The Yoneta Family

Hello Family and Friends, 

Here is the report of what happened here from Dec. 5-Dec. 11. Sorry I’m still so far behind. 

12/5 Tuesday 

Today we had Zone conference in for the Odori Zone! It went great. Elder Akamatsu, elder Graham, and Sister Hackett, are all long time mission friends in this zone. It was great to be with them, and really nice to have Elder Akamatsu’s help with translation. The relief society made lunch for us, which was so pretty and such good food. Miki san asked us if we could meet with Masahiro today, and then they asked if we would also go eat sushi with them at Toriton! We left Zone conference in a rush to meet Masahiro, Miki and Nishihara at the temple, where we were teaching them a lesson. It was a major blizzard, and it was pretty scary, driving in that kind of weather. We made it though and had a great talk with Masahiro and he was willing to accept the commitment to really investigate for himself whether or not this church is true. Then we went to eat sushi with them, which was super fun. They picked up Yui, on the way and we all ate sushi, and talked. I talked to Masahiro about the idea that sometimes where everyone might take the option of being last, and of “sacrificing” the real selfless thing to do, may occasionally ironically be to take first, or be first. He liked that, and talked about how he is like that, then I talked about how everyone is just waiting for someone else to talk about and take the religion thing, but really everyone is just putting it off, so the strong chooser people need to enter to show others that they can also think about it. It was such a great day. 

12/6 Wednesday 

Today we travelled to Kushiro. As we were traveling, I picked President McClure’s brain about faith and we had a really awesome conversation. Faith is a principle of power, through faith the power of heaven is unlocked. Faith is a belief in and an assurance in the unknown future. Faith expects, and really knows that an outcome will come from an action carefully carried out. Very interesting thoughts about faith, but faith truly is a power, and it is through faith that miracles are brought to pass.At Kushiro we taught a lesson to Miki and Yui chan on line video chat. It was really great. They are so prepared and solidly progressing. We had the bean showers and a pizza dinner with the zone and president started interviews. At 8pm we started our leadership meeting and that went really well. I love being able to talk and work with the zone and district leaders of a single zone. It is so rewarding to watch leaders see their potential and really decide to try to magnify it. Tonight an Elder who I came to Japan with, but had come before that once and had to go home or his heart, and then after coming with me, had to go home once again for a virus, and then he was able to come back again!  talked for a little bit into the night and it really kept me up.

He is super awesome, but I really need my sleep for translating, so fortunately we were able to get to sleep in decent time, but it was still difficult to translate the next day.

12/7 Thursday 

Today we had some conference. This has been a really good round of Zone conferences. I love helping people to feel more passion and to really work to accomplish their goals. Also becoming consecrated is one of the most important things in missionary work. After Zone conference we headed home and. I had a really awesome conversation with President McClure! We talked about anointing and special things, and about some things that not many people know, we also talked about the organization of the church and the connection between President Gay, our area president, and mitt Romney. It was really cool. Oh we also talked about the power of prayer and what power prayer has. I love the depth and importance of prayer. We got back home safely from Kushiro p, about a 4.5 hour drive, ready to go to bed. 

12/8 Friday 

Today we were invited by Miki all of a sudden to go and eat Okinawa soba with her, and so went and it was so delicious! The pork kind Of meet in it has really soft bones because of the way that it has been boiled and so you just eat the bones too, they taste good, it is kind of like eating a gummy in a cylinder shape. It was really awesome to have that experience. After that we finally were able to switch with Toyohira ZL’s for splits, and as we were trying to solidify an appointment that we had, kouki and Yusuke kun showed up at the Toyohira church, they had heard that I was coming, and so they showed up. I really love those boys. We just taught them sitting there in the car, because we didn’t have keys to the church. We had some major real talk with them, shared the first vision again, talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and ended up asking them to be baptized, and we ended up being able to make a really good baptismal date for the 7th of January! It was great! Such a cool miracle! I hope that they will really take it seriously and except baptism. We went back to Atsubetsu and ended up getting invited to eat dinner at the Yoneta’s! It was a really good time with them, and we were able to have a really good discussion/lesson about faith, and priesthood blessings. I love the Yoneta family so much. They fed us this amazing curry, I really really liked it. Elder Bateman is gluten free, and so he actually couldn’t eat it, and so she just cooked up some pork and salmon on rice! So nice! I ended up having to eat his curry rice too, which was made me So full! After that we came back to the mission home and President told us that he had a surprise for us, and we went upstairs and Hirata shimai, my douki who went home a couple transfers ago, was there! It was so fun to see her! President and I talked about following the council of leaders, we have to really trust that the Lord will use the people who He has called, and know that we will be blessed for following their council. It was a wonderful night. 

12/9 Saturday

Today we had a lesson with Miki san and we were able to teach with the Nishihara parents about The word of wisdom. It was hard for her, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to give up tea and coffee, and the “healthy” amount of alcohol that she occasionally drinks. But she said that she would try it, and now, (a couple weeks down the road, she has completely committed to living the world of wisdom and has no problem with it.) 

After our lesson with her, we had the YSA face to face broadcast, which was a really fun time. Elder Ballard and Elder Oaks were hilarious! I love the apostles. Kouki kun and Yusuke kun came to the devotional! It was super awesome that they came. We went out to eat with them after, and it was really good to be with them after having known them for over a year and 4 months. Great blessings. Then we did some finding in the food court, and it was really good talking to people, we found a couple people that hopefully progress. 

12/10 Sunday 

Today was an intense Sunday. Miki san and yui chan came to church and all of her fellow-shippers brought different kinds of teas that are okay to drink, and we had a tea party. Then we had a really good lesson and made a new baptismal date for Christmas Eve, the 24th, but the only problem was that we had to get permission from Masahiro, and he wasn’t super happy last time. So we made this date with the faith and goal of him becoming more willing. Christmas Eve was also their wedding anniversary, so she actually thought that that would be really special, which I thought was really cool. Then that night Yui-chan asked Masahiro if he would get baptized with them on the 24. He got mad at her and asked if they had just decided without thinking, and it just wasn’t very good. Masahiro was a little sick and had been tired from work all day, and so the timing also wasn’t the best. With Masahiro getting frustrated like that the baptismal date of the 24th in just 2 weeks, kind of became unrealistic to the mom and we changed course. 

12/11 Monday 

Today we travelled to Muroran and I drove, which is always a fun experience to drive President and Sister McClure to Zone Conference. This evening we had our training meeting with the Hakodate zone’s Leaders, which was really cool. It was fun because right now all of their leaders are nihonjin except for one of the zone leaders in Eniwa, who replaced me with Elder Kikuchi, Elder Hess, my MTC companion. So because it was mostly Japanese it made the meeting a little bit different, and the Japanese a lot more intelligent, which is always cool. The missionary leaders are really starting to think and fortunately are starting to become more proactive, so that makes me have a lot of hope for the next period of time in the mission. 

I am loving Everyday. I know that this gospel is true. I know that light and happiness come from repentance and opening our hearts for the Savior to come in and fix us. I love you and am so grateful for all of your support and love. 

Love, Elder Conover 

コノバー長老
Elder Conover