21st week in Japan
1/4/2016
Let 2016 Begin!

こにちわ家族と友達
Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone? I cannot believe that the year of 2015 is over
already! I think one of the things I have come to learn on my mission
is that time is absolutely incomprehensible while you are serving the
Lord. I am truly appreciative of this opportunity that I have to be
serving as a missionary in Kobe Japan. I love these people. So the
year of 2016 has begun. I hope that we have all set some good goals to
work towards accomplishing this year. I know that I have! I have
really learned how important setting good goals is. For anyone who has
not set goals yet for this year, I would encourage you to make some
goals that will help you stretch.

Last week after my companion and I finished emailing we hurried over
to the Fushimi Castle before our P-day came to an end. The Fushimi
castle is very beautiful, and quite a bit different from
the Okayama castle. We took a lot of pictures and went hiking around
for a while. I will make sure to send some. We didn't get the
opportunity to go inside the castle because it is closed right now. It
was still a lot of fun though. After visiting the castle we went to
visit a shrine nearby, which is pretty cool. We are not allowed to
take pictures in shrines really as missionaries because it is against
rules, but it was interesting to see some of the things in the shrine.
They have so many cool looking monuments and things that they do at
the shrines. Buddhism does have some unique culture.

We also had interviews with President Welch last week. It feels like
it was very recent when we last had interviews with him, but it is
because he is trying to get on a different schedule. I always love
being able to have a one on one with the mission president. It is
incredible to me that he even has the time for that. President Welch
is just so full of wisdom. We talked about the New Testament challenge
that he gave the missionaries and how to apply what we are learning
from Christ's teachings. My companion and I have really been trying to
teach as the savior did. After all, he was the best missionary ever to
walk this earth.

One thing that is very different about Fushimi is that the number of
investigators in this area is so few. We have about 3 total
investigators; whereas, in my last area we had about 15. It has been
different not teaching as many investigators, but good for a change to
try to find and teach more while finding. I truly do love this new
area though. I will always miss Okayama because I had so many fun
memories there, but I knew that I wouldn't be there forever. One thing
that is also interesting is that we have sister missionaries in
Fushimi. So we end up teaching a lot of lessons together with them.
Also this ward has had so many meal appointments. In my last area we
had a total of maybe 3 or 4. We have already had about 6 or 7 and the
transfer just started!

Yesterday was fast Sunday. One of my goals this year is to bare my
testimony in every fast and testimony meeting. Yesterday I was given
that opportunity. Even though my Japanese still needs a ton of work, I
still love being able to share what I know about the gospel in the
small amount of Japanese that I know. Also being able to hear and grow
from everyone else's testimonies is always a wonderful opportunity.
After sacrament meeting we taught two of our investigators from the
Philippines named Jerome and Vermont. They are the coolest guys in the
universe. They love God and are always wanting to show their thanks.
We taught them the first lesson and committed them to being baptized
on the 24th of January, and they accepted! Jerome and Vermont are so
strong, and I know that as we keep working with them that we can see
them get baptized on the 24th.

My ponderizing scripture for this week was Moroni 7:47.  Moroni talks
about charity. I have really noticed a pattern of how all the prophets
have charity for the people that they are teaching in the Book of
Mormon. This week I am going to try to work on showing charity towards
others, so I would invite each of you to join me.

Questions:

1. Yes I was able to put the basketball puzzle together. Thanks a bunch it was
fun. It is good to be able to participate in the tradition of putting
a puzzle together each year for Christmas.

2. I don't think I need anything. I still have a lot of the Christmas money
you sent. I think I might look for some better ear muffs around here. Thank
you so much though.

3. I love this new ward to death! They are literally my new family
here. One of the guys that I love in this ward is our Ward mission
leader. He just got off his mission in Saporo and he speaks fluent
English. He is such a cool guy. I love everyone in this ward though.
They are all incredibly strong and faithful members.

4. Hahaha good question. My companion doesn't say much about 

Napolean Dynamite, but if someone from America asks
him where he is from and they don't know where Preston Idaho is he will say
it is where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed. He said he has gotten some
pretty awesome reactions out of it too.

5. Yes President Welch gave all the missionaries a tie with the theme 

Walk with me on it.  My favorite thing I got for Christmas

is the Christ statue that you gave me. It always helps me to keep the
savior in my thoughts. Thank you so much.

6. For New Years we had a fun dinner appointment with one of the members in our
ward. It is supposedly tradition to watch the sunrise for New Years in big groups
here in Japan, but my companion and I couldn't find anybody doing it.
So we just watched it come up ourselves. Nobody did any fireworks
really, so that was a little bit unfortunate, but we will be making
this delicious stuff called mochi next Monday. It is that white
pounded rice that I sent in the package to you guys.

Thank you everyone so much for all your support and love. I love you guys,

Hirschi 長老