11/21-11/27 A week of Progression

11/21 Tuesday

Today we participated in DTM here which was really fun. We talked about our investigators, and had a new format for DTM, which was super refreshing, I am so happy that President has agreed with changing up DTM, and helping district leaders to see how they can more effectively help their districts through DTM. 

We were able to have a good video lesson with Miki and yui, and so that was really awesome. We met with President McClure and started planning a little bit for zone conferences, and also for the mission Christmas devotional that we are going to have as a mission! 

11/22 Wednesday 

The major part of today was meeting with President McClure and planning what zone conference should be about and how it should go. I learn so much from the discussions that we have. We really dissected the numbers of the mission and what it would take to really cause change. We need to talk to more people. We will get to talk about passion and finding God's command and carrying it out with passion, and finding; how to not waste our time, and be effective. It should be a really fun zone conference, at least for me anyway. ;) President is going to talk about the other thing that has really had a big impact on my mission. Consecration. Elder Callister's talk called, "becoming a concentrated missionary", along with "the fourth missionary" were both sent to me by my brother Eric, while he was on his mission, and they have really changed my whole mission, from before I even started my mission adventure. I am so grateful to have had the goal of consecration, and really tried to let my nature be changed in this great work. President asked all the missionaries to read this talk in preparation. I hope that as a mission we can really develop greater consecration and be able to overcome the natural Man. 

11/23 Thursday

Today is thanksgiving! I love thanksgiving! It is sad not to be with my family during this time, but I know that I will be with them soon enough. We were fortunate enough to get invited over for thanksgiving lunch by the office missionary couple; Elder and Sister Van Forell. It is really fun to be here with them. We an amazing thanksgiving meal, with amazing cheese cake with raspberries and everything at the end. 

After that we met with President McClure to plan for zone conference again. 

11/24 Friday 

We met with President McClure. I love meeting with President McClure. He is so fun to be around because he is always teaching something and I am always learning. I can’t remember what else happened today. 

11/25 Saturday 

Today was an incredible day. We did video calls on “line”, the main app that we are using here right now, with the zone leaders. It was really good to talk with Elder Bateman about being a Zone Leader, and about what tools he has and can use to help his zone to progress.

We went to lunch with the yoneta family. The mom, the 8 year old girl, and the older sister that I have known from Toyohira as well. It was really fun, and we were able to have a great talk. From there we went back to the church and met two members there and had a lesson with the Yoneta mom, and the daughter played with the other kids of the members and kind of got her own lesson from a member as well. It was awesome. We taught the Mom, Miki about the plan of salvation. It was really great to also have the support of the members experiences and testimonies as well. We were  able to challenge here to be baptized and she wasn’t completely sure about it, but she agreed to really work hard towards November 17. It was really awesome. She is o prepared, and has such wonderful faith, it is incredible. I really am excited for her to receive a very strong testimony, and for their whole family to be united and choose to follow Jesus Christ.

There was a basketball event tonight in another place, and we ended up being able to bring Ta-kun. Talk-kun is an 18 year old young man of a strong member family in the ward. He is less Active. We were able to play with him, and he opened up to us, and said that he is close to coming back, and he is really liking studying and praying again, because he realizes what it is like without that in his life. 

11/26 Sunday 

Today the yoneta mom and daughter came to church! For the last 2 hours. Yui chan has swimming lessons until 10:30, and so they could only come after that, but we have been encouraging them to potentially change when her swimming lessons are, and guess what! When they came to church, they said that they had talked about it and that morning they had changed the day of her swimming lessons to Saturday instead of Sunday! Such a miracle! The next thing that was amazing was that that after we made the baptismal date yesterday, Miki san had gone home and told her husband that she was intending to join the church. He didn’t know how to respond to this, and so he just didn’t say anything yet. Pretty intense. After church was over we taught a class for members about using social media in missionary work. I feel like that went pretty well. Social media is a really cool tool, especially for members, and having good contact with investigators. We have created a group chat with 6 or 7 members of the ward, called “Miki’s friends”. It has been incredible the support of the ward with this family.

Tonight we had dinner with the Hayashi family. SUCH an amazing family. They are seriously out of this world. We were able to bring the Yoneta family, and really build a good relationship between the two families. The Hayashi’s thought about us and they are so nice, they made THANKSGIVING DINNER! They even bought an actual big turkey, and had everything. It was amazing, and made us so happy. I love them so much. 

11/27 Monday 

Today we went to the zone activity in Toyohira. We played a fun escape the room game, which was really intricate and involved. Great job by the zone leaders. Then we stopped by the clothing store where I bought two of my suits in February. We went in there, and sure enough, once again they had very cheap suits. I was able to help Elder Sakae, who is one of the office elders, to get a new suit, which he really needed. The guy who I had talked with from last time was also there, and it was really fun to bargain and work with him again. I may have bought some things as well. Very good deals though. ;) Tonight we had President McClure’s FHE, and it was really fun and crazy as usual. All of the yoneta’s came once again, and that was super great. They are progressing so quickly. Even the husband is starting to consider this more seriously.   I love being a missionary, and I really do love all of the activities and things that we are involved in in this area. After we finished the FHE we came back to the apartment and had to finish our preparation for our first Zone Conference the next day. It was hard because Elder Satou really needed to know exactly what he would do, otherwise he wouldn’t know what he needed to do and so that was pretty hard for us to figure it all out really specifically, so unfortunately we were up pretty late; but it was good that we were able to get it done. President McClure also was finishing his parts of what we had planned and we happened to stay up until the same time. Haha. I’ll write about how Zone conference went in the next email! 

This has been an amazing week and I am so happy. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ, and His Atonement. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve Him in this work. I love this gospel. I am so so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission. I love you and really am so grateful for all of you and the example that you are to me. 

Love, 

コノバー長老
Elder Conover

Exchanges and the Yoneta family 11/14-11/20

11/14 Tuesday 

Today we went to Eniwa's DTM! Back to Eniwa!! It was really fun. Elder Kikuchi is the district leader and one of the zone leaders there, and this was actually his first DTM ever because he became zone leaders with me before he had ever been a district leader. He shaved as part of his finding demonstration, with shaving cream and everything, it was the funniest thing ever. 

After DTM, we drove back to Atsubetsu, and had a good day of work! It was way fun to work with Kikuchi choro again. I really love him and he is just the funniest guy ever. You will never stop laughing if you are with him. We ate sushi at toriton which was super awesome. The salmon there is incredible. Then we were also able to have an awesome lesson on Facebook video chat with The yoneta mom and daughter, Miki and Yui. We answered some of their questions and enforced our teaching of prayer and the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father. Super great to be able to use social media to stay in contact more effectively. 

11/15 Wednesday

The next day we switched back but left just a little bit later than we should have. We ate lunch with them really quickly there and then came back again with Elder satou and we went straight to the temple. The temple needed four elders to help with sealings for a special reason on this day, and so President said that it would be okay to count this as "service" time and go do sealings. So Awesome!! I learned today to always be 30 minutes early to whatever you have planned at the temple. The Spirit in the temple is so strong. I love the feeling of the Spirit. We took a little bit of time in the celestial room and it was incredible how calm and close to God it felt. 

After the temple the main thing that we were able to do was to deliver a bike to the inamura family for there son who had crashed his bike. We were able to give him the bike of Sister Nakazawa, the super short Japanese sister who went home, so it should work perfect for him. They gave us this big box of food, so nice! We prayed together and left. I am so impressed by the strength of the families in this ward. 

11/16 Thursday 

President McClure is in Korea this whole week so it has been good to be able to focus more on our area. 

Today we were able to meet Miki and yui with Sister Nishihara and her kids at the temple. We went into the lobby in the temple and the spirit was really strong. We really focused on the two moms connecting to each other, and it was wonderful. We taught about the temple and talked about a lot of different things. Miki shared more of her experience with us and basically talked about how she came to the point where she was prepared to be more open to religion and having a relationship with God. She is so amazing. After that we helped with kids eikaiwa and then were with the yoneta's again during eikaiwa tonight. This family is one of the greatest things that has happened to me on my mission. 

11/17 Friday 

Today I got to go on splits with Elder Graham! Splits with Elder Graham are the best split days ever! I love exchanges. We drove to Shinkotoni and dropped off Elder Satou, took Elder Haste to kotoni, dropped him off, and came back to Atsubetsu with Elder Graham. Then we did a little bit of study and had to go to the airport to pick up the Van forrels, because they were leaving President's car their so that President could drive home late tonight. We went with them to Costco and they bought us Pizza! It was really fun. I bought bacon and an awesome big back of Frozen Fruit, peaches, strawberrys, passionfruit, and one other thing I think. I also bought bagels, which I am really a fan of lately. Then we came back and tried to get a member for the lesson that we were able to schedule with Miki. We called a lot of members, but it was pretty hard to find some one on such short notice. Finally kojima shimai said that she could come and so we were able to have a really awesome lesson at the church with them. Yui chan wasn't there, so it was just really focused on Miki san. She asked one funny question. Why should I listen to you who are so young and have so much less experience. haha we had some fun answers for that. But having kojima shimai there was a really great help and addition to experience. Members at every lesson really is such an important part of this work. Elder Graham and I went to shin Sapporo and had a really fun time there. We ran into two member family's, the Takahashi's and the Hayashi's. It was good to talk with them. Then we found a really awesome kid who is getting ready to go into college. He really seemed pretty willing to listen and to act, so Elder Graham are excited for him. We will hopefully be able to line video chat with both him on Sunday and have Elder Graham join that as well. Elder Graham and I ate at donguri which is a really good bakery. I learned from him about viewing your morning prayer as creating your day spiritually. Very interesting and powerful idea. Elder Graham and I talked about our relationship and how we really have become like brothers. It is such a blessing to have earned a friend like Elder Graham on my mission. 

11/18 Saturday 

Today we switched back from splits and that was kind of crazy. Then we finished a lot of business that we had to take care of. President and Sister McClure came back from Korea, their flight had gotten delayed and so they stayed another night in Korea. We were able to have our missionary family home evening activity tonight, which went really well. The yoneta family all came; Miki and yui went to the relief society activity before the FHE activity and then we had an awesome fhe, curry and then ping pong! Masahiro also came and we were  able to have some fun ping pong. Miki mom did ping pong in school and so she was pretty good! And then there was this other guy who is deaf so in sign language he told us that he was number 1 in that room, and he was super serious about it, so I took it upon myself to humble him a little bit. He wasn't so sure of being number 1 after that. Masahiro was being so funny. He is such a great dad. I love that family so much. The bishop and the nishihara's were also there, which was so fun and awesome. He literally looks and dresses, and even acts like a college G. Haha its the funniest thing ever and against everything that Japanese culture makes a bishop to be. At the end we gathered everyone together and I shared a thought about the elephant. A small elephant is taken into the zoo and doesn't have the strength to break the chain that keeps it captive, but it tries and tries until it finally gives up. Then the elephant gets very big, and has complete capacity to break the chain, but doesn't, simply because he doesn't know that he can. We are sometimes like elephants. Old challenges continue to hold us back, because we don't know that we can break through and be free of them. We can't recognize how much stronger we have become.   

11/19 Sunday 

Today we were able to teach Koyanagi after church. He came to church! He is a referral from Naori shimai! He is awesome, and is exercising so much faith without us really doing to much, because it is more through Naori shimai. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and really were able to make progress in his understanding and faith. 

Tonight we were able to go to the yoneta's house! We were returning her phone because she had left it at the church at the activity yesterday. It was really good to be in there house. You can really learn a lot about someone from their house. The yoneta's are a really family based, upper middle class family that is very happy. We shared the video "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father" and asked them what they thought and yui chan was so cute. She said "I'm glad to be alive." Miki said she felt really good, and then Masahiro said that it was going to take some time for him. He also said that he is going to be difficult. Haha I love him. 

President talked with us tonight about a missionary, and it was good to be back with him again. I have gotten really used to talking and consulting with President McClure very often. It is a great blessing to be so close to him. 

11/20 Monday 

Today we went bowling with Akamatsu choro and moiwa district! It was so fun. It was so nostalgic of last year with Elder Akamastu bowling like 20 games just us two at round 1. So fun. We competed today and I won, but he still had a higher score for the whole day, and so to him that's one kind of win, so we just laugh at each other. Haha he is the funniest and the best. Tonight we had a community volleyball activity. It was super fun with these older ladies and this one member. So fun to be a missionary here in Atsubetsu. The members and the people that we are working with right now are so awesome! 

I know that God lives. I know that he loves you. I know that prayer is real and that when we pray for people specifically, God really does listen to our prayers and provide the help and guidance that we need. I love you and am so grateful for your love and support.

Love, Elder Conover

Crazy Week!

11/7- Tuesday

Today I woke up at 5:30 with Elder Sakae, the Japanese office Elder, such a hilarious and awesome nihonjin. We went to the driver's center place about 40 minutes away, practiced driving the course that I will have to drive for the test for an hour, got the course down and was feeling pretty good about the test. We had our appointment for the written test/paper work after the practice, and so we did that an went to city hall and got my visa proof type of paper thing, took the written test and passed, but it's so easy a 5 year old could pass it, so that wasn't  a big deal. Then we went to make the appointment for the actual driving test, which I had been told wouldn't be able to be until December, by both previous missionaries, and by the people at the driving place. This would mean that we would not have a license as assistants for about a month, assuming I passed on the first try, which is something that apparently has never even been heard of, but it actually has been heard of, just never an expectation, nor a common thing. So the time came for the lady at the counter to give me the date when I could come back to actually take the driving test, and she looked at the calendar and said, "there's actually an opening this Friday at 1pm." My heart rejoiced. Such a miracle!! I couldn't believe it! It was amazing because that was probably the only time this week that it would have worked anyway, because with transfer week and the missionaries coming in and going home most times would have been impossible, but that time was perfect! I told President McClure, and he just said, "that's great! Now here's the real question, can you pass on the first try?" haha. I was really sick today too, and we even tried going to the hospital to make sure that I didn't have strep throat, but the wait was over 3 hours and so we didn't stick around. 

Then tonight we went to pick up the new missionaries from the airport! 16 new missionaries and 1 missionary coming back from going home for the second time! Such a boss! He has had some pretty bad health issues, but is such a great missionary, I am way happy that he made it back out. He came into the mission after being home for 3 months the first time, with me and my group that came in together! Then he went home about 8 months later, and has been home for a long time, now he's back, has about a year left and is full of fire. Elder McCreary. Very happy to have him back. The new missionaries are super awesome! They are really going to to some amazing things here. It is so cool to ask them why they came on their mission and see their faith and love for the Lord. 

11/8 Wednesday

Today we had breakfast with the new missionaries, had some trainings, I had a chance to talk with them about working with members, overcoming fear, and being consecrated. I got to go to the temple with them today! It was wonderful to have an extra opportunity to go to the temple. I love the temple. 

We ate costco pizza, and then I got to take two of the missionaries out to contact people! It was such a fun opportunity! Truly men of God, Elder Johnson, and Elder Stroybur (pronunciation, not spelling.) We made a plan, using the planning process, and went out to the people, we were able to share the first vision 5 or 6 times and give out a few book of mormons. We found one younger guy that was willing to make an appointment, so that was great, but the coolest part of these 45 minutes was watching first one of the new missionaries, and then the other follow suit, testify from their hearts in the simple, powerful and broken Japanese that they have learned for the last 2 months, so that they would be able to share the gospel to the Japanese people. Such a powerful experience. It's those kind of 45 minutes' that I especially treasure on my mission. 

We went back to honbu and the new missionaries met their trainers! It was a lot of fun. President did some awesome training about faith such and I had fun translating for the new Japanese missionaries. From that we all ate dinner, 16 beans, 16 trainers, 6 office people, the most people that have probably ever eaten there. 

It was super fun with all my good friends becoming trainers, it felt like a big party. 

Then more training, and then an awesome testimony meeting, then the chaos of getting them all over to temple housing and trying to get them in their rooms and with the right instructions to make sure that they leave in the morning the way that they need to, etc. Then made it back to the apartment, finished my push ups and went to bed, completely exhausted and still very sick. 

11/9 Thursday 

The new missionaries left, the returning missionaries came in, we went out to lunch with half of the missionaries going home and also with this major homie that did homestay with elder Jensen's family in Alaska! We had a great conversation about why we came on missions, and about how to gain a testimony. 

Thursday night we gathered together for sukiyaki, which was amazing like always. 1 of my companions, Elder Bailey, I was companion's with him for the 3 week transfer in a trio with Elder Kim. I love Elder Bailey. He was also my district leader for a couple transfers. I loved having super deep conversations with him. He is an interesting/brilliant guy. Also Elder Sugimioto, one of the funniest Japanese Elder's in the mission is going home. That is sad. And also sister Nakazawa is the shortest sister and has so much sass, so it is sad to see her go as well.

We had a really cool testimony meeting, which I translated into Japanese again, and then kaicho's message about returning home from the mission. It was really powerful. 

11/10 Friday 

Today we drove with the returning missionaries to the airport, and it was really sad to see them go, but also fun to be able to go with them and watch them move to the next journey. It was weird that it didn't make me think about my quickly approaching return; my mission ending still feels intangible. We drove home from the airport, completely exhausted from this week. I asked President McClure for a blessing for my driving test today, and he gave me a beautiful blessing, I felt really at peace and a lot of trust in God. Elder sakae and I went to the driving center, I got my instructions, got drilled on the course in some pretty intense Japanese, by a military style Japanese man, and then got put in the car and drove the test, I accidentally started driving with the emergency break on, which gave me a heart attack, and docked me probably pretty bad on points. You start at 100 and can't go down below 70; but there's also like 6 things that if you do you immediately fail. Haha. I fortunately was able to drive well and ended up being able to get an 80, and so I passed!! It was one of the greatest moments of my life, and a major sense of relief. A couple hours later, I got my actual Japanese license. Such a great moment. Now we can drive, which is so good, because President is going to Korea next week for a mission president Conference, and if I didn't have my license then we wouldn't be able to do the exchanges with the zone leaders that we really need to do this week. We got my license and then finally came home and did some things that we had to get done and went to bed exhausted. 

11/11 Saturday 

Today we met for a little bit with President McClure and set the dates for the next transfer, it looks like its going to be quite full and pretty intense, but that is always the best way so I'm excited! Today we got some things under control and had an awesome lunch with the office couple missionaries, Elder and Sister Van Forell! Very good food and very fun. They are so nice. We went to the office, finished watching some of the videos for Facebook, set up all of our splits for this transfer and had some good finding time, exchanged some contact information, a couple good people who will hopefully become progressing investigators. 

11/12 Sunday 

It was more of a normal Sunday this week as far as church, after church we were able to have such an awesome visit with the bishop's family. It was so cool! We knocked on the door to their apartment and they invited us in (I guess that never happens) we were able to sit down with them and Elder satou is brand new so he learned all of their 5 kids names, which was a great review for us as well, and then I talked to the oldest two about the for the strength of youth and gave them a little pocket addition of the for the strength of youth, and told them how I used to carry that around in middle school and we laughed about that, I told them of the experience of living the standard in that booklet vs not living them as righteously, and how much happier the former is. I know that the for the strength of youth is inspired and it really is so inspired, and is the safest happiest course. We then prayed and left, all in 12 minutes!!! I could feel the potential for these kinds of visits in the homes of members. Not to take their time but to come in and help them feel the Spirit, be a good influence on their kids, and then get out! The Ono family is seriously so cute, and so impressive. Their kind of family is very rare, and such a great blessing. 5 kids, 4 crazy, but really good boys, and 1 girl, who is darling. They are all 11 and under. 

From there we went to the Hirabuki's for basically a dinner that a few member family's put together and that we can bring investigators to as missionaries. The yoneta family came tonight too! It was wonderful! The dad came late, but still came! The mom and daughter really got to know members and started to make some really critical relationships. The curry that we had was so good. Nishihara kyoudai made this amazing spicy green creamy curry and it was the best curry I've ever had. The nishijima family's 18 year old son also came with them, and he is very less active, but really a good kid so we have really wanted to meet him, and we met there and were able to make an appointment to play basketball together! It was a great tender mercy. 

11/13 Monday 

Today we were finally able to get caught up on some of the things that we needed to do, it was a calmer day. I bought a half turtle neck sweater, and some cool pants at a suit store for really cheap and so that was cool. The lady there helping me was super funny and she seems like she was pretty interested in the message when I introduced her to the gospel. She also seems like she will come to English class. 

I know that God lives. I know that revelation is real. I know that President McClure has been called of God. I love you!

Weekly letter 10/30-11/15

November 19, 2017

Dear Family and Friends, 

Monday 10/30: Zone Activity at Toyohira church. It was fun, we had amazing taco salad thanks to Elder and Sister Van Forell. Tonight we had President McClure's FHE. The yoneta family came! They brought another young woman with them, and I was very surprised to find out that Miyu, the best friend of a recent convert that we taught in Toyohira, was the daughter of yoneta Miki San 

Tuesday 10/31: Today we went to Muroran for Zone conference. We were able to teach the yoneta family by video call which was super cool. Yoneta father said the prayer at the end of the lesson and they committed to pray as a family. It was super special. 

Wednesday 11/1 last Zone conference. It went well. I really love the process of inspired planning. We drove home. On the way home we discussed goals and DTM, and raising he standards and expectations of the mission. I love President McClure. 

Wednesday night: Discussed with President McClure about Mission Leadership council; how to better work with members, setting goals, the place that the mission is, and where it needs to go. We talked until too late, but it was really good. Elder Takamasa and I came home and ended up having a really good honest talk in the bathroom, (6 other elders in our apartment, because of the meeting the next day.) we talked about our relationship, and were able to resolve a lot of misunderstanding, very good, but not very good as far as sleep. 

Thursday 11/2: Woke up the next morning had mission leadership council, it was a lot of fun, we talked about a lot of stuff, and I really was able to be reminded of the importance of really committing myself to my goals. I am 100% in, or 0% in, but I need to make all of my goals goals that I will really commit to and do everything I possibly can to fulfill. Elder Takamasa didn't really want to translate, and I like translating, but on little sleep for the past few days; translating a 5 hour meeting into Japanese was quite the task. Translating is kind of a miracle. To be able to listen and speak at the same time, and transform English into Japanese is something that I wouldn't think that the brain is really capable of, but it is! Haha. I can really feel the gift of tongues, now probably more than ever, as I try to help the Japanese people to really understand what is being said.

After MLK I went on splits with Elder Bede: we made a plan, and went out and made it happen. We taught the first vision a bunch; a member saw us teaching someone on the road, and he was early for the institute class that he was going to, and so he agreed to come with us for the next 30 minutes or so. It was super awesome. He was able to share his testimony, find 2 investigators, one of which is really prepared, accepted a BOM and prayed that night. Super great miracles. We found him in the food court of this big mall kind of place. The member had never heard of doing finding at a place like that, and was pretty afraid to do it, but it was cool because he said "it is okay, because I know that missionaries receive a lot more revelation, and so I trust what you want to do. It turned out great, and this whole experience was such a building of that members faith. He is 20 years old, and is debating on whether or not to serve a mission. Great tender mercy to be able to "accidentally" get to work with him. 

After finding with this member we came back to the church and participated in a little bit of English class, where we were able to meet the yoneta family! They are so awesome! It was really fun, we talked a little bit about the differences between Japan and America, especially in terms of what is cool. Haha that always becomes the funniest conversation. We stepped out for a minute and were able to video call Takeshita kun. (A 14 year old member, who we are working with to help his friend get baptized.) it was way fun to talk to him. We used the planning process and planned with him for his friend Co-chan. It was a really powerful experience to watch him really think and pray about his friend who he really loves. 

We were able to call co-chan and work out them meeting together the next day and going to see the temple and talk about it together. Takeshita kun loves the temple and he really wants ko-chan to be able to go in it with him. 

After talking with them and after English class had ended, we were able to talk with Yoneta mom and dad, and ended up being able to teach about Jospeh smith and the restoration. The spirit was strong, and they committed to try and see how they could make coming to church work. (Right now they have some schedule conflicts with work and with yui chan's swimming program.) 

It was an awesome afternoon and evening with Elder Bede. We were together for his first 3 transfers in Toyohira. I really love him, such a great friend, and missionary. Also the funniest guy you will ever meet. Straight up comedian. 

Friday 11/3 

Today we had a really fun time with President McClure talking about transfers anplanning transfer week. We had leftover pizza from Costco that we had eaten yesterday at MLK. It has been awesome to have Costco pizza a lot here in Japan. There was a temple tour activity that we had here which a lot of missionaries also came and brought people to. Probably about 50-60 members/missionaries/investigators. President gave us the assignment of teaching the first lesson, especially the first vision from wherever he left it off. I translated for him, this type of translating is nice because it is not at the same time. It is one sentence at a time, but it is really hard to remember what was said sometimes. Then we went into the lesson and it was really powerful. The Spirit was really strong, and it was a really big blessing to be able to share our testimonies with all of those people that were there. 

After that ended one of the people that had come with two member friends, heard about priesthood blessings, and then they asked me to explain to her what a priesthood blessing is, and she said that she was getting surgery in a few days and she would like a blessing. So we were able to give her a blessing, which was a really cool experience as well. I could really feel God's love for her. 

 (Btw it was awesome to see elder Akamatsu and elder Smith there too.) 

After we finished everything with that we met with kaicho and were able to finish the process Of planning transfers for the sisters! Great to get that done. It was a really good day. 

Saturday 11/4  

Today we finished transfer planning! It was a really cool experience to as President says, "help create something." I feel like this transfer a lot of missionaries  will be able to work really well and fulfill what God has planned for His children. 

After we finished we did a little bit of office work, and went out to sushi as a last a

Apartment meal basically! Sushi here is absolutely amazing. We then had Stake Conference adult session tonight, which President McClure wants missionaries to attend because missionary work is always talked about during that time, and we need to know what is being said about missionary work, so that we can work better with members. Great night.

Sunday 11/5 

It was an awesome Stake conference today. All of my 4 areas, except my first area, are all in the this Stake, so I have lived in this the Sapporo Stake for about a year and 3 months. Crazy. So Toyohira and Eniwa and of course right now, Atsubetsu members were all there, himawari chan and Noguchi kyoudai, converts that I got to see be baptized from Toyohira, and the Yokoishi family from Eniwa, were there. Many glorious reunions with them, and with many members. I really love this Stake. Elder hiyashi, of the seventy came and gave us an awesome talk. He has power and is filled with the Spirit, I love the leaders of the church. They are always such great examples and so impressive. 

After the meeting I tried to pass out as many meishis as I could before people left, and it went pretty good. It was really good to be able to talk with Noguchi kyoudai and himawari chan. 

After people had left we were able to teach Naori shimai's friend; koyanagi san. He came to church 2 weeks ago, and to stake conf. This week. So awesome that Naori shimai just shared the gospel with him through going to his vegetable stand place that he owns/runs. We taught him about the plan of salvation, because that was what he said that he wanted to learn about, and then we connected it to the restoration, and were able to teach about Joseph Smith, and give a Book of Mormon to him with the invitation to find out for himself whether or not it is true. We invited him to pray at the end and he did! It was so awesome! 

After that we quickly came back, prepared taco rice and brought over the stuff for taco rice to the shimajiri Family's home where Hayashi kyoudai, a recent convert, and again Naori shimai and her friend koyanagi san, all came. It was super great. We ate together and the members were able to build strong, and really important relationships with koyanagi and with Hayashi.

From there we had to race over to the church, where the bishopric had planned a dinner activity to talk with and try and work with the missionaries. (Huge miracle.) The bishopric with all of their families were there and we ate dinner, (yes, this was the second time eating dinner, back to back.) We were able to talk with and really become seamless with the bishopric. Bishop Ono is 35, has 5 kids, and is just so cool, and such a fun, outgoing and character of a person. He doesn't follow any of the traditional Japanese customs, and his family is basically just this beautiful model family that is super strong in the gospel; and pretty crazy. I talked with Bishop Ono about Yoneta family and ko-chan, and he told me about several part member family's and less actives, and I really felt like we were a team. Such a great evening. This ward has such amazing people, so many such strong members. I always joke that Atsubetsu ward to Hokkaido, is like Utah to America, in terms of just being super strong and having a lot of members. It would really help some areas to have some of these awesome members move to less strong areas, but of course people want to live where the church is strong, where their kids can at least have 1 member friend or somewhat of a youth program. 

Monday 11/5

Today was a really crazy day. We went to Otaru. It took about 45 minutes to get there; all of the district in our area plus us, 8 people, in the mission home assistants car! It was a party! We made it there and walked all around otaru, and I was able to have a really interesting conversation with sister Iwasa. She is such a complex, but ina different way, a very Japanese way, very simple. I was able to help her understand a lot of misunderstanding that had caused her frustration or hurt, or just less enjoyment. As we were talking it was really interesting how I realized that sometimes in some situations, the most selfless thing to do is to accept service from others, and the more selfish thing could be to take the service role; especially if taken all the time, and not allowing others to take it. This is a really interesting phenomenon. Perhaps sometimes we need to be willing to accept service graciously, and not be the one to do all of the service. I love learning about life and about myself from a people and a culture that is so completely opposite of the way that my personality is configured, and the way that I was raised and grew up. I also talked with her about how she feels like people don't want to talk to her because they'd rather talk in English and she doesn't speak English, and so she really wants people to talk to who they want to talk to and not be burdened by having to talk with her, and in Japanese; so sad and not true at all. I had thought, along with everyone else, they when she was kind of quiet and a little apart from everyone else, that she liked to be alone with her thoughts, and didn't necessarily want to talk. The truth is is that sister Iwasa is a very interesting person, and everyone wanted to talk to her, but because she didn't think that, and she was so quick to sacrifice herself that she was depriving herself of a more enjoyable experience, and others also of a more interesting fun experience. When we discovered this together she really was pretty shocked. It was cool how much we learned about culture, personality, and communication, throughout our discussion. 

We got back in the car to head back and I needed to stop in teine, a town just outside of Sapporo, right before Otaru, to get a reservation to practice for my driving test. (You HAVE to go in person, just to reserve it.) but we got it reserved, headed back, and when we got back my new, and old, companion elder Satou, was there!! Elder Satou has become the new assistant, and I get to be companions with him again! Exactly a year ago we were companions, and he is such a great missionary, I am so excited to work with him again. We went to mini-volleyball tonight, and Elder Satou was going too hard and sprained his ankle pretty bad! Pretty rough for him first day here! He seems like he'll be okay though! I have also  been very sick, which has been really annoying, and a struggle. I hope to get better quickly, but it is hard when I keep on getting cut on sleep, and being so busy! Now we are starting transfers week!! 16 new missionaries coming, and 10 going home! The biggest there has ever been! It's going to be insane! So yes, that was this week. 

I know that this work is God's work. I know that God Loves His children, and that he has a specific and perfect plan for each of us. I love this Work. 

Love, Elder Conover

Zone conference

October 29, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,
Well hello!! I hope that you are all doing wonderful. Today we were able to go to the temple, and so our Pday was today.

I don't how to explain what has been happening here since last Monday, but I will try to help you get a little bit of a feel for what has been going on. 

So on Tuesday last week, we had our first zone conference, with the Atsubetsu Zone. (One of the two Sapporo zone's, Toyohira is in that zone which is where worked for 9 months.) It was cool to see all that we had really planned and worked on come together and happen. President McClure is having us do quite a bit during this round of Zone Conferences, and so there was a lot of pressure, but I do well with pressure, and so despite the stress it was really fun.

Rundown of Zone Conference:                                                                                                                        

1. New Culture of Obedience. (President McClure) All mission rules went away, and we just need to rely on the Spirit, follow the Missionary handbook, and desire to do the right thing. In the church we gain obedience by teaching freedom. We are now giving Freedom to missionaries, and they can choose to be obedient and to follow God, and to what degree, on their own. I have learned a lot from President McClure about this, and I have really gained a testimony of the importance of honoring people's agency. But of course missionaries can also use their agency in a way that will wind up in them also having made the decision to go home. But it will have been them that chose it. President McClure does not send missionaries home. Missionaries send themselves home. 

2. New Chapter for PMG with a new Planning process. (Elder Takamasa and I were in charge of this part.) 

This new chapter of Preach my Gospel has a truly inspired process that has changed the way that I will plan and approach problems and solutions for the rest of my life. 

Planning process: (The beauty of this planning process is that it is carried out for each individual, one person at a time.)

1 Pray for and seek inspiration

Brigham Young taught, "Your spiritual life can never exceed the strength of your prayer life." This principle has proven true to me time and time again. I have decided that a companionship's ability to receive revelation, work in unity, and have the spirit, can also be very reliant upon how they are praying. Prayers should be focused on something, specific, and answerable. We can recognize if our prayers are effective if we can see how a prayer was answered. So in the planning process our prayers are directed towards receiving inspiration about an individual, and about what they need, these prayers are probably not very long. 

2 Review Progress

In this new chapter it has example questions that serve as a guide for us in directing out we would review progress, set goals, and make plans. 

Review Progress:

◦How has this investigator’s faith in the Savior grown this week? Is he or she developing “faith unto repentance” (Alma 34:15)? If not, why? 

◦Is [name] preparing for baptism and confirmation on a specific date? Is there anything keeping him or her from progressing toward that goal? 

◦How are members, including the ward council, helping? If they are not, how can we encourage them to help? 

◦Did [name] attend church this week? If not, why? 

◦Is he or she praying daily? If not, why? 

◦Is he or she reading the Book of Mormon every day? If not, why? 

◦Is [name] keeping other commitments we have invited him or her to keep? If not, why? ◦Did we ask [name] about friends or family who might be interested in and benefit from our message? If not, when will we do that?

As we talk about some of these questions as a companionship will find a need and then we can make a goal that will meet the need that has been given to us through inspired conversation. 

Then you work through these next 3 steps and that is how you can plan in a way that you will receive inspiration, and really help people to progress and come unto Christ. 

3 Set Goals

4 Make Plans

5 Pray Again

^^see "how do I fulfill my purpose" a new planning chapter for PMG, replacing the old chapter 8. 

President McClure prophesied that this new way of planning if carried out diligently, will change our mission, and will bring the blessings and miracles that are promised, to Hokkaido. 

3. The first vision- in a contact being able to share Joseph smiths experience and a tiny bit of background, and your testimony in 1-2 minutes. We gave demonstrations of these, and asked them to prepare, and then had 2 of them share what kind of thing they had come up with to share. It was so powerful. Every time it came to Joseph Smith's words, the spirit really became so strong, and every time you could feel the power in what was being shared. I know that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration. When Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove, I know that he really did meet Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

4. Online Proselyting. We gave everyone in the mission permission to start using Facebook and line. We talked about some of the precautions, passed out the new pages to the missionary handbook regarding social media and technology use, answered some questions and testified of the trust that God has in us, and of the importance that we honor that trust. 

5. President's closing thoughts. 

It has been such a wonderful experience to be doing these Zone conferences. It is also a really fun challenge for Elder Takamasa and I, and usually someone in the zone, for when we are presenting, to translate these meetings from English to Japanese for the Japanese Elders and Sisters. I am convinced that there is nothing that takes more brainpower/mental capacity than translating in live time. 

So that is is the rundown for Zone conference. Now I am going to send another email about what has happened in between and throughout these two weeks as zone conference has taken place. 

Thank you for reading my long letter, and if you didn't that is totally okay too!!!! I love you! 

コノバー長老
Elder Conover