Hirosaki District on Fire

Family it is so good to hear from you!

Well I will just start with the news this week.

This week we had transfer calls...... and I will be tra.... not be transferred! Unfortunately my white washing buddy Elder Thayne will be transferring . He will be going to Misawa, which is an American air base that has an American ward. I think he will really like it, but he is not too happy that he is transferring. 

So I stay as DL in Hirosaki and my new companion is Elder Kugai, from Japan. I will be his trainer! Now the funny thing is my trainer, (Elder Keshino), was Elder Kugais trainer for a little bit, but the mission President, (President Smith) has asked that I finish his training. So I get to train my mission Brother.

Well, The Hirosaki District has been on fire this week! This Sunday the district was able to set 2 baptismal dates for October 25th.  I am so excited for these people. They both seem way cool, and definitely need the Gospel. At the same time that all of this is happening, the Hirosaki district will be completely changed. Half of the District will be transferred. :( But I am excited for the new missionaries coming in.

This week we had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators, his name is Narita Shizuo. We taught him about Christ and his Atonement, and we watched a video called, "He is risen"  ( https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/he-is-risen?lang=eng ) And then we watched another video called, "Because of Him"       ( https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng )

I gave you the References so you can watch them too. :)

But we watched those two videos with him and it was way powerful. We talked about the resurrection and what Christ did for us. 

He told us that a few years ago when he first thought about Christian people he thought they were crazy to believe in such crazy things. He thought they were all nuts. But he said that he was dragged to church by one of his American friends and at church he received a bible. This point in his life was stressful and he wasn't sure what to do. And so he read a scripture in Mathew that says something like this, "Don't worry about tomorrow, let the things of today be taken care of" and, he said it had an impact on him.  He still thought that Christians were crazy, but he decided to try what the scripture said and he he felt so much less stress. He became so much more happy and he said from that point he knew that what the bible said and what the Christian people were teaching was not fake. That it was believable. Then it kind of turned into a testimony meeting with him, it was so awesome. I opened up to Alma 32 which talks about the Word of God being compared to a seed. And I explained to him that what he experienced was like Alma 32, Where he didn't have a perfect faith, but he had enough faith (Like a mustard seed) to experiment on the word and apply the teachings in his life. He then realized that it was a good seed and now he has a strong faith in the bible and that Christ lives.

 

He than explained to us that he can tell a Christian person apart from other people in Japan. He said it is so easy. Especially where hardly anyone is a christian in Japan. He was able to sense the Light of Christ.

It was a way cool lesson. That is basically what happened this week.

Also I have been finding a lot of people who like basketball here so we have been using basketball as a proselyting tool. I am thinking about making it an official weekly activity because we are finding a lot of PI`ｓ through it. 

Well On a fun note for you all to be more spiritually enlightened. This week I read about the Sins of Omission and Commission. And wow. just wow. I read about it in a book called "The miracle of Forgiveness" It is a really good book. I have learned a lot from it. But if you have time you should study the sins of Commission and Omission.

Love you all,

Elder Nebeker

Obedience Can Draw People Nearer To Us

Wow this week was fantastic!

So let's just start out by saying that what Elder Thayne and I took time to do in organizing our District is really starting to pay off. 

This week we had Zone conference, we were told that some time this year we would be getting Ipads. But who knows? I don't mind old style Dendo (Proselyting).

But anyway, we talked a lot about obedience at the conference and I really enjoyed it. We talked about how through our obedience alone, we can draw people nearer to us by the light of Christ. I believe that to be very true.

After the conference we were on the bus, and I saw a black man, probably the second I have seen all my mission. I introduced myself to him, and he was very nice. He knew about the church and he was from Michigan. We started talking and come to find out, one of his good friends is a bishop. We somehow got started on the topic of leadership and we talked about some of the most successful people in today's time. We agreed that it came down to the point that those people knew how to manage what they had. They delegated responsibilities to keep the work moving forward. He asked me a good question that I had never thought about before. He said why did Jesus call the apostles that he did. Why was a fisherman, (Peter) left with a sword when Christ went into the Garden?  It's because he was good with his hands. How else could he cut a man's ear off without cutting anything else? Why was Judas left in charge of the Money? Because he was good with money. Unfortunately he used it to betray Jesus but, He asked me that question and we had a really good conversation about how Christ lead. I got a lot of insights talking with him about how to be a better leader, sadly he was only there for the day....

But like I said our hard week paid off this week.

Me and Elder Thayne went from a white wash with no investigators and basically nothing to do until this week. We now have 4 Investigators. One of them came to Church this week. He wants to meet with us everyday. He is 20 and his name is Nakano Shuya. He is way cool. We also have a man named Narita Shizuo who is way cool. Believes in God. We have Akimoto who wants to know the purpose of Life. We also have Sakamoto who was an old investigator who has read the entire Book of Mormon but is afraid of water.  So that is what is keeping him from being baptized. 

This week we completely Crushed our goals. 

I wish I could type longer but actually one of our investigators just barely came in so it will have to be short this week.

Love you,

 

Elder Nebeker

Congrats Natalie!

Remove The Things That Are Keeping Us From Serving Our Best

Dear Family & Friends,

 

This week we had a big conference in Morioka which is pretty far away from Hirosaki making this week a lot of travel. At the meeting, we had Elder Whiting address us.  He is a member of the quorum of the Seventy and is first president over the Northern Asia mission.

He talked about Obedience and Christ and his atonement. It was so cool. I learned a lot of things. One thought that I had during this meeting was about the Anti Nephi Lehis. How they showed their loyalty and faith by taking their weapons of war and putting them deep in the earth, so that they would not be tempted to even take them up again. And as I thought about that, I thought what as a missionary can I bury? What can I do to show the Lord my commitment to Him and this work?

 

So I got the idea that as a district we are going to do as the anti nephi lehis did and literally remove the things that might be holding us back from serving our best. 

I absolutely love being able to go out everyday and talk with a lot of new people everyday. People who will listen are very few, but I think that we plant a lot of seeds. In the pmg it says that no effort is wasted. I believe that with all my heart. Last week we had the opportunity to hear the Branch Presidents Conversion story.  He said that when he first met the missionaries it was on the street and he had no interest whatsoever. They handed him a pass a long card, and he just kind of put it a side. But then about a month later a different pair of missionaries came up to him and handed him the same pass along card and he once again told them he had no interest. So he went along for about another month when another different pair of missionaries came up to him and handed him the same pass a long card again. He realized that maybe something we were sending him a message that he needs to listen to what they have to say. So it took a long time but he finally listened to the missionaries and was able to be baptized. He was basically an Eternal Investigator, until one day he kept on getting the feeling he needed to go to the church. So on his way home from work, he told the taxi man to take him to the church so they did.  And then he called the missionaries up and told them he was at the church and ready to receive baptism. SO they did it there on the spot.

Me and Elder Thayne have been trying to set up some system so that we can coordinate the work better with all the missionaries in the district. It took some time. But we got it all set up so I am way excited to see how this district does.

Well Congrats for Nat! I am so excited I can see so many blessings here in the field and at home. I love it.

 

Love,

 

Elder Nebeker

He's Alive

Hello family I have a pretty funny story to tell you, and pretty cool.

So this week I got a call from one of the members here in Hirosaki.  She asked me if I knew a man named Okata San".  I replied, "I have never met him but I believe that he is the other Elders' Investigator." Well she went on to tell me that this Mr. Otaka has gone missing and the cops went to his house and all the windows were open and his car was there and his cell phone was in his house. He had been gone for five days. So the cops checked his phone and found out that the last person he came in contact with was the missionaries. So the cops thought that the missionaries might know something about his whereabouts.  They set up something to come investigate the missionaries. Apparently this man is a famous "Kendou" instructor, and if you don't know what kendo is you could probably look it up on you tube.  It is a very famous sport here in Japan, its like sword fighting almost. Anyway, all of his students' thought that he was dead and no one could find him. Well one of the missionaries remembered that when they were talking with him he said that he was going to go fishing up in the mountains.  The missionaries called up the member that was helping the cops to tell her what they remembered and so she got in contact with the police.  They sent a search helicopter up into the mountains and they FOUND HIM! he had slipped down a really steep hill and had broken his leg really bad so he couldn't walk.  Luckily he was by a river and so he drank a little bit of water and ate a mushroom that was growing by him.  He survived for 5 days like that! Crazy! Anyway it was the missionaries information that saved his life. Talk about miracle.

Well that was pretty much the exciting thing of the week.

It has been a year now since I have been in Hachinohe! And on Saturday I got to attend a priesthood meeting where I was able to see some of the members! It made me so happy. Makes me want to just start all over again back in Hachinohe. I love my mission. But anyways, The new branch president in Hachinohe came up to me and asked me if I knew who Shion was, and I said, "Yeah! I met her on the street a year ago when I was in Hachinohe." He smiled and told me she goes to Seminary everyday and is a great member missionary. He thanked me for the work that I did when I was in Hachinohe. And I felt so much better about my experience in Hachinohe. At the time when I was being a missionary I felt so unsuccessful.  During my time in Hachinohe I wasn't able to even teach one lesson or find one investigator. But the one thing that I made sure to do was be obedient always and try to invite people. As I look back on that experience I realize that really through our obedience and faith we can see miracles as it says in Moroni 7. 

Well I love Hirosaki and the opportunity to work here. 

Sounds like everyone is doing really good. You are all in my prayers. 

Love,

 

Elder Nebeker

Hiking Iwaki San

Frog Analogy - Continued from Previous Letter

Hello,

Our District had the opportunity to hike a really really big mountain called Iwaki san. It was soo beautiful! 

To answer some of your questions - the Japan Sendai mission still does not have Ipads or facebook. Sometime this year or next year they are supposed to introduce them to our mission. We are still old fashioned missionaries. I am excited to get the ipads and also dreading it because we have to put all of our records that we have into them before we can start using them.  My friends in Tokyo said it takes forever, like a month.

To tell you my thoughts on the frog analogy, I think that the frog could represent someone who is sinning and has "temporary happiness".  Sometimes it might seem easy to not keep the commandments, to live "the life". He might get his food easy and it might be easy for the moment, but when the spiders get to him he is going to wish that he took the correct, but harder route to get his food. Although it may seem fun and the easy life, in the end it is much worse. 

That was my thoughts on it.

So sounds like it was a good funeral I am glad that Grandma is at rest now. I was reminded of a good Chapter in the Book of Mormon this week it is Alma Chapter 40. It talks about the resurrection. I think that it might be comforting to read.

To update you this week on what has happened. After we had finished emailing last week, we were on our way home when there was a couple on their bikes in front of us speaking some bizarre language.  I felt like we needed to talk to them but I wasn't sure how. All of a sudden my companion sneezes really loud and they look back at us and said "Hello" in English. We started talking to them and came to find out that they were from the Philippines and were going to college in Japan right now. I explained that we were missionaries and they quickly replied and said they knew and told us that our church is very famous in the Philippines and kindly accepted us to come and visit them. They have a family of 5 and we have planned right now to visit with them this Saturday. I really hope that the appointment goes through. It is a very rare opportunity in Japan to be able to teach people as a family. 

This week we were also introduced to some investigators that the sisters had been teaching, but they want me and Elder Thayne to teach now. So We have 2 investigators now. One of them is Narita san. He is way cool, he loves English a lot.  He is mostly interested in English but he is willing to hear the Gospel, as long as it is in English. Also we have Akimoto San who is a way cool guy he is about 67 years old and is a really good Golfer. He took us out to eat at a Best Western Hotel.  It was like 20 dollars a person. He is really nice, probably one of the most Jolliest old men I have met in Japan.

This week as we were out and about handing flyers to people for our Eikaiwa, we met an older gentleman who stopped me and said, "Your main purpose here in Japan isn't to teach English is it?" And so we sat down on a bench and talked about religion for about an hour. He took a Book of Mormon, and was really excited to read it. Unfortunately he doesn't live here in the Japan Sendai mission he lives in the Tokyo mission boundaries.

Well, I want to hear more about the Family. Lately I haven't heard too much from everybody. So let me know what's going on!

Also tell Reegan Congrats on his baptism for me! That is awesome. :)

 

Love,

 

Elder Nebeker