61st week in Japan
10/9/2016
総大会 (General Conference)

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a great conference! I know that I am a week
behind, but let's try to continually treasure up the words of life and
not forget the things that we learned this conference. I know that
there were many powerful talks given and hopefully many of you were
able to have specific questions answered. My companion Elder Johnson
and I sure received a lot of revelation through conference and we are
excited to apply it to the missionary work in this area.

Recently we have received a challenge from President Welch. He told us
that he has been fasting and praying a lot about how to help the
mission and he has received revelation that each companionship in the
mission can see a baptism by the end of the year. I know that
conference only boosted our spirits to help us gain the faith required
to achieve President Welch's new vision. We are excited to get to
work, to do all that we can to labor so that we can see
miracles happen.

One of the things that really stuck out to me from conference was the
talk "There is Power in the Book," by Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. He
talked about a few different stories of people who's lives
dramatically changed by reading the Book of Mormon. Through hearing
this talk it made me think back at when I first came to know for
myself personally that the Book of Mormon is true. Knowing that the
Book of Mormon is true is just the beginning of our testimonies. I
believe that it is truly the foundation of where our testimonies
should stand.

As Elder Stevenson mentioned in a talk just previous to Elder Curtis's
talk, the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. The entire
truthfulness of the church all relies upon whether or not the Book of
Mormon is a true book. That being said how important is it that we
each gain our own conviction individually that the Book of Mormon is
true. Our entire testimony of the church depends on it. I can truly
say for myself that I know that the Book of Mormon is God's word. It
was translated by a modern day prophet, Joseph Smith. God loves us so
much that he carefully and thoroughly created a plan for us to have
this book today. Many people have sacrificed their lives so that we
can read this book and come closer to Christ through abiding by the
principles written within.

It is truly a great blessing to hear from the prophets and apostles 2
times a year to know how we can come closer to Christ and follow his
gospel. I am grateful for these great men who sacrifice their lives in
the service of our Heavenly Father. I love them and sustain them will
all my heart. I know that through following the counsels that we
receive from the prophets and apostles we can live happy lives. We can
grow, progress, and gain more faith in the Savior. We can find
strength to endure, and one day we can return to live with our Father
in Heaven. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Ponderizing scripture: I have to be 100% honest and say that I think I
left it on the wall when I transferred, so I forgot what my scripture
was, but a good scripture that I would like to share is Colossians
2:5-7.

Questions:

Did you make it okay to your new area?  How is the area?  Do you like it?

1.  Yes, I arrived okay. It is a good area. It is pretty flat and the
roads are nice. The members are amazing and have great faith. I
actually got to do my first split ever with members yesterday, so that
was fun. My companion is Elder Johnson. He is awesome! He loves
basketball. He is about 6  foot 6 inches. He likes to work really hard
too. We are going to have a blast this transfer!

Have you ever had any Asian pears there in Japan?

2. Yes! They are called Nashi. They are absolutely the best fruit I
have ever had. I got a huge one from a member in my last area, but I
forgot to take it with me. They are really juicy too.

Do they decorate there for Halloween?  Have you seen any Halloween stuff lately?

3. Yes they do. They actually had a little Halloween party thing that
anyone in Fukuchiyama could go to. It was kind of fun. The church will
also be doing a party pretty soon.

Do you ever use your mini hymn book that is in English that we sent with you?  We are wondering if we should send one with Logan.

4. I actually have one on the iPad, so I never really get the chance
to use it. He probably doesn't need one.

What is your new companion like?  Where is he from?

5. He is awesome! He is from Woodland Utah. He lived in Spain for a
while and used to be able to speak Spanish. He is way good at
basketball! Loves to work hard and is pretty funny too. I am excited
to work with him this transfer.

 When will you get to watch conference?  Will you do anything for your birthday?

6. We were able to watch it on Saturday and yesterday. I actually
forgot it was my birthday yesterday until one of the members blurted
it out in the middle of while we were eating lunch together, so
everyone sang to me. It was very nice of them. Other than that it was
a normal day. I got to do a split though. Also I didn't get my bags
yet, so I wasn't able to make cake, but we will probably do that
today.

Were the slacks we sent for you good ones and enough of them?  We are trying to decide how many to send with Logan? 

7. Yes, they work good. He probably only needs about what you sent me
with 3. They still work for me and honestly you can get some that
missionaries leave behind for free that work when the other ones wear
out. He could probably also get some in Chile and they might be cheaper there.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Hirschi

60th week in Japan
10/3/2016
断食と祈り (Fasting and Prayer)

Dear Family and Friends,

Recently we have received a new challenge from our mission President
that has really uplifted our mission. We all want to get to work and do
anything that we can to accomplish this new vision. President Welch
has received revelation that each companionship in the Japan Kobe
mission can see a baptism before the end of the year. We have been
thinking deeply about what we can do to achieve this new goal.

As missionaries we go out to serve our brothers and sisters every
day. We see them on the streets, we meet with them in their homes, we
see them at church, and many other places. They are all around us, and
they are all our family. Sometimes it feels like a big responsibility
has been put on your shoulders. So many of God's children do not even
know him. They don't know the plan that he has set out for them. In
the Pre Earth life we all lived together. God created a plan for us
and he determined the circumstances that each one of us would be born
into when we came to this Earth. I am willing to bet that as members of
this church we talked to our brothers and sisters in the life before
this about how we were going to find them. We promised them that we
would come to their aid.

Then God sent us to the Earth. We were separated and scattered across
the Earth. It is our duty to find those who we promised we would come
to help. Many days we get turned down. People often times close the
door on us before we even get the chance to tell them who we are, let
alone tell them the importance of the message that we bring to their
doorstep. These are members of our family! We love them. We will do
all that we can to help them, but often times even giving your best is
not enough to help people change.

This is the time when we think what we are doing is our best, but we
realize that we have to take it even a little bit farther. Today I
read in Alma chapter 6. This chapter is not that long, but it talks
about how Alma establishes the church in Zarahemla. Then the people
are commanded that "they should gather together to join in fasting and
mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew
not God." (Verse 6) I truly believe that in order to change the hearts
we have to give it every last ounce of energy that we have. I know
that the Lord wants us to serve with ALL of our heart, might, mind,
and strength. Through fasting and mighty prayer we can show God how
much we care for these people. We can strengthen our charity for the
people. We can begin to see these people as our Heavenly Father sees
them.

God is a God of miracles! He loves us. His work is moving forward. I
know that God is concerned for the salvation of every single soul that
he has created. He wants us to become like he is one day. Sometimes
life may seem hard, sometimes we may get rejected when trying to share
the gospel, sometimes temptation to take the easier path is strong,
but God has provided for us a way to overcome our trials. He has given
us a savior. Through our savior Jesus Christ we can do all things. He
loves us. I say these things in his sacred name, amen.

Ponderizing scripture: Alma 37:7. 

By the way this week is transfer
week and I got a call from my mission president that I would be headed
over to Fukuchiyama. I am going to be the zone leader and I have been
given the privilege to serve many other missionaries around me. I am
grateful for the calling that the Lord has given me and I will do my
best to achieve it.

Questions:

Do they have rec centers there in Japan like we have here?

1. I have seen a few different buildings that are similar to
recreation centers around here. They don't seem to have that many
though.

Any plans for your birthday? Do you think you will make Oreo cheesecake from the boxes we sent?

2. Yes, I will probably have to do that. I am not sure what else I
will do though. I am headed over to Fukuchiyama on Thursday so it will
be a lot different.

Do you know if they carve pumpkins there for Halloween? Do you think you will dress up again for Halloween this year?

3. I don't see many pumpkins here in Japan. I don't think they carve
pumpkins very much. I think we will probably dress up again. I am not
sure what we will do though.

What are some of your favorite members in Katsura?

4. I love Jyuou kyoudai. He is way awesome. He got back recently from
his mission in Fukuoka (I think). I really love all the members but
the YSA (youth) are extremely good in this ward. Shingo kyoudai our ward
mission leader is also pretty great.

Do you use the church videos on your ipad a lot for teaching?

5. We use them fairly frequently yes. It depends on who and what we
are teaching though.

 Do you have any advice for Logan on learning a new language?

6. That is a very good question. Don't get frustrated when it seems
hard at first. Develop a love for learning the language from the
beginning. Try to keep in mind how cool it is to learn a new language
and strive your hardest to learn it. I think that intently listening,
especially to native speakers helps the most. Also mimicking what they
say is good to help you learn quickly. Like with all things it takes
time.

I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老

Fushimi Inari  1000 Tori Gates

59th week in Japan
9/25/2016
秋祭りと良い模範 (Fall Festival and Good Examples)

Dear Family and Friends,

We have had a lot of finding time and some fun activities last week. I
have been learning how to become a better leader and follow the
example of the ward leaders in the Katsura ward. These members are
incredibly strong and have such great faith. I cannot describe how
grateful I am to be able to build friendships with such great people.

A few nights ago we had a fall festival at the church and invited many
people to come. They set up games, had some good food, and we set up a
missionary booth. It was a very good opportunity to find some more
people who were prepared to hear the restored gospel. We were able to
help a lot of people learn more about the church and find some new
investigators by doing so. We also were able to develop greater
friendships within the ward. We had a lot of fun.

It was great to see many of the members being their friends and talk
with them about the gospel. We were introduced to a few of the members
friends and are going to start working with some more people now. One
thing that stuck out to me during this ward activity is how good these
people are. They have such great hearts. Even though sometimes
Japanese people may seem a little bit stubborn and self centered on
the outside. They truly have good hearts on the inside.

On Sunday we had ward conference. We were able to hear from our bishop
and the stake president. They both gave great powerful talks. Our
stake President pretty much called everyone to repentance. I am
excited to start working with the members more. President Shibata said
that he wants us to teach the members how to find from preach my gospel
using chapter 9 "how do I find people to teach." Because the members
live so far away we are going to start trying to do Skype lessons.

Well sorry this one is so short and not as spiritual, but I do want
you to know that I know the church is true. Jesus is the Christ. He
loved each one of us so much that he was willing to volunteer to come
down to Earth and die for us. The Lord has so much mercy. I know that
God loves us and answers our prayers. We can talk to him about
anything. Through sincere pray we can see miracles in our daily lives.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Ponderizing scripture: Alma 33:23

Questions:

 How is the ward mission leader in your area?  Do you sometimes go on splits with the members?

1. The ward mission leader is amazing. He is 23 years old and he
served a mission in Tokyo. We have done a few joint lessons with him
when he isn't busy, but we have never been able to do splits yet. I
think he wanted to try it out though once he has some time.

Do you sing mostly hymns in church or do you ever sing the primary songs?

2. We always sing hymns. I don't think we have really sang any primary
songs before.

When are the next transfers?  Are you hoping to stay in Katsura or would you like a change?

3. Transfer calls should come next Tuesday. For some reason I feel
pretty indifferent. I would love to stay, but if Heavenly Father wants
me to go, I would love to go as well.

Do you put your garbage out once a week and the recycling every week, or how does the recycling work?

4. We have certain days of the week that we have to take out certain
types of trash every week. It really depends on the area that you live
as well. Here we do plastic on Wednesday. Burnable is on Monday and
Thursday. Cans and glass are on Friday.

 Do you have any suggestions for Logan of how to stay organized with your stuff on your mission? 

5. I don't think he will have that much of a problem. We transfer fairly often so I leave a lot of my stuff in my luggage. When transferring just double check to make sure you have
everything. He should be all good.

Do you ever share ties or trade ties with the other missionaries?

6. Yes. With most of my companions we have traded ties at the end of
our companionship.

Love you everyone. Have a great week!

Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老

58th week in Japan
9/19/2016
Alma 26:27

Dear Family and Friends,

Now I don't normally do this, but at the request of my dear Mother I
have been asked to write a brief summary of what I have done each day
of the week, so I am going to try to do so. Sometimes you work so hard
and lose track of time and days, so I am sure I will miss a few
things, but I will try my best.

Monday - We went to Kiyomizudera, one of the most famous places in all
of Kyoto and I think Japan. We woke up early in the morning (around
5:00) and rode over to go see the temples/kiyomizu (pure water). On
the way up to Kiyomizudera you go up a very large hill with a ton of
shops on both sides. It is a pretty narrow street with shops that are
full of Japanese souvenirs and different things. We bought a couple of
things and then we went up to see the Kiyomizu and some of the temples
at the top of the hill. There is always a lot of foreigners there. We
then came back and did our regular preparation. Wash clothes, go
shopping for food, email home, and do everything else that we need to
in order to get ready for the upcoming week. We taught a less active
named Yamaguchi shimai, did some housing (tracting), and taught an
investigator named Ootsuki who we had to drop.

Tuesday - A day full of finding. We didn't have too many lessons set
up and we are really struggling to find investigators at the moment,
so we did a lot of finding today. We visited sister Katou who is
always kind and gives us drinks before we leave. We taught a few new
people while housing today, but we weren't able to see much success.
We met a few teenagers and a younger mother who seemed willing to
listen. She at least said that she would be okay with us coming back.

Wednesday - We did all tracting today with hardly any other options of
finding. We tried our best and worked hard, but we still have not seen
the greatest of results. We are trying to do God's will and maybe he
just really wants to teach us to have more patience right now. So we
are going to work as hard as we can. We made a pact to get up at 5:00
a.m. every morning to study Japanese so that we can become the best
missionaries that we are able to. We also taught Eikaiwa today. It was
a fun class today. We had a bunch of new people come. About 12 people
showed up; whereas, 6-8 usually show up. We played pictionary and
split up into teams. I think that everyone really had a good time.

Thursday - Usually on Thursdays we go to visit a less active named
Nishiyama kyoudai. He lived in America for a while, so he can speak
English pretty well. He is a little bit odd, but he is a very nice
Brother. We sometimes play ping pong and a few weeks ago my companion
gave him a haircut. We gave him a bunch of coins from America and he
freaked out a little bit. He really likes collecting coins and he was
super happy. He felt bad that he didn't have anything to give us, so he 

just grabbed a bunch of things from his counter and started putting them 

in a bag to give us when we went home. It was a little odd, but I am glad 

that he was able to find some of the coins that he wanted to collect. We also do 

our Weekly Planning sessions on Thursday, so we did that for quite a few hours today.

Friday - Zone Training Meeting. This week we did something a little
bit different. We did something called workshops. There were 4 stations
where we could learn from and each of the companionships could choose
which station that they wanted to go to, to learn from. We had 90
minutes and could switch at anytime. It was fun because we did a lot
of role playing for our investigators and learned a lot. We also had a
companionship exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder
Wharton and we had a blast. We worked hard, saw some miracles, and
really learned how to improve our teaching. We also went out to eat
sushi at the end of the day, so that was a lot of fun.

Saturday - We rode back to Katsura in the morning and taught one of
our investigators named Komori kyoudai. We taught him about baptism
and how he is so close to reaching baptism. He is currently keeping
almost all of the commandments, going to church every week, praying
every day, and he reads the scriptures every day. We helped him set up
a baptismal date for November 12. We also taught Ryu kun, a recent
convert who is 9 years old. Because he is so young, and his 7 year old
sister came, it was a little bit difficult to teach, but we played a
game and gave them some treats to help them focus. The rest of the day
was not all that successful, but we did meet a guy from Germany named
Moritz. He was way willing to talk with us about religion and even
said that he had some interest. He is only in Kyoto for a few more
days, but he said he could meet up with us again and we will try to
refer him to the missionaries when he goes.

Sunday - A fairly normal Sunday. We went to DCS in the morning. I am
not sure how to explain it in English, but basically it is a meeting
with the ward mission leader. During sacrament meeting a few returned
missionaries came to speak and they gave really good talks. They
helped me get motivated to dendou (I don't know how to say this in
English other than "do missionary work"). We also had Komori kyoudai
and Hayata kyoudai show up for sacrament meeting. (2 of our
investigators) We got a lot of appointments cancelled on us today, but
we were able to reach most of our goals this week and we tried to
work our hardest.

Overall a great week this week. I know I have written a lot, but I
would like to share one quick experience that I had a couple of weeks
ago that is related to the scripture that I have titled this email
with. It was on Tuesday the 6th. We had a pretty long day of looking
for less actives and finding some, but sadly none of them wanting to
talk with us. We set some pretty high goals to help us stretch that
day and we were going to do anything that it took to achieve them.
Coming toward the end of the day we had taught a few people, but we
had a goal to teach at least 2 more lessons by the end of the day. We
were extremely tired and it was already dinner time, but we decided to
keep moving forward to reach our goals. So we went housing.

We housed down a couple of streets with only rejections. We were
started to feel like maybe we could not reach our goals and that maybe
Heavenly Father didn't intend for us to continue what we were doing.
By the time that it hit about 8:30. We had gotten turned down a lot of
times and quite a few people were actually really rude to us, which
doesn't happen that often in Japan, but we decided we were going to
try one more house. I had felt pretty good about doing 1 more. So we
rang the doorbell and a sweet older lady came out. She asked us what
we were there for and we told her that we were missionaries sharing a
very important message to the world. While we were in the middle of
introducing ourselves her husband, who was about half naked from the
bottom down, ran out to the front door, screamed at us "Kairrrre!"
(Meaning "Go Home!"), and slammed the door in our faces. My companion
and I stood there with not much to say.

So we decided that we were going to go back home. We were sick of being
turned down so much. At that time I remembered a scripture that my
companion and I had read this morning which was Alma 26:27. "Now when
our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the
Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites,
and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you
success."

On the way back, we thought to ourselves that we couldn't just let God
down on the goals that we had set out. So we thought about what we
could do to teach 1 more person that we had on our goals for the day.
We slowed down to think about it for a minute and at that time, God
placed in our path 2 high school kids who were on their way home. We
stopped to talk with them and they were willing to hear us out. They
did not have much interest in the message, but we were at least able
to help them come to a knowledge of their Heavenly Father.

God is truly a God of miracles. He never breaks his promises. He
comforted my companion and I, just like he did the sons of Mosiah. We
tried our best to be patient and in the end he was able to help us see
success. I am so grateful that God hears and answers our prayers. He
truly does love each and every one of us. I know these things and
testify of them in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Questions:

Does your companion like to cook?  What are some things you guys like to cook?

1. Yes he does like cooking. We like cooking curry, yakisoba, pasta,
soup, chouhan (a Chinese rice dish), and different things. We pretty myuch
each smoothies every night to be more healthy. We also gave up
chocolate, soda, and oily foods.

Do the Japanese people do anything different for birthdays than we do?

2. I don't think that it is much different for their birthdays. I have heard that when you
turn 20 they do something special because you become an adult at the
age of 20 in Japan.

Does your ward have a choir or people that do musical numbers in church sometimes?

3. No we do not. There are quite a few people that can play the piano
here though.

Do you still listen to the church music we sent?  Would you like us to send more? 

4. Yes, sometimes. I am okay. You don't need to send me more. Thank you though.

What are some of the investigators like in your area?  What do they do for work?

5. Right now we don't have that many investigators. A few of the ones
that we do have are struggling with the word of wisdom. One is from
China. We also have a few who are currently in college, but they
haven't been able to meet lately because they are so busy. 1 of our
investigators is a car salesman. 1 is a nurse. 1 of them is too old to
work. 1 is currently doing an internship to become a therapist I
think.

Do you feel comfortable with the language now and about when did you start to feel like it was getting easier? 

6. I do feel pretty good with the language, but I have a loooooong
ways to go. I feel like I made a huge jump when I got a Japanese
companion and then when I became a trainer, but after that I feel like
I kind of plateaued. I am working with my companion to learn a lot
more words daily and to be able to get the language down to the best
of my ability.

Do you know if they have any holidays or festivals in the fall? 

7. I don't know much about any festivals in the fall, but we will have
one at the church on the 22nd. We are going to do games and a
missionary booth. It should be fairly similar to what we did in our
ward in America.

Thanks everyone for all of your love, prayers, and support. I truly
appreciate it. I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老