April 20, 2015

Transfer 15  Week 2

My first view of Miyako

(Iain transferred last week to the island Miyako, between Okinawa and Taiwan.  Iain met his current companion at a ward event while he was serving in Kumamoto, before his companion was a missionary.  One of his flat mates was his companion when he was serving in Yanai)  

It`s pretty warm here now.  The humidity is terrible and we are sweating a ton.  It`s super fun.  I love it here.  We ran this morning for exercise and met the water`s edge after just 15 min.  It`s way fun.  Little sad we can`t swim, but oh well.  

Over the weekend there was a Triathlon which was like a huge event for Miyako.  All of the young people, teenagers and whatnot were acting like it was the only interesting thing that had ever happened on the island.  We got to volunteer on Friday to help out with the sign-in stuff for foreigners, so we got a shirt and a hat that say we are officials for the Triathlon.  Kind of interesting, but we were there for 6 hours and there were so many volunteers and so few athletes coming to our table we were completely unnecessary.  But we got lunch and clothing, so whateves.  

We found a couple of investigators who have met with missionaries before.  They were cool and we are going to go back and teach some time.  The people are all super nice and many of them have free time, so they`ll just talk to us.  Way fun.  

Yep, same Anderson choro with the flat (this happened in Yanai).  Elder West (his current companion) was going around with a few friends and just happened to show up the same night as the sports activity.  He`s actually from Tokyo and his mom`s Japanese, Dad`s from Utah.  Way funny guy.  We`re having lots of fun together as he really wants to work hard and be a good missionary too.  

I don`t know how the humidity will change how I feel.  Although I think I will enjoy the heat without the humidity when I get home.  I think it`ll just be nice to be hot without swimming in sweat all the time.  

There aren`t the same eating places in this area as my last ones (like Amami), but what they have is good.  The members here have actually fed us quite a bit.  Thanks for the package, I love it.  Tell Parker I say hi.  Also, we happened to have a lot of peanut butter from the Okinawa base (they mailed it to us apparently).  But Trader Joes is so much better (the other stuff is like Jiff and Skippy, etc.).  I miss Trader Joes and Natural foods stuff.  Love you guys.  

No crazy bugs or anything, although my companion freaked out about a few of them the other day.  I`ll send you some pictures after.  

The island is awesome.  Also, we go to Naha this week for special training.  Apparently the next time I email you will be on an iPad.  Don`t know but we`ll see.  

Love you guys, hope you have an awesome week.  

Elder Lee

Iain

Iain on the beach in Miyako

Flat mates Elders Anderson & De La Paz and his companion Elder West

March 23, 2015

Transfer 14 Week 4

Hey!  This week was awesome.  On Thursday we had a Zone Conference in Hiroshima and we learned more about how to teach and stuffs.  And then on Saturday we had another conference with Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the 12.  Way cool.  Learned a lot.  We actually went down to Fukuoka on Friday and spent the night there.  We had a little extra time so we did a little finding.  Then we got up early because the conference started at like 8 something.  And then we learned about the iPads that our mission will be getting soon.  I don't think they will come for another month or 2, but we'll see.  A lot of the missionaries are super excited.  I would be except that I won't have them for that long and I don't think it'll really affect my mission all that much.  But whateves.

It's warmer in Hiroshima, except today is a little chilly.  The last few days, though, have been super warm.  The missionaries from Idaho and Utah (ie the new missionaries) are already complaining about the heat.  I'm still cold.  Weird.  

Today we will have a big Zone p-day with all the people in Hiroshima.  It will be way fun and I will try and take lots of pictures.  Unfortunately today and the conference on Saturday were some of my last times to see people before they or I die (missionary speaking).  Kind of sad.  But it'll be way fun.  

Thanks for the package!  I love the chocolate and peanut butter.  Nothing better.  It's funny because I didn't realize there was anything else in the chocolates' package.  Then I opened it last night and I found the peanut butter and letter.  Way funny.  Thanks, love you.  

Have an amazing, fantastical week!

Elder Lee

Iain

March 16, 2015

Transfer 14:  Week 3

This past week we got to do some service and talk to some really cool people.  We had a lesson with someone who spoke some really good English.  It was really cool because he went to Southeast Asia for a while and learned English and stuff.  We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and personal conversion. 

We also met a lady last night who had met the missionaries in college like 20 years ago.  She spoke awesome English and after we talked a little about families, she said we could come back and talk more next week.  We are super excited to have lessons.  It's even better because they all speak English.  I'm sure Elder Welch is super happy.  He is still doing really good.  

The weather in the past couple of days has gotten really good.  It has been so warm I don't even have to wear thermal underwear anymore.  Which is great because they were becoming kind of a pain in the butt (or at least in the hair legs).  

I was thinking about people at home recently and was thinking how fun it will be to see all the cousins and family back in Utah and Colin, Grandma & Grandpa and Heather and so on.  I'm kind of sad I can't visit Grandma in Sebastapol anymore though.  I also randomly thought about Carol Jewel.  I think it would be kind of cool to meet and talk to her again when I get back.  

But I don't really have time to think too much about that.  We are working hard and talking to lots of good people.  We have a couple of people to teach now and hopefully, Heavenly Father will continue to give us more. 

 

I really love this area and the Ward.  On Saturday we had a Ward activity in which they had us missionaries be in a skit.  I don't know if I told you last week, but one of the members wrote a skit and was directing us as we acted.  She totally reminded me of Caryn.  Super funny.  The other missionaries were not happy at all to be "wasting time" on the play like that, but I thought it was pretty fun and in the end I think they might have come to enjoy it too.  The members in this ward really love us.  It's super fun here.  

I got a couple recipes from the party on Saturday (they had a ton of food there).  Making lots of salads to go with chicken and stuff we make on the stove.  Remember how I used to hate salad?  Nothing special.  

This Thursday we have a Zone Conference in Hiroshima which will be super fun.  But then on Saturday we will have another Conference in Fukuoka in which Elder Nelson from the quorum of the 12 will be coming and speaking to us.  Apparently this starts our training of the iPads.  We will be getting "extensive" training on how to use the iPads and stuff I guess.  At the end of Aprilish, we will get them.   

I am super excited to hear Elder Nelson speak.  This will be the first time in Japan, 2nd time in my mission, hearing from an apostle.  Super exciting.  And then we get to have General Conference.  Lots of great things going on in the nearby future.  

Love you, have a good week!

Iain

Elder Lee

March 8, 2015

Transfer 14 Week 2

This week went pretty well.  Bit tired, but making dendo fun.  I am trying really hard to make dendo fun for E. Welch because I don't want him to start thinking that his whole mission will be hard like this.  

Last week we talked to a ton of people.  Almost none of them would talk for more than a few seconds.  I don't know what changed, but I feel like the whole feeling of the area has changed now.  I feel like E. Kemp and I were at least teaching more and talking to more slightly interested people.  We just get a lot of straight up no's.

  

But it's good, we met some cool people too.  E. Welch is coming along and seems to be a little more open and less stressed.  Yesterday we were able to laugh and have fun while we were dendoing and even met a Catholic lady who talked for a little while.  

No, E. Welch has not had any extensive language training.  But from talking to him it sounds like he had good MTC teachers and learned a lot there.  He is also very determined to be a good missionary.  I think he is going go far.  I have a feeling I am companions with someone who has amazing potential to be one of the best missionaries.  

Thanks for the Grace quote.  I actually read that talk last week.  One of the guys in our apartment lent it to me.  It is super good.  Brad Wilcox is an amazing speaker.  Did you know he was the Director of my first EFY?  I still remember the couple times I got to talk to him.  His talks are super funny too.  

Yes, Hiroshima is rainy.  None of us like rain, so I am trying to lift the mood and act like I love the rain.  We'll see how it works.  It's funny, because I feel like we could give CA a bunch of our rain and it wouldn't do anything to Japan, but save CA.  Oh well.  It's getting a little warmer though.  Hopefully by next week it will become a little more like Spring.  

Unfortunately I have become the best cook in the apartment.  That means nothing; I am still not good.  But no-one else wants or feels like they can, so the responsibility is left to me.  It's not so bad.  I made a list of the simple things I can make and just go through the list.  It actually doesn't taste half-bad sometimes.  

Thanks for you letters!  Love you!

Elder Lee

Iain

PS Colin once asked me if there was anything I wanted.  I can't really think of much, but yesterday we made some ground pork and I was reminded of peach salsa.  That, and peanut butter and crackers are pretty good.  Not that it's a big deal, I'll be home soon enough, but if you were thinking about sending anything, or if someone else asked, those things are awesome.  

March 1, 2015

Transfer 14 Week 1

Been with my new companion for 5 days now.  He is such a good bean, I don't know how I ended up with him.  He is super spiritually prepared and ready to go out and share the gospel.  Obviously there is still stuff that I am needing to show him how to do but we are working super well together.  

His name is Elder Welch; from Syracuse Utah (Ogden area) and he is super chill.  He played some football and other sports, but is more of the quiet, thinker type.  He has an awesome testimony of the gospel and knows what he's talking about.  It's funny because I was told I need to help my bean get good at Personal Study; but he is already great at it.  His Japanese is also really good for a bean; I was surprised.  When we are talking to people on the street, I'll turn to him and ask him to testify/teach a certain principle and he will give a great explanation of it with an awesome testimony.  

My companion went to Ube (Yamaguchi zone; same zone as Yanai was).  Super sad; I loved working with him.  I feel as soon as I really come to love someone, or an area, I get transferred.  But such is life.  The apartment is mostly the same, but with 2 new people, the feeling of the place changed quite a bit.  We got a Brazilian in our apartment again; Cascardi choro.  He is super funny and a way hard worker.  I think this transfer is going to be super fun with all the awesome people here.  

So yesterday we were going out to dendo and we talked to this guy on the street.  I decided to test him/God/new technique out.  I don't really know, but I asked him if he know anything about Jesus.

He said yes, he was hung on a crass; 

I said, do you know why?

He said, no

I said, He died but was resurrected so that we can be resurrected to

He said, oh, cool.  (no interest in his expressions)

I asked, what if that is true?  You think it's important?  

Sure.

I turned to Elder Welch.  Why is it important?

Elder Welch bore his testimony of eternal families and how Jesus Christ brings happiness.  I followed up and said we were talking about this and because it's important we wanted to meet again and talk.  

He said, sure.  (no emotion in his face whatsoever)

Really?

Sure. 

I told him, at the church 7:00pm okay?

Sure.

We exchanged phone numbers too.  I have no idea what was going on, but although he didn't seem like he had any interest at all, he agreed to meet with us at the church and exchange phone numbers.  We call to confirm tomorrow night.  I don't get it; why are all the people who actually have interest so uninterest-ly looking.  He had no emotion or expressions whatsoever, but he was super chill.  

Other experience of the night.  A few people after that we met a Canadian who was hoofing it from the bottom of Kagoshima (literally the bottom of Japan) to Hokkaido.  He was super chill.  We talked for like twenty minutes.  It was awesome because the conversation was super natural.  We talked about what he was doing, why he was here, then he asked us, we told him.  Then I said we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ, do you believe anything.  

No, not really.  I was baptized catholic, but you know...

Well, we are talking about Jesus Christ.  Would you interesting in listening for a few minutes? 

Sure.  

We talked about Jesus and why He's important to us.  Then we continued a conversation about how nice Japanese people are and then I said something that brought up the Book of Mormon.  He said he had lots of time to read.  He only brought 2 books; "The Paths in Between" or something like that and "Into the Wild", which he said he had read like 3-5 times now.  So we suggested him a new read.  He took the Book of Mormon and said he would read it.  When he meets his Mormon friends in Canada again, they will be so surprised; it'll be awesome.  

Anyway, other than that we went to Costco today with a member.  It was fun, but we spent a ton of money.  At least we wont have to buy laundry detergent for months now.  

Love you, hope you have a great week,

Elder Lee

Iain

December 8, 2014

Transfer 12: Week 1

This past week so much has gone on I don't know if I will be able to write it all down.  If I can't please stay tuned for next week's email (by then i will forget).  

First off, big deal.  I TRANSFERED!!!  Wooo.  Actually I really loved my last area so I'm a little bummed.  But, I love this new area too and I am super stoked to work with my new companion Elder Kemp.  We are working in a place called Takasu, which is a little West of main Hiroshima.  I have always wanted to go to Hiroshima, so I am super excited.  It is a lot colder here, though, so that will take some getting used to.  But the Ward is super nice and although it's small (about 30 people) our church building is the stake center.  Maybe we can start to build up the area so our church building is filled up again.  Elder Kemp is super buff and could probably crush my head between his fingers.  However, he is super nice and between the faith of the two of us I think we will learn a lot and see many miracles.  

In fact we saw one on Sunday.  I have been told multiple times on my mission that nihonjin don't understand the Atonement so we need to wait to explain it to them (because they won't understand).  However, I have taught it on the street multiple times and last Sunday we saw a huge miracle.  We talked to this guy who didn't seem all that interested but listened.  He told us he had talked to missionaries before but didn't know much about the church or anything.  Well, we felt prompted to teach about the Atonement and told him how Christ had felt the pains and sins of everyone in the world.  We told him everyone who lives now, everyone who has ever lived, and everyone who will ever lived, Christ could feel their pains and their sufferings.  He could feel their sins, their mistakes, their failures and their weakness.  He knows all of us perfectly.  And more than that, Jesus Christ took that all away, so if we use Him, and His Atonement, we don't have to feel any of those things anymore.  When I asked him what it would mean to him if that was true, he didn't respond.  I waited, thinking maybe he didn't understand the question or didn't have enough interest to care or something.  But as we waited and watched, the man started sniffling and his lip quivered a little.  "okay, it's cold, that's reasonable".  But I soon came to understand, hecouldn't respond.  We never got an answer to the question, but as we testified to the truth of the Atonement we could tell it was affecting him and the Spirit came in strong.  He was busy this week (he spent a few minutes looking through his work schedule trying to find a time to meet; PS nobody does that) but in the end we just settled on calling him next Sunday to set up an appointment.  He was super cool and I was so happy we were able to be in tune enough with the Spirit to be able to have that opportunity to change his life.  We don't know what will happen or if he will be able to continue to learn but I really hope he will be able to come and feel the power of the Atonement at this time in his life.  

Next, yes, we had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner with the Koberstien's; the Couple Missionaries in Kumamoto.  They were very gracious in allowing us and some of our investigators to come and eat in their home.  It was very traditional and we had a ton of food.  I was very happy.  

Then, yesterday, we had a special training by a Brother Heaton, who is a administrator in the MTC.  He is also doing a lot of training in Japan and decided to come to our mission especially because his daughter (Sister Heaton) just finished serving her mission here.  What's more, he served in the Fukuoka mission 40 years ago and actually served in Yanai (my favorite area) too.  It was only one day, so Honbu brought everyone in the mission (except Okinawa) to Fukuoka.  Practically the WHOLE mission.  There were around 200ish missionaries all in the Fukuoka church building (overall around 240 missionaries in the Japan Fukuoka Mission right now).  It was huge.  And crowded.  

It was super good.  He talked about success as missionaries and how people's hearts are changed.  He focused a lot on how it isn't our work, or our gathering of Israel, but God's work.  He will bring it to pass no matter what, but in His own way and time.  

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving right now.  It is such an awesome experience.  The mission is too short and I am trying really hard to be careful not to waste any more time.  I want to help people to come to understand the power of the Atonement and help someone change their life.  

Thanks so much.  I love you guys.  If Grandma or someone wants to send me anything, I would love some warm socks, my feet are freezing.  

Sorry I can't send any photos (no time).  Will send next week.  Love you,

Elder Lee

November 24, 2014

Transfer 11 Week 5

Last week I was trying really hard to follow the promptings and guidance of the Spirit.  I have had to learn to put my thoughts and feelings aside and try and learn what Heavenly Father wants me to do.  It has really helped.  

Despite that we didn`t see any big miracles in our area last week.  The only thing that changed was that one of our investigators, Akiyama-san, now has a Baptismal Date and is working to be baptized on 12/25.  It would be super cool to have a Christmas baptism.  He has had some sort of cancer which makes it very hard for him to talk (I think they took out part of his throat).  But he understands most of what we teach him and he reads the Book of Mormon.  He is really great to work with.  

We went to Yatsushiro to do companion exchange with the elders down there who are in my District.  It was awesome.  We saw lots of miracles and through following the Holy Ghost we were able to open people`s hearts.  I have specifically grown to love Family History dendo.  I don`t know a ton about my Family History, but I know that talking about it to people really opens their hearts.  We talked to many people who replied they were Buddhist.  I told them that`s fine, we want to talk about Family History work.  We had some great conversations with people.  On the way home we saw two really cool miracles.  The first has nothing to do with Fam. Hist. but is really cool.  We were walking home and I saw this orange house from the top of the bridge.  I like orange, so I said, "let`s go house that orange house".  Turns out it was a Doggie Salon.  But in the house next to it there was this really awesome guy who we talked about Baptism with. He said he wanted that and we set up a return appointment for Thursday.  

The second was a guy who told us immediately he was Buddhist.  That was my que for Family History.  But before I got my pedigree chart (which I use a lot by the way; fan charts rule), my companion (Bowler Choro) pulled out his MyFamily pamphlet and started showing that to the guy.  Then we talked about eternal families and how through Family History work we can draw closer to our Heavenly Father.  Then he asked a question I never thought I would ever hear a Nihonjin say.  "Even if I am Baptized, what about all my ancestors and dead people?  What happens to them?"  That stunned me so much.  I immediately brought out my picture of the temple and said, "that`s why we have these."  It was way awesome and I know it was led by the Spirit 100%.  If the Lord hadn`t told me to use Family History as a resource for dendo, that man wouldn`t have drawn closer unto Christ.  But I know he was prepared.  And because we were prepared and we were using all the resources at our disposal, the Holy Ghost touched his heart.  It was one of the many miracles I`ve seen on my mission.  When we give everything to the Lord and let him guide us, we see miracles.  

Today we had an awesome Zone P-day.  Our whole zone (about 24 people) came and we played games and made takoyaki pancakes (and regular pancakes).  If you don`t know what takoyaki is, look it up.  Had a fun time.  Can`t believe so many people are dying.  There are 4 members of our zone going home next transfer and one of them is in my doki (the people who came to Japan with me).  It is kind of sad.  

Talk to you next week, Love you.  

Elder Lee