42nd Week in Japan, 50 Weeks

Got my transfer call early!

OK everyone I am staying in Kushiro with Elder Israelsen! I get to finish all of his training! Yes! I would have hated to have only had one transfer with him. Plus, that means I get to stay in this area for Christmas! YEAH! Our zone is literally the best zone in the mission! 

This week our hope in Satoh san died a little bit. She said that she couldn`t and doesnt want to act on our message, so we might be dropping her:( But something really cool did happen to us this week. We were housing and some guy immediately let us into his house and showed us around! He said he met the missionaries 30 years ago on bikes and talked for a little while. But when he let us in we were able to teach almost the entire first lesson and he said we could come back anytime! I flelt the spirit so strongly while we were teaching the lesson, it was great! So we are going to meet with him on tuesday and give him a Book of Mormon!

This last monday we had the zone activity and it was awesome! We played nerf so hard that someone put a hole in the wall...so we　played　人狼　or  mafia after that. But I am pretty sure that no group in the world can have more fun than 24 missionaries with nerf guns on a P-day! 

Something I learned spiritually this week. I was reading in "Our Heritage" about Zions`s Camp and how all of them were put through many trials and hardships to go and defend the saints in Missouri. But when they arrived the Governor denied them the right to defend the saints. So they traveled there and went back to Kirtland.   The Lord then revealed that the point of Zion`s camp was to see who would follow the Prophet and obey his words. When we are finding, or teaching, or even just living the normal member life and things get rough, the lord is seeing if you will keep the faith, obey the Prophets, and be loyal to Him. These are opportunities to prove to the Lord how much you love Him. 

I love you all and hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas season!

41st Week in Japan, 49 Weeks

Hey everyone! 

So the week started off with a district activity of Kushiro Combat! Our district of 8 with 1 investigator gathered together at the church, grabbed some dart guns from a $1.00 shop, and had a blast! That was the closest thing I have done to paintball in a long time.It might have just been one of the greatest district activities in a long time:) Oh and we ate a rare food in Japan right before we did it. スパかつ!(Spakatsu) It is basically a type of fried meat on top of spaghetti and you can only, as far as I have been told, get it here in Kushiro! It is a way good thing that Elder Israelsen and I got called here because we love to eat good food!

The rest of the week we did a lot of Finding and tried to search out some NAs but our search was not very successful.  We did however make a new investigator, Satoh san, an 83 year old grandma who is very genki! She took the Book of Mormon and said she would start to read it. When we came back she said she had read a little bit which made her a progressing investigator!(Yeah!) This week we are going to try and get a church tour set up and we will see what she thinks of the church building! After that just a lot of walking, and walking, and a little more walking. I have already lost my biking legs:( But my calves will be looking pretty fantastic by the time Christmas roles in;) 

Our eikaiwa is starting to grow a little bit week by week, but unfortunately because of Shogatsu/New Years coming up, our Eikaiwa will start to get smaller as the holidays role around. But just recently we housing and found this lady who spoke to us in english from the door. So we told her about eikaiwa and from that point on I really couldn`t understand her. But two weeks later she came to eikaiwa! When she came we definitely found out that she is not "all there" so our classes have become a little interesting. But having a bigger Eikaiwa makes me happy! 

Yesterday the Andrus Family fed all six of the missionaries in Kushiro dinner and it was awesome! Chicken wings, sloppy joes, and a potatoe, cheese, and meatsauce lasagna!(lasagna noodles are really hard to find in Japan so she used potatoes!) It was so good! And it was pretty American! Yeah! Next she gave all of the missionaries christmas gifts! For the elders she handmade a bunch of christmas ties with her professional Brand patch on the back! It was awesome!

In 伝道  (missionary work) I have discovered the secret to becoming a PMG missionary! It is planning and creating goals! If you can really sit down during weekly and daily planning sessions and for real plan out your days, your success and growth rate will increase quickly and shoot way high. I had the best weekly planning session this week with Elder Israelsen because we followed PMG and did what they do in the district! It was really awesome!

I love all you guys and remember send me some christmas pics!

40th Week in Japan, 48 Weeks - Thanksgiving in Japan

Hey everyone!

I hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving this week! In Japan, no one celebrates it at all! In fact we forgot as well. So we just made tacos from the taco kits I got in some packages!(Thanks fam bam!) This week was busier than usual. And by busier I mean not time effective. All of the Elders in the mission sent their bikes to Honbu to have them stored for the winter. So this week was our first week without bikes and all of the areas that we want to focus in take an hour to walk to which is really not effective. So from now on we are either going to have to be very fast walkers or I need to figure out how the bus system works here! 

This week we also had to do some hometeaching and I found out that my teaching skills have gone to poop:/ I havent taught in such a long time...but thankfully the members are really loving here and still give us nashi;)  To thank them Elder Israelsen and I took a funny picture and made them some bread and delivered it to them! Plus we were able to go to a Hockey game! The Cranes which is Kushiro`s hockey team is the best in Asia! It does not compare to NHL and any sense but it was still pretty awesome! This week when I went to a members house they showed me my facebook and some of my old pictures and I freaked out! It is so crazy to think that I have almost been gone for a whole year now and I can definitely see the difference in myself! It is way cool to see what the gospel does to someone over long periods of time!

On Sunday a missionary returned home from serving in the Colorado mission and he is so awesome! Not only is his English fantastic, but he is really a cool guy and became the ward mission leader the first sunday he got back. He also wants to get the ward reading PMG together!  These next few transfers will be really awesome! Plus ( Alec Gibelyou please pay attention) he served with Elder Gibelyou in the same Zone while Elder Gibelyou was ZL. So now the ward mission leader and I have a connection:) 

So we werent able to meet with any of our investigators this week again and I am getting tired of it. So we are gonna go hard and do our best to meet with them and find the other elect in Kushiro! While eating tons of sushi at the same time!  

Love all you people and dont forget, whatever your are experiencing now, it will be for your good later! D&C 122!

This is Brother Ryo! My new Ward mission leader!

39th Week in Japan, 47 Weeks

This last week we spent 3 days in Sapporo and traveling! over 12 hours on the bus! Fun...anyways  Zone Conference was a blast! We were able to hear the Honbu staff (mission office) give talks and testimonies. Elder Getz, senior couple missionary, gave a talk on light and leaves. It was really inspiring. When we are young missionaries, we are like little buds, absorbing more light and learning in order to grow. And the further you progress in your mission, the bigger you become and the more light you can absorb and begin to reflect. When the end your mission comes you change to a different color, orange, red, yellow, and you then give all of that light to others. Sometimes we all feel like buds and that we only learn a little bit and cant really help people out. And sometimes that may be true, but by improving how we absorb light, (personal, companion, and language study) we can reflect that light the rest of the day.So that was the big thing I learned at Zone Conference.

When we got back to Kushiro we did our weekly planning session and cleaned out a bunch of junk from our cabinet in our study room. Their was a whole stack of OI and PI list that no one has seen in 2 years. So I am hoping that in that stack we will be able to find the person we need to direct into the lords kingdom. But besides that we did not get to meet with any investigators. We made one new one but she basically lives in the hospital and we cant see her for long periods at a time. So we are going to try and find a way around that.

So their was and earthquake here and we are completely fine. We did not even feel it in Kushiro but they did sound some big alarms. We are literally next to the ocean so if something did happen, we would have evacuated. But the earthquake did not cause a tsunami so we are ok. 

Later today we are going to take some apartment pictures and christmas pictures so I will try to send those tonight!

This is the beginning of our family tree! So here is grandfather, Elder Mecham, myself, and my son Elder Israelsen!

Bye Bye! Love you!

This is the beginning of our family tree! 

So here is grandfather, Elder Mecham, myself, and my son Elder Israelsen! 

This what we do for PDay dinner now. $5 australian beef!

38th Week in Japan, 46 Weeks

How is everyone doing this fine day? So this week the temperature here dropped... a lot. The cold in Kushiro and the cold in Sapporo is way different. The wind blows through you here and freezes you. No joke. We rode past some puddles on our bikes to an appointment and on the way back five min later, they were frozen. Thankfully, after this week we wont be using our bikes. Tomorrow we head for Sapporo for Zone conference and will be gone for half of the week. But the cool things is we will have some time to dendo in my old area of Moiwa so I want to stop by some investigators!

This last week on monday a member took us to this place called Akan, the most beautiful and ideal place for camping! I really want to go back there someday and do some stream fishing, but we went for a different purpose...(; Onsens!(Hotsprings!) Japanese people love onsens so they have them at hotels and other places. So our ward mission leader took us there and we went onsen hopping! We went to 2 onsens and just relaxed in pools and in saunas all day. It was the best thing ever. Plus at this place they have an Ainu village. Ainu are the natives for Japan. They have white skin, different color eyes and speak a different dialect of ancient Japanese. They are a dying race but we got to go and see one of their little tourist villages. It was really awesome. I am pretty sure Elder Israelsen was super spoiled on his first Pday.

We didn`t get to teach any of our investigators until last night. Kadowaki san is a 17 year old highschool student who met the missionaries and had a baptismal date, but the missionaries dropped him and we dont know why. Nothing was written on his teaching record or anything. It is like the missionaries just stopped visiting him because they did not write anything down on the teaching record. Mendokusai! So Elder Brown and I picked him up and taught him a few times. Last night we visited him and taught him about God`s love and how he could feel that love if he read from the Book of Mormon. It really suprised him and he said he would read from the beginning.  I was soooososos happy! Besides that we have been finding this week.

Being a trainer is so different than being any other kind of missionary. It gives you the opportunity to focus on someone else besides yourself and to really have a point of view from the savior. Doing things so they can grow and become a better missionary, person, and companion. Japanese is still rough but I am getting along alright. 

Love you all and remember send me your Christmas cards\photos!

37th Week in Japan, 45 Weeks

I am a dad!

I became a trainer!!!!!!0: On Monday night I got a call from the APs and was called to be a trainer! So Tuesday after DTM we headed to Sapporo, which is a 6 hour bus ride... but it was nice to be in some warmer weather. We spent the night in Odori apartment and Elder Horne, who was in the MTC with me, got called to be a trainer as well! We stayed up talking about training and what had happened recently in our last transfers. The next morning was really nerve wracking. I didnt know who my bean was going to be or let alone what I would teach him. We went to Honbu at about 10:30am and had a meeting with all the other trainers. Nakatsuka会長 lead the meeting and told us how important our new callings were as missionaries. After the whole meeting was done I was filled with the Holy Ghost and I wasnt nervous anymore, only excited and happy that Heavenly Father trusted me to train this new missionary.

After the meeting we went upstairs to find out who our beans were going to be. The group was 5 Elders and 1 Sister so it was a little hard guessing who my companion was going to be. But I was really happy when I found out it was Elder Israelsen! He is from Casche Valley Utah and has the courage and energy of many beans! He has played Lacrosse for 6 years and is a champ! 

It is really awesome thinking back to when I was a bean and seeing the progress in myself as a person and the language. The gift of tongues and the atonement is real. I havent even been in Japan for a year and can speak to people and kind of understand them now! So I am way pumped!

Thursday we rode back to Kushiro, ate sushi, and went to Eikaiwa. A member who goes to Eikaiwa brought AW Root Beer! I was sooosososoo happy! Friday and Saturday we went out and housed, taught an RC and had lots of fun! Sunday was a mess for a while because I was asked to teach the primary, the young mens, and a bible class. Fortunately we only had to teach the young mens and primary.

Yeah I am way pumped for these next two transfers because we are going to baptize people! 

I love you all!

President & Sister Nakatsuka, Elder Israelsen, Elder Swenson

36th Week in Japan, 44 Weeks

Hey everyone!

How did everyone`s Halloween go? I hope you had a blast! Because we celebrated Halloween last week nothing really happened on Halloween. We even tried to go to McDonalds to try and get the Halloween burger on the 30th, and they had already gotten rid of it! It wasn`t even Halloween yet and they got rid of it to bring some other burger out. I was furious! The burger was purple and it had Squid Ink for ketchup! So I used it as a conversation topic in Eikaiwa and everybody thought it was hilarious! 

Other news this week is transfers and I will most likely be staying here for another transfer. But if I become a trainer (which I dont plan on happening) I will get a call some time today. And plus, we will be getting a new gaijin AP and it might be my trainer, Elder Mecham! But we really don`t know yet. On Tuesday I got a lucky privilege to go on a split with Elder Inoue! I was his last split ever! He goes home this week and I was able to learn a lot from him. 

This week I was able to start reading Acts for the first time all the way through. And I love it. The apostles and those brave Christians after the ascension of Christ suffered a lot for the His name`s sake. But what I love most is the change wrought about in these people and their lives. Peter, a man who denied the Savior 3 times, turns around and will say nothing but His name, suffering through torture and death, but still praising God. Saul, killing the saints, throwing them in jail, and destroying the church of God, changes and becomes one of the greatest missionaries of all time. And the Gentiles, not knowing of Christ, turning unto Him, received baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and speaking with cloven tongues of fire. All of these miracles and people, are in the restored church. I am not saying Peter himself is hear, but Prophets and apostles with the same authority lead and guide our church today. How wonderful is that!

I love you all and please read Acts. It is my favorite book of scripture now:)

 

Elder Inoue and Sister Holt at their Funeral Party being killed by their companions...

 Oh yes. The beards are in Japan now:)