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

Two Year Mark

Hello everyone! Well the internet has been going at an incredibly slow rate today, but I'll do my best!

First things first. This week I reached two years since I started my mission. 

I went into the MTC November 16th 2013. It's been a tough road to get to this point and I'm still not done. I have about 8 months to go, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. It's changed my life and will continue to do so. Thanks again everyone for all the support while I was home. I couldn't have come back to Japan without it. I love you all!

This week has been absolutely incredible! We've been so busy!! We managed to squeeze in 21 lessons this week despite having to spend a lot of our proselyting time planning for a Zone Training Meeting! The Training meeting was probably the biggest thing that happened. We took almost a week to prep and plan for it, but the result was pretty amazing. We've been working with the missionaries here in Matsudo, trying to help them build the faith to see the Miracle of a White Christmas. We several trainings throught the meating that dealt with faith and works and at the very end we did the Board Breaking activity I always did at swim team before my Regional Meets. It was pretty intense!! We had a couple of the newer missionaries come up and show their faith by breaking wooden planks with their hands. The entire Zone practically exploded from the excitement. They all left with a lot more vision then they've had in the past. I guess that's the point! We're super excited to see what happens this transfer! There are a lot of miracles around the corner.

Tomorrow we are going to Kichijoji to see Elder David F Evans speak. The entire Tokyo South Mission will be there as well!! Following Elder Evans we'll be going to Nakano to the Tokyo Mission home to have our holiday conference. I'm excited! I'll be sure to send lots of pictures next week!

Love you all!
Don't catch any colds!
-G

P.S. We went to costco today! Pictures next week

Adjusting to Missionary Life

I love my companions!
It's interesting having a triple companionship like ours. It's my first time really knowing what it feels like to have room mates. We are always bickering about dumb stuff but we work crazy hard and see so many miracles! Just this week Elder Young and I were both sick! I'm still on the recovery, but despite being sick we tackled 22 lessons with Elder Day's assistants! That's more lessons than I've ever taught on my mission before and we did it as Zone Leaders, we barely have time for lessons because we are so busy with training and other things. 

Elder Young is the man when it comes to using time effectively. He doesn't stop for anything! He used to be the second fastest Pizza cutter in Australia and he worked as a store manager for Dominoes Pizza. His store set a world record for the most pizzas sold in a day! He had every job you could possible imagine offered to him by dominoes officials (We`re talking jobs with 6 figure pay here) and he turned it all down to go on a mission! This guy just knows how to work! It's awesome! I'm learning lots of healthy habits.

With Elder Young's tight schedule we're really pushing Elder Day, our new missionary to greater hights. The other day he had a small meltdown from all the stress and Elder Young and I had a great opportunity to train him on something we call the "Circle of Influence" with this new fund knowledge he's been working harder than ever before! However he isn't doing it alone! We just received a bag full of "Adjusting to Missionary Life" booklets for our zone and apparently this book has changed Elder Day's Life! We asked him a training on it at zone meeting this week! We'll see how he holds up! This is actually what his face looked like after discovering the booklet. Great right? Elder Young has been teaching him how to cook too! We've had a lot of fun with Elder Day, he's like our little brother.

With the Success in Lessons we've seen progress with our investigators. This is Takuya. Elder Young and his younger brother found him together (that's a fun story) and he's getting baptized on the 1st of December in Koiwa Ward (He lives outside of our area). We're excited for him. He has more desire to be baptized than I've ever seen from any other investigator! He's great, we love him!

Well that's all I have time for this week! Tune in next week for more excitement! Lot of big things coming this transfer!
Love you all! Enjoy the last few days of Fall, Winter is just around the corner!
-G

Week One in Matsudo!

Hey everyone!

Well it's been another busy week! I'm pretty sure that it's always just busy weeks for missionaries. Today isn't even really a p-day for me, it's just a lighter work day than the rest of the week.
This week was Transfers. I got to Matsudo at around noon on October 31st.
Right from the start we hit the ground running.

 

There used to be 5 people in this apartment. Now that there is only 3 of us we're picking up the other Elder's investigators and we are incredibly busy. We also have 5 Baptismal dates who are progressing fairly well right now. I feel like I've been dropped into the deep end.  We did weeklly planning right away and then that night during the hour and a half we had to dendo we found 3 new investigators! It was incredible! My first day in the area and we saw a lot of really cool miracles.

 

Working with Elder Young and Elder Day is a blast though. Elder Young is an incredible leader and I've actually been in the same district as him before so I knew him before. We work pretty well together. Elder Day is a great new missionary with a lot of Faith. He really want's to be a good missionary and it shows. We're trying to help him focus his attention on other things besides Japanese. It's going to be a great transfer I can see a lot of the momentum building.

As Zone Leader I have a really cool opportunity to work with the Assitants to the President and with President Budge. This year in Tokyo we will be having a `White Christmas` meaning that every companionship is to see a baptism before Christmas.  The utimate goal is to give back to the Savior. In connection with that we're working a lot with the individual districts in our zones to set the stage and vision for the next few months. There is so much Fire for the work in Tokyo right now it's incredible. This transfer is going to be 100mph the entire transfer!

I realize that I haven't sent any good pictures so I'll make sure to get some of my companions and I along with our church before next week (It's the largest ward and church building in Asia, just saying) lots of exciting things happening!

Have a great week! Eat some Pumpkin pie for me!
Lots of Love from Tokyo

I lied! I have pictures of stuff!!
You know what is almost as good as Ramen?

Tsukemen!

Elder Young is the one who`s behind Elder Day, Who's the one with me in the other picture.