Good-bye Elder Calhoun

 and Elder Ricks!

October 24, 2016

My last picture with this great missionary!

This is called Narita San.
 It is a huge shrine by my house!

These are like guardians for the shrine.

Elder Ricks and I!

Just some fun pictures infront of this shrine thing.
 I think this has something to do with the priests.

So this was placed at a shrine to have the priests pray for the
requests of other people.  I found this one to be pretty funny.

This is the big main shrine.  When we were leaving they were
performing a huge ceremony.  It was cool to watch but I think we
weren't aloud to record it so I didnt.  But man it reminded me of
something from moses time.  There were chants and a huge fire and they
were putting peoples stuff near the fire so that they would be come
sacred or something like that.  It was crazy There was also the main
priest there taking care of some prayers or something like that.

There was a nice park nearby so we went and checked it out!
This is Elder Nitta and Myself.

Elder Ricks and I at the park.

Look close you will see me!

Hello beloved friends and family, boy do I have some news for you!  So this came as a shocking news this morning but I am being transferred to a new area!  I am leaving the grand Narita and heading for Koshigaya.  This area is right next to my first area which was Kasukabe. I am way excited to be heading there!  I cant wait to get to my new area.  This will mark number 6!  I am just moving all around the mission.  My new companions name is Elder Jensen.  He is from Sandy Utah and I am so excited to be with him.  Another fun fact is he was in the MTC with me and we were in the same class.  I am so excited to be working with one of my best buds that I already know! :). I am sad to be leaving Elder Ricks but he will have fun in Narita with his new companions.  He is getting Elder Lloyd. He will have fun with him.  But I hope they take care of all our new investigators and the ward.  We did a lot of finding this week and have found some pretty awesome new people.  Elder Lloyd is lucky to be coming into a new area, especially Narita!  I know he will like it here and they will have fun with all the new people we found this week!

So going into how the week went!  I would like to share something that I wrote to my mission President with all of you.  

Tuesday was the big day.  The Bednar Conference.  We woke up and left to hit the train on time.  We wanted to get to the conference early so then we could get some good seats.  Good thing we did because there were so many people who came right after us or right before the conference started.  As I was sitting there I kept praying in my heart that I would feel the Spirit and that I would find some new areas to improve on.  I really wanted to learn some new things, I didn't want to be entertained but I wanted to learn how I could improve my finding and teaching and become a better missionary.  Well as soon as Elder Bednar entered the room, there was no doubt that the Spirit was there.  I couldn't tell at first if it was because I was nervous or if it was because I just felt so different than usual.  But I am sure that it was the Spirit that was working inside me.  Well the conference went on and man it was an exact answer to my prayers.  I went away knowing so much more and I really felt like I was taught from on high.  The biggest thing that I learned about and that I also commented on in the conference was being an agent.  I found it very interesting that that word kept sticking out to me in the conference.  I thought faith, hope or service would stick out or something around those lines, but the word was agent.  Going out and acting for yourself.  Not being an object.  It was very interesting to me to think of missionary work from a new perspective.  Am I being an object or an agent?  I thought about this last transfer and how I did and to be honest, I feel like sometimes I was an object and not an agent.  This scared me and it shook me back into being an Agent.  I don't want my mission to turn into an object where I was just doing what everyone else was doing or I wasn't working my hardest or things like that.  I want to have confidence that everyday when I went out I was being an Agent and I was doing the things the Lord would want me to do.  There were so many things that I learned from the conference but the only thing I wish I could have had more of would be time.  I didn't want it to end.  I wanted to keep learning from him and I wanted to ask him a question and be taught.  Like he said, "This is a once in a life time opportunity to be in this meeting with an Apostle, the Area Presidency, your mission presidents, and so many missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ."  I wish we could have more conferences like that but to be honest, it was such a spiritual and sacred thing that it will remain special to me for the rest of my life.  It honestly has changed my way of thinking and I think it has changed my mission.  It was an answer to my prayers and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to learn from Elder Bednar.  There are so many other things I would like to expound on and talk about but there isn't time and I don't want this letter to be too long.  So I will leave it at that.  But I really did enjoy the Bednar conference and I hope you did too! :)  On our way back home we were doing some finding and we found one new investigator.  He is kind of shy but he said he wanted to meet up again and learn more.  It was so cool because we were about to head home and give up on the day.  But the last man I saw was heading the opposite direction we were and I had that feeling, "Go talk to him".  So I did and it turned out he wanted to learn!  It is amazing how much missionary work changes when you become an Agent! :)

There were so many wonderful things that happened this week but I think the number one thing of this week, transfer, and mission is being able to talk with Elder Bednar and learn from him.  He is such an amazing man and a true servant of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He is an inspiration to me and I hope that I may be privileged to meet him again sometime in my life.  He is such a good leader and he gives amazing talks.  

Another great thing that happened this week was doing the follow up training at the mission home.  I was able to see all my friends and Elder Ricks got to see his friends and we both just had a really fun time.  My old companion Elder Calhoun is heading home this week so it was great to see him and talk with him one last time.  Hopefully after the mission I will be able to see him again.  I just love being able to be together as a mission and learn from one another.  I learned so much at the Bednar Conference and I learned a lot from the follow up training conference as well.  This week was just a really powerful week.  I love being a missionary right now and I love all the wonderful conferences that I had this week.  It really helped out with my missionary work and it invited the spirit into my life.  This week I have felt the Spirit so much, just walking around or enjoying my time, I feel the spirit so much more.  It is amazing.  I also feel it a lot more when I talk to members about their conversions and how they met the missionaries.  I just love being a missionary at this time and age. 

Well I am sorry but time is getting short so I must end this email.  But know that I love you all so much and that I am happy to have you all as friends and family.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend this happy Halloween season and I hope you get lots of candy!  People in Japan don't really do Halloween trick or treating.  Kind of sad, I wanted some free candy!  Haha I guess I will have to get some from the members.  Well anyways, I love you all so much and I hope to hear from you this coming coming!  Take care and don't forget to do the little things! :) 

I love you!!! 

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