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

ジェッフ　モスデル

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

ジェッフ　モスデル

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