week 22

Alright, this email will be a short one but... here is what happened this week in Japan!

We went to Fukuoka and attended the temple with some of the members in our ward! The temple is amazing and no matter what language they speak or the location, the temple is still the temple and this Gospel, as far as i:ve observed, is the same wherever you go! That is comforting. A lot of things change in life but the Gospel is constant. How cool.

Also, there is a Costco in Fukuoka Japan! It was great, just like a little piece of America in Japan. The only thing I bought was a giant thing of peanut butter but it was still awesome!

Me and my companion are getting along well and are working hard.

Thank you everyone for all the support!

Brower Choro

Ps. It:s rainy season in Japan... I feel like the slogan of a missionary and the slogan of the American Post Service are pretty much the same!

week 21

Right now... I am... Still in Saga! But! There has been a change. My companion became companions with Elder Murphy that was already in our apartment and I became companions with Miyanishi Choro! Be careful what you pray for! I have been praying for the gift of tongues so that I could teach these people better and look-e-there, God sent me a Nihonjin companion who can:t speak too much English. He is on his 13th transfer and has been around English speaking elders enough during his mission that he can understand and speak some but it is Japanese all day everyday from here on out (at least for 6 more weeks). It has been wonderful so far. It is going to be the hardest transfer yet but... it has been wonderful none-the-less.

On our first day, we got to participate in a pretty cool experience. Of course, I speak minimal Japanese and fluent English and he speaks minimal English and fluent Japanese. God is aware of that and he allowed us to find someone who is fluent in both languages that is interested in this gospel! How cool. We had a lesson with him a few days ago and have another lesson scheduled for tomorrow. He is very smart and knows a lot already but it has been a great experience teaching him so far. There is something different about testifying and teaching in English... I really like it... I hope that I can feel that same way some day when I testify in Nihongo.

Conference was wonderful. And, we did get to watch it in English. I don:t know what else to say about that besides the fact that I got answers to a lot of the questions that I went into conference with them on my mind and I look forward to studying the talks when the Ensign gets here next month!

General Conference!

The last time seeing Mizoguchi Choro for a while (we will end up seeing each other at the end of our missions)

                                                    This is me and my new companion Miyanishi Choro 

week 20

Our investigator is doing really well. She is reading the book of mormon and praying and has really committed to being baptised since we talked to her about how she can not only help herself through baptism but also her family who has passed on. Family history and temple work is way important and it lights fires in people let me tell you!

And... there went 12 weeks!

It has been the most crazy twelve weeks of my life but definitely the most rewarding! I:m learning so much about myself and my nature is truly changing and I am becoming who God wants me to become. I:m really excited for what I will learn from General Conference this weekend (It has a week delay till the translations get to Japan).

As far as that goes... Things are great here in Japan. As far as transfers... still waiting on the call so by next week, I might be somewhere else, might have a new companion, who knows! Either way, I am looking forward to what God has in store because I will gladly accept his will.

Thank you for everything; all the prayers and support.

Brower Choro

week 19

Here are some cool experiences we had this week! We have been working with Kume San who we knocked into a little ways back. We haven:t really been able to meet with her too much recently because she has been sick but we have visited her a few times to see how she has been doing and she was able to come to the church for a lesson yesterday! The last time we met, we invited her to be baptised and we set a goal for May 5th (remember my Miracles email? More on that later). Anyway, we had some members joint with us for the lesson and one of the members had just taught a lesson that day about how peoples; ancestors are pleading for their decedents to find this gospel. Kume San has had some unfortunate things happen in her family and when she was taught that she could do things for not only her salvation but also her ancestors; salvation, she basically promised us that she would be baptized and wants to be baptized as soon as possible! We have high hopes and are always praying for her! It was an amazing lesson.

I have a few things that continue to be reiterated as we continue to do this work. One of those things is that if you work hard, and then you work just a little bit harder, you will be immensely blessed. And it continues to manifest itself by some of the cool things that we get to take part in when we are warn out for the day and push to knock one more door or talk to one more person. We met a young 22 year old as basically our last contact on Sunday. He was interested, invited us back, and we are really excited to meet with him again. We had had a rough day where it felt like we were out talking to people because we had to. We stopped, changed our attitude, tried to do our best for the rest of the evening and we were able to see that blessing worked through us.

Now to revisit the "Miracle" email from last week. Another thing that continues to be reiterated more and more every day is how much of this work we don:t do. Nothing that we do is fault of our own; the best that we can do is be sharper tools in the hands of God and let him work through us. We had twenty minutes left one night and we were maybe 10 minutes from home so we say a small house with the light on and decided to stop and knock just that house. Of course we could have gone home early but we figured we had some time and wanted to do just that little bit more. We ended up talking to a wonderful woman for about 8 minutes or so about this message and gave her a pamphlet and she said that we could visit her next week. I know how much that wasn:t us. It was like we knew that she lived there and that she needed to hear from us at that time but it manifested itself in logical thinking of "we have just a few minutes left" and her house having the upstairs light on. I consider these things to be miracles. We are nothing more than tools in His hands, and I want to be as sharp as I can! It:s hard, it:s a lot of work, but it is worth it.

Brower Choro

Also, I:m really sorry but I haven:t been taking too many pictures lately... sorry! But, I will be getting pictures from the other elders next week before we get transfer calls and I will send you a bunch then. Japan right now is so pretty. All of the Sakura are blooming and the trees are everywhere and they are amazing. You all would love them! I:ll send pictures next week (Life scouts honor... that is a funny joke that we say sometimes because me and elder murphy only got our Life scout... "Life for life") Alright, until next week!

Brower Choro

week 18

Awesome announcement...

Ready for it???

We will be utilizing Ipads in our mission within the next 2 months or so. It is going to be an awesome resource! I:m pretty excited for it! I had to talk in church for just a few minutes! Everyone says that i:m so good at Japanese and I know that I have come a long way but I know that I have so far to go as well... I just try to say thank you even though I don:t believe them really... ha. It was about easter and the Grace of Jesus Christ allowing us to become perfect. It wasn:t terrible but it was simple and not too nerveracking!

I have been able to see a really cool connection of miracles this week here in Saga Japan. First, some back story. After Menoru Kyodai was baptised, we had nobody to teach so we were doing a lot of efforts concerning finding! Right now, we are working with 4 people and two of them have been progressing really well. (Miracle 1). After Menoru Kyodai was baptised, and when we were working on finding, we set goals for when we wanted baptismal dates by (April 5th) and when we wanted to have a baptism by (May 5). We prayed about this and felt that it is a good goal so we have been working for it! Kaicho gave us a challenge to have 2 baptismal dates by easter... which happened to be April 5th... this was after we set that goal... (Miracle 2). Imamura Shimai is a wonderful member in our ward who was baptised on my birthday last year. Her best friend in the ward is moving very soon and she needs a new friend so we have been praying for her so that we could find that friend. One of the 4 investigators that we are working with right now is becoming really good friends with Imamura Shimai (Miracle 3). This week, we have extended our goal of 2 baptismal invites to two of our investigators and one has excepted May 5th as her goal and the other wants the blessings of baptism but is thinking about it (Miracle 4). So, these are just a few of the miracles that we have seen which alone are awesome but the fact that they are all related was a miracle in and of itself! (Miracle 5). I am trying to do my best to be better every day so that I can be a sharper tool in the hands of God and through doing that, he can work more miracles through me. I am greatful that he has trusted me with these miracles this far. I love you all, thank you for your support!

Brower Choro

​Alright! So, this is picture of the fun that we have in our apartment... sometimes you go all day without knowing you have one clipped to you... let alone four! Also, one of the members here had us over for dinner. He used to be a professional chef... he spared no expense. It was amazing!