February 13, 2017: Crepes with Czech's🍜

Well this week had some crepes, ramen, tonkatsu, and lastly some NATO!!!😊😊✌🏻 Stomach was full all week.  I think that will make you happy mom! 😂. In all seriousness, this week was a good one and we accomplished the mission standard of excellence.  We needed a nonmember to come to church to get standard and after 20 mins or so of sacrament Miura san comes and stays for 2 of the 3 hours.  So he is a man that is progressing slowly but surely.  We can't go to fast when we teach him because we will leave him in the dust behind us (so to speak). He has a little mental problem and apparently was an investigator 3-4 years ago.  However since hearing what the branch members say, he has completely changed over these couple of years and is progressing a lot better than previously.   Everyone is a child of God and needs to taste upon the good word.  Excited to continue to teach him!

 

We got into a lot of houses this week either for lessons or just getting invited.  We housed to some Czechs, we couldn't share anything but the hospitality of those 3 people we meet as way nice!  I promise there are good people out there, you just have to house in the cold sometimes to find them.  Plus it reminded me of the crepes dad would always make.. I promise I am not trunky.

 

Friday was a really busy day we had lessons at 3, 5, and 6pm.  All of them were really good and spiritual.  Especially the 5 o'clock lesson where we set a new bap date with our investigator named Chiba san. She is a single mom who wants to improve her life and her kids future.

She let us in and we sat around her tokatsu and had a short discussion about the plan of salvation and after we committed her to be baptized and she said yes and that she will try to make it out to church on the 19th with out us asking her!!  She is very aggressive and it's in a very good way.

Sorry my letters aren't great but I take an incredible journal!!

We have two choice in life 1) enjoy or 2)endure.  I want to talk about this with kanji (Chinese characters). 辛 this is tsurai which means heart breaking, suffering, pain etc. however if you put another line at the top it becomes 幸. Which is happiness!  Do you notice the difference one line/decision makes?  When that line goes into the top it make a cross.  Because of the cross at the top we can go from pain and suffering to happiness!  Because of Jesus Christ choice to die on the cross and suffer for us we can go from pain and heartache to happiness.  Now why would we choose to suffer when Jesus has already done it for us??  Lets all choose to be happy and make good choices!

I know Jesus is our savior and best friend!  This is true and church is also true!  Love you all and have a good week!!

(Btw mom put this in the ward newsletter thingy). Please!

Elder Halverson

ハルバソン長老~日本仙台伝道部

February 6, 2017: 僕はもうおじいちゃんだ (I'm an old man)

Alright everyone,  it is ok if you don't take a break from your Super Bowl watching to read my email.  Now all you people just watching for the commercials, your missing out on the beauty of 300+pound men doing athletic things.  If you are that commercial only person, please watch the game!

 

I know most can't read the title so I'll explain it a little bit.  I am already an old man!  My body is probably not going to hold up these finally 6 months.  Most likely I will be limping down the ramp in August!!  I know that is just music to your ears mom! 

 

We continued to teach our investigator with a bap date.  However he did pull a couple no shows to lessons, but when we went to his house he always lets us in.  We had a little discussion about the Book of Mormon and baptism!!  Every time we visit he always says that he was close to a miracle!  I am not sure what that means but he said that he has felt this way ever since we found him.  Miura san is looking good too and he still has a bap date for after the transfer ends... cause of that I am kinda nervous about this transfer.  I've been here for a total of 4 so I feel like it's time...  :(. But idk yet cause still got 3 weeks.  Lets go nuts!

 

Also this week we had a mission tour with the President of the Area Presidency.  Elder Whiting came and did 2 conferences with half of the mission.  He said over and over that he is just an orderve (the thing you eat before the big meal) (BTW I AM FORGETTING TONS OF ENGLISH) because Elder Holland is coming in 2 weeks so he was just prepping us for it.  He shared a lot of stories and thoughts about his mission (In the Tokyo North, Now the Tokyo mission) and especially about having fun on the mission and the Savior.  He said that we can either enjoy or endure our mission.  We can choose to enjoy the cold of Sendai or endure it.  I'll be honest there have been some days where I have endured it.  Just for example I thought I was "enduring" my time being a young missionary where i didnt understand much of what was going on.  But I look back on that time and I know I enjoyed it.  I loved being a bean!!  It was way fun!  I am enjoying my mission and love serving the people in Japan.  They are great.

 

However, when you look back you know that some times were hard and challenging but you dont remember them specifically in fact the only things we remember perfectly are the good times that we all had.  So lets choose to enjoy our time so that we can have more memories!  So put on a smile and enjoy it!  Think positive

Sorry i am not good at righting letters but i am pretty good at telling stories from memory so just wait till i get home!!

 A few fun things.

I had ZL splits this week and got to be back with an old comp. ELDER DANIELS, it was way fun i loved it!  It was great to be back with that guy and work in Kamisugi!  The members are great!

Also when the Fam comes to get me after the mission.  A member said that she will hook me up with a place to stay in Tokyo which is right next to the temple.  Turns out that her son lives in this big house that we can stay in apparently!!  Way excited Mom, Dad and Syd??

 Finally we had a great guy named lee san come to church.  After we had a little sit down with him and he started to open up to us and said that before he meet the missionaries a few months ago he was this really lonely and really homesick, then he gets invited by the missionaries to church and he loves it at church cause everyone is talking about life and he feels so good when ever he comes!  He said that he believes that God helped meet this american missionary in japan of all places.  Long story short, he accepted the invitation to come back to church next week and learn about the plan of salvation!  It's even better cause this guys wife is christian and is coming to Japan in a few weeks!!  I'll keep you updated on his status!!

 Love you all and continue to watch fat guys doing athletic things!! The church is true and God loves you all!

 

Elder Halverson

ハルバソン長老~日本仙台伝道部