Power of Members

Dear Everyone,

This was a great week for us here in Higashi Osaka. We started off by going to Nara last Monday. Let's just say it was the best Preparation Day of my mission so far. It was so much fun!!!! Playing with the deer was insanely fun. I remember my High School Japanese teacher Mr. Park talking about Nara (he served in the Osaka mission) and it made me so excited to go when I learned that Nara was in our mission. So, after a year and a half, I was finally able to go! And boy did it live up to its potential. Such a blast. Enjoy the pics and videos if you want only a taste of how awesome it was. So great.

Preaching the Gospel to our Deer friends.

On Tuesday, we had an awesome day where we spent most of the day with two members down in Habikino (our other area.) One of them drove us around to a bunch of Less-Active members and Former and Current investigators. Man, I love those to members! They help us out so much. We were able to meet with and teach a few of the Less Active members. This is why I titled the letter this week "Power of Members." The longer I have been on a mission, the more I've realized that without members, missionary work cannot happen. It's impossible. The members know what is happening in the ward. They don't get lost easily. They know Japanese fluently. They have had many experiences in their life that we 20 year old missionaries just don't have. So awesome! The best thing was visiting our investigator, the one with all the problems. We were following up on his praying and then the member just went hard on the importance of praying and related it to baptism. We committed him to be baptized on March 27th! If we didn't have that member with us, we wouldn't have been able to address his concerns and help him feel the need for baptism. It was awesome! Working with members is the only way to do it. And then on Wednesday, we went out with a member who is leaving on a mission next month. We taught a couple lessons with him and helped him to gain confidence in missionary work. He will be an awesome missionary. He already is an awesome missionary.

We had Zone Conference on Friday and this time members were invited. There were about 25 members from all around the stake that came, 3 from our ward. It was great to be taught by President and Sister Welch. As a mission, we are starting to study the Atonement by reading the Book of Mormon. One of the scriptures that we read that day was Alma 7:11-13. We learned again that the Atonement does not only cover our sins. We learned that the Atonement is infinite and it covers EVERYTHING. in that scripture it says pains, afflictions, temptations of every kind, sicknesses, death, infirmities (weakness) and then sin. All of the things before sin are things that come to every person on the earth; good, bad or otherwise. Everyone. The only one we choose is sin. Everything else comes naturally. So, the atonement really is for every thing that has ever lived on the earth. It is so big that we can't even begin to comprehend the impact that it has on the world.

Another awesome part about zone conference with the members there as well is that President Welch went hard on Member missionary work. He told the member straight up that missionary work is not effective if the members' mindset is "宣教師たち頑張って！" (work hard missionaries! We'll watch!) it's not gonna work like that. Man, I loved it. Much of Japan is still in the mindset of missionary work is tracking and finding investigators, but now is the time for the members to step up. It was awesome to see that happen and I will work hard to help these members change their mindset and get courage to talk about the gospel to everyone.
 

Osaka Zone Conference!

My twin Takahashi Choro!  Love him!  My first Zone Leader and my AP for the past 5 transfers.  He is done with his mission in a couple of weeks, so don't know when I can get another picture with him.

Time is flying faster and faster everyday. I have just completed 3/4 of my mission. I only have 6 months left, which is crazy. Days are flying by faster than hey have before. I am so grateful for this opportunity to study the Atonement for the last part of my mission. I truly feel that this study will change my life and will help me be ready for life after the mission. The atonement is more than just erasing sins. It can help us in our everyday life. Everything that you have ever felt, good or bad, the savior has felt before. He knows us perfectly and is therefore the only one we can rely on to make weak things become strong. He loves us. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he let his son suffer for each of us. We can all access the power of the Atonement in our daily lives by living the gospel. Doing our best everyday unlocks the powers of heaven and will empower us to overcome the adversity and challenges we face everyday. The Atonement works. Please deeply ponder Alma 7:11-13 and try to access the atonement everyday. This church is so true. I love it! Being a missionary is hard, but it is so rewarding. I will never comprehend how much my mission is blessing me now and in my future. I am so grateful.

Have a great week! Love and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老
Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部

Me trying to get a selfie with the deer.

There are deer everywhere here!  You can feed them and pet them and play with them!  It was so much fun!

Nara is also home to the biggest wooden building in the world with the biggest Buddha statue in the world!  That thing was absolutely huge.

So this hole in the pillar is supposed to be the same size as one of the nostrils of the big Buddha statue.  If you can fit through it, it is lucky apparently.  It was a super tight squeeze.

Proselyting with the Stake President, Osaka at midnight! Crazy week!

February 15, 2016 

Dear everyone,

I don't have a lot of time this week. We are going to Nara park to hang out with some deer! I'll write about a couple cool experiences we had this past week.

So, to follow the title, on Sunday the Stake President of Osaka stake came to visit the ward. He is a very good stake president who follows the guidance of our mission president and the area presidency. It was great to have him with us. Last week, I wrote about our Area Plan that everyone in the area should be doing. Well, one of the Stake President's goals is whenever he visits a ward, he goes with the missionaries for a couple hours after church and works with them. So, lucky us! I was pretty terrified to be honest. The pressure was on! How many of you missionaries have gone on splits with your Stake President?? It was way awesome though. We gave out a couple Book of Mormons (Books of Mormon?) and taught a few people on the street. He was also performing magic to some little kids that we saw. We were with him for 3 hours and we were able to get a good relationship with him, learn some things, and now I have a lot more desire and confidence in talking to everyone. It was a great experience!

Next story from this week. Friday night, we were already sleeping when the phone rings at 11:10. I wake up and see that it's from our zone leaders, so it's got to be important. So I answer it and our zone leader tells us to get up and head over to Abeno (the next area over) right now and spend the night in Abeno. Somehow, the elders there got separated and one of the elders was by himself in Abeno while the other one somehow ended up with the Zone Leaders in Asuka (pretty far away). So, in order for the one in Abeno to not be alone, we were told to pack our bags and get to Abeno as fast as we could. Surprisingly the trains were still in operation at 11:30 at night. (People are awake and outside in Japan past 10:30?? Had no idea...) so, Abeno is pretty busy at night. It was crazy to walk around Osaka at almost midnight and to see the night life of Osaka. This was probably the only time I would ever be out past 10:30 as a missionary, so I thought it was pretty noteworthy. How many missionaries (obedient missionaries) can say they were walking around Osaka, one of the biggest cities, at midnight? Anyways, cool but tiring experience. I was so exhausted the next day. Don't worry, everything is all okay with the other Elders. Just a mistake happened.

Well, that was some cool experiences that happened this week. It was actually a hard week, but things ended up working out. This next week is going to be amazing, I can feel it. Sorry for the quick email! Have a great week! The church is true!

Love,
Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老
Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部

Last week, we went up to the Sky Building again with the other elders
in the district. It was fun!

This awesome soon-to-be-missionary got his mission call this week! He
is going to the Japan Tokyo South mission leaving March 29th! He will
be an awesome missionary!

On the train in normal clothes for our midnight adventure!  

An awesome family in the ward!

Bible Study Class

Dear Everyone,

Today was a great week! Let's start with another change. I got a call from the Assistants sometime this week saying that they decided to change my district back to what it was before. So now, I'm back to my original district; Higashi Osaka and Sekime, 6 missionaries. Well, the big district was exciting while it lasted.

This week, we worked hard with trying to visit members and teaching them the Doctrine of Christ. To do so, my companion and I came up with a pretty awesome slide show on the iPad's that simply illustrates the Doctrine and was really easy to understand. We also prepared our lesson plan to go along with the Area Plan so that all of the members can be on the same page and follow the plan that was given to us by the Area Presidency. We taught about 6 different members about it. It went really well. I feel that the ones that we taught better understand the Doctrine of Christ and they have more of a desire to follow the Area Plan. I don't know if I talked about the Area Plan last week, but this is what it is.

Everyone will think of goals in order for them to better Love, Elevate, Simplify and so forth, with the main goal of living with Heavenly Father again. I believe that this plan will help unify the ward that I am serving in and will also help the members better fulfill their missionary responsibilities and will hasten the work of the Lord in Japan. So, in order to unify the ward with the missionaries and the Stake, Mission and Asia North area, we really tried hard to get this thing going.

We had a couple cool experiences this week. Last transfer, my companion Elder Parkin felt like we should try doing a bible study class. He loves the bible and knows a lot about it. He taught me a lot about the bible because I have little to no bible knowledge at all. Well, his last week in Higashi Osaka, we finally got it passed with the bishop and they said we will start on February 5th. Believe it or not, Elder Parkin transferred! So the task of starting a bible study class fell on to me and my new companion. Yay.... Because both Elder Clarkson and I don't really know the bible at all, we were panicking and worried about it. I wanted to just stop the class so badly because I don't feel confident with the bible and there wasn't a lot of people who would come. But, because it took about a month to get started and people worked hard to get it going, we decided to go ahead and do it. It felt like Nephi in 1 Nephi 4:6 "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." We were praying for the spirit and that everything will go okay. So, we did it. Only 3 people came; our ward mission leader, a ward missionary, and an  investigator. We talked about Genesis 1-2 about the creation. What do you know, everything went really well! We were able to teach well and those who came enjoyed it. This was really a lesson of faith to me. My companion and I learned that acts of faith are not comfortable. Sometimes, in order to follow the will of God, we need to pass through opposition. Trials always come before the miracle. Whenever something good is about to happen, the adversary tries everything in order to stop you from fulfilling the will of God. But, when you actually do it, God will bless you with a confirmation that it is good. My companion and I felt that confirmation after the class. We know that this class needs to happen. It might sound weird, but we will continue to do this bible study class. I get to learn more about the Bible too!

I've been studying about faith recently. Faith is so simple, but it is so powerful. I know that faith always precedes the miracles. If you believe you can do it, then you can. If you have an end goal, a hope, something to believe and hope for, then you will work as hard as you can to be able to reach that. Because of that effort, you can access the enabling power of the atonement and you will be empowered. God will help you reach that end goal. But, it all starts with faith. Faith leads to miracles and dreams coming true.

Man, being a missionary is great. It is hard sometimes, but never in my life will I have the chance to dedicate myself to the Lord and only focus on the gospel. I am learning so much and I will take so much with me back to Utah.

Have a great week! Love you all! Always remember to put the Lord first! Keep smilin, and give them heaven!

Love,

Elder Lamoreaux

Our beloved mission president and his assistants. :) love it!

After visiting a few less actives, this stud of a member took us out to eat.

"Your district is doubling." Wait, what?!

Dear Everyone,

So transfer calls came last week and I stayed in Higashi Osaka! But Elder Parkin gyipsyed (getting transferred out of an area after just one transfer.) so, I now have a new companion! His name is Elder Clarkson and he is from Kanab Utah. He is fourth transfer, only been in Japan for about 5 months. He is way awesome and we get along well. It will be a great transfer and we will see miracles. He has also been really good at helping me out when stresses and frustrations come, which happens every now and then as Senior Companion and District Leader.

Also, another surprise this transfer. I got a call from my zone leader and he says "I've got some news for you! You will have six new people in your district!" So, that happened. For some reason (I still don't know why) they decided to combine the Higashi Osaka District and the Hirakata District, so now I am District Leader over 12 missionaries, twice the size of my districts in the past. Life just got a lot busier (twice as busy) here in the life of Elder Lamoreaux. Please pray for me! I'm gonna need all the help I can get!

But, I am really excited for this opportunity to grow and to help and serve these missionaries. It will be a big learning opportunity for me and I know we will see miracles in this district. Hooray for Dendo!!

Anyways, with transfers, it was a really interesting week. We spent all of Wednesday packing and saying bye for Elder Parkin and then got our new companions on Thursday. The past couple days have been mostly finding; trying to find those who are ready to hear the gospel. We taught a few lessons, but still no real new investigators. But, we both have faith that things are going to turn around and that as long as we try to do what the Lord wants us to do, we will see success here and will see the fruits of our efforts. Friday was particularly hard because it was raining like crazy all day! My everything was wet and soaking and there was nobody outside because honestly, who would want to? No one wanted to answer their doors either, so it was quite a struggle. But we still went out because of the hope that "the more you do rain dendo, the more attractive your wife becomes." I like that philosophy.

So, there really wasn't much going on this week. A scripture that I came upon this week was D&C 64:33-34 "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days." I love that and it has given me comfort this week. I have a testimony that this is true. Sometimes in life it feels as if things don't go well, or you don't feel like you are making a difference. My advice and the Lord's advice in this scripture is "be not weary in well-doing." As long as you are doing what you are supposed to do, God will bless you. He doesn't really require the immediate results of our efforts. All he requires is "the heart and a willing mind." As long as we are obedient, we will taste of the fruit of success. It may not come fast, but it will come.

Love you all! I can't believe it is February already! Wow time flies. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老
Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部

Final Picture as a district

Last Eikaiwa with Sister Chapman and Elder Parkin

Tahitian Dancing, Elder Choi Conference and Elevated thinking.

Dear Everyone,

Wow, what a week. Lots happened and it was a great week. Let's just go down the list then.

Tuesday, we were invited to perform a Tahitian Dance for patients in a hospital. That was super fun! Thanks to Chapman Shimai for being Tahitian and knowing how to dance. Check out the pictures and videos for more on that. It was a really fun service and the members who were involved were grateful that we did that.

On Thursday, we were invited to watch the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast for all of the missionaries in the world. It was the first time the church has done something like this for 10 years, so I thought something big was happening. Well, nothing too big happened, but we were able to be trained by the Missionary Executive Committee about how to be better missionaries. They talked a lot about how we are representatives of Jesus Christ, so we should always "Have Your testimony of Christ on your lips." Always be prepared to testify of Christ to everyone you meet and in every lesson you teach. We were also taught about the importance of the Spirit in all we do as missionaries. The main thing that they relayed to us is a phrase that I love now. "We teach repentance and baptize true converts." That is what we do as missionaries. Everyone needs to repent and we as missionaries are constantly repenting ourselves and helping others to repent. It was a great opportunity to hear from our Church Leaders. 

I will be bold and say that Friday, the whole course of my mission has changed. We were blessed to have Elder Yoon Hwan Choi of the Asia North Area Presidency here to talk to us. He is a bold man. We talked about many, many things and he basically called us all to repentance. The interesting thing was though that he did it all with incredible love. I felt no resentment and no negative feelings, only love and a desire to repent and do better. 

We talked about elevating our thoughts. He basically said that the reason people don't succeed is because of their thoughts. If our thoughts aren't high enough, then we will never get to where we want to be. He related that to our baptism numbers. Recently, our baptism numbers haven't improved. So, he posed a question. "How many of you put a 1 in number of baptism goal this week?" Nobody rose their hand. He said, "There you go guys, that's why you aren't baptizing." He then talked about how if we don't think we can baptize, then we won't. But, if we think we will baptize, then we will. Then he asked President Welch what he thought about this. He said "you know, I think our baptism goal of 1 per month (as a companionship) is not what the Lord wants us to do. I think it's too low." Elder Choi nodded and said, "yup, that's right." Then he said how he knows that we can do better than 1 baptism per month. So, we raised the baptism goal to 1 BAPTISM PER WEEK. (Per companionship). Woah! When that happened, I felt a confirmation that that said, yes, we can do it. I know that this is what the Lord wants for the Japan Kobe Mission right now. I don't know how it will happen, but miracles will happen and God's power is going to show here in this land. It all starts with positive thinking and faith. One thing that Elder Choi said was how we can change our destiny. It goes like this: Thoughts-->Actions-->Habits-->Character-->Destiny. Our thoughts lead to our destiny. Our destiny is to become like Jesus Christ, for he said "what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." (3 Nephi 27:27) if our thoughts are centered on Christ, we will one day be like him. Perfected. Free from the natural man.

This goal is pretty crazy to be honest. I don't even know if missionaries in Mexico get one baptism a week. But, I have a testimony that the Lord is hastening his work all throughout the world. He is preparing people to hear the gospel and the work is rolling forth. I am beyond excited to see the church grow here in Japan. It starts now. It starts with me. It starts with each individual missionary and the way they view missionary work. Don't fear. Don't be shy. Have faith. It will happen. I know that it will and I will do everything I can to make it work. We cannot do it on our own though. We need all the help we can get. We always have the Lord's help if we are worthy for it. We also need the help of each member. We are all part of this great work. 

Yesterday, we had ward council and I told them boldly about the goals that the Lord has set for this mission. I testified how I know that this will happen because this is the Lord's work and his desire for Japan. It felt really good to be the instrument for Him during this ward council. I promised them that I will work hard to accomplish this goal and asked for their help. 

I only have 7 months left on this mission. I will do all I can to accomplish what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I testify that the work that all 80,000 or so missionaries are doing is being guided and lead by God himself. I know that Jesus Christ is at the helm and that he is guiding his sheep to the missionaries. I am so proud and so happy to be on a mission. It's hard, it's exhausting both physically and mentally, but I know it is worth it. I know that the leaders of our church are called by God and they are the instruments of God. Everything they do is what He wants to have happen in this world. He lives. Faith is a principle of action and power. If you act on faith, always having God in your thoughts, you will always be happy. No matter what your circumstances are, seek the will of God, and all will be right. Trust him.

Have a great week everyone! I am so grateful for all of your love and support. 宜しくお願いします。

愛しています！

Love,

Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老

Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部

 

Yup, that's right.  Sister Chapman is from Tahiti and she is really good at Tahitian dancing.  Because of that, a member wanted us to perform a Tahitian Dance for the patients in her husband's hospital.  (The same place that we did Santa for.)  Those of you who know me know I cant's dance.  But, I tried and it was really fun.  Made a lot of mistakes, but they were all old, so they didn't care too much about the mistakes.  One of those experiences I won't forget anytime soon.

Happy Birthday Omisaki Shimai!

Visiting a member on a companionship exchange.  They fed us Tempura Udon.

Visiting another member that same day.  The son is preparing to get baptized and we were invited to teach him about Tithing and Fasting.