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

Still behind, but enjoy this letter from a few weeks back

11/28 Tuesday. 

Today was zone conference. It went really well, but it would have been better for translating if I had had more sleep. 

Zone conference looked like this. 

Health-Sister McClure

Consecration-Turning your will over to God’s will- President McClure. 

Passion-Find passion in missionary work and about becoming a consecrated missionary. -Elder Conover. 

Making and setting Goals-Elder Sato

Goals being God’s command, and then God providing a way for us to accomplish the thing which he hath commanded. We just have to find out what God’s command is for our area. -Elder Conover

Finding segment- Elder Sato

“Things that we will no longer do as a mission when finding” -Elder Conover. (Basically robotic, and repetitive things got destroyed, and also all of the excuses for public places and not talking to the opposite gender, yeah we got rid of all of those, so now missionaries know that they are expected to talk to everyone at all times, and they won’t ever use the same basic approach ever again. Start a conversation like a human being, and lead directly from that to a gospel principle, and then to your purpose, as they as you questions and you have a human interaction.) 

Finding Statistics, and new standard of excellence for daily contacts. 

-President McClure 

Working with members, mini segment-President McClure. 

This was pretty much the layout for the zone conferences. 

On Tuesday there was no one that could really translate, so I had to translate everything, and even when I talked I translated part of what I said, although one of the Japanese elders was able to mostly translate what I said. I guess that President McClure’s English is especially hard for Japanese to understand, let alone translate. But it was too bad, because after having stayed up late, and with it being the first zone conference, therefore the first time actually experiencing it, my translation wasn’t very good. Hopefully the Japanese still got the main parts. ;/ 

After Zone conference we got back and I was able to have a really good conversation with Miki san on the phone. She has progressed so much it is so awesome. We were able to set up a video appointment for tomorrow, so that should be really good. Starting at 7pm we met with President and were supposed to plan mission leadership council meeting, but we ended up talking more about addictions and the law of chastity, and he taught us a lot about what bishops and stake presidents experience and help with. President McClure is such a good man. I am so grateful for the Spirit and the blessing of being cleansed each week as I take the sacrament, and to be able to continually be better. Then we ended up reviewing zone conference, and were able to adjust some things, which really should help us, moving forward. 

11/29 Wednesday 

Today we went up to Asahikawa, called yui chan and Miki san and had an awesome lesson on video call with Hayashi Shimai on as well! Technology is so cool! We were able to have a team up online lesson while we were in a city two hours away! Oh, by the way it was fun to drive President and sister McClure here from Sapporo. For our lesson we taught this time to Yui chan the message of the restoration, which was so awesome because she is so believing and has such a strong faith. After the lesson we were able to go out to eat with one of my favorite less actives that I worked with in my first area, Suehiro! I haven’t seen her in almost a year and a half! It was so awesome to talk with her, and really have a fully natural and easy conversation with her, compared to back when I first knew her. Great tender mercy. She took us to a really nice Yaki niku place, and it was a really nice meal that she was so nice to treat us to. I love japan, and I love these people. I really love this less active. She really needs to soften her heart and forgive the people at church who were wrong to her, continue to read the Book of Mormon and strengthen her testimony again. 

After that we went back to the church and held a meeting with the zone leaders and the district leaders from Asahikawa zone. We talked about a lot of things. We discussed the tools that they have in order to help their missionaries, and we talked about taking accountability for the zone or the district, and really trying to influence in a way that there is progress and that missionaries are improving and progressing. We talked about leading in the Savior’s way and the importance of the Spirit. We talked about not letting a meeting ever be led on accident. Meetings should be planned by the spirit, and prayers and hymns should be selected by the person assigned to run the meeting, and they should pick who prays and what hymns are sung, prayerfully. It was a really fun meeting, and we are excited for a great zone conference tomorrow, keep the fingers crossed. 

11/30 Thursday 

Today’s zone conference went really well!! It was a lot better than I expected it to be, because it went a lot better then the one in Atsubetsu on Tuesday. The zone was so responsive, and we were able to be in a smaller room and make it more of a close kind of environment, which really helped with the things that I was talking about. At the beginning of the morning, we had a pretty intense message from Miki san about her husband waking her up at 4:30 AM and asking her to not get baptized and to stop, and promise not to get baptized until he was content. She sent a message to us, and also a message in the group with a bunch of the members. As zone conference was going on I occasionally checked my iPad, and I didn’t have time to read, but I could just see the many messages going back and forth from the members and Miki san over this situation. The members are SO awesome!! We finished zone conference, and as we were driving home in a huge blizzard, I made some calls, and President dropped us off at eikaiwa so that we wouldn’t be too late, so that we could talk to the yoneta’s at Eikawa. The Father, Masahiro, was very stiff, and had a huge wall with us, so it was hard to get through to him much tonight. Hopefully he will soften up more. We came back and had about half an hour to talk about and plan Mission Leadership council, which wasn’t very much time, so good thing President is the runner of that meeting. Haha. President is so awesome. We got home exhausted and slept great tonight.

12/1 Friday 

Today was MLC, it went well, and was good to be with the leaders in the mission. I have developed some wonderful relationships with different missionaries on my mission, that I will always be grateful for. 

Translating this meeting was a little bit simpler, because it was more of a conversation, and so a little bit more time that people are thinking, and more natural language, vs. a prepared presentation. Miki san said that yui chan was sick and asked what a priesthood blessing was! Such an awesome question! I was on splits with Elder Fukino after the leadership meeting, and so we had a good conversation with Miki on the phone, and were able to teach and really have a great learning experience with her about her and her conversion. Then we went and visited two members, who were both home and we were able to teach lessons to. The Kishi family, and the kobayashi family. Great members, with such cute little kids. From there we went to the food court and found a couple new investigators with pretty good potential. Elder Fukino taught me a lot. He is a convert and is 24 years old. He converted when he was 22. He is so happy and fun, and full of love. He really cares about the people and is an amazing example. It was great to really have an exchange that helped me to think and reflect more about what kind of feeling I have toward my work, and how I talk to and show love to people. 

12/2 Saturday 

Today there was this awesome concert that the youth in the ward put on with lots of music. We were able to bring a less active member, and it was really good for him. It is basically just an all music performance, that is really uplifting and spiritual. I loved it. Such pretty music and such great talent. 

12/3 Sunday 

Today the whole yoneta family came to church!! It was so great!! The husband came because determined to understand what kind of crazy things we do, and to actually experience for himself what this church thing actually was. At this point he had looked up things on the internet, and had run into some of the common complaints that people make about the church, confirming his uneasiness towards religion. He participated well in gospel principles, but the tension was still pretty high. We then went and had a little meeting with the bishop, Elder Satou, Masahiro and I, in the bishop’s office. It was really really intense. We started hearing his questions, and then ended up just asking if we could explain some things before hearing all of his concerns. We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation, and then answered a couple of his questions. It went well, and he feels a little bit satisfied, but I don’t think the “mountain of questions” that he said he had on Thursday are all answered/resolved yet. After that we rejoined with the members, and finally masahiro’s walls seemed to be down and he was finally having fun and relaxing. This afternoon we had interviews with President McClure, which was really awesome. He told me that I am not normal,  in a really complimentary way. I am grateful for the opportunity to grow and learn, here in Japan.

After that we went to the Nishihara family’s house with the Yoneta’s and had an awesome Curry no yube (Family home evening, but with curry for dinner.) a lot of people came, and it was really good for everyone. Masahiro was so much more relaxed, and you could see that a lot of his troubles had been appeased. 

12/4 Monday

Today was a crazy day. We went to Odori and met a lot of the old awesome missionaries, Elder Akamatsu Elder Graham, some of the sisters that are going home, and we kind of shopped, and then there was a zone activity, but we just saw the lights and then came back,and went to volleyball with the moms that we play volleyball with occasionally. It was really fun to be with some of my great mission buddies. 

I know that serving a mission has been the greatest blessing of my life. I am so happy to be here in Japan and working to help people to come unto Christ. I know that prayer is real. I know that God loves us. 

I love you and am so grateful for you and all the support and love that you have for me. 

Love, Elder Conover

コノバー長老
Elder Conover

Photos:

1. Right out side of the mission office. 

2. Driving President and Sister McClure to Zone conference in Asahikawa.

3. A few of the amazing members helping with the yoneta’s. 

4. We helped set up this nativity. 

5. This family was so cute and nice. We started talking to them while we were getting lunch, and the mom all of a sudden just picked up her baby, and went to pass him to me to hold him!! It was really cool! Unfortunately I had to explain to her that we can’t hold babies during this time as a missionary here. She seemed okay with that, but it was so nice that she was willing to just let me hold her baby all of a sudden like that. I love babies. 

6. The yoneta’s at the temple; representing the time when they will be sealed together in the temple. Please pray for them! 

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!