Jared's Mission

Wowowowow it's been a busy week! I think back to Monday and it feels like so long ago! We went to the Steak place again and I didn't choke!  Okay! Monday we went to Okinawa for Zone Conference (in last email), I loved it so much! I realized how much I miss people when I was able to talk to the Elders and Sisters there. We played volleyball, had training, and ate taco rice. Also me, Elder Nagao and the Miyako Jima Elders sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and it was awesome (video on my google photos, link at the bottom). I met a senior couple that served with the Rosenlunds (from my home ward)!   This week started out kinda rough like the last few have been but on Thursday I prayed and recommitted myself to serving the lord. I am here for Him, I want to be in Japan, I want to learn Japanese, and I want to teach His Children. That has really been a turning point for me already, I've felt more in tune with the spirit since then, and I've felt greater des...

We are in Okinawa for Zone Conference and they actually have a store that has violins!  Prophets are real! There are prophets on the Earth today that provide direction for us! Elder Holland is amazing, as a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles we sustain him as a Prophet. I feel like he really understands how hard the word is but the joy and peace we can find in the gospel. The gospel may not make our burdens go away, it may even make them worse, but living the gospel gives us the strength to make it through those challenges. One of the lession principles in Preach my Gospel is that "God wants to bless us with peace and a fulness of joy that will last for eternity." When we come unto God and seek to grow our relationship with our Heavenly Father he begins to bless us with these things. There is a husband and wife we met with this week who have a little baby (so cute!), we talked about how the gospel blesses families and I shared an example of how it blessed my family. I sh...

Hello again! This week flew by so quickly it's crazy! It was P-day and next thing I knew it was Saturday and we were preparing for chruch! It was crazy short but also so crazy busy! We taught tons of language lessons (which always end with a gospel message) and a few just gospel lessons!  I almost choked to death today at a steak place! One of the Elders we are on exchanges with gave me the Heimleck maneuver so I could breathe and then like 30 miserable minutes later I threw up the piece that was stuck. I'm on exchanges in Miyako right now (a different island) our plane was so small it had propellers. CONGRATULATIONS MATTHEW LEONE! He got his mission call this week to Newport California, Russian speaking! CONGRATULATIONS to Jacob Hamilton! He was in the at home MTC last week! Ashton Hahl still killing it in the Brazil MTC! And Jackson Felkins with his call to Lima Peru, starting the MTC in a few short weeks! We are still living at the Shimada's apartment, we move into ours ...

Oh my goodness so much has happened this week! We were able to find so many people to teach through Social Media and by talking to people to the street! We've taught a few lessons already and we were going to extend a baptismal invitation last night but our appointment got cancelled because the Sister was not feeling well. This is crazy! We are doing God's work! It is so cool how simple the gospel really is and how natural it is to teach it. I feel the conversations flow naturally as I talk about what I love, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the love that He has for each of us (in our english lessons we always end with a spiritual thought, so I get to talk in English which really helps me)! I know that God is blessing me in so many ways. When I started using social media to find people I didn't really think it would work and I felt that there were better ways we could do the work. This week I have realized that I was wrong, God has chosen (at least in my mission) for social m...

OK I'm not actually in Taiwan but me and my amazing trainer, Elder Nagao (ながお 長老) just got to 石垣 (Ishigaki), a small island way closer to Taiwan than it is to Japan. There hasn't been young missionaries here in 5 years so we are opening this area up for missionary work! We don't have an apartment yet so we are staying in a hotel for a few days and then we are going to move in with the Shimada's, the senior missionary couple that has been serving here until we can get an apartment. Okay, week breakdown! Sunday-Thursday: Finishing the MTC! Horita 兄弟 gave me an awesome hot pink tie with light blue pineapples on it! Saying goodbye to everyone in my district (Except Elder Phillips) and my teachers!  Friday and Saturday: Wake up at 3:30 am tame a bus and then 3 planes, get my Japanese Residency Card made, meet the mission president, drive to the mission home (underneath the Fukuoka Temple!) eat Japanese fast food, and sleep at just before 11:30 pm Japan time. Total of 30 hour...