Saitama

Transfer calls just happened today. I'm plenty pleased with my transfer. I'm going to be a Zone Leader in Saitama West Zone (Sakado Area) with the Legendary Elder Chen on his last Transfer. It's going to be a blast!!
Okegawa (my old area) is in my zone so I'll get to visit it at some point. Elder Hansen is going to the other side of the Matsudo apartment to be with Elder Beckett. Elder LeFevre one of the District Leaders here will be Zone Leader with Elder Norman. Elder Day is going to Senzokuike (my old area) to finish training someone. It seems like everyone is pretty happy. We had a giant Zone P-day today to play sports and stuff while we all awaited transfer calls. Guess who else is a Zone Leader. Elder Justesen. He's transfer 5!! and Elder Gray who was in my district back in Oyama is also a Zone Leader at transfer 4!! crazy!! I knew that it would happen too. Those Elders are just way too good.

I'm gonna be sending home a small package this week, by boat mail. It will take about a month. Costs next to nothing so don't worry about that.

Things have been really good. I've learned a lot about myself during my time in Matsudo and I'm really looking forward to applying my new found knowledge in Sakado. This could be my last area. Who knows!
Sounds like B has got things figured out. Hopefully she's trying to follow promptings as well. She'd make an incredible missionary ;) I know that's her choice though.

We're getting Ipad Minis two weeks from now. Did I mention that? Every missionary gets an Ipad Mini with Facebook... not sure how that'll work. Updates soon!

Stay Healthy! Keep using the oils. I love peppermint. I could use another bottle of just peppermint actually. Also On Gaurd toothpaste rocks. I haven't even had a headache in like a month.

Give the family my love!

New Year, New Possibilities

This past week went by incredibly fast. I'm not sure if it was excitement for temple day or if it was stress from preparing trainings but it went by so fast!! Our trainings this week went really well actually. We had a Zone Meeting on Tuesday last week with all 35 missionaries and then yesterday we had our new missionary training meeting which was for all of the 1st and 2nd transfer missionaries. That went well. The meeting itself was bigger than any zone meeting we did the transfer before. Not only that but Sunday was a zone wide Japanese only day. It was incredible I spent about 10 hours speaking Japanese and was able to really pinpoint some of the things I've been trying to improve on. It did stress out some the of the younger missionaries but I would say everyone thought that it was worth it.

Today the temple was an amazing experience. Since last weeks shocker I had been feeling a lot of concern about what my future held or what I would do when I came home etc, on top of all the regular missionary stressors. I had a chance to just lay it all in front of the Lord and felt my spirits lifted. I'm really excited for the next few transfers. This next transfer is Elder Norman's last transfer and we are hoping that we'll have the opportunity to really work and grow just the two of us. Training and being a Zone Leader is really too much. We don't really have time to help our new missionary at all.  Anyways things are looking good from today forward.  I got the Christmas card. Funniest thing ever. Absolutely loved it.

This week will go by fast as well. Transfer calls are in 6 days and I have 3 exchanges this week so we'll be spending a lot of time traveling to other areas. Then I'll be on transfer 12! The big question is what I'm going to do for school... I have a couple of ideas but I still don't really know. Elder Healy and I were talking today and we both want to stay till the 22nd of August but that leaves no time to prepare for school and I really wanna hit the ground running when school roles around. I guess we'll figure that out when school gets closer. I've been thinking a lot lately and I think since I'm going to have to retake my first year of college anyway (I've been gone for 2 years) I thought it might be cool to experience ROTC. I'd like to sign up for that. I don't have to make a decision until Junior year and who knows maybe by then I'll have found my future wife. I'm going to ask dad to do a little ROTC research for me. I Think I've got a general idea about school but I wanna learn some things first. I'm thinking mechanical engineering would be cool. If I can learn Japanese I can learn math. I also was thinking about doing a minor in Japanese but if I graduate and complete ROTC then I'd have a Naval Science Minor so Dual Minor? or do I go Dual Major? I'm not sure what I can handle.. ha ha anyways just thought I'd let you know what's been running through my head. Thanks for all the
Love and support Mom.
I'm so glad I came back. This has been the most incredible year and this next one is only going to get better.

Give the Family my love!

DEAR JOHN

That's all I have to say on the matter. Life goes on.

Santa Clause Came To Town And His Name Was Elder Howard

This week has been insane!
The end of the year rush seems to be even more aparent here in Japan!
Well this is the last email of the year so I should update y'all.

Last week the Watanabe family asked me to be Santa at their Eikaiwa Christmas Party. It was great. Elder Norman was pretty much beside himself with laughter. All the kid's wanted pictures with me and I wore an ichy fake beird for about 3 hours. It was a blast though. Other than that Christmas was pretty uneventful here in Matsudo. None of our friends were baptized and no one invited us over. We had a nice quiet Christmas here in the apartment just the 5 of us. We did eat Sushi though. That was a trip. A lot of the new missionaries in the District don't like sea food at all. We stuffed our faces with eel and octopus and fish eggs etc. It was great.
I wish there was more to report, but to be honest it was a super quiet Christmas. New years here however should be great. The mission is changing things up this year.
on the 31st that's tomorrow we have Deep Clean Day. Sister Budge loves a clean apartment so  we're going to spend the entire day in our apartments cleaning a years worth of buildup and grossness. Our apartment is going to be holy ground when we're done with it! The next day is New Years day. We're going to be spending the day as a mission studying the Book of Mormon. A few of us in the Apartment have decided to try to read it from cover to cover in a day. It'll be some of the most dedicated study I've ever done but I'm expecting to learn a lot. I'll update you with the results next week!

Well I'm out of time once again. I love you all!
Have a Happy New Year!
I'm excited to hear from all of you in 2014.
What are some of your New Years Resolutions?

Quick Note

Main update for the week is that I am now a Zone Leader with Elder Norman whilst training Elder Hansen. Elder Day is part of the same apartment. Elder Young transfered to Togane. Elder Norman and I are zone leaders of the biggest zone in the mission. 35 missionaries. It's amazing but I'll tell you what it's stressful. I've been blessed with a cool head. I'm going to need it. There is a lot of work ahead of me. 2 zone training meetings. 4 district meetings a week. 11 exchanges and that doesn't include nightly reports and weekly conference calls. I'm a leader in the biggest zone in the most densly populated mission in the world. I feel like i'm doing something so much bigger than myself. It's great I don't have time to think of myself at all. It's exhausting, but the miracles are still coming! One of our friends is going to be baptized on the 29th of this month! I'm so excited for him. He's such a solid investigator he'll be an amazing member!

I know I promised to send pictures but transfer weeks are just too busy. I'll try to get some in next week and send a good blast mail. Next week I may just sacrifice mail time for calling time however. Um the later you do it the better probably. I'm thinking that if you try to do it at 5:30 there it's like 8:30 am here, which is kind of pushing it. We can see though. I'll send you an email during the week to solidify times. :) I'm excited and nervous.

Well gotta go mom. Give the family my love. I'll talk to you all next week!

Tall Towers

Well..transfer calls are here again. I can't believe it's been six weeks already! I feel like this past transfer went by way too quickly. It's been a blast though, I've spent almost the entire transer teaching people. I love it. I wouldn't want it any other way. It's been a busy week for us here in Matsudo as we try to keep up with the changing missionary life. Not only that but our Okinawan friend Katsuyuki is getting Baptized on the 22nd of this month! We only found him a week ago and he's doing amazing! He's progressing so quickly! The only issue right now is that he can't get work off on Sundays yet. He wants to though so we're praying that he'll be able to get work off and come to church. He'd be such a strong member of the ward, we need more people like him! We're looking forward to seeing our new best friend enter the waters of Baptism here in Matsudo this time. The White Christmas miracle is slowly but surely becoming a reality for the whole mission. Amazing things are happening! We still have 2 weeks left on the clock and we're all expecting the work to simply explode! This transfer is going to be a fun one! I'm going to continue being a Zone Leader with Elder Norman who is going to be my new companion and I'll be training for the fourth time. Elder Day and Elder Young will no Longer be my companions. Chiba zone split this transfer (Saitama also had to split) so Chiba South will now be his new Zone. Elder Day will however stay in the same apartment and be companions with another missionary. The Sisters also expanded. Matsudo will have 4 Sisters and 5 Elders. 9 Missionaries for one ward!! I'm not sure how many missionaries are in Matsudo Zone but it's close 35.. crazy. With the help of another companionship in Matsudo we'll really be able to get some good work done! I'm excited to see what happens!

Today I had the cool opportunity to go the the tallest tower in the world. The Tokyo Skytree!! You would not believe how tall it is. It's 634 Meters tall. I was able to stand at 451 Meters. From that high up you can see all of Tokyo. It goes on forever!! It's really such a cool city to live in. It's ridiculous how many people live here but still it's a blast! It isn't quite like home though. We went with Takuya. Our friend who just got baptized in Koiwa. He's the man seriously. It was a good relaxing p-day before the transfer picks up yet again.
Well that's all for the week! I'll be sure to update you on more exciting changes next week!

Stay tuned!
Love from Tokyo,
G

Desire and Consecration

I really really like P-days. It's nice to be able to just sit down in front of a computer and type out everything I've been thinking for the past few days. This week was loaded with good trainings, miracles and lessons. I think that there are just a few things I really want to talk about today though.

There are two elements in missionary work that one must possess in order to be the most capable and successful missionary. The first is Desire. Desire is the easy one. If you want to be a missionary, then you will work to become a better missionary. It's simple. There are so many new missionaries coming into the mission that have this desire and faith and they see a lot of miracles. They have the ability to shape the Tokyo Mission Culture through their expectations and hard work. It's amazing to watch. This is my third time as a trainer and I can clearly see that the missionaries who are coming on missions now are light years ahead of the missionaries I came in with because all of these new missionaries really want to be missionaries and they strive to be the best missionaries they can be.
Elder Oaks said

 "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming." 

Having desire is simple. The actions that follow are difficult. Let me explain. All of these missionaries are coming into the mission with the desire to see baptisms and learn Japanese and do all the things that the great missionaries do. Eventually that desire leads them to goal setting and planning and benchmarking. Things that will help them become better missionaries.

The second element a wall that even the most adept missionaries at some point will face and everyone has to decide whether or not they will make the climb. That wall is Consecration. The best missionaries are consecrated missionaries. The ones who leave all distractions, every streak of disobedience, every ounce of strength and desire on the altar of sacrifice. Those who strive to follow the rules and earn the Lord's trust. Those are the missionaries that make a difference. Everyone wants to become that kind of missionary, but not everyone can do it. I've decided that that's the kind of missionary I want to be. I have an awesome opportunity to work with 24 great missionaries to help them get to that point. If there are any missionaries who are reading this letter. Become that kind of missionary.

This week was a busy but it was a blast. The Elder Evan's and Christmas conferences were awesome!
(Picture Blast to Follow)

Well I hope you have a great week! 
I love you all