Matsumoto, my new area!!

Well, the new area of Matsumoto is pretty much almost as cold as Takayama except minus the good old snow.  It did snow yesterday but only like an inch which is pretty weak compared to what I am used too.  I live with my companion Elder Jones and the zone leaders live in the area but in a different apartment complex.  The senior couple missionaries, the Tomas, also work here but sadly they don`t live in our apartment either.  Elder Toma is super rich so he has given us money to buy food but he also likes food too so he sometimes comes out with us to eat even if his wife isn`t too happy about it.  The branch here is about 80 members strong and is basically a ward but it happens to be in a district so it is just waiting for other branches around it to get bigger so it can become the Nagano Stake instead of the Nagano District.  The members seem to be nice but there are SO many of them.  I`m used to just 20 so I could easily talk to them all and get to know them pretty well but now it is like wow, where do I even start?

I have more investigators than I am used to too.  There are currently four eternal investigators right now in our area:

1. Tommy- A Chinese, married, forty-year old who when he prayed to find out whether or not to be baptized, had a dream involving a horse (something to do with the year of the horse I believe) that told him he should be baptized.... some day.  Right now he is reading through the whole Book of Mormon so he can find out if it is true or not.

2. Mori- In the middle of teaching the commandments but has a tad bit of a social disorder that makes it hard for her to meet in places with a lot of strangers.  Sadly for her but overall good in the Lord`s kingdom, many strangers come to church so we are trying to help her overcome the fear by having her meet a bunch of members in lessons before she can come.  Really nice lady, about 30 and lives with her Mom.

3. Hiragata- Likes to learn with the missionaries but when the previous elders asked her to pray about baptism, she said she already had a no in her heart so she thought it would be pointless to ask.  So, the game plan is to help her find the desire to.

4. David- Brazilian whose English and Japanese aren`t nearly as good as his Portuguese.  Haven`t met him yet, but I know his wife is Jewish and has gotten through part of lesson one with the missionaries.

Next week there will be at least five investigators after some various finding activities take place so more in next e-mail.  But this week has been a lot of adjusting to only living with one other person and meeting a bunch of new people.  So far my journal writing has been drastically improved without another companionship in the apartment to talk to after planning session.  It is really weird though because I have been on a mission for about nine months now and the other three elders in the area have been out for well, at least 20 months.  So I am super young and all the members think I am a beanchan in comparison but, soon enough, they will all go home and Matsumoto will be MINE!!!  Well that was a bit dark.

Anyways, not too much stuff happened this week but I did find this new music on lds.org a couple weeks back that I really liked so I thought I would share it with you.  The song is about being closer to Christ even when we are making mistakes.  I know that one thing I have learned on my mission is that God does command us to be perfect, but not right away.  All we have to do is try our best to be perfect and whenever we fall short, the Atonement makes up for the rest.  I know I wouldn`t be able to be on my mission and face all these challenges and language barriers if it wasn`t for the atonement.
Hope you all have a fun safe week and that you strive to be closer to the Savior each day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ541grs7Zw  (Shawn did not go on youtube!!  This was the only way I (his mother) could get this song to load on here!!)  ha ha

Pictures: I found out Opening Your Mouth is easier with a companion.

And the mission map, first Numazu (dark blue), then Takayama (yellow), now Matsumoto (green).

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Elder Ballard and the Parable of the Lost Wallet

This week`s events reminded me of a parable I once heard. It reads:

Either what elder having a wallet with a lot of money in it, if he lose it, doth not light a candle, and sweep the apartment, and visit the church and members` houses and seek diligently till he find it? And when he has find it, doth he write his friends and e-mail his family about the wonderful miracle of finding the once wayward wallet?

That pretty much is my life story when my best friend Mizuguchi Kyodai came over this morning and found my wallet in their family van. So sorry Mom I made you pay a few extra dollars to replace bank cards when I have them back again! Oh well, better safe than sorry. So I found it and will always keep it in my left front pocket without a camera.

This week we went to Nagoya and got to see all of the missionaries in the mission which happens like, once or twice a year. But what doesn`t happen so often is having five General Authorities there! President Yamashita and Elder Aoyagi from the Seventy were there but didn`t really speak. Presiding Bishop Gary E. Stevenson (who used to be a Japan Nagoya Mission President about ten years ago) taught us that all a missionary needs is a PMG, the White Handbook, and a set of scriptures to be successful. The most senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy taught us about the great power of the message of the Restoration and the importance of obedience. Elder Ballard spoke with great power when telling us all to `cast our minds towards Gethsemane` to remember what the Savior did for us. As we do that as missionaries, will will remember Christ`s infinite love for us and we will want to share that message of His love with others. We all also got to shake his hand and he asked me how I was doing and I answered good. It was really cool to see an apostle of the Lord and hear his powerful testimony of Christ and his great enthusiasm for missionary work.

The best thing for the conference though was at the end, after we sang the closing hymn. Before an elder could go up and say the closing prayer, 86 year-old Elder Ballard beat him to the pulpit to tell everybody that he felt like President and Sister Yamashita should bear their testimonies to us. So the closing prayer had to wait while they bore their testimonies. Sister Yamashita struggled with her English but we could all really tell that she loved us all. And then President Yamashita got up. He told us that we were all great missionaries and that our light and examples have helped him build his testimony.  We are always trying as missionaries to improve and to forget ourselves so it seems like a lot of the times we have so many shortcomings and weaknesses. It was very humbling to hear all of the speakers express their gratitude for us missionaries and extremely touching as with his tear-filled eyes, President Yamashita thanked us for the positive impact we have had on him. I felt my eyes tear up as well as I realized how much good I have been doing even when I always focus on wanting to improve, get better, and get rid of my shortcomings. I thought I was the only one holding back my tears, but as the closing prayer was said by a Japanese elder trying out his English, all I could hear was sniffles from the other hundred and fifty so missionaries in the chapel. It was amazing to feel united as a missionary force with our mission president and other General Authorities behind us. I hadn`t quite felt that since the MTC. So thanks everyone for getting me this far and thank all you e-mail readers for having a positive impact on my life. Even now with your prayers it has helped keep going everyday.

Speaking of needing prayers, I am being transferred to Matsumoto, another cold area that happens to be sister cities with Salt Lake. It has been really hard to say good-bye to everyone in the area as it has been my first area where I have been making a conscience effort to speak to people but I have to remember that 18 weeks ago I was complaining about being banished here in Takayama while now I am so sad to leave it. I will be companions with an Elder Jones from Idaho. It should be an interesting ride, especially since it is only me and him living in the apartment. The zone leaders are in the area as well though so someone will always be watching me... DUN DUN DUN! Anyways, everyone have a great week and I love you all!

Elder Hall with Branch President and some members

Youth In Asia

So this past week we had two activities that involved youth that happen to be in Asia because I am in Japan.  The first one was for Valentine`s Day but was on Wednesday because it was Constitution Day and everyone had school off.  We made our own chocolate and decorated it so it was super legit.  And yes, Japan has Valentine`s Day but also a day on March 14th called White day.  The girls give stuff to the guys on Valentine`s Day here in Japan and then the boys have to give it back on White`s Day.  It is pretty much just a scam by the Japanese chocolate companies to get more money but still original.  We had a couple of non-members who were friends with less active youth come so we talked to them and became friends.  They are female though so it is a bit hard for us to contact them and get things going as far as investigators go but we just have to go through their friends.  We took the chocolates to Casey and the Brailsfords who we are still trying to hammer out a date for Casey`s baptism.

This Saturday we had a basketball activity which I was WAY excited for!  It had been six months since I played it in the MTC with my South American friends.  So, I took a video of my first shot which was horrendous.  I will try to put it up but I have to try to get a Dropbox going first so maybe next week you can watch it.  But we had our American 20 year-old friend come and dominate with us.  Most of the people who came, various youth and English students, didn`t know how to play too much but they did a pretty good job still.  I didn`t go all out on them because of charity and potential foul difficulties but I had fun and even got to be a referee for a quarter.

A sad event in this week, I lost my wallet.  At first it was like, `Well it is at the church.`  Nope.  Then I think `It is in the apartment.`  Tear it apart and nope.  `It has to be at the Indian Curry place I last had it at.`  Bike out there and nope too.  So I am absolutely broke and already used my personal funds.  so it has been pretty rough.  I keep hoping for a miracle to find it or have somebody call me since I left all my contact information in it.  I just need more faith.  But then I was reading in the Book of Mormon today about Alma and Amulek when they have to watch all the people they taught who became converted in Ammonihah be burned to death because of their beliefs.  Amulek has my attitude and says `Alma, God can help us to stop this.`  But Alma in his wisdom realizes the Spiritual prompting he has that this needs to happen because even though it is hard, it is for the people to try their faith.  In the end it will work out.

So, in relation to that, last night after we checked at the Indo Curry place, we went housing near by which is quite far away.  We do a couple houses and then a random couple lets us in before we even say anything because it is cold outside.  First time ever that has happened to me.  They are a little buzzed, at least I realized that after the lesson, but we sit down and talk a little bit about their hobbies.  Then we transition into God, teach them the Plan of Salvation and Kenji San (the 34 year old) can`t believe in God.  I had stayed relatively quiet in the lesson since it was on the spot and I had no preparation and was a bit scared but I got up the courage to tell him something.  In my broken Japanese, I told him I once too wanted to know if God existed, so I got down and prayed to him.  I felt a good feeling and knew that he heard me and was there.  I promised him too that he could pray and find out too.  `Not today I am good.` was the response.  I don`t know if they felt anything but I did.  That was really the first time that I testified without having prepared something in Japanese before.  I don`t know if us finding them after looking for my lost wallet was for me or for them but I feel like that my wallet slipping out of my pocket wasn`t a mistake.  Sometimes, like Alma and Amulek, we have to have the faith to not see a miracle, to not be saved.  to have faith that one day it will turn out alright that this experience is for our good in the long run.  I don`t know if I will ever find my wallet and its valuable contents but it is worth it for meeting them and finding out again that the Spirit does lead me, even in bumbling Japanese and unconfidence.

I hope everyone has a great week and thanks again for all the support, letters and e-mails even if I don`t have time to response to a lot of you!  Love you all and God bless you all!

Caijin Constipation Awareness Month

So, I wasn`t going to share this information until I talked to my 20 year old half-Japanese friend named Josh who is staying in Japan for an away from home experience before college at church yesterday.  My companion started to go into the `guess what Elder Hall came down with last week` which, according to my Interal Organ Council Notes from last week, I thought was a flu but the story goes a bit different.  I went to the doctor with Uema Choro on splits last Monday so he can tell me what the doctor is saying and help me out with all of the weird Japanese stuff and vocab and it was interesting.  It was a small clinic that had the small feeling as an American hospital just without any cute wall paper decorations on the side.  The doctor asks me medical questions, Uema Choro asks me them in broken English and I try to answer best I can.  I lay down on the table and he feels around my stomach and comes to a conclusion, MEDS!!!  We get the receipt, then the meds that I am suppose to take after each meal for four days and then go back to the apartment.  `What do you have?`  `Benpi` replys Uema Choro.  `Elder Hall, you have constipation!`  Well, that was news to me.

But, I tell this to Josh and I assume him to laugh at my unfortunate mishap but he is like, `Yeah, I had that problem too.  All this Japanese food is totally different and messes with your body.`  So I am not alone.  I am constipated, and I AM PROUD!  Okay, it is over now with the medicine but now I can say with a straight face, yes, I was constipated.  So as you go on dates with your Valentines this week, remember that I officially dubbed February Gaijin Constipation Awareness Month. (Caijin is just a termed used by the Japanese referring to those who are not Japanese)  When living in foreign countries for a period of six months or longer, make sure you eat lettuce, fiber, and if there is a problem with certain things dropping, it is okay to talk to your companion about it.  But anywho, I am completely recovered physically but the emotional scarring is still in the process. 

This week was pretty crazy, especially yesterday.  Everyone we talked to on the street spoke English which was really weird talking in your native language for once.  The last guy we talked to said he would come to church next Sunday since he had a break even though he didn`t believe in God.  So pretty solid even though the whole conversation was in English.  We also went yesterday with our branch president to a city called Gero, not Ghetto, which is an hour car ride from Takayama.  There we met our new recent convert that moved there but we learned she is moving to Nagoya next month anyway.  Then we went to a less active who is, guess what, an American from Logan, Utah!  He married Japanese and his company sent him back over here for some work.  We met him and talked with him for about an hour and the branch president even tried out some English!  I guess Arata Kaicho coming to Eikaiwa is really working out!

I realized something this week, that it has been a year since I got my mission call.  It is crazy to think that just a year ago, I got back to my apartment in Provo to see my roommate had got the call from the mail and put it back on my desk.  I remember seeing it and freaking out, putting it under all of my stuff on my desk and ran over to the apartment over to play Call of Duty and try to not stress myself about it until I opened it up later that night.  My view of a mission was a lot different back then and I remember being really nervous and anxious about where I was going to go.  I never even thought of Japan.  It was so much excitement mixed with fear.  I had finally grown a foot and two and my call was here.  I opened my call with my parents on Skype, my college friends all around me with my grandparents and Aunt and cousin there.  I mispronounced my mission which wasn`t even in hard Japanese and I remember thinking, `Crap, I haven`t even watched any anime.`  And now here I am, eight months into my mission.  It is a lot different from what I thought it would be.  I am not even close with the language, I haven`t seen a baptism, and it is freezing cold here.  I am grateful for making that choice to come out even though it was a hard one.  I`ve been able to help a lot of people and myself too.  I`ve gotten a lot of support from mission leaders, other missionaries, members and those of you back home.  I am truly grateful for the opportunity and challenge of being a missionary.  I like to reflect on what I felt about my mission that day I opened my call.  I wish I would have written my feelings down somewhere and brought them with me to remind me of why I came out and what my goal and purpose of being a missionary is.  I have grown a lot from that time I opened my call.  I have had to say a lot of good-byes but I have got to meet a lot of great people too.  This mission and other mission others will go on will be worth it, because it is not the worldly things that I am leaving behind, but the eternal truths I am learning out here and teaching others.

I hope everyone has a great week and I love you all!

Elder Hall`s Body`s Forced Diet

So last week I e-mailed about the doctor`s telling me to not worry about losing weight and I am regretting it.  I would tell you more but I think letting my body do the talking would make more sense:

ELDER HALL`S INTERNAL ORGAN COUNCIL NOTES   Thursday January 29th, 2015

Brain: `We`d like to welcome everybody to this week`s meeting and we`d like to also thank the Esophagus for being a pipe org... I mean, for playing the pipe organ for today`s opening hymn and also thank the pancreas for saying the opening prayer.  Now without further ado, I would like to turn the time over for the first item of business, Diet and Fat Content.  Stomach, the floor is all yours.

Stomach: Thanks Brain.  Uh, this past week Elder Hall has been putting down some really rough food into me.  I have already had a rough week but Tuesday`s buffet full with American food really has been tiring me out.  So I was wondering if anyone else has had problems because of Elder Hall`s unbalanced diet.  Liver, Fat Cells, do you have anything to say?

Liver:  Yeah, I agree.  I have been working hard to not poison this stupid 19 year old from all the toxins he gives me.

Fat Cells: Yeah, me too.  I know food storage is a commandment and he wants to save a lot of nutrients for a rainy day but we are getting crowded, especially in the abdominal region.  If this keeps up, we will have to ask the skin to cover more of us.

Stomach:  Now I don`t want to blame anyone for this *taste buds**cough*cough* but does anyone have any solutions?

Small Intestine:  I remember hearing about that flu going around Takayama from that white blood cell last week in his training.  Would that maybe help his poor eating habits?

Stomach:  That doesn`t sound too bad.  Just a few days or maybe even a week to correct it.  It would take a lot of effort from the whole digestive system but I am all for it.  What do you guys say?

Brain:  All those in favor of letting Elder Hall receive the flu to correct his poor diet..

*ALL IN THE AFFIRMATIVE*

Brain:  Okay, sounds like a plan.  No immune system, you can take a break tomorrow and let the flu do it`s thing.  Now we will move onto the next item of business, How to Maintain Homeostasis In the Winter Months.  Emphatic System, the floor is yours...

So yeah, I believe that my body has gained up against me to make me healthy. I got sick on Friday morning and have been trying to rest and get better to go back out and work.  I am going to doctor tomorrow if it doesn`t get better but hopefully today`s napping will cleanse me.  I hope my immune system really only took one day off instead of the whole weekend because I have already lost one kilogram.

Anyways, this week has been good dendo wise.  We found three new high school investigators this past week and one of them really wants to know more about Christ while the other two want to practice English for now.  Also, we only have one more lesson to teach Casey before he is ready for baptism, now we just really have to set a date for the baptism.  We also went on an adventure to a town in our area that you can only access by bus and found a less active who still has good feelings toward the church.

And while being stuck in the apartment and the church as a missionary is stressful as you want to be doing productive stuff in helping bring out about God`s work, I found this scripture that has really comforted me in the past few days.  Romans 8:35,38-39

8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in  Christ Jesus our Lord. 

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.  Hope you all have a good, safe, and healthy week and that you feel Christ`s love in your life!

Love you all!

Celestial Apartment Award (Thanks Mom!)

So this week has been a little bit eventful I guess.  So on Thursday night, we went to stay up in Takaoka so that we would be able to get to the Doctor`s Conference on time that the zone was having the next morning.  So we took the hour and a half train ride to Takaoka, ate out, and then we had 30 minutes before the 9 o`clock curfew.  So, I went with my friend Hastriter Choro who was in the MTC with me, and we talked to people in the street.  We met these three high school students close by the train station that although they weren`t too interested in the gospel, they walked with us and talked a little bit.  It was really cool because both me and Hastriter Choro had been in Japan as long as each other and although his Japanese was a little bit more polished, we switched back and forth talking and saying stuff.  It was pretty cool.  Then we went back to the apartment that had another Elder, Esplin Choro, from the MTC and one of the elders took it on himself to benchpress everyone in the apartment after planning.  The lightest was 52 kilograms and then I was the heaviest.  He was pretty strong so he was able to benchpress me as I kept my balance.

Me in Takaoka with my name on a building

The Doctor`s Conference the next day was great too.  We talked a lot about how to deal with stress and we got some healthy recipes to use which is really nice since most Japanese cooking is first, make rice, second, cook meat, third, put it together and EAT IT!  We also received our `Celestial Apartment Award` for having the cleanest apartment in the whole zone!  We have a cleaning check from the Senior Missionaries tomorrow so most of today will be spent cleaning so that we can repeat as the cleanest.

Me and my/our apartment`s cleaning award!

This Sunday night we had a lesson with our star investigator Casey.  We brought along my friend Koki who is a priest that has his eye set on serving a mission.  We taught about the 10 Commandments with some Law of Chastity and Sabbath Day Observance sprinkled in.  We pulled out a picture of President Monson and I introduced prophets and he just sits there and I think basically calls him old and says `ojichan` which means Grandpa.  He is a bit crazy with his Aspbergers so it was kind of funny.  Koki played it off really well though when he was teaching him about the third commandment and basically said to not make fun of the prophet.  I would have added that if you don`t, she-bears might attack you but it was probably a good thing I can`t say that in Japanese.  His less-active Mom also said she would make Casey practice his ski-ing with his ski team after church on Sundays so while it would be better it give it all up, they said they are coming to church so there are definitely baby steps being taken.

Thanks for all of the e-mails this week as hearing back from home is a good self-esteem boost.  Speaking of by 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.  I will have to see if Elder Gaclian can benchpress me at the end of the mission!  

Anyways, hope everyone has a good week and can feel Christ`s love in your life throughout the week!

I'll Sho you a Gatsu

Shogatsu in Japanese means the first day of the month.　I am pretty sure that Shogatsu is celebrated on New Year`s Eve as well but I was in the apartment and celebrated the coming of the New Year at around 10:20, which included drinking that sparkling cider stuff and breaking glow sticks my Mom sent to me back in the MTC for the Fourth of July I forgot to use.  But, the last few days have been full of holliday cheer since Shogatsu is the Christmas of Japan where everyone comes home to be with their families.  I was told people finally get off work then but it doesn`t really matter to us missionaries much because they were all with their families anyway and some people, well, you guessed it, still worked.

So, while most missionaries have their downtime around Christmas when it is hard to meet with people, we had it this past week.  It is hard in a branch of twenty as well to get member appointments so, we basically have been going around and shoveling people`s snow since no one out on the streets is from Takayama, everyone inside is chilling with their families, and members are busy as well.  So, we just shoveled snow and got to talk to a couple random Grandma`s this past week.

We did have our delayed Christmas Zone Conference on New Year`s Eve so we took the train the day before and stayed the night in the Kanazawa apartment.  It was me and Elder Vaughn, my senior companion and district leader, my two zone leaders, and the assistants to the president in the apartment.  So I was not only the only elder in single digits of transfers, but also the only one that didn`t have authority over me.  But, it was still really fun and I got to hear a lot of stories from the older missionaries.

At the Conference, we were fed, given a Christmas present of a new mission tie and socks, and President Yamashita talked about Backing Up and Resetting for the New Year.  He told us that no matter how dedicated or worthy we are or aren`t, that we can all back up and reevaluate our lives and see what we can do more.  We can always do more.

So here is hoping that all of you out there stay true to your New Year`s Resolutions.  I am now doing five push-ups after every snack I eat because, well, I have gained two kilograms on the mission so far... IN THE SKINNY COUNTRY OF JAPAN!!!  Not good.  So, until the snow melts and we can run outside without slipping and dying, five push-ups after every snack will do.

Thank you so much for all of the mail and e-mails this past holiday season! 

I love you all and may your 2015 New Year be rocking!