JT - Adventures of a 3人

Hello everyone!

This week was, like the title implies, an adventure. First, let me tell you that a three-person companionship is weird in the mission field. This week was filled with getting Elder Brown ready to go home, and "last" appointments with people. Finding was really hard because Japanese people are really scared when they see 2 Americans and a Japanese looking guy who can't speak Japanese (me) coming towards them. So finding was not productive at all. Much of the week was going with Elder Brown getting last things before he goes and packing and also getting the area ready for when he leaves. Very strange week. On Wednesday, we found a pretty cool park where we took some pictures and tried to talk to people. That was maybe the coolest part of the week to be honest! Really, nothing noteworthy happened this week! Sorry everyone!

 

Well, this past Thursday (20th) was my year mark (hump day)!! To celebrate, we had lunch at スシロー Sushi roll!! I love that place so much! Sushi is definitely my favorite food in Japan. It was a very enjoyable thing to do to celebrate 1 year. It is crazy to think that it has been a year.

 

I have had some reflections regarding what has happened this past year. I have learned SO MUCH about myself, and about the most important things in life. I have had many hard experiences through which I have learned about my weaknesses as well as my strengths. I have learned to rely and put my whole trust in my Father in Heaven. I have gained a testimony of His love for each one of his children, which love we cannot begin to comprehend. Through serving my mission so far, I realize and am beginning to understand the importance of living the principles of the gospel everyday, everyday, everyday. Things I took for granted before my mission are now my most prized 'possessions', if you could call it that. I gained a better love for my family and friends that I hold dear. I learned the importance of family, and I have gained an excitement to one day have my own family for time and for all eternity. Although I haven't experienced very many "big" miracles, I understand that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." I testify that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that if and only if you abide by the teachings of that book can you find true happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. I have gained an appreciation for the Plan of Salvation, which I never truly understood before the mission. By living in a place like Japan, I have come to cherish the truths which were taught to me by my parents and in Primary. I am a firm believer that "everything I need to know, I learned in Primary." I know that as long as long as I am doing my best, God is happy with me, and everything will fall into place. I have learned to love the Japanese people and I feel so blessed to be able to see the incredible faith of these righteous members in these small branches in Maizuru and Nishiwaki, as well as in a bigger ward, Kitarokko. It has been a hard year, but a great one nonetheless. Here's to one more year of giving your "heart, might, mind and strength."

Well, now we are back to a regular companionship. Right now, Elder Brown is flying in the air on his way to Utah. So, the adventures of the 3人 has come to an end. Well everyone, I hope you have a great week and remember that the Lord is always with you! Love you all, keep smilin' and give 'em Heaven!!

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

Lumpia at Family Home Evening!!!  So Natsukahii! (missed, nostalgic, etc)

This is our Eikaiwa that we do every Wednesday (different from the one that the missionaries teach at church).  This was Elder Brown's last one, so they took a picture and had a little party.

3 hour train ride selfie :)

This is the Maizuru district!  Elder Brown's last district meeting.  So from now on, I will be working as District Leader for this awesome district!

Most of Maizuru Branch for Elder Brown's last day!  Love all these people!

JT - Transfer Week!

Dear Everyone,
This week went by fast with not many things happening. Transfer calls
came last week and neither of us are transferring, so it was just back
to normal life. However, on Thursday, we had to mix it up because of
two things. 1) picking up our new companion, Elder Van Cleave. 2)
Sending Elder Brown to the mission home to have his Play Day and his
"bye-bye" testimony meeting and dinner. So, long story short, Elder
Van Cleave and I had to go on a Kokan (companion exchange) with the
Zone Leaders in Akashi on Thusday and then on Friday we met up with
Elder Brown again and returned to Maizuru. Is probably makes no sense,
but please bear with me.

 

This guy was cool! He is from Tokyo and he was visiting Kobe. My new
companion, Elder Van Cleave and I needed to borrow a phone to call our
other companion, so we asked him if we could use his. He loves gaijin
(foreigners) and so he wanted a selfie with us. He has also met with
missionaries in Tokyo, so this was a "random coincidence."

On the way back to Maizuru, we passed through Kyoto Train Station. It is huge! Here's the Kyoto Tower.

These are the famous stairs that light up and dance at night. It's too bad it wasn't night time....

I had a fun time in Akashi. I went with Elder Cole, my old Zone Leader
and we taught a few of his investigators. They are teaching a bunch of
Filipino people, which is why they had me go with him. We went to
their house; an apartment filled with 5 Filipino people. One of them
is a returned missionary who served in Davao City Philippines, one of
them got baptized last month, and the other three are investigators.
We taught them a little bit about the 10 Commandments and we built
friendships with them. It was way fun to speak in English and to do
missionary work in English with them! I can express myself so much
better in English. Because of that, it is much easier to connect with
the people and better address their needs. It was a great time.
All of Friday was traveling to Maizuru and getting to know Elder Van
Cleave. He is so great! What makes things better is that he is
probably 5 ft. 0 and it is awesome! I am way excited to get to know
him more and to be able to work with him.
On Saturday, the Branch had a little activity where we ate dessert.
That was fun! We had little cakes, pudding and cookies. Talking to
everyone in this tiny branch is always so fun! I feel like a part of
this branch because I know everyone and I have talked to everyone many
times. I love these small branches more than the big wards because I
truly feel the love that they have for the missionaries. They need the
missionaries so badly in these branches and it makes me want to work
harder to help build the kingdom of God here. I love every time I get
to work with these incredible members.
That is basically the week in a nutshell. Hopefully this week will be
more noteworthy and interesting. This week marks a year since I have
been out on my mission! Crazy stuff! I still do not know Japanese, but
life is great! This next year is going to be long, but it is going to
be an adventure! Cheers to one more year of Missionary Life! I hope
you all have an incredible week!

Cutest kid ever!  Reminds me so much of Kaden, it is crazy!
Our Branch Presidents daughter lives in Draper, Utah and is 
married to an American.  The daughter came with her 1 year old
daughter to visit for a month while the husband is off on business.
It is so fun to have her in the Branch for a while!
It makes me miss Kaden.

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

JT - What happened this week?

We rode our bikes to the beach one day to try talking to some people.  It was so hot and it was like a 1.5 mile ride.  That's why it looks like I am wet...'Twas fun!

Dear Everyone,

So first off, Transfer News!! I am staying in Maizuru, which is expected. My new companion is an elder named Elder Van Cleave. I don't know too much about him other than I will be the Senior Companion. Also, they are making me the District Leader here! I'm actually way excited for this new responsibility and the new challenges that I will have to face. It will be very interesting. I still don't know Japanese, but it will all be good. Also, my current companion Elder Brown is going home a transfer early for school, but because of some weird complications, he can't go home until two weeks after this transfer starts. Which means, for a week and a half, we are going to be in a weird three person companionship. Doesn't make too much sense, but we'll see how that goes. There were a lot of changes throughout the mission this transfer! It's exciting! I am feeling like an old missionary now....

On Tuesday, we decided to ride our bikes to the beach and try to talk to some people there. We didn't expect it to take as long as it did, so we weren't able to talk to too many people, but it was fun! Japan is so beautiful! It was a long bike ride, so my legs were pretty sore after that. This week was filled with us trying to visit people, but most of them not being home. It is summer break in Japan right now and many people are out vacationing, visiting relatives, going to festivals and what not, so it has been very hard to meet with people recently. And it is still flippin hot. I can't stand how hot it is. Whenever we walk outside, I am drenched and dripping in sweat after 2 minutes. It's ridiculous!

On Wednesday, I had a pretty humbling experience. We taught one of our investigators, but the overall feeling we got from that lesson is that the investigator knows the things that the church teaches is great, but just that. They have great teachings and it's good to learn what other beliefs are. She doesn't apply the things that we learn into action, for example praying and coming to church. After that lesson while riding the bikes home, I was pretty frustrated. "Why won't people do the things that will help them so much in their life? Why don't they act upon good feelings and change their hearts?" As I was thinking about the whole situation, a story from General Conference came to my mind. The story of a missionary who was frustrated with his companion and when he was complaining to the Lord, he heard the Spirit say, "compared to me, the two of you aren’t all that different." That came to mind and I thought, "woah. I am just like that." I realized that I have a hard time applying the things that I learn as well. I kind of stepped back and realized that the things I am feeling now are just a smidge of what Heavenly Father feels with me. I learned from this little experience that the Lord puts people in our path so that we can learn about ourselves, as well as learning a bit of how God works and how he feels. I truly believe that God has placed me in these situations so that I can gain a bigger, more heaven-like perspective of life. We can realize our weaknesses and work to overcome them. So, it was a humbling experience and I am very grateful for this chance to serve the Lord and at the same time, learn how to improve myself for my future.

That's the week! I love it here in Maizuru and this next transfer is going to be an adventure. First time being a Senior Companion and District Leader. Crazy stuff!! The church is true folks. Tell your 

friends.

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

Fukuchiyama Zone! We had ZTM in normal clothes! It was so interesting, but super fun. We had nice discussions and trainings right next to the river and it was way relaxing. This was in my first area, Nishiwaki! I love it! It is a place called      日本へそ公園 (Nihon Heso Kouen) (Japan Bellybutton Park) So awesome!

Gotta love Japan English

This is not what I ordered McDonalds ... Even in Japan... So lame...

Cute Japanese kid wearing my nametag!

JT - Re-dedication day!

Yeah Japan

Dear Everyone,

So, yesterday, as the Japan Kobe Mission, we each had the opportunity to do a re-dedication of ourselves and the areas in which we work.  This Has the potential to change each of our missions and to change the people in their acceptance of the gospel significantly. I will talk more about it in a little bit. First, I'll talk about my week. It is dumb how Satan works. Whenever anything good is going to happen, Satan works so much harder to tempt you and to make everything seem to go wrong for you. For example, when people get really close to baptism, or serving a mission or any of those big, righteous decisions, they face so much opposition and trials. That is the pattern throughout all history, and the events leading up to the re-dedication was no exception. I'll be honest, this was one of the roughest, most discouraging week I have had in a long time.

Starting off with last Monday. We were on a train on the way back from shopping and what not for Preparation day. We had it planned so that we would get back with plenty of time to prepare for our lesson that we had scheduled at 6:30 that night. Timing was going to be comfortable for that. However, at about 4:45 on the train, the train stopped at one of the stations and wouldn't moved. It stayed in the same place for about 10 minutes before anybody asked what was going on. Apparently they stopped the train because of rain and they weren't sure when they would be able to continue going. We were still about a half hour train ride away from our station. After about 45 minutes, they had all of the people on the train get off and take a bus instead of the train. So, at this point, there was no way we would make it to the lesson because at 7:30 that night, we had FHE with a family. We wouldn't get back to our station until 7:00. So, we needed to call the person to tell him we wouldn't be making it, however, our phone died for no apparent reason! It ran out of battery even though we knew that we charged the phone. What else? Elder Brown got up and could not find his wallet. It was gone. Also, it wasn't really raining at all but yet they still stopped the trains. That was all really frustrating and super unfortunate. Well, we were able to borrow someone's phone and call our investigator and we were able to make it to the FHE. However, Elder Brown didn't have a wallet, which had like everything in it. So next day, we needed to go try to find his wallet. We had to file a police report, had to walk about an hour to get to a place that the police station told us to go, fill out paper work and then take the hour walk back to the train station in order to get back in time for Eikaiwa. The walk back was pouring rain. Out of no where, pouring buckets of rain. That was insane and so unfortunate. Our week was absolutely filled with moments like that. Also, every single person that we tried to visit this week wasn't home. Every single one of them. We also had a few appointments set up with people, but each one of them either called and cancelled or weren't at home. What's more? Our investigator who said she wanted to get baptized is super busy with work all month with no days off, so it looks like she isn't going to get baptized until at least next month. That I'm not worried about because she will get baptized and it really doesn't matter when she does it, but that was another unfortunate thing that I didn't particularly enjoy. It was a rough week, but I have faith that it will go up from here.

Oh by the way, they were able to find Elder Brown's wallet and we got it back on Friday. Everything was still in it!

So here is what the week was building up to, the thing that Satan was trying hard to stop happening. A couple weeks ago, during Zone Conference, President Welch was talking to us about his mission (He served here in Kobe Japan). He showed us the number of Baptisms his mission had each month he was on his mission. There was one point on his mission where the numbers jumped significantly, like an average of 30 per month to an average of 75 per month. (I don't remember the actual numbers, but it was that dramatic of a jump.) how/why did that happen? He said that the month of the jump, his mission president had all of his missionaries do a re-dedication. That day, each missionary said a prayer in which they re-dedicate themselves to missionary work and each companionship re-dedicate their areas for the people to accept the gospel. They did that and they saw a huge increase in their numbers. President Welch decided that now would be a good time to change the mission by re-dedicating our areas. He told us, "on August 2 between 6:00 and 7:00, we will be doing this as a mission. Prepare for it." So after all the personal preparation and the study that led up to this event, we re-dedicated ourselves to being a missionary as well as re-dedicated the area of Maizuru under the direction of President Welch. It was a great experience and we are all so excited to see the results of this effort. I really need to work harder to be more focused on helping these people and being totally obedient to the Lord in order for this to work out. This requires a lot more work, dedication and consecration in order to bring this to pass. I am way excited because I need a change in my mission and in my life. I have so many things I need to change, I need to work so much harder and I am grateful for this opportunity to do so. So, stay tuned for what happens because of this haha.

This is the place where we did the re-dedication of the area and our
personal re-dedication. Very beautiful place and many bugs that would
bite you.

After the dedication, we looked at the sun and it was a perfect dark red circle.  It was pretty crazy!

So yeah, crazy week. It probably seems like I am complaining a lot in this email, but I know that everything is alright. God is in control of all this and I trust that everything that happens happens for a reason. I trust that if I just keep doing my best to be obedient and doing all I can to fulfill my purpose as a missionary, it will all work out in the end. When things are hard, I always remember the quote that hangs in my Grandmother's house; "I never said it would be easy. I only said it would be worth it." Love you all!

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

Selfie on the bus with some High School kids

Pretty nice view of part of our area

JT - The week of trains again...

On the way back to Toyooka, we rode the "special train" that runs across the ocean.  The train would stop at good views so that people can take pictures of the view.  One time, we were crossing right over the river that leads to the sea and it stopped right in the middle of it.  It was beautiful ride.

Dear Everyone,
So it feels like most of my week was spent on trains. We had to go to Toyooka three times this week for 1) a baptismal interview for one of their investigators, 2) a Kokan (companion exchange) and 3) district meeting. It takes a two hour train ride to get there one way. It was pretty crazy, but because of that, my companion and I have been able to get into some deep conversations. It's been good! So we've had a couple cool experiences regarding our investigators. I was on Kokan when this happened so I don't know the full details, but they visited one of our investigators while on Kokan. She wasn't home, but her 15 year old son answered the door, so they began teaching him. Apparently he has a ton of interest! The cool thing about that was last week, trying to visit the same person, her 17 year old daughter answered and she has some interest too. So hopefully now we can be able to teach their whole family the gospel. They have great potential and hopefully they will come to fully accept the gospel into their lives. 
Next cool story. We wanted to help our investigator with the Recent Convert family this week, but we were unable to set up an appointment with them. So, we decided to make a cake and deliver it to them on Saturday night because they work hard and we wanted to show them love. So we made the cake in the rice cooker (had no idea that was possible!) and then delivered it. They were surprised and they let us in and we all ate the cake. We talked for a good hour and a half. Before we left, we shared a quick message about happiness and shared Mosiah 2:41. It is a promise by Heavenly Father that if you are faithful to the commandments and to the gospel, you will be blessed with happiness, even never-ending happiness. It went so well, the Spirit was so strong in that room. After we read the scripture, our investigator started sharing her testimony about how the church has truly blessed her family. She said she noticed a big change in their happiness and she also recognizes that Heavenly Father answers her prayers. That was a really powerful moment for me to witness her bare her testimony of the gospel. Then after that, her husband started testifying about the scripture and then their angel of a daughter testified as well. It was so great. Then the husband said something like, "I think you should get in the pool (baptism). How about August?" After a bit of a pause, she kind of turned the subject from baptism by saying that work was busy and what not, but she wants to get baptized. Then later we found out through our Branch President that she said she wanted to get baptized before Elder Brown goes home (in 3 weeks). We haven't set up a date with her yet, but we are meeting today, so we will try to get it all set up and ready to go. This is so exciting! This had nothing to do with us missionaries at all. All we did was share a scripture and the family took over the rest. I have a strong belief that almost nothing that happens to these people we teach are because of the missionaries. It is all on the power and influence of the Lord. The Lord prepares these people to hear the good news and the Lord works with them through the Spirit and through the missionaries. Nothing I do really has a big impact on an investigator. Only through their experiences with the spirit is conversion and change possible. I know that this is the Lord's work. He is in control. I know that as long as we put our trust in him, everything will work out. I know that because I know he lives and I know he loves us more than we could even imagine. I know that God's love is there for absolutely everyone. I am so excited and so happy to be an instrument and to be able to see the Lord work in the lives of these amazing Japanese people. 
I will end with a quote given by President Ucthdorf. "Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount--that is the measure of God’s love for you." I know that is true. We can't comprehend it at all, but I trust that it is true. I love you all! Keep up the good work and I pray that all of us can grow our testimonies and extend our knowledge this beautiful gospel.
Love,
Elder Lamoreaux
ラムロー長老

Oh Japan is so green in the summer!  This is on the train to Toyooka for a companion exchange.  These are a bunch of rice fields and it is so cool to see the wind rush through the tall grass.  They are everywhere in the small towns of Japan.

Oh Elder Childs, beloved zone leader taking a selfie on my iPad.  Now it's on the Internet!

Look at that sunset!! Japan sunsets can't be beat!

This is what we had for Pioneer Day.  We made burgers!  It was pretty good!  Happy 24th everyone!

Man what a good day!  So beautiful.  This is another one of the Matsuris in Japan.  So many people, so hot, so cool,  Again, so many shops and booths and people, but it was on Sunday, so we didn't get anything except for pictures haha.  It was fun.

The big Matsuri had a fireworks show at the end of it and we were invited to a BBQ at one of our friend's house to watch the fireworks.  It was pretty interesting, the BBQ was just a bunch of small meat put on a grill, so we didn't eat very much, but it tasted pretty good.  And the fireworks weren't as organized like American firework shows are.  Like there were spurts of good fireworks for about 30 seconds and then like a 5 minute break, then a couple normal fireworks go off, then a break again.  It lasted about an hour like that, so it wasn't the best firework show I've seen, but it was the first time (and probably last time) I have seen fireworks in Japan.  Cool experience.