46th Week in Japan, 54 Weeks

Hey everyone! 

This week was a little more normal than last week. We had zone training meeting on Tuesday, but besides that we are back on normal schedule! Yeah! This week for dendo has just been focused on NA`s and working with the ward. Our NA effort is starting to pay off. We are finding NA`s that have not been visited in years and NA`s who forgot they were NA`s. It is fantastic!  Our finding efforts are not going as well as we had planned, but things will get better! Then this Sunday we had a ward council meeting and all of the missionaries were allowed to get in on the meeting. So we went hard on dendo and the branch is going to make a plan for dendo and a team up calender! It is going to get a lot better from here on out if everyone has a goal in mind and wants to see some miracles. 

So 4 days ago was my one year mark before I go home. It is really weird how fast things are speeding up. Every transfer just keeps getting faster. But i looked back at what I had done to see if I had been keeping my promise with the Lord that I would serve Him. I definitely can improve! But I have come a long way and it is great to see what happens when you start to keep the commandments and love them! 

Ok sorry for the shortness of my email. Maybe next week I will share a story!

Elder Swenson

 

45th Week in Japan, 53 Weeks

So due to that funny scheduling last week, its pday agian! Not much has happened these past few days so I will keep it really short!

Shogatsu was a blast! Some members invited us over for dinner and we chowed down on some mochi(super dense, Japanese, smashed into goop rice), some fried chicken and french fries, shrimp, fish, seaweed rolls, sweet potato stuff, and soba! Then we busted out the kanji writing kits and the members wanted to get a picture of us with kanji written on our foreheads. So Elder Israelsen and my kanji is kibo 希望 which means hope and the sisters is 慈愛 jiai which means charity. The next day we cleaned the apartment and had another fun day. So we went and did some shopping and this lady came up and started to talk to us in English which was really a surprise. She had lived in LA for 12 years and learned English. She showed us around and helped us find what we were looking for (she didn`t think that we could speak Japanese, so we let her think that;) It turns out that she really lives in Obihiro so we gave her an Eikaiwa flyer and to talk to the missionaries in Obihiro. On sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting. The members here are getting a little more happy every week! And Heavenly Father was kind enough to prompt a member that I wanted new pants for dendo. So a member gave us some of her fathers pants and they are sick! Macklemore (sorry if I spelled that wrong) and Ryan Lewis would be so proud of me:) And that brings us back to today. 

These past few days of Personal Study have turned out to be really good. I was reading from all of these different books and magazine but the theme was somehow all the same when I read them. The point of this life is to Come unto Christ in order to learn of the Father. And if this is true, we need to do all that we can to bring more spiritual light into our everyday lives. Not just once a week at church, or just at that special meeting where and apostle comes and speaks, but everyday should be filled with things that bring more light into your life. And the more light that you have, the more you can reflect that light to others who need it.

Ok love you all and have fun with those New Year Resolutions!  

Elder Swenson

That is some good mochi I made myself.

The members wanted to get a picture of us with kanji written on our foreheads. 

So Elder Israelsen and my kanji is kibo 希望 which means hope and 

the sisters is 慈愛 jiai which means charity.

44th Week in Japan, 52 Weeks - *1 YEAR!*

         Happy New Years!

Ethan - Mission

x

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas and  a happy New Years! Sorry you all did not get this email earlier. 

In Japan Shogatsu or New years is such a big and "respected" holiday, you cant do any dendo so we have had our P day switched to today! 

So this past week and a half have been so fast it isnt funny. Last week the zone got together for our 

Christmas activity at the church and had a lot of fun. We did Mario Party Live for the game, then we 

played mafia, and ended with making Nabe, Taco Rice, and Pizza! Oh and we accidently put another dent in the wall at the church so I think we are banned from Kushiro for zone activities... Next day we had our Christmas calls and that was really scary at first. No offense to my family but I didn`t want to call. During Christmas calls everyone gets trunky! But I am definitely glad that I did! So much is going to be different when I get back home! After that we have been doing a lot of NA dendo. In Kushiro there are 20 pages of NA`s. That is super sad to see. People who have the gospel but can`t receive all of the blessings the church has to offer them. So we have been visiting with them! And then this week the dendo has been rough so we did a lot of shizen or natural dendo. We went and played basketball at a local gym and had everyone thinking we were NBA stars cause we were gaijin:) That was buckets of fun being able to play sports again.(In Hokkaido it is almost impossible to play sports because of the weather and lack of equipment/facilities). Yesterday we had our Book of Mormon reading day and I got a lot out of that. The Book of Mormon is not only true, it is the most correct book on earth. I love it and all the hidden mysteries that can be revealed to you through it`s pages. Tomorrow is cleaning day and Saturday we will go back to regular schedule. 

Guess what?! Today is my 1 year marker! I have been an active missionary for a flippin` year! 

That is super weird. The time flies by so fast and so much happens in what seems a short time. 

But I am getting a lot of stuff done as well! That is what I really learned this week. When you put 

the Lord and His priorities first in your life, he will put you first in His and give you the time you 

need to accomplish what you need to get done. By putting the Lord first by going on a mission, 

He has blessed me with growth, knowledge, experience, love, and friends that I would never 

get anywhere else. 

We ll I love all you guys and hope that you will put the Lord first in your life!

Elder Swenson 

1.  My Japanese hair style

2.  Zone

3.  Christmas Package

43rd Week in Japan, 51 Weeks

メリ　クリスマス！

Hey everyone! I hope wherever you are at in the world, you are having a great Christmas experience! This week was a little different than any other week I have had in the mission. 1. Transfers were a day early and I made mochi the old school way!

2. Went caroling in Japanese

3. Transfers and dendo was cancelled due to storm and blizzard conditions outside.

4. Shoveled snow like a boss all day for dendo the next day!

5. Had a ward christmas party where there was a hip hop dance crew that performed.

6. Saw lots of miracles Sunday! And got a little Christmas from the Kushiro Branch!

So yeah this week was pretty crazy. Had very little dendo time. Fortunately Kushiro Branch is finally getting its gears rolling and they are starting to create a Dendo plan for the branch. Once we get a ward mission plan everyone will be able to work a lot better together and see more miracles, re activation, and baptisms! So I am really glad I was sent to Kushiro! 

This week I took the Christlike Attributes test and realized that my hope was needing some improvement. I have been studying it all week and thinking about it a lot. Hope is something that is related with faith and scripture study. In Jacob 4:6 I learned that through reading the scriptures we gain hope and our faith becomes "unshaken". Reading and applying the scriptures gives us the hope we need to perform the work and miracles of the Lord.  This Christmas we all can read the scriptures and grow our hope in Jesus Christ and His infinite loving Atonement for mankind. Because of His gift to us, we need not fear death, for He overcame it. We need not fear for our souls, for through Him we can be saved. We need not mourn, for He is there in our sorrows. The Lord of all the Earth and Heaven above loves and cares about all of you and wants you to trust in Him. See that ye do!

Love,

Elder Swenson

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!