マク伝道 (Missionary Work at McDonald's)

This week was pretty bomb spectacular if you ask me.  We had a couple of exchanges this week which spiced things up a little bit.  First was my third kokan (tying him with Elder Smith and Elder Mueller for the most times I have gone with splits on someone officially in my mission) with Elder Nakamoto and while it was short because it was after Zone Conference (my last one as a missionary fun fact) but we had a good time talking to people on the street, even though our appointment for the night fell through.  

Friday I stayed here in Fukutoku with a younger missionary Elder Hovorka.  We planned to pretty much just talk to people most of the day so I could give him more experience in that regard but at night one of our investigators called us wondering if we could go out to eat.  He had eaten with us before a few times but when we brought up us being missionaries it wasn't that successful in the restaurant environment.  So, we ate with him close to the church and afterwards we were like, "Our church is right across the church by the way.  Let's go see it!"  So, with our friend Ito San we gave a church tour and when we showed him the baptismal font he was asking a bunch of questions.  During the middle of the explanation on baptism, someone called him and he told them that he was in a cool Christian place talking about this cool thing called baptism that can make you clean again.  The person on the phone asked him if he was alright which was pretty funny to hear but he is a bro!  We asked him if he would prepare to be baptized by the end of April but he said he would like to think about it.  We will see what happens next week.  It is just cool having stuff come out of the blue and then things going WAY better than you thought they would.

Thursday we met with Tatsuya (our hat shop friend) again and had a great lesson. We're
learning that we just have to keep the member helping us on a really
tight leash in the lessons and he helps a lot. If you give him too
much space he'll talk the whole time about how he's keeping the law of
chastity but not the Word of Wisdom (don't worry he has a plan to stop
in 1.5 years). Tatsuya has a lot of interest in the Plan of Salvation
and things are going well with him.

The coolest thing that happened this week though was last week.  We were biking around in the southern part of our area trying to find a less active member's house when we stopped this guy named David from Canada. He invited us to go eat at McDonalds with him right there so we went and talked for a good hour.  He asked us a bunch of questions and talked about not really have perfect faith which he thinks he why he hasn't gotten concrete answers from God before.  That then led right into the message of the Restoration and so we got to teach that, in English which, by the way, is really, really weird at this point of my life.  I was thinking that it would be nice to have an English BOM but I remembered when I was life transfer 5 I put an mini-English Book of Mormon in my bag tucked away so I pulled it out and we gave it to him.  He is moving next week but it was SOO COOL!  So random but we could feel the Spirit in hindsight just guiding us to him, even though he isn't Japanese at all.  It is so cool that Heavenly Father loves us so much that he leads others to help us other in the time of need.  I think that is why it is important that we follow the Spirit because we are the people that do the Lord's work, as priesthood bearers, or as missionaries, or as covenanted baptized members.  We will never quite see how we helped people someone when we followed a prompting or went out of our way to do to something.  So never do anything to quench the Spirit!  We all need it in our lives and I pray that we can all be worthy of the Spirit and have Him lead us!  I love you all and have a great week!

Elder Hall

ホール長老

Ponderizing Scripture:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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."

-Romans 8:35-38

Monday Flashback:

"And then President Yamashita got up. He told us how 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 exteremely 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."

- Elder Ballard and the Parable of the Lost Wallet 2/22/2015

Picture:

 My Last Zone Conference

The Good, the Bad, and the Spiritual

Good: This week we met with our one of our Korean Jesus investigators after a long time and we had a good lesson with him.  He is keeping the Word of Wisdom even though his wife tries to get him to drink coffee and tea like everyday.  He would be baptized but he doesn't like how when we are baptized we have to stick to one church and he can't go to the Korean Jesus church.  So, we are trying to help him gain more spiritual experiences.  Basically we just told him that we would help him out and the Spirit was totally there as we just asked a bunch of questions to help us understand him.

Bad: Our Ugandan investigator yesterday is trying hardcore to have us donate three or four of our nice silk ties to his fund because he is broke and is looking to make a comeback in business.  This of course was after he tried to give us some more marriage and non-marriage advice (trying to keep it at least PG-13 in this email...) and went on a thirty minute rant about Donald Trump and the election.  On a good note we did teach about baptism more in depth!

The Ugly: We had a lesson with the our favorite hat shop guy but his less active friend took over the lesson right after the opening prayer talking about the parable of the sower and how it justifies him being less active.  I shared a scripture from Revelations though!

The Good: We had another really good lesson with our college student friend studying French for no reason Haruhito!  The same as Yamanaka San's lesson where we just went in with an idea of what we were going to teach but then just asked a bunch of inspired questions (I think) and the Spirit was there and it was pretty cool.  He definitely has some interest and it helped us know where to go with him.  He had a question about Adam so we explained the Fall and we exactly felt the Spirit through it!  Spirit is the key man.

The Bad: Not really anyone we invited came to the Valentine's Day chocolate making Party but it is okay, it was still fun with members!  Also, later that night we had like, twice the attendance at Ping Pong Night then usual and it was AWESOME!  Our favorite English Student Takao San (a.k.a. Tack) who likes bluegrass and random English knowledge came.  He wasn't that good at ping pong but it was still fun!

The Spiritual: So, the big finish is a story from this week in following the promptings of my companion's stomach.  We went to Gifu DTM and afterwards we were pretty hungry and we wanted to get sushi.  So, we asked a young missionary serving in Gifu and asked if there is a sushi place close.  He said it was so we followed his directions but it took awhile and we were debating turning back so we don't waste time but then we decide to go anyways.  We went to a sushi place where you get chances to win a prize after every five dishes.  So, we eat 30 plates combined in order to get a prize and we finally did!  YEAH!  So, we go back on the train and there is a guy sitting across the way from us waving at me.  My companion sees him and goes over to him.  It turns out Elder Callahan had actually baptized the man waving whose man is Moto Kyoudai a year ago.  On the short train ride we found out that he had just moved to a new address and changed his phone number and hasn't been going to church recently.  So, in short, if we didn't catch that EXACT train, we wouldn't have been able to get him in contact with the Gokiso missionaries and help him be active.  Throughout the day in all these little things the Spirit was guiding us to that exact train!  We didn't notice or even think that a crazing for sushi or wanting to eat EXACTLY 30 plates for a prize was the Spirit but it really was!  It has been so cool on my mission to see the Spirit guide me as I try my best even if I don't know if it is the Spirit or not.  I know that God does lead us as we search for his guidance and be obedient.  Sometimes it won't be a burning in our bosoms or something we expect but it will be in his way and his own time.  It is so worth it being worthy to be lead by the Spirit!  Have a great week and I love you all!

Elder Hall

ホール長老

Ponderizing Scripture:

"Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing--yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof."

-D&C 19:38

Monday Flashback:

"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 (those two investigators because of it) and finding out again that the Spirit does lead me, even in bumbling Japanese and unconfidence."

- "Youth in Asia" -02/16/205

After DTM Picture

The sisters heart-attacked us for Valentine's Day so we took a one-eyed selfie

A Ugandan, A Brazilian,and An America Walk Into A Lesson...

What a week of cool random miracles.  Monday was started off by helping a less active move which took a lot of P-day time because she had SO MUCH STUFF!!!  I didn't know it was physically possible to hold that many gold trinkets in a three room apartment.  Tuesday was followed by an exchange with a young Elder Richardson in Gifu which was pretty fun as we just biked around talking to people.  We also had sushi which I had been craving for quite awhile.  Wednesday Elder Callahan and I got back together again for a day before the next exchange on Thursday.  The highlight was English Class where two people who we talked onto the street a month ago who said would come randomly came.  So, it was crunch time.  English Class had to be good in order for them to keep coming.  Luckily we delivered.  The theme was School so beforehand we prepared a ten question "Pop Quiz" about random English and things about the missionaries' life.  Like, What is Elder Hall's first name? A. Colonel Sanders  B.  Shawnm  etc.  People got really into it and two people got 100% and everyone was FREAKING OUT OF THEIR MINDS!  It was like the funnest Eikaiwa ever because everyone was treating this quiz like the Super Bowl.

Thursday we had another exchange but I stayed here with Elder Miranda from Brazil.  He is super fun and we had a good time.  Our Uganda friend Baker is doing really well and we can actually have legit lessons for 45 minutes or so with only a 5 minute tangent on courting females and beyond.  We finished the Plan of Salvation with him and he really enjoyed the fact that knowing about the plan will affect your everyday life and choices.  He is way cool.  Also, on Sunday we met again with our English friend Ikeda San and he is way good.  We talked about the Gospel of Christ and when we got to Repentance he told us he never did anything really bad in his life but he wants to improve.  So cool!  We set another baptismal date for him on March 27th.  He also has been getting spiritual experiences through prayer which is really good.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot has been the Spirit and how God gives us it to lead us and guide us.  This Friday before a lesson we had an hour and we had decided to visit less active really quick.  I remembered a close by potential investigator and I was just going to ignore it but at the last second I decided to tell my companion about it.  We went over and we had never meet before but he let us in and brought us soda and we are meeting him again next Friday.  It was really small but God does guide us through our life with the Spirit.  It is cool because one of the ways Christ strengthens us is by giving us the Spirit and that he the way he leads us.  Whether we are seeking for answers, or in need of comforting or knowing that you are worth something, or if just wanting to be happy.  Nephi tells us that "the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."  All things means any help we need, Christ has given us the Spirit to lead and guide us and that what is cool as a missionary is I get to focus on that a lot.  If you feel the Spirit you know you are doing something right, cause who doesn't want a friend with no holidays or transfer calls that can lead, guide, direct, and comfort you whenever you call.  You all feel the Spirit and have a great week!

Elder Hall
ホール長老

Ponderizing Scripture

"Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not bfear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you."

-D&C 68:6

Monday Flasback

"I have been thinking a lot recently about, well, my mission.  Two years ago I got a letter in the mail calling me to be a missionary in Japan for two years.  I can't believe that it has already been that long and how different has it been too."

- "Gaijin Constipation Awareness Month" 2/9/2015

Eikaiwa a couple weeks ago! (I look like a hobo, yes...

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!