Miracles

February 29, 2016

Boat Guys

These boats are way cool!

These are huge boats.  I love them!!!

The guy who owns the boats with two happy missionaries!
 Too bad he lives in Kobe, I would love to teach him.
Elders in Kobe, here is a golden opportunity!!!

The boat in action going so fast on the Edo river.

Another wonderful p-day lunch!

Meet the Shiyoji family!!!
 I love this family so much.

Hello friends and family!  How are you all doing?  I just want to say

thank you for all your love and support but mostly this week I am so

grateful for your prayers. This week I had an amazing miracle happen.

I found a man who has interest in the Gospel!  I am not just talking

about a little interest, I am talking about lots of interest!!!

Friday morning Elder Chou and I finished our weekly planning.  When we

did our companionship inventory, we made some really good goals.  This

week we wanted to work towards being a more obedient and consecrated

companionship.  We set some goals to talk to everyone, be on time, and

work our hardest.  I think this is what the lord needed us to do

because Friday was an amazing miracle day.  We left the apartment with

the mind set to talk to everyone.  We were talking to every guy that

we could see but none of them had interest.  It was so frustrating but

we kept going.  Some people were interested in only a restoration

pamphlet or an eikaiwa pamphlet but none of them seemed super

interested.  Well after about 45 minutes to an hour of finding, we

found ourselves going down this road that had no one on it.  I had no

idea where we were going.  Up ahead we saw this one guy walking by

himself.  We treated him just like every other person.  We introduced

ourselves and what we were doing.  He introduced himself as well and

told us his name was Umehara. We talked a bit about families and who

God is, we then asked him if he had more interest and if he wanted to

learn more.  He said he had time now and he wanted to learn more.

Well on the side of the road and right next to a construction company

was pretty loud so we went up the street to a nearby Family Mart.  We

sat down at a small table that was hidden in the corner and began

teaching.  We taught him the whole restoration lesson and then even

some of the plan of salvation.  He just had so many questions and we

tried to answer them all.  All of his questions were directed straight

to the Gospel and we were able to answer them with the Book of Mormon.

It was amazing!  At the end of the lesson we taught him how to pray

and he said the closing prayer for us.  It was so awesome.  Granted it

wasn't the best place to have a lesson but you have to do what you

have to do when you have no other choices.  At the end of the prayer

we asked him if we could meet again and he gave us his phone number

and address and he said he will come to church on Sunday!  It was the

coolest miracle ever!  But that isn't the best part.  The coolest part

of this story was a story that he shared with us.  He said, "When I

was 14 years old I lived in Hong Kong.  (He is Japanese by the way, he

also speaks a bit of English).  When I was living there, I met one of

your brethren and they taught me about families.  I loved learning

about it but for some reason we stopped meeting.  Well, I think God

sent you to me today to finish teaching me.  I think God wants me to

listen to you."  It was so cool!  He said he had been meeting with

other religions but all of them seemed to have a "piece" of the truth

but not all of it.  I was overly ecstatic to be talking with this man.

Uehara is going to be an amazing investigator.  I pray every night

that he will come to church this Sunday and that we will be able to

teach him the next lesson and show him around our church.  I think he

has a lot of potential and I think the spirit has really touched his

heart and softened it for us.  Uehara is an answer to my prayers! :)

Uehara San is a way cool miracle!   To make things even cooler, he

came to Stake Conference this week!  The chapel was packed.  People

had to go to the 5th floor to watch it from a projector, kind of like

how we do it at our stake conferences.  But luckily after talking to

some members, we were able to get four seats for us to sit next to

each other.  The Stake conference went really well.  There were a lot

of speakers though.  Also, when you dont understand things, it is

really hard to stay awake but because Umehara was there, I tried my

very hardest to understand what was being talked about.  They mostly

talked about the area plan for Japan and baptism.  So that was really

good.  President Nagano came and gave a talk that was really good!

After Stake Conference I took Umehara up to meet President Nagano.

That was also really cool.  After they introduced themselves I asked

him if he had any questions for President Nagano and he talked to him

about the Holy Ghost and things like that.  Like, how do we understand

promptings and how can we tell when we feel the Holy Ghost.  It were

way good questions for someone we just found the other day!  I am glad

he asked President Nagano those questions and not me because I have no

idea how to answer those questions in Japanese.  But President Nagano

did a very good job of talking with him and teaching him.  At the end

of the conversation President Nagano invited Umehara to come to our

zone conference this week.  Umehara speaks a little bit of English so

it would be a good chance for him to learn about the church and also

practice his English.  I was so surprised, he said he would come!!!  I

am so excited  to see him there.  After we were done talking with

President Nagano we went upstairs and had a lesson with him.  Brother

Masuda was there with us.  Man I would be sunk without these Japanese

people to help me teach! haha  But we talked about Stake Conference,

Jesus Christ, the Atonement, the Book of Mormon and the Plan of

Salvation.  We covered a lot of topics but I think it really helped

him and he said he was enjoying the Book of Mormon.  He had a lot of

good questions about it  so that is good.  I honestly think that he is

the investigator I have been looking for.  He shows so much interest

in learning about the Gospel.

I am so grateful for him and I am even more grateful for all the

prayers that I get from all of you.  Thank you for them and please

continue to pray for my investigators.  I am looking forward to

another week of missionary work.  I hope this week I will be able to

meet with Umehara a lot and teach him more about the Plan of Salvation

and also about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This week was amazing and

I am so excited for one more week! :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful time.  I love hearing from you,

it sounds like everything back home and everywhere else in the world

is doing just great.  I just want you all to know that I love you and

pray for you always.  You all mean so much to me and  you have touched

my heart one way or another.  I have learned so much about the love

that our Heavenly Father has for us and I am excited to be able to

share that love with others.  Some people it is their first time

feeling that love and to see their eyes light is amazing.  I am so

blessed to be in Japan, the people here are great and there are so

many opportunities to share the Gospel.  I love my mission so much!  I

also love you all just as much.  Keep working hard and enjoying life.

Also don't forget to look for the little things in life.  Heavenly

Father blesses you with little things all the time, you just need to

look for them.  I love you!!!  Take care and have a great week.  Until

next week,

Elder Unsworth😊🇯🇵

Happy Valentine's Day

February 14, 2016

One happy missionary!!

Upwards shot of me and the church

I love being a missionary!!!

Be Warned Matsudo,  these two tough missionaries are here for 6 more weeks!!!

Sporting my new hair cut at lunch with these great missionaries.

Visiting ward members!

This is an Eikaiwa student.  She is such a nice person.  Her English is really good.

The Luslos are on the left.  Ayumu is next to me.  He is our amazing investigator.  We had such a fun night together.

 Wow what a week it has been down in Matsudo!  I am loving it here so

much!  So I bet you are wondering what is going on with my transfers.

Well, I am staying in Matsudo for another transfer with Elder Chou!  I

was praying that I could stay here for another transfer.  I love

Matsudo so much!  The members here are amazing and I love being with

them.  I also have grown to love my investigators and of course my

companion.  I am so excited to stay and I know that Elder Chou and I

are going to work extra hard this transfer to see a baptism.  Which

leads into our amazing investigator Ayumu!

We had a church tour this week.  This was for Ayumu.  He is the guy

who we found a week ago who seemed to have a lot of interest in the

church.  He showed up and we had a member there with us! We gave him

the tour and when we got to the chapel he had a bunch of questions

about the sacrament.  It was pretty cool to answer his questions and

see everything click in his head.  We showed him some scriptures and

then explained why the sacrament is important. After that, we went up

to the baptismal font and showed him that.  He was a bit shocked by it

but after showing the video of Christ's baptism and some scriptures he

was okay with it.  We invited him to be baptized and he said he

couldn't right now.  We were a bit bummed but the spirit guided us to

testify and share a couple more scriptures with him.  After doing

that, I could see him change a bit, almost as if his heart was

softened.  He then said that he could be baptized if he found out that

this church was true.  I was overly ecstatic!  I was so happy and I

knew that it was because of the Spirit that he changed his mind.

After the Church tour we went and had dinner together and got to know

each other a bit more.  He is such a cool guy and he loves being with

us.  I think he is going to be our next baptism.  He is a really good

kid and loves being with us.

On Thursday, we had a dinner lesson with Ayumu!  Some members invited

us over for dinner and they told us to invite an investigator over, so

we brought Ayumu.  He was way excited to come.  We got to the Ludlo's

house and they made tacos for us!  I was one happy missionary.  It had

been forever since I have had tacos.  We had our dinner and then came

time for the lesson.  With the time we had allotted left, we decided

to show the restoration video.  We showed it and Ayumu liked it.  He

said it was easy to understand and he thinks that it is possible that

something like that happened.  We then talked about the Book of Mormon

and Prayer.  He said he had read the beginning of the Book of Mormon

but he was way confused.  He had no idea who the people were and it

just didn't make sense to him.  We explained a bit about it and then

went into prayer.  He was also having a bit of a difficulty with this

one as well.  We then turned to the Ludlos and had them teach.  They

shared their testimony about prayer and it seemed to work.  He was

smiling and said thank you and then turned to us and said it all makes

sense.  It was a good night.  We then said a closing prayer and was on

our way home.  As we left the house the Ludlos were very appreciative

that we came over.  As we were walking to the station, Ayumu said, "I

really like those people.  They are so kind and happy.  Why are they

so happy?"  We then told him about the Gospel and how the Gospel will

make you a better person.  He seems to be progressing very well, he

loves the members and he likes the Book of Mormon!

This week has been an amazing week for Ayumu.  He is progressing

amazingly!  I called him the other day and he said he had been reading

the Book of Mormon and that he is excited to meet with us again.  I

know that if he keeps doing the things he is doing, one day he will

get baptized.  He is an amazing man and I love meeting with him.  I am

so happy that I get to spend another transfer in Matsudo with him.

This week the weather has been amazing over here.  It feels like

California in the spring time.  Saturday morning we had Futsal.  This

is a soccer like game.  But it is played inside and the ball is a bit

smaller.  It is so much fun!  I love playing it.  Well usually when I

play, it is nice and just at the right temperature.  Well it felt like

a desert by the time I was done!  It was so hot in the gym.  When I

was biking home, usually I have to wear long pants and a jacket

because it was so cold!  But that day I wore short sleeves and it felt

amazing!  I love the weather here now!  Futsal and Basketball was so

much fun.  We had a lot of people come out and play with us this week.

That makes it so much fun.  I think one of my favorite things to do is

play sports with the members and investigators.  It is a good time to

get to know them and to have fun and goof around with them.  I was

wearing a star wars shirt when I was playing basketball and this new

guy kept calling me star wars and he kept saying I had the force.  It

was so funny.  By the end of the night we were great friends and he

said he was excited to come to next weeks basketball.  I love hanging

out with people and goofing around with them  I think one of the most

important things to a mission is showing your love for everyone.

This week/transfer has been amazing.  I am starting to see the

blessings that are coming from my mission.  I love the work and I love

being able to work with someone all day long.  I love my companion

Elder Chou and I am excited to work with him for another transfer.

Most of all I love the Savior and I have felt his love for me so much

this transfer.  He is shaping me into the man that he wants me to be.

Missions are amazing and I am so excited for this transfer.  Thank you

all for your wonderful love and support.  I hope all is going well

where ever you are and I hope and pray that you can also feel the

Saviors love for you this week.

I love you all and cant wait to hear from you!!!!  Dont forget to

check out the blog for awesome pictures!!!  Take care and talk to you

again next week! :)

Love,

Elder Unsworth

Super Bowl Sunday

February 8, 2016

Sky tree! You can see it from my area.  It is so cool!!

Say Hello to Tokyo!

The sushi here was really good!   Elder Rhea is the one sitting next
to me and Elder Hansen is across from me.  I love these three
missionaries so much!  They are a blast!

The dishes here are so cool.

I love this family so much!

 The Kuwahara family

Where does the time go?  I cant believe I have been out for 7 months

now!  That is so crazy to me.  Also it is coming to the end of another

transfer.  I feel like I just got here and now I may be leaving!  I

doubt that I will be leaving but you never know.  I get me call next

week so I will let you all know what is going on! :)

This week was a fun week.  One of the best things that happened this

week was exchanges.  This was a way fun exchange.  I was with a

transfer one missionary!  He didnt know that much Japanese so that

means I had to take lead in everything!  We had a meeting that morning

so we couldnt start our study until 2:30 by the time we were done with

our study and dinner it was 7:30!  I learned so much from study

though.  There is a video that new missionaries get to watch called

the District and I love it!  When I was getting trained my trainers

were not the best at watching that video.  I maybe watched it two or

three times.  Not that much. haha  But when I watched it with Elder

Rhea, it was way fun!  I learned so many things that I could improve

on and how I can become a better missionary.  For this reason, I kind

of hope I get to train some time in the future.  I really want to

train a missionary and I think that if I do that I will also find out

how to be a better missionary.  Well my exchange with Elder Rhea went

pretty good!  We talked to a couple of people and then we decided to

go housing! I did the first house to show the example and then I let

him pick the next house.  He was doing everything in his power not to

do it.  We walked up to this one house and there was a car in the

drive way, the kitchen light was on and so was the upstairs bedroom

light.  He looked around the house probably for a good minute and then

said, "Yup this house is deserted.  I don't think anyone lives here."

I had to hold back from laughing so hard.  It was so funny.  Finally

after giving him a prep talk we were able to house a couple more

houses that night.  It was by far some of the funniest things that

have happened on exchanges.  haha  I loved this exchange so much!

The biggest thing that happened this week when it comes to

investigators is Elder Chou and I was walking around one day and no

one wanted to talk to us.  That actually happens a lot...  Haha  But

there was this one guy that I had a good feeling about so I stopped

him and it turned out he had lived in New York for five years so his

English is way good! I talked with him and made a really good

relationship with him on the spot.  It was so cool, we actually had a

lot of the same likes and he said that he had talked to like five

other church missionaries but he had never talked with an LDS

missionary.  So we told him what we do and how he can learn more about

our church.  We gave him a restoration pamphlet and he said if he has

any interest he will call the number on the pamphlet.  We said okay

and then went our ways.  I kind of had a feeling that he would call

back but at the same time I thought that he would be like everyone

else and not call us ever.  Well no joke, like five minutes later, we

get a call from him.  He must have read something in the pamphlet or

something but he called us and was really excited to learn more about

the church.  We are going to meet up with him tomorrow and give him a

church tour and also teach the first lesson.  I am so excited.  I

think this is also Heavenly Father answering my prayers to finally

find someone to teach and that has interest in the church.  This guy

is a huge answer to my prayers and I really hope he accepts our

message and choses to become closer to Christ.  I really hope he comes

tomorrow! :)

There has been so many things this week that have been answer to my

prayers.  I am so grateful for the Savior, the Holy Ghost, and our

loving Heavenly Father.  I know he hears and answers our prayers.

There are many people out there who think God is this scary thing that

hates them.  I am here to testify that God is our loving Heavenly

Father and he loves us so much.  He loves you just like your father on

earth loves you.  He wants to help you and he can only help you if you

make yourself humble and ask for help and guidance through prayer.  I

know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us also.  He is the Savior of

this world.  I am so grateful for this church and all the many

blessing I have recieved since I have been on my mission.  I am also

very thankful for my wonderful family who loves and supports me so

much.  I love them so much.  They are the best examples to me and I

hope one day I can be like them. I am also thankful for you and all

your love and support you give me.  I love you all so much and you are

in  my prayers.  I hope you see the blessings Heavenly Father gives

you through this week as you pray to him.  He loves you and wants to

bless you, all it takes is a little prayer.  I love you all so much

and I hope you have an amazing week!  Take care and talk to you next

week! :)

Elder Unsworth