March 22nd Letter

This week was a really bizarre week because it was transfers and there was the huge I pad meeting, so not a whole lot was accomplished unfortunately.

 

This week we were able to go help a less active clean her parents graves. We went up this really pretty mountainside where her parents were buried and we gathered all the leaves and burnt some Candle looking things because her parents are both Buddhist. While we were doing that she told us a really cool story about what happened to her during the big earthquake here in Sendai in 2011. She works in Sendai and she was out in the streets when the earthquake happened. She didn't think much at first until, it didn't stop.  Cars were pretty much bouncing and there was smoke and sand coming from the foundation of the buildings. She said that she thought she was going to die right there. But she told us while she was thinking this she had a feeling come over her and she felt like she was put in a bubble and was protected. She said also that about 5 minutes before the earthquake happened she had gone into a convenience store and does not know why but she bought a ton of bread and and corn flakes. She said she never even ate them and didn't know why she bought them. But after the earthquake everything shut down, all the stores and everything. She didn't have anywhere to stay because her home was here in Ichinoseki not Sendai. So she went to a taxi lot to see if she could get a ride but, there was a line that went forever long.  She thought it would be a couple days before she could even return to Ichinoseki. But the cops came to the taxi lot and told everyone that it was unsafe and they had people move and step over and she got put right in front of the next taxi.  Even though a lot of people knew she should be in the back of the line, they let her go because they knew she lived really far away. When she got home, her house on the inside was pretty much destroyed but because she had bought bread she was able to live off of that until relief services came. It was a pretty cool story, and so she says I cannot deny that God exists. She said she still prays every morning and night in gratitude for that day. 

Now just to get her to come back to church...... hahaha

Well as you all know I got my wallet stolen..... YAY! It made me pretty dissapointed in the Japanese race because that is not their culture whatsoever. I had my Foriegner card in my wallet, so I just have to make sure not to do anything stupid to make the cops find me and arrest me..... But I reported the theft to the cops anyways. Funny story, when I went into the police department to report my wallet the whole police office like stopped working and looked at me and surrounded me because they finally have something to do other than sit and talk all day..... 

I also got to go pick up Elder Thompson this week. He is from Washington. Very nice young man. We have been working really hard these last couple of days, (He came to Ichinoseki Saturday night.) I Feel bad because I accidentally planned too much and tried to do much with him that I forgot about dinner. And with his jet lag and lack of food I think I was killing him. But I will try to remember to do better this week. 

Yesterday we were able to get in a couple of peoples' homes and teach a little bit, ( Thats really rare in Japan) So I think that was really cool for me and Elder Thompson.

 

Love,

 

Elder Nebeker

March 15th Letter

March 15th Letter

So I guess I will just start with the biggest news, transfers.

So Elder Thayne will be the new district leader, ( this is his last transfer) and his companion is going home :( In his place will be a 4th transfer missionary from America. Also My companion (Elder Drenk) will be transferring to Misawa (American Airbase) and in his place I will be getting a brand new missionary from America named Elder Thompson. This will be my second companion named Elder Thompson but I will be his trainer. So I will go and pick him up from the airport this week. Also Kitakami became part of Ichinoseki District so I can go visit some of my old Investigators! yay!

So other than that information I gave a talk on Sunday! They told me I could talk about whatever I wanted to. So I started out by saying, "I have an announcement, Yesterday was Transfer calls and ..... I will...... not be transferring. They thought it was pretty funny. 

 

But I chose to talk about families. I have been studying a lot about families and I am becoming to realize more and more just how important family is in Gods plan. God has said that he created Families for the purpose of our happiness. It was one of the first commandments given to man. President Spencer W. Kimball said, "Society without basic family life is without foundation and will disintegrate into nothingness......" Also in The Family Proclamation to the world it says, "Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets." It was interesting this week as I asked members when we visited them about what kind of direction do they think families in Japan are going, they all shared similar things. They said that a lot of parents don't stop to care about what there child does, they don't go and support them because they are more worried about their job.  They don't care when their child gets in trouble and so there is no punishment. They aren't being taught right, so then that child grows up and has children and does the same thing and family value disintegrates. I feel very scared for Japan. But This week was 3/11 the day that the big earthquake and tsunami happened 4 years ago. 18,000 people died from the tsunami. In the Ichinoseki boundaries there is an area called kessanuma.  It is right by the sea and it was hit by the tsunami really hard. They also had oil tanks in the ocean that the tsunami ripped out and the oil flooded the city and something sparked the water so it was a tsunami of fire. It burned most of the city down. I got to attend a a memorial for it where they had little kids sing songs about hope. I felt so much hope for the younger Generation of Japan too. I really felt like I understood at that point why Christ wants us to become pure like a little child. This week, Elder Nelson came to Japan and he did a devotional and gave an apostolic blessing to the members of Japan of safety and love in the homes if they obey the commandments of God. It was really cool.

Well Anyways I guess what will be happening this Saturday is we will have a big meeting about the Ipads so Everyone is going to Sendai to get the training and I guess we will probably receive them there.

We met with a lot of cool people this week, first we met with M- our investigator, and he said he had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon.  He usually asks some pretty deep questions. But he said that Other Christian Churches don't believe that Jesus Christ came to America, but the Book of Mormon says otherwise what do you think? I never really thought I would be asked this question because I don't serve in the bible belt - I serve in The Buddha belly. I pulled out 3 Nephi 16 so fast on him, it talks about how Christ said he will visit other islands and people who not yet heard his voice and then I pulled out John from the Bible where Christ said that He will visit a Land that is not Jerusalem after his ressurrection, people who have yet to hear his voice.

 

Yeah he was really impressed and he just started laughing. And said well I guess that answers that question. He now does not doubt the Book of Mormon but he still is convinced that Buddhism is correct because the Buddhist religion has never caused war like Christianity has.

We met with a lady whose door we knocked on and she invited us in and gave us dinner. She was super cool, she is a retired Elementary school teacher.and told us about some of the students she had taught.  She still follows them today to see what kind of people they are becoming. She also has a book of everyone that has ever visited her house and she has them right something down and a picture. She took a copy of me wakeboarding. She thought it was super cool. But then she asked why we come and do 2 years of missionary work, she asked is it because we want to become priests, or to get into a christian school or something.  W told her no, and that we are volunteers because we believe our religion has taught us true happiness and we want to share it with other people. She was super impressed and told us to write that in her book so that when other people come and visit they can see it and know what we do. 

 

We gave her a book of Mormon and will probably follow up in 2 weeks or so because things will be to crazy with transfers this week.　：）

That was my week!

Elder Nebeker

April 12th Letter

So this week was pretty great.  My companion and I were able to achieve the mission's Standard of Excellence which was pretty cool. ( The standard is as follows; 1 baptismal date, 3 investigators at sacrament meeting, 3 new investigators, 6 Less Active Lessons, 20 lessons). We have to accomplish just 2 of those goals to get the standard of Excellence. It may seem easy but it is actually really hard.

We were able to start teaching a family of 4. It was a referral from the branch President here in Ichinoseki. They are really cool but I think they will have to have a serious change of heart and feeling the spirit to change. They are very active in their current religion but are open to understanding more about Christianity. We are able to meet with them every Thursday. 

Another investigator M- is doing good.  We are working with him on praying. He will read the book of Mormon but that is about it. So we have planned to teach him a lesson on faith today and use the story of when Alma explains to the Zoramites what faith is and compares it to a seed. We are also going to share with him a talk that was given by President Uchtdorf called " Gods Harvest." It is a very good talk - very short and to the point. 

The lady that walked into the church the other day that we passed to the mowers is doing very well. During the second lesson with her she asked the Mowers how she can pray and if her sins can really be forgiven. So that was really cool. We are letting the Mowers teach her as of right now. But will join and help in the teaching process when needed. 

The lady you saw in the picture is a Less Active that we have been trying to reactivate. She took us to a place called chumonjin or something like that.  It is the World Heritage. It was a really old Golden temple that had been preserved for a very long time. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures of it. But it was way cool. It was a lot of Gold and a family was buried underneath it and they have their clothing and everything still. So that was really neat to go see and do. And yes I went and hit the gong. I couldn't pass the opportunity up :)

This week we met a less active family who have been less active for about 10 years now.  We met with the wife and she was really nice to us, and I started talking to her and about her family.  She told me she had a younger son and I heard someone playing the piano inside her house and I asked if that was her son playing and she said yes.  I don't know why, but I asked her if we could meet him and say hello. She said I will go and see if he will come down. So she came back down with him and he was way excited to talk to us. He had never talked to an American before so we had a good conversation. He just barely started High school and is having a hard time deciding how to fit in. After we left him with our Missionary business card. We got a text from his dad at like 11 pm that night saying that we probably shouldn't visit his home because his neighbor and father in law who live with them hate religion and get mad when missionaries come. So I was a little sad to get that message but then he called me the next morning and was super nice and was so happy that my companion and I came and visited. He told us that he is a returned missionary and that he wants to help us out and meet with us but his wife doesn't really want to go back to church and with his father inlaw hating religion, it is hard for them.  He told us that he talked with his son and he hasn't seen his son that happy in a while, and he really wants us to teach him the gospel but it would have to be done in secret.....  It was a really cool phone call but I am stuck because I don't want to cause any trouble in that family. But I think we are going to meet with the father to talk more about teaching his son... (His son is not a member)

So that is kind of what is going on to here in Ichinoseki! 

This week we were able to watch some of General Conference which was good I still have not seen it all because of timing issues but I have really enjoyed some of the talks I feel like they have been putting a huge focus and emphasis on families and focusing on things that matter most. 

Well I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Elder Nebeker