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:)

35th Week in Japan, 43 Weeks

This week was a lot of fun! Our branch had their Halloween party and it was pretty fun. I was Shoku pan man, a kid show character in japan who is a man with a slice of bread for his face. Elder Brown was Gomi man, the garbage guy (that is why he is wearing a garbage bag with an ugly sweater). The party was really slow and not very interesting at first, but when we pulled the pinatas out, everyone had a blast!

Concerning dendo this week, we were only able to teach 1 lesson. That is not good. But on splits with Elder Strachan, we were able to teach 3! And get a lot of contacts in. So that was a good day.

Elder Brown and I had a long talk about learning the language (considering he is the best gaijin at speaking and reading Japanese in the mission right now) and I asked him what I should do to learn the language more effectively. He told me some of the stuff that he used to do to learn the language and he is crazy! The amount of time and effort he put into the language was double that of an ordinary missionary. He would wake up early and study, study during exercise, during language study and during free time. The amount of time he put in was ridiculous. It was above average for any missionary. Then I made a connection to myself. I have usually or always just been average at everything in my life. Average student, average athlete, average member of the church, average was just who I was. Then I started reading the scriptures and  looking at all the men who are in them. The Savior chose average men to be his disciples. They were common fisherman living average lifestyles. But when the Savior entered into their lives and into their hearts, nothing could stop them from improving and progressing until they became men who are even to this day talked about in history, religion, and by every people because of their boldness and hard work. When you work hard, the Lord can enter into your heart, and change you. I found out my effort needs to increase and I need to let the Savior into my heart to learn the language. 

This is the last full week for this transfer so Elder Brown and I will be traveling all over Kushiro so I can memorize the place. And hopefully next transfer I will be prepared to maybe go senior comp. 

I love you all and send me pictures of all your guy`s Halloween!

Our branch had their Halloween party and it was pretty fun. 

 I was Shoku pan man, a kid show character in japan who is a man with a 

slice of bread for his face. Elder Brown was Gomi man, the garbage guy 

(that is why he is wearing a garbage bag with an ugly sweater).

 River in Kushiro

34th Week in Japan, 42 Weeks

Hey everyone!

This week we had ZTM and District conference(Branch conference)! Because I am in Kushiro(釧路) we hosted all the missionaries at our apartment for these meetings. So we had like 16 missionaries in our apartment. We all slept very close to each other that night... Saturday we had ZTM and Interviews with the President. In my interview I learned a lot. Effort is something I need to work on. Our President is the hardest working person I have ever known. And through his hard work and 100% effort he puts into everything he has come close to the Lord. So he asked me to try and put just a little more effort into everything that I do, and through that the Lord will be able to purify me and turn me into the person I want to be. That and a few other things I was able to learn in 10 mins. from him. Next I listened to all the workshops that all the ZL`s, STL`s, and AP`s did without translation. I got just about 90% of everything! and the other 10% were things I was able to look up in my dictionary! So this ZTM for me was just amazing. After ZTM we went on scramble splits with everyone in our zone and we were able to give out 3 Books of Mormon in our first 3 contacts! It was just a day of miracles! On monday we made Pinatas for our Halloween party at the church! Halloween isn`t celebrated as a Holiday in Japan so sometimes you will see decorations or someone might have a party at their house, but besides that no one does anything. So it is a great way introduce investigators into the church. Elder Brown and I were not able to make any new investigators this week so next week will be all finding again. 

Until next week !

Elder Swenson

 

We made Pinatas for our Halloween party at the church!

 

 President Nakatsuka`s birthday presents!

 This is our picture for Nakatsuka Kaicho!

33rd Week in Japan, 41 Weeks

Herro!

Ya! We got to watch general conference! I flippin love it sooo much! I am pretty sure conference is just as good as Christmas is. This conference they really focused on three things. 1. Giving to the Poor 2. The Prophet has been called of God 3. Families need to stick together and parents need to show righteous examples. Looks like when I become a parent Ill study this conference really well. 

So this week was a little slow dendo wise. We were not able to meet with any of our investigators or any of our appointments. So we just housed. Thankfully last night we were in the neighborhood of a random PI and visited and she was home! So we were able to make one new investigator and that was the blessing of the week. This week we have a few other appointments so we will see if we get a few more! 

This week we had an action item from the AP`S that said make your companion his favorite meal. Unfortunately, both of our favorite dishes were rather hard to make so we just went out and bought some Pizza! Japanese pizza definitely has some weird toppings, but it was soo good! Then we had to buy a bunch of snacks for General conference so this month will be a little tight on money...but we will survive! 

I appreciate all the pictures that everyone sends me! I love seeing gaijin! (only when they are not in Japan. Here if I see gaijin I get really scared...) SO  please keep them coming! And if you feel so inspired to do so, tell me your testimonies of the gospel so I can use them in my dendo! 

 Spiritual Stuff: This week was a big anticipation for conference so personal study was aimed at making questions for conference but I still learned a lot. Prayer is so important. When we pray to our Heavenly Father and tell him about what we desire, feel, struggle with, and hope to become, He has the opportunity to talk back to us. I know that God wants us to learn something every day from Him. I have been seeing this stick out in my studies for a month now. It looks like I need to have a one on one with the man upstairs. 

I love you all and keep the commandments! Don`t be scared of men, just love God!

Elder Swenson

 Brown Choro with our PIZZA!