Release Papers and stuff -- a note from Mom

Hi All!
I was going to update the blog with all the information that Elder M. has sent lately, but I have somehow managed to get off his list and no one has forwarded the info to me.  I have read them, they just aren't in MY email.

Never the less, we have received the final printed copy of his release papers in the mail.  They came today along with a printed flight itinerary and other pertinent information.  I was rather shocked at my emotional reaction to the letter that I held in my hand and the information which suddenly made him coming home feel very, very real. 

So, yeah. On November 19th we will be picking him up at the airport at 2:25 in the afternoon.  Anyone who wants to join us to greet him at the airport should plan to arrive at about 2:00 PM, Delta terminal.  That's just a little more than 17 days.  If you can't make it to the airport you are welcome to come by the house that evening to see him and he will be speaking in church on November 24th at 11:00 AM.

10/14/2013

I've enjoyed this transfer thus far, there have been many great and wonderful things already. One for example, I got a new companion who's birthday is 2 days away from mine! :O SO COOL! ha ha

When the N. family heard that Elder N. would be transferring they were very sad. Thankfully Elder A. helped us visit them this week before he left so he could bare testimony to them again before he left. It was a great meeting. One of the young men went over and visited their son this week. The two seem to have built a pretty good friendship, which I think will be a strong "selling point" in convincing the N. families son to try and come to church next Sunday. Brother Lewis also visited them Saturday, and had a very good two and a half hour talk with them. Brother Lewis (as well as all of the members that have met with the Ns) feels that they are so prepared. We've decided to extend to them the baptismal invitation again this week, inviting them to be baptized on the 9th of November. I truly think they can and will make this baptismal date. Brother N. is waiting for a confirmation that the church is true for himself, but is having a hard time finding/making time to read the Book of Mormon much. I know that setting a goal for them to progress towards will help them to put forth the full effort needed to receive their answer.

Eric has been doing well recently. He came to the Saturday afternoon and Priesthood sessions, but his back kept him from coming to the Sunday sessions, so he watched them from home instead. The doctors finally found the source of his pain, he has a herniated disk. (>.<) He doesn't know when yet, but sometime in the coming weeks he'll be going down to Okinawa to have surgery. He's planning to go with us tomorrow to the October Cultural Festival in Kichijoji. He's also introduced us to his friend, who he'd like to bring to church sometime.

It's been a long time since we've meet with (our sister), but I called her today and set up a tentative plan for a lesson on Thursday. She's not been progressing very well, so I'm a little worried about this weeks lesson. I think she really needs to have a Japanese Sister there at the lesson in order for her to 1. understand, and 2. to have someone to relate with. If we can find a couple to take than I think that she will have a much better chance of progressing once again.

I'm so excited to work hard with Elder S. my last transfer here in Yokosuka. He's an awesome Elder, and is very excited about working hard. I was impressed today when he was able to contact 6 people during an hour of handing out English class flyers, even though he felt ill. He's feeling better now though.

Brother L. explained to me today that the a missionaries last transfer really sets a trajectory for the missionaries life. I couldn't explain it the same way he did in an email, but I completely believe him. I have to admit that Brother L. really is a huge role model for me. Great, great member, who sets an excellent example for the other members in the ward. (plus he's an awesome math teacher at the High school! :D )

Thank you for all that you do!

Love,

Elder Jeff Mosdell

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New Companion

Got calls this morning. I'm staying in Yokosuka, and I'll be companions with Elder S. Transfer 4 here.

I will have spent exactly one year to the day working on the bases. :)

Email you all next week with details!

-Jeff

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10/7/2013: Tomorrow is transfers! :O

Hello everyone,

 

I'm at a lack of words as to what to write this week, so I'm sorry if it's a bit short.

Interviews were great, I loved getting a chance sit down and talk with President Wada. His incites on Japanese religious experiences were really interesting.

We met with the N. family this last Friday, it was a great lesson. The Ward Mission Leader and his wife came with us. It was such a good experience for the N. family. They really built a good relationship with them. When we left the family seemed to be a lot happier than before. Something was wrong yesterday, but I haven't heard what yet. The Bishop's wife (who is also a close friend of Sister Longs) got a call last night from her. We didn't hear the conversation, but it was good to know that the Long family have member friends who she feels comfortable calling up anytime. Three cheers for wonderful member support/work!

Brother M. has been doing well recently as well. He went with the ward to the ward temple night and did baptisms while everyone else did endowments. It was awesome to see how excited he was about having a temple recommend. One reason he hasn't been at church is because it's hard for him to actually get himself up if he took his pain medication the night before. Yesterday since he didn't wake up for the English Ward, he instead came to the Japanese Branch's sacrament meeting. He enjoyed it, and wishes he could have stayed for the whole thing, but his back started hurting again so he went home. For P-day someday we'll be going to Monkey Island, though next week we'll be at the Oct. Cultural Festival to be held at the church near the Mission Home.

I'm excited to receive transfer calls tomorrow. I'm amazed at how much better Elder N.and I have been getting along the last two weeks, and find it funny that it always seems to be just as you start to really like a companion that transfer calls come. I've loved working in Yokosuka, and truly want to remain here. However, no matter what/who/where the Lord has in mind for me, I'm willing and ready to work hard and do my best for the next 6 weeks.

 

Sincerely,

 

Elder Jeff Mosdell

9/30/13: @_@ Now Sept. is over too!?!?

This week hasn't been too different from the last couple weeks, except that I think that Elder Nakayama and I are starting to improve our relationship. I think we still have a ways to go before we're anywhere near perfect, but I feel like this week we've finally started (at least to try) to understand each other, and I feel like we're making steps to overcome the gap between us. I'm super excited for that! Whether it happens while we're companions or not, I'm just glad that we're not at each others throats any more (figuratively speaking).

While our number of lessons taught this week is... well... non-existent, we did have a great week with our LA members. We were able to make our goal of teaching three lessons. I think one thing we can do to improve would be to shorten the length of the visits, and to be sure to share something every time we do visit. We've been making great progress with Bro. M!! Having him come with us to meal appointments has been great for helping him build friendships with the members. Slowly more and more of them are getting to know who he is. Hopefully soon he'll be able to meet with bishop and start working towards blessing the sacrament and receiving the higher priesthood! I'm also glad to know that he'll be moving to Salt Lake to go to University of Utah next fall, so it's going to be easy for me to keep in contact with him after my mission.

I've been able to stay in contact with the N. family all week, though we didn't ever get an appointment set up. They had a good weekend out at her parents house, which seemed to have reduced a lot of the stress they've had built up (yay!). Sister C. has also been in contact with Sister N., and regularly invites her to church (more yay!) . Since they were out of town this week they didn't come, but she also told Sister C. that she couldn't go because she doesn't have a skirt. Her reply was a prompt, "I can get you a skirt, I'll bring it over before Sunday next week" (even more yay!). The YM also visited Alex to try and cheer him up. It's so great to know that the N's have so much member support! I am concerned that the reason they're not coming to church is more than just because the son's knee hurting and not being able to go. I think if that were truly a concern than they also wouldn't be able to have him go to school, or drive clear out to visit her family. I'm praying that we can meet with them and try to lovingly discuss their concerns. I can tell something is holding them back, but we just haven't been able to meet with them recently to figure out what it is. They read and pray daily, so I know they're seeking for the comfort the gospel has to offer, but I wonder if they have some kind of fear of what church will be like.

I read a great talk this week given by Elder Bednar in the MTC the summer before I got there. It's about being a PMG missionary, and what that exactly means. I wish I'd have read this talk earlier in my mission, not because I feel like I haven't been a PMG missionary for my whole mission (because I do), but because I never had a good definition for what a PMG missionary IS. Obviously there are a few things that they would have to be, but I couldn't ever really put it into words so I avoided the phrase. This talk explained it simply. The talk in entitled "Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary". Absolutely great talk.

Love,

-Jeff

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Side note from Mom--

Hey Everyone!
I just wanted to let you know that I received an email from a member of the Tokyo South Mission Presidency this morning.  It has been confirmed that Elder Mosdell will be home on November 19th.  We are awaiting additional information concerning flight numbers, times and all that seemingly tedious stuff.  We'll let you know when we find out more info!

9/25/13: The last P-day in September already?!? Where does the time go...

Well, this week has been interesting again...

*sigh* I could rant all day about my feelings this past week, but it's probably better that I don't. Here are some good things that have come out of this last week:

With the "extra time" I've had in the apartment, I've been able to study and ponder ways for me to become a better more Christ-like person. I've also had enough time to get through over half of Jesus the Christ (I'm somewhere just before the end of his public ministry). Jesus the Christ has really helped me develop a more personal relation with the savior. Before I didn't really have a connection with him. He was just a name associated with a lot of miracles and establishing the church, along with creating the world and this thing called "the atonement" that supposedly cleanses the repentant of their sins. I've believed all of these things to be true for a long time, but my believe and faith was based off of results I'd seen, "Judging them by their fruits" as it were. However I've come to understand how real the savior of the world truly is. It's not just some story, but rather a real account. Christ DID live, and he WAS resurrected. Now that I have such a strong understanding of that, I understand the need for a true church today, and how this church is truly Christ's true church restored to the earth today. Though we didn't get out and help many people become converted, I was able to deeply strengthen my conversion and understanding. For that I am grateful.

I also was able to use the time to mail the Long family and have a good conversation with them over the last few days. Though I don't feel like I can count them as lessons due to it being broken up through emails and the lack of a prayer, I do feel like I was able to help Sister Long's understanding. Though they're still suffering through their trails, it seems that she has a slightly happier disposition about live. I also was able to find out that the reason Brother Long stopped being active in his church was because when they got married, Christianity scared Sister Long and he loved her more. Now that she's extremely interested and is reading and praying daily, I think that he has a great potential as well. I sadly haven't been able to talk with him lately, but hopefully we'll be able to drop in one evening and have a good chat with them. It's been wonderful to have the Addington couple working with the Longs as well. The ward has also expressed a desire to help and support in any way they can. The Young Men are hoping to go over and play games with Alex sometime during the week, and the Money family has offered to give them (even if only mom or dad) a ride to church next week. I'm so excited for the Long family! :)

We've also been working with a less active. He was out of town this weekend so he didn't come to church, however (again with the extra time I had) I was able to mail him while he was waiting to do interviews and such with people at the event he was at, and created a good relationship with him. I'm super glad to have been able to do that! I finally feel like I have a pretty good relationship with everyone we're working with now. (I have to admit, sometimes I'm jealous of Elder Nakayama's ability to strike up a friendship right off the bat with anyone, even if I've known them for 9 weeks longer. He's really good at that. :P )

 

Well anyways, this is getting kind of long, and I REALLY don't have time so I'm going to send it. Hopefully there's not too many spelling errors and jazz like that.

 Hope everyone is doing well!

 -Elder Jeff Mosdell

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9/17/13: I turn 21 in in a month!? @_@

Good Morning!

 (written yesterday)

What a beautiful Typhoon day! :D I love Typhoon weather, it's always so interesting to watch. In some ways I wish it was a stronger one today, but I also don't want anybody to be hurt or have property damaged. Nature is so cool though! :) I'm looking forward to the service opportunities that may arise from this storm though. Should be fun!

This last week has been kinda up and down. The start of the week was kind of slow, with lots of appointments canceling. Exchanges with Elder Hill was great, I loved working with him! He's such a happy guy all the time.  I'm excited to possibly be roommates at college with him, but that's still not for awhile so. :) I really enjoyed being in the 4-man apartment as well, and am excited to hear that Yokosuka is on the list to become one (though not sure when). I think working in a 4-man for my last transfer would be awesome! But yeah, we got back from exchanges and I got to meet up with Brother Anderson from my home ward, which was AWESOME! It was so good to see him again, he had lots of advice for both Elder Nakayama and I about working hard to the end. Elder Nakayama and I have been so busy meeting with members and less actives members that we still haven't had time to do a full weekly planning yet. I'm a little upset that we haven't planned for our investigators at all for this coming week. We held a companionship inventory during a companion study, but that's all we've been able to do.

I really want to work hard in Yokosuka for the last 2 months of my mission. I don't know how I'm going go figure Elder Nakayama out, but I know that if I work with the spirit we'll get there eventually. I'm praying for it at least.

-Elder Mosdell

Got to visit with a bishopric member from our home ward!

Elder Hill

Splilts with Elder Scott including pizza and the Testaments.

p.s. I'm sending photos! :D

9/9/2013: @_@ wait... how many weeks!?!?

Hey howdy!

This week nothing too new happened. I got to go on splits with the new elder (Elder Scott) in my district, and that was AWESOME! I love new missionaries. :) In some ways I wish I was training one last time before I finished my mission, but I'm happy being the "5" the Lord needs me to be here in Yokosuka. Elder Scott is a great missionary, He loves to go and share the gospel with people. His Japanese is also awesome! Granted he's half Japanese but still, I was very impressed. We had a great day of walking down the coast of Tokyo Bay and talking with people while they were fishing. We met a lot of interesting people, sadly none of which wanted to hear our message, at least not yet. We made several friends, and did our best to try and serve the people, even if it was just by picking up trash as we went along. I really enjoyed having a good full day of finding, it reminded me of being a new missionary and working with Elder Welch.

Nagaii Family: Dad's ship is back and thus he's working all the time again (I just found out yesterday that he's an O6 for those of you who know what that means @_@ I had no idea he was so high up there). With him being gone to work, Mom's sprained ankle, and their son's knee, we've not been able to get a time to go over and visit. We're hoping to maybe go on Tuesday, and bring the ward mission leader or one of the bishopric members with us. Mom has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy (she's not supposed to be up and moving around, so she has a lot of reading time). I gave the family a list of like 15 different scriptures that talk about hope, faith, and Christ. She's read all of them and then some. She loves the Book of Mormon, because it's helping her to make it through all of the trials she has right now. I'm so happy to hear that she's been applying the Book of Mormon and has such a great testimony of it. I haven't had a chance to follow up with Dad about it yet, but I have a feeling he's not had a lot of time. Hopefully he's found some time though.

Bridger: He finally answered his phone! He's been busy with school and always misses our calls, but he said he'd come to church yesterday. Sadly he didn't and we haven't been able to contact him since we called on Saturday, but it's good to know that he's not ignoring us. :) Hopefully we'll catch him in a couple days again for a lesson.

Step Mom: She still progressing at a slow rate, but slow is better than not at all! We have the Book of Mormon stories book that we're thinking about giving her as well to help her understand some more of the things in the Book of Mormon. We're planning another lesson this week, hopefully with Brother and Sister Tanaka who live not too far away. I think having a Japanese member there instead of an American that speaks Japanese will really be good for her. Not that there's anything wrong with the members who have been coming, but I do think that a Japanese mom will relate better to a Japanese mom... plus they speak fluently. :D

I think that's all I've got for this week. Elder Nakayama and I are still struggling to work together a bit, but as time goes on I think we're both giving in a little bit and starting to be more unified on things. I'm trying to find ways to serve and help him, I've found that makes things a lot easier for both of us.

I got another couple of the " post-mission and Marriage" talks this week. >.< It's like these members think that I've only got 6 weeks left or something... I have at least 10 :P

I've got a package ready to send and will be sending it off hopefully this week, I still had to finish writing the slips for it yesterday and thus couldn't hand it off at church. Once it gets to it's destination there'll be some new photos and such to look at. :)

Much love,

Elder Jeff Mosdell

Note from Mom

Things have been a bit more hectic around here lately.  I'm terribly sorry for the delay in posting Elder Mosdell's messages to you all.  I'll attempt to be better about getting the posts up quickly over the remaining approximately 11   make that 10 weeks of his mission.  Yes, that is right, Elder Mosdell only has about 10 more weeks in the field!  When we know his travel information we will share. :)

On a somewhat less exciting note, Elder Mosdell can no longer send pictures home using the method that we have been using.  We are attempting to find another acceptable method for photo transfer, but it may not happen.

9/2/2013: "Boy, what a beautiful summer day in... GAH!!! Natural 20 backstab from September!" (>.<)

Howdy everyone, sorry if this is a little scattered today... short on time and dead tired... Plus I'm still recovering from that blasted natural 20 of September's.

 I was so excited to get my transfer call and hear that I'll be staying in Yokosuka for at least another 6 weeks. I love working here, it really is a great area with a lot of great opportunities. Carpe Diem (機会をとらえよ) as some would say. Sadly I think that Elder Nakayama and I still have some work to do as far as being unified on the seizing part. Hopefully we'll work out the kinks quickly.

We've had a super busy week this week. We hadn't even had time to do weekly planning until today after the Japanese Branch's meetings. We came back, made our phone calls, and then started into planning for the coming week. It was weird to actually be planning for a 7 day period, and not for 10 like usual. I really hate doing weekly planning at such a prime time for being out working but it really was the first chance we've had all week. I'm trying to impliment a new method for looking at what investigators need into our weekly planning. Though thus far it's only been somewhat effective, but I think that as we use more we'll figure it out.

I love working with Elder Nakayama, I think he's a great person, but sometimes I really just don't understand him. He tells me he wants me to show more faith in him as a missionary, and yet he doesn't seem to show faith in our investigators when they have a problem come up. Again I love Elder Nakayama, and I'm so glad to get to be working with him. He's given me many chances to learn more about myself and the things I want/need to improve on personality. I just hope I can learn them quick enough to hopefully solve our problems.

I've taken up listening to Jesus the Christ during out Personal time in the evenings now. Greatest idea ever! I've had so many small spiritual moments while listening, and I think I'll be able to finish the book before my mission ends. I just haven't had the time during personal study time to read it, and at night I'm just too tired to try and pick up a book and read... I have a hard enough time trying to write in my journal. :P

We've not heard from Bridger since our first meeting with him. I really hope he's just gotten busy with college and hasn't had time to contact us. He had a lot of potential

We visited with the Nagaii family shortly before heading to another apointment last Friday. They're doing pretty good, though they feel like their son's taking 3 steps forward 2 steps back relative to his physical progress. He is progressing, just every time he progresses a lot I think he over works himself and ends up having to take several days to recoup. As you can imagine, this isn't doing a lot of good for anybody's moral, and mom and dad have become worried that the constant pain and the depression that it brings may be too much for their son. That being said, when their son gets to interact with people from outside of home he gets MUCH happier, (thus the last minute visit). Our solution to his problem, start introducing him to the YMs group. Hopefully we can get him a few new friends that can stop by and cheer him up from time to time.

Step Mom's lesson was an interesting one. We really need to get a native couple to join the lessons with us. The Japanese speaking Americans are a great, great, great help, but I feel like Yukiko would be able to relate so much better if a Japanese sister was there. Also having some native speakers present I think would greatly help her to understand the restoration and other things we talk about... We just need to figure out what times the limited number of priesthood holders we do have in the branch are available.

*sigh* I think that's all for this week. I'm sorry it's so long winded again, though I'm sure many of you don't mind. :P  I've had a lot on my mind, it's hard to stay excited and motivated sometimes when you feel like you're the only one really running the show.

We had a great meeting yesterday morning in Yamate. Sunday marked the anniversary of Japan being opened to missionary work, so the stake met at the site (conveniently on the same hill as the church now stands in Yamate). To sum it up the meeting was for members to recommit to helping with missionary work. Here comes the wave!

I guess that's it for reals now! Have a great week ya'll!

-Elder Jeff Mosdell

8/26/13: Transfer Calls be comin'

Good morning! :)

Yesterday we went to a fireside in Kichijoji with the YSAs of the Yokosuka Military ward. I was so happy that we could go, it was trully a learning experience. My favorite thing I heard last night was "you have two years to work, and all eternity to reflect on it". It's SO true! As I get closer to the end of my mission I've already started reflecting on things I used to do as a younger missionary, and the things I've learned. I feel like I've come a long way, but I know I still have a ways to go as well.

Another thing I liked from the fireside last night was the explanation of the "What e'er thou art, do well thy part" stone. I'd never heard that there was a mathematical magic square in the symbols below the phrase! If you assign the "x" as roman numeral 10, and the "||" to be 2, then count the sides of the symbols and assign them to their respective symbols, you can note that each side row, column and diagonal totals to 18...  That's so cool!!!  As I applied this to my role as a missionary, I found comfort in whatever happens at transfers . No matter what I'm called to do, I'm ready to act well my part.

This also fit right in with my study the last few days. Recently our mission has taken the motto:

"Obiedence is the Price

Faith is the Power

Love is the Motive

The Spirit is the Key

Christ is the Reason"

 To be honest, up until recently I'd been a little against reusing a motto from another mission 20 years ago. It's a great motto, but I'd felt like we should come up with something of our own. Thankfully I decided to study it out and learn more about what our mission motto means. I the BYU speech that had been posted on the mission portal, and thought that would be a good place to start. I went and downloaded it from the BYU website and have been listening to it every night. As I've listened to the talk, I've come to love the motto more and more. There's so much to learn from it, and I've realize that if the whole mission will unite under the motto we can be such a strong force in the battle to save the souls of Japan. I'm so sad now that I only get to see the beginning of what this mission will become. I am excited however to "act well my part" in this mission, no matter how small/short it may seem. I understand now that my 5 months here is a necessary part in helping the mission meet it's goals, just like the first symbol (coincidentally also representing 5) is needed as a 5 to fill it's role in the mathematical magic square.

But anyways, that's what I've learned this week. Here's an update on investigators. ;)

Nagaii family: They were busy again this week and didn't get a time scheduled to meet with us. I'm not sure if they'll be baptised before my mission ends or not, though that's not really important. What's more important is helping them to progress as a family before dad has to go out on a ship again next Spring. Dad has been reading, though not much. He still seems a little hesitant in general about the church, which worries me, but I think that the support the ward is working to give them will be a big help to him. Mom has been reading the book of mormon frequently from what I understand, though I don't end up talking with her much on the phone. They want to either go out to eat with us, or just have us over again sometime this week, though we need to follow up today on that and see when works for them.

Step Mom: Desilva's step mom has been doing pretty well. She came to church yesterday, and has been reading from the book of Mormon. She has a hard time understanding what she reads, so our plan for the next lesson is to read about who Jesus Christ is, and what his role on earth was. There's a really nice scripture chain in the PMG that we're hoping to follow and explain to her what things mean as we go. Though we may choose to default back to 1 Nephi 1 with her instead. We'll be meeting with her on Thursday provided we can find someone that has time to drive out to the other side of the peninsula with us.

Bridger: Bridger contacted us last Wednesday night and told us that he had interest in our church, but that his knowledge was "not sufficient" so he'd like to meet with us. As we taught him the first lesson I was amazed at how much he already knew. Turns out his mother used to come to church when he was very young, but I guess went Less Active. As we taught him he seemed to have an underlying question, but we couldn't seem to answer it, or get him to voice it. He's a busy college student, so meeting with him might be tough, but he said he's very interested in church, and would like to become a member. We didn't set a baptismal date with him >.< but we did get a soft baptismal commitment. He didn't make it to church yesterday, but we're going to call him today and see how Book of Mormon reading and prayer has been, and then invite him to another lesson.

That's all I can think of right now, plus I'm very much out of time so I'll end here. I'm excited for transfer calls tomorrow. Whether I stay or go, I feel like there could be a lot of change in Yokohama Zone, and it'll be fun to see what happens. Thank you so much for your prayers and everything you do for me!

-Elder J. Mosdell

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8/19/13: A day at the Zoo

Well, another week down and we actually seem to have started making some real progress again here in Yokosuka. For the last several weeks it's felt like we've been just kind of spinnin' our wheels, but I'm super happy to have had a couple Member Present Lessons, and a New investigator this last week!

A sister from the Tokyo North mission just finished her mission last week, and his visiting with her Father and Step mom here in Yokosuka. She's brought step Mom to church twice now, and we got to teach her a lesson after Gospel Principles. To be honest the lesson its self I felt went pretty poorly. In the end though, I think everything turned out well. Mom felt the spirit, and was happy to pray at the end of the lesson. We'll be meeting with her again next Wednesday, maybe while we're on splits with the APs... (@.@). I'm praying that lesson goes well, and she'll start coming to the Japanese Branch next Sunday on her own (the daughter should have left back down to Nagoya yesterday). I think she has a lot of potential, we just need to make sure we can find members to join with us for the lessons.

But anyways, We also got to meet with the Longs this week for just a short little while. We stopped in with the new Ward Mission Leader and dropped off some cookies (thanks mom :D ) and talked with them about how they were doing as well as how their son's knee is doing. I asked about reading the Book of Mormon and I was super happy to hear that they've been trying, but it's hard for the mom to understand everything she reads. I recommended some scriptures to her that she can read in search for comfort and hope, and also briefly explained how to apply the scriptures to herself. Hopefully we'll be meeting with them this coming week and teaching a full lesson on the subject.

This is kind of a lame update this week, there should be like 3 times as much stuff, but I just don't have time to write it today. It's 10:24 right now and I haven't even had time to reply to anyone yet... Something about my companion checking his email for 2.5-3 hours and not leaving me with any... Hopefully I'll get them written during lunch tomorrow... I'm sorry everyone for not replying sooner. >.<

 I'll have to send all of the photos for this transfer next week... Sorry. >.<...

Love,

- Elder Jeff Mosdell

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8/14/2013: busy busy busy...

Good Morning!

This last week we were unable to meet with the N. family because their son wasn't feeling up to having people over. Like I think I mentioned last week, he slipped at the pool and regressed quite a bit. I feel so bad for him, we've been calling most everyday to check on their family, but it almost sounds like their son has given up. His mom said that she's afraid he thinks he'll never get better. He wasn't going to his appointments at the beginning of the week, but he had started going again by the end of the week. Of course with his set back in health, they also didn't come to church this week. I really feel like that's going to be the big key to their conversion is coming to church and meeting more of the members.

Brother K. has been doing great! He reads the Book of Mormon a ton, especially on days that there's no job listings in the paper. When he told me that I was super excited to hear that he's still really trying to find a job, and that he's devoting so much time to gospel study. I've seen an improvement in his understanding of the gospel since I've come to Yokosuka. It's amazing how much faster he learns when you actually go at his pace, and teach with love not sternness. Elder Nakayama has been very good at helping change the way we teach Brother K.'s lessons.

Brother M. hasn't progressed much recently, however our meeting with him seems to be reminding him of how he felt when he first joined the church just under a year ago. He's known the church is true the whole time, but his testimony fire hasn't been fed well for awhile. We're noticed that he seems to be happier as we meet with him, and I think he's trying to make a bigger push in his life to come into harmony with the teachings of the church again. We met with him yesterday talked about a lot of things. It sounds like he has a friend or two that we'll get to meet this Friday or Saturday, but we're still getting the details.

Elder N. and I have been trying hard to come in line with the mission rules again. It's hard sometimes, but it felt good to be ready for and in bed at 10:25. Hopefully this week we can continue to improve and work on lights out at 10:30. Regardless, I do love working with Elder N. He's a fun companion, and knows how to teach good lessons.

Sorry this email is overly slow. Apparently all I had time to finish so far is this one. I'll get personal emails out later this evening, after Zone meeting, meeting with an Eikaiwa student, and then meeting with a member. Busy day today!

Email you all next week!

-Elder Jeff Mosdell

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8/6/13: Helping the couple missionaries move... cont.

こんにちは!

This last week was a pretty fun week. We got to meet with the Nagaii family again. Fortunately their son had progressed a little bit so they felt like they could meet with us again. Sadly however he fell the other day at the pool, and that has set him back a ways. It also means they didn't come to church yesterday. Hopefully we'll still be able to see them again this week. I'm really hoping they can go to the Brad Wilcox Fireside this coming Saturday, though I'm not sure they'll be willing to make the journey in their current situation.

This last week at district meeting was awesome! I loved the district leader's idea to only teach using direct quotes from the scriptures, I was able to select a nice list of scriptures relevant to my topic from the scriptures I've compiled for teaching lessons. Sadly due to time constraints I had to reconfigure my presentation, but I still feel like it was a great success. I'm super glad that that list has proved effective. Great great training.

Brother Moore (a recent convert, slightly Less-active) has been doing great ever since we started doing things with him more. I hadn't realized that he'd moved her very shortly after his conversion. There's a lot of things he could use a good refresher on, but he knows that this is the true church, and he comes every Sunday that he back/muscle pains will let him. I think he could benefit from hearing the lessons again, so we'll probably try to teach him something from the After Baptism lessons every time we're with him.  We spent a lot of time with him yesterday, and talked with him about patriarchal blessings. He doesn't have one yet, so we're hoping to work towards him receiving it soon. Sadly his back wasn't feeling well enough to adventure out to Sarushima (Monkey Island), so we'll have to try and go next week with him. That should hopefully provide some great photos for this transfer (which I am rather lacking in for some reason...).

 

Sorry to those who where waiting on this message, I didn't have a chance to get it sent off on Monday because of our appointment with Brother Moore, and helping the Couple missionaries finish moving (finally).

 

Thankfully no follow up from the cops, so I guess that means it wasn't as big of a deal as I was afraid. Figures. :) Oh, we also saw Gen "the name of the guy we helped" again the following day. It was 5:00 and he was already pretty tipsy. turns out his family were also at the festival not too far away, so when he saw us he got all excited and introduced us to everyone. It was fun to get to meet everyone, though the whole time Gen was unknowingly trying to polish my shoes with his most recent cup of brew. *Shrug* Good thing I wore my old pair that day.  His son thanked us for helping him home, then informed us that Gen is very much a drunkard... something I'm not sure I'd have guessed on my own. ;P ha ha

 

Well, I'll email again next Tuesday (temple P-day). シーユー

-Elder Mosdell

7/29/13: Trying to follow in Dad's footsteps... Sometimes not the best thing to do

Howdy!

Today has been a very interesting day. We spent the usual 7-8 hours at church today between the Japanese branch and the English Ward. Following that we got to visit the Nuttal family for dinner and share a brief message with them before going home to do some Sunday evening finding. On our way home (we walked from the base gate) to pick up some things we left at the church we saw a VERY drunk man fall into a bush, so we stopped and helped him up and then walked him home. It took us almost 30 minutes to get him the 3 blocks to his home. Once we'd finally gotten him to his home we walked down the stairs and started back on our way when we noticed there were like 6 cops walking the streets searching for something. One of them stopped us, and asked if we were the two foreigners who were helping a very drunk man. We of course said yes and instantly the officer radioed the rest of his team to the street corner we were standing on. They bombarded us with questions that I only understood maybe a half of, and after 15 minutes of taking our personal information and telling us that even though we had intended well that we should avoid helping drunk people home in the future. Long story short, it took us over an hour to walk the 5 minutes from the base gate to home. Hopefully nothing too serious happened that I didn't understand. We're also hoping that nobody from the police station calls us... As fun as dad's story of getting arrested on his mission is, getting taken in for "mugging a guy" when really you're just helping him home doesn't sound nearly as cool as "assault and battery with a deadly weapon" for shooting pigeons with a PVC pipe and rocks...

A side from that we've had a very good week regarding Less-Active work. Elder N. and I feel very strongly that were are supposed to be working with the LA's in this area at this time. Of course we're not forgetting our investigators, but we'll probably be spending more time with the LA's for the next at least couple weeks. One of them is a recent convert who moved shortly after getting baptized and never received the AB lessons. We're going to being spending some time with him today and we're hoping to set up lessons with him at least once a week, hopefully more. There's a lot more we're working with, there's one family in particular Elder N. and I feel a very strong tie to, though we're not sure why. The mother has had some hard times and apparently some of  the Relief Society Sisters had passed the story around church, which really upset this mother. She's a return missionary and knows the church is true, she just really doesn't like some of the people in the ward for what they've done. To make matters worse, the primary president is, in her own words, "attacking her" with texts and calls and unexpected visits to get her to come to activities and Sacrament. When we heard that in ward council yesterday we felt really like the wonderful visit we'd had with this family just two days before was kind of being nixed. I'm not sure what to do right now to help the family but I'm sure we'll find something via revelation!

Sadly we didn't meet with any investigators this week, the Nagaii family's son's health regressed a little bit and so they were busy with the stress that came with that. They did come to the pioneer day activity on base last Saturday though and got to meet several more members. We should be meeting with them this week, they're planning on calling us today or tomorrow.

I'm so glad to get to work with Elder Nakayama here in Yokosuka. I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be, and that we're here for a specific purpose. Elder Nakayama works hard and has a good attitude. I love working with him, and I love working here in Yokosuka. I feel like Ammon, wanting to dwell among this people for however long it takes me to finish the work that the Lord had called me to do here.

Love,

Elder Mosdell

7/22/13: In the middle of a mountain? (山の中で?)

Having transfers in the middle of the week has been interesting. It's made it a little harder to accomplish all of the related tasks and still be on top of the plans we'd made for the week, but we did our best! I'm excited to have Elder Nakayama here in Yokosuka to work with. Elder Nakayama is 1/2 Japanese, comes from Hawaii, and speaks pretty good Japanese for how long he's been out (coming up on 8 months). He's defiantly very easy going, and is willing to do anything that is important. He may not be exactly obedient, but he has a good attitude and I think he's willing to improve. Hopefully we'll be able to see several miracles here in Yokosuka together.

As for things we actually were able to get done this week;

We had a great lesson with the Nagaii family last Monday. When we invited them to work towards a baptismal date, dad said that he wasn't sure if he wanted to make that promise just yet. But he IS willing to study and seek personal revelation on the subject. I don't know if we could have honestly hoped or a better answer than what he gave us. He hit the nail on the head as far as what we wanted him to do. He hadn't read yet when I followed up on Friday, but had been thinking about what we'd said and was going to read that night. Hopefully their son's leg will continue to improve so that they can make it to church and to the pioneer day celebration this Saturday.

While we were waiting for Elder Nakayama at the train station, Elder Addington and I decide to pass out English class flyer's. Elder Nakayama ended up coming over 30 mins late due to a train mix up, and during that time I met a man named Chris who knew about our church and liked how families are central to our believes. He was planning to come to church, though he didn't show up sadly. Point was though, everything happens for a reason. I'd never have met Chris if Elder Nakayama hadn't ended up taking a wrong train. :)

I got to go back to Fussa yesterday and see the baptism of one of the Spanish families I was working with while I was there. It was so good to get to go back and see old friends from the English ward there, including Jamie and her kids, I even got to meet Chris for the first time! Hopefully I'll get to go back and see them again before I go home when my cousin Lisa gets baptized in November. I also enjoyed getting to see Elder Squire again... I guess I just love reunions :)

We're hoping to do a lot of less active work this transfer, so hopefully we'll see a lot of success come from that!

-Jeff

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Playing with light and shutter speed

"whoa! ocean baptism are cool"

"Two elders from Spanish Fork and one convert
converted by a missionary from Spanish Fork long long ago..."

"mmmm Sushi Soba dish"

"Almost got the triforce out with a Qtip on fire.... almost...."

7/15/2013: November 19th

Howdy all!

Well, transfer calls were supposed to come last Saturday and then be followed by transfers today, however President Wada has decided to rearrange the way we do transfers from here on out. From now on calls will come on Tuesdays, and transfers will be that next Thursday. Good news there is that transfers won't push P-day back ever again. :D So from here on out I'll be able to email every Monday!

I'm glad to have one more P-day to spend trying to get the apartment really clean and organized so that if someone transfers the next missionary can come into a nice looking apartment, instead of a dusty, moldy one. Hopefully we'll be unified in getting it done today...

One of the APs called and informed me of my new returning date. As many of you may have already guessed, it's Tuesday Nov. 19th, 2013. I'm glad to get to serve exactly to the 1 year anniversary of Brother T's baptism in Tama! I don't know if he'll be able to go to the temple before I go home, but I'm hoping something will work out. Also, it seems that I'll be here for another of my cousin's baptism (in Fussa) which is a pleasant surprise. :)

We haven't had a chance to meet with the Nagaii family, or the Hawkington family, though we have a lesson today with the Nagaiis, and we're planning to go visit the Hawkingtons sometime this week as well. I'm excited for both. :)
The work here in Yokosuka has been great lately, we've been getting to know the English Ward members better as well as helping the ward council with ideas of how to set a missionary example for the rest of the ward. There's also been a pretty big push from the Japanese Branch to really strive for the number of ward members to grow instead of diminish over the next few months (the two main families from the branch are moving).  We're going to be going with some of the Elder's quorum leaders out to visit every Less active we have on our lists and seeing if a.) they actually live there, and b.) If they're interested in having visits from the missionaries and other members. I'm hoping we'll find a lot of inactive members who will see how much they are needed, and start coming back. I'm praying that whom ever I'm with next transfer (whether it's Elder H again or not) is going to be willing to really buckle down and work hard through the summer. There's a lot of work that can be done in Yokosuka, the area just needs a united set missionaries who are willing to do it.

I guess that's it for this week! I'll be sure to get all the photos up of this transfer next week! (I have to "steal" several from Elder H first). Have a great week all!
-Elder Jeff Mosdell

7/8/2013: Akiya, long time exposures and families

It might take awhile for me to get used to writing President Wada in my letters, I was just getting used to the switch to Pres. Budge. ;P haha

This week has been pretty good, we've found two families that have interest in the gospel, and I'm excited to start to teach them. We have an appointment with the American family this coming Tuesday. I don't remember if I've mentioned them before, but they're the Nagaii family, the one who's son had an injury a few months ago and still hasn't healed, so they asked us for a blessing. Apparently we made a very good impression on them, and they can really tell that we care about their family. We're going to have dinner and follow up on their son, share a spiritual message about the Plan of Salvation, and then invite them to work towards being baptized. I'm super excited, because I know that right now their big fear is that dad isn't willing to give up some things (probably Word of Wisdom related) yet, but we feel that if we can have a good spiritual lesson where they all feel the spirit that he'll except the invitation to learn and continue to feel the spirit until he feels ready to make that change in his life.

The other family is a wealthy seeming family living on the other side of the Yokosuka peninsula from us. The Hawkington family invited us over to their restaurant so they could meet their son's "Free English Teachers". The meeting went very well, and when we gave them a "Do you know us?" DVD, mom was really interested in studying about eternal families. They were definitely more accepting than they were opposed to what we had to say. Our only concern with teaching them is that they live in a kind of remote part of our area. The best way to get there is to go up, out of our zone to Zushi Station, then ride a bus back down for 30 minutes to where they live in our area. It's kind of expensive to travel to, but we felt like a lot of the people there were very open and friendly, so we might try biking out that way a few times and seeing how people react to our message. Sadly it turned out that visiting Akiya (Fall Valley) was just as hot as every where else in Yokosuka in the summer... No cool fall weather, ;P

There's a lot of potential coming out in Yokosuka, I'm really glad to start feeling like we're getting somewhere again. Hopefully next week will be even better!
-Elder Jeff Mosdell

Mike Wazowski - I guess Jeff got a new keychain?

This must be the "long time exposures" he mentioned in the email title.
Not sure what it is, but it is a neat effect!

7/1/2013: Christmas in July!

Today marks the first day of the Japan Tokyo South Mission.  Elder Mosdell will serve the remaining months of his mission under President Wada.  Please note the change in mailing address, here is the accurate mailing address:

Elder Jeff Mosdell

1-7-7 Kichijoji Higashi-cho

Musashino-shi, Tokyo
180-0002
Japan

With that said, here is your weekly update from the boy!

 

This year we decided to kick off Christmas in July so we can get a little more use out of our Christmas music on our missions. Now we're just waiting for the "MSF fairy" to deliver out funds so that we can go P-day shopping... But anyways, on to the report!

We just watched the "Hastening the Work" broadcast with our English Ward leaders last night (I find it kind of ironic that being 15 hours ahead causes me to be a week behind on church broadcasts >.<). It was a great broadcast, it's going to be neat to watch how the members respond over the next 4ish months of my mission. I'm also excited to get to be part of the change after I go home as well. In some ways I'm even more excited to be on that side of the work! (I have a feeling that a lot of it won't fully be implemented until then). To be honest though the only new thing as far as the missionary side to me was Facebook. We've been using Skype and such for my entire mission. I hear we may even be "upgrading" to tablets pretty soon as well! (I kind of think of that as a downgrade... but w/e I guess). The part I was the most excited for was the encouragement for the members. I'm really excited to see the work take off as the members step up to the plate!

In other news, my third Mission President (President Wada) just landed Saturday night. So it's "good bye" to President Budge, and on to round three!

Things started really kicking in to gear even this last week before we watched the broadcast. We had a great lesson with a family who was referred to us by the previous bishop's family. Their son injured his leg at school several months ago and still hasn't healed. The family knows a lot about Mormons, and has had several Mormon friends over the years. Mom had received a blessing once before for an injury in her back, so they wanted to know if their son could also have a blessing. We gave the son a blessing of healing, and mom and dad a blessing of comfort and council. Afterwards we talked about the church and their interest level. Mom, who speaks Japanese, told us while dad wasn't paying attention (in Japanese as well), that she and their son would love to be baptized, but dad isn't ready to give (up) some things. They're waiting on him because she's afraid it might cause contention if they don't. Dad isn't very spiritual, however with the current situation of his son he's been willing to turn to anything that will help. Long story short, mom and son are completely ready to hear the gospel, and we feel that now is a good time to talk to dad about giving it a try. Our next invitation is to listen to the lesson and to work towards baptism.

Elder H. and I were just discussing how some people's missions seem to fly by, but how both of us feel like it's been pretty normal. He commented that it feels like it's been exactly 11 months, and I thought back on it and started to say the same about how long I've been out... until I realized that I haven't been out for 15 months, but rather 20... I can't believe it's been 20 months since I went to the MTC! Time really does seem to be speeding up as I round the last corner!

I think that's it for this week, so I'll write ya'll next week!

 -Elder Jeff Mosdell

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