Happy Easter and My Testimony

After a lot of high octane weeks back to back to back to back to back to back... this week seemed a little more slowed down.  Maybe it is because I am just so dang tired like 24/7 or maybe just because the weather is changing or my zodiacs signs are off.  Whose knows, but, nonetheless this week was a very different feel for sure.  Recently there have been a lot of people that have been really hard to make appointments with which has given us some more free time luckily.  We definitely needed that last week as we put the fine touches together for Friday's Zone Training Meeting.  It was a full course buffet of Member Work, the Mission President's Vision, Finding, and Obedience.  We tried to make things fun so during the five minute break I went to the library and got a white piece of paper, wrote on it "The Title of Obedience" and taped it to a ruler.  We talked about how every small decision we make affects not just us and our companionship but it also builds the mission culture and has a lasting effect for even longer than we are missionaries.  Even our own testimonies and lives are hinged upon the everyday decisions we make when we choose to follow or ignore the little rules and commandments God has given us.  So, I pulled out the banner and pledged everyone to sign it.  I am holding it in the picture and hope to make copies of it and send one out to each companionship.  That Captain Moroni life though... united to beat Satan and disobedience, all in one swing!

Another thing this week was a Nabe (Japanese soups pretty much) Party we had at the church on Saturday.  It was way fun and really effective even though only one investigator came.  Ikeda San had his baptismal date for Sunday but we had to push it back to later in April so he can get over his smoking problem.  HE SMOKES 50 CIGARETTES A DAY!  Darn it Satan!  He wants to quit though and has faith so that is really the only two things necessary to overcome.  We met with him right before the party and then taught him the Ten Commandments (Moses, Moses! #BeforeEasterTenCommandmentsOnABC).  Also a guy who comes to church every week but refuses to take lessons joined with us in the lesson (because he accidentally came early for the party) and we committed him to live the Ten Commandments and he took a Book of Mormon and asked where he should read.  Still doesn't want to meet with us BUT we are making some progress.  Hopefully he can read the Book of Mormon and he will come around eventually.

It was Easter Sunday yesterday and no one really mentioned it at all which was weird but it wasn't that much surprising because Japan doesn't really think about it at all.  I did a lot of thinking about it though these past couple of weeks.  With bearing my testimony at my final Zone Training Meeting I have thought a lot about what my mission has done for me and last Easter's experience came to mind.  It was a hard, dark time on my mission, being with a companion that had given up, that had chosen to let his pride and own selfish ambitions, fears, and not wanting to work, get in the way of making his mission a fun, growing experience.  During that transfer, I tried my best to work with not knowing Japanese and having a companion like that with my own problems and my own struggles with being a missionary.  I have never faced a harder period of time in my life.  Last Easter season as I reflected on that transfer I couldn't help but feel guilt for all the work I wasn't able to do and for not being able to help change my companion's attitude and help him gain more of a testimony.  As I was thus in my state of despair, emailing all of you guys from the church the day after Easter I started to cry (which never happens BTW).  I felt a warm feeling like someone was giving me a hug.  I had never felt such comfort and love in my life.  A voice in my head said that it was okay and that I had tried my best, I was not at fault.  At that moment, I looked back at my last six weeks and recognized every moment that I was strengthened in my trials, that I felt Christ's love for my companion when I couldn't feel love for him, that unseen angels pushed me out the door when I didn't know what I was going to say to the people I would stop on the street.  I came to a knowledge then that Christ lives and that he loves me.  Not only that but if I try to follow him and do the little things then he will help me in my trials and help me learn what I need to to learn to be that better person so I can help and serve others.  

That moment, as hard as it was, has changed my mission and my life forever.  I have been a much different person since that my moment.  I feel as if that was the point my true conversion began.  I couldn't say it before but I now know that Christ is there for each and every single one of us.  I know He has established His church on this Earth today to teach us how to be happy in our lives and to get on the path that will get us back home so we can live in peace and the utmost joy for eternity with our families, friends, and God.  This I know and I am truly grateful for the opportunity this Easter season to be able to share this testimony with everyone here in Japan.  May you all have an amazing Easter and be able to feel Christ's influence in your life and in the lives of those around you!  I love you and everyone in America, enjoy General Conference next week!

Elder Hall

ホール長老

Ponderize Scripture

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

-Alma 37:6

Monday Flashback

"Anyways, I picked him up (my companion for a day) at the train station, said good-bye to my [current] companion, and then got lost trying to find a building that was one street away....then we talked to people as we rode bikes homes and I was wondering `Where is the apartment?`...[So], when you don`t know what you need to do and you have two canceled appointments with a bunch of time, just turn to the Lord and he can help you out.  Maybe he won`t spell the answer out for you in every detail but, with faith all will be well."

- "My Day As A Senpai" 3/30/15  

 Exchange with our dorky assistants

My last ever ZTM...

He Comes, He Teaches, He Leaves (And A Special Exchange to Boot👞)

Wow, what a week!  Just another busy, busy week over here in Fukutoku.  I don't know if I can get busier with my life.  Seriously though.  We had a lot of stuff happen this week.  I literally have only been able to do a legit personal study once this past week, and not because I am being disobedient!  Tuesday was a normal day, Wednesday we had to go to the mission home for a meeting, Thursday we helped our wheelchair-bound Ugandan friend Baker to a government agency early in the morning, Friday was District Meeting, Saturday we had an appointment in the morning and Sunday we had church.  Monday we had the assistant call us which took a lot of time as well.  This week shouldn't be as crazy though.

I just gave you the rundown of the week but here are the highlights.  After helping Baker out from 7:30 to 11:30 in the morning, we meant to finish it off with a short scripture about pondering the scriptures but then Baker revealed to us that he thought the Book of Mormon was our version of the Bible and that he forgot who Joseph Smith was.  Maybe if you didn't go on thirty minutes rants on women then you would know!  But yeah, he just opened up to not knowing anything about the Book of Mormon so he committed to read the introduction.  This was the lesson right after we committed him to baptism for the first week of June (which he gracefully accepted).  Other good stuff was a koukan (an exchange) with Elder Hastriter from the same MTC group as me which was WAY fun.  We did what I hadn't done since transfer 3 and found an investigator through housing.  We were going to visit a member but then I decided to not use the map and just wing it but it turns out that wasn't a good idea so we just went Y.O.L.O. and decided to go housing since we both hadn't in a long time.  The second person we housed was a bro and we joked around with him for five or ten minutes before we set up a English/Gospel lesson for tonight.  Way stoked for that.  College kids are the best when they are living away from home alone.  

Sunday was really busy as well.  We had two of our people with baptismal dates come to church (Haruhito and Ikeda) and they both seemed to enjoy it.  We also taught part of the primary lesson with all the crazy Fukutoku kids about prophets, complete with an object lesson about prophets.  Afterwards, we had a lesson with Ikeda San and he is still struggling a little bit with the Word of Wisdom and stopping smoking but we are going to be helping him but texting him scriptures everyday and continuing to teach him other commandments as well. After THAT lesson, the director of all foreign languages at the MTC (Brother Mills) came to our mission and half-observed, half-participated in our lesson with an investigator, Ogawa San.  He is really interested in the church but he is also really busy.  He had a question about how we can imagine God because we always talk about Jesus Christ and show pictures of him but not God.  Then Brother Mills used a personal story in beautiful Japanese and a great analogy to connect it all in.  I have never seen a human being ever teach that well; it was CRAZY!  Then we called a bunch of less actives and a couple said they would come to church and one said they had a hernia.  So one semi-legit reason to not be at church for a month.

The thought today on my mind goes along with the Ponderizing Scripture this week.  I have been thinking recently a lot how God answers our desires.  If we want to be like his Son Jesus Christ and become perfect and be in service to others, he will help us do it through his Spirit and his servants the prophets.  If we want to get by life not doing much, he will let us do it.  God will give us what we want even if it is lower than what he wants for us.  He loves us SO much to put our wants and desires first.  That is why it is so important to be humble to match God's will and receive everything he wants to give us instead of just our lower expectations.  It all starts with a desire.  Once we have that, God will grant us that desire if we do what he says.  That is why our everyday little actions are so important.  Every decision we make, every time we choose to do the right thing or every time we choose the wrong thing, our wants and desires our affected.  The future you is determined by today's you.  That is why it is so important for us be temperant in all things, choose the right, and put our heart in the right place for God to grant us what He wants to give us.  

So, have a great week and I love you all!  

Enjoy March Madness and the nice Spring weather!

Elder Hall

ホール長老

Ponderize Scripture

"Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen."

-D&C 4:7

Monday Flashback

"I often relate missionary work to dating for some reason in my head but if you just like a girl a lot and you don`t invite her on a date, how will you ever get married?  So invites are pretty important, for missionaries and returned missionaries alike!"

- "Discipleship in the Digital Age" 3/23/15 

 Koukan Magic!

 America summed up in a picture I drew a Eikaiwa

Bike problems... A.k.a. When two missionaries ride across an a whole area in order to go to the mission home...

The Not So 仏教 (Bukkyou) Bash of 2016

Well friends and family, life continues to go on over here for me.  This week was kind of interesting, especially adjusting to a new companion.  Even though you are in the same area as before a lot of things change.  How you teach people, how you plan, even what and how you cook changes.  The first week it is a bit hard to read your companion as well.  What they will do in certain situations, how they handle certain things, and just what it is going to take to work together well.  It is very weird.  Elder DeSpain is fun though and we actually found out that we are fifth cousins after a deep family history search of our family tree.  We have family prayer every night, even though we are a bit distant relatives.  

One thing I have noticed so far with my companion is he goes to much further lengths than me on some things, like pursuing conversations with certain people on the street that I would say "Thanks for your time! Please come to church sometimes!"  Like Friday night the last guy we talked to before 9:00 turned out to be this guy way hardcore into this weird Buddhist sect and he kept telling us that Christ was just a normal person and his church was the only way and wouldn't let us talk with him.  So my companion pursues this man to agree to a meeting in the park on Sunday after church.  We tell our Bishop about it at PEC and ask a member to go with us and he thinks it is funny and just tells us to not take a member with us and see how it goes.  We meet at the park and spent an hour of just trying to talk but he kept talking about his very vague path to happiness.  So, it was interesting at least...

This week we also spent some substantial time bro-ing out with our investigators.  Haruhito had a birthday this past Friday so we went out to eat Indo Curry with him and had an alright lesson at the church about some more faith and Book of Mormon and starting to get into the Ten Commandments.  He is way cool and someone I will definitely keep in contact with for awhile.  Our other bro Ikeda San is doing really well too and he came to church, just not sacrament meeting...  But we had a good on the fly lesson on the Word of Wisdom and he committed to live it.  He said his Mom always told him to not smoke but he did anyways so we will see how it all turns out.  We will meet with him on Tuesday which should be really good.

This past week I have been thinking of a lot about testimonies (because I am a missionary).  Especially with the talking to people on the street all the time you get a chance to experience a lot with teaching people.  I have found that the best times that I teach is always when I am straightforward and bear my testimony.  It can be something simple like, "I learned about Christ from my parents and it has improved my life."  Or something more specific to what we are talking about.  But that it when the situation gets real.  Our Buddhist friend from earlier could say Christ was a normal human, or that our church was wrong, or anything else but he couldn't say that I don't know that this is true.  I love telling people, "I have seen this church change my life so I know that if you try to do the things we are inviting you to do, you can gain that same happiness that I did."  No one can deny a pure, simple testimony if it is a sincere one, even if they try.  Somewhere, in the back of their mind or etched into their heart that is where it will truly lie.  It is then up to them whether or not they use a particle of faith to try things out with us but I feel a testimony heard will never quite be forgotten.  I know what has strengthened my testimony a lot has been hearing the testimonies of others, whether it be members in Japan or my fellow missionaries.  I am also grateful for my parents' testimonies and other family members and friends that have touched me throughout my life.  I love you and hope that you all can take the opportunity to share a simple testimony to family members, friends, and other around you this upcoming week.  

Everyone enjoy the spring weather coming up and have a great week!

Elder Hall
ホール長老

Ponderize Scripture

"And more blessed are you because you are called of me to preach my gospel. To lift up your voice as with the sound of a trump, both long and loud, and cry repentance."

-D&C 34:5-6

Monday Flashback

"We talked about inviting and how essential it was in missionary work.  Like if we don`t invite people to be baptized or to meet with us, they aren`t going to randomly just show up dressed in white in the font or at the church waiting for a lesson.  I think that is something I need to work on, in teaching and finding...It brought me back to the days of high school where wearing a BYU shirt counted as my duty to share the gospel."

- "Invitations and the Big Dance" 3/16/15 

My companion Elder DeSpain and I are related through Solomon Joseph DeSpain.  Cool eh?  

(I know it is hard to see)

2) 

Just another Squid for dinner...