JT - "And at last I see the light!" -Tangled

Dear Everyone,

So, transfer calls came! Unfortunately, my companion Elder Van Cleave is gypsying (getting transferred after just one transfer in an area. Weird missionary lingo). He is transferring to Hanayashiki. But, I am staying in Maizuru!!!! So excited for that! My new companion is Elder McAurthur. I don't know who he is, but I will be his 2nd trainer. (How the mission works is that for a missionaries first two transfers, they are being trained. So me being this Elders 2nd trainer means that he is halfway done with being trained.) so I will finish up his training, which is going to be way fun! I am still DL, so I am excited to continue this. It will be a good transfer. よろし Van Cleave 長老！ it's been a great transfer!

Today, I want to share something very interesting that happened to me while studying this past week. I was trying to study for District Meeting, but I was pulling up a blank. We had to talk about how to help others have spiritual experiences, but I had no idea what to do. So, as I was sitting there, a song came into my mind which lyrics are "and at last I see the light, and it's like the fog is lifted." A random Disney love song came into my head for some reason. I was like "that was weird," then I actually thought of the lyrics. And then all of a sudden, it hit me like a sack of bricks. We need to help people have spiritual experiences that can connect to the Light of Christ that is already in them. I remembered President Packer's quote in PMG that says, "the missionary or teacher is making contact with the Spirit of Christ already there. The gospel will have a familiar ‘ring’ to them." A light triggered in me and I found that this works perfectly with what I should do for this District Meeting. I realized that everyone has had the Light of Christ with them their whole lives. What we as missionaries need to do is help them realize and finally define those 'Light of Christ' feelings they've had. And it worked pretty well in DM on Friday. District meeting went really well. My whole district participated a lot which really brought the spirit and I was able to learn a lot. I think my district also learned a lot from the spirit that was there. I loved it! Well, there you have it. Revelation coming from a Tangled love song.

The District at a nice Japanese style restaurant! From back left to
right: Elder Van Cleave, Elder Tsuchiya, me, Elder Dale, Sister
Gibson, and taking the selfie, Sister Saijo.

Well, this week was pretty slow;not many things going on. But we had a couple of cool experiences! Our investigator who is set for baptism in two weeks isn't feeling very well, so we haven't been able to meet with her for a while. We were thinking about ways to help her, and we came up with the idea of cooking food for her family so that she won't have to. She is Filipina, so I tried making Lumpia for her. It worked out really well! I found some wrappers and I used ground beef, carrots, sprouts, and cabbage. However, I forgot one thing... Salt... So it was really bland, but still pretty good. It was my first time making it from scratch so give me a break ;). At any rate, it went well, she really appreciated it and I hope it makes her burden a little lighter. We also gave her a Tagalog Bible that finally came here from Tokyo. Afterwards, she sent us a text all in Tagalog thanking us for the stuff. I actually understood all of it! Tried answering back in Tagalog, but that was really hard. Anyways, I think things are still going good for her baptism in two weeks! Pray that she will overcome these pre-baptism trials!
 

Lumpia!!! (Elder Van Cleave helped me wrap some of them)

Also, in this branch, there are three main couples who come to church every week. They are all in their 40's ish, so not too old, but neither of them have children. I don't know the reasons why, but nonetheless, no kids. But, a few weeks ago, we received news that one of these couples finished the papers that allowed them to adopt a baby!! They picked their new baby up from a hospital in Tokyo a couple days ago. Yesterday, we were invited to go with the Branch President, his wife and our first councilor to go see their baby for the first time. It was a very special moment. This baby was born a month early, so she is tiny. She was born last month, but is still super small. They also allowed us to hold the baby (against the rules maybe??). Haha, it was such a cool experience and I am so excited for this couple. They looked so happy to finally have a child. I felt so privileged to be a part of this special moment.

Well, that's about it for this email. Lots of new stuff coming for next week! Missionary work ain't easy, but if you keep smiling and give 'em Heaven, it is the best thing you could possibly be doing! Love you all! Have a great week!

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

Holding the Baby!  So awesome!  She is so small!

Japanese restaurant.  A boiling pot of stuff!

I've been experimenting a lot with food recently!  It's been fun.  This is some pork and veggies mixed in a mix of Yakiniku and Sweet chili sauces.  It was yummy!

JT - 穏やか "Odayaka"

Dear Everyone,

"Odayaka" is the word of the week. It means calm, gentle or quiet. I learned it on Tuesday and I swear I heard it at least twice everyday since then. It is a beautiful word and I decided to make that my title because I have like no other ideas for titles.

This was an awesome week! I had District Leader Council in Kobe on Tuesday. So, my companion and I went to Fukuchiyama Monday night. I went on splits with the DL in Fukuchiyama so we could go together to Kobe. It was a great meeting! We received lots of training on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and how an understanding of that can really solve any problem that you have in life. As a mission, we have been reading the Book of Mormon with a focus on understanding the Doctrine of Jesus Christ better. We spent about an hour and a half in that meeting discussing what everyone has learned so far. Then we discussed about the difference between Ministering and Administering. I am called as a DL to minister to these people as the Savior would minister. Throughout our discussions, I came to the conclusion that the most important thing for a person to do in this life is to develop Christlike love. Love truly is the motive for anything good in the world. If we can just let go of our pride and learn to love everyone, despite of their actions, this world would be a much better place. So, I am trying to love more all those around me. Showing love through simple acts of kindness is the most important thing. I realized that saying you love someone and actually loving someone are two separate things; much like the principle of Faith. It is through our actions that determine our love. Love is really so important, and I am working more on that. After a lunch consisting of Costco Pizza (yesssss!!) we were trained on teaching simple lessons so that our investigators will understand what we are saying. All-in-all, it was a great meeting and I learned so much.

DLC! (District Leader Council) here are all of the District Leaders in the Japan Kobe Mission!  We were able to receive training from President and Sister Welch and the Assistants.  It was a great time!

Tastes like America! (But much more expensive..)

Elder Simpson and I at Burger King in Kobe going on splits for DLC

On the bus.. Yay!

Friday was District Meeting and we had some great discussions about the things that I learned in DLC. Everyone in my district participated and it turned out to be a great opportunity to learn through the Spirit. We even had a recent convert come and participate in our meeting! We also talked about the importance of testifying about simple truths. I am getting better at organizing district meetings. I found that you can prepare really well, but sometimes, the Spirit makes the meeting go a different direction than you have already planned. It's pretty cool to see it flow throughout the meeting. Somehow, we were able to cover all that we needed to cover and I think everyone had a good experience there. Everything is starting to come together, little by little.
 

The district at Sushi after District Meeting!

Saturday and Sunday, we were able to teach a few fun lessons. One of them was to one of our old investigators. We decided we wanted to sing 神の子です "I am a Child of God" to him. I haven't really sung in lessons before, but when we did here, there was a great spirit that was felt. Hymns can truly bring the Spirit into a room more than anything else can. I think we will try to sing more during lessons. Also, we decided to deliver cookies to some investigators that have been really hard to meet lately. One of them, an older couple, actually invited us in and we had a good, unplanned, teaching opportunity. It testified to me that when you are going about doing good, God will recognize your efforts, and will bless you accordingly.

We went to visit a Potential Investigator we found in the area book. All that was written was "he likes gaijin (foreigners)" and he was close so we thought "hey, why not?". Well he let us in and welcomed us into his "man-cave". Dang I want this so badly!! Inside were 3 Saxophones, 2 pianos/organs, a beautiful acoustic guitar, a framed "fender" bass and electric guitar, a flat screen T.V. and a small recording studio! It was so cool!! He played the saxophone for us and he let me play the piano and the guitar that he had. He then fed us some dinner out of nowhere which we appreciated. We tried talking about the gospel, but he said that he wasn't interested and said that it was "dame" (forbidden) for us to talk about God or pray with him. So, that's that. I like these kind of experiences you get on a mission haha! Then after that, we taught our 41 year old investigator who has the mind of a 10 year old. Let me just say, that was a tiring lesson, trying to teach a primary lesson in Japanese to a middle aged man...

Here is a cool fact about the city that I am serving in, Maizuru. Maizuru, being on the coast of the Sea of Japan, is home to one of the biggest Naval bases in Japan. There are also many cruise ships that stop in Maizuru and there are always naval officers walking around here. Well, rewind to the times of World War II. The United States were wanting to drop an atomic bomb on Japan right? Well, they initially wanted to drop the A-bomb on Maizuru. It would take out their naval base and I guess be better for America. However, that day as they were getting closer to Maizuru, they realized that the weather over Maizuru at that time was too cloudy; not good for dropping a bomb. So, instead of dropping the bomb over Maizuru, they changed course and dropped the big bomb on Hiroshima. So, thanks to the crazy weather of Maizuru, the U.S. had to move their plans to Hiroshima. I hate the story of the atomic bomb, but now it kind of hits home to me more that that could've been the people that I am serving and talking to now. Anyways, I think that is an interesting fact about Maizuru. Pretty cool right!?

Well, that's some of my experiences from this week. This church is true, and the gospel is the solution for everything. Literally everything. If you ever come across a situation, think "which principle of the gospel would help me if I understood it more?" I promise if you ponder on that, and then act accordingly, you can overcome that and you can be strengthened by it. Love you all! Keep smiling and give 'em Heaven!

穏やか "Odayaka"

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

 

King size at Sukiya

JT - A week about Job (the bible dude Job)

Dear Everyone,

This week was basically a normal week as a missionary in Japan.  Recently, as a mission, we have set the goal to teach 20 lessons a week, which will be a stretch for everyone. With me and my companions, we have been averaging probably 7 lessons a week, so this past week, we really wanted to hit that 20 lesson mark. We had the help of our Branch President to do so as well. We tried visiting all of our investigators and a few less active members as well. We also went with our Branch President and taught a Home Teaching style lesson to a couple members. Along with our finding efforts and everything else, we ended up with 13 lessons, which isn't the goal, but we had a significant jump in our numbers; almost half! I know about the power of setting goals; number goals, study goals, personal goals, etc. I have seen that when you have your mind set and focused on a goal, you will work harder to reach that and you will receive help from Heavenly Father in order to make it happen. We will work even harder this next week to get up to that number. It will be a little hard though, because we are going to Kobe for a meeting and won't be in our area for a couple days... But, I believe and have faith that it is possible.

So, in explanation to the title of this week, I have been studying a lot lately about Job. If you think it is random and "why would he study that?" Then you are thinking like I am because I honestly have no idea either. As I was talking on the phone with one of my Zone Leaders, I had a question about how I could be a better Leader for these missionaries, and he suggested that I pick a leader in the scriptures to study and learn about so that I can learn how to be a leader from them. When he said that, the first person that popped in my head was Job. So, thinking that it might be the Spirit telling me to study Job, I picked Job. So why study Job? Hopefully I won't have to go through some of those insane trials that Job went through (for example, in one day, all of his cattle and servants were captured and killed, lost all his riches and all of his children were killed in a freak tornado. Not to mention, after that, he then suffered insane amount of sickness and bodily grossness that no body could recognize him. Also, all of his friends are accusing him of sin... Just little trials like that, no big deal.) However, despite the 'out-of-nowhere-ness' of this study, I have learned so much from the example and story of Job. Job was essentially perfect; perfectly obedient, incredibly faithful. Even despite these trials he puts all of his trust in God and even Praises God for all of his blessings, even though he literally lost everything. Job 1:20-22 says "Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, 'Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." Also, in Job 13:15, Job says "Though he (God) slay me, yet will I trust in him:" Wow, what do you think of that? How much faith and trust does one need in order to say something like that? So much faith, so much trust that I cannot comprehend. As I have been studying the life and example of Job, I have learned a lot about trust, faith and also how to properly comfort people in their trials (because his "friends" did not do a good job at all.) I am excited to continue to learn about Job and how I can apply this in my life.

I love you all! I am so grateful for all that the Lord has blessed me with in my life. I am so grateful to be in Japan as a missionary. Even when serving in Japan is hard at some points, I wouldn't have it any other way. Have a great week!

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


How could I forget!

Dear Everyone,

I can't believe I forgot to write about his experience! So, on Thursday, we were going to do weekly planning, but we get a call from our Branch President asking if we were free to go with him and give someone a blessing. So, living up to our calling as ministers, we dropped what we were doing and went with him. He got a call out of nowhere which said that a member's father was going to die in a few hours, so she wanted the Branch President to give him a blessing before he passed. So, this was a very humbling experience; another reminder to always be worthy to hold the Priesthood. We went to the hospital room, and he was pretty well gone; attached to tubes and everything. Our Branch President gave a beautiful blessing as my companion and I participated. After that, we left and the man passed away a few hours later. Definitely a special experience and I am grateful for the power and blessing of the Priesthood. It is real and it is truly the power of heaven on earth.

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

Found this guy at the Fukuchiyama train station. It is Yokai Watch,
which is super popular in Japan. I think it is replacing Pokemon.

The Fukuchiyama Zone for Zone training Meeting.  Those sisters on the board couldn't make it, so we included them in the picture.

Yup.... I don't know how to do faces...

A Navy ship on the coast

This, my friends, is a two way road in Japan.  I will never be driving a car in Japan... Ever...

Weston - Chelsea, Michigan

THE BOONIES! CHELSEA, MI! Its a gigantic area with five townships. Chelsea is the township in the middle of the area and it is also the largest but its very small. The Ward here is amazing and they are very very helpful with missionary work. We are working with members very heavily. It's an amazing ward though. SO BIG! I am trying to adjust but I've been in Detroit my whole mission, so going from a tiny branch to this giant ward is crazy. They have to open the gym and set up chairs to fit all of the people in this ward. The people here are the exact opposite of Detroiters. They are also some of the kindest people I have ever met.... Most of them.... But so far I'm loving it. I have to adjust a lot of my teaching for the people here because they just learn so differently. Everyone We talk to are farmers and Cowboys and I feel like I can connect to them well in that aspect. My new greenie is doing well. I get a long with him great and we can learn together really well. We have a lot of unity when teaching. I'm really excited about this area. It has so much potential. This Ward was just a branch about seven years ago. It has grown so much and is filled to the brim with recent converts. 

I am so grateful to be here and I am learning so much. 

I Love you all so much and am always thinking about you,

Elder Lamoreaux 

My new address is 216 Harrison #102 Chelsea, MI

JT - This whole gospel thing... It's true!!!

Dear Everyone,

Well, this has been a great week! I feel like my companion and I worked our hardest and we are starting to see some results. I have also seen the hand of the Lord in a big way this week. Well, maybe a couple ways. Let me explain.

First off, I want to mention that the Gift of Tongues is real, but it is also very weird. So, as District Leader, we have this thing called "Follow-ups" where District Leaders call each member in their district and and Zone Leaders call each District Leader and we, well, follow up with them; See how they are doing, how the progress in their areas are coming and stuff like that. Zone Leaders and District Leaders discuss about problems regarding missionaries and investigators and ways we could help etc. My district is pretty small, but I still have one every night. So, one night I had a follow up with my Zone Leader who is Japanese. During that follow-up, I felt the Gift of Tongues working; I understood everything and I was able to discuss things without too much trouble. That felt great. Then, the next night, I had my first follow-up with one of my district. It was harder than I thought it would be. She is a Japanese sister and it was weird because I understood everything at times and other times, I got nothing. I think it is interesting that you recognize the Gift of Tongues working really well with you but then other times, not at all. Well, that follow up was hard because I felt like I could've done more, could've said more things to help her, but the words were just not coming. I also realized that because Japanese is not my native language, you cannot truly say what you want to say. You can't really express your true feelings because you are trying to climb over that language barrier. The next night, as we were visiting a member with our Branch President, I again felt like I didn't know Japanese. I could tell something serious was happening during the visit, but I couldn't understand the full thing. I though something bad was happening in the member's family or something. The whole time, I couldn't understand the situation. After the visit, I asked the Branch President what happened and he explained it to me and it was completely different than what I thought was happening. It was actually a really good thing that happened. Like life changing in a really good way. (They told us not to tell what it was). (This is leading to a great experience I swear). As we were riding our bikes back to the apartment that night, I was pondering about why it was like that. Like, I want to help these people so badly, but because of the language barrier, I can't truly express my feelings through words.  However, as soon as I finished that thought I heard a voice come from behind me through the quiet of the night... "Mormons?"

I was shocked and tuned around right away. It was a couple of people hanging outside of a restaurant smoking. I approached them and they asked again, "Are you Mormons?" (English btw). They were Filipino guys. I proudly said "yes, yes we are! Have you met us before?" One of them said, "yeah! There are so many from where I am from! Actually, I play basketball with the missionaries every Tuesday and Thursday back in the Philippines." Woah! What a small world! So these guys (a group of about 7 of them eventually came out of the restaurant.) are temporarily in Japan for work and they are from Davao City. There was also a guy from Nigeria in the group who they work with. They were all speaking to us in English and we were explaining what we do, where we came from and what not. Then one of the Filipino guys says "you know, in the Philippines, I see you Mormons all the time, but I don't know anything about you all. So tell me, what do you Mormons believe? Are you Christian?" That was the first time I have been asked that on my mission. THE FIRST TIME EVER. (Keep in mind, I have been here for a year). We then started testifying that yes, we are Christian, we believe that God is our Father, Jesus Christ is our savior and Heavenly Father created a plan to return to him. Let me tell you, it felt SOOOOO GOOD to be able to testify about my beliefs in English to someone who was willing to listen and willing to learn about our beliefs. The whole time, those people were asking us things and we were having a great conversation. They soon had to go, but they left with a better understanding of the church and hopefully a good view of the Mormons. Now, we'll probably never see them again, but I believe a seed was planted. This small, simple experience felt so good. The timing of this miracle (yup, this is a miracle) was so perfect for me that I know it wasn't a coincidence. This experience felt like a warm hug from my Heavenly Father telling me, "hey, keep your head up. You are doing fine. Don't worry." I might sound like I am exaggerating, but it is true. He blessed me with an opportunity to truly express my feelings and beliefs in my native language. He allowed me to realize that there are people out there who care about what I am doing. All these days of being rejected, all these days of trying to talk to people but them not having any interest at all kind of diminished my confidence in that. But, I know that God is there and he truly is preparing people to hear the gospel, even here in middle-of-nowhere Japan. This will be one of the turning points of my mission.

Also, another amazing experience from this week led to our Filipina Investigator finally accepting a date for baptism! We had this whole lesson set up (refer to picture of chart thing)

We made this to help our Filipina investigator to choose a date for baptism.  It is written in Japanese, English and Tagalog (shout out to Google Translate and knowing a little bit of Tagalog)  Well, it worked!!  (Btw, "Walk with me" is the mission theme.) 

where we had this chart thing with many items that she has already completed/has come to know for herself. I.e. Pray daily, come to church, believe that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, etc. we had a stamp and every time she said yes to the question, we would put a stamp which meant "completed!" We stamped all the way to baptism. Then we showed her all the blessings that come after one is baptized, I.e. Holy Ghost, Eternal Families, etc. The point of this lesson was to help her realize and feel that she is ready to be baptized, and it worked! She picked a date for October 4 and she will work towards that date! It was so exciting and the Spirit was there as she testified of the things which were on the chart. Her family is so happy about her decision and they are so excited to go to the temple next year to be sealed! I was a great experience and I am praying that I can still be in Maizuru for that wonderful day.

Well y'all, this church is true. God is there and he loves you, there is no doubt in my mind that this is true. I love you all! I am so happy to be serving in the best mission in the world, the Japan Kobe Mission. I feel so blessed. Have a great week!

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

Weston - Getting Transferred!

I'm getting Transferred!!! We all kind of figured I would be because I've been in Belle Isle for so long. Our district here is changing a lot. Out of all five of us only my companion Elder Brown and one of the companions in the trio is staying. Elder Beckstrom is our district leader, he was only here one transfer which is pretty strange. We received leadership phone calls from our mission president yesterday as well. I must have done something right with Elder Brown:) We just finished the first 12-week program and now he's Belle Isle's new district leader and he's also training a new missionary! Its pretty crazy. I received another leadership position as well. I'm finishing a missionary's training. He's been taught the first six weeks of the 12-week program and I'm doing his last 6 weeks. A long with that I am being white washed into a sister's area. So they are pulling out the sisters and putting us in. White washed means to take out both missionaries and bring in two new missionaries that have never served there before and know nothing about the area. A long with that, President Gerber also told me that, in the ward i'm being transferred to has a  Bishop who is very new and young. President gave me some advice of how we can be a good support for him and the ward. 

     I can't wait to see where I'm going and who my new companion is going to be. We'll be finding out tomorrow! HA! but you all have to wait until next week! No matter what I'm leaving Detroit though, which makes me sad. Sisters aren't allowed to serve in Detroit so unfortunately, you don't need to worry about hearing anymore crazy stories from me for at least another 6 weeks:) 

I love you all! 

Elder Lamoreaux

 On a banner in front of our church area: