Elder Badnar!!!

October 17, 2016

Elder Ricks showing off his unicycle skills.

What two elders won't do while waiting for Elder Ricks bike to get fixed.

I told one of my Eikaiwa students that my birthday was coming up.

 She told me she couldn't come to Eikaiwa that day so she brought me a

present early.

Birthday cake made with love by one of the Eikaiwa students.
I love the Japanese people.

Fireworks at night.

What I draw when I have a few minutes to waste.
 If you can't tell what it is, it is Disneyland!

Elder Ricks sporting his new haircut.

Elder Ricks and Jin.

Jin gave us free haircuts if we would let him take pictures of us to use in his advertisements.  Anything for a free haircut.

Look pretty handsome!

This week has been such a wonderful week.  It has been full of the Spirit and missionary work.  I felt the spirit so much this week.  I also had so much fun with Elder Ricks and we are really getting some good things done!

To start off this week we had a pretty sweet Eikaiwa.  This is the free English class we teach.  But we had three new people come.  That was a pretty cool thing, but what made it even better is two days later they came to our Family Home Evening!  They loved it and I think they have a lot of potential to becoming new investigators.  They love coming to our church and they love our activities.  We are going to invite them to come to the Halloween party in two weeks.  That should be really fun.  I am so excited for them and I really hope that they keep coming to our activities.  They are such a wonderful family!

The next really cool thing that happened was on Thursday.  So every day we plan out our day and what things we want to do and when we want to do them.  We try to follow this plan as closely as we can.  Well on Thursday we had about 30 minutes before we had to do our weekly planning.  Usually I would just go straight into it but I had a feeling that I should go out and do some finding.  But I was so comfy and I didn't want to get up.  But I just had the feeling that I needed to go out and do some finding around the apartment.  So we got up and went out to do some finding for 30 minutes.  Well in that time we found two new investigators.  One of them is from China and he is so cool.  He couldn't meet up with us this week but he said he will come to church next week.  He had to go to Tokyo for something.  So yeah, we are way excited for that.  I now know that if you get up and go to work, you will find people who are ready.  You just need to go out and work as hard as you can and the Lord will bless you.  I love being a missionary!

Which brings me to my next part.  This week Elder Bednar came to Japan and he gave two devotionals.  The first one was for the youth of the church.  It was like a face to face event.  But I didn't stay at that one too long.  I just went and checked it out for a bit.  We had a couple things we had to do that night.  But when he did his second devotional.  It was given for all the members of the church and investigators.  It was such a good devotional. He talked mostly about Joy.  It was such a good devotional because it expounded General Conference and the area plan in Japan.  He also related how Joy is found through the Holy Ghost.  We can feel so much Joy when we invite the Holy Ghost into our lives.  Elder Bednar talked about how in the church we sometimes make these "Lists" of things we need to do.  We need to go to church, pray, read our scriptures, fulfill our calling, help people, and so forth.  We make these way long lists and we don't fulfill them how we should.  A lot of people see them as a check off lists, but what they really are is to do one simple thing.  Everything the Apostles, the Prophet, and the Lord asks us to do is so that we can invite the Holy Ghost into our lives.  Here is the list I took during the conference

• Members create a very long list of things they need to do 

• Pray
• Read scriptures 
• Fulfill my calling
• Go to church

• Everything on the list has the same purpose 
• Why do we pray, to invite the spirit into our life
• Why do we read the scriptures, to learn how to hear the word of the lord in our heart. Not our ears
• Why do we serve, to help other people feel the spirit 
• Why do we go to church, to learn more of the doctrines and invite the gift of the Holy Ghost into our lives. 
• What is hard about doing these "lists" what is burdensome about it? 
• These things are joyful 
• If we look at them as lists, we drive ourselves crazy 
• We do these "lists" so that we can have the companionship of the Holy Ghost 

How true are these words.  I love Elder Bednar so much and I cant wait to see him tomorrow.  He is going to have a special conference just for the missionaries.  It is going to be so much fun!

I love you all so much and I am always grateful to get your letters and see how you are doing.  I love being in Japan but I love seeing the people's life that have changed because they have felt the Holy Ghost in their life.  I love this Gospel, it is my everything and I would be nothing with out it.  I love you all, and I hope to hear from you all again soon.  Take care and keep finding the Joy in your life and in the Gospel.  It is everywhere, you just need eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to feel.  If you have anymore questions about Elder Bednars Conference, just send me an email and I would love to tell you more about it! :)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Love you!!!

Conference and Good-byes

October 10, 2016

My best friend Ben.  Singing in the Priesthood session.

Not only did I see Ben but many of my old school buddies.
 Man I would have loved to sing in the choir.

No I am not home!  I am at Costco Japan!!!

On exchanges with Elder Wilde.

Elder Faganello, Elder Wilde, Elder Ricks and Elder Unsworth
eating pizza for lunch during our exchange.

Saying goodbye to Elder Queiroz at the Station.
Elder Ricks, Elder Nita, Elder Queiroz and I.

Old Man Joe

Dinner at Bishop Sugimotos house. He invited his neighbor over so that
we could talk with her. She is the nice older lady by the sister
missionaries and me.

Hey there everyone!  How is it going and wasn't that an amazing conference?  I know most of you already saw General Conference but over here in Japan we get it a week after everyone. But that's okay because it was amazing!  I loved how President Uchdorf talked about the Plan of Salvation. I loved President Nelsons talk about finding Joy in our life. I loved our beloved Prophets words about the Word of Wisdom and the Plan of Salvation. How blessed are we to have loving Prophets and Apostles on this earth who lead and guide our church. I love them with all my heart and I support them 100% in all their doings. I know they represent the Savior and I know they are doing his will. I can only but scratch the surface because the conference was so good!  But I loved each and every talk and I felt as if each talk had some way to relate to me.  I am so grateful for this church and its teachings and even more thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

One thing that I really learned from Conference was about the Holy Ghost.  People often feel the Holy Ghost, they have in their lives very special times where they feel him and know that God exists.  However, over time they forget or even question that experience.  One thing I learned was to write down my spiritual experiences and when the hard time comes, because they will, remember the times when the Holy Ghost touched your life.  Remember how you felt and how special that day was to you.  Often in my missionary life I come along days where they are just bottom line hard.  I don't like what I am doing and I just want to give up.  What keeps me going is when I think back on the experiences and the days when I felt as if they Savior was walking beside me.  I think about they days when I am most happy and when I felt the Spirit and I can not deny it.  Those are the days that keep me going, those are the days that have converted me.  They are special days and they don't happen all the time, but when they do, they are unforgettable.  I am so happy that the Apostles council members to think about the times they felt the Holy Ghost before they do anything that might jeopardize themselves and their salvation.  The Holy Ghost is here to help us and to guide us along the straight and narrow path, we could not do this life with out him.  

Another part I really liked about General Conference is how much the Apostles talked about Gods love for us.  They all reaffirmed the Atonement and the need of repentance.  They also talked about how Jesus Christ is the light of our life. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught: “There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the Light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, the ‘light that is endless, that can never be darkened’ [Mosiah 16:9]. It is the very Son of God Himself.”  I also love this quote from Elder Holland which talks about the love that Christ has for us.  In a past general conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland declared: “However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made … , or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”  I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we all can come home again.  We all can have the light shine on our dark and gloomy life's again and we can feel the love that Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ, has for us.  I know that the Atonement is real and I know that it works.  Jesus Christ came to this Earth to redeem us and to save us, but he also came to comfort us in times of trial.  He is our Savior, Lord, Redeemer, our Best Friend, our light, and our love.  He is the literal Son of God and His light ever shines in His church.  I love the Savior, Jesus Christ, and I know that He lives!  

I am so thankful for General Conference.  If any of you have yet to see it or missed a talk or two, I urge you to go back and watch them.  They will help you find joy in your life and they will help you more than anything on the internet could.  These men are called of God and they are here to help you return to live with him again.  I love watching conference as a missionary because it fills me so full of the Spirit.  When I am full of the Spirit, I just want to go out and find all day long.  I want to share the love that Christ has for everyone.  I want everyone to know that Jesus is the Christ and that He has restored His true and everlasting church on the Earth again.  I know that this church is true without a doubt in my mind.  It has changed my life for ever and continues to change it.  I am so lucky to live in such a wonderful dispensation.  I love you all so much and I hope you all have a time to go back and watch some of your favorite Conference talks and reflect about them during the week.  I love you all and I will talk to you next week!  Take care!

Love You!!!! :)

October already!  Time is flying!!!

October 3, 2016

Tokyo's temple.  I love seeing the temple!

Elder Calhoun.   Isn't he gorgeous? 

This is Elder Judd.  We went on exchanges and he is an assistant right
now.  I use to live with him in Matsudo, I love him so much!  He is a
great missionary! :) You are looking at him going up one of the
biggest/steepest hills we have ever seen!

This is after our lesson with Daisuke.  We set a baptismal date with
him!!!
 Daisuke, Elder Judd, and Elder Unsworth!

Look who I found just hanging out!

Bowling for P-Day.  So much fun!

We decided to give the photo booth another try!
 Crazy Elders.


Hello family and friends!
  Boy was this last week an amazing week.  I
know I always say that but as a missionary every week is an amazing
week and we see miracles all the time.  I just feel like this last
week was full of amazing terrific miracles!  I can't wait to tell you
all about some of the big ones!
Well Elder Ricks and I found a new investigator on Monday and we met
with him on Thursday to teach him the restoration and give him a
church tour.  He had so many questions during the lesson that we were
only able to teach the first half of the restoration.  We got to the
life of Jesus Christ and the questions just exploded.  He wanted to
know more about the priesthood, the apostles and what baptism was.  He
was really interested in baptism and he wants to feel clean and
literally be clean from his transgressions.  He told us God had saved
his life four times in his life, so he feels like he needs to learn
more about God.  So we set a baptismal date for the 29th of October.
I am so excited for him and I know he will be able to make it.
Hopefully we can meet often and teach him often from the Book of
Mormon.  It was the end of a beautiful exchange!  I got back to the
apartment to find out that Elder Ricks and Elder Higashi had found 4
new investigators that day, it was an amazing day for us! :)
This next miracle is very special to my heart and it is probably one
of the most spiritual times I have had on my mission while talking to
someone.  I will share what I wrote to President Nagano because it is
so long I don't want to retype it!  So I hope you enjoy! :)
Saturday was the miracle day of the week.  Man it was such a crazy
day.  So we had Eikaiwa that morning and we had fun with that and our
bible class went well as well.   It was a good way to start the day.
But then we had District meeting and I really liked talking about
faith, hope and charity. After that we did our study and stayed around
the church.  It then came time to do 12 week and have dinner and the
other Elders headed back to the apartment, well for some reason, I
felt like I needed to stay at the church and do 12 weeks.  I thought
that it was because there was wifi at the church so it made watching
the videos easy.  But that is not the reason.  Half way through 12
weeks I heard a car door shut.  I thought it was a member.  Well about
2 minutes later I heard the church door open and I looked to see who
was walking around in the church and to my surprise I saw three faces
that I did not know.  I was a bit shocked and thought that maybe they
were the other missionaries investigators.  So I talked to them and
after awhile I noticed they were not investigators and they were here
to pray.  They told me that their grandson past away and they were
here seeking guidance and help from God.  They requested to pray in
the chapel so I took them in there and left them alone for awhile to
have some peace.  While I was talking with them before they prayed,
Elder Quieroz called and asked for the keys so that he could get in
the apartment.  I gave the phone to Elder Ricks and he explained the
situation and told him to get to the church real fast because they are
Brazilian.  I think they were looking for a Catholic Church to pray at
because they kept asking me where our statues were.  But they prayed
in peace in the chapel and when they were getting ready to leave I
bore my testimony to them and promised them that God would help them
and that they can feel the love of the savior.  They smiled and really
thanked me for allowing them to come in the church at such a late
hour.  I was so surprised and the spirit was so strong.  They then
asked for my name and number and we exchanged contact information.
Just as they were getting ready to leave the church Elder Quieroz
showed up and took it from there.  He talked to them in Portuguese and
I think it really helped them.  It was such a crazy miracle,
everything just played out perfectly and they told us they wanted to
come back on Sunday to have the service with us.  Right before they
left the women who was having the hardest time looked back at us and
said, "This is the first time I have smiled in three days, thank you
so much".  It warmed my heart so much and I can't believe how
spiritual this was. We were so shocked and spiritually uplifted we
went back and had dinner and just talked about how amazing that
miracle was and how everything worked out perfectly.  Miracles
defiantly are the work of the Lord, there is no way all of that was
just coincidence.  Well after dinner Elder Ricks and I went out and
taught an investigator and then went and did some more finding.  We
wanted to talk to 10 people before we got back to the apartment that
night.  We talked to 9 and then it was time to go back.  So we headed
back and when we got to the stop light I saw a boy walking by himself
down the street.  I had a huge urge to talk to him and so I did.  This
is how it went, "hello we are missionaries.........  Do you believe in
God?" "Yes I do". "Really why?" " Well I go to church". "What church
do you go to?" "The one by Toys R Us". "............Our church is by
the Toys R Us......  Are you Mormon?"  "Yup". "Well it is nice to meet
you!"  It was so crazy.  The Spirit lead us to a less active member!
We exchanged contact information and set up a time to meet up again
and talk.  He is a college student and is studying English so he
defiantly wants to hang out some time and practice his English with
us.  It was a way cool miracle day!  So much happened!
I can not believe how full of the spirit I was on Saturday.  Man it
was such a spiritual but also an eye opening experience to see how
much our Father in Heaven really loves us and how he directs us to
certain places.  If it is to a church on a hill so that you can pray
or if it is to run into the missionaries on a dark street.  He is gong
to send blessings to you when you are ready to receive them.  I know
we have a loving father in heaven who loves us and knows us
individually.  He knows what we can handle and he knows when to send
us blessings. He doesn't hold back on us, he just waits until we are
ready.  I am so happy and I feel like I have been touched by the
Spirit so much this week.
I am sad to say I have not seen General Conference yet because Japan
is a week behind, so I am really looking forward to seeing it this
week!  I can not wait for it!  I heard that it is really good! :) I
hope you all enjoyed it and if you missed it, you could always watch
it with me this weekend! :)
Man I love working with Elder Ricks so much.  We are seeing so many
miracles in our area and we are working our tails off.  He is a great
trainee and I love him so much.  I know that we are going to continue
to see lots of miracles because of our love for the people and the
hard work we are putting into our area! :)
There were so many other miracles that happened this week, but I will
leave you all with just these couple of miracles . I want you all to
know that I know that this church is true and that God the Father
lives and so does His son, Jesus Christ.  I have seen their hand in my
work this past week and I have seen how much they love the people of
Narita.  I hope to continue to see miracles this next week and I hope
that everything goes smooth and well this week.  I love you all so
much and I love hearing from you.  I hope you have an amazing week and
always look for the small blessings that God always blesses you with.
I promise that if you look with a sincere heart you will be able to
find them.  I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you!
Have an amazing week and I will talk to you all next week! :)
Love You!!!

Elder Unsworth

A lot of rain won't stop the fun!

September 27, 2016

A little rain doesn't stop us from having a ward BBQ!

We just put up some tents and cook away!

Two sad missionaries. :(

 Dinner with Saitos and some members.

Elder Ricks and Elder Unsworth in Tokyo

Two cool missionaries!

We sure look great leaning against this wall!

One happy elder!

Great tag pictures to make my mom happy!

Have you ever seen a more handsome missionary?

Hey there family and friends. This week has been a crazy fun one and I
am love it with my new companion Elder Ricks. He is a great guy and I
love being with him. I feel like every day we learn more and more
about each other and just have a blast everyday!
The other night I was feeling a bit down because I wasn't getting the
success that I knew the area deserved.  I just new that there was so
much potential with our are and I didn't know why we weren't seeing
any success.  So I said a prayer that I really needed help with my
mission and talking with people.  I really wanted to find some people
who I could help and talk with because so many people don't even stop
to talk with us.  Well yesterday we went out and did our finding.  I
had the impression to try finding in a new area which I have never
been to before.  We biked down there and on the way there was no one
there.  But when we got to the small city we started talking to as
many people as we could.  After talking to about 10 people a guy came
up to us who was from India and asked if we needed any help.  I then
turned to him and explained who we are and what we do and he was kind
of shocked.  He couldn't believe that we were from America and that we
were here talking about God.  We talked for a good 15 minutes and
simply explained what we believe in and talked about the Book of
Mormon.  I then asked him if he wanted to learn more and he said sure.
I was so happy! We found a new investigator when it seemed like the
whole pond was dried up!  We set a date to meet up again and then
left.  All of a sudden, there was a huge rain cloud above us and it
poured like no ones business.  We found shelter and waited the storm
out because we didn't have our rain gear.  After 10 minutes we
returned to the streets and did some more finding.  I started talking
to some guy and then out of no where a guy comes up and starts talking
to Elder Ricks.  He tells him he has a cool bike and Elder Ricks does
everything in his power to keep him there while I finish talking to my
guy.  I finally get done and I turn to Elder Ricks guy and start
talking to him.  It turns out that he really likes bikes and he sees
us sometimes on our bikes.  He also told us that he has been really
thinking a lot recently about religion and how it can help his life.
He wants to learn more about our church and see if it can help his
life.  He also has a lot of interest in English class, so we are going
to teach him English and the gospel!  It was such a cool miracle.  Two
new investigators in under an hour.  I know for a fact that this was
the hand of the lord.  He helped me so much and all it took was a
heart felt prayer and some work.  I think he was waiting until I was
ready to receive the blessings he had for me.
Saturday was the big day of miracles.  We started a Bible study class.
We went to Eikaiwa and got all our stuff ready for the class.  Elder
Ricks and I were so excited.  When I announced it during Eikaiwa not
too many people seemed excited or seemed to have interest but that
didn't put me down.  Really that whole day I had a prayer in my heart
that people would come.  We taught Eikaiwa and then asked if people
would stay for our other class.  We got everything up and ready and we
had a total of 5 students stay!  Two of them are members and the other
three are nonmembers!  It was such a cool miracle.  I was pleading
with the Lord that at least one person would stay!  I didn't expect
five to stay.  One of them was even a new Eikaiwa student that just
came that day!  I was so happy with the results.  We taught about the
Nativity and the true meaning of Christmas.  We focused in Luke
chapter 2 and used a projected to project our iPad screen on the wall.
We have an app that has English and Japanese bible's right next to
each other so it made it very easy to teach and understand.  We went
through the verses one by one and described it and then we would watch
the bible video that went with it so that they could picture it in
their minds better.  For example one student didn't understand what
the word 栄光, glory means.  But when we watched the video she was able
to put it together and then we would stop the video and describe what
was going on.  We went through the whole nativity and watched all the
videos in under 30 minutes.  I don't want the class to be too long, so
I cut the class off after 30 minutes.  All of the students said they
really liked it and that they wanted to come back again next week and
do it again.  I was also surprised on how well they could read the
English bible, it was awesome!  We want to do this class twice a week.
Wednesday before Eikaiwa and Saturdays after Eikaiwa.  I think it is
really going to be a game changer and we might be able to find some
new investigators through it.  If anything, I want to invite the
spirit into the hearts of my Eikaiwa students and help them feel the
love God has for them.  Overall, our bible class was very successful.
But it doesn't end there with the miracles.  After our study we went
out and did some finding.  There wasn't really anyone who had
interest, so we left and was heading towards Carlos's house for a
lesson.  We passed a kabob truck and I saw a picture of Jesus in it.
That's not normal, so I thought maybe I should talk to them.  I had a
really strong feeling to stop and talk but I knew that I needed to go
to Carlos's lesson because they are so rare.  So I brushed the
prompting off and told myself that I would go back after the lesson.
Well we got to Carlos's house and he wasn't there.  He told us he
wouldn't be there for another 30 minutes or so.  So I got back on my
bike and hauled it back over to the kabob truck.  I started talking
with the two guys who owned the company and really got to know them.
After talking for awhile it came up that we were church volunteers and
then they told me they were Catholic.  The one I got closes to was
John and he really opened up to me that night.  He asked me a lot of
questions about church because he use to be a Muslim and didn't
understand the church 100%.  For example he asked me why Jesus talked
to his "Father" on the cross.  How could he have done that if he was
the father?  I then explained what we believed in and how God is our
Hevenly Father and Jesus Christ is His son.  He thought that was very
interesting and agreed with me.  We then talked a lot more about Jesus
Christ and I noticed that I probably had to start leaving so that I
could get back to Carlos on time.  So I asked him if he wanted to
learn more and he said of course.  So we exchanged phone numbers and
set up a time to meet again this week.  He is such a nice guy and I am
way excited to meet with him again.  We got to Carlos's house at 8:55
and talked with him until 9:15.  It was a way good lesson and now we
know exactly what to do with him and how to help him.  It was just an
awesome day of miracles!
Well I am out of time for the week. I love you all so much and I hope
you have an amazing week! It sounds like there are storms all over the
world so everyone be careful and take care. You are in my prayers and
I love you  so much. Thank you for all you do for me. This week I
really learned about how the lord always blesses us if we are humble
and submissive. I hope you all can see miracles in your life as well
when you are humble and submissive to the Lord. I love you and I will
talk to you next week. Take care! :)