Transfers!

January 22, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,  

This week has been crazy!! First of all, contrary to normal, my companion Elder Bennion got transferred to Kitami! (Very far and very cold..all the way across the island) My new companion is Elder Blackley, who is a transfer 3, so has been in the mission field 6 weeks longer than Elder Bennion has. It was sad to see Elder Bennion leave, and he was completely shocked; it is hard to only be in an area for 6 weeks. I will miss Elder Bennion, and wish him the best in Kitami. 

My new companion Elder Blackley is so awesome!! He is from Alaska, and he has played every sport ever, and is so good at ice speed skating! He almost went to the Olympic trials!! He loves fishing, and did commercial fishing in Alaska, which is the coolest, most intense thing ever. He is already a great buddy, and I am so happy to be working with him. He knows how to work really hard, and is so passionate about missionary work, which is the greatest thing ever.

 This 9 year old (Shuuto) made lunch for us with sister Yasutani, for a service project, for faith in God project. He was so happy to be able to give us lunch, and it was a really great, cute experience. He is so good. 

President Kanda, of the stake presidency in this stake came to our ward yesterday, and I was able to talk with him for a little bit. He was so full of humility, and you could just feel his very strong spirit. I asked him how we could help our recent converts, and how we could help them to understand the importance of the Book of Mormon, ect. He had some really good ideas, and talked about teaching simple truths that they understand already, but finding them in the Book of Mormon, so that they can understand how they can relate to the Book of Mormon. 

I also asked him about prayer, which I have been thinking a lot about lately. Graham choro and I did a workshop in DTM about prayer which was a really cool learning experience for me. I had a distinct impression while we were talking about prayer during that workshop, that I needed to recognize more fully the power of silence in prayer. While praying, who is the person that we want to hear from? Heavenly Father. How can we hear from him, if we just shut him out with our vain repetitions, and never give him a chance to really tell us what he is waiting to say. This feeling really changed my perspective on prayer, and made me realize that I need to give God more opportunities to speak to me, and not just fill my prayers with things from my side. We should ask God more often about what his desires are, and ask him how we can accomplish what his purpose is, because if we are on God's side then we will be doing what we should be doing. 

Anyway, I asked President Kanda about his prayers, and he taught me to think of God asking us these four questions, while praying: 

While praying God asks us four questions (think about these questions before hand, and you can feel the answers, and feel you are really communicating with God. 

What do you want me to do for you? What is your desire?

Why do you want this? (Pure intent tracker)

What do you want me to do? 

What will you do? 

These principles of prayer come from this book:

But he told me about how when he prays, he talks, and then spends a lot of time thinking as well (Remember what I said about silence), and he imagines Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Ghost, all right there around him. I really felt the spirit as he spoke, and I know that as we truly try to make our prayers a more meaningful experience, and really call upon the powers of heaven, we will feel happier, greater purpose, and a greater desire to follow, and rely upon God. I know that prayer is a principle of truth. Prayer is a gift. I challenge all of you to more fully use and develop this Gift. I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week. 

Love,

コノバー長老
Elder Conover