December 26, 2016 Dear family and friends, it is a great time to be a missionary!! Merry Christmas!! I am far from my family, but I feel very close to the Savior at this special time of year. I know that Christ was born, completed the Atonement, was crucified, and is Risen. We have quite the white Christmas here! The members say that this so the most snow that there has ever been at this time of year in the last 50 years!! Crazy!! It is so fun though! We walk around and the walls on the side of the roads are taller than me! I can't see the road from the sidewalk because of the snow! The members have been really nice and it has been a very special Christmas here in Japan! I love you all so much!! Love, コノバー長老 Elder Conover
December 21, 2016 Hello family and friends!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! It is a great time to be a missionary! I love it because here in Japan the girl that I baptized a few weeks ago, Himawari chan, has a big school test on Christmas!! Despite the fact that it is Sunday, and also CHRISTMAS!! I couldn't believe it. So everyone be grateful that In America and other places Christmas is so widely recognized, here it is not too much! But despite that, there are a lot of members feeding us, and we will be ha I a very merry Christmas here, as missionaries!! Also we had our ward Christmas party is last Saturday, and it was so fun to be able to sing I. The choir, and also to play Santa Clause!! Super fun! We were able to go to the temple again today, so that was really special! It is crazy that elder Graham and I have gone to the temple together since the first time the missionaries were allowed to go; right when it opened! It was our 4th time! We are very lucky. It has been a great opportunity, and experience to be training! It is so fun to watch someone who hasn't experience Japan get to experience things and get all pumped about things that have unfortunately become normal for me. We cracked a raw egg into a bowl, and ate this meet and vegetable mix, where you take it and dip it into the raw egg, and then eat it. It had oysters in it and a lot of other really good stuff, but my comp had a really hard time with that! Haha it takes some time to get used to I guess, especially if you don't like sea food!
I know that this Church is true. I know that we can be healed and become clean again through Christ. I love President Uchtdorf's warning to not take the gospel for granted. We are so very blessed, and we should never allow ourselves to become numb to the blessings of church and temple attendance, Book of Mormon, and prayer, and following the commandments. I love you all so much and I love Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for him, and for his birth. Take some time and really reflect on what Jesus has done for you, and try and give him the one thing that you can give him; your will. Have a great Christmas!! Love, コノバー長老 Elder Conover
December 12,2016 Dear Family and friends, This week has been crazy!! I don't even really know where to begin, but I guess I could start with last Monday night. We got back to the apartment, and I raced into the bathroom. In the middle of using the bathroom my phone rings. No big deal, but I pull it out, and see that it is the AP's. I was already finishing, so I quickly finish, and answer the phone, and then proceed to receive my transfer call. I found out that I would be Staying in Toyohira!! So that was a surprise, and really if you receive your transfer call on Monday it means that you are training a new missionary, so that basically told me that, before he told me that I would be training! It was quite a shock, because I really thought that I was leaving, but I was thrilled to be able to stay in Toyohira, and to be able to train a new missionary from the MTC. The other elders came home, and we played a game where we both hadn't received a call from the AP's, but then we both found out, and I found out that Elder Graham, who came in and sat next to me in the MTC, and who came and transferred into my area this last transfer was also going to be going trainer, so we were going to be training together!! Craziest thing ever!! I've never heard of two Elders who came into the mission at the same time, training two missionaries who also came to the mission at the same time, in the same area!! And then the next few days were like this... Wednesday Dec. 7 Today we went to honbu and were able to receive training on how to train our beans. After training we took Elder Pace, and Elder Yabutani (I love him), back to Toyohira, and I went on splits with both of them. I was feeling the power of God, and we were able to find 3 really good investigators. The first investigator we found was named Satou San. He was shoveling snow, and I pressed him to let us help, by picking up a shovel myself, and just doing it. We served him, and he opened up really well to hearing our message. We were able to make another appointment for Friday, so that was really exciting. Then we found a family!! A mom and dad, with a little 1 year old. They also agreed to listen to the message. And then we found an older guy who seemed not too open, but was okay with talking to us. We talked with everyone, and Yabutani choro was a little bit amazed by how much success we were able to have in just 2 hours. It was pretty amazing. It made me feel adequate to train, which was a really great blessing. Thursday Dec. 8 Today was a really cool day. I met my new missionary! He is fresh out of the MTC! His name is Elder Bennion, and I love him already. He is a really good guy, and I am so happy to be able to be his trainer. We all walked into the room in President Nakatsuka's Home, and there were all of the beans, just sitting there. The first person I saw was a guy who was from my high school!! Matt Jenson! haha I remember when we went on a group date for a dance in high school. So funny! I thought that I would train him, but then I didn't, but I was kind of happy too, because it would have just been like in high school. Anyway we were able to get our beans, and then get going! I ripped my pants, so that was kind of sad and akward. Especially when Coyama shimai, (She is so cool, and is training and is stl on transfer 6, (BOSS)) but she just told me, "did you know your pants ripped?" (In japanese of course.) So I just laughed, and told her yes, she asked how. lol, just from kind of falling I guess! But I was able to lower my back enough to be able to make it so most people couldn't see, but she is really short, so she was able to still see apparently. haha. Anyway, we made it back to the area, and were able to have a good first day! We worked really hard, and found 4 new investigators!! The coolest thing ever happened! We found this guy named kuroki san; I started talking to him on the street, and he just said that he was going home. We talked about his hobbies, and found out that we were the same age. I asked him if we could come back with him to his apartment and talk with him. To my pleasant surprise, he said okay, and so we were able to go back and talk to him. I thought that he would just talk to us in his gankan, but he let us in, which was so cool!! Nothing like that has ever happened in my mission before! We came in, sat on his couch, and taught him about God's plan for us as his children. The spirit was there, and it was a really good lesson, and it was weird that for the first time in my mission my compaion not only knew less what was going on than me, but didn't know anything that was going on. It was so interesting. It was kind of cool to be able to have full control..lol. Although Elder bennion did add a nice, "Do you have any questions?", at a time that was really great, so that was awesome!! I thought a little bit too much about how cool it would be to make a baptismal date on my first day with my bean, so I asked him to be baptized, but it was too much for me, and not enough t for him, and so he did not respond too well to it. He wasn't all that interested in the idea of being baptized. I have to always remember to listen to the spirit, and really not think about myself when teaching people. I still felt good though, because I know that we should always be asking more people to be baptized. After that we were able to meet with Himwari chan. She said something really cool: I knew that you wouldn't trasnfer, because I prayed that you wouldn't! Such a cool thing to hear! God really does answer prayers! Then we were able to go play kingball which was really awesome for our brand new beans to be able to experience. It was a really great day. I am really looking forward to this transfer. Friday Dec. 9 Today I had a really good time with my companion. Elder Bennion is such a great guy. He is so willing to work, and has such great desires. I hope that I can be able to become really great companions with him. It is so fun watching someone experience Japan for the first time. We were able to go and meet with Satou San, who I found by helping him with shoveling his snow, with Yabutani and pace choro. He was really awesome! He is not quite a golden investigator, but It seems like we will be able to meet him really well twice a week, so that seems like it will work out really good, and he should be able to progress! Also today we were able to meet with Chi San! He was doing really good. It was really great to be able to visit with Chi San. He is a really good guy. I really hope that Chi San can develop real faith, and become a member of the church. It was overall a really great day. My companion is really hard on himself, and had a hard time in the MTC, but I think that it is so cool the experiences that God has given me in order to be able to train him right now. It is really cool how God's timing really is all perfect, and I really am supposed to be here right now. A great testimony builder that I am worthy, and that I doing what the Lord wants me to do.
Saturday Dec. 10 Today was a really crazy day. It snowed all day!! Literally like 4 feet. I have never seen anything like it!! We shoveled the snow in the church 3 times, because it just kept on coming down, and making it necessary to be done again! Haha so crazy. It was a really fun day. We were able to really experience some snow that I was always wanting to experience, and walking around, and wearing my boots all worked really great!! Such an awesome day! My companion is really great!
Sunday Dec. 11 Today was a crazy miracle. We were able to talk with a member Brother Konno. He was able to open up with us, and take us to three different friends, and introduced us to them at their houses!!! I have never even heard of that kind of thing even being possible in Japan!! Such a cool experience. My faith and testimony was strengthened so much!! I love the mission!!!
Sorry this is all over the place!! It has been an insane week!! I love and miss you all!! Thank you for all your support and love! Love, コノバー長老 Elder Conover
December 4, 2016 This letter is a history of the events that have taken place this last week!!' Very crazy!! It is dated so you can kind of have a better understanding of what happened and when!
11/30/2016 Wednesday Today was a very special day on my mission. I was able to teach an awesome Ekaiwa class with my homie Bede choro! I made the theme "Fear", and got really pumped about helping people be able to overcome their fear of failure. It felt really good, especially since it was almost all girls in the class! Haha. It was great because, ゆきなちゃん、ひまわりちゃん、ごと姉妹 and, 森兄弟 were all there!! It was a really great class to be able to talk about that stuff with. I committed them all to make a plan as to where they see themselves in 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years. But then to think about how fear would get in the way of them getting to where they want to be, and make a plan to overcome that fear. Also in this plan to plan for failures!! I created a quote that I will probably use from now on! "Don't plan for perfection, plan for progression."
But the real best part of the day is what happened after we finished teaching class. Himawari chan. Okay so a brief background about her. She is 16 years old, and met the missionaries in another area in August, we met her at the end of September, when she came to our church with her best friend who is a member. After church that day, her friend called our ward mission leader, Brother Masashi, and told him that Himawari chan wanted to take the lessons from the cool, イケメン foreigner that she had met at church. That ended up being me, so then Akamatsu choro and I were able to teach her! We taught her once with the sisters, and then Sister Koyama got injured biking, so for the next month and a half, Akamatsu and I taught her the lessons, and we had many very special and spiritual experiences together. Himawari chan has strengthened my faith, in a way that I didn't think was possible. Her sincere faith, despite having any background in Christianity, or religion at all, is very admirable and inspiring to me. It is so beautiful to watch a person come to know for themselves that this church is true. She truly has learned from the Holy Ghost, and only from the Holy Ghost, has she been able to find faith, and believe in the Gospel. After the Sister's got better, and transfers happened, we were able to teach her with the Sister's for the past 5 weeks, but the sister's kind of became a little bit more in charge, so we had to trust in them, and the timing that they moved things in. Last week, they made a new baptismal date for December 11th because she still did not have her parent's permission. The transfer date is on the 8th, and so it was sad that she would not be baptized before then, because Oshiro Shimai is finishing her mission, and I will also most likely transfer, and so that was sad, but I knew that she would still get baptized, as long as she got permission from her parents, so I was okay with it, but then this last Saturday, I just felt like I should text her. So I texted her on Saturday, and asked her if she had the confidence to ask her Mom if she could be baptized, and she said yes! I asked her if she would ask her Mom that night if she could be baptized, and she said yes! So she did ask her Mom, and as a total miracle, her mom said yes!!! She said, "I don't understand it all, but if that's what you want to do, then I will let you." Best thing ever!! Then Himawari chan came to church the next day, and I talked with her, and told her that she could get baptized before Sister Oshiro finishes, and also before I possibly transfer, and she wanted to do it sooner! But we still had the problem of her dad. She still needed to talk to her dad, but she doesn't talk to her dad a lot, so this was really hard for her. Nobody really said anything to her, but then we got a text Sunday night, saying that she had asked her dad, and that her dad said it was okay too!!!! Total miracle!!! It was still up in the air though if we could make a date work before the transfer, but when Himawari chan came to our English class on Wednesday, the sister's and I talked with her, and we were able to work out Sunday night for her to be baptized!! She was so excited, and we were so excited, and it was just awesome! They kept on talking about details for a little bit, and I talked to some other people at English class. Then Himawari chan came up to me, and said the most rewarding thing that I have heard on my mission. "Will you baptize me?" It was such a special moment. I felt very humbled, and very very grateful to God. God is so kind, and is such a God of miracles.
4 days later...(In the last four days we had a thousand different problems with both Himawari chan and the other Investigator, Tsuchitoriba San, who was also hopefully being baptized on this coming Sunday..but in the end they were both able to pass their interviews, and the bishop and one of the awesome return missionary sisters in our ward were able to meet Himawari chan's parents, and everything was confirmed, and all of the problems were resolved.)
Sunday 12/4/2016 Today was the best day of my mission so far!!! Himawari chan was able to be baptized, after all. We got to the church at 5:50, and did all the rest of the preparations, and practiced the song that we were singing as missionaries. "I'll be with you my friend". Then Himawari chan and Tsuchitoriba San got to the church, and the sister's took them to change, Bede choro (Such a homie!!! So happy to have had the last three transfers in the same area and apartment as him! I am really hoping that we transfer to the same area this next transfer, even though the chances are not too high...) But Bede choro and I went and got changed, and then we sat with them up on the stand, and Oshiro Shimai gave a really great talk about the Holy Ghost. Himawari chan's parents came!! With her 10 year old little brother!! It was so special to have them there, and such a surprise to everyone, including himawari chan, that they actually came, but truly such a miracle. We then all went to the font, and Bede choro asked who was going first, and Tsuchitoriba San just said, "Me." Which was so awesome, because she is usually the most quiet, and passive person, so it is so awesome when she makes a strong decision. So Bede choro went first, and did a really great job. It was very special. Then Himawari chan and I went into the font, and I asked for the order of her full name like 3 times, because I didn't want to mess it up, but it was a little awkward, because everyone saw, and kind of laughed, but it was such a happy moment, that nothing mattered. Her parents were less than 5 feet from me, right in the front watching the baptism, which made me a little bit nervous, considering that they had only just barely even approved for her to be baptized, probably not really even understanding exactly what baptism means, but the ordinance went well. It was so special to be able to baptize her. She has grown so much, and is truly converted, such a special day in her life. She wants to go to byu Hawaii, and will probably serve a mission too, so that is so awesome!! After the baptism, we all got changed, and then got back into the chapel, where Tsuchitoriba San, and Himawari chan both gave beautiful testimonies. It was one of the most powerful moments on my mission. To have Himawari chan, who I had just had the opportunity to baptize, bear such a strong testimony of God, and of Jesus Christ. It truly strengthened my testimony, and I am so grateful to God, for the blessing of being able to be a part of this special day.
Also a story about Tsuchitoriba San, Graham choro and Bede choro's investigator. She was found 5 weeks ago, and was able to be baptized very quickly, which is such an awesome thing, especially since nobody thinks that that is possible, and that it always just takes time, in Japan. But a couple weeks ago (I hadn't had time to write it when it happened and had forgotten since, but it was a very defining moment for me on my mission, so I will share it now.) Graham choro asked us if we would teach Tsuchitoriba San the Atonement with them, because he had a good example that he wanted to use. This was on Tuesday night, 2 weeks ago. I said okay, and so we went to the lesson, and Graham choro explained the Tatoe that we were going to do, to Tsuchitoriba San. Satou choro (My companion) was going to represent us, in this life. Bede choro would represent Satan, and Tsuchitoriba San would represent God. Satou choro had to not blink for 30 seconds in order to return to live with God. So Satou choro was able to do that, and he returned to God. But it is not actually that easy. Satan does not want us to return to God, and so Satan makes it so that we are tempted to blink. This next time, Bede choro came in, and snapped at Satou choro's eyes, and blew on him, ect, and Satou choro blinked 6 times. The price that had to be paid was 10 push ups per blink. Satou choro had to do 60 push ups to make it back to Heavenly Father. Satou choro started doing push ups, and he couldn't make it past 26. Then Graham choro pulled me in and said that I represented Jesus Christ, and he explained that Jesus Christ takes our punishment upon himself, and saves us, so that we can still return to God.
I got down and started doing push ups...I had already done 50 push ups that morning, and I have not done push ups all at once in a set over 30 in a long time, and so I was a little bit worried. In this example breaks were not allowed, it had to all be at once, I could not get off of my hands and feet. I started going, and got to 25. Then I started doing push-ups 2 by 2. (Form had to stay perfect too, Jesus Christ did not cheat, suffering the Atonement.) I had an occasional 3, but mostly did the push ups 2 by 2, for the next 10 minutes. Tsuchitoriba San was in charge of counting, and when I got to 50, and looked like I was going to die, with my arms shaking and head bulging, she said that that was enough, right? It was okay, I could stop. Graham choro looked at her with tears in his eyes, and shook his head. The price had to be paid, and it had to be paid in full. (I didn't actually see this happen, I was a little preoccupied by that one number; 60.) I prayed harder than I ever have, to have the strength to be able to make it to 60. I thought about Christ, and was able to see a glimpse of how much he suffered, how incomprehensible his pain must have been, and I learned what Jesus Christ's Atonement truly means for each and every one of us, perfectly and individually. I pressed forward with nothing left but faith, and with my arms as shaky as you can get, I almost fell on 56, but I barely pulled back up, and then continued and strained through the end. I thought I might fall coming up on that final push up, but I somehow was able to very slowly push through and make it all the way up. I went over and plopped down into one of the chairs, and we all sat in silence. After a good minute and a half, I got up, and walked over to Satou choro and said, pointing tot where I had just done the push ups, "Because I love him. Christ suffered for us, because he loves us. Without any motive less powerful than love, I would not have been able to do all of those push ups. But I thought about Christ, and what He suffered for me because of his love, and I was able to do it. I know that Christ was able to accomplish the Atonement, because of his amazing love for us." Then everyone else bore testimony to her of the reality and power of the Atonement. Graham choro and I grew a lot closer from that experience. We saw a glimpse of what it is like to be eternal beings, and to be able to use the power of faith to accomplish things that seem out of reach. I know that God lives. I know it with all my heart. I know that Christ is our Savior. They are waiting with open arms. Let us come to them.
