bros here in Fukutoku.  This was followed by an Eikaiwa where I tried to wear every single clothing article possible (including a makeshift earring using the cap of my pen).  While teaching English Class you aren't allowed to really straight up teach the gospel so you can just be a total goofball in your native language and basically make the students like you enough to accept a church tour or maybe some gospel talk after class is over or at a different time.

This week also we finally met our Iranian less active I'd heard a lot about after not being able to see him for three whole transfers.  He has been living in Japan for twenty years plus and still struggles with kanji (don't we all) and has had it rough recently with being involved with an accident and having a hard time finding a job.  We had tried to visit his house six weeks ago and had found his 20 year old son there (1995 babies for the win!) and we had chatted with him for a little bit.  We asked him about his dad and he said that he tried hard to provide for his family even though it was hard for him.  Fast forward to this week and Shams Kyoudai was expressing his concern about his relationship with his son.  We told him his son told us that he tried hard to provide for his family and had fluent Japanese so he started to cry.  Shams Kyoudai said he never really heard his son express much love (which is a stereotypical problem over here in Asia) so it was cool to be able to be the messenger of that love.  Moral of the story: People don't know how much you love them until you tell them.  So I love you all!

Another cool little miracle this week was with a referral from a member.  A member gave us the address of two families who come to her private English class a couple months ago and we tried to visit a couple times but no body was ever home.  So, we decided to do it again on Saturday but no one was home again.  Not thinking anything about it we leave to do something else after nobody answered the doorbell.  The next day at church the member who gave us the address comes up to us and was like "You visited my friends yesterday right?" "Uhh... yeah... how did you know?"  It turns out when we rung the doorbell, they had this camera that took our picture and when they got home and saw it, they were super excited and texted the picture to the member friend!  Apparently they really want to have us teach their family English and are down to listen to the gospel too!  So all we have to do is go back this week, set up an appointment, and then we have a family of investigators!  So cool right?  I'm excited to go back and I will keep y'all updated.

Usually I use a General Conference talk to end this off but today I want to use something from our Area Presidency.  For those that don't know (I only learned this on my mission) the church around the globe is split up into several areas.  I am serving in the North Asia Area that includes Japan, Korea, Guam, and MicroIndonesia.  They are made up of multiple stakes just like stakes are made up of multiple wards.  Each Area Presidency is made up of a President and two counselors and all three of them are members of the Seventy.  Below is a rough layout of the church organization:


Well, why is this important?  Each year they create an Area Plan that constitutes what the church wants to do this year in terms of growing and strengthening the church in their area.  Usually a 200 page plan is made by the presidency and others in the headquarters in Tokyo and the leadership implements it without us knowing little to nothing about it.  This year however, it is two pages and has been given to everyone!  And man, it is SO COOL!  I might just move to Guam to be part of the Asia North Area for the rest of the year!  Here is the layout of it:



It is super simple but SUPER powerful as well!  We got sheets where we make a plan for each of the six attributes so you have one for how to better love, how to better elevate, etc.  We all met together during third hour of church as a whole entire Ward and watched a video from the Area Presidency introducing it.  It was really well done even though it was only for like four countries.  It  even had an anime segment!  The church is true folks!  At the end the Area Presidency (which my old mission president is now in!) bore their testimonies and I don't why but I got all teary-eyed which like never happens to me.  I realized this wasn't just an Area Plan, or a way to increase church membership but it is something that will help us find joy and return to God.  I could feel of the Area Presidencies love for all of us in the area and how they want to help us return to our heavenly home.  It just simplified dendo for me.  My job is 24/7 to help people find the joy I have felt during the gospel.  Not just a numbers game but saving people's lives here on Earth and giving them the opportunity to live with their loving Heavenly Father forever.  I am so grateful for all the times I have been down and no one but my Father in Heaven could bring me hope and help me as I struggled to speak Japanese or to get along with a companion or help an investigator.  I guess that is why I am a missionary because someone did the same thing for my family way back when and it has brought me so much to my life.  It really just means the world to me.  If I could just do that for one person how great would be my joy and their's too.  I hope you can find the joy in gospel as we all strive to return to our Heavenly Father and bring our brother and sisters along with us,  I love you all and have an amazing week!

Elder Hall
ホール長老

Monday Flashback

"So no matter what, even if you are a sick elder inside your apartment and can`t eat chicken without it doing weird stuff, Christ stills loves you."

 - Elder Hall's Body's Forced Diet 2/2/2015

Ponderizing Scripture

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"

- D&C 18:15

Sorry no picture this week!  And sorry I didn't have time to email people individually!  We had to help a sister in the ward move most of the day.  I still love you though and will get back to you next week!

Transfer 14... Here We Come!

My week in five points:

1. Elder Callahan and I are staying together.  Our district went from 8 to 12 people and a new sister is coming to the area.

2. Worldwide missionary Broadcast was BOSS!  "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" was the title and half of apostles were there to give a two hour special training  for every single missionary on the planet.  We watched it a day later due to time difference issues but it made me realize that people can't just take the missionary lessons, gain a testimony, and be baptized by continuing their same lives but everyone has to repent and change a couple small things in their lives in order to do so.  That is why inviting and promising blessings and panning by the Spirit is so important because it isn't always easy to help people change what they are doing and improve their lives.

3.  We meet with our Uganadan friend several times this week and it has been hard to teach him because he has a lot of health problems he wants our help with.  Tomorrow we will see him again and he is such a bro but we are sharing the Joseph Smith story then to get him truly into the gospel.  We don't have many or even the power to fully heal him as of now but the best thing we can do to help him is to help him gain a testimony.  He has liked what we have shared so far but we just need to get a little bit deeper.

4. I found the most overlooked part of the lessons is found in lesson 3 "Through Christ We Can Be Cleansed from Sin".  After we helped our English driven friend Ikeda San for a little bit yesterday afternoon with making him a plan to study English, we taught him this in preparation to teach the full lesson three next week.  The Spirit was super strong and afterwards he even explained to us what the Atonement was in his own words!  He continues to pray almost everyday after he wakes up and he is going to be reading from 2 Nephi 31 for next time.  Just a great Spirit-driven lesson.  Best part of missionary work!

5. Apparently there is a space colony on the other side of the moon.  But more importantly a random guy came in during Sunday School yesterday who used to meet the missionaries before.  We are meeting with him Wednesday at the church even though he was disappointed to find out that we weren't having free food after church.  I was a little sad about that too though...

This week I read a talk I really enjoyed from Elder Vinas from the Seventy called "The Pleasing Word of God".  It was really basic doctrine but it struck me particularly this week for some reason.  He goes through and explains very simply the things the gospel does for us.  My favorite thing was this quote from him:

"Through our experience in life, we learn that joy in this world is not full, but in Jesus Christ our joy is full. He will give us strength so we will not have to suffer any manner of afflictions save they are swallowed up in His joy...

 "The pleasing word of God fills us with hope, because we know that those who are faithful in tribulation will have the greater reward in the kingdom of heaven and that “after much tribulation come the blessings”

Really the gospel does bring hope unto us all.  Whether you be a scriptorian or someone I meet on the street, this gospel message allows us to find the sense of peace and direction in our lives.  I have seen it happen to others and I have seen the healing it has done in my life.  Any problem or any worry can be lifted from us with the knowledge that God loves us and no matter how low we may get, He will always raise us up and we can be swallowed up in His joy. We can always have the hope of improving, being healed, and achieving our faithful dreams and desires because of Christ Atonement for us.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Hall

ホール長老

Ponderizing Scripture:

Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.

-D&C 101:36

Monday Flashback:

"Speaking of being not-so-skinny at Doctor`s Conference they told us not to try to lose weight because of the stress it has on your body.  So, here is to me not caring about that for the next year and whatever. "

 "Re:   " (a.k.a. The Week I Forgot An E-mail Title) 1/26/2015

Japan's oldest preserved fully standing castle

My District on the Castle (minus Elder Sheppard)

Finally Passing the Manhood Test

THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL CONTAINS ADULT MATERIALThat is because I went to a special Japanese celebration for 20 year-olds today where all of the girls wore kimonos and the guys just suits and stuff. We knew that today was a special holiday to celebrate people becoming adults (which is 20 in Japan) but a member told us this last week how everyone in Japan goes to their old elementary school and has a big celebration/training thing on becoming adults. So, we rode to the closest elementary school and just walked in to a big gymnasium with a bunch of old Japanese people who wanted us to right our address down. Then we just sat down and enjoyed the festivities! They had a couple of short speeches in formal Japanese about showing thanks to parents for the twenty years they have helped them and more about taking hold of the future because, you Japanese youth are the future! Then they had this super awesome Japanese thing were they are all dressed in kimonos and traditional Japanese wear and they play thes HUGE drums while moving around a bit. Kind of like the Blue Man Group without blue paint. It was really cool! We were the only non-Japanese people there and got into the picture (which I will send when I get it). All the girls were in kimonos and it was funny to see how none of the guys wouldn't dare to talk to them, even though they were all 20.

In other news this week, I had an exchange with an MTC bud Elder Lenning where we all ran around talking to people and had ping pong night. We finally had a lesson with our Korean Jesus friend Yamanaka San and we just talked about some of his questions about our church and a little bit about baptism. He believes in everything pretty much but still can't see exactly why he needs to renounce his Korean Jesus church in order to have a testimony of ours. This week we also had a really good ZTM where we talked a lot about finding joy in missionary service. Sometimes we just let the little things keep us from reaching our true potential whether it be little things like exercising in the morning. When we don't do these things we wonder why we aren't as happy but when we do do those things then we become a little better off. We also talked a lot about reaching our potentials and goals for 2016.

I've realized that 2016 is all that I have got left as a missionary and I, well, I am not where I wanted to be as a missionary yet. So, the time is now! And, in order to become the missionary I have never been before, I have to do things I have never done before! Some things (as you probably well know through my e-mails) that I am not where I want to be are specifically my Japanese ability and following the Spirit. So I'm cracking down on the little things of exercising and really trying to learn more Japanese throughout the day. We will see how it works. This week was actually kind of weird because right when I started to work on these points obstacles came in my way. Like finding out some things I have been saying in Japanese for a year and a half plus have been wrong all along! That is always a self-esteem booster for sure. That is just Satan though confirming for me that I'm am supposed to be doing it because it isn't easy.

I love President Uchtdorf's talk in last Priesthood Session where he talks about Daniel's faith and how he had to work to get that. I always just thought people in the scriptures like Nephi and Daniel were just born spiritual giants but they were just normal people. It must have forced Daniel to have a lot of faith to stand up against the popular thoughts of the Babylon and even in the face of the king. I always thought I'd be able to do something like that but I realized on my mission that there are many small rationalizations and excuses for >not doing the right thing or even not doing something to your best ability. Just like Daniel we have to do the little things in life so when challenges come along, we can overcome them.

The challenge is ours to daily practice the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to live true to God’s commandments. We will have to stay calm under peer pressure, not be impressed by popular trends or false prophets, disregard the ridicule of the ungodly, resist the temptations of the evil one, and overcome our own laziness." So when things start to go against you that is the most important time to stand true to what you believe in and what you have decided already. I will do my best to punch Satan in the face over here even in the opposite and I hope that everyone else can achieve their New Year Resolutions even when the obstacles start piling up.

Everybody have a good week and I love you all!

Elder Hall

Ponderizing Scripture: And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.    Helaman 5:12

No flash photography was allowed during the festivities so I got a
picture before it all started..

Pictures taken after ZTM

Cleaning the Outer Vessel

ome things I learned this week:

1. Mochi is good but some other traditional Shogatsu food isn't my favorite...
2. Clean apartments take a LOT of work
3. Ice Cream on top of mochi waffles are THE BEST!
4. 2013 was three years ago!
5. America and my family still exist (Shoutout to my older sister
Shelby for beating me to marriage!  Congratulations Shelby and Nathan
Astle!)

So basically earlier this week we got a text from President Ishii
telling us from December 31st  to January 2nd that we were supposed to
stay inside the apartment, clean, update records or do other
missionary stuff unless we had appointments set up with other people.
He told us not to house at all either because it won't be effective
because the New Year (Shogatsu) is Japan's Christmas so everyone would
be with their families and get mad at us.  So, that is what we did
from Thursday to Saturday with a couple of member appointments
sprinkled in here and there.  We also met up with our French
investigator Mattias during the break because, well, he isn't Japanese
so had time to meet.  Sadly he is going abroad for a  couple of weeks
but it is also fun to talk to our fellow foreigners sometimes.

We had a couple of lessons before and after the Shogatsu three days of
shut-ins though that were really good.  Our Ugandan friends didn't
come to church because one of them randomly went to Nagano Ken on the
other side of the mission which was too bad.  We actually met with our
investigator Haruhito twice this week.  He is a college student we met
on the street my first couple of weeks here in Fukutoku.  He is way
down to meet us and listen but we still don't know how much he is
interested.  We retaught lesson 1 and focused on Joseph Smith and how
he can pray to know that this is true.  As a missionary I always love
teaching and testifying about Joseph Smith.  The First Vision really
puts it into perspective for me how much God and Christ really do love
us to restore the true way to succeed and be truly happy in this life.
It is something I want to do a lot more.

Overall this week was kind of bumpy with Shogatsu going on.  It made
me think a lot about what I want for these last five months on my
mission this year.  Looking back I haven't really become the
missionary I have always wanted to be.  The why behind that is I feel
like I lack in Japanese, in teaching, and sometimes in a desire to
work.  Before the mission things didn't really come hard to me at all
but for the first time in my life I've bitten off something that I
can't chew.  Sadly I feel early in my mission I didn't do much to
overcome these things but also some things never come easy.  Even
after a year and a half there is a lot I need to work on.  I thing I
can of realized why thinking about it this week has been that really
these struggles are a blessing.  What is a better constant reminder of
my dependence on God than feeling like I can't do it alone?  Really a
lacking in a necessary skill is a blessing and opportunity to gain a
testimony of the Atonement by working hard with God's help to get
better.  I may might never know every Japanese word or grammar pattern
but as I work towards that, God will qualify me to do what He expects
of me and help me do what I need to do to bring His children closer to
Him.  So perfection as a missionary might not come this year but I am
determined to really give it all I got.  If this were baseball I would
be rounding third base now and we all know how fast if everyone slides
into home.  I hope everyone has a great New Years!  I love you all!
Enjoy getting back into the groove of school and work!

Elder Hall
ホール長老

Ponderizing Scripture:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give
unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient
for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble
themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak
things become strong unto them."
-Ether 12:27

Some classic Shogatsu food!