母の日おめでとう御座います！

Hey, it was great talking to all of you! I can't believe we'll be
meeting in just a month and be able to talk as much as we want. It's
always hard to think about what to talk about, but we'll have plenty
of time soon.

We had a wonderful week here. We had Golden Week, a succession of
holidays that leads Japanese people to go out and travel. For us, it
mainly meant that we had a better chance of meeting some people.

One interesting experience was on Tuesday, when we had a really busy
day. We went to a kendama exhibition (I'll send a video of the
Mongolian member here to illustrate what it is) and tried to do the
simplest tricks. We weren't very good, but it was interesting at
least. We went from there to a science museum where we were given a
tour by a member's friend. She really wants us to help him experience
the gospel, but all she wanted to happen on the first visit was to get
to be his friend, which we succeeded at, I think. We then went to
clean windows at a nursing home, which was at least nicer than
cleaning wheelchairs. Then, we contacted another member's friend, and
he agreed to hear the lessons! Yamagata Ward is honestly awesome,
there's no way we could find people to teach if it wasn't for them.
The new investigator, "S" san, is really nice! He gave us ice cream
the first time we visited, and when we went yesterday, he apologized
for not having anything to give us. That's when he gave us the egg,
soy sauce, and hot water thing. I drank from half of the eggshell, but
I wouldn't recommend trying it. He's really sincere, though!

We also had a kind of busy week putting records in our area book into
the iPad version. Once everything is put in, it'll be really
convenient. However, it takes a lot of time to put records in, and we
had to finish putting everyone we're currently teaching in two days.
We did it, but that still leaves a lot of people to put in. It's kind
of strange not having paper planner with us, but I'll get used to it
before I go home.

We ate out a lot this week. One time, after we had taught
"H"-san, he asked if we had time to get ice cream. We didn't have
any specific appointments, so we said we could, if we were quick.
Instead, he took us half-an-hour away to Cherryland in Sagae. We got
to eat the famous ice cream, and he payed for us and Suzuki Kyoudai.
We also ramen twice this week when we didn't have time to go back to
our apartment and make food, and we also went with a recent convert to
a tasty place near our apartment.

The work continues to move along here! We found five new investigators
this week in Yamagata Ward, which is incredible in Japan, but I think
we're just seeing the beginning of things. One of our less active
members also seems close to returning to church, so I'm hoping that we
can see that soon. We also had an Eikaiwa student take a Book of
Mormon home with him, which was really a surprise, as I wasn't
necessarily thinking that he had interest. It's a shame going home
when so much good is happening out here, but I'm excited to start
getting to work on the rest of my life.

日本に来てね！アメリカに帰りたいわけじゃないんだけど、家族に会いたいよ。愛しているよ。そして、母の日おめでとう御座います！

I love you all, especially you mom! You're the best! See you soon!

Elder Kirk Earl

Last transfer! 最後の転勤、最高の転勤

4-26-2015 Letter

皆さん、こんにちは！

As you know, I am now in the last transfer of my mission. Which also
means that I have a new companion, Elder Temanaha Moo from Tahiti. I
hear that he's one of the nicest people out on our mission and I'm
excited to end my mission with him. Also, my old MTC companion, Elder
Greenburg, is heading up here to Yamagata as well, so we are going to
end our missions in the same district after never having been in the
same zone previously. I'll miss Elder Mantz, but he'll do great in
Ichinoseki.

We had a pretty good week here! It hasn't rained since Monday, and it
might not rain again until I go home, hopefully. It makes it a lot
easier to do the stuff we want to do, like anything outside. We did
'チラシ配り' which just means handing English fliers near the busier
pedestrian areas to people who walk past, which went pretty well. The
only problem was that an election was going on here in Yamagata so
some vans were blasting campaign messages on the streets, making it
really hard for us to hear anything people were saying. We also found
a lady's hat, which took nearly half an hour to deal with at the
police station.

We met with an awesome less active family. The mom is originally from
Slovakia, but even though she's white she speaks Japanese better than
any other language I'm capable of speaking. She made a really nice
dinner for us and then we gave a message about prayer. The parents
still pray and listen to General Conference, but they don't come to
church. Apparently the sports activities that their children take part
in are a priority for the family. It's really sad because the youngest
son hasn't even been baptized yet, despite being nine years old. We'll
have to work with them for sure.

We also gave a Book of Mormon at a park during the cherry blossom
festival. A conversation that started with me asking a young looking
guy what he was eating turned into us giving a Book of Mormon and
getting his information to refer to missionaries in Chiba (the most interested people always seem to be from Tokyo). We also were able to teach a person we found in housing, which almost never happens. And we taught
our investigator who's in the hospital, and it seems his cancer is
getting better!

The work is going great here! We've gone from one slowly progressing
investigator to four fairly decent investigators during the last few
weeks. The funny thing is that almost none of them were found
completely by our own efforts. We also have two referrals that we will
be able to contact in the near future, so everything is going the way
it should be. Members are the way that missionary work happens!

I don't know what else to say. Japan is great, missionary work is
great, and the gospel is true! I'll talk more on Mother's Day! With
iPads, it's a lot easier to coordinate things.

愛を込めて

アール長老


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バプテスマ！

4-19-2015 Letter

Hello everyone!

This week has been incredible out here in Yamagata!

As you might have heard, we had two baptisms, one on Saturday and the
other on Sunday, both investigators of the other elders. "I" Kyoudai
is the man who is deaf who was introduced by his friend who got baptized a
few months ago, and "M" Kyoudai is a Mongolian student who was
actually first taught by my trainer, Dowdy Choro. They are both so
great and will really strengthen the ward. We had musical numbers in
each baptismal service, but I'd definitely say that our Shuwa was more
understandable than our Mongolian.

We also have a new investigator! His name is "T"-San and his mom
is an active member. His dad wouldn't let him get baptized until he
was of legal age, and so now that he's back in Yamagata, he wants to
get faith like his mom and get baptized if that happens. He is
extremely prepared and so cool! We ate ramen with him on Saturday
after doing a lesson, which was delicious. The only problem is that he
lives fairly far away, nearly thirty minutes by train, and he can't
meet in Yamagata too often. We'll try heading off to Sagae for another
lesson this week.

We had a pretty embarrassing mess up this week. We had an appointment
with our investigator with a joint set up as well, but we had enough
time to go to Kaminoyama to contact a referral (nice guy, but his mom
had died a few days before, so we'll give him a little time). Somehow,
we mixed up our train times and ended up an hour late. Our joint, also
the ward mission leader, said it actually ended up being good because
he had a good time talking with our investigator, and he thinks he has
good potential.

We also got a referral from a member that we didn't actually know. She
just randomly asked us whether we like science or chemistry (same word
in Japanese) and then told us that there was a guy who volunteers at a
science museum that she wants us to contact! The members here are so
good with missionary work!

I also had to give a talk yesterday with just one day's notice, but is
went really well! Lots of members said that it was really good
Japanese and that it was fairly short but powerful. I don't know how
I'll be with giving a talk in English though, so don't expect anything
too good when I get back home.

Also, Sakura are out. I'll try sending pictures soon!

Love you,

アール長老


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二か月しか残っていない

4-12-2015 Letter

Dear everybody,

We've had a pretty nice week here in Yamagata! The cherry blossoms are
starting to bloom and it almost feels like Spring is here for good!

General Conference was good of course! It was fun to be able to watch
it in English with some other people from our ward. I felt like almost
every talk was aimed at me and the people I know here. It seems that
they are especially aiming at all the missionaries who left at the
same time as me, making sure we know exactly what we're expected to do
as soon as we get home.

I realized today that it's exactly two months until I'm back home in
Utah. Or, in other words, the equivalent of another session at the
MTC. Sometimes it felt like I was there forever, and sometimes I felt
like it flew by. I don't know which pattern the next two months will
take, but I'll be sure to keep doing my best!

We had a lesson with "H"-San, our older gentleman, on Thursday, and it
went pretty well! We planted a pea seed in a PET bottle with dirt we
found by the river and told him that the seed was a representation of
faith. Just like you have to nourish peas if you want them to grow, a
testimony works the same way. He really got the example, quite well
and even prayed that the plant and his faith would grow!

We also had a rare double meal appointment last night. After takoyaki
with our recent convert, we did a practice lesson with the bishop's
family and ate some curry. Also, "M" Shimai, the bishop's wife,
made the most delicious brownies ever! She had what she called '失敗' or
'failure' brownies, but they were so delicious! They reminded me of
grandma's brownies that we'd eat at least twice a year, for the same
occasion as yesterday!

By the way, we just heard that a volcano is showing signs of activity
near us, but we should be fine! You'll hear whether anything more
happens!

We should see the cherries start blooming this week, so I'll have nice
pictures for you all next week! Have a great week and keep up the
emails! I'll respond on Mondays only!

Love,

Elder Earl


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アイパッドとか

4-6-2015 Letter

Hey everybody! As you may have heard we are now using iPads in the
Japan Sendai Mission! Even though I've only had it sense Thursday, it
already feels like something you couldn't really go without. It
certainly makes email a lot easier, since we don't have to arrange
times with the other missionaries. It's also fun having everything we
need for study on one device, as well as lightening the load in our
bags.

However, iPads are nice but they're not everything. They're a great
tool, but most of the good stuff that's happened this week doesn't
really depend on them.

For example, our investigator came to church this week! He's still
going pretty slowly, but that's old people I guess. His daughter back
in Bountiful certainly wants him to get converted so that they can
have a forever family, but he finds it hard to believe in things that
he can't see. He also paid for sushi for us at a local 回転寿司
(merry-go-round sushi), which was tasty. He was kind of dissapointed that I
didn't eat to much (only 10 plates), but I'll do better next time! It
sometimes is hard to work (with someone who changes slowly), but one man who has
been meeting with missionaries for over a year finally said yesterday
that he's ready for baptism, so I know "H"-san's heart can change
too.

A member also brought her nonmember son, who seems pretty interested
in increasing his church knowledge. We'll try to get lunch with him
and talk more this week. He loves volleyball, so the ward mission
leader told me to use my height to our advantage!

Our recent convert is a bit in a crisis because
someone got injured in one of his jobs, which apparently is going to
be quite expensive for our member, as well as really psychologically
traumatizing. Thankfully, he's relying on the gospel and he says that
he told the wife of the injured man about how our church has blessed
him and bore testimony to her.

President Smith also came, which was great of course. He even paid for
dinner for most of our district! He really cares a lot about
missionaries here. He also interviewed one of the other missionaries'
investigators, and he's good for baptism! We'll have one on the 18th
and another baptism on the 19th. It's going to be pretty crazy here.


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イースターおめでとうございます

3-29 Letter:

Hey everybody! So I think Easter is technically next week, but our ward told everybody that it was yesterday, so I guess I`ve already celebrated it enough.

It`s been great to have my first full week here in Yamagata. It`s a pretty crazy place, much bigger than my previous area. Even though we don`t have nearly as many investigators as Yonezawa, it feels like we`re always busy.

We finally got to meet him on Tuesday. His name is "H"-san and he`s an older gentleman who`s daughter lives in Bountiful. He thinks that his daughter asked us to meet with him so that he can get ready to go to Utah where he thinks that he won`t be able to drink, smoke, or play pachinko (Japanese gambling). As you can see, he`s going to take a lot of work. He gives us Coca-Cola every time we visit, which means I`ll probably drink more here than in America. Obviously, we`re focusing on finding as a companionship right now.

On Saturday, we spent the morning shoveling snow in a mountain village. It was kind of funny, because it was the grandparent of a Yonezawa member`s house. Seeing her again was pretty interesting. The snow shoveling was pretty intense, because even though there`s no snow in Yamagata at all, in the mountains it was nearly three feet high. We managed to clear a parking area and improve the path to the house. It kind of shocks me that people live in those sorts of conditions, especially people in their eighties. They gave us food afterwards, but they had such a difficult accent that we required translation to understand anything, except when the grandma would tell us to eat more rice.

Our Easter party was pretty fun. We had a large group of Primary kids and others celebrate with us. The food was lots of egg sandwiches, so I was really hungry, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was the first Easter celebrated by many of the members, so it was a good introduction. My job was to take pictures, so I have many!

Finally, iPads! We`re getting them on Thursday this week! One good thing is that we won`t have to arrange email schedules with the other missionaries anymore. Also, I can read your emails starting 11am on Thursday. It`s kind of like letters, we can read them when we get them, but we don`t respond until P-Day. It will be so convenient!

いつもありがとうございます！復活祭の本当の意味を覚えながらこの特別な祝日を祝ってください！

愛しています！

アール長老

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