My Week 'N My Late General Conference Notebook #Ponderization

This past week in a paragraph: I went on a split with my good old friend Elder Laumatia on Tuesday whom I roomed with back in the MTC.  It was really fun and we talked to a lot of people on the street that night.  We ran into one guy who was fluent in Japanese but wasn't Japanese so he had us guess where he was from.  Korea?  It is Asia right? Laos? Sri Lanka?  It turned out he was from Mongolia which definitely was a first in my life.  He seemed interested and he gave us his meshi for his wife's business of making French Pastries.  We tried it out the next day and it was quite delicious.  The next day I went on a kocan with Elder Nakatsuka (yes Japanese) and we had a lot of fun talking to people on the street OYMing.  No new investigators but we almost had a guy meet us again.  We testified about God's help and I talked about when I first came to Japan how it was hard but God helped me learn a little bit of the language so I could speak with people.  Other than that last night we finally met with a Brazilian less-active we had been trying to meet with for awhile and set up an appointment to come back later and teach her and her non-member boyfriend about temples.  That should be fun!  The Brazilian candy was a nice treat as well.  I think I am addicted to Pacoquita now!

Well, another part of my week was consumed with GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!  Sorry, with this excitement you might have thought Christmas came early in Japan or I was just going back to my half-Canadian roots to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving but as a missionary General Conference is basically our March Madness.  One and a half days of just pure spiritual revelation!  So cool!  It was definitely an exciting conference even though it was bittersweet a little bit.  It was hard to say good-bye to the deceased Elder Packer, Elder Perry, and Elder Scott who I had grown up listening to in conference for the past twenty years.  I really loved Elder Bednar's talk about the last testimonies of those who he had served with in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and to see their witness of the Savior.  It was a fitting good-bye to those humble servants of the Lord who had been in His cause serving us for a large portion of their lives.

Recently as a missionary, I have been given the opportunity to get to know or meet a few of the brethren speaking this year.  My former mission president President Yamashita gave a closing prayer and I had previously met Elder Aoyagi, Elder Whiting (he said a prayer), had heard from four of the twelve apostles when I was at the MTC and had Elder Ballard and two of the newly called apostles, Elder Rasband and Elder Stevenson, come to our mission back in February and had the opportunity to shake their hands.  With this rare opportunity as a missionary to see so many great men, my testimony has been really deepened in the leading brethren of the church.  A great theme this conference was that God calls the weak and magnifies them.  I have learned of the truthfulness of that statement.  Those General Authorities I have met have seemed like normal men besides the fact of the Spirit emanating from them as they speak with power and insight from God.  I remember a time in the dark, cold winter of Takayama when President Yamashita visited our four man District Training Meeting.  I will forever treasure that experience to be with a member of the Seventy and his wife with only four of us elders.  I have a personal testimony that our leaders are truly here to serve us and the Lord and their humility is a witness of their dedication and service to the Lord.  Most of my testimony in the leading brethren of the church have been following their counsel long after the closing prayer of General Conference or after having seen them.  I bear my testimony that God's servants will never lead us astray and that God stills directs his church today through the strong and the weak.  I understand the feeling of being inadequate to a calling given to you as a missionary and I have seen in my service how the Lord leads and directs those weak ones he calls.

One talk specifically that struck me this week was by Devin G. Durant.  'Ponderize' is making a strong run to make it into to Webster's Dictionary next year.  My goal is that we will use it so much that it becomes official by the next time he gives a talk in General Conference.  How amazing it will be once we all take one scripture a week to memorize and to ponder about throughout the week.  How many of us will be scriptorians in no time!  How many blessings there will be once we pick a scripture once a week to ponderize!  We will all be bouncing up and down with joy when it becomes our turn to share a spiritual thought in our weekly meetings.  All seminary students will have scripture mastery finished in 25 weeks.  Our non-member friends will be able to see our weekly scripture as we post it on Facebook, tweet about it on Twitter, or make a board of Pinterest just for Ponderization.  No missionary will have to think twice about which scripture to share when they visit a member.  All families will have an opportunity to grow together in their family scripture studies.  The possibilities are endless!  From now on, each week, I will post my own ponderized scripture at the bottom of my e-mail in order to catch the fever.  So pick a scripture today as a family or with your friends or as a seminary class.  Or, you can just use the one I send out too!  

I'd like to give everyone else a challenge as well.  Ponderize General Conference and the words of the living prophets! Take one each week and Sunday (to keep it holy) study and ponder it and apply it throughout the week.  I will be sharing my thoughts on a General Conference talk each week in my e-mails for awhile so if you have a hard time deciding which one to study I got your back.  So everybody log out of your e-mail and get to ponderizing!  I know that as you do so you will be able to accomplish all the goals you set during conference weekend and be able to follow all of the Spirit's suggestions to improve you have received!  

I love you all and have a great week!

"Is any thing too hard for the Lord?' -Genesis 18:14

Pictures from the week

1) McDonald's swag with my homeboy Elder LAUMATIA!!!

2) Welcome to Nagoya

Lucky Charms and Arabian Knights

This week I got more adjusted to my new life in Fukutoku.  We
had a lot of random things pop up that took away some dendo time (like
prepping for Zone Training Meeting) but we still had a lot happen.
Tuesday was a split with the Assistants.  Elder Tanner (who actually
is from Las Vegas and went to Centennial High School) kocaned with my
companion and I went with Elder Sato.  It was pretty fun.  He had been
here in the area before so he took us out and visited a few people he
hadn't said goodbye to and tried to get things going with them.  We
actually randomly on the street met an investigator that was wanting a
meshi (a business card with your name and address on it) from him.
Because of that we have been able to start lessons again with her so
it was a cool little miracle.

On the other side of the kocan, Elder Tanner and Elder Moulton were
teaching our French investigator when his friend from Iran randomly
came over.  He could only understand a little bit of the lesson in
English but he was SUPER interested.  So, they made an appointment
with him two days later.  So we went and met him and he is SUPER
SICK!  When we met him I thought he looked more European because his
skin was a little lighter but I guess Iranians come in a different
array of colors too.  We had to speak really simple Japanese with him
since his Japanese is better than his English but it was super cool!
He had been away from his family for eight years; I thought two
was bad.  His real name is hard to pronounce (or even remember) so
everyone calls him Jack.  He likes super hard-core Persian poetry from
the 12th century (which if anyone looks up anything about the Persian
language, it is supposed to be super in depth and super hard to
understand) and loves reading!  So, we taught him lesson 1 centered
around the Book of Mormon and he asked us if he could read it all.  OF
COURSE YOU CAN!  He even said he would be baptized if he came to know
that it was all true!  And did I forget to mention he is super buff
with flowing long brown hair?  He would totally pass of as a Knight
any day of the week!

On Friday we taught at ZTM.  We had prepared a lot for it the last two
weeks and have been praying about it a lot.  It went really well and
it was cool to see us be lead by the Spirit.  We had a whole plan laid
out with the two Sister Training Leaders in the zone but we followed
it a lot less than we thought we would.  Randomly in the meeting,
scriptures or quotes popped into our minds we shared and members of
the zone shared some really good insights.  A couple things we had
planned at the beginning were skipped at the beginning and then shared
at the end instead, without any of us planning it with the other
people!  We talked a lot about being ourselves as we dendo and we had
all the missionaries write their name on the top of a piece of paper
and pass it around to everyone in the zone so they could write on of
their talents on it.  So at the end, everyone had a piece of paper
with compliments from everyone in the zone!  It was so cool!  Not to
mention the Sister Training Leaders dressed up Harry Potter style to
give a training about how missionaries are all wizards.  Wand equals
faith but we still have to find out how to use the wand/our faith in
order to use it.  Cool huh?

The rest of the week we tried to practice what we preached and be
ourselves and make friends when we OYMed and talked to people on the
street.  It worked out really well and we have had a couple of really
good talks with people, even if some of them were drunk coming back
from a wedding or not interested in the end.  Also, we visited a few
members' homes this past week and one family didn't have any rice to
feed us so they instead gave us Lucky Charms.  Let's just say I have a
new favorite family in the ward, even if they technically live outside
of the area and our zone and we had to get permission from the
assistants to even visit them.

The spiritual thought for the week is about prayer.  I have had two
different experiences with it this week in regards to teaching.
Before ZTM, I was able to take a couple minutes to pray to God to help
guide us as we taught since I was kind of a little nervous about
addressing the whole zone.  God answered my prayer in a very evident
way and it was rather a miracle in how we were lead by the Spirit to
change some things around on the spot.  The next experience I had was 
Sunday when I was teaching the Gospel Principles Class in Japanese all
by myself.  I was able to pray before this lesson began too in order
to ask to be lead by the Spirit.  I started out and the results were
quite different compared to ZTM.  I was slow to speak, made a lot of
mistakes, and it was hard for people to follow along with me in the
book.  It was luckily on prayer so it was something I always teach but
the group setting was still a bit rough with not many of my questions
being answered.  I shared a video at the end and bore my simple
testimony about prayer.  After the closing prayer, people thanked me
for teaching like they always do even though I did a sub-par job.  I
felt good after the lesson though and felt like the recent converts
there were touched by the Spirit.  I didn't flow perfect Japanese or
even keep the class's attention for the whole time, but, nevertheless
my prayer was answered and my teaching and preparation helped them in
some way or another.  I know that God answers every one of our prayers
and is always listening.  Sometimes the answer might come in an
unexpected way, in what seems like a delayed time but it comes.  The
prayers that all of you say on us missionaries' behalf are answered
everyday and the Lord protects me and others here in Japan and
throughout the world and our investigators all the time.  

I pray that you all have a great week and enjoy the cooler Fall weather.  
I love you all!

Elder Hall

1) Me accidentally burning myself with cooking oil...

2) Me with all of the zone

3) My week described in a picture #dokireunion


4) Selfie (using infrared because there wasn't enough light at night)
with some kids at a members house

A Whole New World

Well, this week is a bit hard to put in words.  I don't think quite
many people understand what a transfer feels like unless you have
actually gone through one.  Just imagine having less than three days
to pack all of your belongings, say good-bye to everyone you know in
your city, and then you change the person you have been living with
24/7 for three months or so and go to a completely foreign place where
you don't even know how to return to the apartment.  That is basically
what happened this Thursday.  Everyone I knew in Numazu, all the plans
I had, and all the inside jokes had to be tossed aside for my move.
That would be enough but on top of that, I suddenly have more than
twenty missionaries under my belt and have to get used to again living
with someone who leads me around and showing me around.  It has been a
bit of a shock to the system going from trainer to Kohai Zone Leader.
I feel like I'm adjusting a little bit now though and things are
smoothing out, even if I still don't quite know the area.

Luckily for me, there is a lot to know over here in Fukutoku.  Many
investigators, a HUGE ward filled with various people, and a lot of
missionaries in the zone I haven't met yet.  The first order of
business as zone leader was to help keep a companionship safe from a
crazy less active we wanted to shoot them and later to make sure an
elder was safe after some crazy guy accidentally hit him with his car
(shout out to Elder Yamada and Elder Laumatia in Gifu).  As far as the
ward goes, we got free pizza and some pretty good sandwiches and
various other foods my first Sunday there but I don't know if that is
because of me being a new arrival or just because everyone had to eat
something before ward council started.  Also there was a Hall family
that had recently moved away from the Fukutoku Ward a few months
before I got here and all the ward thinks I am related to them because
the Dad is Canadian.  The building here is HUGE and basically is a
normal American stake center without the second best part, the
basketball court (first is the chapel guys...).  The city wasn't close
to being as busy and crowded as I thought it was.  Yeah, I don't
really have to worry about finding people on the street but I do all
the same stuff as I would in my previous banished areas.

We had a meeting with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training
Leaders in the mission and we all got together and talked about some
things we could do to help the mission.  To start it off we had a
really experienced teacher at the MTC and former Fukuoka Mission
President teach us how to start the conversion process while teaching
Japanese, non-Christian background people.  He told us (as PMG says)
that the conversion process is the same regardless where you are in
the world or regardless of who you are.  The only difference here in
Japan is not that they need to do more to progress and become
converted, but they just start a little bit behind.  A normal American
will at least understand who Christ is and the basics of him dying for
us and preaching the gospel.  In Japan, we often have to teach this
part and establish with them a emotional connection to Christ (a.k.a.
the Spirit).  So we talked about how to introduce the gospel to them
so they could more simply understand what we do.  The church even made
new pamphlets for us missionaries to use that talk about "Who is God?"
"Who is Jesus Christ?" and "What to Expect when meeting the
missionaries?"  I am excited to use them and I think that they will
really help new investigators open up and be in the right mindset to
understand better what we teach and to feel the Spirit.

Along the lines of conversion being the same for everyone, I was also
thinking about the differences between me now and before I
transferred.  I always get into the rut of thinking about quick fixes.
Earlier in my mission I thought, "If I just went senior, then all my
big problems would go away."  Then when I got to that point, I thought
"Maybe if I go zone leader and be the junior again, all my problems
would be a lot better."  Allow me to let you in on a secret folks,
when it comes to ourselves, there is no quick fix, no easy way out.
No move, no position, and no man-made program can truly change us and
help us successfully get over our problems once and for all.  Being
called as Zone Leader didn't all of a sudden elevate my teaching
skills, it didn't all of a sudden make me 110% obedient, it didn't
make me this spiritual giant with thousands of baptisms.  It doesn't
work that way, no matter how much I might have thought it would
earlier.  God is about processes, especially repentance and grace
improving our everyday lives.  Alma the Younger didn't just get zapped
by an angel into a baptizing-machine prophet.  He still had to repent
and suffer for a long period of time before he changed.  He had to do
all he could to mend the broken fences, to call back those he lead
astray.  We too can't move forward unless we choose to.  It takes
work, it takes time, it takes sacrifice.  But just as when we bust our
butt to climb a mountain and get to see, at the top, a beautiful vista
of the surrounding area, we will soon one day look back and see
just how much we have changed and the person we have become.  So let
our spiritual diet start today and not tomorrow.  Anything that
travails you or burdens you can be taken away through faith and
repentance through Jesus Christ.  All we have to do is to start our
change and continue forward in order for Christ to bless us with his
grace and love.  I pray that we all may do that this upcoming week and
for the rest of their lives.

I hope everyone enjoys conference this upcoming week and don't forget
to email me after the last session on Sunday!  I love you all!

Fortune and the Swan Song

One year and a half or so ago, I got a letter from President Monson himself calling me on a mission to Nagoya Japan Most of you email readers thought I was in the third-largest Japanese city in a mini-Tokyo like atmosphere for the last year a half but actually, I've only been in Nagoya about ten times, just to do mission business and see General Authorities. I actually have been living in three different areas that are an average of a three hour train rides from Nagoya. That is about to change as I am transferring to Fukutoku which is home to the Nagoya Stake Center and in the heart of Nagoya. I will be surrounded by people who need the restored gospel everywhere I go. I feel anxious, excited, scared, nervous, stressed and amazed at the prospects lying before me. I have never had so many people around me at one time. Not only will I have all these new people to look after, I will also have the privilege of looking after the whole Fukutoku Zone as a Zone Leader. Luckily I have an experienced half-Japanese elder from Texas named Elder Moulton to guide me around the big city. I sure do have an adventure in store for me with the big move!

With me transferring, I have been able to reflect a little bit on my time here in Numazu. It all started with me coming to Japan last year in late July. I got to learn how to be a missionary from Elder Siedschlag (who just went home today) in Numazu, and then I got the opportunity to come back to Numazu and train the fabulous Elder Silva. I am leaving a lot unfinished. Mizuguchi San's Mom got really sick and went to the hospital so we weren't able to have lessons with him until Sunday. It was a really good lesson about Law of Chastity, Prophets and Temples and he is really ready. We ask him questions and he knows all the answers already. I am excited to see pictures of the baptism next Sunday. Also yesterday we met our Vietnamese friend at the eki and started having really simple English lessons. He doesn't really know a lot but since our language is limited it is very direct to his needs. He agreed to pray about the Book of Mormon (which he read already a 100 pages of and promised to read to the end) just for us but it is a good start. He even told us he wants to be a better person and asks us if he couldn't just do it without Christ's help. We explained you could try but Christ will make you SOO much better. A lot of other loose ends are hanging out too but I trust Elder Silva and his new Japanese companion to take care of things. God hasn't transferred from Numazu so I can leave happy, knowing that I helped a little bit in the end.

Today in personal study, I reflected a little bit on my experience in Numazu (where I have spent half of my mission) as I read Alma 26 from the BOM. This chapter is the quintessential missionary chapter where Ammon glories in God for all the success he has seen on his mission. This chapter comes after 14 years of hard labor amongst his brethren the Lamanites and it is after he sees his recent converts strong in the gospel. He starts out by saying how no one ever could have expected the miracles he and his brethren have seen. And then he says in verse 8, "blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever." And in verse 16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?" And in verse 30 "We have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors."

 I think sometimes we as missionaries are so focused on improving that we view ourselves as the dust of the Earth, terrible at everything. It is true we are all natural man and our point in life is to improve but I think this viewpoint sometimes gets in the way, for me at least, at appreciating the things God has been able to do because of your faith and obedience, even though you are not perfect. So look around, see what you have done, praise the Lord for what he has done through you. Then, after you bumped up some self-esteem, get back to work and do your very best to improve even more, to be that much more of a parent, a teacher, a young men's leader, a spouse, or even a missionary. So as Ammon did, I too would like to thank my Lord for all the miracles I have seen in this tiny outcast city of Numazu. This place will always have a special place in my heart for the work I have been able to play such a small part in as I was the Lord's hands. And may I continue to see the little things as I go to Fukutoku and may you as well as you go about in your everyday lives.

 I love you all and have an amazing week!

One last time with my B.F.F. Mizuguchi

Numazu District

Last Numazu English Class.. (I don't know where the vampire came from...)

My favorite 4 year old, Masamichi!!!!

Me and my trainer (Siedschalg) before he went back to Brazil

Bing, Water Mouth, and Some Filipino Loving

So this week I left my area in the hands of two elders who just came to Japan a little bit over two months ago. As a missionary that doesn't sound long but I am sure for normal people it sounds even more insanely short. On Thursday I went to Fuji (the city at the base of Mt. Fuji) with Elder Smith who is currently training my bean's MTC companion. Even though it rained on us it was pretty fun. We talked to a lot of people on the street, visited a part member family where the non-member Dad and I discussed some history, and then a lesson with one of their investigators where we talked about Christ's healing power in overcoming his addiction to tobacco. We taught English class after that too and a high school kid we talked to on the street actually came! He had a fun time because Elder Smith is fun teaching Eikaiwa and wants to come again!

When I got back to my area the next day, not only was my area still alive and the apartment still standing but our investigator Mizuguchi San (whose name means water mouth or opening) agreed to get baptized! Elder Silva and I invited him last week but the bean magic did the hard part for me. His date is the 20th of September and while it isn't a lot of time and we have to help him quit tobacco, we should be able to do it. The main concern is meeting with him every other day so we can teach all the lessons and do the interview but we are meeting with him tonight after P-day and will teach again the Word of Wisdom and commit him to meet with us more often. He doesn't have a job or a wife yet (although he is looking for both at the young age of 58) so he can totally do it.; It is weird being the senpai now though because it is my responsibility to make sure all the paper work gets done. Yikes. It should be a couple of crazy weeks with that.

In other news, we had a lesson with my favorite Filipino family who just came back from vacation. We went in and starting chatting and then all of a sudden a young Filipino couple came over. So, we got to know the other unexpected guests and asked if they wanted to join the lesson and they accepted! Our plan was to teach the Sabbath Day but the plans flew out the window as we plunged into an unplanned, English lesson 1 to the whole group. We learned a lot more about our investigators and the couple learned more about us as we testified of the Savior. They live in the Philippines actually so we gave the two of them a Mormon.org card and told them to look us up in the Phillipines. The Bagochays will still be here though so we can keep teaching them. Just a little cool out of the blue miracle!

On Sunday we had three nonmembers come to church. Our goal was seven but our musical number went okay. We asked the bishop the week before if we could sing before the testimony part of sacrament meeting and he said yes but he forgot to announce it so we had to go up after a few people already bore their testimonies so it was kind of awkward but Elder Silva and my rendition of Lead, Kindly Light in three languages went well. Our Vietnamese friend Bing couldn't come but I downloaded all the pamphlets in Vietnamese on my IPad so we are ready to go next Sunday!
Lesson 1 in Vietnamese here I come!

A thought I had this week was about miracles. I think we often think of miracles as things that happen that we can't explain. I can't tell you how Jesus turned water into wine and neither can my magician companion. I've been thinking though, why do miracles have to be defined like that? I just look in my everyday dendo and there are plenty of miracles I can see how they happened. Mizuguchi San wants to be baptized to help him reach his goals of getting married and quitting smoking. Just because I understand it well doesn't change it into something less of value. So everything is a miracle! This IPad I'm writing on, BYU football's last second comeback win over Nebraska, an inner change inside after repenting, or even childbearing! Our life is driven by a God whose ways we don't quite understand completely just quite yet. Life itself is a miracle and every second of existence is too! So be grateful of the miracle of this upcoming week! Keep it chill and be the miracle you are!

I love you all and best of lucking dendoing wherever you are in the world!

 Me and my bean on the train...

Elder Silva and Elder Hall

Miracle on 東間門(Higashimakado)

This past couple of days have been CRAZY!  On Friday and Saturday, we
had an open house (which was out on by the ward and the senior
missionaries here) where everyone could come and get a tour of the
chapel here.  We had big pictures that told about Christ's life and
mission, a room about Joseph Smith and a room talking about families.
It was open to everyone from 11:00 to 8:00 so not even the Japanese
could give the excuse that they had no time!  On Friday we had  a zone
meeting in Shizuoka where we talked about how to better help our
investigators experience the Atonement for themselves and how we can
better help people open up their hearts when we stop them on the
street.  We also got some training on how to put all the records from
the area book into the IPad planner app.  (By the way, from now on, no
more paper records for me, just IPads). Because of the zone meeting,
we only got to the open house at 4:00.  No one was there and nothing
was happening so Elder Silva gets the idea that we should go outside
and get someone to come.  We go out and walk around the church at
around five and our goal is to find someone to come to watch the movie
"Meet the Mormons" with us.  So, after about thirty minutes, we have a
high schooler come!  Endo San!  He said he would stay for five minutes
but stayed for two hours.  He wouldn't give us any contact information
so we had to settle with having him promise he would come back the
next day.

Saturday came and he didn't come and neither did anyone else.  So, we
try for a repeat and go talk to people on the streets.  After some
failure, we said a prayer to find someone to invite.  I could really
feel the Spirit during it, but, even after that no one close by even
gave us the time to go past the fact that we are missionaries.  So a
little bit tired and dejected, we go back to the church and continue
to transfer records into the IPad from the area book.  Our mission
president drops in because he is giving a talk that night at the open
house for us and then our investigator Mizuguchi San comes in.  He had
the tour the other day when we were in Shizuoka so we just chill with
him for a little bit, eating refreshments and Elder Silva showing
magic.  We randomly decide to follow-up with him about reading the
Book of Mormon and one thing leads to another and we get talking about
his smoking problem and how he wants to quit.  Elder Silva pulls out
Mizuguchi San's cigarette carton and writes on it for him in big words
"BOOK OF MORMON AND PRAYER!" (in kanji). Whenever he looks for a
cigarette he'll want to read and pray now!  We had no plan to do a
lesson but no lesson plan helped us just see what we could to help and
it was all about loving him to death so it was really cool!

Mizuguchi stayed then a couple hours for President Ishii's talk on the
family but left right when we all had a potluck.  So, after a cool
thing with him, we go about eating and then we talk and become friends
with the Bishop's co-worker whom the Bishop had brought.  He was kind
of shy but I think we helped him fit in because he really liked to try
practicing his English with us.  After talking with him for 15 or 20
minutes, we get a text from Shige San, a guy we met on the street two
months ago who ALWAYS works, saying he could come.  So, he comes
towards the end and we show him the rooms with Jesus Christ and Joseph
Smith as we teach principles from the first lesson.  At the end, he
opened up a bit and asked us about what we believed in with Spirits.
BAM!  Of course we believe in us having spirits and in the Holy Spirit
too!  He had some knowledge about Christianity because she wife is
Catholic from the Philipines.  We explain a little bit and I ask him
what he feels now.  He caught me off guard and said in the Jesus
Christ room he felt good but in the Joseph Smith room he felt a bad
feeling.  YOU CANT HAVE A BAD FEELING IN THE JOESPH SMITH ROOM!  I
think this so I blame Satan and then retell the First Vision account
again except I use Joseph Smith's personal story with the part of him
feeling the devil overtake him before God and Chirst appeared.  'Shige
San, you have found the truth but Satan doesn't want you to have it
just like he didn't want Joseph Smith to pray.'  We asked again how he
felt and he was feeling good again!  'That's the Spirit Shige San!'
It was so legit!  He is still busy but he told us flat out he has a
lot of interest in this!  So many miracles!  All at our church on the
corner of Higashimakado!

It has made me think though.  Did God answer our prayer on Saturday?
You might say no because we didn't find anyone off of the street to
come inside.  But really, He answered it but in a much different but
better way.  Instead of blessing us with a new person, we gave us old
ones who we could help even more.  If we found a new person to come to
the open house, we wouldn't have been able to help Mizuguchi and Shige
San.  At the moment when we didn't find anyone, it felt like a
failure.  But only after the trial of the faith did God bless us.  So
I think we are prone to get frustrated when God doesn't give us what
we want, even though we ask in faith and with the Spirit after
studying it out in our minds first.  But really, he is giving us
something better.  Sometimes if you ask for a certain blessing you
might be given a trial.  But that trial will make you grow and you
will be even more blessed because of it than you would have if you got
the blessing you were asking for.  We don't see the whole picture but
God does and he will give us what is best for us, all we have to do is
be willing to receive what He has worked so hard to give us.  I hope
you all have a great week and can have the Spirit with you always!

Elder Hall signing out for the week! 

Love you all!

Here Am I...Hungry, Tired and Feeling a Lack of Energy as Usual...

Some random thoughts I had during the week include:

Why does this guy want to be baptized when he doesn't want to come to church?
What is worse, being drenched in dirty rain water or being drenched in salty sweat?
Why spend ten minutes telling me the excuses for how you can't met for five minutes when you could say no thanks?
Does America still exist?

Anyways, I have been going a little crazy this last week as we had no missionary meetings or anything. It has been good and we have been able to get a lot of work done but it has been a week and of half of only seeing my companion and no one else. Now I know why being on the border of the mission is exile! It overall has been a good week though. We had our crazy, English stuttering investigator come to church, but only for first two hours which means everything but sacrament meeting. This Monday we had a lesson with him and he told us he wanted to be baptized next year but we said he could this year. He asked us to teach him the commandments (he is a former investigator from about five years ago who we visited last month who has a lot of knowledge about the church) so we taught him that he needs to pray, read the scriptures and come to church every week. Mizuguchi San was like, "The first two I got but the third one?" Then me and Elder Silva chant "Dekiru!" You can do it! "Dekimasu!" You can politely do it! He still didn't know if he could but said he might. So he did! He came first during priesthood and we sat with him but then for Sunday School, we teach an English Gospel Principle class so he had to go to the other class taught by the senior couple. We hand him over to them, have our lesson and then go to find him but he disappeared! He came though so that was good and we can work from that.

Today's thought (and email subject line) come from an experience I had yesterday. We just had met a Vietnamese guy at the train station after we had church and it was about 4 o'clock so we were tired and hungry and needing a little lunch break. We had scheduled to visit a former investigator a good ten minutes or so away from where we were. I felt we should go but my stomach and weak spirit decided to go home. Right after I told Elder Silva the change of plans, it didn't feel right. So, I did what every sensible natural man would do, turn the way to go to the apartment. We immediately stopped to talk to a guy, nothing happened and then I continued to go. It kept bugging me though so, I took the turn leading away from the apartment and went and visited the former investigator. No one was home but before that we met a cool older man who was walking his dog. He had gone to a Christian school when he was young so I asked him what he liked about it. He said he loved Christ's love for everyone. We shared Mosiah 2:17, gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to our church open house this weekend. We also have a lesson with him Wednesday. I shudder to think what would happen if I had let my stomach get the best of me.

The Lord calls upon us many times throughout our lives. The 2015 EFY CD I received from my family is entitled "Here Am I", quoting Samuel 3:4. Many of us remember the story of Samuel the boy prophet as he instantly answered the Lord when he called him in the middle of the night but we forget the preparation it took for him to get to that level. He had served most of his young life in the temple and was always willing to keep the covenants he had made with the Lord. The Lord didn't just randomly come to him. That night might have been the first time the voice of the Lord came unto him but it wasn't the first time the Lord called upon him to serve Him through the Spirit and the words of His former prophets.

 I think our relationship with God is like Wi-Fi. If we are in a hotspot (a.k.a. A spiritual standing where you can feel the Spirit) then you will be ready to receive the call and answer. If your Wi-Fi is weak, you can't receive the call, serve the Lord and be there for Him. Many times even as a missionary, I let the little things get in the way with receiving the call from God to serve His children. I wish I could be in more a position to always answer the Lord "Here Am I" and not to let the little things, like other priorities, friends, distractions, hunger, fatigue or disobedience get in the way. So find out today how you can get the hotspot of the Spirit always in your life and how you can keep those obstacles from clogging up your Spiritual Wi-Fi.  Then accept the call to serve your fellow brothers and sisters! And use your real Wi-Fi to keep sending me emails!

I love you all and here is for living up the last bit of summer! See you next week!

                                       Random college student we met while waiting for a train

                      Been there, climbed that!  All for a former investigator without an address...

                                                         Eating Ramen... Japanese Style