May 15, 2016

Well hello everyone!! It's me again! 

So good news from this week is that I finally got a bike seat. My order finally came in and I was able to go pick it up on Tuesday. I can testify that riding a bike with a seat is 10 times better then riding it with no seat. This week has been so much better with a bike seat. I love it! 

Soooo this week!  We found out that the other apartment in this area is being closed down, so we got a message from the mission home asking us to clean it up in preparation for the moving day on Thursday. SO WE CLEANED. HARDCORE. But the thing is, we were cleaning it all day Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday the assistants and senior couples in the mission home came and we helped them move all the furniture out, so yeah, no time to work!!! 

Then on Friday we had district meeting and then in the evening had English class. English class was a blast. Saturday night we went to a Japanese class for foreigners that we help teach. It was probably the funniest thing ever. There are just a bunch of people from all around the world trying to learn Japanese. There were lots of Brazilians there so it was cool to help them out with some Japanese. 

Sunday I did all my normal translating for all the Spanish speakers. It was tons of fun! I love the Spanish speakers here! They are so nice and I feel like they just adopted me as their family. It's awesome! 

I'm loving it here. This week was rather slow and what not, but we are really working hard and planning on seeing lots of miracles this week. We are excited! Ohh how awesome is the Lord's work! I love it! 

Something I wanted to share that we talked about in our Sunday school class yesterday. We talked about Mosiah 7-10 and being a seer. We talked about how a seer can be anyone who receives revelation for the benefit of another person. As missionaries we are seers for our area, as parents we are seers for our family's, and as church leaders we are seers over our specific calling. I am so grateful for modern revelation and our knowledge of personal revelation. I know that personal revelation is real and that without personal revelation our church would not have been restored through the young boy Joseph Smith. We can all receive revelation from our Heavenly Father in order to be a tool in his hands and help our fellow man and children of God. 

I love you all!! Have a splendid week!

Elder Myers

Brazilian Party - not many Brazilians

being weird

Train set at church????

 

May 8, 2016

Hello everyone!!! Happy Mother's Day!!!! 

Well today is skype with family so i don't have lots of time so this will be kinda short. 

This week was absolutely insane!!! So last Monday, right as p-day ended at 6pm , I got a call from the mission president who told me I would be emergency transferring!!! He told me I would be going to Fujieda City and my new companion would be Elder Walker!! Yes the same Elder Walker that was my MTC companion! So I went home and packed like crazy and then the assistants to the president picked me up Tuesday morning. I then took the long 7 hour ride from Nagano to Fujieda. 

So I'm now serving in Fujieda! Fujieda is an area known for its many foreigners. There are lots of Brazilians, Bolivians, and Filipinos. This area is pretty much like a jungle and so it's kinda wild here. Being here is like living half in Japan and half in South America so it is way interesting. Also it's super awesome to be working with my MTC companion again and we are having a fantastic time together. 

So quick wrap up of my week here in Fujieda... We have met with our two investigators, one is a pretty new investigator but we got a really good lesson in about the Book of Mormon and he is reading it and doing well. Our second investigator is a Filipino lady who just showed up out of no where and told us she is ready to be baptized and took all the missionary lessons in the Philippines. We are meeting with her everyday leading up to her baptism and she is just the best. She has tons of faith and just understands the gospel. We also teach seminary here so we did that this week and that was awesome. Then on Sunday I translated all of church for some members from Peru and Bolivia. I'll be doing that every week from now on so guess my Spanish is going to get pretty good now too. Yay! 

So pretty crazy week but still an awesome week in the life of a missionary! Love you all and hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day! 

Elder Myers

Okada San

Restaurant in Nagano

member visits

May 2, 2016

HELLO!! GUESS WHAT? ITS MAY! Crazy!!! Can't believe it's May already! Ohh how time flies! 

So this week...

Tuesday we played basketball with a potential investigator and a member. I had to just sit and watch but it was still lots of fun. I think I was a pretty good cheerleader. Haha! We don't get to do fun activities like that too often so it was really good. I think we are playing again next week so I'm excited for that.

This weeks big event was that we had mission tour. A member of the 70 came to our mission and we had the privilege of hearing from him. I was able to learn a lot and apply it to my missionary work and it's been awesome. Elder Choi from Korea came. I learned a ton but my favorite thing was he said " obedience is a sacrifice". He really helped me realize that being obedient isn't supposed to be easy. So me and Elder Masuko came home and we sat down and made a promise to be EXACTLY obedient! We went through the white handbook right then and wrote anything and everything that we could do better. It was great! I know that being exactly obedient can bless us so much and not just as missionaries but as members of the church. As we obey the commandments with exactness and with a willing heart the Lord will pour out the blessings upon us. 

Saturday we had a ward bbq which was super fun! It was cool to have a fun activity and it reminded me a lot of home. Japanese people don't do too many big Ward activities so this was really cool. We ate a ton of food and I ate till I got sick. It was not too good. My companion and I didn't feel too good after that activity. Haha! 

Also Saturday night me and Elder Masuko decided to do some housing by the train station so we parked our bikes at the train station and walked through the the neighborhood. Well after an hour of housing we go back to our bikes and.... My bike seat was stolen! Yes just the seat! I don't know why someone needed just a seat but I guess they did. So now I'm without a seat. Also because my bike is bigger than most Japanese bikes they don't sell seats that fit on my bike here so I had to order one and it won't get here for 2 weeks. So for two weeks I'll be stand up riding. Yay!! Haha! That's my funny story for the week! 

Next week is Skype family time again so I'm way excited for that!! Oh how time flies, just the other day I skyped them for Christmas. 

Well love you all!!!! Take care! 

Elder Myers

Ward BBQ

just finished B-Ball

weird faces

April 24, 2016

Hello everyone! So just finished week one of transfer 6!! That's crazy! It was a fun week though! 

So Monday for Baldwins last day we did some fun stuff for p-day. A member took us out most of the afternoon and we went and drove up to the mountains and did some really pretty sight seeing. Then in the evening we went bowling with one of our investigators. That was really fun. Our investigator is pretty good at bowling and he said I was a good opponent. I actually beat him twice. Haha! It was fun! 

Tuesday was transfers...sad and happy. I had to say bye to Baldwin which was no fun. I miss him. He is a really great missionary and helped me a lot. We became really good friends in just one transfer. So yeah I picked up my new companion, Elder Masuko. He also is super awesome! He is Japanese. He is about 5 feet 2 inches. He also was a rockstar before his mission. We have had lots of fun together this week. We also help each other a lot. He helps me with Japanese and I'm trying to teach him English. It's been fun. 

So this weeks miracle... So on Wednesday we were going through our list of former investigators and I decided to call one. Well the man answered and I was actually able to make an appointment to meet with him the next day. That was a first, I've never called a former investigator and had them respond well. It was already a miracle. Well the next day we head out to his house. We didn't know but he literally lives on the top of the mountain and about halfway up it started to rain. We showed up to this man's house soaking wet and dead tired cause we just rode 2 hours up a mountain. Well we met with him and he said that people from church (the missionaries) have tried to come by before but he wasn't home so they just left notes in his mail. He said that I was the first person to ever call him and actually make an appointment. He was really happy to visit with us and wants to keep meeting so we will be seeing him again this week. 

Finally the big news of the week... I sprained my ankle really bad on Friday!! Yay! So we were riding to visit a former investigator and we got about 20 minutes from home and unfortunately I fell and ate it pretty hard and twisted my ankle really bad. At first I just thought I gave myself a dead leg or something and thought I would just wait a second and be fine. So we sat and chilled for like 8 minutes and then I tried to stand and realized I had done something pretty bad cause I couldn't stand. We called the couple missionaries and told them what happened and they said they would come pick us up and take us to the hospital. We went to the hospital and they took X-rays and said it was just a really bad sprain and that I can't do anything for 2-3 weeks. I've been getting better really fast and think I should be fine in about 4 days or so. The worst thing is the bruising. I'll put a picture so everyone can see. I'm doing fine though, we are still working hard. We went housing and visited people on Saturday still, I just crutch around everywhere. It's not fun but hey nothing stops the Lord's work right! 

That's it for this week! Not super exciting. Me and Elder Masuko are working hard to help the members here. We are really wanting to strengthen the members this transfer and help the member missionary work. It's going to be a fun transfer. 

Love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Myers

Baldwin's Last Day in Nagano

I hurt my ankle

my big fat bruised ankle

April 17, 2016

Well it's been another six weeks so you know what that means....TRANSFER CALLS! So I'm lucky staying in Nagano for another! I'm very happy about that however I'm getting separated from Elder Baldwin. He is leaving me to go do the Lord's work in another area. He was an awesome companion and taught me so much. My new companion will be Elder Masuko! He is Japanese!! My first Japanese companion! It's going to be so fun. Also speaking Japanese 24/7 will be super interesting too! I'm super excited! 

So...

This Thursday we met with our investigator Nakamura. It went super well! We were able to really help him understand the lesson this time. He is Chinese so Japanese is his second language so sometimes he has a hard time understanding us. However, he really enjoyed the lesson and learned a lot and seems to be progressing well. He still has his problems but we are working with him. 

On Friday we met with our other investigators the Masudas. It's a father and his son and they are some of the funniest people I have ever met. The father owns an American antique shop so he just adores Americans and stuff it's way funny. He is also super hipster! The son is 12 and just a little fire ball. He is always making us laugh. We had a good lesson and they are doing good. They are still praying everyday so that's awesome. We are meeting with them tonight to go bowling before Baldwin leaves tomorrow. Excited!! 

That's kinda it for the week! Next week I'll let you know how the new companion is and stuff! Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!

Elder Myers

English Class

Dinner with the Branch President