ゾーン会議！Zone Conference! 27 February 2012

Hey Family! 

         Another week gone...and even busier than the last! We were able to teach a lot of lessons this week, and we also had Zone Conference on Tuesday! The first three hours of it was President and Sister Baird speaking to us with me translating, and then the last two or three hours was the APs speaking, then Elder Skankey and I speaking, and then at the end we had a testimony meeting. It turned out really well! The topics that they were training us on, we felt were exactly what everyone in our zone has needed recently, and even though Elder Skankey and I were pretty nervous about the training that we were going to be giving to everyone...I think it turned out well in the end. We had exchanges with the APs right after the zone conference and into the following day, which was a lot of fun as usual :) We all went back to the apartment after zone conference, looked over the plans for the day, set the goals that we wanted to achieve, and worked the best that we could to achieve them. We were talking to as many people as we possibly could, as we went to the separate appointments that we had...and by the end of the day, we were able to find four new investigators! It was a really great experience...really strengthened my faith in the fact that the Lord is leading those that he has prepared into our paths. 
          We have been awesome success in getting the family home evenings going with everyone here! Just for this week we already have three scheduled with different families, and at each one there will be non members or our investigators! Actually one of the new investigators that we had from last week, was the husband of the member that we did a family home evening with recently. We actually had a really cool experience last night while we were out visiting in-active members! This isn`t really related to family home evenings, but it just popped into my mind. It was my first time going to this person`s place, and it took us awhile to find it, but we knocked on their door, which they opened right away, and after talking with them for a few minutes invited us to come in and sit down to talk some more. That is something that is pretty rare actually...I might have mentioned it before. Anyway, it was the in-active member and his mom, and we sat down together with them in the living room and continued getting to know them a little better. Turns out that he was baptized a very long time ago, when he was in elementary or middle school, and that due to the fact that he hasn`t been going for so long, doesn`t really remember much about the church. As we were sitting there, I was trying to figure out how we could make a connection with those memories, how we could help him remember the good experiences that he had at church...so I started asking him about the experience of when he had met the missionaries. (how he had met them, what he thought about them...etc) The one thing that he recalled, was that every time he had met with the missionaries, they had finished with a hymn and a prayer. We asked him if he had liked those hymns, to which he said yes, and that he likes singing...so kind of on the spot, right as we were about getting ready to go, I asked him if it would be okay if we sang a hymn with him and his mom and then say a prayer. He said yes, and so we pulled out our hymnbooks and sang " I Am a Child of God" with them, shared our testimonies of the fact that we all Heavenly Father`s children and that he loves all of us, and then prayed together. It was such a neat experience! It was really simple, but just by that short hymn and prayer I felt like the whole atmosphere changed, the spirit was with us, and we were all able to feel Heavenly Father`s love as we sang. His mom seemed particularly moved, and really seemed to want us to come and visit again...which we plan on doing maybe this next Sunday or around then. I just love the hymns so much! I`ve been thinking a lot about it lately, and I loved them before my mission as well, but of course as I have been out here I have had many many more opportunities to sing them, and feel the spirit that they can bring to us. I feel like they can bring so much strength to our testimonies...the invitation that we have heard many many times to memorize the words of hymns so that we are able to call them to our minds whenever we want to, has gained so much more meaning for me. While I`m riding my bike or doing other things during the day, I quite often have the lines of those hymns running through my mind...it just gives a whole different mood to the day :)
             On a completely random note...we a got an American dryer this week! That might not seem like a very significant thing...but we have been hanging our clothes on poles in front our gas heater for the past couple transfers, so it`s been a nice change. haha. It`s made things soo much easier for p-day! 
             You were mentioning a few things about the weather in your e-mails...yeah, it`s still snowing here on and off. The last few days it`s been more of a nice sleety time of feeling...but actually today was way sunny, just still cold. It`s not unbearable though, spring is coming! :) 
             I`d better go...I love all of you guys so much! Have a great week, I look forward to hearing from you next week! 

                                                                                                                                 -Elder Voss
           

それはホワイト週間だった！ 2012年2月19日---It's Been a White Week! 19 February 2012

Great baptism!

Hey family! 

          Well, as the title says...it has been a white week! It was absolutely freezing and stormy for the first half or so of the week, and then it came to the weekend, and it cleared up to be perfectly blue and and absolutely beautiful weather...just in time for our baptism on Sunday! In answer to your questions, yes, S---- was baptized! :) I feel that this has been one of the most intensely busy and also one of the most miraculous weeks of my mission. We were continuing to meet with her throughout the week to finish the lessons, and getting her ready for the baptismal interview, but due to some unfortunate circumstances, ......kept on getting delayed, several times in a row. I honestly don`t think I have prayed for, or felt a desire for someone`s salvation, more than I did during this past week. Elder Skankey and I were praying for multiple times everyday, as a companionship, as well as personally, and we doing all that we could to be receptive to guidance as to what we could do to help her make her date on Sunday. With ... getting delayed, she felt a little less certain about things, but we kept contact with her every day and did our best to keep her spirits up and promise her that if we had faith and did all that we could to accomplish the goal that we had set, Heavenly Father would prepare a way for us to receive that permission. Well, it got down to Friday, we were on exchanges with Ueda so that Elder Matson could be here to do the baptism interview, and upon meeting with her at Brother Yamamoto`s place, Due to the fact that there was only two days left before the baptism, and Elder Matson was going back up to Ueda that afternoon, we talked some more with her, and decided that even though it looked like it would be impossible, we would keep on working together to get it and reset her baptism date for the next Sunday. Honestly we were all a little disappointed about it, but promised her that it wasn`t giving up, we would just be working for a new goal...We said a prayer with them, and then left for the train station to meet back up with our companions to end the exchanges. We got to Matsumoto train station, and were sitting in the train, waiting for it depart, when we suddenly got a call from both S---- and Brother Yamamoto, saying that they had just gotten a call from S----`s husband, she could be baptized! Needless to say, we were way surprised! We weren`t able to call her then, but we waited until we got to Ueda, and then called her to figure out what had happened. Apparently, she and Brother Yamamoto had been sitting there at his place, talking about the situation, and she had been just about to erase the reminder for the baptism that she had put down on the 19th, when she got a call from her husband, saying that it was okay for her to be baptized! It was one of the happiest phone calls that I have ever had in my life. Right after getting off the phone with her, we started calling everyone that we needed to to set up the baptism again, and set the interview for the next afternoon. She passed the interview just fine, and everyone in the branch was amazing about helping to get the baptism ready. We had it at 9:00 right before church started, and it was as all of the baptisms that I`ve been to, an experience that I will never forget. S---- asked me to baptize her, and one of the friends that she had made in the branch performed the confirmation. Due to a faulty connection in the plumbing, the water in the font was freezing for the baptism and so we were shivering pretty bad...but it went so so well :) We had a great program, and after the baptism S---- got up and bore one of the most beautiful testimonies that I have ever heard about the power that faith and prayer had had in enabling her to get baptized. The rest of the day was a blur of making sure everything was taken care of with records and all that stuff, but it was all so good. Seeing and hearing her faith and testimony of the power of prayer and the truthfulness of this gospel, meeting with her from the beginning and learning about the gospel and growing together has been one of the best experiences that I have ever had. My testimony of this gospel, and faith in prayer has been strengthened so much by seeing that growth, and the blessings and miracles that she has gained from this gospel. I love being a missionary, it is one of the happiest things in the world. 

             I am going to have to cut my e-mail short here pretty soon because we are down to one usable computer today, and Elder Skankey hasn`t been able to use it yet...but I just wanted to add a few more things in. We were able to have some absolutely awesome success with one of the family home evenings that we had this past Saturday night! We met with a sister in the branch who`s son has been in-active for well over a year, and we had a game, spiritual message, and then a little bit of refreshments that we had brought. We had a great time talking with the son while we were playing the game, and he seemed to really be moved by the message that we shared about families. He totally agreed that if they were able to do that every week as a family that they would be able to feel closer, and more happy...and he seemed to want that. Well, right when were leaving, we were saying "okay, see you next time!" and suddenly he turned to us and said "Actually I think I`m going to go to church tomorrow...so I`ll see you then!" We were really surprised, but way happy, and said that we would look forward to seeing him. Sunday morning came, and he showed up for all three hours of church, dressed in a suit! It was so so good to have him there! His mom was really happy, all of the other members were really happy to see him too...and he seemed to have a really good time there. He said he is going to do his best to come next week too! :) 
             Anyway, I`ve really got to go now, but thank you for all your e-mails! I love you all so much! :) Have a wonderful week! 

                                                                                                                       -Elder Voss

2012年2月13日 -- 13 February 2012

Hello Family! 

          Time continues to fly on by! There has been so much happening this week! Due to the fact that we are teaching the shimai`s old investigators now too, we have really needed the members help to make sure all our lessons have a sit-in, and they have really risen to the need :) We had a great lesson with one of the shimai`s investigators and the first counselor in our branch presidency this past Tuesday, and she seems like she is in a good place to progress right now. She is a school teacher, so she is super busy all the time, but we re-established the purpose for the missionaries meeting with her, and she committed to read and pray. We have another appointment with her next week. O----- we were also able to meet with on Saturday which was a relief! It was great to be able to meet with him in person again instead of just talking on the phone every night. He told us that he feels pretty confident that he has overcome the difficulty he had before, and now just has a little bit of a concern regarding the law of tithing. We are planning to meet this week with him and a member, teach tithing and hopefully be able to resolve his concern with that and keep him all set for his date on the 26th. 

           S---- has been doing amazing! We were able to have four lessons with her this past week, and she is doing so well! She was a little worried about both the word of wisdom and law of tithing, but we had great help from the members with teaching those things and she is having no trouble with them :) After we taught the word of wisdom, she had an experience that completely confirmed for her that it is a commandment of God, and from that really strengthened her desire to follow it. She continues to share with us every day the feelings that she has as she reads the scriptures and prays, and it has been such a wonderful experience to see her testimony grow, not so much little by little as by leaps and bounds :) She wasn`t able to come to church this past Sunday because she was sick, which was unfortunate because we were going to ask her husband for permission then for her to be baptized, but she is feeling better now, and we have an appointment to do that on Wednesday. She is really really doing great...we are so excited for her! :) 

         Something else that we have been excited about lately is family home evenings  with the less active members here in the branch! I`ve probably mentioned this several times, but one of the things that President Baird has suggested that we do is get family home evening activities going with the less actives to strengthen them and bring them back to church. We have been having some good success with scheduling those, so we are looking forward to that. 

         I was going to write more, but we actually just got a call from S---- saying that she is actually going to be in Matsumoto this evening and wants to meet up in twenty minutes! :) We`ve got to run and get things ready. Hope you have an awesome week everyone, I love you! 

 
                                                                                                                          -Elder Voss

2月おめでとう！Happy February!

Hey Family! 

          This week has just flown by! The first week after transfers is always pretty crazy...and this one was no exception. The sister missionaries are gone from Matsumoto, so we have been trying to get all of their records and investigators sorted out...and that along with all of our normal activities has kept us super busy! Every area in our zone changed, and there are first time senior companions and district leaders, so things already feel busier than last transfer...but it`s fun! Elder Skankey has been way fun to work with so far, and has really been a huge help to get things running smoothly for this new transfer. 

          This week we weren`t actually able to meet for a lesson with S---- due to first having her move the appointment from Wednesday to Friday, and then on Thursday night we got a e-mail from the honbu saying that we had zone leader conference the next morning down in Nagoya...which we had completely not known about. haha. That was kind of a hectic rush to get everything ready to go down there, but it was a great experience like the other two I`ve been to. We have three new zone leaders this transfer, and two of them are Japanese, so for the first time since I became a zone leader we did the whole six hour meeting in Japanese. That was pretty cool. Anyway though, we weren`t able to meet for an official lesson, but she came to church again yesterday, and brought her husband this time! :) It was way way good...he seems to be a really nice guy, and when we talked to him about his wife learning about the church he didn`t have any problem with it. He left early, but S---- stayed for the whole three hours, and then later on in the evening the relief society president invited her and a few other people over to her house to have dinner and get to know each other better. We went together with the matsuhashi couple, and after the meal they shared a great message about the values and things that we promote as a church. We have our next appointment on Wednesday and she looks all good for her baptism date on the 19th. So excited for her! :)

           O----- has been busy this week...haven`t really been able to meet, but he has had a lot more success with keeping the commitments that we gave him. 

           We actually had a really cool experience today, when we were coming back from shopping. It was raining pretty good, and I was just biking along, thinking about how many times I had taken that exact same trip for groceries every Monday, and then as silly as it seems, a movie advertisement caught my eye, and we stopped for a second to see what it was. We were standing there for probably about 10 seconds, talking, when this older looking guy came walking around the corner  and started staring at us. We didn`t really think much of it, because people stare at us all the time, but he came over to us and started talking with us by saying " Hey, are you from Utah?" in English! We were pretty surprised, but I assured him that no, I`m not from Utah, I`m from California and that we are missionaries. He was like "Yeah, you`re the mormons, right? Do you have English class at your church?" We told him yes and gave him a flier for eikaiwa and then exchanged phone numbers with him...not really sure if he really plans on coming, but he seemed pretty interested, and that he might want to learn more than just about English. Anyway, to make a long story short...it was just a neat little reminder for me that no matter how many times I feel like I have taken that road, and know it backwards and forwards, the Lord is still guiding people that we can talk to into those paths. 

            Oh, one other interesting that came up in zone leader conference....we are going to be doing zone conference on the 21st of this month, and as zone leaders we have been assigned to give two hours of training during it! It`s a pretty long time block, and it`s my first time actually doing training like that at a zone conference...but I think it`s going to be fun :) I guess it`s pretty much just like the district meetings that I taught as a district leader, just about 30 minutes longer and along with another person to help.

             Yeah, actually I`ve gotta get going...but have a great week, I`ll look forward to seeing your e-mails next week! :) I love you! 

                                                                                                                                          -Elder Voss

            

再び転送！ Transfers Again! 30 January 2012

Adam with his companion Elder DeMille (the one referred to in this Email) on a Pday outing last Fall in Kamikochi. 


Hey everyone! 

    Whoa, wait, what?? I didn`t know that Brother Kaye speaks Japanese!  Much less Portuguese and Romanian...the only one I knew about already was Dutch. That`s crazy! Is he fluent in all of those languages? That would be pretty interesting to have someone in our ward at home who can speak Japanese...I`ve been thinking all along that I`m going to come home and there won`t be anyone who can. [Referring to Brother Kaye's talk in Sacrament Meeting that we told Adam about--no, Bro. Kaye is only fluent in Dutch, but learned to bear his testimony in the other languages for that talk] 

      Anyway, I guess on to the events of the week! Transfers were a little unusual this time...or should I say completely usual? Not sure, but anyway...heading into my 14th of 16 total transfers, and I will be staying here for my eighth transfer in Matsumoto! Actually from what I`ve been hearing, I`m only the second missionary in the history of the mission staying in an area for that long...the only other one being Elder Brown, my MTC companion. It will make 11 1/2 months here in Matsumoto...and I`m excited for what this transfer is going to bring! I will still be a zone leader for Nagano Zone, but Elder Wilson is transferring to Toyama to be with Elder DeMille (pictured above) for his last two transfers...and Elder Skankey is coming over from Ina to be my new companion. I`ve already mentioned a lot about him in previous e-mails...but he is from Arizona, and was in the group of missionaries right after me in the MTC. It will most likely only be one transfer that we are together, due to the fact that I`ve already been here for as long as I have...but we`ll see! There was a bit of a surprising change with the districts this time around too...both of the sister missionaries transferred out of Matsumoto out to a place called Shizuoka on the coast, and new set of sister missionaries are transferring up to Nagano City. We`ve become a district with Nagano and Ueda for this transfer. I guess the most interesting part of the whole change though...is that from now on we will be taking over the sister`s investigators and other people they were meeting with! This is going to be a busy transfer! 

      There was some exciting things that happened this week! (other than the stuff I just wrote about... ;) ) S----san has a baptism date for the 19th of next month! :) We met with her again at the house of the member who referred her, and finished teaching her about the  Restoration, after which we invited her to prepare to receive baptism on that date. She told us that she received baptism in the catholic church at the age of 30, at which point her life totally changed...but that much like Joseph Smith, she noticed that the doctrines of the different churches didn`t agree with each other. She said that she has been searching for truth since that time, and that she feels that search has ended upon learning about our church! She expressed that when she reads the book of mormon, prays, and also when she meets with us, she has good feelings, she feels like the teachings of the gospel are correct. SO awesome! She came to church yesterday, and is already becoming fast friends with a lot of the members...things are going great with her :) I think that she is definitely someone that I would say is an honest seeker of truth. 

       

        O----- wasn`t able to meet with the date that he had for the 29th...still some things that he is working through right now. I feel like I might have mentioned this in last week`s e-mail...but he has a new date for February 26th, and so now we are working with him to achieve that. 

        We also had interviews, and then went on exchanges with the APs...at which I finally got the opportunity to work with Elder Rust! It was a great exchange...we found some great PIs and taught a couple lessons together :) Actually on a somewhat related topic...(not really I guess, but anyway...) it has been SOOOO cold! From what everyone is saying  , the temperature right now between here and Sapporo up in Hokkaido is about the same. It reminds me a lot of Suwa...everything is just frozen. haha.

         I`ve got to run, but thanks as always for being the wonderful family that you are :) You`re the best, I love all of you guys! Have a wonderful week! 

                                                                   Love, 

                                                                                Elder Voss

偉大な今週 Great Week! Sunday, January 23

                                                      The Darumas are visible at the bottom


I just realized that I forgot to answer any of your questions in the other e-mail! Umm, no that`s great that you put up those pictures! Thanks :) I didn`t know they were called that [Daruma dolls pictured previously], but since you sent that we have learned a lot about them from the members. I actually have seen several people playing shamisens...there were a couple last summer at the taiko drum festival...they were electric, and they had two people "dueling" with them on the open air stage. Haven`t seen a whole lot of art galleries...but there actually is a big art museum here in Matsumoto...just haven`t gone yet. There are a ton of shrines EVERYWHERE. No matter where you go there are always shrines...big ones, small ones...all over the places :) This past week there was actually a Ice Festival at Matsumoto castle. Ice sculptors from all over Japan came to compete and create the "best" ice sculpture. they did it with chainsaws, and then set up the statues all around the edges of Matsumoto Castle. It was pretty cool! Got to run...


Elder Voss

ヘイ Hey!

Japanese Daruma ceremonial doll used in the bonfire celebration pictured above--paint one eye in when you make a wish, paint the other eye in when it comes true, then burn it on the end of a stick. The people pictured are also  roasting rice balls. Learning about Japanese traditions!




Hey!

        This week has been awesome! I feel like our prayers have really been answered for finding new investigators. We went to a recent convert's house for the after baptism lessons that we have with him every week, and just out of the blue this friend of his drops by to see how he is doing. He introduced us to her--She started telling us how she has a lot of interest in Christianity, and how she loves pictures of Jesus Christ. We had a great conversation with her right there for about 15 minutes, and invited her to come to church on Sunday...which she actually declined, because she felt she would be too busy with her kids on that day. We thought to ourselves "okay, well I guess we`ll just have to meet up another time next week or something like that", and ended up leaving shortly after that. Well, Sunday came around and we had our co-ordination meeting that morning like usual, and then when entered the chapel, the member that we had visited was there, along with his friend! He apparently hadn`t given up on getting her to church that week, and she had worked really hard to make sure everything at home was taken care of early so that she could go! She ended up staying for the whole three hours of church, participating in the branch lunch that we had afterward! We have an appointment with her and the member this next Friday, and she says she has a lot of interest in learning more. She also wants us to meet her husband, who is from Sri Lanka and apparently speaks English. Oh, AND she has a lot of friends who are interested in learning English, and so it looks like we will be having the opportunity to start another English class where we could meet a whole lot more people with interest in learning about the church :) 

          We actually did end up moving this week! We only moved a few blocks away, but it is a super new, super nice apartment that is quite a bit bigger than the old one...so that is a really nice change! We spent most of Thursday with the elders from the Honbu moving all our stuff and getting everything set up. It`s still really close to the church, so that`s nice. I think this new apartment is pretty much the first place with security cameras that I have ever lived in...it`s pretty weird! haha. 

           O----- is doing really well! We had a lesson with him while we were actually on exchanges with the Ina elders. He is continuing to get ready for his baptism date on the 29th :) 

            I have to run because we have to catch a train down to Nagoya for leadership training tomorrow morning.  I love you all, have a great week! 

                                                                                                    -Elder Voss