Snow! Email 5 December 2011

This picture is from last year, when he was in Suwa, Japan. Matsumoto is looking similar right now!

Hey Family! 

          Well, this was a busy week! We had zone leader conference down in Nagoya, we had exchanges with the APs, and we had our first snow! It was actually while we were on our exchanges that it happened...we woke up on Friday morning as usual at 6:15 to find absolutely gigantic snow flakes falling steadily outside...we generally are outside running every morning, but that morning we had four people there so we decided to toss around a football amidst the snowflakes. It`s been getting steadily colder all the time...all the mountain tops around us are capped in snow, so it doesn`t really warm up that much in the day anymore. Never thought I would be in Nagano ken to see snow again...but here I am :) 
          Zone Leader conference was probably one of the best highlights of the week...Elder Brown, Elder Cruz, and I, are all zone leaders, and Elder Rust is one of the APs, so we were able to have everyone from our MTC room there at the conference. :) Hadn`t seen Elder Cruz since February, so that was great. Anyway, we were in the conference from 10 to 5 and it was awesome! I have always loved trainings that we have had with President Baird, but because there is only twelve zone leaders the meeting is a lot more close and personal. He is truly an AMAZING mission president. Every single time I have heard him talk I can just feel the spirit and power of his testimony. We all came away from that conference feeling like we had learned so much, and with a whole lot of fire for missionary work! As zone leaders we have been preparing a lot for a special zone conference that we will be having tomorrow morning. President Stevenson will be coming to speak to all of us :) President of the Asia North Area. I have been given the assignment to conduct the morning session, so that is something that I`m looking forward to/a little nervous about. haha. We will all be going down to Nagoya tonight to stay in other areas and then go to the Honbu in the morning. 
           As for things with investigators this week...Brother Otsuki is doing great! He has made huge progress this week, and even though we still haven`t been able to reschedule a baptism date with him, we feel that he is really doing well. We had somewhat of a surprise experience with someone that the shimai found while housing...they ran into a guy who after about five minutes talking with them said that he already believes in Jesus Christ and that he prays every day...oh and also that he would be very interested in learning more of what we have to hear! He wanted them to come in right then to start hearing our message. They told him that they would send us along to visit him, which we did that very day and had a great first lesson with him :) He is very interested in continuing to learn, but has such a crazy job schedule right now that he hasn`t had any time lately to even sleep, much less meet with anyone. We`re not really sure how we are going to pull off meeting with him a second time, but we exchanged phone numbers and have an appointment to call him this week. We`ll see what happens :) 
           I remember you asking about Christmas stuff...and I honestly can`t remember for the life of me if I ever answered...I think that the only things I can think of are shoes and hazelnuts...haha. That sounds like the weirdest Christmas request ever...but I think that would be awesome :) Well and of course getting to talk with all of you on the phone is a pretty big Christmas present all by itself!
           Anyway, I`d better run...but thank you for your e-mails! I didn`t really hear much of what was happening besides mom`s e-mail, but I hope you are all doing good! I also hope that those pictures that the honbu sent with that Christmas card aren`t too weird...there are some pretty odd ones floating around. haha. Have a great week, I love you!

                                                                                                    -Elder Voss

It's Almost December! Monday, November 28, 2011

Dear Family, 

         It`s almost December! Is that crazy or what?? This year has come and gone in the blink of an eye! I realized the other day, that in three weeks when we get to talk on the phone, there is a possibility of me being in the exact same area that I was seven months ago when we talked on Mother`s Day! THAT`S a pretty strange thought. Everyone here in Matsumoto (or rather, all the members in Nagano ken) are always talking about how unusual it is for someone to be here as long as I have...they are always like "Elder Voss, I`m happy that you didn`t transfer because we love having you here...but really, when ARE you going to transfer??" haha. I`m glad that I have had the opportunity to be here so long though...I feel like I know pretty much all the members in the zone, and have been able to meet so many amazing in that time. 
         This has been another good week! We had a great experience while we were housing on Tuesday night! Well, I say housing...but what we were doing was going out to contact referrals that we had gotten from the sisters, and then doing the 10X housing pattern that President Baird introduced to us. It was probably one of the more far out places that I have been to in Matsumoto, and it was absolutely FREEZING that night. We biked out to a place close to the biggest college in Matsumoto (which for some reason is out in the middle of nowhere) and discovered that the place we were supposed to contact was actually right next to a  Juvenile Delinquent center (not a terribly promising environment I know). In the end we actually weren`t able to contact the referral, but we started 10Xing and after about 20 minutes we ran into this woman named Ikeda. The whole apartment had kekkou boxes (intercoms) and so we were afraid that nobody would actually come out to talk with us because it was so cold, but started talking to her and asked if she could come to the genkan for a couple minutes so that we could share our message with her, which she readily agreed to! She came out and it ended up turning into us teaching three of the principles from the first lesson, giving her a book of mormon, and inviting her to read and pray to know if it is true...which she agreed to as well! :) It was awesome!  That whole experience reminded me a lot of when when we first housed into Miyake shimai in Toyota and almost the exact same thing happened. We are going to go back this next week for another lesson, and we have a really good feeling about her. We also found several other PIs in that same building, so we are going to visit them too when we go back.
           Otsuki is progressing really well! We have had a couple lessons with him this week, and he is really working hard to prepare for baptism. It might take a little more time for him, but we feel confident that with the desire that he has to be baptized and to be on the right path, that he will receive the help that he needs from Heavenly Father. 
           Probably one of the coolest things that we had happen was when President and Sister Baird came to do two firesides this weekend. It was mainly focused around the in-active members in our branch, and it was a huge success! In specifically there were two members, one who we have been meeting every week, and one who just randomly showed up at Eikaiwa this week, who benefited from it so much! They both haven`t been to church in a very very long time, but during that fireside President Baird asked if they would commit to come to church and be as active as they could for three months, and also take the steps necessary to prepare to go to the temple, which they agreed to. I think that a lot of the members were kind of doubtful how that would turn out, but on Sunday they came, dressed in suits, and ready to follow exactly what they had committed to do! They had a great time at church, and really seem like they are ready to follow President Baird`s counsel. 
          Anyway, there was a whole lot more to the week...but I`ve got to run! I hope that everything is going well back home! On a little side-note...we actually did get to have somewhat of a Thanksgiving celebration! We got a whole bunch of less-actives (who brought a lot of their non-member friends!) and had blast making big apple pies, which we ate with vanilla ice cream...sooooo delicious! We also followed the traditions that we had from back home by talking about the things that we are grateful for...which in turn really brought a great spirit to the whole activity, and we were able to introduce some of the basic things about the church to the non members there. Gotta run! I love you all, have a wonderful week!! :) 

                                                                                                                         -Elder Voss
         

Monday, 31 October 2011, Email

Hello everybody!  ごめん、今日短くしないと行けない!　

          Well,  actually the title says "sorry, I have to make it short today"...time is pretty gone for e-mailing this p-day :P This has been a good enough week I guess! A lot of things that we were hoping to have happen fell through, but there were a lot of good things that happened too. We were able to meet twice with Otsuki, and he is definitely progressing really well! Despite the efforts that we made to help him come to church though, he wasn`t able to make it because he still goes every Sunday to spend time with his mom. We have daily contact with him though, and are meeting regularly...we are just going to keep working and praying hard that he can overcome that issue. 
         We were able to meet with Yoshiya as well, but weren`t able to have an official lesson...we did a service project with him and his family though, and were able to have some good discussions on gospel topics such as The Word of Wisdom. We have a lesson appointment scheduled for this Tuesday, so we are hoping to make a lot of progress with him then.
          The biggest success of this week was probably the Halloween Party and Dendo Fireside that we had. Now, just to make that clear...those were separate events, but they were both a lot of fun. ;) However, as unlikely as I might have thought it would be...we did manage to share a spiritual message before the party began. We all gathered in the chapel, sang an opening hymn and had a prayer...and then the shimai shared a message about in this church we really feel that families are important and that through the activities that we have, they can be strengthened. It was pretty cool :) A lot of in-active members came, as well as some non-members too. All in all, a really good success I feel. 
          We had been preparing a lot for the dendo fireside that we had on Sunday, and were feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing leading up to it...but it turned out really well! Elder and Sister Matsuhashi started it off by explaining and testifying about the revelations regarding Japan, and then the four of us younger missionaries took turns explaining each of the four sources for the pool of propinquity. From the things that we heard afterward, everyone seemed to come away with a good impression, and excitement for being a part of finding the people being prepared here in Matsumoto. I felt a certain air of excitment too as we explained those finding methods to everyone...felt the potential of having everyone involved and working with us on these things. That is definitely what is going to make the difference...getting everyone in the branch working right along side us  in our finding efforts. That`s of course a goal that has been strived for for a very long time...but I really feel that through the fireside that we had, and the ones that we will have in the next few weeks...we made a big step in the right direction for that.
          I guess another fun little experience was that Elder and Sister Bingham from Nagano made a surprise visit to our branch on Sunday, and they gave talks in Sacrament meeting which actually fit perfectly with the theme of our fireside. They talked about trusting the missionaries and working together with them to accomplish the Lord`s purposes here. Neither of them speak enough Japanese for a ten minute talk, so I stood up there at the podium with them to translate for the congregation...probably still one of the more awkward feelings I have experienced. 
          Transfers are already here this next Monday, and so we`ll see what happens! Until then, have a wonderful week...I hope everyone is doing well! Love you! 

                                                                                                                                     -Elder Voss 

Monday 24 October 2011, Email

Hello family!

         Well, as the subject states...this was a great week! I think that the best part of it was definitely our lesson with Otsuki, and setting a baptism date with him! He is set for the 20th of November! We had committed him in our last lesson to pray specifically about how to overcome his problem with coming to church, and he followed through on it great :) When we asked about his experience with it, he said that despite the fact that he feels like there are going to be difficult parts, and that his mom still hates anything to do with religion...when he prayed, he felt that he would be guided by God to be able to accomplish what he needs to do. I feel like that is such an evidence of the amazing growth that he is experiencing with his testimony...it was a really exciting thing to hear! :) We are going to be working as hard as we can to get him to church every one of the next weeks leading up to his baptism, and to have the same faith that he does...that we will be guided by God to accomplish the things we need to do.
         Unfortunately, when it comes to investigators...he was the only one that we were able to meet with this past week, but we have been continuing to have great success with our in-actives! The fourteen year old boy that we have been working with, came to church yesterday for the second time in a row...and we feel that he really is well on his way back to full-activity. We were also able to meet three times with a less-active man, Hirabayashi who is actually the perfect age to become another melchizedek priesthood holder here in the branch. He is 23, and has been less-active for a long time due to his job on  Sunday, but he has a firm testimony of this gospel, and we are going to work with him so that he can talk to his boss about getting Sundays off. He has been helping us a lot with preparing for the Halloween activity and other stuff...it`s been a lot of fun getting to know him :) We were able to meet with several other less-actives as well, and we have been drafting up ideas for callings that they might be good to be considered for...which we plan on presenting to our branch president this next Sunday. It seems that a good percentage of the in-activity is due to not having responsibilities or callings...so we are trying to work on getting people some things to do :)
          We have been really busy planning out all of our activities and different things that will happening in the next little bit...Halloween and that sort of thing. We are also all really excited about the dendo firesides that we are planning on having once a month from now on...I think it will be an awesome tool to get everyone more involved in the missionary work in this branch. Kind of an intimidating thing really because I`m supposed to be the main speaker for those firesides, and explaining all of the finding methods that we are currently using in this mission... but I`m just going to do my best, pray a lot, and see how things turn out :)
          Honestly, I feel like I`ve learned a lot about relying on the Lord this past week. I`ve been feeling strongly this past week all of the weaknesses that I have...there have been a couple days when I just felt like at every turn I was getting knocked down over and over, and just getting more and more overwhelmed. Those feelings...stress and all that other good stuff, kept on building and building until I thought I was going to go crazy. I was sitting at my desk, wondering what in the world I could do with the situation to make things more manageable...and I suddenly realized that I had been facing the problems and stress, and trying to resolve it with nothing more than my own thoughts and reasoning. I decided that I would kneel down there at my desk and ask the Lord for help, ask him to help me find a way to overcome the way I was feeling. I did, explaining the way that I was feeling and the problems I was thinking about...acknowledging that I needed his help, and those feelings of stress, of worry, of aggravation...they literally just faded away. The difficult things were still there, but feelings of being completely overwhelmed were gone. I felt at that point so grateful for the power of prayer...so grateful that we always have that way of taking our worries and problems to Heavenly Father. Kind of funny, how no matter how many times I learn that I can`t do everything on my own, and that relying on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is such a crucial thing... I still do my darndest to do just that a lot of times. 
          This gospel is true family, it really is!  There is so much evidence of that in the blessings that we receive from being obedient to it`s teachings. Have a wonderful week, I love you all very much! 

                                                                                                   -Elder Voss

Monday, 17 October 2011, Email

Hey everyone! 

      We have had good things happening this week! I think that the biggest success, was that the 14 year old boy, Yoshiki, who we`ve been working with for To The Rescue, came to church yesterday! We were able to meet with him a couple times throughout the week, and committed him to come to church...which he kept, and seemed to have a great time! He is an incredibly bright kid, and despite being in-active for so long, really has a sound understanding of gospel principles. We were sitting in Sacrament Meeting with him, and he expressed that he wants to be able to pass the Sacrament, so hopefully we will be able to see that in the next few weeks too :) 
      We have been able to meet with several of our investigators this week...but everyone except one seems to be up against a wall when it comes to actually progressing. We are kind of going through a lot of tough decisions, trying to determine who is actual sincere investigator status, and who we might be better off not focusing on as much right now. We were able to meet with Yoshiya again this past week, and it went pretty well! He understands the things that he is reading in the book of mormon SO well! It`s totally the normal for most people to have a really hard time understanding the things that they read in the book of mormon at first...but with him it`s the complete opposite. He read, thought about it a lot, and then shared all of that with us there in the lesson. Needless to say, we thought it was pretty cool :) 
       We have been fighting off a cold or some sort of bug this past week, so that has made things a little bit difficult...started with headaches and sore throats and then little bits of fever and that sort of fun thing...we figure that it is most likely due to the fact that the temperature is fluctuating so much lately. Kind of pain, but we are just doing our best to keep things moving here and help the people in any way we can. 
       This past Saturday for an activity we had a ping pong tournament! Everyone invited their investigators, and we invited a lot of the in-active members that we have been visiting lately. It was a lot of fun! Well, I`m absolutely terrible at ping pong...but I gave it a whack, and it was a lot of fun to watch everyone else play like professionals. A lot of people play ping pong really intensely from the time they are little here...I never thought that so much form and technique could be applied to hitting a little ball across the table...till I came here. haha. Still on an activity note, we are having a FHE tonight at the church...(katei no yuube) and are really hoping to again get investigators and in-actives there. We`re making Taco Rice, and having games and things...so it should be pretty fun.      
        Last night we had an appointment with the Kawabata family (one of the largest families in the branch) and ended up sharing a message with them from this month`s Liahona about The Iron Rod. We have actually been teaching a lot about Lehi`s dream and the significance of The Iron Rod in Eikaiwa as well as investigator lessons...and I absolutely loved the article that Elder Bednar gave in the Liahona about holding on to it. He talks about the difference between merely holding onto The Iron Rod, and diligently, actively, holding onto it. When it comes to that, I think that it is so interesting to see the difference in perspective form before my mission, and now. Before my mission, I was trying to actively hold onto The Iron Rod as best I could...and now, I`m doing my best to actively hold on, while actively going out among the people lost in the darkness and helping to lead them to grasp the rod as well. It`s something that I`ve thought about before, it`s just hit me with particular clarity lately. That image really has just given me even a greater sense of urgency and importance for this work. 
          Thank you for all your love and support, I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week, the gospel is true! 

                                                                                                       -Elder Voss

Monday, 3 October Email

Hello everyone!     

         This week has been amazing!! I can honestly say that I feel I am in one of the best districts ever...by that, I mean that everyone in this district is full of dendo fire, everyone is working hard, and we are seeing miracles! One of the greatest miracles that I feel we have seen this past week is our new investigator, Yoshiya! We actually came to know his family through a mistaken phone call, and it absolutely amazes me the way that from something so small, we have something like this come from it. Yoshiya`s family is Chinese, they all speak English fluently, and have lived in Japan for most of their lives. They are non-denominational Christian, and all have a strong knowledge of the Bible. The parents and several others of this family (did I mention that there are 13 people in this family?) have a pretty set mindset in their beliefs, and don`t really want to learn about our church...but they had no problem with us talking to Yoshiya. He is 20 years old, a college student,and is pretty much living a party life right now...doing crazy things with his friends, and not really considering where he is going...at least until recently. We called him this past Tuesday, and we asked if we could meet with him and share a message with him about our church. He replied by saying yes, and that recently he has been having a lot of questions about the purpose of life, and how he can lead a life that will bring him happiness! I strongly felt at that moment, that he is being prepared and that we had been guided through something even as random as a mistake call, to someone who needs this gospel. We met with him, had a great lesson, and committed him to read from the book of mormon and pray every day...which he accepted! We are going to meet with him again tomorrow, and are really excited to see how things turn out :)
        We have had some great experiences with our other investigators as well...for the first time in a couple weeks, we were able to talk and meet in person with our investigator Abe, and finally able to have a joint lesson with one of our members who is preparing to go on a mission. It was awesome! He has been struggling a lot with having enthusiasm and desire to keep commitments and to progress, but I really feel like that lesson had an impact on him.
        Those were most likely the two greatest experiences that we had with investigators this past week, but that was just a small bit of good things that were happening. Elder Numakura and Sister Nishimuro just came in, so we met with President Itou to re-establish our desire to help him, and discuss the plans for dendo in Matsumoto. We had a great discussion, and he identified new people that he would like for us to focus on for To The Rescue, as well as asked for our help on a new list that he has created to bring back all the in-active children of member families here in the branch. Honestly, I love our branch president...he is a ton of fun, and he is really, really enthusiastic about the dendo here in Matsumoto!
         It has been a ton of fun to work with Elder Numakura so far...he is great! He is an awesome missionary, full of dendo fire, and he has great ideas for applying the trainings here in Matsumoto. Really looking forward to things that we will be able to accomplish during this transfer! It has been a really intense and busy week, and it has honestly been a really weird experience to get used to being the gaijin district leader of soon to be five Japanese missionaries. Honestly I must have changed a lot or something, because while we were meeting with President Itou, he was talking about how if you`re a gaijin you can use that factor as a good dendo tool...and he was like "It`s a pity that we don`t have any gaijin in Matsumoto anymore...Oh! Well except for Elder Voss...but you don`t really seem like a gaijin though!" Haha, we laughed quite a bit over that one.
         We had some great lessons with in-actives, have been making plans for our halloween and other activites, and preparing to welcome in the couple missionaries on Wednesday! The work is going absolutely great! I have been able to feel the joy of the gospel so much throughout this week...I love the people here so much, and I love learning about the gospel and growing with them. There is something so special about Japan...there difficulties for sure, but the people are so amazing :) The gospel is true!
         I love you all! As usual, have a wonderful week, I`ll look forward to hearing from you next week!

                                                                                                      -Elder Voss

P.S   The pictures that I`m sending are of our district after district meeting, and Elder Numakura and I outside of our apartment...we walked out the other morning to find that festival rope strung all over the buildings...there was a matsuri at the shrine that is next to our apartment. Don`t ask why we are eating it...we don`t know either :P

This week's letter, September 20, 2011

Hey everyone!

        Wow, well I feel like this is happening a lot lately...but we ended up having to do e-mail today, instead of Monday. We got on yesterday to do it, but ran out of time before we could do anything more than read what we had received. Yesterday, was a holiday here...so our investigators were actually able to meet, and we felt like that was a good sacrifice to make. Anyway though...on to the week!
        This one was a pretty tough week all in all...the busy life of Japan got to everybody again, and despite all that we did to schedule and keep appointments with our investigators, we weren`t able to meet with any of them. We also had a really unfortunate happening with Kasamatsu. This whole week we wanted to meet with him, and we finally got in touch with him on Saturday...but the reply that he gave us when he picked up the phone, was that he was still very depressed, wasn`t in the state of mind to meet or go to church, and that from now he is going to stop meeting with us. Yeah...that was a pretty big downer. Seeing the progress that he was able to make from that first Sunday that he walked into church, throughout the lessons and meetings that we had...and then seeing him walk away from it, was probably one of the saddest things that I have experienced on my mission so far. Seeing someone who had been brought down to the lowest and unhappiest of circumstances in his life, and then seeing them throw away the one life preserver that they`ve been given...I don`t know, this experience in particular hit me hard. I guess I could just see so clearly the ways that it was helping and boosting him up...bringing him out of the unhappiness that he was trying to escape from. On the other hand, I really strongly feel that he was guided to walk into the church that Sunday for a very specific reason...and I don`t think it was just to learn about the gospel and then turn away from it. I think that it might be a little while, but that he will be brought about to realize that this is what he needs.
         In other news from this week...we were able to have some good activities! We had a Taco Rice party on Saturday, for members and investigators which was a lot of fun...and we had the opportunity to go fishing, for the first time on my mission! A member in the branch set up an appointment with a friend of his, who apparently used to take the lessons...and is an avid fisherman :) We all went out to a reservoir and spent a couple hours fishing and getting to know each other. We didn`t any fish except for a little bass...but we became friends with the guy, and he wants to meet up with us again :) So that was a lot of fun. We also had the baptism on Sunday for the shimai`s investigator! It was a REALLY great experience...Kanade was so happy, and so was everyone else in the branch :) The spirit was there so strongly during her baptism, and the four of us missionaries had the opportunity to sing a song for Kanade before she was baptized, and Sister Shimoji gave a great talk too. President and Sister Baird actually came for the baptism as well, and so it was great to have them here again too. Actually, speaking of talks and President Baird and all that stuff...a speaker that was assigned to speak in Sacrament Meeting suddenly canceled, and so late Saturday night we were called and I was given the talk! haha, this is like the third time in a row that that has happened here...kind of funny. Anyway, I was pretty nervous due to the fact that I had so little time to prepare, and also that President and Sister Baird were going to be sitting like three feet behind me the whole time...but it turned out really well :) I had felt prompted when I was preparing, to talk about an article that I had read in the Liahona..."Am I A Child of God?" and I hadn`t even been thinking about Kanade`s baptism, but it turned out to fit perfectly with the talks that had been given there.
       In answer to a question that was asked a few weeks ago(sorry for the delay), for shopping we generally buy as many fruits and vegetables as we can...they are way expensive here, but we both like eating healthy. We also typically get eggs, chicken, yakisoba, sometimes gyouza, juice, milk, bread, cheese, spaghetti, tuna...that kind of thing.
       Another question that was asked...what do I want for Christmas? Haha, it seems so odd to think about that right now...but I guess it really is going to be just in a couple more months :P I`m not sure if things will change between now and then...but I`m thinking that when it comes to clothes, the only thing that I might really need is maybe another pair of shoes. The pair that I have right now are still in really good condition, but I don`t know whether that will be able to last all the till next June. I`m sure that other things will come to my mind in the next little while...but for now that is what comes to mind :)
       Kind of crazy, but this week is the last one of transfers...we have calls next Monday! We`re looking forward to seeing what happens with everything! Gotta go, but thank you for all your e-mails, and have a good week! I love you!

                                                                                           -Elder Voss