February 14, 2016

This week was fabulous! So many great things are happening here in Komatsu and I love it. Elder Pennington and I have been trying our hardest to be exactly obedient and to work as hard as possible in order to see miracles. Well we are for sure seeing miracles! 

Tuesday was a pretty good day. Elder Pennington and I ended up finding a weight lifting gym in Komatsu and went to check it out. While taking a look around we met this way cool Brazilian guy named Alex. This guy is like 6 foot 4 inches and 260lbs of pure muscle. He is insane! We quickly became friends and he told us to come workout with him. He is a way cool guy and we are actually going to meet with him tomorrow! Way excited! 

On Wednesday we had some cool and crazy stuff happen. We went out with a member and visited a less active then went to a super cool festival. I have no clue what the festival is for, or about, but it was pretty cool. Well while we were at the festival with the brother he got a call from his wife who had gone to park the car. He hung up the phone and told us to follow him. He began to run and we had no idea what was going on and we ran for about 3 minutes then we saw the wife and what had happened. She was driving the car and ended up sliding because the road was wet and now the front third of her car was hanging off the road. Side note, in Japan, especially in country side, the roads drop off about 2 feet and then it's the gutter. So yes the front third of her car was hanging off the road. Well there was only one thing to do...lift the car back onto the road. So Elder Pennington and I rolled up our sleeves and got down in the gutter and gave it everything we had. To our surprise we actually got it all the way back on the road and everyone was super surprised and Pennington and I hopped out of the gutter and all I said was " well, if you have faith anything is possible, right?". We all got a good laugh! Definitely an experience to remember! 

Friday we met with our investigator, Shitamichi, and it went super well. We taught him the restoration and he was just loving it all. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and Elder Pennington and I were just testifying one right after the other. Everyone in the room was feeling the spirit so strong. We asked him several times throughout the lesson what he thought and he always answered with " of course I believe this, there is no way it's not true". He is literally so golden! In the end we challenged him to baptism and his answer was " of course! When!?" . He is getting baptized on March 6th! It was such a cool experience! He also came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. This man is prepared by God and that is a fact! This man has strengthened my testimony even more that God does prepare people and that miracles do happen. Komatsu has been one of the lowest baptizing areas in our mission in the last couple years but since coming here I have seen so many miracles and Komatsu is about to see its 5th baptism in just the last 5 months. It's so amazing! God is real and he does prepare people and put them in our path so that we can meet them and bring them to the fold of God. Everything happens in its own due time and when the Lord sees fit, I have learned that so much here. Missions are amazing and you really see the Lord's hand everyday. How marvelous is this calling!! 

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day filled with love and chocolate! 

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Myers

our English class in Komatsu

February 7, 2016

Well hello everyone! This week was a good one filled with exchanges, crazy people, and crazy weather. Also the work has picked up a little bit this week which is really good since we were struggling last week. 

Well first off, on Wednesday we had exchanges and I went to Fukui. I had a really good time over there. It's interesting because it's a bigger city so you have more people who speak English so I actually got to talk to some people in English. Well while in Fukui we taught a guy named Miyake and he was way cool. We taught him the plan of salvation and he seemed to really understand it. Well during the lesson I asked him " now that you have learned all this what would YOU say the purpose of this life is?" And he said that its to get to the "big sun kingdom" (hahaha). I responded by telling him that to get there we have to do lots of stuff but a really important one is baptism. Well he already actually knew a lot about baptism but we talked about baptism for a while and he said he is trying to quite smoking so he can get baptized. Well I looked at Elder Bradshaw (Fukui elder) and I was like "we need to give this guy a blessing so he can stop smoking" and he of course agreed. Well we explained what a blessing was and how it could help him and by the time we were done explaining he was literally begging for a blessing. Of course we gave him a blessing and we all definitely felt the spirit. It was a great lesson, great experience, and great opportunity to use the power of the priesthood. 

On Friday, we went a visited a less active named Funatsu. He is one interesting guy! He is actually a member of another church as well. He also pays a full tithe even though he hasn't been to church in a long time. He is such a funny person to visit just because he loves to talk and he will just go on and on and after about 5-6 minutes you just have no clue what he is talking about. So ya we had a good visit with him. Visiting with him makes my day!

On Saturday we found a new investigator...through phone finding! We decided to go through some former investigators and see how people are doing and see if anyone would be willing to meet with the missionaries again. Well we got to one name, Inoue, we both had never heard of him so we decided to give him a call. Well as soon as he found out it was the missionaries he was just like " oh hey! Let's meet!" And we set up an appointment and now he is our new investigator. It was way cool!!! 

So today was way crazy! We had a first lesson with an investigator and it went like incredibly well. We started off just getting to know him and his religious background. We then just started by talking about Heavenly Father then prayer. Well come to find out, he has read the Book of Mormon 3 times and knows it well. He also knows the whole story of the restoration in depth. This dude is just perfect! We are going to meet with him again this week and try and teach him the restoration more in depth. I say try because he already knows almost everything. It's blessings like this that you are so grateful for as a missionary! Finding and teaching people who you see are so prepared by the Lord is just amazing. 

Well to make it even better, after we ended the lesson with our investigator we started to email and not even 20 minutes later someone walked in the church. Well she turns out to be a former investigator and she was just in the neighborhood and thought she would stop by. We got to know her and she is way cool and met the missionaries about 5 years ago. Well she just straight up asked us "how can I be more happy? I have all these things in my life but I'm just not as happy as I should be". Well, that's a golden question so we went on and taught her all about prayer and scripture study and how the gospel is the only way to find true happiness. She then told us that we really did help and that she already felt happier. She expressed her gratitude and then said she wants to meet again and then just walked out. It was way crazy but super cool! Gotta love being a missionary! 

Well that's really all for this week! I love you all!! I hope everything is going great and that everyone is enjoying life! Have a great great week! 

Elder Myers

My Scriptures

Funatsu - our less active friend

January 31, 2016

Well this week was not super exciting. It's one of those weeks where it is pretty hard to write a weekly email. Haha! 

To start off, Tuesday I saved an old grandma! Me and Elder Pennington went to the store and bought some snow shovels. Well as we were walking home we kept joking about how it would be funny if we were able to use the shovels to help someone as we are walking home. Not even 5 minutes later we see a grandma who is seriously struggling. She had decided to walk in the street in order to avoid the snow on the sidewalk but once the road got too narrow she wanted to get back onto the sidewalk. Well there was a nice 3 foot mound of snow between the street and the sidewalk and the 80 year old lady could not step over it. I saw her then turned to Pennington and gave him my bag and ran over with my shovel and shoveled a nice little path for her to get back onto the sidewalk. It was nice to help someone out! So that day we learned that walking with snow shovels will always come in handy. 

Thursday after English class we were cleaning up and there was no one in the building but us,  Well we hear someone go into the bathroom. Me and Elder Pennington started to freak out cause no one should be in the church at that time. We decided we would just stay in the room we were in and wait for them to leave. Well we hear footsteps coming down the hall and we just looked at each other and were both about to freak out. This Japanese man comes around the corner panting and he has like crazy hair and weird clothes and stuff on, he just looked interesting. He comes right up to me and tells me he is sorry he couldn't make it and that right then is the only time he had and that he is so sorry so I told him it's no problem and then he just stood there looking at me. Haha. Me and Pennington looked at each other both thinking "uhh what do we do now?" Well after this internal panic we both just said "goodnight" and he was just like "okay bye" and left. It was way awkward and weird! Sometimes Japanese people are just super awkward and weird. Gotta love it! 

Also this week Pennington got a flat tire 3 nights in a row! We will just say not a lucky bike week for him. So this week we have spent many hours walking from very far places all the way back to our apartment. 

This week I've been reading this amazing book it's called "The Power of Everyday Missionaries". Can I just say that this is the most amazing book ever written! This book has so much power and every morning when I read it I get so pumped to do missionary work. Well me and Pennington decided that this month we are turning our ward into missionary machines. We have made a plan and we are going to get everyone to start reading this book and get everyone to start doing tons of missionary work. It's going to be awesome!! If YOU haven't read this book I would highly recommend it. It's a book that all members of the church should be required to read. 

I know that doing missionary work can bless our lives so much! I know the Lord always sees our efforts as we do our best to proclaim His gospel and I know He will always help us. I know it is our calling as member of His church to spread the gospel, we accepted that calling when we were baptized. If we make the effort to help spread the gospel the Lord will pour out so many blessings on us that we won't even know what's going on. You don't need to be a young man or woman with a name tag to be a missionary. You can call yourself to be a missionary today, so do it! 

Love you all and may all your dreams come true! 

Elder Myers

The beach near Komatsu

January 24, 2016

Well everyone it's officially snowed! It went from one day being nice and sunny to the next day being completely white. It's definitely been an interesting experience trying to live in snow especially coming from California. When I tell people here that I am from California they ask me if I am dying here...most of the time I respond, yes! Well this week we tried our hardest to do as much work as we could in the snow and that was a challenge. We have realized why missions in the States that snow a lot have cars. Komatsu being a very bike heavy area because everything is so spread out and people live far makes it hard to do lots when you can only walk. For example, Tuesday we really wanted to visit a certain less active who lives a pretty good distance by bike. Well we started off trying to bike in the snow and then quickly learned why missionaries DON'T do that. We decided to just chain our bikes to a pole and walk to rest of the way. Well it took us an hour to walk all the way there in the snow and when we got there she wasn't home. We then walked the hour all the way back. Fun stuff like that everyday now! 

This week was also transfer calls.... I'm staying in Komatsu with Elder Pennington! We are way excited to be here another transfer and are looking forward to seeing lots of miracles. 

Saturday we also had a pretty cool experience. We were riding home and we were passing near the train station when we saw this guy selling something from the back of his car. Well we realized it was tako yaki (fried octopus balls)! This guy just parked his little tiny Japanese car, opened the back, pulled out an oven, and started making tako yaki. Well it's not everyday that you see that so we couldn't resist and bought some. Well the guy turned out to be way cool and we had a good discussion while he cooked our food. You gotta love Japan and silly stuff like this. 

Sunday was maybe the saddest day of my mission. The Dias family is finally gone for good. Sunday they came to church and Alessandro got the priesthood and it was so cool. Then that night we visited and ate with them. It was very hard to say goodbye to them. I love them so much. Hopefully one day I can see them again. 

That's really it for the week. I love being here and serving the people here in Japan. The people here are great and I love them so much. I feel like I am starting to get a glimpse into the love Christ has for each of us and its so incredible. I have learned so much about patience, charity, and humility since coming on my mission. I know as we always strive to become more like Christ and follow his perfect example we can find more joy and peace in our lives. 

Love you all and hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Myers

Tako Yaki

The Dias Family

District and Zone Leaders

Snow in Komatsu

Do you want to build a snowman?

January 17, 2016

I am currently inside a 7/11 because the wifi at our church is out so sorry if I didn't respond to some of your personal emails, but I promise I will next week. 

Well this week was full of ups and downs so that made for an interesting week. The week started off not so great and then by about Thursday and Friday it got a lot better. Things are going really well here in Komatsu and I love it.

So Wednesday we went to visit a sister in the hospital and me and my companion played guitar and sang for her. It was way fun and she loved it. We love making people smile so that was a big win! 

Thursday it finally snowed! Everyone has been freaking out here because by this time there is usually several feet of snow but so for there has been nothing. Well Thursday it snowed just enough to make a thin layer on the ground. Sadly right after it started hailing, then raining so all the snow went bye bye. That was a fun day to go out because the weather was just no fun at all. 

Friday we had a cool experience finding an investigator. Well in Japan right now the church is testing out new proselyting pamphlets. They are pamphlets made especially for people without a Christian background. They have really been pressing us to use them in as many phases of our missionary work as possible. Well me and my companion decided to take a step of faith and go against the normal housing technique and instead use the new pamphlets at the door. Well we got shut down several times but finally we knocked on this one door and this man answered. We asked him if he believed God existed and he replied " well of course he exists, right." . It was so cool. We were almost speechless! Well we whipped out our cool iPads with our pamphlets and taught him really quick about our beliefs about God and he thought it was awesome. Well we asked if we would come back and he said yes! He has a family of 4 and we will be teaching them on Tuesday. So exciting! 

Saturday we went and helped the Dias family load up their moving truck....sooo sad! They are moving to Nagano which is in a different area. They are coming back at the end of this week to hangout and then Sunday, Alessandro gets the priesthood, but after that they are staying in Nagano. It was way sad helping them pack. It's hard to watch someone you've grown so close to just get up and leave. Also as a going away present they gave me a fancy air fryer for making like French fries and stuff. Every time I would go over to teach them we would always have French fries so I guess that's how they wanted me to remember them. So from now on I'll be carrying a air fryer around my mission. Hahaha! 

Saturday we also met with the less active Brazilian family in our ward and they made us some Brazilian rice and beans and I ate until I almost threw up. I haven't had real Brazilian rice and beans since I left home so when they brought it out I went crazy. It was so good! I also love this family they are so awesome. 

Oh missions are so awesome and so life changing! I don't think anyone can ever put into words the kind of joy and happiness that a mission brings. I love seeing this gospel work in people's lives as well as in my own. I love always having the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the huge blessing that is. I love the Book of Mormon and the great power it has. I've come to have such a greater appreciation for the Book of Mormon since coming on my mission. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here in Japan and serving these people. This is truly my home now and I don't think I'll ever be able to leave! 

I love you all and hope you all have a great week! 気を付けて！

January 10, 2016

Well this week was just absolutely beautiful!! Can I just say that being a missionary is so awesome! This is by far the best week on my mission. 

Well Tuesday we went to an appointment with an investigator and he didn't show...sad. However as we were riding to our next appointment we found a new investigator. One dropped but we found a new one! Funny how that works. Well his name is Hiraki and he is a 70 year old man who's voice is interesting because he smokes so much. We talked to him on the street and he said he would come to church on Sunday. Well Yesterday he actually came to church!! He stayed for sacrament meeting and then left but he said he is coming again next week. We are finally finding some good investigators here. It's awesome!! 

Wednesday we had the Dias family's baptism interview. They passed!! Hahaha! They are so awesome. Afterward we all went out and ate to celebrate. Haha! We showed up at the restaurant and they told all the Japanese people that me and my companion are fluent so people started freakin out and we're talking to us and were so surprised that we were 19 and could talk so well. It's always fun when you surprise people that you are a foreigner who speaks Japanese well. 

Well Sunday was by far the best day ever. The Dias family got baptized!! It was such an awesome baptismal service. The spirit was definitely felt by everyone there. Me, my companion, and a man from the ward did a version of Nearer my God to Thee durning the program. I sang the first verse in Portuguese then me and my comp sang the second in English then we all three sang the third in Japanese. it was so powerful and everyone loved it. The Dias family bore their testimonies and it was so great. They were so happy after the baptism it was so amazing. My face hurt at the end of church yesterday cause I had just been smiling so much. 

Also yesterday during second hour Alessandro (the father in the Dias family) asked me when he can get the priesthood. I was like "wow we just finished your baptism but okay if you're ready lets do it". He then started telling me how he thinks it's cool that he will be able to baptize people and pass the sacrament. He also told me that he is going to go find someone and baptize them once he has the priesthood. Haha! He is an awesome guy! Well we got him in for an interview with the bishop and he is getting the priesthood this coming Sunday. 

I love this family so much and am so grateful for the opportunity I had to meet them and teach them. They don't feel like investigators to me anymore. I feel like they are just my family. It's like I just baptized a part of my family. They are so amazing. It's been such a testimony builder for me to watch them make changes in their lives and try so hard to come closer to Christ. I don't know if I could go to church when I can't understand what is going on very well. They have so much faith and it just touches my heart. This is what the mission is all about! Bringing people closer to Christ literally brings you more joy then you can ever feel in any other way. 

I know this church is so true and that the gospel that I go out and preach each and every day is true. I love the Book of Mormon and the powerful and heart changing words that are written within. I love that we have a prophet on the earth who I know is a man of God. I love that this gospel brings people so much joy, peace, love, and hope. I love this all so much and that's why I'm here. I love what I am doing here and don't think I ever want to leave. Haha. 

Thank you all so much! I miss you all and hope you have an amazing week! 

皆さん頑張ってね！

The Dias Family

Special Water

January 3, 2016

Hello everyone!! Well this week was New Years so Japan was a party!! As missionaries we were actually asked not to go out for 3 days so that was interesting. We did a lot of studying and cleaning the apartment. It was fun. 

Well for this week this is what went down:

Monday we spent the evening with a less active Brazilian family. We have recently been visiting with them every Monday evening and pretty much doing family home evening, so that's been really fun. They said now that their work schedule had loosened up they want to start coming back to church so that's awesome. 

Thursday we had English class and only one person showed up and he is a good friend of the missionaries and is pretty much fluent in English. So we ended up writing a song in English and me and my companion played and sang it. It was super fun. When we finish it I will send a video. 

Friday was New Years so some members took us to some cool shrines and we had a really cool time. On New Years everyone goes to shrines so there were tons and tons of people. In Japan there are shrines on every street you go down, it's crazy. 

Finally on Sunday we had a normal Sunday and it was great. However, me and my companion were fasting to find a new investigator cause we haven't had very much success lately. Well as soon as we ended our fast with dinner we left the apartment. Well like the 5th person we talked to ended up becoming an investigator. It was literally the worst street contact I have ever done. My Japanese was sooo bad. I was stumbling over all my words. Somehow though this kid became an investigator. His name is Shimoguchi. And he even said he is going to bring his parents so we might actually be getting 3 investigators. Crazy! God is real! He promises us missionaries that if we have faith and open our mouths he will take care of the rest. Well, I have definitely seen that since I have been here. There are times when I think to myself "how did that person even understand me?" But somehow they did and actually have interest. We just have to have faith and God will take care of the rest. It's like that in any situation. Just have faith and take that step and God will provide. 

Lastly ... Dias family is getting baptized this week!! Their baptism interview is Wednesday and their baptism is Sunday. We are praying hard that all will work out! We are sooo excited!!! And so is everyone else here! 

Love you all and hope you have an amazing week!! 

Elder Myers

That is a big shrine

Ninja Training