week 31

Recap of the week, here we go!

This week was fishy... but in a good way! We had the opportunity to meet with a less active and go to this park that is about 10 Kilometers away from the church. There was a really awesome Koi pond where the fish were used to being fed so when they say us coming near, they came right up to the shore waiting for us to throw them some food. Naturally, we had to buy some food and... we had a lot of fun with that. Later in the week, we visited an old investigator because he cut our hair for really cheap and we wanted to say thank you. He had just gone fishing that morning and gave us 7 really nice, expensive fish! We, of course, didn:t really know how to prepare it best but a member, Tanaka Kyodai was a chef for 8 years or so and he prepared them all for us. Best fish I ever had!

On the not so fishy side this week, I gave a talk in Sacrament this week on Mosiah 24. It:s amazing that 7 months into the mission, I can get up and speak in Japanese for 20 minutes. It:s still very simple Japanese, and I still make a lot of mistakes, but it IS Japanese. I am thankful for this opportunity and know that I couldn:t be doing this without God:s consistent help. Recognize His hand in your life! It is there, you just have to look.

Brower Chourou

week30

week 29

This week we met a really awesome lady that began crying while we were talking because she appreciated what we were doing so much. I've met two of these people that I can remember since I've been here; I'm glad I've had the opportunity to be here and talk to and meet these people. It's wonderful when we meet people who want to talk to us and aren't closed off to hearing our message; they respect what we are doing here even if they don't except our message. Me and my companion also had a really cool talk this week about our weaknesses and the things that we are worried about and the things that we are working on trying to overcome. Up until now, we've talked about these things but this week, we got to build our relationship and have been talking a lot more to each other about things like that. It's really awesome that we are able to even communicate as well as we do! All in all, it's been a good week. We got to see Minoru Kyodai (the recent convert that me and Elder Christensen taught who was baptized) again on Sunday. He showed up to the Saga ward on Sunday and it was an awesome surprise. It was a really great fast and testimony meeting and I bore my testimony on a talk in the most recent general conference about church being like a hospital; we are all sick and need help! People aren't perfect, bet everyone is trying to get better by going to church. Support them. Don't get offended by their imperfections.

This is a section of my email to my parents:

Missions are great and when the time comes for someone to go, it really isn:t their decision. I:ve talked to people in college over email who have said "ya, I never thought I would be going on a mission but my time has come and I submitted my papers." Sound familiar?? I feel like I had nothing to do with it. God knew that it was my time and He made sure that I made it on a mission. This is something that I have thought about. We talk to a lot of people every day. We give them a chance to hear and accept this message. A lot of people don:t listen. Sometimes, we feel like we could have given them a better chance at accepting this gospel by speaking the language better, studying harder that morning, or by not taking that ten minute break. This may be the case sometimes but I feel like if we are doing our best, and people still aren:t accepting the message, it just isn:t their time and their time will come. I feel like I could not have been prepared to serve a mission at 18. Or 19. Or 20. I had to be prepared. My heart had to be in the right place. Sometimes the only influence or help that we can give to people is be the example and be the person that is there for them when they are ready. We cannot force people to accept the gospel. We only invite, and if they are ready, they will accept.

Philosophy according to Elder Tyler Brower.

The last note for the pictures. It was Elder Murphy's birthday this week and we had a BBQ at a members apartment. There is nothing quite like expensive Japanese meat!

We also helped some members move this week. We don't have a lot of service opportunities here but when we do, they are a lot of fun! Just FYI, moving houses is made so much harder by the LAW in Japan that you do not wear shoes in the house... I took my shoes off and put them on about 100 times that day.

That's all folks!

Love you all. Thank you so much!

ブラワー長老

week 28

It:s weekly email time! I:ll relate one experience from this week that was pretty cool. We met Nakagawa San this week. When we met her, she told us that we had already come by that week but she was eating dinner and told us to go away. It wasn't us but it turned out to be the other two elders. But, because she had time, she invited us in and started asking a bunch of questions. She has friends in different religions and said that her image of Christians is that they have to follow a lot of rules! She wanted to know our "rules" so, we told her about the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, tithing, praying, going to church, and reading scriptures. It was a really good visit because we told her about these things but shared why we do them and he source from where they came. Bearing sincere testimony about that helped her realize that we aren't crazy people who just follow rules for no reason. She wants to meet with us and learn more so we set up an appointment for this week and i:ll get to tell you how it goes next week! People are prepared. If they understand that God:s true prophets are on the earth and they have given us guidance so we know how to return to God, they will do what is necessary. I hope that she is ready and I hope that we find more people who are prepared. Enjoy the random pictures from this week! Always, thank you for your support!

Brower Chourou

SPECIAL MESSAGE TO PAUL AND ROCK: Write in your journals!!!These pictures need some description. While we were out taking pictures and videos of some mud fish, we noticed some guys on these sled things coming closer to the shore so we went and checked it out. They kneel on these sled things and scoot along these paths and basically harvest these mud fish so that they can sell them and eat them.

Is is our zone right now. Nagasaki zone!! Good group of people for sure

week 27

Just started my 4th transfer and I'm still going to be working with
the wonderful people in Saga Japan. It's been an adventure so far but
I really love the people here, especially the members, because they
have been patient with me and have been able to help me grow and we
have become really good friends over the past 3 transfers. My trainer,
Elder Christensen, transferred out of our area and went to Kumamoto
and will probably end his mission over there. So right now it is me
and Elder みやにし in our companionship and Elder Murphy and Elder Connett
in the other. He is a new missionary from Idaho and gets to have a
similar experience as me "growing up" in Saga Japan. This week has
been pretty rough as far as lessons taught and people found but we are
always working and still receiving blessings. To report on the
baptismal date that we had a while ago... Me and Elder Christensen had
the opportunity to meet her and when Elder Murphy came to Saga, him
and Elder Christensen continued to teach her. We had a baptismal date
goal but she wasn't ready for that date and had a trial of her faith
with tithing. However, miracles are happening and when Elder
Christensen told her that he was transferring, it gave her a new fire
because she wanted to be baptized and because he was one of the
biggest people that helped her along, she wanted him to baptize her.
We were just in our room planning and he comes in and tells us "Hey,
so... Kume San has a new baptismal date..." We were all way surprised
but Elder Christensen and his family plan on returning to Saga in
August when his mission is ended and she is preparing to be baptized
for when he comes back so that he can baptize her! That was a really
cool and I hope that it all works out. She is so amazing and when she
comes to church, she just fits right in and has become family here.
We've been having really cool experiences like this lately and I'm
excited for what is in store for us this transfer. I'll keep you
posted. Love you all, thanks for the support!
Brower Chourou
ブラワー長老

week 26

Ok, I didn't have time for a group email today but here is some
pictures at least