Pretty Good B-Day

Thanks to all of you that wished me a happy birthday last Saturday. It turned out to be a really good one, at least considering the fact I'm a missionary... haha. At the start of the day we played basketball and our three friends that came to church last week came! (Kaito, Alec & Motoki) Then we had a lesson with Motoki. This kid is soooooo legit! I can't stop thinking about how dope he is, love him. I made sure and got a picture this time! Since last week he said no to baptism because he doesn't know much we thought this lesson we might hold off a bit. Earlier in the week I had such a good study of Alma 32. I've read it so many times but still get new things out of it. Read that chapter, so money. So we read that together and he understood like every bit of it. He said that he felt like he has planted the seed of faith in his heart and seen it grow.

"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves "It must needs be that this is a good seed."

As we talked he realized he needs to nourish the seed now that he knows it's good. We asked how? He said, "Well I think I better keep meeting with you, going to church & reading this book." Haha he is so dope. Anyways, long story short we ended up asking him again to be baptized. This time was a for sure yes! It sounds like it will be the middle of May.

Then we got pizza for dinner as a district and they made me a card and gave me cookies! Later that night some awesome members here, the Bartons, brought over 8 pieces of this suuuuper good (and probably expensive) cake to our apartment. I'll send a picture. It was great :)

Anyways, the next day Motoki shows up at church in a suit looking far more suteki than any of us! He loves church and really looks up to Bro. Omine one of my favorite members here. They are both from Okinawa (little island off of Japan). Motoki is way outgoing and already growing tight with all of the members. One member who recently got baptized told him it took him awhile to get baptized because he had to stop drinking coffee. Motoki looks at us (first time hearing about Coffee) and says, while laughing, "I'm addicted." Haha we will work on that. He also heard about Tithing and seemed cool with it, without us even telling him why we do those things. I feel like we aren't doing anything except being his friend. Guess that's how it should be.

Today we hung out with Ishii from Atsugi again and went crazy at Costco. Motoki joined us as well! 3 days in a row! Haha. Went to one of my favorite places with two of my favorite people! When I invited Motoki last night on the phone he told me to not forget to pray before bed. I love this kid haha.

Even though this is my favorite area so far I was kind of thinking I wanted a change going into this transfer, that maybe I have been here in Yamate for long enough. Though just in this week I have already seen why I need to be here with Motoki! We both love basketball, the same music, tv shows, etc. We only met like 3 weeks ago! Plus my new companion is Elder Molen, he is great and we have been going hard so far. It'll be a good transfer.

Love you guys! <3

1. Dapper Boyz (ft. Motoki)

2. Birthday goods, those cookies have my name and face on them!

3. My first time eating at TGI Fridays happens in Japan? A member in our ward Jenny hooked it up!

4. Got a free ice cream too

5. And a picture lol

6. Landmark tower with my trainee last transfer!

7. My new companion fully prepared for a hair cut from me. I cut all my roommates hair now :)

Jacked Black 60 Year Old

Hey y'all!

This last Saturday we had to cancel our basketball activity to clean the church. We decided to try and invite people to it. Our friends: Motoki, Alec & Kaito all came. While we were there they got to meet the members and we invited them to church. They actually all said they would be down. I thought at least one would show up. Church was about to start and we were loosing hope. Then Kaito walks in! We start going to the meeting hall then Motoki shows as well! As we are sitting in church with the two of them, Alec came in! All three came to church! It was great. Between them and the other Elders & Sisters we had a total of 6 people come to church!! So great.

So Motoki and Alec are our two main investigators right now. Kaito is just an English class student but he's on his way. We got to meet with Motoki multiple times this week though. He is soo legit, I bet he gets baptized. We talked about baptism but he said he isn't sure because he doesn't know everything, which is totally understandable because we just started meeting. He understands everything, it's so nice. Love that kid.

We had a way bizarre experience earlier in the week after some housing. We had parked our bikes next to a grocery store where it charges you if you leave your bike for over an hour. So we went back there to move our bikes before the hour hit. As we were unlocking our bikes I notice a black guy across the street staring at us, pretty rare here in Japan. I always try to talk to foreigners so after we got our bikes we said hi to him as we walked opposite directions from each other. He was with a Japanese girl and just stared me down and didn't say a word. After we had separated about 40 ft. he started just yelling at us. "My mountain bike is WAYY more expensive than yours, and this is my wife!" We were soo confused... I just smiled and kept walking. We went around the block to park our bikes in a free spot. When we returned to the grocery store the black guy popped out of nowhere and said "Ay! I'm taking your picture, that's right I got you!" I just smiled and posed with my thumb up because I didn't know what else to do haha. Then he said, "yeah I got you guys, over here thinking I'm gonna steal your bike." "Woah! No that's not what we-." "No I saw you look at me and decide to move your bikes somewhere else to come in here. Where you from?" It was intense. We said we are from America, he said he was too and had lived in Utah. He continued to explain to us that therefore he is American as well. We said we believed him and eventually got him calm enough to converse. Once he realized we really weren't being racist he became our best friend haha. I love black people. He then had us guess his age. I was thinking no older than 45... He is 60! So fit. When we freaked out he said, I gotta show you this. He lifts his shirt and shows us the gnarliest 6 pack I have ever seen. He could flex the individual sections separately. I'm still blown away. He plans to start a YouTube channel to try and inspire others to stay/get in shape regardless of age. Way sick guy, we started the conversation with contention and ended with hugs :)

Lately we have met a ton of awesome people! At least 5 this last week were willing to exchange contact info. Hopefully we can start meeting with at least one of them soon. The other day the first person who answered the door for the night was a super nice middle aged guy. We are trying this new approach where we see if we can ask just one question. We asked him what the purpose of life is and instantly he replied with, "becoming more polished people." I was shocked, such a legit answer so fast. We agreed and talked about God's plan for us. Then he asked some questions and we ended up teaching about Joseph Smith. What a great opportunity I had to share the recently strengthened testimony I had received last week about prophets. I felt tears come to my eyes as I felt and shared the truth. Though I also saw a change in his face, a softening. He may have felt the spirit, I'm not sure. Though I am sure he felt me feeling it. People can feel how strongly we believe something so don't be scared to share it with others.

I have been here in Yamate for about 6 months now and I learned last Saturday that I will be here for another transfer! Craziness. I'm happy though, I love this place and love  all of you <3

Pics/Vids

1. Classic Sakuraki skyline taken from Yamashita Park

2. Man I love having dinner with the Larsons, they spoil us, A LOT

3. We saw a way funny/talented street performer!

4. Today we went to my new favorite restaurant with Bro. Ishii. It's all you can eat but you bread and deep fry your own food.

5. Don't worry mom, I still ate my veggies! Just deep fried...

6. I love Ishiiiii!

7. Here's the street performer

Defining Moment for Me

I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! I can't believe how much I missed the first 18 years of my life looking at my phone or sleeping through gen. conf. Some main points I noticed from conference is that we know things but do we really believe it? For example some of us may know that we are children of God but do we live our lives and address our challenges with that in mind? I also liked the council given on standing behind our church leaders who have been called of God. Also of course addressing our faith before doubts. It addresses the recent disagreements that have caused some to throw their faith away.

So this last week I got a little worried because my companion has a lot of questions about the church and restoration that may be hurting his faith. Nothing huge, but it came up in a lesson and it made me worry a bit about his testimony. We had a great talk about it! I shared some talks and we talked about putting our faith first. I encouraged him to strengthen his testimony of the restoration. The only reason I tell this story is because when we knelt down to pray together to end studies I felt like I should pray about the restoration. I got silent as I felt very personal with my Heavenly Father at that moment. I REALLY felt like I was talking to the same being that had appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820. It's true, all of it.

Then yesterday while I watched the first session of conference I started crying during the opening song "I will follow God's plan for me," then through President Monson's great talk, then finally pulled my self together at the end of the second talk. I couldn't figure out what had happened to me. I could feel it so strongly that I was watching God & Christ's conference and their prophets speak. I also was feeling such strong peace through the whole conference that because of the resurrection & plan of salvation my friend John Galt and Grandpa are in a good place and I can see them again. I'm so thankful.

Otherwise this last week we got to meet with the 22 year old Motoki that Boody and met last week. We taught him about God, Christ, prayer, the Book of Mormon, prophets, church, all the good stuff. He understood it all! He was pretty stoked about it and said his first real prayer, that's always the best to see. This kid is legit, we should be meeting with him weekly.

Also a great member in the ward, Brother Oba, did us a huge favor and visited Nakamura! He set up a dinner and had us come so that we can try to get him back on track. Then he came to General Conference! He was really touched by a few of the talks. That was probably another reason I couldn't stop crying. So happy he was there.

I love you guys, God is trying to tell all of you something this last week at conference, so make sure you remember and utilize the things you learned and reread the talks. If you are receiving this email, yes I am talking to you. Whether you are Mormon or not. Check it out

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04?cid=HP_SU_3-4-2016_dPFD_fGC_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

Pictures!

1. A member took us to T.G.I.Fridays, my first time actually. Soooo good

2. Had a chance to grab dinner with Rick Harper from Eagle! :)

3. This is the view out the window from my study desk in the apartment