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

36th week in Japan
4/17/2016
地震がありました！(There was an earthquake)

Dear Family and Friends,

We have had a very eventful last week of the transfer here in Uwajima.
I cannot believe that the transfer has already ended. I feel like I
just met Elder Philburn at the mission home the other day. I have
learned so much from him and I am so grateful for the opportunity that
I had to be his trainer. I have also learned so much more from being a
district leader this transfer than I have learned in any of my past
transfers. It has been such a privilege to see the missionaries around
me. They have truly inspired me to become a better missionary. I love
being in the service of the Lord.

Maybe some of you have already heard, but there has been a few
Earthquakes going on in the Fukuoka mission, which is the mission right
next to ours. On Thursday night we had just finished our daily
planning session when we got an alert message on the phone. I couldn't
tell what it was until we felt the ground start shaking. It was the
first real Earthquake I think that I have ever been in. The ground was
shaking and it felt so strange. It was nothing big, so nothing to
worry about here, but I sure hope that the people in Fukuoka are okay.
We also felt one more Earthquake the next night at around 1:30 a.m. It
woke us up for a few minutes and then we went right back to sleep. It
is supposedly all over the news though and everyone has been talking
about it.

All crazy disasters aside, it has been a good final week of the
transfer. We got an email at the beginning of the week from one of the
APs saying that as a mission we need to work together to make this the
best week yet. We worked hard to make our week as effective as we
possibly could have. We were able to reach almost all of our goals and
we were also able to find 6 new investigators this week. It is nice to
be able to talk to some people who actually have some interest in the
gospel. The Lord has truly blessed us for our efforts. I am grateful
for all of the miracles that I have seen this transfer, even though
Midori san had to cancel her baptismal date on the 17th. We will still
keep working with her to help her set up a new date and progress
towards being baptized.

One miracle that I am truly grateful that I was able to take part in
this week was a lesson with a referral from a member in the ward. We
were able to teach her about the restoration of the gospel, and help
her understand everything very well. The lesson we taught that day was
one of the best lessons I think I have taken part in on my mission.
She was able to understand everything very well, and it seemed like her
curiosity built up, and we are excited to be teaching her again.
Sister Matsumoto, the member who referred her has really built a
trust with us this transfer. I am truly grateful for her and for her
effort to do missionary work with us.

I can honestly say that this transfer has truly been a blast. I am
grateful for Elder Philburn and all of his hard work. He has such
strong faith and is willing to do anything for the Lord, even when he
gets tried. I hope that I can stay another transfer here with the
people of Uwajima, but we will see what the Lord has in store for us.
My Ponderizing scripture for this week was 3 Nephi 11:39.

Questions:

1. I think that the missionaries in Kumamoto are okay after the earthquake. 

I haven't really heard too much about how they are doing down there though. We
did feel the shaking. It was pretty crazy, but nothing dangerous. I
don't remember if they did any training about what to do if there is a quake.

 I don't think they did.

2. I think that I will stay here with Elder Philburn in Uwajima this transfer. I
would like to stay here in Uwajima longer. I really love the
people here. I feel like I have come to love them a lot more this
transfer than my last transfer here.

3. My companion likes Japan a lot. He wants to stay in Uwajima this transfer and
then transfer out next transfer to another place. I got to see
Weakley choro at our zone training meeting this last week.

4. We have met a bunch of new people this week. It has been great to
find some people who actually have some interest. However, we have had
to drop quite a few also. We are looking for those who are prepared,
not those who just want to talk with foreigners. Yes, we have a primary at our

church, but Sadly there is only 1 kid that goes to primary and that is it. We
don't really teach other classes to kids other than English or gospel
lessons, but we do have quite a few English classes here. We have our
regular Ekaiwa every week and we have 2 other classes that we do every
week. I will send a picture from one of the classes this week. We
actually were able to teach everyone some of the discussions in these
classes, but they weren't interested.

5. My bike is still holding up well. I got hit by a car last P-day and that
messed up my bike a little bit, but I was totally fine. The lady was really
sorry and was willing to help me out with anything. We exchanged
numbers and it actually didn't take any money to fix my bike, so that
was good. Her car was fine too. Other than that, it has been holding
up well. We have to clean it and fix it up fairly frequently.
Especially when it rains, but it is good to learn how to take care of
it. No flat tires yet. I have been very blessed. Yes we have had to go
up a lot of hills still, but it is very good exercise.

6. When we travel far, we always travel with the couple in the area to go to 

district meetings and zone meetings. It is about an hour drive. They are so
nice to take us. The district is doing so well. Everyone is working so
hard. I also got the opportunity to interview someone for a baptism on
Friday last week. It was the Matsuyama elders investigator. He passed
and has his date set for next Sunday. I wish I could go so bad. The
guy I interviewed was so awesome.

7. I feel like a lot of kids play games and stuff here, but I don't really know
about Nintendo. A few of the members have bikes in this area, but a few also 

have cars.

Sheila and Georges question: I actually don't know why we always do
the peace sign. I guess we just feel awkward if we stand there and
don't do anything haha. It is kind of interesting though. Maybe we
should think of something else to do instead.

Thank you everyone for all of your support. I love you all. Keep up
the Ponderizing and have a great week!

Hirschi 長老