Sunday, March 13, 2011

Hey

So yeah I guess it sounds like everyone is up in arms about the whole earthquake thing. Wasn't really that big of a deal for us, didn't even feel it in our area but I guess some did in other parts of the mission. My back bike tire had exploded and we were in a dept. store getting it fixed when we got the call from pres. telling us to stay away from the ocean since our island had a really big tsunami warning. We live on the 5th floor of our apt so no worries but we just housed closed to the apt in case we had to head back. One of the sisters in my district is actually from Sendai but she was able to get a hold of her family and everyone is safe and accounted for and no damage to their house so no worries but it took a few days until she could call them so it was scary for a bit and we did a fast but things all worked out.

So yeah it was an interesting week with all of the earthquake stuff. This week we had a lot of finding time. I mean honestly, I think we spent at least 4 to 6 hours a day doing finding but it payed off and we were able to find 7 new investigators. We had a few lessons but they were 30 min away and the only way to get there was to ride our bikes along the coast which we figured probably wasn't the best idea in the world due to the tsunami warning so we had to cancel a lot of our lessons this week. Also the Tachibana's got sick and ended up canceling their lesson too.

On Sunday we had a bit of a miracle and we had 4 people come to church. The Tachibana's ended up getting well again and all 3 of them were able to come to church. Also Hashimoto finally made it to church. After church he gave me a call and told me that he wants to start up the lessons again. Guess he has some friends up by the earthquake and it made him think a bit so it had a positive side for us also. He has some major problems but hopefully we can help him with it and he can get baptized in the next few weeks. We are going to try to set a date with him tomorrow.

Um well other than that not a lot really happened. Everyone is talking about the earthquake stuff so its a good way to start up contacts and get people thinking about their families and stuff. I am way glad that all the missionaries up there are safe and sound. Sounds like it was a pretty big one. This next coming week should be pretty good. We have a lot of lessons and will be pretty busy. Thanks for the email and I hope that you didn't worry about me too much.

Love you tons
Cam

Monday, March 7, 2011

Hey

Well it was another great week with a lot of miracles.

Monday - We had a good prep. day. Not a lot of stuff really but when we went out and dendoed we were able to find 2 investigators. and also taught a lesson to an eternal investigators. that we will probably give a break for the next transfer. pretty good night.

Tuesday- Found out that me and Schramm were getting split up. My new comp. is Elder Moffatt he is a cool guy and is from Washington. I think that we will get along well this last transfer. We were suppose to have 2 appointments and both of them fell through which was disappointing but it worked out. We had English class that night which was pretty normal.

Wednesday - Most of this day was spent packing and visiting members. Later that night we had a lesson with the Tachibana family. We had decided to try to get the kids with a baptismal date because they seemed to be so interested in baptism. We both were pretty nervous and didn't want to come off pressuring them or anything but felt like it was the right thing to do and wanted to get a date for them. We taught about fasting and connected it to the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how it can guide us in our lives. We then committed the kids and they both said yes to a date. When we asked the mom if that was ok she said that she had been on facebook talking to her nephew and found out he was a member and he really gave a great testimony. She said she has been feeling that this church is the right one for her and said that she wanted to be baptized on that day too! They ended up not being able to do it on the day we committed them too and moved it to April 24 to get baptized as a family. Sadly, I probably won't be there but I don't care as long as they get baptized. The spirit was totally in the lesson and really strong. I was really nervous when I started the lesson but when I committed them to baptism it just felt like the right thing and I was able to do it really smoothly and it felt like the spirit guided everything I said. I really hope we can get them baptized soon. It was a great way to end the transfer.

Thursday - We got our new comps and spent most of the day planning. Did some finding but not a lot of luck

Friday - Had a member visit and lots of finding but not much luck again.

Sat - We were able to find one new investigator who actually did a home stay in Utah. She knows all about the church and we are hoping to get a few good lessons with her next week. We tried to do game night but only one member showed up this week. Better than last week where no one showed up but I don't know if we can keep doing it or not.

Sun - Good day at church. We had a really good day finding and were able to find 3 new investigators through housing which was a surprise. Turned out to be a really good day.

This transfer is starting off great and I am sure that we will see tons of miracles. I can already tell its going to go by fast because we have tons of meeting and events and good investigators to teach. Still can't believe that its my last transfer but I plan to work my hardest and see some miracles.

Love you all
Cam

Monday, February 28, 2011

Hey

Sounds like everyone had a pretty busy week. We actually had a pretty busy week ourselves with lessons and things. I left my old planner at the apt. so I will try to remember as much as a I can from what happened this past week but it just went so fast.

Monday was a blast. We went out to eat with a bunch of Elders from our zone and started an exchange that night with the Zone leaders.

Tuesday - I was with one of the ZL's who actually served in Sumoto for around 3 transfers. We went around and visited some of his old investigators and stuff but didn't have a whole lot of luck getting any new lessons started. We had one recent convert who got sick and the branch made him dinner and asked us to take it so we did that and got him to bring his son (Not baptized) to english class.

Wednesday - We had district meeting and I had asked every companionship to prep a little thing and they all did a good job so I was pretty happy about that. We headed home pretty excited to teach a lesson to the Tachibana family but they ended up canceling on us which was a bit of a disappointment. We went out housing and were able to find 2 new investigators which was great. One of them met with missionaries quite awhile ago and even remembered some of the stuff they taught him including the word of wisdom. We are pretty excited to teach him.

Thursday - We had another exchange with the other elders in our district. I went to an area called miki and dendoed with Elder Hale. Really good missionary and we had alot of fun. They are in a really countryside area so we spent most of our time housing but were able to find one investigator which was nice.

Friday - We had a lesson with Hashimoto which we were excited about but it didn't go as well as we had hoped. He said that he just couldn't belive in Jesus christ and has his own personal god. Doesn't really seem to want to keep committments either so we might have to take a break with him for a bit which is a little disappointing. We did our weekly planning session and also took another dinner over to that recent convert.

Sat - It was a really great day. We went over to Hosoda (The lady we just baptized) house and had dinner with them. Her daughter has been a member for 10 years and is honestly one of the best members I have ever met and is trying super hard to share the gospel with her family. 10 years later a week ago we were able to baptize her mom and we had a celebration dinner with sushi and everything. It was really really good. She is already trying to spread the gospel to her other family members and brought her 17 year old nephew Ryo along too. We shared a message and did a small lesson with him but he doesn't really have the desire at the moment but hopefully we can see that change soon. It was alot of fun and we had a great time.
We did alot of finding after that but not alot of luck.

Sun - it was another great day. While earlier in the week the Tachibana's canceled on us they came as a family to church all 4 of them! It was really great to see them all there. The sons are already asking where they can get baptized we just have to get permission from the mom and set a date for them which hopefully we can do this coming week if they don't cancel. They seemed to have a really great time. Also the recent converts son also came to church so we had around 5 people there. We pretty much double the branch numbers this week so it felt really good. I had to give a talk which made me a bit nervous. I don't remember if I told you or not but in Sumoto since its really small they only have church for 2 hours and sacrament meeting is around 45 min. Since its short like that they only have one speaker that goes for 20 min or so. I got through it and last for 20 min.

After church while riding out to the area we were going to house we stopped one guy and he agreed to come to church. Went out housing in a neighboorhood for 2 1/2 hours with not a single ounce of luck then on the way home we found another investigator. Kind of interesting how missionary work goes sometimes but we were blessed and found 2 new people.

So it was another great week. I am way excited for this next transfer were are going to see some great miracles i am sure. Transfers are actually this week and sadly my comp. could end up transfering but we will see what happens. Kind of weird to think that I will be going on to my last transfer.

I am going to send the bap. pic in another email.

Thanks for everything, Love you tons
Cam

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Hey

It was a pretty good week for us.

Tuesday - We had zone conference which was great like always but what was kind of weird is that it was my last one. On a missionaries last conference they always give time at the end for all the returning missionaries to give their last testimony (dying testimony is what we call it) and most of my MTC district was there cept for Mcburney. It was way cool to hear everyone give their last testimony and the spirit was way strong. It was really weird to think that it was my turn because at every ZC you always see elders go up and give their testimonies and always think that that moment will never come but I guess that it did. Pretty crazy.

Wednesday - We had a pretty long day of housing without tons of luck but found one person which was nice. Afterwords we had a lesson with the tachibana family. The mom still feels like she is not sure about the church but said that if the kids want to get baptized she isn't going to stop them. The kids said they want to but we weren't able to get a date at the lesson but we are going to try again this coming week. Hopefully it goes pretty good.

Thursday - Kind of the same as the day before. Did some housing and found one new investigator. We taught Hashimoto which went alright. Turns out he found an old Bom in his storage and remembered that he use to be an investigator around 20 years ago and has been to church in Kobe. He still wants to get baptized but quiting smoking is really tough for him. We are trying to come up with different ways to help him quit. Other than that nothing is really holding him back.

Friday - We had a great baptism in Akashi. We went out and spent most of our time there. President and Sister Mcintyre came out which got all the members super excited. My comp. did the baptism but since sister Hosoda is pretty old (75) it was pretty hard to get her under and took around 4 tries but finally got her under the water. We were all pretty nervous but she got baptized in the end. He daugther was so happy to finally see her mom join the chruch after 10 years to the day she got baptized. Pretty special baptism. I forgot my camera today so I will try to get the pictures to you next week.

Sat. - We had a bunch of lessons but none of them really turned out to be anything special. We have gotten a bit tired of housing so we decided to go up to the castle and try to do some contacting up there. It will be really good in a few weeks when the cherry blosoms come out but it was pretty scarce and we didn't talk with alot of people but it was still pretty fun. Afterwrods we did some housing without much luck.

Sun. - We had one inv. come to church and later Kensho came to sunday school. Turns out he is going to be really busy and won't be able to continue investigating the church which is too bad. He had a bap. date but we are going to have to drop him now sadly. After church we worked hard but for some reason just couldn't seem to get any good contacts in.

So it was great week with an awesome baptism and ZC. Also I got the package thanks so much. You didn't have to give me so much money but thanks. I think I might buy a new camera before I head home they are pretty sweet out here.

Thank you so much for everything
Love you tons
Cam

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Hey

We had another good week out on the island.

So it was an interesting week. We had a really tough time at the start of the week. We spent tons of time out finding and finding and just couldn't seem to have any luck at all it was pretty frustrating. We had a lot of lessons fall through on us which made it a bit harder but the end of the week made up for it.

On Saturday we went to Kobe to meet Elder Cook of the 12. It was really amazing to meet another apostle. He talked about the importance of missions and really testified powerfully about it. The spirit was super strong. He also talked a lot about charity and loving people. It was a really good meeting and we even got to go up and shake his hand and introduce ourselves. It was pretty dang awesome. We are pretty luck to have visits from apostles and I think that everyone really felt the spirit and learned a lot.

Sunday was probably the busiest Sunday of my entire mission. We were at the church from 9 am to 6 pm. We had 5 people at church and taught them all lessons. One guy named Kensho Okabayashi came and after teaching him the restoration and doctrine of Christ he decided to make a goal to be baptized on the 19th of march. We met him around 2 or 3 weeks ago and exchanged numbers. I gave him a call a night before and he ended up coming to church. We are meeting him again this Tuesday and we have a lot of hope for him he should turn out to be a great investigator. We also had Hosoda's baptismal interview done and she passed so she will be baptized this coming Friday which is her daughters 10 year mark of being baptized. Its going to be a really special baptism for everyone.

We only had 8 members at church this week so with all of our investigators there we almost doubled it so it was pretty fun. We are really being blessed right now and I am way thankful to be here. I saw McBurney at the big mission meeting and we realized that the next time we would meet will be when we go home. Its pretty crazy. I can't believe that Trent will be home this week. Make sure you let him know I say Hi. Maybe I will write a letter or something.

After this we are going to go out for sushi for my birthday which should be pretty fun. I will take some pictures for you.


Thanks for everything
Love you tons
Cam