40th week in Japan
5/15/2016

家族友達と皆さん、こんにちは！

I hope that everyone has had a great week this last week. One of the
biggest things that I have noticed this last week is how much joy the
gospel brings. When you are doing what is right, your life is so much
better. Many of the commandments that God gives us are difficult to
accomplish, but as Nephi says "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said
unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath
commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the
children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may
accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7) God
gives us hard things to do because he knows what is best for us, and
when we do them we receive all the joy and blessings that he has in
store for us.

Lately we have been talking with our investigators a lot about Alma's
words in Alma chapter 32. This is one of my favorite chapters in all
of the Book of Mormon. Alma talks a lot about faith and compares faith
to a seed. I have noticed how this is exactly what my life has been
like. Everyone's faith starts out small, but over time through doing
the things that God asks you to, it can become so much stronger. Faith
is truly a principle of power. I know that through having faith
miracles have happened in the past, are happening today, and they will
continue to happen in the future depending upon our faithfulness.

Recently I have started the Book of Mormon back from page one after
finishing the atonement challenge that President Welch has given us. I
find every time that I read the Book of Mormon I notice so many new
things that I did not see before. One thing that has stuck out to me,
reading the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon again, is how
Obedient Nephi is. He says a countless number of times about how he
will go and do what the Lord has commanded him. I continue to be
amazed at how obedient he truly was. He always did God's will first.
The only person that I can think of that was more obedient than the
prophet Nephi is Jesus Christ.

As missionaries we are constantly striving to follow the example of
the savior. I know that as we do we grow our faith in him and become
better missionaries. One thing that I am going to work on this week is
trying to be as obedient as I possibly can. I know that through
keeping God's commandments we will receive more blessings than we can
even imagine. This is God's church. This is the only true church on
the face of the Earth. Through following this gospel we can one day
return to our Father in heaven. He loves us each individually more
than we know. Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that he knows us. He
loves us. He wants us to one day be able to return to God, and through
his atonement that has been made possible. This is my testimony, and I
leave it with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ amen.

Questions:

1. Im used to speaking in church and don't mind it so much anymore. Of course it still takes a little bit of work to prepare, but I love being able to share what I have learned
with the branch. After church on Sundays, we sometimes talk with some members in the branch, but usually we just get out to work. If the members see us working
hard then they are more willing to work with us and give us referrals.
It is not really weird not wearing shoes in church anymore. I guess I have
gotten used to it over the time here in Uwajima.

2. We really only have about 2 or 3 active young men/young women in the branch.

3. Everyone in Japan knows at least a few words in English. Like how
are you, do you like English, I am tired, I am sleepy, etc... Some
people are really good at English, but most often people can just
speak a few words here and there.

4. I have actually given quite a few priesthood blessings since I have been in Japan.

 I have given about 3 or 4 since I have come to Uwajima.

5. Yes the Japanese run marathons sometimes. I don't think they have the
triathlon here. I am actually not really sure though.

6. There are quite a few fishermen in this area. That actually is
probably the biggest Job here in Uwajima. They do various different
jobs though.

7. We have different containers for recycling almost like what we do at home. One
for bottles, one for cans, one for burnables, etc... They have a
garbage schedule so you can only toss out the recyclable stuff once
every other week or so.

8. I haven't really heard anything about scouting in Japan. I have
seen a trailer once that had a Boy Scouts symbol on it. I may have
heard from a couple people before, but I think that hardly anyone does
it here in Japan.


  皆さん愛してますよ！今週、毎週従順になりましょう！神様はあなたたちを愛してます。Have a great week!

Hirschi 長老

38th week in Japan
5/1/2016
Exciting News with a New Vision!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am grateful for this opportunity that I have to email you about how
Uwajima is going. This past week we have received some exciting news
that Elder Stevenson, one of the new apostles, will be coming to Kobe
Japan on May 22nd to speak to us. With this news President Welch has
asked us to do all that we can in our power to see a baptism happen
before May 22nd this month. We are praying our hearts out for these
people and seeking the needed revelation from Heavenly Father so that
we can see these miracles happen. I know that with the help of the
Lord that this can be made possible. I also know that the first step
to making this happen is by obtaining faith.

These past few weeks we have worked so hard to teach so many people
about the gospel. I feel like even though we have been able to teach
so many more people about the gospel by setting higher goals, it is
almost coming to the point where it is more of teaching lessons and
not teaching people. One thing that I have been trying to keep more
focus on at the end of this week is teaching people. I want to make
sure that we are not here to just get numbers. These people are
children of God. They are not just a baptismal statistic.

With that in mind, at the end of our P day last Monday we were able to
teach one of our investigators named Yamashita san (san is Mr/Mrs in
Japanese). Yamashita san is about 50 years old and he used to be a
gymnast. He now judges professional gymnastics and he will be judging
for the 2020 olympics also. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus
Christ and he accepted a baptismal date for the 26th of June. We have
come to build a good relationship with him over this time, and I have
faith that we can help him reach his baptismal date on the 26th next
month.

One thing that is hard to help people in Japan with is to help
them pray. Many of the people that are willing to listen still believe
in Buddhism and because of that it is hard to help them find the truth
when they are not willing to pray. I know that Heavenly Father has
prepared people for us who are ready to act on the message though. In
the end if investigators are not willing to act on our message, as
much as it breaks my heart not to meet with them anymore, they must be
dropped. Recently we had this situation with one of our investigators
named Kinoshita san. He is very willing to listen to our message and
is a super nice guy, but he is not willing to act. As sad as it was to
tell him that we can't meet anymore, I know that there are others who
are prepared.

Yesterday we had a very good fast Sunday! There is nothing that I love
more than hearing the members testimonies. It is incredible to me to
see how strong of testimonies these members have. Last week I sent an
email about faith. Hearing from the testimonies of the members in this
Ward really helped me to increase my own faith so much. I still cannot
understand everything that these people are saying, but it doesn't
matter if I cannot speak the language fluently because the spirit
speaks all languages. The spirit filled the room yesterday and I will
never forget the testimony of a little old lady named Sister Ootani.
Even though she is about 80 years old and is losing some of her
memory, she still has the most powerful testimony you can ever hear. I
could never forget it.

My Ponderizing scripture for this week was Moroni 7:33. I am doing my
Ponderizing scriptures in Japanese now and when I bore my testimony in
sacrament meeting I actually quoted my scripture from memory.
Ponderizing is such a great way to increase faith and understand the
scriptures. My love for the scriptures has increased from doing so,
and many of the members from the branch are now doing it with us. We
ask them frequently and they have become stronger from it.

Questions:

1. We haven't done any exchanges lately, but we had a chance to go to
Matsuyama for another baptismal interview. Their candidate passed! I
am excited for them to be able to have another baptism soon. We have
not had TTTM yet, but we leave for Kobe tomorrow.

2. Yes, I did get the package finally.  Thanks so much. 

3. We can actually skype you on our next Monday in Japan. Which will
be the 9th of May, probably the 8th for you. We would skype in at
around 8:00 a.m. On Monday morning here and that would be around 5:00
p.m. For you on Sunday night. Let me know what you think. Hopefully
that works. Yes, we will Skype at the church. Sadly we only have 40
minutes to Skype. It is pretty short, so if you have some questions
you want answered then come prepared haha.

4. My companion is improving his Japanese language a lot. I remember as a second transfer how hard it was to stay focused when you have no idea what anybody is saying, but he seems to be pretty focused still and is trying to figure out the needs of the people that we teach. We did not reserve the basketball court for this week because we will be gone for most of the week, but we can probably reserve it next week, we will see.

5. I need to create more goals for this transfer. One big thing that I
have started is a study journal. It helps me stay focused and I have
been writing down the needs of our investigators the people that we
teach inside and figuring out answers to their needs. It has seemed to
help. 

6. The number 1 best way to practice the language is just talking to people.

Nothing beats talking to a native speaker. Obviously studying is important to be
able to improve though. I study from a grammar book that helps out a
lot. I like to read from the Japanese Book of Mormon to improve my
pronunciation. I also read from the Japanese PMG and write down words
that I don't know and then apply it to my lessons.

7. I have actually ended up putting my music on my iPad. It is very
useful. I am good on music and stuff thanks. I do use the flash drive,
but this area doesn't have a CD player so I am using my iPad for now.

8. I have not had an interview with president recently. He will be coming to Matsuyama for Zone Conference pretty soon though. My companion did have to speak in church a couple weeks ago. He did a really good job. I also have to speak in church next week.

Thank you all for your prayers, love, and support. I truly appreciate
it. I love you all and have a great week. 皆さんは素晴らしいですね！ありがとうございます！

Hirschi 長老

37th week in Japan
4/24/2016
Faith

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so glad to be able to tell you that there were no changes in
Uwajima for this upcoming transfer. My companion, Elder Philburn, and
I will be staying here for another transfer. I have really come to
love the members and all the people here, so I am extremely glad that
I do not have to say goodbye yet. I know that it will be tough when
the time comes that I do have to say goodbye, but for now it is time
to work and help these people. This past week has been full of good
experiences, but at the same time having my faith really tested.

We started off the week last week on P-day with me eating a full king
size meal at sukiya, which is huge. It is a challenge common among
missionaries and somehow I was able to do it. However, I am not
letting the food get to me. Still maintaining a good weight. We had a
fairly good P-day other than that. Because we did not know if we would
be transferring we went to a few different places in Uwajima to go
sight seeing. That was fun. I would send some pictures, but it is not
okay to take pictures of shrines and stuff, so sadly I can't.

On Friday we went to meet with a few of the youth in the branch to go
play some basketball at a nearby gym. I was so excited because I have
been wanting to play basketball with these guys ever since I came to
Uwajima. We went to the gym only to find out that it had been reserved
by another group of people. That was a bummer, but now we know we can
reserve it for another time when the youth have a day off of their
club. We were able to share a good message with them anyways and
hopefully soon we can reserve the court to go play another day.

The day after that we had a lesson with one of the less actives in the
area named Takeuchi kyoudai. He actually used to be the branch
president of the Uwajima branch and served his mission in Kobe Japan.
He is a very smart, kind person, but he has some odd reasons for
becoming less active. We talked to him for almost 2 hours and ended up
not being able to help him very much. He is pretty set on not coming
back to church, and he even got me testing my own faith. The next day
I prayed with all my heart to be able to regain my faith and asked for
Heavenly Father's help to do so. Going to church and hearing from the
member's testimonies was just what I needed to regain my faith. I am
truly grateful for these people and all they have done for me. I love
this area and I am grateful that I will be staying here for another
transfer.

My Ponderizing scripture for this week was Ether 3:14. We have been
inviting all the members around to do Ponderizing with us, and it
seems to be helping them strengthen their own testimonies. I just love
the scriptures and I will actually be doing Ponderizing in Japanese
from here on out to help me get better at the language.

Questions:

1. I think the cherry blossoms have pretty much withered away. There
are a lot of other flowers that are in bloom now though, and they are
very pretty. We did feel one earthquake aftershock on Monday night last week, but
we haven't felt any since then. We have gone to a few shrines, but no
parks lately.

2. I will be getting the package today. I actually talked to some people at the
post office to see if they could help me out. Thank you so much! Did
you get the one I sent?

3. We play ping pong with some members from the ward on Wednesday nights every
week. I don't think Elder Philburn likes ping pong that much, but he
is willing to play.

4. Transfers are the same for us. One of the sisters from our district left,
but that is it. We are still working on the apartment. It is getting
better little by little.

5. They haven't told us anything yet about skyping for Mother's day, but I will let 

you know. I am sure that we can skype on your Mother's Day or ours. I will let you

know probably next week when a good time is. I think that in the
morning here and at night there would be best, if that is okay.

6. My ward mission leader is awesome! He is actually a missionary. He
is the elder of the couple missionaries! I don't know why, but it
works out alright for this area I guess. I haven't seen too many
missionaries that I haven't seen in a while, but we will go to TTTM
next week, so I will see some people there.

7. We don't eat at members very often in this area, but we do kneel on
the floor a lot. It is pretty painful after a while, but you get used
to it eventually. My companion does not really like kneeling on the floor to eat haha.

8. Ummm... Yes they have some good fruits and vegetables that are different here 

that I like. They eat daikon, which is pretty good. They also have really good oranges and
kanpe (which is like an orange) here that are very delicious.

Thank you to everyone for all of your love. Tell Michael I said happy
birthday would ya! Also grandma Fawcet too. I will try to send them
some emails. I love you all, have a good week,

Elder Hirschi