Tracting

 

Well this week was a good week our investigators finally came to church! However, me and my companion were in Koriyama that day.....

 

We were asked to go to Koriyama.  Koriyama doesn't have missionaries because of the radiation levels and I love Koriyama! The members are so nice and Love the missionaries so so much. Also, there was a deaf lady there who I got to talk to. It was a good feeling to do that.

 

Next week we have transfers so I will let you know if anything changes, but I have a feeling that I will be in Aizuwakamatsu for a long time.

 

This week was a little bit interesting.  We were out knocking on doors and it was snowing pretty hard so me and my companion thought that we would just start heading back to the apartment.  It was almost 9 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet when we decided to go knock on an old investigators door. He has never been home when we've tried before and this time he was home! We saw the lights on in his apartment and got very excited.

 

When I knocked on his door he asked like all Japanese people do before opening the Door, "who is it!?" So I said my name and that I was missionary and then the door comes flying open and he looks at me and says missionaries! Whoa! and comes outside and starts talking to us about a bunch of random stuff. We were super confused. He then told us to wait just a second and he grabs his bike and says lets go! I was thinking uhh, where we goin? And he says follow me so We followed him and then he stopped in the middle of the road and asked if we like beef or Pork. I said beef and my companion said Pork. Then he got back on his bike and continued riding. We stopped at a place, but it was closed so he got back on his bike and we followed him again.  Then he stopped at a restaurant and told us to come. So we ate dinner with him that night and I didn't have money but he paid for our dinners and said a prayer over the food for us. It was way good and way weird at the same time. So we will probably start teaching him again.

 

I wish I could send you pictures but I'll just have to mail them.  I've been on a weird quest recently as I have been tracting. I keep finding these weird signs on old buildings and on hidden alleyways and the weirdest places. These signs say that "Next Christ is coming", "repent ye Repent ye", "I'm the Bread of Life" and Japan is not a Christian country so it is a little weird.  I'm on the hunt to figure out where they are coming from so I'm asking people and tracting where I find the most in one area to see if I cant pinpoint the area. It creates an easy way to talk with people too, because then I can introduce myself and talk about religion with them. But I will have to send you pictures.

 

This week I been reading Joseph Smith History and there is something that I always knew but it hit me a little harder this time as I read it.

 

It's when Joseph went to pray in the Grove and before he could pray there was a darkness that over took him and he prayed with all his might that it would leave. And if he would have let himself go without resisting he would have never had the vision. I've noticed a lot on my mission and in scriptures stories like Moses that right before something amazing is about to happen, we will certainly be tempted and although it may seem like something little, it can have an eternal effect. Imagine that if Joseph, who was just going to Pray just a prayer nothing special, was tempted and didn't pray.  We would not have the eternal truths we have now. I think about that a lot when I feel I am being tempted.  That's when I know that something amazing is going to happen that day.

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Nebeker

A Promise Prophesied

I learned a new word in Japanese.  It is Hisaku, meaning secret plan. Just a random word for the day for you.

 

 

This week was a good testimony builder. I had an interview with President Rasmussen and the first thing he told everyone is we all need haircuts but that's besides the point!

 

During my interview with him I was really curious to know how the success of the Sendai, Japan mission is going.  Something I found out from President Rasmussen and from other members that you might not know,  is that 10 years ago the Church tried to close the Sendai Mission because of the lack of success. So the missionaries at the time found out and worked way hard to get baptisms, but then those people they baptized didn't really meet the requirements of baptism and many of them are less actives now, unfortunately. But recently (I can't remember who), but one of the apostles when I was in the MTC Prophesied that Japan will become one of the most successful misisons and that missionaries will be so busy they will have to tell the investigators that are wanting to hear the lessons that they will have to wait. How amazing is the promise! Anyways back to my interview with President Rasmussen. I was really curious to know how the mission was coming along and so I asked him a little bit about Hachinohe, my first area, to know how it was doing.  To my surprise he said that Hachinohe is expecting another baptism! I was so happy and I asked him if he knew who it was. He said it's a young girl named Shion who is 15 years old. You might not remember, but when I was in Hachinohe I contacted her on mainstreet and had invited her to Eikaiwa. She came to Eikaiwa and brought her family along.  I remember that day being so happy.　I remember talking to her about her name beccause in Japanese shion is Zion, I thought to myself how sweet would it be if shion were to get baptized. And you know what?  She is! It's so humbling to know that I played a part in helping her find the Church. I know that if I didn't open my mouth, If I didn't stand outside in that cold weather on mainstreet all day she might not be where she is today. So very happy.

 

Then President Rasmussen continued to tell me about the rest of the mission.  Last week there was a baptism in Miyako, and another one expected. There was the one in Hachinohe and another one expected. There were 2 in Misawa. and another 2 in Yamagata. That was awesome to hear and I know that the mission is seeing more and more success every week!

 

My friend who was recently baptized in Hachinohe, Kouhei, told President Rasmussen that he wants to serve a mission and is preparing himself right now to go on a mission. And Takahashi Kyoudai, a member in Hachinohe who has been working so hard for the last two years to earn money to go on mission, is now able to go. It's so amazing to see the progress happening in Japan

 

I think Heavenly Father has a "hisaku" for Japan and were just beginning to see just what he has in store for us. 

 

Im glad oda isnt dead... That would be depressing... But I wouldnt be suprised if it happened. She is the laziest loving cat in the world.

 

Anyways to answer your question about if we had a similar storm as Tokyo.  What happened in Tokyo happens everyday in Aizu.  Usually the roads are just solid ice because they don't have big snow shovel removal trucks and even if they did, the roads are too narrow in Japan. But the snow is crazy! I'm pretty sure I've fallen like 20 times this winter all from walking.  I'm better at riding my bike now than I am walking.

 

Anyways thank you so much for your love and all that you do! I appreciate it!  Thanks for the package.  I ate most of it when I got it, but my investigators friend passed away so I packaged most of the chocolates and gave it to her.

 

I want to see a picture of Jamies pet dog!! cant believe she didn't tell me!

 

Utah doesn't have any snow, so I've heard. That's too bad because I wish we could give some of the snow to Utah. In Aizu there is nowhere to put the snow so they have dump trucks that they fill with snow and then they take that snow either to the ocean or a big river so it can melt the snow. However the river isn't moving any more because they have put too much snow in it. It's pretty hillarious.

 

I'll have to send you some more pictures because I have some good ones!

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Nebeker

Snowowowowow!

Whoa Snow!  Utah does not know what snow is.... This is crazy....

 

There is so much snow everywhere! I thought that winter was going to come to an end but that wasn't true as the heavens poured some more snow on good old Aizu! It's okay though, because it creates good tracting opportunities to help people shovel their walks and places and talk to them.

 

On monday as I was finishing my email to you, we got a call from a member in the branch and he said he was having a friend come to dinner and would like us Elders to come too. I was shocked, but excited that they would bring us to introduce to their friends. I thought that it was going to be a lot of the missionaries coming to this dinner but we found out that is was just the two of us. So we were able to talk to him and wow he is way cool! He has read 200 pages of the Book of Mormon.  He gave us his address and his phone number so that we can stop by. Talk about miracles!  Whoa, my mind was blown! So we are going to pay him a visit tomorrow.

 

Found out this week that we are getting a new mission President this summer right at my 1 year mark. He is an oral surgeon from Provo. You will have to see if you can find out more about him!

 

Our cute little families here in Japan are doing great! We had a lesson with them and their friend on Saturday and they haven't been reading the Book of Mormon or praying lately because they feel they are too busy. I was pretty disappointed, but she said she really wants to know how she can get answers to her prayers.  We re-emphasized prayer and how to recieve answers and I was thinking a little bit in my mind, Uhhh if you don't pray you're not going to recieve an answer. And before I could say that she and her husband said that exactly.  They knew what they needed to do. Recently we also had an opportunity to talk to them about the plan of salvation because one of their friends passed away. I felt so happy to know that I have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and the comfort that it gives me when we have times like this that there is so much more to this life.

 

This week as I was reading the Liahona for the month, I ran across a talk that talked about home teaching and ideas of what you can do if the person is struggling with attendance or something else. So I read something that says to update them on what went on at church, what was discussed, and give them any papers or anything that you might have gotten at the meetings. So I thought I would put this into action. We have been visiting this less active for a while and reading the Book of Mormon with him.  On Sunday I thought that I would grab him this years study materials and give him an update on priesthood quorum. So I grabbed this years book, Joseph Fielding Smiths book, and I gave him a report and he was actually really intrigued to know what questions people asked about the lesson and what discussions there were. It was really good. It's amazing what happens when you have faith and do the things which the Lord through his prophets have told us.

 

Sorry.  There was a lot more but I will probably have to write a letter to tell you the rest of this week.

 

Elder Nebeker

Randomness

This week I have learned that the Lord puts someone in your path to speak to always.

 

This week where to start...

So this week we were doing some tracting and we were walking down a fairly busy street with quite a few cars, when I hear from a pink car, "SUMIMASEN"! (excuse me).  I wasn't sure if it was for us or what, I was kind of confused. I looked around to see if the lady was calling out to someone else because that just doesn't happen here in Japan, or so I thought. Then she stops her car in the middle of the busy street, jumps out of the car and walks up to us.  At this point I'm thinking, whoa is this lady crazy or is this a miracle? She runs across the street and the first thing she says to us is, Sanbika itadaite mo ii desu ka? Which means can I have a hynm book. I was like uhhh..... Who are you? how do you know us, and our song book?  So I just asked her if she was a member and she just said way back in the day. And obviously me and my companion aren't going to be lugging around hymn books with us to hand out so we told her we didn't have any.  Then she was like how much for one? I told her for free but at this point I was so confused and cars are going crazy.  I said let's go to the church and get you one and she just said DAME DAME! which is like bad, can't do that. So I asked if we could meet her and give her one later. She said the same thing DAME DAME. I was so confused so I was like you can come to church and get one, she didnt like that either... So I gave her my business card and number and she jumped back in her car and went on her way. She said her name was Saito. So now we are going through all of the member records trying to find her and have the sister missionaries drop off a hymn book to her. Ill let you know how that turns out.

 

This week we went bowling with our ward mission leader and also our cute Hoshi family. I'm getting some new bowling tricks in my bag.  They are the cutest family.  Right now Izumi San, the mom just got a job.  Meeting with them as much as we do is going to be a little bit harder but she is way cool and she invites a lot of her friends to lessons and things so we find a lot of people through her. I felt bad we had to cancel one of our lessons and she said that Yuna her 2 year old daughter cried all day because she couldn't come play with us... I felt so bad!

 

This week as we were walking down a random street I saw a gaijin (foreigner) and it took me a second to realize he was a Japanese person. So I yelled out to him cause he had passed us.  I just asked in Japanese, Can you speak English!? He replied in Japanese, You bet I can!　Turns out he knew a lot about the Mormons. He has lived in Japan for 20 years, and told us quite a bit about missionaries in the past. He had worked in Hachinohe for a long time so he actually new some of the members there. He told us we are famous here in Japan. He also made it very clear to us he doesn't have any interest but respects that we come take time from schooling and other things to do this. That was interesting. So I kept talking to him for a while and actually found out a lot about him and some things that he had seen missionaries do in the past. He was quite educated with the Mormon church... sort of. He has been to St George once and is actually from Pennsylvania.  He went to visit someone he knew from Hachinohe in St. George. I kept trying to get a number from him or something so we could stay in contact and see if I can't change his mind but he would always change the topic whenever it got to getting that kind of info. But he gave us a tip that there is an international center where a lot of foreigners are so were going to go do a little bit of Gaijin hunting this week. Ill let you know how that goes.

 

Oh I almost forgot, I can't remember if I told you about the Jamaican lady we found while housing but we figured it would be best to let the sisters work with her. She is way cool we visited her with the sisters and got to know a lot about her.  She loves religion but is a baptist and seems like a pretty strong one too but will listen to messages about Christ. She is way kind and gave us some Jamaican food that her family had sent and gave us recipes and stuff for Jamaican food. So I'm hoping the sisters can keep in touch with her often. She is way funny, and could really use the gospel in her life. Her brother was murdered a while back, and her family is a really close family. So we are hoping that introducing eternal families will open her up a little bit more for the hearing the gospel.

 

This week we also went with a less active a member and a non member out to eat. That went super good! The less active came to church the next sunday and the non member and I had a good talk about the Gospel. She actually knows a lot about the church because she has come to church a few times and has heard the lessons and things but we talked about freedom of agency. And we talked about baptism and how she feels like it is the right thing to do but she doesnt want to be pushed into doing it and that she wants to do it for all the right reasons so she basically told me too that she needs a testimony. But she said that she loves the churches teachings. So we were able to work with the sisters and they have an appointment with her now on Wednesday. I'm excited to see how it goes.

 

On Sunday we had a lesson with the less active member that we visit every week now. He is super funny.  In his prayers he always says thanks for sending these missionaries for me to help me not be a less active anymore.... Oh he is so stubborn but I love him. He shared all these scriptures with us about keeping the commandments and repenting it was way good and way funny because he knows all the answers.  He knows what he has to do, he just won't. He shared a scripture in Alma and it talks about if you were to die now could you stand guiltless before God? And I asked him that question after reading that. He looks at me and says, well I guess I better repent. Oh he is so stubborn. But he has an amazing testimony and you can feel the spirit with this man he just needs to act and make that full change.

 

Random fact about Japan. They have vending machines everywhere! All over the streets you can see them everywhere you go.

 

Love you hope you are all doing well.

 

Elder Nebeker