October 25, 2015

Grand adventure with new companion

Bowling with Elder Calhoun!

A member who needed the help of the missionaries, both sisters and elders.  They would pull the twigs and beat the seeds off of them.  Two days of service,  how great!

Book of Mormon Power!

What a week it has been!  Hello everyone!  Lets begin this grand
adventure with how my companion and I are doing.  We are doing great!
We are getting along perfectly and I feel like we are best friends!
We are working really hard and handing out many flyers and Book of Mormons.
This week, we had a lesson with a new Investigator.  He is a man who
wants to read the Book of Mormon in English with us before the English
Class.  We read one chapter with him and then asked if he had any
questions about the chapter.  We then taught him about the Restoration
of the Gospel.  Elder Calhoun is an amazing teacher.  As we taught
him, you could feel the spirit in the room and it was a very good
feeling.  As we went through our lesson, Seichi san was very
interested in what we were talking about.  He loved learning about the
Gospel.  At the end of our lesson we asked him if he wanted to be
baptized.  He sadly said no.  That wasnt a surprise to me.  Usually
people say no to a question like that because baptism is scary.  We
then asked him, If he found out by himself if the church was true and
that the Book of Mormon was true would he be baptized.  He then said
yes.  I was so excited!  We dont have a baptismal date but we do have
another appointment to teach him!  I am excited to work with him!
Another great thing that happened this week was I had an interview
with my Mission President and his Wife.  Their names are President
Nagano and Sister Nagano.  They are so sweet and I love them so much.
I talked to them about my worries and concerns.  They helped me so
much.  President Nagano helped me with things that I can improve on,
and how I can become a stronger missionary.  Sister Nagano
strengthened my spiritual side.  She told me how great of a missionary
I was and how much I am improving.  She is well pleased with me and
she shared some things with me that really touched my heart and helped
me.  It made me want to be a better missionary.  Both of them said my
Japanese is getting very good.  Maybe they say that to all the
missionaries but hey, it made me feel good about myself! haha
Overall, I loved talking with President and Sister Nagano.  They helped me so much.
Another great thing that happened was Elder Calhoun and I were having
a hard time handing out Book of Mormons.  We couldn't find anyone that
wanted one or would take it.  Finally we prayed about it and asked
Heavenly Father to help us.  As we went out to talk with people that
day, we handed out a Book of Mormon each!  We were so excited when we
handed them out!  One was a Jr. High kid who was way cool!  Another
guy was a man who was standing outside of his work.  We talked to him
and he said his wife wanted to learn about our Religion, so we gave
him a Book of Mormon to give to his wife.  It was an amazing miracle.
We are working really hard to improve our finding time.
I challenge all of you to read the Book of Mormon this week and try to
find something new in it.  If you have never read it, start on page
one and read!  I promise, you will not regret it.  It has helped me so
much in my life and I know that it will help you in  yours.  The Book
of Mormon has amazing power and as Joseph Smith said "The Book of
Mormon is the most correct book of any book on earth"  Read the Book
of Mormons Introduction page to start off before you read.  It has so
much power in it.  I love it!  Read the Book of Mormon this week and
then let me know what you learned next week if you decide to take my
challenge.  If you do this, the lord will bless you and you will feel
peace, love, and come to find the truth in the Book of Mormon.  I
promise you that.  The Book of Mormon has blessed me and my family so
much.  It can do the same for you.  You just need to put forth the effort.
Overall, this has been an amazing week.  I have felt the spirit so
strongly with Elder Calhoun.  I know that he and I are going to see
some amazing miracles.  This transfer is going to be a really fun one!
 I am so grateful for all the blessings that I have received and all
the love and support I have from you all.  Thank you so much for
everything.  This week is also my Birthday, so dont forget to wish me
happy Birthday!  Just a simple email on my Birthday would be amazing!
I love you all so much!  Take care, talk to you next week!

Elder Unsworth

October 18, 2015

Goodbye Elder Koyama

Hello Elder Calhoun

Saying goodbye to Elder Koyama

A forever friendship.  Good luck Elder Koyama

This is a cool temple Nic saw when he handed out his first Book of Mormon

A cool statue that Nic saw in the park.  Nic feels like they have many symbolic things that represent our religion and Japanese people don't even know it.  These statues are a representative of that.  One mouth is open and the other one is closed.  It represents the Japanese alphabet with the "a" sound an the "n" sound.  It represents the beginning and the end of the alphabet.  Which also represents Christ because he is the beginning and the end.  

Elder Unsworth meet......

Elder Calhoun

Elder Unsworth and Elder Calhoun his new companion.  Elder Calhoun is the District leader.

Elder Calhoun is very tall with a great big heart.  I think this is going to be a great companionship.

Wow what a week it has been.  Well lets start off with my new companion.  My new companions name is Elder Calhoun.  He is an amazing man!  I love him so much.  He is from North Carolina and he loves sports.  We both like Basketball so we are going to try and find a place to play sometime but there arent really anywhere around here to play besides the schools. And all the schools are under construction. Elder Calhoun came from Tokyo and he has been on him mission for a full year.  He is pretty good at Japanese so hopefully I can learn a thing or two from him.Friday was probably my favorite day so far.  So we had a District and Zone meeting that day.  Elder Calhoun is the District leader so he showed us some stats of the mission and told us that we were very behind.  He challenged us to work harder and to make our stats go up.It was kind of cool to see the stats for the mission.  We then had a Zone meeting and that was pretty cool.  They talked about faith and how to use this new pamphlet we got that talks about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  It was made specifically for Japan.  It is so cool!
 So at the end of the meeting the zone leaders told us that we need to get more baptisms.  They said that they had a meeting with all the leaders of the mission and that they felt like we all could get at least one baptism by the end of the year.  I think it is called the Miracle 100.  They want to get at least 100 baptisms by the end of the
year.  So we had a prayer and asked for guidance and help.  It was very spiritual.  At the end of the meeting I felt like I could do it.I just really needed to work on my Japanese.  Elder Calhoun then had a meeting for District Leaders only.  So I had to go on splits for a bit with another mission to go do some finding.  I had a transfer one
missionary who just barely got to Japan.  That means I was the more experienced missionary!  When we were leaving the room to go finding I kind of felt like the leaders didnt have faith in us.  Like they were kind of laughing about how we had to go out and talk with people.  So I asked my companion for a Book of Mormon and told him I am going to come back empty handed.  As we left the church we went to work.  We were talking to people but all Elder Lloyd could say was "KONICHIWA" and he said it very loud.  I am sure it scared people and thats why
they ran from us or wouldnt talk to us.  So we didnt really talk with anyone.  There was actually one guy that we stopped to talk to and I was telling him how I just came to Japan and that I wanted to practice my Japanese with him.  But I accidentally said that I wanted to worship.  Oops, he gave me a funny look and then just walked away.
haha  But after that I had an impression to go to a park and talk to people.  So I saw this pretty big park just down the road.  So we started to walk there.  When we got there, there wasn't that many people to talk to.  As we were walking around, there was this one guy walking and listening to his music.  Elder Lloyd with out hesitation walked up to him and said, "KONICHIWA!" The guy looked at him funny and then just kept walking.  I then said very kindly, "Konichiwa".  He then looked at me and took his head phones out.  I then said the right words and told him I just came to Japan and that I wanted to practice my Japanese with him.  He agreed so we asked him what he liked to do and he said that he liked to read books.  Boom!  I was so excited, my time had come.  So after talking to him for awhile, I brought up that I was a Church Volunteer.  You say that instead of Missionary here,kind of weird.  But he was surprised and then I just went into my Gospel spill.  I told him how the Book of Mormon makes me happy.  I then gave him some pamphlets and discribed how we teach English and that we have church on Sundays.  I was so mad, we had the wrong pamphlets for the area.  I had Kasukabe pamphlets and not Urawa.  I
was so mad at myslef.  But I showed him where the church was on my iPad.  When I knew our conversation was coming to an end I asked him if he would read the Book of Mormon and he said yes!  I was so happy!!!!  We read just a little bit on the spot, but then he took it with him.  I got his phone number and his name.  I then walked backed to the church with my head held high because I knew that I finally did what I have been wanting to do my whole mission and I did it all by myself.  I didn't have no experienced missionary with me or anything.It was just me and that transfer one missionary.  I know that I can do this now.   When I got back to the church, I was so happy.  I walked in to the room and said "Hey, whats in my hands? Nothing!"  They were so surprised that I actually handed out a Book of Mormon and got a phone number.  The zone leaders were hugging me and telling me how proud they were of me.   I feel like I am finally getting this mission thing down.  That day was the best day of my mission by far.  I felt so good when I gave out the Book of Mormon.  When we got home, we did
some finding and we gave out another Book of Mormon!  Two in one day! This time I had Elder Calhoun with me, so it was easier.  But I feel so good now.  I know that it is possible now.  Overall, that day was amazing for me.
The mission is getting so much better.  My first transfer was hard because my companion and I couldnt really talk with each other.  So this transfer is so much fun because we can talk with each other and learn from each other.  I have learned so much in the past couple of days.  I am more than excited to go and work hard this transfer.  I
really want to help bring others to this Gospel.  Everyone needs to know that they have a loving Heavenly Father that cares about them and knows them personally.  So many people in Japan have never even heard of God.  I know that I will see many miracles this transfer.  I have already seen one, I know that there are many more on their way. Again, thank you so much for all your love and support.  I am loving my mission so much and receiving your emails makes it even better.  I hope you all are having an amazing week.  I cant wait to hear from you
all.  Again, if you have any questions, feel free to email me and I will try to answer any of your questions.  But if you need to talk to someone, my mom is always available to talk.  She also does updates every so often about me.  I am sure she also posts pictures of me on Facebook.  I love my mom so much, she is amazing.I love you all too!  Take care and talk to you next week! :)

Elder Unsworth

October 12, 2015
Conference was amazing!

A family that Nic shared a message with about conference.  They are a Disney loving family, if you couldn't tell.

Well hello from the far place of Japan.  First off, I am so sorry that I wasn't able to email last week.  I had a very busy day and I am sorry that I couldn't email a long letter last week.Well I have a lot to talk about so lets get started!So last week, I got to go to the temple. The temple is such an amazing place.  I know I talked about it in my last letter but it really is amazing.  It brings so much peace to me, to know that I am sealed to my family forever through the temple.  You also get amazing feelings when you are inside, and around a temple.  They are beautiful and Celestial.  I love them.  If you have time, Visit a nearby temple and just sit outside it on the lawn and look at the beauty of it and the gardens around you.  I promise you will find peace and joy.I also got to have lots of fun this past week.  We have been going to a lot of members houses and sharing scriptures with them and seeing how they are doing.  I always love talking with the members because they help me with my Japanese so much.  I am no where near being fluent but I know that the more I practice the more I will learn.  I love talking with them also because they always make me feel good and special.  They also love talking about Disney.  I love Disney so much.I wish I could go to Disneyland Tokyo but sadly it is against the mission rules.  Dang, maybe after my mission! hahaThis week, I had the great opportunity to teach a bunch of missionaries.  I had a training about something called "keeping the fuel to keep Dendoing"  Dendo, is Mission in Japanese.  So I talked a lot about how my brother's (who served missions) kept their fuel.They simply had fun on their mission.  By fun, I mean they enjoyed themselves.  Stephen told me that the way he had fun was by visiting members and playing games with them.  Also seeing if they needed help with anything.  They would share a quick message then move to the next house.  He loved it.  Michael told me that he would find eveywhere hewent.  He would travel to a cool part of his mission and talk to people the whole way there.  He loved it and it made it so he could talk to a lot of people.  Tyler's advice was probably the one that hit me the hardest.  He told me this, "I would love to tell you the famous quote �g Now forget yourself and go to work!�h - Gordon B Hinkley's dad But here is the truth, you can do that and you will have a great time doing it, but i was not built that way so i had to sometimes take a break and get to know my companions and get to know just people in my areas. Try to talk to them as people rather than investigators. I sometimes didn't even bring up the gospel because i truly wanted to talk and get to know them. The advice i have is not church doctrine but it is the Unsworth way and its what ran through my blood. I thinkit helps with knowing that they are people just like you and me and they want happiness but first they want a friend."
How true this is.  I think a lot of people are looking for happiness in their life but first all they want is a friend.  Someone who they can talk to and trust.  I taught a lot about this and the missionaries were amazed by it.  They loved it.  After my training they all told me that they wanted to and try talking to more people.  I am so grateful for my brothers and their wonderful examples they are to me.  I know I can turn to them any time for comfort! :)I also had a fireside with my Mission President and it was amazing! It was in Japanese so I didnt understand really any of it.  But I felt the spirit a lot.  At the end of the fireside, the ward members were asking a lot of questions to the Mission President.  President Naganowas answering them with a smile but I had no idea what they were talking about.  The weird part was, I heard my name a lot...  I was hoping that they were good things about me and not bad!  After the fireside, President Nagano came up to me and told me that the wardmembers love me.  He was proud of me and told me that I wasnt going anywhere any time soon.By that, I mean this week was Transfer week!  I am staying in Kasukabe for another transfer.  Elder Koyama is transferring though.  I get a new companion on Wednesday and I am so excited!  It is going to be awesome to have someone new to work with!   My new companion is American and he speaks English!  Thank the heavens, I will be able totalk with someone! hahaha  I am excited for this new transfer! :)Besides that, nothing else has happened in the past couple of days. Again, I am sending photos to my mom and she is posting them on my blog.  She also posts some on facebook every so often.  So go like them and tell my mom what a wonderful person she is.  She really is amazing and I love her so much.  For those of you who watched General Conference, wasn't Elder Hollands talk about mothers amazing?  If you haven't seen it yet, go online and look it up!  It is on LDS.org and you can watch or read it for free!  It is an easy read and will only take you about 20 minutes to read or watch it.  Please go read or watch it if you havent done so yet.  It really is amazing and it will leave you with a special feeling in your heart.  I love my mom so much and I look up to her so much.  She will always have a special place in my heart.Again, thank you all for your love and support.  I love getting letters from you and hearing how you are doing.  I hope you all have an amazing week!  If you want, you can always send me pictures!  I love pictures and I love seeing what fun activities everyone is doing! Take care, and know that you all are in my prayers.  I love you all so much and cant wait to hear from you! :)Till next time,

Elder Unsworth

October 7, 2015
One busy missionary

Happy Birthday Nakagawa!!!  A member of the ward that Nic is in.  He and Elder Koyama went over to celebrate it with him. 

Happy Birthday Nakagawa!!!  A member of the ward that Nic is in.  He and Elder Koyama went over to celebrate it with him. 

Elder Unsworth was following too close to his companion and didn't see a pole. Yep he hit it and flew off his bike.  His first words were to me, "I'm ok, and my bike if fine."  I think the pants are toast! 

Wish I could be there to kiss it better!

Temple Day with Elder Koyama.

Tokyo Temple Sign

Downtown Tokyo
Pokemon Center
Heaven on Earth

Nic and Pikachu!

Hanging out after a wonderful day at the temple.

Such a wonderful store!  I am in Heaven!

I am so sorry everyone. This week has been so busy and I had no time

to email this week. I want you all to know that I love you all so
much. I never thought I would have so much love and support from you
all. You all have a special place in my heart. I am so sorry I
couldn't email you this week, I am going to send you all my photos
from the week so you can now what I did. Next week I will do a weekly
email. If you want to know how my week has been, my mother is doing a
blog and I think she is going to update it this week with how my week
was this week. I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week.  I
didn't have time to email today because I went to the Tokyo Temple. It
was amazing!  I felt so much peace and so much love. I love the temple
and I love my savior.  I hope you all can go to the temple sometime in
your life. Our church does temple previews before we dedicate them.
That is when you can go through and see what is inside them. I hope
you all can have this experience sometime in your life. The temples
are so beautiful and amazing inside. I love them. I also feel so much
peace and love when I go. I can't wait for the time when I can through
the temple with my family when I get home. Through the temples I am
sealed with my family for all eternity. This brings so much Joy to me.
I love my family so much. Temples, church, families, friends and Jesus
Christ are so important to me. I love them all so much.  Thank you
again for all your love and support.
Talk to you on Monday! :)

Elder Unsworth