Japan week #64

Hey Everyone!

    This has been another busy week with zone activities, splits, and more splits, and lots of hard work! 

     Our zone activity was a rousing success! Everyone came, and we all had a blast. :D And this week we had two more splits, one with a DL in our zone, and the other with the aps! Both were way fun, but I didn't get to work with elder Lee on splits! I went with his comp. :( Can you belive we were comps a year ago?? I can't! He's also officially ending being ap this transfer, he told me! SO that's crazy...Time to start guessing who's going next! Haha!! He's been ap for four transfers, put in a lot of good hard work! 

   This week we really focused on getting our zone's numbers up. We have some low numbers, lessons, contacts, and what not in my zone, and so we've been thinking a lot aobut what we can do to get those up. And so we had all the dl's give a special workshop in their respective dtms about numbers, and this week, we saw the fruits of it! All of our districts numbers had improved, and our district in particular skyrocketed! Everyone worked way hard, saw lots of mircales, and it was amazing! :) I just hope now that they all saw that, everyone keeps it up and keeps working their butts off! I love missionaires that work till they drop! :) 

  So this week, we weren't able to meet Internet. She got sick, and told us to come by again next week. So we're going to see her tonight, so more details on her progression next week! :P HAHA!!

 Thanks for all your love! love you all! 

 Love, Mike

Japan week #63

Hey everyone!! :D

        This has been quite a good week! We had one big event, and that was a blast! And then it was a regular week of work, but that's what I love, so. ;) No complaints here!

         As zone leaders, once a transfer we put on a big training meeting for the zone, and we did ours just this past week on the 16th. And it was way good. :) We talked about a theme that we received from President Nakatsuka, Gathering the Elect. And it was way fun! We got to talk a lot about finding, and faith, and what we need to do to receive revelation to find God's elect, and it was a blast. :) I was a little bit nervous at first, but true to form, as soon as we got started I had no problems! :) We've recently been blessed as a mission with lots of baptisms, and so because of that, we are now a little low on investigators. So that's where we need to focus now. Especially in my zone. We don't have a lot of good progressing investigators, and so we're gonna have to work hard from here on out to get those numbers and people back up! :) 

    And aside from that, this week was normal. Elder Kojima and I have been working hard, and we've been able to increase our teaching pool to about five people since I've come here. We had literally NO investigators when I came, so that's a pretty dang sweet miracle. :) We have one lady who is a former investigator of the sisters, and since the sisters are gone now she is talking to us. And she might be able to make it to baptism this transfer. Elder Kojima and I at the beginning of this transfer had no investigators, but made a goal of a baptism. And I think we can do it! :) We're doing all we can to make it happen! 

   One funny thing though with one of our new investigators. We have a new investigator called.... ready? Internet. :P We went to an appointment that we had, and talked to her through her intercom for about 45 minutes. I asked her if we could talk at the front door, and she was like, 'Woah, take it easy. I don't know you guys! I can't trsut you guys yet! So, call me internet, and if you want to talk, we can talk like this.' :P Elder Kojima and I were DYING. That ISN'T normal by the way. ;) Haha!!

    And then today, since our zone is in the city and we're all fairly close to each other, we can do a zone activity! :D So we're doing that today! Elder Kojima and I planned a zone olymipcs, so it should be great!! :D 

  Thanks for all you do everyone! Love you!

 Love, MIke

Japan week #62

Hey Everyone! 

   This has been quite the week! I've been WAY busy with the new zl responsibilities, and it's been nuts. Meetings, and planning, and scheduling, and splits, and all sorts of other stuff has to get done, and Elder Kojima and I have to do it all! But it's been a blast! :) Elder Kojima is a stud as well! We have so much fun everyday, and even though in our area we have NOTHING at the moment, I have no doubt that good is coming. :) It's been incredible.

  Because of all of our ZL stuff, and meetings, and GC, I don't have too much to write about. But General Conference was incredible, as I'm sure everyone agrees. I can't believe I was never stoked out of my mind for GC before the mission. :P Like a great friend of mine said, it's like Christmas. ;) I feel like I learned a lot, and I can't wait to put it all into work with my zone, my area, and my self. 

  I do like the ward here a lot too. There is about 20 members, and they're all pretty old, but there is one recent convert who has two really young kids. And since we're the only ones who have the energy to handle them, they swarm us non stop. Those kids LOVE US. It's nuts. One is a about 2, maybe 3 years old, and the other is about 6 or so. And church and every other time we see them is crazy. They climb all over us, and there's nothing we can do about it. But they're so gosh dang cute! :P Haha!

  Anyways, love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and support!

     Have a great week!

        Love, Mike

Japan week #61

Hello everyone!

   This has been quite the crazy week. We had transfers, and lo and behold, I have been transferred! I've moved from the west half of Sapporo....Ready? To the EAST half of Sapporo!! O.O Minds be blown! ;) HAHA! But the crazy thing is though, is that I've been made Zone leader, and my comp was with me in the mtc, and we're both brand new zl's, and we have no idea what to do! ;) Haha! We do know what to do, and our DL was ZL last transfer, so we'll be ok! :) It's way fun though since my comp, although he is japanese, was with me in the mtc. So we already know each other pretty well, and we've been having a ton of fun so far! 

   My new area is called Shiroishi, and it's the opposite of Shinkototni. My last area had no elders, because of some problems a long time ago, and now in Shiroishi, there are no sisters, because of some problems a long time ago. :P Funny, right? Sad, but funny! :P Haha! It's going to be a crazy transfer though. When I first came to Sapporo, Elder Borgholthaus and I had NO investigators. And then after 3 transfers of hard work, one baptism, and quite a handful of good investigators. And now, coming to Shiroishi, I'm back to square one. We have literally not a single investigator. :P I keep getting sent to areas to find people to work with it feels like! :P But if that's my calling, then so be it! I like it! :) 

   So obviously, as ZL, I have a lot of new responsibilites and things to do. I have to get the entire zone's daily and weekly reports, and then give all that info to the aps. Things like number of lessons taught, baptismal candidate info and so on. So that takes up my evenings even more than being DL did. ;) Haha! And from here on out, I have to do a lot of work for training and supervising missionaries in my zone. I have to go on splits with lots of elders, I have to go a monthly meeting with all the zl's, the aps, and President to talk about the mission and to figure out what we need to focus on for training and what not. I also have to plan a big training meeting for the zone, and do all the training. And since my zone is in the city, we can do a zone activity since we're all fairly close to one another. ;) So that'll be epic! I have heard from lots of ZL's taht I've talked to, that being a ZL makes the time go by even faster, and I can see why that would be the case. :P 

   But I am really excited for it. It's going to be a lot of fun, and ELder Kojima and I are simultaneously going to ROCK our area, and do all we can for this zone. :) Faith, and motivation, and missionary fire are at an all time high for my right now! :) This is trully the greatest thing I could be doing right now!

   Thanks for all your love and support.! Have a great week!

 Love, Mike