Mom, 18th
May 2013
Konnichiwa. I may not be able to fathom your
pride and joy, but I think I can fathom your apprehension. I feel the same
about being away for so long and not having continuous available contact with
you or any family and friends. It's a very eerie feeling, especially that it'll
be that way for two whole years. I know that I hardly ever contacted you while
at BYU, but now that I'm back in Provo without the opportunity to contact
people whenever I please, I have a greater desire to do just that. Ironic,
isn't it?
I certainly hope to have
the chance to experience miracles. All the stories I've heard about others
having those opportunities sounds awesome to me and I want to have the same
chances. I'm certainly glad that I've been blessed with the gift of tongues. I
will do my best to bear the priesthood I hold and to use it to help others.
I'll try my best to share those outstanding experiences that I have.
I've committed myself to
doing everything I can to serve over the next two years. I promised myself that
I won't let anything keep me from giving everything I have. I know I can
accomplish anything.
Time for the discombobulated
paragraph, where I throw in random stories. So the cafeteria is like a Cannon
Center on steroids. When I discovered that I wasn't too thrilled. My shampoo
leaked in the bag: the squirt nozzle also punctured the bag so some of it did
end up leaking out. Luckily, the majority of what was in there are washables. One of the things the elders that have been here for
some time have told us is to look for "Narnia holes". These are just
little spaces and crevices that past missionaries have put stuff like candy or
notes or such for future missionaries to find. There's one right over my desk--behind
a square, metal plate screwed to the wall. I noticed three of the screws were
gone, so I rotated it about the one still there and discovered dum-dums as well
as stale fruit loops in there! My companion found a couple dollar bills inside
the light covering. Also, when I was rotating the plate back into place I
managed to cut my finger on the inside edge. How's that for a first day?
We already had our first investigator role-play, and it wasn't in English.
Needless to say it could've gone better. I guess that's what the MTC and senior
companions are for! My first gym time was yesterday and I chose to play
volleyball, as did Bryon Alger, while my companion did basketball.
As you've probably
gathered, this is my first p-day. I'm very grateful for it, too. We don't have
to wear dress clothes all day and there's a lot of extra time to study and
write letters. Speaking of which, I neglected to bring your letters with me to
the computer lab, so I'll probably respond to them next week. Thanks for
sending me the package, though.
I have less than a minute
remaining, so I'm going to close this email. Tell everyone I love them and will
miss them, and that I'll see them in two years!
Love, Jordan
Mom, 25th
May, 2013
The way the Japanese
missions go, I'll be here all 9 weeks. Every three weeks they switch off transfers
for the Sapporo, Tokyo, and Sendai missions with the Kobe, Fukuoka, and Nagoya
missions. When I got here, the Kobe groups had three weeks left, which would
not ready me in time. Then the Tokyo groups had six weeks, which could work but
the issue is I probably won't be allowed to leave with them. Then there's the
next Kobe leaving in nine weeks which is the normal time
My companion is Elder
Jacob Bentley from Alpine, Utah. They never pair you up with someone going to a
different mission, so yes, he's going to Kobe, as well. My entire district, in
fact, is going to Kobe. We had a couple more Japanese role-plays with the same
person, and they all went A LOT better. We're done teaching him, so now we'll
be role-playing with our two teachers: Brother Powell and Sister Mortensen. I
have been carrying that inspiration book around and I have about five entries
so far, I believe.
I'm pretty sure I
mentioned in my last email that I saw Bryon Alger. He's actually in my
zone/branch, as well, and he lives one room over so I see him a lot every
day. I also saw Michael and Mackenzie on my first day and a couple more
times--they flew out Wednesday morning.
I haven't seen Jordan Henstrom
yet, or Jared Poff. My laundry bag and all other things have, indeed, come and
I've received them.
Everything's going
really well. I heard from a lot of people that the first few days are the worst
because they tell you so much and there's a lot to get used to. I can say that
is very true, but now everything's great. One of my ZL's also said you have this much time to do this much stuff--except he showed it with his hands.
That is also very true. I can hardly find time to do all the reading/studying
we're supposed to do on our own rather than have it scheduled. Showering is
also a thing you have to find time for. Also, I barely managed to find time to
clip my fingernails here!
They have devotionals
every Sunday and Tuesday night and while both of the ones I've had so far
weren't given by GA's, they were great. The speakers are allowed to be a lot
more assertive and personable. After Sunday devotionals, there are a couple
movies or past devotionals that the MTC plays for us in various rooms, and last
Sunday and went to the room playing back a MTC devotional Elder Bednar gave
last Christmas. It was awesome.
Love, Jordan
Mom, 1st
June, 2013
Bentley Choro and I are
certainly getting along great. Our whole district, in fact, is getting along
great. Our Branch Presidency has told us that there's something special about
our district that other one's don't necessarily have. Also, our Zone
Leaders--or ex-Zone Leaders as I should say, since they were released and are
heading to Japan on Monday--told us that we're their favorite district. Also,
my companion and I are their favorite districtees. The two of them come into our
room every night before quiet time and we talk and joke around. They're pretty
much the coolest.
Our role-plays with
Powell and Mortensen Sensei have also been going well. Mortensen Sensei,
though, plays a tough investigator. She (the investigator) is distracted
somewhat easily and is sort of closed-off socially. So our goal is to get her
to open up to us more. As for Powell Sensei's persona, we had an incredible
lesson with him. We could sort of feel the Spirit the entire time,
and we taught him about the Plan of Salvation, which isn't super easy in
English and ridiculously hard in broken Japanese. I wrapped up with the
Kingdoms of Glory, which are very hard to explain to a non-member--especially
one who's Buddhist--and in a foreign language. I managed to get the point
across and he made a remark that he doesn't feel like he'd be able to make it
to the Celestial Kingdom. I couldn't really reply so I let Bentley Choro end
with his testimony and a prayer. Before he asked if we could close, I had a
sudden urge to interrupt, so I did. I started preaching about the Atonement and
its effects in near-perfect Japanese. I told him how I've committed sins
before, how I'll inevitably commit sins later, how I'm not perfect, how my
companion's not perfect, how he nor anybody except for Jesus is perfect. Then I
said that through the Atonement, that's alright. Through it, we can all become
perfect, can all become like Christ, can all make it to the Celestial Kingdom.
You could feel the Spirit get stronger and stronger, and we could see that what
I said hit him hard, and that he really liked that mini-lesson. Along with that,
it helped me feel more confident about serving in Japan.
That same night, though,
we had our three hour class time with Mortensen Sensei. There are five
companionships in our district, though, so Bentley Choro and I got to teach
Mortensen Sensei, but not in her aloof persona. Again we had to teach the Plan
of Salvation, and it went great. She even said that she was remarkably
impressed that we seemed so prepared and to know the material so well and to
know exactly what we wanted for such an unscheduled lesson. She added that
she'd never expect that from two-and-a-half week missionaries
We actually read that
part of Nephi's story during our district BoM reading we have every now and
then during class.
It'd be cool to get a
goodie package, though I'm not in need of one. I do, however, need you to send
me my black tie. Apparently the Japanese missionaries--in the MTC and in the
field--have "murasaki Mokuyobi" or purple Thursday and "kuroi
Kinyobi" or black Friday. At least I've been able to keep murasaki
Mokuyobi.
愛する、ウィルソン長老 （あいする、ウィルソンちょうろう）(Ai suru, Wiruson Choro)
Love, Elder Wilson
Mom, 8th
June 2013
Everything has been going
well since the last email. I forgot to mention last week that Brother Zwinck
gave a devotional. If you're not familiar with him, before being called to the
Seventy, he owned a contracting company and was the lead contractor for the
Portland Temple. Naturally, he alluded to the temple many times during his
talk, such as how they had to entirely redesign the foundation because they had
record-breaking rain--nine inches in one day! This week the Sunday devotional
was by a man whose name I can't recall, but his devotional was remarkable. The
front stage, rather than having a podium and a bunch of seats for the
MTC Presidency and such, was completely empty except for one desk. His
entire devotional was a monologue through the perspective of Willard Richards--the
man who was with Hyrum, Joseph and John Taylor in Carthage, but didn't receive
a single scratch--starting from the point when he (Brother Richards) heard
about the Mormon movement from Brigham Young, his cousin, all the way to events
at Carthage. To make that Sunday evening even better, one of the options for
videos to watch after the devotional was an old devotional given by Elder
Holland about year ago. Needless to say, it was a really spiritual night.
Sandberg Sensei, who
actually just finished her last week teaching at the MTC with us, her investigator
persona was a 95 year old woman named Nishimura. She was SO fun to teach and
was so receptive to the Gospel. She even committed to being baptized after two
lessons. On her last day with us she gave us the story of the real Nishimura
San. She actually did commit to be baptized after our teacher had a
handful of lessons with her, except she had also been an investigator for
five years. At first, she was scared at the thought of baptism because the
doctors told her that she'd die if she got in water because her body wouldn't
be able to handle it. Well, at some point she told them that she wanted to be
baptized, completely out of the blue, and that she wanted to be baptized the
following week. Apparently it took two elders to get her all the way under
water safely, as well as a nurse to hold her head while she was under. After
the baptism, our sensei went to the chapel and found the nurse who held
Nishimura San's head, who was a member, praying. She asked what was up, and
apparently the nurse checked Nishimura San's vitals before the baptism. Her
blood pressure was very high and her oxygen very low. She told Nishimura that
as a nurse she can't condone her to follow through. Nishimura San replied that
it's alright, Jesus would help her. While holding her head, the nurse replied
that she looked much younger and that her face was full of trust and
submission. After the baptism she checked her vitals again. High oxygen and
normal BP were the readings. She had the health of a 30 year old. It's amazing
what results we see when we obey with complete faith.
That's just about all I
have for this week. Give everyone my best!
愛、~ウィルソン長老
Mom, 15th
June 2013
Elder Bentley and I
managed to finally get through to the really tough investigator that I may or
may not have mentioned in a previous email. Now the only thing we have to do is
keep her that way so we can teach her effectively. All the Tuesday devotionals
are now held in the Marriott Center through the summer because the gym isn't
nearly big enough to hold everyone. Mervyn B. Arnold of the Seventy spoke last
Tuesday, the first ever devotional in the Marriott, and he spoke about the
Spirit and gifts of the Spirit. The talks given by members of the Seventy have
been great.
I'll be leaving the MTC
on either the 15th or 16th of July; it's still a bit unclear as to exactly when
I'll be leaving. There will be probably 70 missionaries headed for Japan, but
not all of them will be in the same group. The last group that left had some
people leave Tuesday morning, and some on Wednesday morning (at 4:00).
I actually brought the
Dear Elders and my inspiration journal this time, so here we go. This'll
probably be lots of bits and pieces:
This first inspiration
is from the first counselor in my branch presidency, Brother Willes, nephew of Gordon
B. Hinckley. Yes, he looks and talks and motivates much like him. A few years
ago, while serving as a mission president in Hawaii, he was called to
a children's hospital to give a healing blessing to a little girl. He went and
blessed the little girl fervently. A couple days later he was called in again
because the girl wasn't getting better. So he went again and pronounced another
blessing. This happened a couple more times over the next week or so, but the
little girl never made any progress. Finally, he phoned President Monson and
explained the situation and asked if he'd come to give the girl a blessing.
Brother Willes said to us that he felt like he wasn't able to tap into the
Spirit and give the correct blessing, so who of all people would be able to do
it right? The prophet, of course! President Monson came. The blessing he gave
to the child was almost word for word exactly like Brother Willes’ blessing. He
realized that he had, in fact, blessed according to the Spirit. Well, the
little girl eventually passed. Brother Willes said that upset him for a while.
Then he thought of the scripture in Isaiah 55: 8-9--"For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts." God had his own plan for that little child. We can't possibly
know what it is, but we can know that it's a greater plan than any of us
could've had for her. We need to strive not just to be obedient, but also to
follow God's plan for us. We won't get as far if we go out on our own because
his ways are higher than ours.
This next one kind of correlates to the last one, I just realized. You pointed
out to me a while back that I'm already on a mission and that I'm called to
edify and uplift people now, even here in the MTC. Thus, instead of questioning
why I'm still here, I should look for opportunities to help others. I'm sure
you'll be able to articulate my point better than I can and connect it to the
last one since you said it, so I'll leave that to you.
D&C 130:
20-21--"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the
foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And
when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon
which it is predicated." I remember thinking about this scripture for
scripture mastery in seminary. I guess I didn't do a very good job because I
never thought about the following before. Like all scripture, this is a rule.
If we're obedient, blessings are promised to us; if we're disobedient, we can't
be blessed. God is arguably the most obedient person in existence, especially
to His own rules. If we break the rule, he can't hold up his end, and thus
cannot bless us. If we want blessings, we must be obedient in all that we do.
Elder Nelson said in the Tuesday devotional the night before I got here:
"Obedience brings blessings; perfect obedience brings miracles."
"If [the journey]
gets too hard to stand, get on your knees.
Hope you enjoyed these.
I'll talk to you next week. Keep being obedient and following life's guide.
Love,
--ウィルソン長老
Mom, 22nd
June 2013
Everything here is
going fine. Our original teacher, Powell Sensei, the one we had while teaching
the PI at the beginning of our MTC stay--who also has only ever stayed with one
district throughout their entire MTC because everyone keeps getting moved
around--is leaving us. Part of the issue is he's also going back to school, so
he can't take the time slot for our district. His PI is the one I told
you about when I added the Atonement at the end of the lesson. We've
had several more great lessons with him, a few that rode entirely on the
Spirit. If we had just one more lesson with him, I can almost guarantee he
would've committed to baptism! Our other teacher, Mortensen Sensei, is still
sticking with us, though. Bentley Choro and I finally had a breakthrough with
her PI, and I'm pretty sure she'll be open for baptism after a handful of
lessons (we've already had two handfuls or so with her). Out last coaching with
Powell Sensei was doing a live companionship study in front of him so he could
evaluate, and he told us that we did everything practically perfect. A few
weeks ago I told you about a really awesome broadcast happening tomorrow, and I
still urge you to watch it if you can. I'll give you two tips about it: 1)
There will be several General Authorities; 2) I'll be singing in the 2,200
person choir, half of which will be missionaries from the MTC. It's kind of a
big deal.
Henstrom already left
for Virginia--probably two weeks ago, almost. I've seen KJ once because he
hunted me down during a choir rehearsal. He'll be leaving just in time to catch
the broadcast.
That's all for this
week! Love everyone!
--ウィルソン長老
Mom, 29th
June 2013
I'm pretty sure we'll be
using tablets or smartphones on our missions, since Japan is a high tech place.
For missions in the jungles of the Amazon and the deserts of Africa, that
probably won't be the case. They did say that this will be integrated into
every mission over the course of the next couple months, though. I didn't get
to shake any of the GA's hands except for Ronald A. Rasband, President of the
Seventy, and the man whose talk I referenced in my farewell. Every GA and new
mission president were practically on lockdown in the main building: they were only
allowed to leave to go home, and missionaries were rarely let in. Bentley and I
were let in to welcome an Australian missionary and his temp companion to the
MTC because he was in our zone. By the way, I got called as zone leader.
Anywho, while we were picking him up we saw Elder Bednar and were standing
maybe 30 feet away from him. When we got called to the front desk we were super
excited because Elder Holland is Bentley's dad's cousin, and his dad texts
quite a bit with Elder Holland, and Holland was saying that he hoped to
see Bentley while there. So we legitimately thought that Elder Holland paged us
to come to the front desk.
I'll just say that my
departure date is July 15th, because if it does end up being July 16th, I'll
probably be too busy to buy anything on the 15th, anyway. We do get our flight
plans sometime this coming week, though.
Love,
--ウィルソン長老
Mom and Dad, 6th
July 2013
We just got our flight
plans yesterday. We fly out of SLC on the 15th at 8:00am-ish, have a 2 hour-ish
layover in Seattle, then fly to Osaka from there, and I assume we'll take a
train of a bus to Kobe. Bryon's travel plans: they fly out of SLC at
6-ish--they have to leave at 2:30am!--have a three hour layover in DALLAS, then
fly to Tokyo, then to Fukuoka. They probably have the worst travel plans in the
history of missionary work. At least we get to fly directly into our
mission boundaries. Also, I've seen tons of people here that I knew from home
or BYU. You'll have to tell me what's going on in Oregon, especially the
weather. We actually had some rather large thunderstorms last night, and
tonight is a lot cooler and more humid than it's been. I love it! Also, I
realized I forgot to bring that pillowcase you got me for my birthday; the one
with the checklist of things to do everyday.
As Zone Leader, I lead the zone. Every week my companion and I create agendas for Sacrament
and Priesthood Meeting, as well as Branch Counsel. Every night we go to the
various rooms that our districts live in--just the Elders--and ask how they're
doing, chat for a bit, offer any help we can give, and say good night. We and
the Sister Training Leaders had training meetings with the newcomers,
including giving them a tour of campus. We essential act as caretakers for the
zone and report everything to the Branch president. Two Wednesdays ago I did
some hosting for the new missionaries. For that, a bunch of veterans wait for
new missionaries to get dropped off, we help them separate from their
families--sometimes it's pretty tough--take them to get checked in, take them
to their residence, then take them to their classroom to get acquainted with
their teacher and district. As cool as it was, it was probably a good thing
that you guys weren't here to drop me off. This one guy I hosted, he got out of
the car, as did his parents, and none of them were really crying. But then his
younger siblings got out and they were bawling to death. That caused the rest
of them to start crying--a lot. It was awkward, funny, sad, and touching all at
the same time.
Your scriptural
reference reminded me a bit about the district lesson Bentley and I gave last
Sunday. The topic was on the Atonement. The Atonement's tough to teach. We know
Christ suffered and why he suffered, as well as the events of the Atonement.
Other than that: how it works; why it happened the way it did; why it
absolutely had to be Christ; etc...we really can’t comprehend it; it's
simply beyond our understanding. But we did our best to dive deeper into it
rather than staying in the shallow water that everyone knows so well since
that's practically all we can teach. Everyone said we did a great job. There's
a video we showed, a Mormon Message video paired up with a talk that Elder
Holland gave once upon a time. It's entitled "None Were With Him".
It's a great video, very well done. And, of course, with Elder Holland speaking
in the background, it's all the better.
Love,
ウィルソン長老
Mom, 13th
July 2013
Well, I am pretty
excited to go, as well as a little nervous. Yesterday we had "In-Field
Orientation" that taught us exactly how we'll go about our missions. It
was a 9 hour 30 minute meeting, but it went by really quick and was pretty
enjoyable.
I was going to buy a
calling card at the bookstore since I have some money left on my MTC card. If
you Dear Elder the code for a calling card, I won't get it until I'm in Japan.
The mailroom doesn't handle Dear Elders over the weekend. I've always received
three from you on Monday, the other two being Saturday's and Sunday's--so it
won't serve much good to me. I'm going to go there after emailing to find out
what the deal with the calling card is. I'll be calling from Seattle, so
I'm pretty sure my call will come at 7am-ish. I'll double check and send another
email if it turns out to be a different time. I'll also ask them what the deal
is with sending letters overseas.
Tell Sister Cook that I
appreciated the Dear Elder and that she's thinking of me. Also tell her I
enjoyed the description of Oklahoma and Michael's thought on being in a country
song.
Boy, this is the last
email I'll send from the MTC. In fact, aside from the package they I may or may
not get off, this could be the last thing you receive from me while I'm still
in the states. Crazy!
I'll keep this short
and end here since I have quite a bit to do today, as I'm sure you do.
Thanks for everything!
Love,
--ウィルソン長老
PS: We got our Japanese
name tags
ウィルソン長老
末日聖徒
イエス・キリスト
教会
That's pretty much what it looks like--font
change and all. Our MTC tags have our name and title in English rather than
Japanese, but everything else is the same.
