June 5, 2016

First weeks of transfer are always the most crazy and most stressful so this week was a blast. Haha! For real, even though it was hard I enjoyed it a lot. 

To start off, Tuesday was transfers so my companion Elder Walker took a train to his new area and I took a train to Nagoya and then went to the mission home with all the other new trainers so I could be trained on how to train a new missionary. Well after that they told me my trainee would not be arriving on Wednesday with everyone else because he had some visa problems. So they assigned me to serve in a near bye area until my new companion arrives. So I was assigned to stay in Kariya city with another companionship who's trainee also was able to come. 

Wednesday and Thursday I stayed in Kariya and served there and it was really fun. There were three of us there so that was interesting. It was my first time in a trio so it was for sure an experience. Haha! We were able to get a lot of work done and visit with several people. We also played some baseball with some young kids which was a big highlight of the week. They thought that the missionaries were so cool, it was lots of fun. 

Friday I went back to the mission home cause my trainee had finally arrived. I got there we met and then me and him took the nice long train back to Fujieda. 

My new companions name is Elder Hilamatu. He is from São Paulo Brazil but he lived in Japan when he was younger so he speaks not only Portuguese but pretty good Japanese too. He doesn't really speak English though, but that's okay cause we just speak all Portuguese so my Portuguese is really improving. Might forget english soon! Haha!  He is a really cool guy. He did karate and Kung fu before his mission so I'm gonna ask him to teach me some stuff so I can fight the next person who tries to steal my bike. Hahaha! I love Elder Hilamatu, he is an awesome guy and we are doing awesome together. 

To finish off the week we had a ward activity on Saturday. We had a music night and it was a lot of fun and we got a less active to come so that made my week. Also lots of members invited their friends so we got to meet them too. Hopefully something can come from that, some people seemed pretty promising. 

On a slightly spiritual note, Sunday I taught the foreigners Sunday school class that the missionaries always teach and the topic was about the conversion story of Alma the younger.

We focused a lot on what the true meaning of conversion is and we all decided that true conversion is a true change of heart. Alma the younger begged for forgiveness, received a remission of his sins, and then he went and became a different person. He truly changed his heart. Through the Atonement we can receive forgiveness of our sins and change ourselves, our lives, and our hearts. Aren't we so lucky to have a loving Heavenly Father who would give us His Son so that we could have this wonderful blessing. 

I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Giant Cat Thingy

Elder Hilamatu

Throwback to the MTC

May 29, 2016

Hello!! So transfer 6 is officially over! Crazy! Time flies like crazy as a missionary. I can't believe it. 

So last Monday we had a district activity and went and saw a super cool shrine that is built into the side of a mountain. It was really pretty and a really good hike too. We had lots and lots of fun! 

This week I was also able to get a new bike!! Yay!! I ended up getting a really really good bike for really cheap because I had insurance on my bike when it was stolen. So since Thursday I've been riding around on a nice brand new bike. It's beautiful! 

Saturday was our biggest and craziest day of the week!! We had transfer calls Saturday morning. Well guess what... I'm training a new missionary!!! Crazy! I'm also going to be a district leader. What!?! I was so shocked when I got the call. So from now on will be a lot more responsibility but I'm very excited. I'm quite a bit nervous to be training a new missionary but at the same time super excited. I feel like I was just being trained yesterday so this is a really weird feeling. Also I am now the same transfer my trainer was when he trained me. Crazy! So this transfer is going to be a big adventure!! 

Saturday we also had a baptism! Her name is Maricris and she is just so awesome. It's been so awesome teaching her and getting to become close with her family. They are all such great people. The baptismal service was awesome and she bore her testimony at the end and it was so powerful and just amazing. I'm so grateful for the people I get to meet as a missionary. I would never give up these experiences for anything in the world. Bringing souls to Christ just brings us so much happiness, it's amazing! 

Sunday Maricris was able to be confirmed in church so that too was a big moment for us as missionaries. Our mission president also attended our branch on Sunday so that was a treat to see him and be able to spend some time with him. 

This week was an awesome week! Many things happened and we were able to get a lot of work done. I am so grateful for everyday that I get to go out and proclaim this wonderful gospel of joy and happiness. Isn't this gospel such a joyous thing? I know I have found so much joy and happiness through this gospel. I truly have felt more strongly now then ever the true joy of this gospel. We should always be able to find happiness in this gospel because that is what our Heavenly Father wants for us. He wants us to be happy. I love this gospel and my Heavenly Father. 

Hope everyone has a great week! Love you all! 

Maricris

President Ishii

Sushi

Mountain Temple

Mountain Temple

May 22, 2016

So we have a district activity today, we are going to hike a mountain!!! Yay! So that means I don't have any time to email! I'll send pics next week though! 

As for this week, we found a new investigator this week. His name is Kazuo and he is 17 and super cool. We prayed all week to find one new investigator and well we found a really really awesome one. 

Also here is the best story of the week....MY BIKE GOT STOLEN! About 3 weeks ago my seat got stolen and I just replaced that which took a while and was a pain and now my whole bike just got stolen. We went and taught seminary on Saturday night and then when I came out of the members apartment my bike wasn't there. We then took the nice  hour and a half walk home. Hahaha!  I am currently borrowing a members like 80 year old bike. Haha! Hopefully the police find my bike though. In Japan the police actually take finding stolen bikes seriously so maybe they will find it. So yeah that's that! 

This week one of our investigators is getting baptized so we are super excited and you can count on there being pics next week! 

Love you all and have a great week!!! And remember God loves you!!

The Beach

Finding Investigators

Missionary work in the jungle

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