Merry Christmas

First off thanks for the package family! I needed all of the cold weather gear and I put it all on and I feel great!

Second, transfers happened and I am... Still in Shimonoseki! I love it here so much! It's just become home and I love it even though it's the ghetto but the ghetto life is for me! Also my trainer Flippo 長老 went home honourably, and I have a new companion who is last transfer! His name is Horstmeier 長老 and he is a displaced Idahoan from Alpine, UT and he's probably the funniest person I've ever met. Anyways the last week and a half was pretty taihen because my trainer had tons of packing to do so we were down like two straight days In the apartment so I read a lot of scriptures. Anyways so he left at 8:00 AM on Thursday a week ago and my new companion came at 3:40 in the afternoon. The other two in the apartment had a lesson at 3:00 so I was a wandering missionary for an hour so I went out with Makoto Kyodai and street end and picked him up and we couldn't figure out how to drive inside the train station so we were like twenty minutes late but that's okay. This last week we have been super busy with Santa stuff. We went to our branch presidents work and sang songs and then he and his friend said, "we're not going to play Christmas songs but we are going to play rock and roll." It's an old persons home and they were all asleep anyways so that was fun. We then went around to a bunch of recent converts and less actives and sang as a branch kind of thing which was super fun. We also had the Christmas party in which I had to be a Santa for an hour taking pictures which was fun. Just regular Christmas stuff. But the highlights:

•I can talk to anyone I want to here which was featured in my 40 minutes in a car with only Fujinaka Kyodai.

•On Sunday, because we weren't able to get in contact with one of our investigators Okumura, I prayed for him to contact us and 30 minutes later he called, and then came to church and stayed afterwards and hung out with all of our YSA and ate a bunch of Takoyaki. That was a miracle! Prayer works and your father in heaven will help you if you pray in faith! Plus he's progressing and happy because of the YSA and church, etc. so we are praying for him to be baptized and have spiritual experiences everyday.

•Christmas! Full day P-Day! Christ's birth! Our King! Our Saviour! I love Him!

Anyways I think that's it! I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

 Me and Colton 長老 at the Christmas party

Our Branch President rocking and a crazy lady dancing.

Me and Horstmeier 長老 and Ikawa Kyodai waiting for a train to go play volleyball with YSA  

and investigators. We were riding for about an hour and a half on bikes and we decided to just

get on the train where we met Ikawa Kyodai. It was raining and windy but riding on the 

highways makes it so much faster because there aren't lights but it's more dangerous.
 



A Book of Mormon Anime

 Christmas!

 

We Haven't Gotten Our Transfer Calls Yet

We actually hear Christmas music EVERYWHERE. Grocery stores, sushi places, malls, everywhere. They love Christmas here, if they have kids, and the music is always playing. I just wish it was the old stuff like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Anyways this last week we taught three lessons kanaaaa (kana is like "I think", I didn't even think about it when I typed it, it just happened). Jun, the doctor, wants to change his life and become happy. He understands the doctrine of God and he can't deny the fact that other people have had spiritual experiences. He believes them all. He wants to have those same experiences and so he's been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and praying everyday. He wants to know if God is there and how he can get happiness from him. We set a baptismal goal for him for 1/30. Okumura, my boy, we taught on Saturday. He believes that there's a God and he also now has a goal baptismal date for 1/30. He expressed concern about joining a Christian church but we asked if he knew that it was true if he would join and he said yes, if he knew. We taught him about Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon and how we NEED faith in order to receive promised blessings from God. We used the Shinko Bag analogy (faith bag) where we put candy in it, told him there's candy in it and they reach in and take the candy. We ask why they did and they said because there's candy. God is the same. He says "do this and I will bless you with this" and if we do that, we receive those blessings. It's really simple yet so overlooked. We have to have TRUST in Him in order to take the first steps in receiving those blessings. On Sunday we taught Kawachi with Fujinaka Kyodai who was the perfect joint (member present lesson, they call them joints here in Japan, I'm not sure why). We told Kawachi we would bring a young person but that fell through so we had the opportunity of bringing a middle aged man missing his thumb and index finger on his right hand (I love shaking hands with him) and instead of getting attitude from Kawachi we got respect. He had opened his heart a little but because he had a Japanese person teaching him. We taught about the restoration and the Book of Mormon at his genki saki (outside his door) and he said he really wants to know if it's true too and he's reading and praying everyday and still skeptical and doesn't believe but he wants to. He also has a goal baptismal date for 1/30. So in the last week we went from like 1 investigator to three baptismal dates. That's a miracle and it was only wrought because of faith and obedience. As we keep teaching them and they keep progressing, miracles will continue. "God has not ceased to be a God of miracles."

Oh we got to dress up as Santa's for Kunishi Shimai's special needs school and that was so much fun! They have such such sweet spirits and God loves them all perfectly, and you can feel it.

PS the Christmas Devotional was very good. Last year's music was better only because they sang "The First Noel" which is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever heard, but this year's "Unto Us a Child Is Born" was amazing. I loved it and that's exactly what the Christmas Video that the church put out this year says. Go watch it! I've seen it at least 100 times now and I feel the spirit stronger and stronger everything I watch it.

Oh and mom I memorized the Standard of Truth like you asked. "The standard of truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble and calumny may defame but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it was penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." Next step: Japanese.

Love,
Elder Tschirki

41 Different Species of Pufferfish

This week we had 5 return appointments, FIVE, two are new investigators, we have a lesson tonight with another who might become an investigator and one wasn't there at her house when we went and one is right before English class because he is an English student. Our district this last week of six missionaries got 15 return appointments. That's very high. We are definitely pushing the rock right now and the Lord is blessing us. This is definitely directly related to Egan Kaicho's revelation about challenging us to find our faith and build it and consecrate ourselves unto the Lord. PS he and his wife just decided to come to our branch this Sunday and they got like a presidential reception and someone tried to film it (Fukatani Kyodai). The first was a 20 year old kid named Okumura who is really quiet and he told us he is scared of talking to people so it was a really big leap of faith for him to meet. We taught him about God and are challenging him to pray. We meet on Saturdays with him. He said he will start coming to church too. He thinks God is there and wants to learn. Our second was another college kid named Kawachi (川内) and he is skeptical about everything. He is very stubborn and has his own strong opinions about everything and flat out said that even if he knew God was there and the church was true he probably wouldn't change and we told him with that attitude he won't know it's true and he was humbled and he's willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray. We have no doubt he'll end up getting a testimony and the knowledge of the restored gospel, but like he said, will he change? He's a deep thinker (like someone else out here, me) and questions everything (like me again) and doesn't listen to people except he sees the benefit (me) and we boldly testified and promised him that he would learn of the truthfulness of the gospel if he really wanted to. This promise doesn't go for just him, but for everyone! Pick up a Book of Mormon, read a little bit and if you want to believe, pray to God. Test him. He said he would answer and you would know the "truth of all things." Prove Him. Try Him. God keeps his promises to hose who honestly seek him. Anyways, our third return appointment is much like the guy I just talked about but this guy's name is Jun and he used to be a doctor in America and comes to English class for the sake of retaining English (he knows more English than me but his accent is funky) and he confides in my companion Flippo Choro in the advanced class (I do intermediate) that he wants
to learn what true happiness is and that he's not happy and (he's taken lessons before a year ago with the missionaries and never understood the principles, he's very logical) my companion promised him that if he would learn and act on the gospel of Jesus Christ then he would change. He said he would try. You know when a grown man psychiatrist is asking a 21 year old missionary for help in his life, there's got to be something to our message. He sees missionaries and members and doesn't understand why we are happy with all of our rules and commandments but the fact is that commandments protect us! They allow us to be free!

Anyways I'd like to share a couple of scriptures. The first is Mormon 9:15 "..; God has not ceased to be a God of miracles." It's true. Have faith, look for the miracles and test out His promise and I promise you that you will see miracles.

The second is 1 Corinthians 6:10 "... Drunkards... Shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven." It's in the bible. Don't drink folks. If you can't control yourself how are you supposed to be able to make
Christlike and spirit bringing decisions? You can't.

I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

 Us and one of my favourite people, Kobayashi Kyodai. He's one of the sweetest people I've ever met.

 Our district at the aquarium and dolphin show. They also have 41 different species of pufferfish there.

A panoramic of Shimonoseki from the aquarium. This is such a beautiful place! It's home!