Happy Easter

March 27, 2016

My Easter Basket this year.  My favorite is the small Christus statue! 

One of my best friends.  This was a sad good-bye.  He is going home to Idaho.                 Well done Elder Hansen !!       

YSA party.  Food that we made for the party. Yes this is octopus!

You make these ball things with octopus in them.

Proof that my eating habits have changed.  It actually tasted pretty good, just really hot!!

 My apartment in Matsudo

Elder Chou at his desk

Hallway

Our clean kitchen

Zone Leaders study room

This is where I sleep.  My futon is the one on the left.  Super small!!!

A member we worked with a bit.  His name is Brother Sasaki.

Oh how I miss my Bailey and the other dogs also!

Weekly Email 3-28-2016
Hello beloved family and friends!!!  Well I bet you are all wondering
what my transfer call is.  This morning I got a call from the
Assistance and I found out that Elder Chou is going to Tokyo!  He is
so lucky, I have wanted to go there my whole mission!  Maybe some day
I will be able to go.  It was then my turn.  Usually when one of your
companions leaves, you stay and a new Elder comes in, well me being
lucky Elder Unsworth, I am also transferring!  I am going to a new
area called Togane.  It is in the Chiba prefecture of Japan and my new
companions name is Elder Lin.  He is also from Taiwan, so maybe this
is a hint that I should start learning Chinese.  I am excited to go to
a new area and meet new people and have new experiences!  I am way sad
though to be leaving wonderful Matsudo.  I have grown to love the
people here and I love this area so much.  I am going to miss the
church here so much.  I love this area and its church members.  They
have been so nice to me and I have made some great friends.  But
probably most of all, I am going to miss my investigators.  I have
made some really good friendships with them and I feel like we are
best buds, but now I have to say goodbye.  The worst part is some of
them don't even have Facebook!  So this is literally goodbye.  I hope
that if they get baptized I will be able to come back and see them be
baptized.  These people mean the world to me and I am going to miss
them so much.  But they are in good hands! :)
This week, I wasn't expecting to say goodbye to everyone, so I didn't.
I have made many lessons for this upcoming week and I am sad that I
won't be able to say goodbye to everyone that I want to.  But this
past week's lessons were amazing!  We were able to teach Tatsuya and
Umehara, meet up with some old investigators and find new ones!  Today
we are trying to meet with a new investigator who is from. Africa!  He
seems to have a lot of interest in the church and I am excited to meet
with him.  The last couple of lessons with the investigators went
really well.  They are all progressing and they are coming to know
Christ more every time we meet with them.  This week we also had
Tatsuya and Umehara come to church, next week I am sure we can get
even more people to come!  In the next couple of days, I have to get
my investigators ready to meet the new Elders and catch the new Elders
up on everything that the investigators need.  It is going to be a
crazy couple of days! Haha
But after everything is done, I am still doing the same work.  I am
bringing others closer to Christ and bringing them to eternal
happiness.
This last Sunday was Easter and I was grateful to receive a package
from my family.  Inside was some candy from my family, a letter from
my mother, and a small statue of the Savior called "The Christus".  I
love this little statue so much!  It will stand as a reminder to me to
always think of the Savior and to think about what he has done for me
and all the people around me.  How blessed am I to know that through
Jesus Christ I can be with my wonderful family for all time and
generations.  I am so blessed to have this wonderful Savior who loves
and cares for us so much.  I am eternally grateful to Him and all that
he has done for me.  For my sins, my troubles, my worries, and my
family.  My testimony has grown so much over the past couple of months
about how families are eternal.  The Christus will stand as a reminder
for me, for all the love that my family has for me, but even more how
much He loves me.  I know that our Savior lives, and that he loves us
more than we can comprehend.  He came to this world to do the Fathers
will, now it is our time to do the Fathers will.  Let us follow the
example of the Savior and follow His footsteps so that we can see him
again.
I love this work so much and I am blessed to be doing it now in Japan.
I have learned so much on my mission but most of all my testimony of
the Savior has grown and my love for him has grown as well.  I hope
that this past Easter you all thought about Jesus Christ and the role
he plays in your life.  He loves you, he cares for you, and he knows
you.  Thank you for all the love and support you all give me, I love
you!!!  Have an amazing week and I will talk to you next week.  Take
care!  Love you!!!

Elder Unsworth

Temple Day

March 15 and 22, 2016

Some of the pictures did not come through on the 15th so I have combined both the 15th and the 22nd.  Sorry!

The beautiful Tokyo temple

Oh how I LOVE temple days

Ramen with the ELders

I am becoming Japanese!

Meiji Park in Tokyo

Elder Reed and I

Court yard of the Meiji Shrine.  The shrine is on the right side of picture. This was a way cool place and it was very peaceful.  We met four members here.  Tow of them were from Tokyo and two were from Draper, Utah.  Small world!

I love this beautiful place!

Fun shopping street in Tokyo. 

Such a cute Elder.

This is what I do on planning time. :/

Investigator Robert. He is going to tour Japan on his bike so he will be gone for awhile. 

Another look of Robert.  We are going to stay friends on Facebook

Future missionary.  He has his call to Washington and will report on the 20th of June.  Love working with this member.

Weekly Email, 3-15-2016

Hello my dearest friends and family. What a week this has been! This
week has been one of my favorite weeks of my mission!  I was able to
go on three exchanges with three amazing missionaries who are dear to
my heart.  On these exchanges we saw many miracles, learned from each
other, and built amazing friendships.
Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Hansen.  He has been with me
since I was in Kasukabe.  He is a great friend to me and I am sad to
say this is our last exchange we will be going on.  But it was
amazing.  It is amazing how preparing for exchanges help with the
exchange.  Before the exchange even happened we prayed and told each
other that it was going to be an epic exchange.  We said that we would
talk with everyone and work our hardest.  When it came time to do the
exchange, we did just that.  We talked with everyone and got some
pretty good people.  The only bad thing about it was no one really had
interest.  We were able to teach some people small portions of what we
believe in but we weren't able to get contact information or set up
another time to meet with anyone.  That was a bummer.  But we did talk
with everyone we could and we also did everything as effective as we
could.  The thing I learned most from Elder Hansen was how to love
people and how to be real with people.  I feel like missionaries tend
to get in a rhythm of things and it looses the specialness and
uniqueness of the message.  It seems like the next person you talk
with is just the next person waiting in line.  "We are now seeing
number 276, hello sir how are you, what can I do for you today?"  I
don't think missionary work should ever be like that.  Every person
should be special to you in some sort of way.  Elder Hansen did an
amazing job by showing love to every person we talked to and treating
them like they were the first person he talked to that day.  I love
that about him.  Also, going out and doing missionary work with
someone who is happy and loves doing the work is the funnest thing on
this planet!  I loved being with Elder Hansen and I am going to miss
him so much.  He is one of my best friends in this mission.
Thursday was the day I have been waiting for my whole mission.  I am
not even joking.  When I was in the MTC I walked into my classroom and
sat down.  I felt alone and I had no idea what was going on.  Then a
couple minutes later, Elder Reed walked into the classroom and sat
down next to me.  I thought for a second he was my companion and I got
way excited because he seemed like a really cool guy.  But he wasn't.
Ever since that day, I have wanted to teach, find, study, and be with
Elder Reed.  Granted you cant really do missionary work in the MTC
because the field is so much different.  So ever since I saw him, I
wanted to work with him.  Thursday I got my chance.  Elder Reed and I
were doing a Blitz in Abiko.  I can honestly say, I have never had so
much success and so much fun in all my mission.  Elder Reed and I did
amazing in the 3 hours we had.  When we left the church building we
told each other we would talk with everyone and have fun with each
other.  So we did just that.  We got to the train station and talked
to people on the way to our destination.  We talked to people out side
the train station and all around it.  We would jump from one person to
the next.  Not wasting a single moment in our finding time.  It was so
much fun and we saw so much success.  At first we found one kid who
seemed pretty interested.  We got his Facebook and then told him we
would contact him later.  From there on it got kind of dull.  We would
talk to people, teach them, and bear our testimonies to them, but they
would end up not having a lot of interest.  It didn't get us down one
bit though.  We would just go to the next person.  Finally we were
getting down to the wire.  We had about 45 minutes left and we still
hadn't found a new investigator.  We kept going and talked to
everyone.  Finally there was this guy who was in a hurry but turned
over his shoulder and said are you guys LDS?  Elder Reed and I ran to
him and said, yes we are!  Would you like to learn more?  He said he
was busy but that didn't stop us.  We asked him if we could walk with
him and he said sure.  So we walked with this guy and after about a
five minute introduction he said he wanted to learn more and he wanted
to learn now.  So Elder Reed and I walked with this guy for awhile and
taught him the Restoration.  I don't know if you have ever walked and
taught at the same time, but it is hard and so much fun at the same
time.  Elder Reed and I are the same transfers but we were able to
teach the whole restoration to the guy.  We were working perfectly
with each other.  He would talk and then I would talk and we both
would bear testimony.  It was like we have been doing it together for
ever.  We then finished the lesson and the guy said he might come to
eikaiwa this week to learn more.  That was a huge miracle to me!  At
the end of the day, as Elder Reed and I were walking back to the
church, I thought about how much the Lord has blessed me.  I got to be
with, find, and teach with Elder Reed.  I loved this exchange so much.
I felt like I was doing missionary work with my best friend, and thats
how it should be.  I am so thankful for Elder Reed and I am grateful
for all the things he taught me that day.  He is honestly one of my
best friends and I love him so much.  I hope sometime in the future we
can work together again! :)
Saturday was my next exchange with Elder Judd.  Like I said, I had a
lot of exchanges this week, it was so much fun!  Elder Judd's exchange
was another amazing exchange.  I learned so much from him.  Mostly
from study time and finding time.  During study time I was able to
talk with him and share some thoughts about the scriptures and I got
to hear his thoughts about the scriptures.  I haven't felt the spirit
so much in a study in all my mission.  It was way powerful and it was
a great way to start off the day.  After that we went to the church
and played some Futsal.  We were hoping that one of the recent
converts were going to come and then we would teach him afterwards,
but he didn't come.  So it was a good time to get to know the members.
After that our finding began.  We did some finding for about two and a
half hours.  Again, we talked to everyone.  This was probably where I
learned a lot from him.  Some people talk to "everyone" which means
like saying hi but not trying to stop them.  Elder Judd and I talked
with everyone.  Literally tried to stop them and talk with them and
then state our purpose.  I have never got so many meaningful contacts
in my whole mission.  This week was just a goal breaker week.  But we
talked with everyone and even people who were working.  The way he put
it was, "Everyone needs salvation.  What are you going to let get in
the way of that.  Hopefully nothing"  He is an amazing teacher and an
amazing missionary.  I learned how to find from him and he said he
learned a lot from me as well.  It is cool how we were able to help
each other out.  Well after some good finding time, we went to visit a
member.  When we got there though, they weren't home.  So we left a
message and then went to another members home.  This member invited us
over for dinner.  We went there and it was my first time that I had
been to their house.  It was fun getting to know them and building a
relationship with them.  They told me if I ever need help that they
are willing to help me with anything.  So that was good.  We then went
to Basketball and ended our day.  I wish I could have done a lesson
with Elder Judd but we did a couple of finding lessons on the street.
Small and simple lessons with testimony in them.  It was a really good
exchange.
Sorry this letter was so long but I just wanted to tell you about the
amazing people in my mission. That is my favorite thing about the
mission. Getting to know knew people who are all amazing and show so
much love towards me. It was an amazing week and I loved working with
these three elders. I felt the Spirit so much with them and I know we
touched a lot of people's hearts this week. Going out and finding with
your best friend is the best way to find people. It makes you happy
and that makes it so people want to talk to you. This church really
makes me so happy and I love the happiness I feel from it. It is
amazing how much the Savior has helped my life in the past couple of
months. I don't think I have ever grown so much in all my life. I am
now a stronger physical and spiritual man. I love the Savior with all
my heart and I Know he loves me too. I know that Jesus Christ lives
and that he blesses me everyday. He also blesses my friends and
family. I am so grateful for him and all the love he shows me. This
week was amazing and I am looking forward to going to the temple
today. I love you all so much and love hearing from you. Don't forget
to check out my blog for updated pictures of the temple and all the
fun stuff that I do! :)
I love you all and can't wait to hear from you!  Take care and have an
amazing week. Love you! :)

Love,
Elder Unsworth

 Weekly Email 3-21-2016
 Hello wonderful friends and family!  Can I just say I appreciate all
your love, support and prayers so much.  Specifically this weeks
prayers.  I have an amazing story to tell you.  This week Elder Chou
and I went to go visit a member and it turned out they werent home.
Well something deep down told me we went there for a reason, so I told
Elder Chou that maybe we can come back another day.  Well as we were
walking out of the apartment building we heard someone yell, "Hey
Mormons" in English.  I was confused and looked around and saw this
Black guy standing on a balcony.  His name is Rolund and he is from
Africa.  He met the missionaries about three years ago and moved
before he could get baptized. He loved the church and he says he wants
to be baptized.  He was a huge miracle to me.  Sometime you have to go
out and do some finding to find new investigators, and sometime they
will call out to you.  I know that Heavenly Father sent Elder Chou and
I to that members house so that we could find Rolund.  He is such a
great guy.  He came to church this week to have a church tour.  As I
was walking around with him and showing him the place he had a smile
on his face the whole time.  We then got to the Chapel and he said it
was way pretty.  We could feel the spirit at this moment and it was
really peaceful.  We then went to the baptismal room and I shared with
him a personal experience about my baptism and how I felt afterwards.
 The spirit then took over and the room was filled with peace, joy and
so many feelings that are hard to describe but noticeable when you
feel it.  His eyes opened and I know he felt the spirit.  He told me
he wants to be baptized and that he wants to feel the same peace and
happiness that I feel.  He is an awesome miracle to me!  I cant wait
to meet with him again and teach him.
Another great thing that happened last week was I was able to go to
the Temple.  I love going to the Temple so much.  It brings so much
peace and joy to me.  This week was amazing in the Temple.  I love
being there with all my friends and I love the feelings I get from it.
When I am in the temple, the whole world is quite and it seems like
time stands still.  There are no distractions and the is a peaceful
feeling.  I love the temple so much and I hope all of you have a
chance to at least go and see the temple.    They are beautiful and
they bring so much happiness and joy into my life.  If you haven't
been to the temple in awhile, please go and feel of the love that your
Heavenly Father has for you.
I am doing great on my mission right now.  I have great investigators
and I have great friends in the mission.  One of my best friends is
going home next week from his mission.  I am sad to say goodbye to him
but I know there will be many adventures for us when I get home.  He
has impacted my mission so much and I learned so much from him.  He is
an amazing friend to me and I wish him the best.  The one thing this
friend taught to me is how to be a missionary.  He taught me how to
follow the rules, how to talk to people, how to have fun, and how to
love your companion.  He is an amazing missionary and probably one of
my favorites.
I am loving my mission so much. I love helping people and I love
talking with people all day long.  My favorite part is sharing my
testimony with others.  I feel the Spirit so much.  I know that the
feelings I get are from the Holy Ghost and that it is also the love
that my Father in Heaven has for me.  I am so blessed to be able to
share this love with the people of Japan.  It is probably the first
time in their life that they have felt this love before.  I love
seeing how it changes their lives for the better.
I love you all so much and I love hearing from you.  If you haven't
written me in awhile, do it!  I love hearing from you! :)  I want you
all to know that I love and pray for you always.  You are great
friends to me and I cant wait for our many adventures in the future.
Have an amazing week and don't forget to read the scriptures and pray.
Heavenly Father wants to hear from you! We talk to Heavenly Father
through prayer and he talks to us through the scriptures.
I love you all, have an amazing week! :)

Elder Unsworth

Zone Conference

 Matsudo

March 6, 2016

Matsudo Zone.
 The guy standing next to me is one of our investigators, Umehara.
 President Nagano invited him to the conference.

"America" a very cool restaurant.
 The owner was great and we even were able to teach him a little bit about the gospel. 

Look the Beatles!!

Marilyn Monroe!
Me being me...
I put my back to it so I couldn't look at it while I was eating!
Don't worry, I am being good!!! haha

Dessert was the best!!!

Sunday dinner with the Tomono family.
They are so nice.

We housed this apartment.
It could have collapsed any second, it was scary!

Oh I am so spoiled!!
 Thanks to a friend of my mom's, her husband hand carried this great package to me.
 I love everything that was sent!  Yea for TOOTH PASTE!!!

Hello everyone!  This week has been crazy!  From having an

investigator come to Zone Conference, to ripping my pants, to having

two investigators come to church, it has been amazing!!!  I have

really felt the lords hand in my life this past week and I know that

he is blessing me.  I am so grateful for all the wonderful blessings I

have received and I cant wait to see more come this next week.

As I said above, I had zone conference this week and it went really

good.  Umehara came and listened to it.  He said he liked learning

about how missionaries do their studying and where we get all our

information.  We had lunch, took a picture which is on facebook and

then helped clean up.  As I was cleaning up, I ripped my pants.  I am

not talking a little rip.  I am talking from the zipper all the way to

the back belt loop.  It was bad....  Luckily there is a member who can

fix it, but no one can fix the embarrassment I felt!  haha jk, I

laughed it off and joked about it with the other Elders, but I hid

from the sisters.  Later that night we had a lesson with a new

investigator and things went really well with him.

Sunday was also a really good day.  Like I said, this week was really

good!   But on Sunday we had Umehara and Tatsuya come to church.  It

was so cool.  Everything this week as far as stats, went up.  So that

is amaizng.  The Lord is really blessing me and my companion. After

church I was able to do a split with a member.  So Elder Chou went

with Tatsuya and I went with Umehara.  I taught Umehara about the Plan

of Salvation again, just to answer some of his questions.  Because man

does he have a lot of interesting questions.  But then I tried to

address why we needed Jesus Christ and how we can pray for help and

things like that.  I think the lesson went really well.  It answered a

lot of his questions and at the same time I found out some of his

concerned.  So that was good.  The next step with him is teaching him

the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then giving him a Baptismal date.  I

hope to do that some time this week.  Elder Chous lesson went really

well!  He taught Tatsuya about the Restoration and made a baptismal

date with him!  So we now have a baptismal date on the calendar!!!

Whoo hoo!!!  It isn't till May 1st though so we are going to try and

work with him as much as we can and I also think if he meets with us

at least 3 times a week, we will be able to move his date up.  I

really hope that I can stay in Matsudo until his baptism.  That would

make me so happy! :)

This week was really good for us.  We saw many miracles and the best

part of it was our investigators.  We now have three investigators

that we meet with weekly.  Two weeks ago, we had no one.  Now we have

three people.  I know that the Lord is blessing me and that these

three people are ready for the Gospel.  They are three great people

and I love talking with them.  Another really good thing about them is

they love English so I can talk to them in English!  But I try and

practice my Japanese with them, because my Japanese needs to become

better.  I love these three guys so much, they are a miracle to me.

Things in Japan are starting to warm up and the cherry blossoms should

be coming out any time now!  I am so excited to see them and I am

excited to not have to wear a jacket every day from now on!  I am

loving the work and I love Matsudo.  Thank you for all your love and

prayers.  I had an amazing week this week and I know it was because of

the prayers I have received and also the blessings from the Lord.  I

love serving Him.  I love my mission so much and I love you all! Thank

you for all your love and support. I look forward to hearing from you

next week!  Love you! :)

Elder Unsworth