It's like coming back home...

Dear Everyone,

Transfers happened and I am now in Maizuru! First, I'll give an overview of my past week.

Monday I found out that I was transferring, so that day was filled with packing and saying goodbye to some of the people in Kitarokko. Tuesday and Wednesday was much of the same. Saying goodbye to the people in Kitarokko wasn't as hard as it was when I left Nishiwaki, but I still hate goodbyes. I am grateful for Facebook though because now I can be connected with these wonderful people even though I am not with them. Technology is great!

Last time teaching this Less Active member. He is super awesome!

Here is a video of my Eikaiwa (English class) student

Yeah...... He is so funny and so innocent.

So Thursday was transfer day. We did something different for transfers this time because the bike policy for the mission has changed. We now have to take our bike with us wherever we transfer, because the bike that we have now is now our bike for our whole mission. So, going throughout the trains and the crowds of people in Japan while carrying your bike in a bike bag was めちゃたいへん！！ (very uncomfortable, annoying, terrible? Is that the translation?) anyways, I was able to talk to all my missionary buddies, which is always great. After that, I met my new companion and we headed on our way to Maizuru. We went with the Nishiwaki missionaries because to get to Maizuru, we go through Nishiwaki. So, I was able to go back to my bean area!! It was super weird. It felt like I never even left. It felt like my last two and a half months was a dream. We got to the trainstation in Nishiwaki and had to wait another hour for our train to leave. A couple Nishiwaki members came to the trainstation to pick up their missionaries and I was able to talk to them for a little while! Man, I didn't know how much I missed Nishiwaki. They (the members) said that my Japanese got really good. ( I don't believe them but...) after that, we still had time before our train left, so we walked to a nearby Ramen shop where I would eat all the time (the one with all the fried chicken in my prior pictures). I was so thankful for that tender mercy of coming back to Nishiwaki. I needed it, and it reminded me that this mission is supposed to feel like that. It is hard to describe the feelings, but I just love that place so much and being able to be there for just one hour was a miracle. Truly a tender mercy. It was super crazy to go through places that I thought I would never go through again, for example the Nishiwaki train, the Ramen shop, the Fukuchiyama trainstation. It feels like I never even left. Kitarokko was just a weird dream it feels like haha.

I went back to Nishiwaki

 We eventually got to Maizuru and it was dark, so I got settled in to my new apartment. The next day, we went to the church to do weekly planning. The church...... When I saw it, I was shocked. It is located on the 2nd floor of an apartment building! It has two rooms, one for sacrament, one for classes. Wow. I think it is so awesome. This branch averages around 15-20 members at church every week. Only one primary kid, a recent convert who I will talk about later. No youth. So, so different than anything I have experienced before. I'll talk about my experience with church in a little bit. First off is our weekly planning session. This area used to have two companionships, but this transfer, they dropped the other elders, so we inherited their investigators. We now have 15 progressing investigators! Wow, I thought. Most of them seem like they have a lot of potential. A few of them have been taught most of the lessons and are just needing more desire and more belief.

So more on the investigators. It seems like there are quite a few families who are being taught. I am so excited for that! I have never taught a family before, so this is really exciting for me. Let's get back to those recent converts. The father was baptized in January and his daughter was baptized when she turned 8 in March I think. Their mother isn't baptized yet, but will totally be baptized soon. She just needs a little bit more desire to be baptized. She already goes to church and everyone loves her, she is basically a member already, but just needs to get in the water still. What makes things even better is that she (the mom) is Filipino!!! Their 8 year old daughter is like me, half Filipino! We already have that kind of bond! This is an awesome family. At church yesterday, the 8 year old was leading the music! She loves church! Also, it was fast and testimony meeting and there were, including the missionaries, 17 people total. Surprisingly, there wasn't any silences in the Testimony meeting. However, after the closing prayer, the 8 year old was crying. I was thinking "Oh no, why is she crying? That's not good." Apparently she was crying because she didn't have time to go up and bear her testimony. What in the world? Who is this angel? I am blown away by her. The first thing she said to me when I talked to her and introduced myself was "I am 1/2 Filipino too! I got baptized when I turned 8!" It was so awesome. I wish I had this kind of testimony that she has. I am truly excited to get to know these people better. I am confident that her mom will get baptized really soon.

At church yesterday, a member from Nishiwaki came and visited and it was so great to be able to talk to her again. I am home. I truly feel like this is the best place for me to be in. I don't know why, but I feel so much love for this Fukuchiyama District! I feel like I just woke up from a weird dream called Kitarokko. I feel like I never even left this place. It is really weird!!

Anyway, that was the bulk of my week. Be sure to look at the pictures I sent too. I will close with a scripture that I have shared before, but looking back at my stay in Kitarokko, I think it is the biggest thing I learned. It is 2 Nephi 4:34. "O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm." Trust in the Lord in all things. If you do that, everything will work out. The blessings will come.  Sometimes Heavenly Father needs us to wait and learn from our experiences and our trials. Eventually, if we do it well and always trust in God, he will form us into someone who we can't even imagine. I know that is true. Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Lamoreaux
ラムロー長老

The Church in Maizuru (what that's not a church!) yes, yes it is...

The beauty of Maizuru.  So green everywhere!

(Click on picture to enlarge) 

 

  

Here's my 4th of July

The week where I never was in my area..

Dear Everyone,

This week was a crazy week! So much traveling and so many kokans (companion exchanges). On Tuesday, I went to Amagasaki and went with Elder Bateman from my MTC district. It was so much fun! We went to Costco for lunch (check out the pictures).

It was such a good time to talk with him and do some missionary work. The MTC seems like it was just yesterday when talking with my MTC District. Thank you ベイ長老！(I know you are reading this haha) 'Twas fun! Then on Thursday, I went on Kokan with the Office Elders. We taught a service English Class and they took us out to lunch. After that, things happened and we ended up needing to go on another Kokan with Elders in Nishinomiya, a nearby area. So doing a three-way Kokan was really interesting.

This week, there isn't much to report on... Oh yeah, I am transferring to a place called Maizuru in the Fukuchiyama zone. I am going back to the smallest zone in the mission with the smallest branches! In this zone, there are four areas. When I worked in Nishiwaki, I have done kokans in two other areas. The only one I didn't get a chance to work in was Maizuru. So now, I can say I have been in every single area in Fukuchiyama zone. I am pretty excited to go back there. I have heard it is a very beautiful area. Sad to leave Kitarokko, but it will be an adventure.

Sorry for the short email. I will close with a scripture that I read recently, Mosiah 4:12 "And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true." So, if we follow the example of Jesus Christ by following the commandments, loving everyone, doing all the things we are supposed to, the Lord promises is amazing blessings; always rejoice, filled with the love of God, retain a remission of sins and grow in the knowledge of God. That's what I want. He promises these things to those who follow him. I think it is so amazing and a beautiful promise.
Well, have an amazing week! Love you all!

Elder Lamoreaux
ラムロー長老

Funny story. We came to the church and usually on this window, all 4
missionary's pictures are there. But, this time, only mine is
there..... Don't ask me why.. My theory is that some Jr. High school
girls (there is a Jr. High right next to the church) saw pictures of
Gaijin (foreigners) and wanted to take them, but left mine because I
wasn't attractive enough for them..... Sad me. Haha

Kobe District

"The Song of the Righteous is a Prayer unto Me"

Dear Everyone,

This was a pretty slow week. We weren't able to meet with any of our investigators this week because of various reasons; cancelations were many, empty houses/not answering the door was a plenty as well. That was a bummer, but we were able to do some finding and visit a few ward members. We love meeting with the members and bearing testimony about the restoration. There is always a special spirit that fills the room when discussions of the restoration is had among family.

A couple of days this week, I was on Kokan (companion exchange) with the Office Elders in Kobe. They are in our district and my companion is district leader. It was pretty cool to spend time in the mission office as a regular missionary. I now basically know the ins and outs of the mission office. We were able to do missionary work though. We rode the bikes through Kobe for about an hour and a half looking for a less active member's house. It was so nice biking there; all flat, no hills, Perfect weather and so beautiful. Kobe is a beautiful city. Busy, lots of people, but so beautiful. I was able to see the ocean! It was nice haha.

So this past week, I made a goal so that my thoughts could be more centered on my missionary purpose and on my savior. I watched something where Elder Bednar shared a story of how he controls his thoughts. He said that something that helps him is reciting a hymn in his mind throughout the day. He stated that in order for that to work, you have to know many different hymns because if you only have 1 or 2 hymns memorized, eventually those will have no filtering effect in your mind and your thoughts will wander so easily. He said he never has to use a hymn book because he has most of the hymns memorized. I decided I wanted to do that as well. I have this vision where I can one day have every hymn memorized so that I don't have to use a hymn book. I think that would be so cool! So in order to do that, I decided to have one hymn that I would focus on each day. So far, I have 6 different hymns now memorized (I started this past week). It has really helped me stay more focused and have the spirit with me throughout the day. I would like to testify about the power of the hymns. Songs are a great way to bring the spirit into your life. Like the scripture I have for my title today, D&C 25:12 "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." The hymns are powerful and they each have a powerful message to share. I love the hymns! I want them to be a big part of my life.

Here is a pretty cool story. On Saturday, the Elders Quorum of the ward had an activity planned where they would gather, do some service and play ping-pong. I was super excited for this activity because who doesn't like to play some ping pong? But, as my companion and I were figuring out what to do that day, we prayed about whether or not we should go to the activity. It was a good activity. If we would go, we could make good relationships with the ward and strengthen their testimony and desire for missionary work as well. So, as we were praying, in my head, I was pleading with Heavenly Father, "please say yes! I want to go to this activity! Please say yes!" And as the prayer kept going, I had this feeling that I didn't want to admit to myself which kind of said, "dang it, we aren't going to this activity." And so we ended up not going to it, despite my inner desires and justifications for going to the activity. As much as I didn't like that decision, I knew that it was right. So instead of going to ping-pong like we had originally planned, we found a couple more names in the area book that we would try to visit. As we were going, door after door, those people did not answer. I was getting frustrated. I wanted to play ping-pong, but I tried to follow the spirit and yet we still found nothing. However, as we were going to go back to our apartment to get ready for a member visit that night, we ran into someone that could possibly have interest. He is a college student and we were talking quite a bit on the street. He enjoys speaking English and since there is like no opportunity at all to speak English in Japan, he spoke to us for probably an hour and a half. It was great. However, he is a busy college student, so his free time is almost nonexistent. But we have his phone number, so that was good. If we had gone to the ping-pong, we probably wouldn't have had the chance to talk to this guy. I felt comforted that this was the reason that we were prompted to not go to the activity. As much as I didn't like to do it, God's will is always the way we should go. It might not be the most fun way, but in the end, it is the only way to go. Sometimes life isn't fair, but in the end, everything will be worth it. That was the cool story of the week.

So, that's it for this week. Next week is the transfer announcement. It will be Interesting. It is possible that I could be going anywhere or staying here. Really, I am expecting anything. I will update you next week! Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Lamoreaux
ラムロー長老

羅夢露長老
(Ra-Mu-Ro) ( a Nihonjin gave me that kanji name. It means silk, dream, dew. Interpret that how you may.)

Having dinner at a members house. Group selfies with the iPad is so
hard, I don't know how I like it...

Hanging out with old ladies!

Here's a story for you. So one of our investigator's mom wanted us to meet her friends, so that day, she took us to a coffee bar. It looked a little sketchy, but we felt like it was fine, so we went in. It seems like it is the old lady hang out of the city. There were only old women in there. It was very weird. Eventually her friends showed up and they were talking to us; asking us where we were from, what we are doing, how many people in our family, things like that. They were super nice. Then, one of the friends got up and started calling someone. 

Didn't think anything about it. Then someone else showed up and we started talking about normal, introductory things. Then she started talking about stuff. Turns out that she is a leader in one of the big religions in Japan, Sokka Gakkai (SGI). Turns out they are all SGI. So they spent like 10 minutes showing us their magazines, telling us how good SGI is and how it relates to Mormons. We just smiled and nodded our heads the whole time. They were still really nice. We ended up leaving with two SGI magazines, some candy and little souvenirs. That was a really interesting and memorable experience. Hanging out in the Old Lady hangout with a bunch of SGI missionaries. Good times.

Investigators are still the same. We had to drop a couple because they wouldn't ever answer the phone, or in never home when we meet, and they drop us.  Various reasons, but the same result. The investigator who didn't pass his interview hasn't been answering us. Last time we talked to him was last week when he came to the conclusion that he didn't need baptism. He was reading the Jehovah's Witness bible and said he had received revelation saying if he believes in Jesus Christ, he doesn't need baptism. We then asked if he believed in the Restoration and Joseph Smith and the 

Priesthood and he believes and has a testimony of all of it. It is pretty interesting, but because of his testimony, he will soon come back to his senses and come back to church and strive harder to be baptized. I don't really have worries about him, but it will just take time.  We have a new investigator. A High School kid who is from China who can speak Chinese, Japanese and a little bit of English. He moved here with his mom and it seems like he doesn't have a strong father figure in his life, so we taught him about how God is our Heavenly Father. It worked really well. We showed a Mormon Message called "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father" and he couldn't stop smiling while watching it.  However, he is a High School student in Japan, so he is always busy with school, homework and club. But, we pray that he will be able to find time to meet us. Other than that, our investigators are he same as usual.  We have been meeting with more and more members recently. It has been great. We as a mission are making members a bigger part of our time.  We are working on what they call "Full Purpose Missionary" "すべての目的お果たす宣教師" The mission is helping us be focused on all 5 phases of missionary work; Finding, Teaching, Baptizing, Retaining and Rescuing. Missionaries tend to focus on the first three; find, teach and baptize, while forgetting about the retaining and rescuing. So, if we work more with the members, we can build their testimonies and they can help in the Finding, Teaching, Retaining and Rescuing. Then we can establish the church. I don't know how other missions in the world are, but for Japan, the members really need to up their testimony and their drive for missionary work, and by focusing more on the members, we can do that and the church will be established in Japan. It's going to be great! I love meeting with the members!  When we meet with the members, we try to help them have spiritual experiences. In order to do that, we are going to be testifying about the Restoration. So to prepare for that, I read the first 20 verses of Joseph Smith History. Every single time I read that I feel the Spirit confirm to me that all of this is true. Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. Through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ restored His true church and true gospel to the earth once more, the same as when Christ was on the earth. For me, my testimony of the restoration is so important. When I think of that, I remember why I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It reminds me that this is the only true church of God. I invite you, in order to find your testimony again, to read Joseph Smith-History 1:1-20. I promise that you will come to find that this church is true and you will remember why being a faithful member of the church is important.

Well, that's about it for this week. It's hot in Japan in the summer. Anyways, have a great week! The Lord is always on your side.

Love,
Elder Lamoreaux
ラムロー長老

My first attempt at making Sinigang! - my favorite Filipino dish