Sunday, June 23, 2013

6/24/2013: Transfer 13 - And another bites the dust....


Hey howdy,

Well, we got our transfer calls, and it looks like both Elder H. and I are staying in Yokosuka, and thus will be becoming Tokyo South Missionaries. This means a couple of things, firstly being that since we're not transferring P-day is today. Second is that this transfer will be only 3 weeks long, since the South mission's transfer schedule needs to be off set from the North Mission (so the MTC can manage missionaries and such). Thirdly, I have no clue when my return date is going to be, and won't until next Tuesday at the earliest (and even that isn't overly likely). I'll send info about that whenever I get it. Lastly it means I won't get a chance to say "Hi" to Jessica and Andrea before I leave Japan, but I guess the perk there is that I can continue to email them through my mission (since we won't be in the same one). :)

In some ways I'm a little saddened to not be in the North Mission, I had hoped to go back to Yachiyo one more time before I left and tell everyone good-bye, as well as hopefully get a chance to visit with (a less active) family. I'm praying that Jessica or Andrea will get a chance to serve near them and help reactivate them.  It's kind of sad to see my second mission president go as well, I have to admit I was really getting attached. Hopefully the 4 (to 5) months with President Wada will be a good bonding experience as well.

Well anyways, enough with the sad stuffs! I'm excited to be going where the Lord wants me to be. I know he wouldn't have called me to go to the South Mission if there wasn't a specific purpose he has for me to fulfill. Now the only trick is to figure out what that purpose is! Elder H. and I are going to work super hard this 3-week transfer to try and make Yokosuka blossom into a super busy area. The change in Mission Presidents, I feel, is going to keep me busy working to make my first impression on President Wada a good one (seeing how it's also kind of my last impression). Thankfully I have something to help keep me focused and avoid getting trunky. Plus I get to say I served in TWO missions! :D

Love,

Elder Mosdell

I'm guessing this is at a district meeting

Mission split update & some photos


We received a one sentence email yesterday stating that transfer calls have come and that Elder Mosdell will stay where he is.  This means that he will almost positively be in the Tokyo South Mission when the split happens on July 1st 2013.  He was hoping to stay in the Tokyo mission, but will be happy to be in either mission.  It also means that he will likely be home toward the end of rather than the beginning of November. 
We are expecting another email soon and will update the blog when we get it.  Meanwhile enjoy a few photos from the boy in Japan.
Mellon flavored Slurpees rule!

Longest roller slide known to Tokyo missionaries. It's SO freaking fast, and yet it lasts for like a whole minute!

It's a long hike back up.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

6/18/2013: Another temple trip, and the scent of transfers are in the air


Howdy,

This last week has been pretty decent. We were able to help several of the potential investigators we were working with last week become investigators, and one of them is even a progressing investigator now. We have a few appointments set up, though most everything was scheduled for next week. No clue why everyone seems to be so busy this week. :P

An English class student who expressed interest in coming to the English ward had an interesting lesson last Thursday with us. It wasn't the most fluent or prepared lesson, but it went OK. The really interesting part in it was when another new student came into the class 30 mins early and ended up joining our lesson. The new student seemed to have interest in our believe of God, so we're hoping to speak with him and invite him to learn from us about the church.

We've taken some time to create new English boards to put outside the church. They're not done yet (sadly they're taking longer than we'd intended), but when they're done I think they'll have a much better effect than the old moldy beat up ones.

We've spent a lot of our other time listening to old talks by Elder Holland (mostly from the 1980). It's been really enjoyable to listen to him, though I think I've got so many captivating stories and principals floating around in my head right now that it may just explode... or at least that's where this migraine seems to be headed (no pun intended ;) ). Thankfully a nice temple trip helped to relieve some of the headache. But if my letters this week seem a little out of wack... well now you know why. :)

With such a big transfer coming up just around the corner I'm anxious to see who's going to be on what side of the mission split. I feel much like I did when I was waiting for my mission call to come in the mail so many months ago. I'm happy to go where ever, I just want to know. @_@ I'm going to be trying to really buckle down and work hard in hopes that this week will fly by. We have something planned almost everyday of the week, so that should hopefully help.

Love, 

Elder Jeff Mosdell

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As a side note, Jeff is lamenting being an "old missionary" he says "I managed to finish wearing all the way through my back tire. Thankfully no accidents or anything, but I'm going to need to replace the tread...   darn, I'm an old missionary"
He will be home in 4 to 5 months depending on which mission he is in when the split happens on July 1st.  The last transfer before the split is next week so we should know more then.

Monday, June 17, 2013

6/10/2013: Elder Mosdell goes to the beach


Howdy!

This week has been fun, and busy. We went on splits twice as well as attend the Ringwood conference. I really enjoyed the talks and training given at the conference, they answered a lot of questions I've had lately. What stuck out the most to me was the phrase, "I just do the work, I don't need to see the results". I've found that to be a very helpful with the lack of success we've been seeing. Another thing I like is how this phrase fits perfectly with the "Expect Miracles" slogan our zone (mission?) has had this last transfer as well. At first they sound kind of contradictory, until you realize that you expect miracle to happen from the work you're doing, but that doesn't mean you'll SEE those miracles, just that they'll happen. Thus we work hard, expecting miracles to come of our work, but don't care of see the results.

As soon as I started applying what I'd learned to my work we started seeing a lot of little miracles, which I found be very ironic. Today was even one of the best days of this transfer, with 1 member present lesson, 1 other lesson, a total of 2 referrals received, with 1 contacted and 1 planned for next Wednesday, 2 new investigators, and 1 person at church. Freakin' awesome day! Wish I had enough time to mention specifics about people we've seen today!

I heard from Elder S. in Fussa that (our investigator) didn't make it to church again this week, so his baptismal date will be moved back to the 29th, the day of transfer calls. >.< I'm really praying that it happens by then, because I don't want to miss out on keeping my promise of coming for the baptism if I was to end up getting transferred to the north mission boundries.

I'm excited for the Eikaiwa student that came to church yesterday, he really seemed to have some interest!

 Sorry this is a bit shorter this week, little short on time due to the amount of time we spent at the beach with the zone... Hopefully I'm not too burned >.<

Guess that's all for this week! Thanks for reading it... again... as always... yeah...

-Elder Mosdell

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5/27/2013: 35 posters hung up across Yokosuka? *check*


Tuesday was interviews, and I really enjoyed those. It was nice to get to ask about how exactly referrals are supposed to be counted and such. I was a little bummed to find out that if I'm in South Mission that my return date will be changed, likely to the 22nd of November or even later. I really don't know how that's going to effect my getting everything set up for college when I get back, but I guess for now I need to just leave it in the Lord's hands and let it sort out a little bit. At least until I know for certain which mission I'll be in.

Wednesday we had a good lesson with Brother K., though he didn't come to church again. I think he's still having a hard time getting to church. I want to get a member there to pick him up... but I don't know who can do that. :\

Thursday was English class, which went pretty well, we had several old students come back, as well as three new students! I was excited at the growth, but was a little disappointed with the fact that in spite of all the new faces our numbers still were lower than they were the week before on a rainy day. :\ I'm hoping we'll start seeing more success next week.

We spent most of our day so far helping the couple missionaries get their Skype and internet router working. >.< What a mess that was! After much messing around and frustration we got the wireless setup, but their internet source (the phone line) wasn't connecting. At this point we'll have to wait for the tech staff or the mission office and see if the internet access login info we had was incorrect or not. Hopefully they'll be moving to a new apartment in the next month or so and will get a new Internet Code.

 

I think that's it for this week, sorry it's kind of short and all.

 
-Jeff

 
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5/20/2013 : Elder Mosdell Eats a dragon(fruit)


Hey howdy!

This last week has been an interesting one. There have been a lot of lost things in the last 6 days... On my way to Yokosuka I discovered that I had lost my MSF card, and thusly have had minimal funds the last week. Hopefully I'll be getting my new card sometime within the next week. Elder H. and I lost the phone on our way from Yokohama station to Yokosuka station, but luckily he was able to find it again, that's a long a funny story. Lastly we also lost his backpack after handing out Eikaiwa flyers one night. He has been really upset about that since he literally just bought a new camera the week before, as well as left his white hand book (carrying his backup funds) and several copies of the Book of Mormon. We have yet to find that, though thankfully he's now coming to grips with the fact that we likely won't be able to find it at this point, and that in spite of our fasting and much prayer, it must just be the Lord's will that we not find it. Anyways, that's the better part of the excitement we've had this week.

I've gotten to meet several of the less-active members, and they're really great people. I'm not 100% sure why some of them are less active. One, a returned missionary, really enjoys the missionaries and coming to English/Japanese class though I sadly didn't see him at church. :\

So far Elder H. and I have been making fairly good progress on our goals for increasing Eikaiwa attendance to 100 people by the end of this transfer. Due to the rain we only at 30 or so people come last week, but in the span of two days we've been able to for sure hang up 17 posters at Convenience stores (like 7-11), with several more waiting for approval from store owners.  We thought that was amazing! I'm hoping that attendance this coming Thursday will more than double via our efforts, and that we'll be able to start setting up some intro lessons to get some investigators as well!

I think that's all I have for this week, can't wait for interviews on Tuesday!

 
 -Jeff

 
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5/14/2013: Transfer 12, Elder Mosdell packs his bags and joins the navy... in Yokosuka!


Wow, what a great last week in Fussa. I've loved working with both the American and the Japanese wards, and getting to know the people. I've made a lot of friends in Fussa. I'm excited to get to go to another base and work with the people there. I'm also excited to work with Elder H., I remember him being a great missionary from when he was in our district, as well as a really fun person. I've heard that the Bishop of the English ward has expressed that he'd like to achieve over 100 people at Eikaiwa, and I'm excited that that will be our focus this transfer (seeing how that's my favorite finding method ;D ).

As for investigators from Fussa:

Sister H. was able to receive baptism on the 11th, and was also confirmed the same day. It was a wonderful baptismal service, almost the entire ward was able to attend. The best part was how big of a change there was in her after she was confirmed. She was FAR happier, less worried, and you could see her countenance glowing. An absolutely wonderful baptism. She was SO afraid of the water though and resisted going under the water the first time, so we had to do it again. Luckily however the second time was MUCH smoother, and she went all the way under. Sadly her son that we've been trying to work with didn't come to the baptismal service because he got injured at sports night the previous Thursday. :\

(Another investigator) is now out of town, and it looks like he won't be able to make the 1st of June as we had originally planned, however just pushing it back a single week should be enough I think, provided that he comes to church the first weekend he's back in town for. His wife is now coming to church every week as well, so I'm not too worried about him since he's got a great support system.

N. called us, since Brother M. is out of town, and told us she wants to meet again. Sadly she also told us that her and her family will be moving back to Peru soonish. I'm hoping that Elder S. and Elder R. will be able to help her find the church in Peru, and continue learning there. Here's hoping!

 

Elder H. has been great, and I've really enjoyed Yokosuka thus far. Everything is extremely close, as in like a 5ish minute walk to almost everything we do. The area is the most Urban area I've served in yet, although still far from being as populated as Shibuya or the like.

Like I said before, this last week has possibly been the best in my mission what a great week! I look forward to emailing again next week, on Yokosuka!


love, 

 -Jeff


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5/7/2013 Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrpppppppp! Ramune and Melon flavored slurpees anyone!?


Things have been going well this week! I feel like I've been able to do some very effective work this last week, although I've only actually been in Fussa for two full days all week. >.< Gotta' love splits!

From Tuesday to Wednesday I went with Elder M. (my companion from Transfer 4) and working in Kunitachi area. It was great to get to work with him again, and to understand his Japanese now. :) We did several things, but what I felt like I learned the most with him was an effective way to invite many people to Church through English Class. It felt extremely natural for him to tell someone "konichiwa", then for me to tell the same person "hello", followed by a simple English question (do you speak English?/ How are you?) and then introduce them to our Eikaiwa classes. We'd mention that the class is held in a church building, or that we were missionaries for a near by church, and that we were looking for opportunities to serve the community so we decided to hold a free English class for people. This also made it really easy for us to ask if they'd been to church before, and then invite them to come, just one time, and see what it was like. We found several people interested in English class, and a few that might even be interested in coming to church sometime. I really felt like it was an effective split.

Friday to Saturday I went on splits with the District Leader's companion, Elder N. in Fuchu. We had a full white day so we spent most of the day walking. Luckily for us it was the first day of the official Golden Week holiday, and there was a big matsuri being held in between their main to train stations. Lots of happy people, that were very willing to talk with us. We tried out the same approach that Elder M. and I did on splits, just modified a little bit since we were both Americans. :P It definitely worked differently, but we had a lot of success. We spent a good chunk of the day walking around a very populated park and just chatting with people. While we were there we found an interesting couple that were interested in coming to church because they "love gospel!". After talking with them for a minute it seemed like they were talking about music more than anything else, but we taught them briefly what we believed the gospel to be, and invited them to come to church to learn more about Christ's gospel. They said they'd plan on coming next week to church in Fuchu. I also found another investigator while handing out flyers at a station, she at first was really interested in the English class, so she started asking questions about it. Of course I followed the above pattern and also invited her to come to church on Sunday to see what it was like. She was interested in coming to see what it was like and committed to coming. I'm uncertain if she came or not (I still need to follow up with Fuchu on everyone...) but I was excited to find 3 new investigators for someone. :D They were all very nice people, that I felt had some good potential.

Saturday afternoon I went on splits with Elder M. again and went back to Tama for a baptismal service. It was SO good to see everyone there again! I was kind of sad that some of the youth didn't come but that's OK, I had a blast anyways! He was, again, still a little nervous about being baptized, and thusly had been with the Tama Elders all day long. It looked like he'd be OK to receive baptism, but as the time drew closer he became more and more nervous. Elder M. and I had a really good lesson with him, in which we promised lots of blessings, taught him from the scriptures, and bore solid testimony. I think that was one of the best lesson's I've been a part of. He ended up deciding last minute that it wasn't time for him to receive baptism, and that he should wait a little bit longer. Everyone was kind of a little sad, but in the grand scheme of things this might have been better. Elder M. and I are still unsure if he's 100% changed, or if he's still kind of holding onto a few things.

It's hard to believe that it's already temple week, and that transfers is just around the corner again. @_@ Time has gone by so fast it's not even funny! I'm excited to get the news about transfers, I feel like Fussa could really benefit from a Spanish speaking Elder, with all the Spanish families/investigators we've got. I'm also excited to hear where I may possibly be for the mission split. @_@

Sister H. is doing pretty good. She's still a little worried about getting baptized on Saturday the 11th, but from talking with her today and yesterday she sounds like she's really willing to make a go for it this time. she passed her interview last Friday, so I've very excited for her! We've been going to sports night with her son the last several weeks as well, and that's really helped us to build up his friendship with us. I'm hoping that pretty soon we'll be able to commit him to start taking the lessons again, and follow his mother's example in being baptized.

We haven't heard from Sister T. in over a week, so it looks like maybe she's not quite as interested as she used to be. :\

(Another investigator) is doing OK, he still wants to meet with us when he can and it sounds like he really cares about baptism still, though we've heard that he may have some hard feelings for his brother-in-law who teaches the Spanish Sunday School class. We're worried that may be one of the reasons the he hasn't been coming to church. :\ We're meeting with him on Wednesday to teach a little lesson before he goes out of town for two weeks. After that he'll get back with just a little bit more than a week before his baptismal date. If he doesn't come to church that weekend after he gets back we're going to need to move his date back I'm afraid, since he's only come once. :\

As for N., we've not been able to meet with her this week either, due to conflicts in scheduling with Brother M., and our times, as well as what sounds like a lack of communication with her (she's not been answering often). Brother M. will also be going out of town in the coming weeks, and so we're in the middle of trying to find a new joint for N. that can bring her to church. Hopefully with the new Ward mission leader that just got called last Sunday we'll have a bit more luck with that. :)

I can't think of anything else to add, so I guess I'll wrap it up with this. We found a Slurpee machine in a 7-11... Melon and ramune flavored Slurpee's rock. :)

love,
Elder Mosdell

4/29/2013: Elder Mosdell teaches people from 9 different countries... Language barriers anyone?


Here's what's new from Fussa!

Today for P-day we biked down to tachikawa, and played ulitimate frisbe with the zone! I had such a blast... right until my knees started hurting, and my shins are now on fire... great times, hope I can walk tomorrow. >.< Had a blast playing with Elder C. though!


This week has been really busy. The good news is that planning in the evening takes far less time when you already have a full schedule to deal with. :O Unfortunately we're still a little short on the lesson's side of things. :\

We got a reply from the German girl. She made it safe to Germany, and did some research of her own about the church. She read about some of the commandments, and decided she didn't like some of the "rules" of our church. We suggested to her that she learn about some of basics of the church first, and decide if the church is true or not, then to go from there about the rules. She emailed us back yesterday telling us that the sister missionaries had visited her right at a perfect time, and she'd been more than happy to meet with them again. She's also seen the missionaries several times around Germany now. It's been so neat to hear from her and the different miracles happening in her life. I'm really praying she'll continue to learn about the gospel, and that I'll be able to keep in contact with her in the future.

(Another investigator) is doing great, other than being ill yesterday and not making it to church. :\ We've only got 2 more lessons with him, and after that he'll have been taught for baptism. He's of course still going out of town on and is returning toward the end of the month. He'd expressed a desire to move his baptismal date up, but didn't think he had enough time to complete all of the lessons before he left, so he decided to keep his original date of the June 1st. We're going to try and teach him the Word of Wisdom this week, we just have to set up a time we can drop by.

T. has apparently decided she doesn't like the members... or at least that she doesn't want to have lessons with a member present, and as you can imagine that's kind of retarded her progress towards baptism. It's not looking like she'll be baptized on the 11th, though we're going to continue to hope and pray for her.

Sister H. is doing pretty good, she currently has a baptismal date for the 11th, though it's tentative. At a lesson on Saturday she committed to be baptized on the 5th of may if she could be baptized with someone else. Fortunately there's a youth baptism happening that day, but yesterday at church when we talked with Hasegawa she had realized she'll likely be out of town that evening due to the fact that it's children's day... >.< She also was worried that there would be a lot of people at the baptism, and expressed that she'd like to have a smaller one. We talked with her for awhile, specifically about how if she wanted to be baptized at the same time as someone else, there would obviously be more people there to watch. We then set a date for the 11th with her. She is still afraid of the water, and doesn't want to be baptized alone, but she's going to pray for strength and help from God to over come her fear. We are, of course, also praying for her and will be following up daily on how she is feeling about the 11th. Her interview will be this Friday.

H's son has been going with us to sports night lately, and has really enjoyed it. We're hoping to convince him to start taking the lessons again, and to be baptized with his mother. I feel like that would solve both of her worries, and I know he already enjoys all of the activities the church does... I'm just not sure why he's not all that interested in being baptized... maybe he just doesn't know enough about it?

N. and her family didn't come to church either yesterday. Brother M. called them Saturday and Sunday morning, but with no answer. He's going to try and set up another lesson this week if he can. Fun part is that I'll be off on splits for most of the week it looks like, so some lucky elder in the district might get to teach a Spanish lesson. :D Other than that though, no news on her family.

Had a short little lesson with (another investigator) and referred him to Kichijoji since he's moving. He's a really fun guy, and I really think he'd make a great youth leader. Just have to get him to see the importance of following ALL of the commandments ALL the time.

We had another self-referral yesterday! A Mongolian lady came to the first hour of Japanese ward, and seemed to enjoy it (relief society). She speaks simple Japanese only, but seemed to do OK. She's been to our church a few times when she lived in Korea, and has gone to the Sagamihara ward at least once as well, though I don't know any of the time line on that. She's recently moved to our area, and so she's started to come here. She unfortunately had to leave early, but happily was planning on coming again next week. She's been taught a little bit about baptism already, and sounds like she will be open to a baptismal date. We're excited to meet with her again!

-Jeff

 

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4/22/2013: Elder Mosdell meets Kitten Bus


This week was a pretty good week, although we didn't have very many people come to church because the cold weather the last few days has made a lot of people sick. :\

On Tuesday we met with Brother S. (a recent convert of about 8 months). He's been struggling still. We'll be meeting with him again this Tuesday, and working to help him overcome everything. He says he'll be able to start coming back to church in May.

Sister H. was busy this last week and we weren't able to do her lesson on Thursday. Fortunately for us the Bishop and another member met us at the church and went on a "make shift blitz" (it was supposed to be a bunch of home teaching appointments, us, Bishop, and one other member were the only ones that showed up). Elder S. and Bishop visited Her at her home that evening, and had a really good talk. Bishop was very straight forward with her and her son in asking why they hadn't been baptized yet, he also helped explain some things she was having a hard time understanding. I think at our next lesson they'll hopefully be more excepting of a baptismal commitment now. :) We're going for the 25th of May.

(Another investigator) is doing awesome! We met with him again last Wednesday, and taught the plan of salvation. It was really a great lesson, and the whole time he would tell us that he knew that it was the right thing to do, and that he was committed to coming to church every week so that he could make the change he needs to make in his life. He really knows that this is what the Lord wants him to do, and it's been amazing to see him progress so quickly. He's out of town this week until next Wednesday, but we'll be meeting with him on Thursday, and starting off the commandments with him. We should have all of the lessons taught before he leaves again in May, and after he gets back we'll have a week to review with him, and then he's set for baptism on June 1st.

We haven't even heard from (another sister) recently, and I'm not sure she'll make the 11th of May since she didn't come to church yesterday (surprise, it was pouring rain, and she lives 30 minutes by bike from the closest station to her home....). I'm still at a bit of a loss as for what to do with her and her desire to be baptized.

(A sister) and her parents were one of the families that got sick and couldn't come to church. Brother M. has been doing a great job with following up with them, and has been REALLY helpfull! We got a call from him at 6:31 (he was a little startled when I answered the phone in a rough morning voice ha-ha, maybe I should have Elder S. answer the phone in the mornings from now on?), he said that she had called him late last night and really needed someone to talk to. He didn't say what they talked about, but she had expressed that she'd like for us to come again on Tuesday and have another lesson. He's been super helpful in fellowshipping their family, he's such a great member missionary! We're planning on teaching them the Plan of Salvation, and extending a baptismal invitation for the 18th of May. I'm excited for this lesson!

Elder S. is awesome, and he's been working really hard. I was impressed yesterday when we were talking to people on the train. We rode for about 40 minutes total, during that time he was able to talk to six people and was starting to work up the courage to talk to the 7th when our stop came. We may start riding the trains more often, seeing how he can talk to a lot more on the train than the 2 or 3 we see while streeting. :) He had a good conversation with someone today as well on our way back from the studio Ghibli museum, which was a blast btw! :) We got to see a different short film this time it was kind of an add on to My Neighbor Totoro, focused mainly around the cat bus, and more specifically Kitten Bus. :D That was fun! Hope I can find a way to show it to people when I get home!

I was really excited at the mission conference last Thursday! I couldn't believe that it might become normal for areas to have 8 missionaries in them @_@ THAT'S SO MANY! I told the bishop about this on Friday and his eyes about bugged out ha-ha! A lot of the members were in a buzz about it on Sunday, and everyone's excited to see how quick the areas will explode with new investigators. We're going to need a bigger church building. :) My first concern with have 4 Elders in Fussa was how in the world we'd be able to cram them all in here. 3 would be tight, and 4 would just be crazy with all of the necessary study, sleeping, and study space, However, after re-thinking about it, I realized that with some serious reorganization we could probably get it done pretty easy. I could see Fussa being a 4 man in the future, given there was a need. ;)

p.s. in case you didn't catch the baptismal date trend, if everything goes according to plan we should have a baptism every weekend starting on the 11th of May, through to the 1st of June.... :-0

Well, that's all I've got for this week! I'll try to upload photos later!

 
-Jeff

 
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April 15th: Elder Mosdell learns to speak Hospital Japanese... >.<
General Conference was AWESOME! I loved the messages. Among my favorites are Stanly G Ellis's "The Lord's Way", Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, and Elder Nelson's "Catch the wave", among many others. I'm excited to get to study this year's general conference for the next several months, I really got a lot out of it this time in spite of our schedule being so busy that we had to watch some of the Saturday sessions at our apartment. What a blessing it is to have laptops and to be able to re-watch conference any day! Three cheers for the best mission in the world! (no offense Elders Brimhall and Christensen ;) ).


This week in Fussa we had kind of a slower week due to spending the first half trying to get into the hospital and having Elder S's neck x-rayed. Turns out he's just fine. His nasty lip scab is even starting to go away, he'll probably be back to normal by Wednesday or so this week... or at least as "normal" as he can be with me as a companion. ;D

Thursday we met with Sister H. and taught her about modern day prophets, something that she's not been able to fully understand. I think Elder S. may have figured out how to help her understand our lessons, and remember them long term. He has the gospel picture book, and on a bit of a whim decided to bring it to the lesson (he figured showing a picture of President Monson would help). Turns out we used it a lot in the lesson, and it really helped her to understand things we talked about. I think if we can really apply pictures to our lessons for her she'll start really progressing, and may be able to make baptism by the 11th of May. 頑張ろう!

(Another investigator) is doing great! We were able to meet with him again on Saturday (part of why we weren't able to make it to all of conference on Saturday). Some of their close friends from the ward came and joined for the lesson. I learned that his wife is less active, but wants to be active. They have really good support from their family members (who are all active members) as well as great desire. He wants to be baptized so he can feel the guidance from the Holy Ghost anytime, and especially to help him overcome temptation and set a good example of how to live for his little toddler son. (what a great dad right?! Totally great Young Men's leader too!!!). He set a baptismal date for the first of June with us. After the lesson they had us stay for dinner, as well as a surprise birthday party for both Elder S. and the member's wife, both of who's birthdays will be in the coming weeks. (He) will be going out of town on the 10th of May for two weeks, but I'm not worried about him. Hopefully we'll be able to keep in contact with him while he's gone. Our next lesson is this Wednesday after Eikaiwa. :) He may even come for the English class. :D

 

I think that's all I've got time for this week, so thanks for tuning in, and sorry it's so long for those of you w/o the time to read. (i.e. the other missionaries).

 
-Jeff

 

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4/8/2013 Elder Mosdell takes a balloon bath... HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!


This week we had 5 member present lessons, and 6 new investigators this week! Some of our new investigators are the Spanish families we found the other week. We taught them with one of the Spanish speaking members from our English ward last night. It was such a great lesson! The father told us that he likes the way that Buddhist "churches" present their teachings, by giving you what you need to study, and letting you convince yourself. We then talked about how reading and praying about the Book of Mormon is how you know for yourself that this is God's true church. He asked several other great questions that we were able to answer. He told us that he'd like him and his family to be associated with the church, and they will be coming the week after next week. The members that joined the lesson with us offered to drive them. It was such a great lesson, I can't wait for them to come to church, The Spanish members I feel will fellowship them so well.

We have a lesson this Wednesday with the other Spanish family we found last week. We'll be going with one of the slightly less active 18 year old young men. I'm excited because I think it'll be a great experience for everyone that participates. Hopefully we can strengthen the young man's testimony, as well as help the family.

We also had a chance to teach a German girl who is going back to Germany today. She doesn't know much about God or religion, but was curious as to what we believed. We gave her a brief overview of what we as missionaries do and teach, taught her about the Book of Mormon and how to receive an answer for herself. She was excited about what we taught her, and said she'd love to have the missionaries visit her in Germany, and teach her in German. We're going to send her information to the Mission Office later today. :D

I guess I'm kinda out of time for now, so I guess I'll catch you all next week! Sorry it's a bit shorter than usual... Can't wait for conference next week! Thanks so much!
 

-Jeff

 

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4/1/3013: Transfer 11: Elder Mosdell teaches a lesson in three languages... no joke


OK, I know this is getting to you a bit later than usual but... yeah :P

This last week for myself has felt like one of the least productive so far this last transfer. Though I do feel like there's a lot of potential building up and getting ready to release in this area. More on that a little later.

This week we met with Brother S, a recent convert, on Tuesday and talked with him about some problems he's been having. We had a very good lesson, as well as  (helping him understand) that church is to help people to progress and become better, not to gather those who are already perfect. He seemed to feel better at the end of the lesson, and was originally planning on coming to church again this week. Sadly however, we got a call from him latter in the week telling us that he's going to be out of town taking care of his mother and father, who are both in very poor health conditions, until the end of April. We're going to keep in contact with him and we'll follow up on how he's doing, though we'll likely not see him until May. :|

We had a great lesson last night (Monday April 1st) with a member referral from the Yokota ward. He is originally from Peru, and his married to one of the Spanish speaking member's daughters. He came to church for his son's baby blessing a few weeks ago and really enjoyed the feeling he felt from coming to church. Last night's lesson ended up covering WAY more than we'd planned, but he enjoyed learning about all of it, and really had interest. He'll be going out of town next week, but we have another scheduled appointment with him. He's also going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon with his wife (who's a member). There's so much I wish I could share from the lesson, but I don't think there's enough time for me to write it all. In short I'm really excited for him. Elder S. is going to start reviewing his Spanish that he learned over 5 years ago during lunch time so he can try and teach in the native language (or at least explain hard gospel words). We're also going to be working with the English ward members very closely, since several of them speak Spanish. :D I think one of the coolest parts of last night was the beautiful prayer he offered. We were in the middle of the lesson and started talking about how prayer can help him with his concerns, immediately after talking about how pray helps us he said he wanted to try it right away. It was a great experience, and after explaining how we pray (much thanks to his wife for her help in explaining!) he knelt and offered one of the best prayers I've felt on my mission... emphasis on felt, because it was in Spanish. :P

Speaking of Spanish and Peruvian people.... We've also found two other Peruvian families that seemed to have interest (in spite of our lack of ability to communicate) in addition to (the two businessmen) who both want to study the bible in their time off. We've got a TON of Spanish speaking potentials right now, and it'll be exciting to see how it goes! Who knows, maybe I'll even start trying to study a little Spanish... maybe :P

I guess that's all the time for this week, Thanks so much for all ya'll do!

-Elder Jeff Mosdell

3/25/2013


We've had a decent week in Fussa this week, there's been a lot of changes.

Hey ya'll, this is this week's update. For those of you with limited time, I'm sorry it's kinda long... For everyone else I hope you enjoy it. :P

 
(The one investigator) is no longer meeting with us, he canceled his lesson for Wednesday, and has completely stopped contact with us. It's kind of a bummer that he thinks he can't trust his feelings, and thus can't know if the book of Mormon is true. We're still trying to contact him, but we might have to just except that he's made his choice to not except the message.

Sister H. has been doing a little bit better lately, she's come to church 3 times in a row now and has been coming to various church activities. She's being fellowshipped by the ward, and I really think that she does want to be a part of everything, she's just been having a hard time with understanding and keeping all of the commandments. We're hoping to set a baptismal date with her for the 20th or the 27th of April this next Thursday. Her son has been coming to church as well, and is great friends with all of the Young Men, he even went out with them on the blitz we did on Saturday (more on that later). I think he has some really good potential right now.

We found two Peruvian guys last Monday. They're both Hard working business men, but they had interest in talking with us and one even knew about the church from back when he was in Peru. He has told us that he'd like to study the bible with us sometime this week when he has time, and we're hoping to introduce him to the Book of Mormon as well. Nothing from the other since we met him yet, but he asked for our number when we met him so I'm pretty sure he wants to meet... We just have to figure out a time that he's available to call. >.<

We had a fun German girl come to the ward Mochi Tsuki on Saturday. She enjoyed it and when we talked with her about the church she said she didn't know much about it, but that she'd be interested in meeting with us to talk about church and learn a little bit more. She's supposed to call us today and either confirm our plan for Wednesday, or reschedule with us if she can't make it.

Elder S. has been doing well the last week, though I've hardly seen him because we've been on splits what seems like half the week. One of our goals is to get at least one lesson on every day of the week to help increase our teaching skills. So far we're only missing today and Sunday, so it's looking good!

I'm super excited for Saturday because I'll get to go to the temple with Brother T. from Tama Ward. I'm so excited to do baptisms with him, and to get to be baptized for my Great-Grandpa as well. I think it'll be a neat experience for Elder O. and his Trainee, myself and Elder S. (my trainee) and Brother T.  This is going to be such a great experience!

I think that's all I've got for this week, thanks for everything you all do! Hope you have a great week!

--

 

- Elder Jeff Mosdell

 

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3/19/2013


Well this was another interesting week, Elder S. and I have found several new places to work, and had a few new ideas of ways that we can work around Fussa. I'm excited because I'm hoping something new will bring more investigators, but my favorite thus far is that we've found a really nice road next to the Tama River that has lots of people on it. We think we'll be able to effectively street contact it, which is exciting to me because I've really felt bad that I've not been able to train Elder S. on how to street very well at all.

This week as far as investigators go, we had a lesson with Sister H. that went really well. (Another) family joined the lesson for us, and they really helped. We taught  about the importance of praying daily, but she didn't 100% understand why she really needed prayer daily. She understands why to pray when we're having large trails, or things that we can't overcome on our own, but I don't think she understands that God really just wants to hear from her, even about the smaller things. We tried to explain that prayer is less of a repairman service, and more of a conversation with a loved one. With the help from the family we were able to help her understand that as she prayed daily she'd come to understand the importance of it better. She committed to praying daily, and we promised her that she would see the blessings that come from it. She came to church with her son this week as well, and they enjoyed it.

We met with (another investigator) this week as well. He came to Church (which we were a little surprised about since we've not been able to contact him all week again). He seemed to enjoy sacrament meeting, but when we sat down to talk with him afterwards for a lesson he was so hungry because of some of the medication he's been taking that he told us he couldn't focus, and that he needed to go home and eat. It was really weird because we'd only just started about 5 minutes before. Afterwards he asked in an email for some experiences from when God has answered our prayers, We were really excited when we got to send that one off. We just got a mail from him saying that he doesn't really believe the Book of Mormon to be true, and that even though he's prayed, he doesn't think that it's good to trust in your feelings. We're hopefully going to meet with him on Wednesday and talk a little bit more about it with a member, so we'll see how that goes.

We had a really great day yesterday for finding too! I was on splits with the Zone Leaders, and we were able to find two solid Peruvians that wanted to meet another time, and two other new investigators one of whom we're meeting with tonight! I'm really excited to meet and talk with him. Sadly we got a call on the way back from the temple, and the other new investigator told me that after thinking about it he didn't really have interest anymore, and didn't want to meet. :\ We know kind of where he works, and which train station he goes to on the way home, so we're hoping that we'll get to see him some other time while handing out English class flyers.

 

I guess I haven't really mentioned this yet, and that's a bit of a failure, but they ARE splitting my mission on July 1st. As of right now that's about all we know. President Budge will be the mission president over the Northern half Mission, and I'm kind of hoping to be in the northern half, if only because I don't want to switch mission presidents again. :P I'll keep you all up to date on anything else I hear. I likely won't know which I'll be in until the week before when transfers is.


I guess that's it for this week, I don't think I forgot anything... sorry it's a little later this week.

 

Write you all next week!

 

-Elder Jeff Mosdell

3/11/2013



For P-day we went up into the City Ome, and looked at a hillside that has hundreds if not thousands of plum trees blossoming. it was supposedly really pretty, other than the fact that the darker flowers just look like dead gray trees to me... >.< I took lots of photos though, and hopefully those look pretty decent. I'll upload those soon.

This week in Fussa has till been a little slow, but we're starting to pick up just a little bit. (Sister H.) and her son came to church this Sunday, and scheduled a lesson with us on Thursday as well for this week. I don't know how she's really doing spiritually, but she enjoys talking with Elder Squire, and the members all fellowshipped her really well this week and let her and her son know they missed them. I think that mom will start blossoming again, and hopefully her son will follow.

(Another investigator) hasn't replied or answered any of our messages and calls this week. I wish I knew why he's been so hard to contact and set up things with...

We found an old investigator while we were doing some area book work. I think he might have a lot of potential, he loves serving and helping others and firmly believes that's how to bring happiness and joy to yourself and others. Our only problems are that he's SUPER busy running an Indo Curry restaurant, and that we had a hard time explaining to him the nature of God. He believes that God is inside each of us, that that is why we feel good inside when do service. We left him with a book of Mormon and a commitment to read and pray to know if it is true.
 
(One convert) had the chance to give a talk this Sunday on faith. Her talk was great, and her testimony was as strong or stronger than any other members. It's been so great to see her grow and progress these last 4 months.

We had a wonderful chance to meet with the bishopric of the Fussa ward, and talk about their mission plans for this year and how they'd like us to help them. I was really excited at how specific the were in their goals, and how they wanted to achieve them. It was a great meeting, and I'm so excited to get to go out and work WITH the ward now. We'll be getting a new ward mission leader likely next week (seeing how the old one just moved) and I'm excited to work with him.

Elder S. is doing great, he's been pushing himself to become a more better and better missionary every week. On Saturday he even took the incentive and started doing follow up calls on whether people would be able to make it to church on Sunday or not, even though as soon as someone answered he totally froze up on Japanese. I think that's part of the reason that Hasegawa and her son came, they got a kick out of him trying his hardest, and I think they could tell that he really cared about them.
 

-Jeff

 

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3/4/2013


Hey howdy! The Elder Nelson Conference this last Friday was absolutely wonderful! I enjoyed it lot, and came away with a lot from it. I've made a few goals from things that were talked about and would like to share them with you if that's OK. (And if it's not then I guess too bad :P )

1. Be a missionary that Astonishes by: -Bearing sincere testimony often. -Studying the doctrines that I will be testifying about each to strengthen my conviction.

2. Showing my gratitude by: -not letting miracles loose their value. => writing 3 miracles I've seen daily in my journal -Never having a "same old day".

3. Be a more effective missionary at helping God's children around me by: -understanding how to use family history in finding. -Use the only weapon we have, Love. -Become trilingual (Eng., Jap., and the Lang. of the Lord.) -Focus more on uniting with the ward leaders, they have the keys.

I also really liked what Elder Nelson said in response to the question about people not having time to talk/meet with us, and I'm working on incorporating that into my daily proselyting. He talked about how it's important for us to take time to feed our bodies, why not take some time and feed our spirits as well. It really was such a great conference, and I was truly edified from it.

This week we've still had a bit of a hard time meeting with everyone, but we did see several small miracles. Sometimes it feels like we're not really getting anything done, but I know that we're working hard to do everything we can, and that we don't necessarily have control over whether or not an investigator actually does what we ask/commit them to do. Hopefully we'll be able to start kicking it into gear again pretty soon.

 

Sorry this update is a little shorter than normal, if I missed anything email me and let me know! :)

 

 

-Elder Jeff Mosdell

Quote of the week: "Bribes are allowed in the church... Now where's your cookies. ;)" -Elder Nelson (Speaking to a Sister Missionary who had just said that her and her companion strengthened their relationship with the bishop's family by taking them cookies).

2/25/2013


Well, this week was sadly not too great as far as lessons and such goes again. I'm still having a hard time figuring out why we're haven't been able to find new investigators and why our lessons are all falling through. I know it's about the people not the numbers, but I'm having a hard time feeling like we're really getting much done.

Of course now that I say that, I've taken a step back and realized how many miracles we've seen this week in Fussa...

Friday we went streeting and housing, all day long we ended up talking with older guys who really didn't have any interest in the church. I felt like it ended up being a bit of a waste in the end, but talking to so many people (even if they didn't have interest) really made him feel happy.

We also had a lot of non-members come to the English ward this week for a baby blessing of a part-member family. It was really neat, and all of them that I talked with said that they really enjoyed coming to church. It was a way awesome experience to get to talk about the Russell M. Nelson talk "Ask the Missionaries" during church as well, because that made it super easy to talk to them and exchange info. No return appointments yet, but they mentioned that it was the most "楽しい" church they'd been to, and they already have AMAZING relations with the ward.

I guess it wasn't really such a bad week, it just feels kind of like we're not moving forward very well. (One investigator) just messaged us last night and told us that he doesn't believe that this is the true church of Christ, and that he doesn't think that meeting with us will help anymore. I'm a little worried about what is going to happen, but I'd like to try and meet with him at least one more time before anything is really decided (especially since it's been almost 3 weeks since we've actually met with him)... I know that what ever happens though, the Lord knows what's best.

We were able to meet with Sister H. this last Thursday again, and the lesson went pretty well. We were didn't reset her baptismal date, but I feel like we helped her understand better what faith is, and how she needs to grow it. She is still having a hard time coming to church and keeping commitments, but I think she understands better now the point of a commitment. Hopefully we can help her see more of the blessings of the things we're asking her to do now, and then she'll have a greater desire to do them.

Elder S. has been doing great this last week. He really likes talking, so even though he has a hard time sometimes with knowing what to say, he'll fight his way through it. I was amazed at how many times he answer questions in the Japanese ward! His Japanese defiantly wasn't perfect, but he has the desire to speak and learn, and put things that he learns into practice right the next day. He's really a hard working Elder!

 

Thanks everyone, sorry this week came a little slower than normal.

 

-Elder Jeff Mosdell

 

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