Hello....

Hey guys!

I remember back when I read missionaries' emails who were in the second half of there mission realizing their emails got a lot more boring. I promised myself at that point to continue to try and write interesting emails.... Now that I am in that position it's a lot harder... Haha I don't really feel like writing them anymore, but I will... I don't know if anyone (other than family) reads these anymore, if you do, thank you.

This week was spent mostly at the church running the open house. It felt kind of like a waste of time for a lot of it. Though there were some good experiences. A man came in that had previously met a Mormon in Utah who gave him a ride as he was hitchhiking to every state in the U.S. The Mormon asked if she could give him a Book of Mormon, but didn't have one, so she gave him a pamphlet. Now maybe 10's of years later he finally got a Book of Mormon! Hopefully we see him again someday.

Since it's my first time being District Leader we went to a leader training at the mission office, they asked me to do a training though? Haha I said, aren't I the one that's supposed to be trained? It went really well though!

We had dinner with an American family here, the Larsons. I love the foreigner families here, they spoil us so much. They had a non member around our age over there so we were able to meet with and teach him! We invited him to find missionaries when he goes back to America.

We met with our friend Alec from China. He speaks Korean, English, Chinese & Japanese. It's crazy! He is great though. We read some of the Book of Mormon with him and eventually challenged him to be baptized. He said that he wasn't sure yet. It was a bomb lesson though. He's our most promising guy right now. The work has been kinda rough lately, so I don't have much else to say. We gotta find some more people!!

Not sure why but today I miss you guys a ton! ... Wayyy too early to start getting trunky though haha. Love all of you! <3

Pics!

1. Matching on Easter with one of my favorite members here, Omine

2. The dinner with the Larsons I talked about

3 & 4. Open house!

Easter!

Well the Easter open houses have started here in Yamate. Our church is in a really famous and popular area in Yokohama, so just has we did last Christmas when I was here we have the church set up for tours and open up the doors. Yesterday was a holiday in Japan and since our bishop really wanted to start the open house yesterday we switched out p day. It messed up a lot of things we had planned but he pretty much forced us to change it haha. It was a pretty heated conversation and since I guess I am in charge I had to handle it all... Gotta admire bishop's love for missionary work though. He's crazy but I love him. So this next week we are doing the open house every day from 10-5... I have mixed feelings.. Haha

So Nakamura was really pushing us away because of depression which is hard because we want to help so bad. Though last Sunday he came back to church and we went over to the Barton's (an American family here) for dinner. This was actually his second time going over there. We went with him a long time ago when he had just become an investigators. Both times have been defining moments I think. It seemed to solve all his problems, we played games (sadness), ate dinner (money struggles) & had the Barton family share what they do in times of trouble. Nakamura has never prayed for himself and refuses to do so... I think Sunday night helped him a ton though!

This last week we had a talent show with the church members. It was such a flop! Haha like no one came except for the performers. Lol. Afterwards we skyped my previous investigator Kohei and had a lesson with him. He thinks that he will decide whether or not to get baptized in a couple years during college. We talked about how God knows better than us how we can be happy, so if we follow his guidance he can show us the best way. Only if we seek for that guidance though. So we stressed reading scriptures and prayer (all we ever really do) in order to receive that guidance. Then challenged him to be baptized if he receives the guidance to do it. He said at that point in time he will go straight to me. I love that kid, lifetime friends for sure.

We were actually able to meet with a ton of people this last week. Lately our investigators haven't been very responsive so we are trying to move onto the people that are. We were able to meet with a friend we met Schreiber's first week here, Taka. He is 22 & super swaggy and seems like he would be really cocky but he's so great! We actually spent like the whole day with him. Went to Chinatown to eat, he had time so we went to the church and taught him a ton! He got it all and really liked it. Meeting with him again soon. Also met with our Ugandan friend Mark. It was Schreiber's first lesson in the field. We went in with a great plan and he got over excited and just went for it all at once, right at the starting. I felt like I should sit back a little and see how it goes. It took sooo much patience but the lesson actually turned out soo great! Mark loves us and the church. Just needs to work on keeping his word with coming to church. Sad thing is though, he is going to Dubai for a month :/

Lastly we have been meeting our Chinese friend, Alec. He is really good at ping pong, so we play sometimes. He said he is cool with meeting every week to learn more about the Book of Mormon. So we have a lot of promising people right now, just hoping they will get a little more serious about finding the truth.

I've been here in Yamate for about 6 months, a 1/4th of my mission. I love it so much, such a great place. The reason it's my favorite area though is not the skyscrapers, parks, Food or anything like that. It's the people here and the knowledge of Gods plan  us I have gained from teaching and being taught by them. I'm so thankful that we have the opportunity to receive eternal happiness and become like our Father in Heaven but just as much so for a perfect Savior, Christ, that allows us to overcome death and sin through His resurrection and atonement. Remember that this Easter & follow Him.

https://www.mormon.org/easter/follow-him

Here's some pics of some of the cars I saw this week! Rolls Royce & Lambo!

Picked up my son!

No idea where to start with this... I suddenly don't ever have time to write in my journal so it's hard to remember what happened this last week. Everything has completely changed now that I am DL & training a bean. I don't think I have ever had this much fun though. My companion is Elder Schreiber from Logan, UT! It's not his first time in Japan so most things I show him are not his first time. He didn't study Japanese while he was here, but for some reason is insanely good from studying in the MTC. He is the one teaching me new words sometimes! It's crazy. He is a hard worker, outgoing, optimistic and has a great testimony. I'm pretty stoked!

This last week may have been my hardest working week and it paid off, we made a lot of friends! One of the days we just went hard trying to approach anyone we saw, not just the people that happened to walked by us. Two guys around our age talked to us for quite a while and the four of us our like best friends now. They couldn't stop freaking out about how big and cool our noses are. I asked if he wants to touch mine. He reached out and I smacked his hand and told him no. They couldn't stop laughing. We are hanging out with him this week. His name is Taka.

Really not a lot else to report. We haven't been able to meet with people lately. Nakamura is really struggling right now and suffers from some depression. He is kinda pushing me away right now because he wants space and time.. We just want to help but there isn't much we can do but pray and love him right now.

So our Indo curry friend, Santos is doing sooo great. We went to visit him one day and he told us to come back at his break. When we came back he closed the shop & let us inside. He then gave us free drinks and we had such a good lesson! He asked us why we are here on earth. We gave him a run down of pretty much everything and he understood it all! He prayed and said he wants to follow Jesus Christ's teachings. The sad news is he lives in Tokyo and only comes here for work. Also since his dad finally came back he won't be working as much and we
won't be able to see him much. We will get him hooked up with the Tokyo elders.

Anyways just having a blast out here with this new missionary, in my favorite area, with an awesome district. As you will see in the pictures we now have two Japanese sisters in Yamate and they are soo funny haha.

Pics!


1. Me and my son before he king sized at Sukiya (I did the same thing my first week here)

2. Doing it one time was good enough for me but not for these guys!

3. The new district!

4. We went to a park that has a really old horse racing stadium. It looks so dope, pics don't do justice, but look at the growth along the walls! Crazy

Sorry I forgot to send this!

Transfer calls came! I'm..... STAYING in Yamate! :) My companion is leaving and I still don't know my companion because I'll be getting a brand new missionary. Don't know what to think because I am pretty shocked, excited, but overwhelmed. Not to mention this will be my first transfer being district leader...

This week was good. Not a lot to report... We hadn't seen a member here in months and so we tried to visit him. He didn't answer, we left but he called us asking if we visited him and told us to come back. He assumed it was either a salesman or the missionaries haha. Man he has been through sooo much. He got baptized a couple years ago, wife had an affair, they divorced, and she took the kids to America. He rarely gets to talk to them. He also just learned his dad probably has cancer and he may need to take over the family business. His brother can't because he has been an alcoholic for years and isn't ok mentally now because of it. Guys there is a reason God has asked us to avoid certain substances! So sad. Despite all of this our friend's faith is impeccable. He is always praying and reading scriptures searching for answers. Just can't come to church because he is a house music DJ and his weekends are packed. Anyways, he asked for a blessing which I was able to give. Hopefully we can support him through this hard time.

We met with our friend Ken Kimura this last week with one of my favorite members here, Daiki. Daiki is going to be such a good missionary, he helped us a ton. We are a little worried about Ken, he simply can't understand anything we teach. We read the first three verses of the BoM and even after thirty minutes of explanation he couldn't get anything. It's really hard. He's a great friend though, we are working on a solution.

We also saw Santos, our Indo Curry friend a few times. One time we walked by his shop and he came out and stop us to ask what "apostasy" means. He read the whole pamphlet we gave him. It's hard because he speaks Nepalis, but we don't have materials in that language. Working on it. He is so chill though!

Other than that Hawkins and I hit an apartment here pretty hard. Within two days we found 4 new people on 2 floors. One of which is a kid our age, who said right away that he is interested. We were able to teach the plan of salvation and introduce baptism. Way sick kid!

I was thinking this week about how lucky I am. A healthy family who are all strong in their faith as well as close friends who have always been there and shown tremendous examples to me. I'm so dang blessed. I look back at some of the routes I had started to take and can't believe I was able to make my way back to the right one thanks to all of your help. No matter who you are or what route you may be on, there is always a way back to your Heavenly Father. The right way, a happier way, an eternal way. You just gotta look for it.

I love all of you.

Pics:
We went to the top of Landmark tower, one of the coolest things I have ever done! Also did a trash collecting service project as a district, got soo much.