Sunday, January 31, 2016

3rd Transfer



Hello to everyone! Its a beautiful day in Japan!  This past week was
transfers and my freaking awesome trainer, Barton Choro got
transferred which really sucked! He became a zone leader in Kyoto with
one of the other elders from our apartment, Matsumoto Choro. They
became companions and on Thursday, they headed up to Shimogamo to be
some amazing leaders for this mission. My new companion is Techavimol
Choro, but we just call him Tech Choro, because its easier. He is an
8th transfer, from Seattle Washington. This is his first time in a
city area, so its been way different for him. He has served all of his
mission in the country side. This is also his first time being a
senior companion. Since I have been in the area longer, and I know the
people, and the area, I have been in charge of everything. I have
taken the role of senior companion. Which has been a really good
growing opportunity for me! Answering phone calls, making
appointments, contacting people on the street, and making sure all of
our lessons are planned and reported. Im not going to say it has been
easy on me,  but this transfer is definitely going to help me grow and
change quickly!

On Friday night, I got a call from a less active member who told me
and Barton Choro 3 or 4 weeks ago, that he didnt want to see us
anymore, and that the mormon church wasnt for him. We tried many
times, to see if we could talk to him, even just as friends, and not
talk about the gospel, because Barton Choro was transferring, but he
said sorry, he couldnt. But on friday, he called and I talked to him
on the phone for 30-45 minutes. He told me how he has really been
praying about the book of mormon and about the church, to see if it is
true. But he isnt getting an answer. I talked to him about acting,
because sometimes, it is easier for heavenly father to answer our
questions when we are doing what he asks of us. I asked him how he
could act and he said he could meet with the missionaries and asked if
we could meet the next day. So the next day we met with him and had a
great lesson and then he came to church the next day! So hopefully we
will help him recognize his answer to his prayers.

Last night all 10 of us missionaries from my area, and the area next
to us, ate dinner at the stake presidents house and had a very good
time. We talked about things we can do to change this areas dendo.
(Mission work) We are working hard to see a baptism every single week!
I know we can do it if we are obedient and work super hard!!

Anyways, we are going to Kyoto today, so my email is going to be
short. But I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for all your
love and support!
Evans Choro





Sunday, January 24, 2016

Hello hello! From a bone chilling, freezing cold, Osaka, Japan


Hello hello! From a bone chilling, freezing cold, Osaka, Japan!

This week was very interesting! We were in Kobe at the mission home
for 2 days! But we were still able to teach 23 lessons in our area! On
Tuesday we had something called TTT which means "Trainer Trainee
Training". We went to the humbu (mission home) and had a big meeting
with everyone that I was in the MTC with! There, we received
instruction from Welch Kaicho and Welch Shimai, as well as from the
AP's. It was a really fun day, and a really spiritual time for all of
us. It was also awesome to see all of my pals from the MTC, including
our kouhai! (Missionaries that are 1 transfer behind us) One of the
things that was taught by one of our AP's is that we as young
missionaries, don't have to wait for our senior companions to do
something, and then follow them. We have been called to the same area
as them, so we need to make things happen as well. We shouldn't just
be following our senior companion around everywhere.

After TTT, my comp and we're heading home on the train, and I decided
to take what I had learned from our AP, and apply it. There was a 16
year old boy standing behind me, and I decided I was going to talk to
him. So I turned around and started having a conversation with him. My
companion was talking to some other people at the time, and he was
very happy and surprised when he turned around to see me having a
conversation with someone by myself. I talked to the kid for about 15
minutes, by myself and was able to teach him about what we do, and
what we believe. He was Catholic (which is rare to see another
Christian in Japan) so it was pretty easy to teach him about God and
about our church. I was very proud that I was able to open my mouth
and have a conversation with someone by myself, and trust in the
spirit.

Later that night, I had another good experience with opening my mouth.
We were at a less active ladies house. Her name is kazumi Shimai
(sister kazumi) and we were taking with her and I was understanding
just a little bit of what was going on. I got a major feeling that I
needed to ask her about when she got baptized. So I did, and she told
us how amazing it was when she got baptized, and it brought back some
really good memories of why she joined the church in the first place.
From that question, it changed our whole lesson plan. My companion was
so proud of me, and he knew that that was a prompting of the spirit,
which helped us teach to her needs. That lesson was one of the most
spiritual experiences I have had on my mission. The spirit was there
so strong and we were really able to help her out.

We had a pretty crazy experience on Saturday morning. My companion and
I found some kid who is part of another church, and on Thursday we
taught him, and he asked if we could check out his church because he
checked ours out. We decided to be nice and we said yes. So on
Saturday we went to his church, but we brought the other 2 Nihongen
(Japanese) elders in our apartment with us, just for safety πŸ˜‰ We went into this
kids church, and it was immediately sketchy. The spirit was not there
at all. It was a beautiful building, but I could immediately feel that
we shouldn't be there. They had us take off our shoes and coats, and
do a little washing thing, which is Japanese culture. Then they wanted
to take us upstairs to show us their chapel. When we got up to the
3rd, and highest floor, my chest tightened up, and Hashimoto Choro
looked and me and said that he felt the same thing. They showed us the
3rd floor and then took us down to the second floor where they were
doing some extremely weird ordinance called jourei. 2 people would sit
across from each other, one would bow their head and close their eyes
while the other put their hand up, kind of In front of the persons
face. They said they were "transferring Gods light into each other."
Then they told us we had to do it, and we told them all we wanted to
do was to hear what their church was about. The lady started telling
us that we didn't have a choice, and that we had to do it. My
companion stepped up, after a lot of talk back and forth with the
people, and he said we were absolutely not going to do it, but that we
would love to sit down and talk about their religion.

They finally took us into another room, where it was 4 on 4. 4 of
them, and us 4 elders. We asked about what they believe in, and they
explained a little bit about it. Then we asked why they converted and
their story. Each one of them told us, and then they asked us why we
were Mormon. Each of us took a turn to testify, and we testified super
hard. When it was my turn, I had no idea what I was going to say, but
I opened my mouth and testified super hard. The spirit was so strong,
and the 4 people from the other church really liked the talk about
Christ when we testified. When we were done meeting with them, and
leaving a lady from before tried to make us get joureid again, but we
said no thanks.

When we finally were able to leave, we were all so pumped up and happy
that we testified so hard. The spirit was definitely not in that
building when we walked in, but through testifying, the spirit came in
abundance. The other elders were so proud of me and how well I
testified. It was definitely the gift of tongues given to me, when we
needed it the most. THE SPIRIT IS SO REAL!!

On Thursday in Kobe, we had Elder Choi from the quorum of the 70 come
and speak to us. He is in the area presidency and did a mission tour
most of the week. He gave us some really good instruction and we are
working to see a baptism every single week. They know we can do it, we
just need to change our mind set. It was a really good day on
Thursday, receiving Instruction from a general authority.

Anyways, sorry that this email was so long, there were so many crazy
stories to share from this week. I feel like I have grown so much in
the gospel and in the language this week. After that crazy experience
in that  other church, I was super grateful that I have the true
gospel in my life.

We also just found out that my companion and one of the elders in our
apartment will be transferring to Kyoto to be zone leaders. Welch
Kaicho just called them to let them know. I won't know if I'm
transferring, or staying, or who my new companion is until tomorrow or
the next day! But I will be getting a new companion sadly. I'm gunna
miss big Barton Choro. After Thursday, I will no longer be in
training. I will be a normal missionary! Yay!

My love and prayers to you all!! Have a great, and safe week!

Evans Choro



Monday, January 18, 2016

Missions are Awesome!


Hello everyone!

Another week has passed, and a lot has happened! It was a really quick
week because we were pretty busy! Lets just jump right into it! We
taught a total of 27 lessons this week, and for a whole day, we
weren't even in our area. So it was a very successful week for us!! On
Tuesday we had interviews with our AMAZING mission president, Welch
Kaicho! For interviews we get 15 minutes with him, and it goes by SO
FAST so you have to be prepared with what you want to talk about with
him. For this interview he asked us to say the opening prayer for the
interview in Japanese. Then we talked about our four gospel challenge
(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and applied it to our missionary work.
He gave me some amazing insights on the four gospels, and it was an
awesome 15 minutes!

This week we also had kokkans (companion exchanges) with our zone
leaders. Since my companion is our district leader, we both get the
opportunity to go on splits with the zone leaders. Our zone leaders
are in the area right next to us, and they share the same church
building with us, so their area isn't too far away. I went with Miller
Choro. He is from America but he is fluent in Japanese because his
whole life he moved back and forth between Utah and Japan. His mom is
Japanese and his dad is America. I'm SUPER jealous of his Japanese! We
spent the day climbing hills looking for a couple of less active
members houses. Then we went with my companion and the other zone
leader to a 19 year old members house for dinner. Overall, the kokkan
was a lot of fun! It's always fun to split off with another missionary
and see how they do missionary work.

Yesterday I had to speak In sacrament meeting for 10 minutes. IN
JAPANESE!!!! I pretty much got up on the stand and made funny noises
in the microphone and told everyone to listen for the whole 10
minutes. Poor members who had to watch and listen and endure all of my
talk! That's why enduring to the end is a commandment right? Though it
was a very good learning experience to have to translate a talk, and
then speak in front of everyone. We also had 3 of our investigators
come to church, and a less active member that we have been working
with! We were very happy to see all of them come! After sacrament
meeting, we went to teach one of our very strong investigators,
Yasuyo-San. My companion met her a couple weeks before I got into the
area. She is in her 40s and has a 15 year old son. For her lesson, we
used a fun little analogy, just to make things more entertaining. We
took a dollar bill, a friction pen, and a lighter. We asked her to
scribble all over the dollar bill with the pen. She was very hesitant
to do so, but we got her to do it. The dollar bill represents us, and
the pen represents sin. We mark up the dollar to show the sins, and
then we take a lighter (which represents baptism and repentance) and
run it a little below the bill, and all of the ink disappears. It was
a fun little example to show that through baptism and repentance, we
can become clean. After that, and showing a video, we extended a
baptismal commitment, which she quickly said Yes to. Her baptismal
date is set for the middle of February, and we can't wait!! We are
super excited for her, and for her willingness to follow Jesus Christ.

We were supposed to have a baptism this week, but our investigator has
been super busy with work lately so he hasn't been able to meet, or
come to church! So we will have to push his baptism back a little bit,
so that we can make sure he is properly prepared for baptism! But he
really really wants to get baptized! So we are super excited for him
as well! Please keep him in your prayers, so that his schedule will
open up!

This week on Sunday, I am going to see my first baptism as a
missionary!! The other elders in our area have a really solid
investigator who is going to be baptized. There is still a little
preparing for him to do, but we are expecting his baptism to be within
the next week, or two!

Anyways, the work is moving forward here in Japan! I love being a
missionary, and being on his crazy wild adventure! Thank you all for
reading this! I love you all so much!!

エバンズ長老



Evidently, it's a mansion they stumbled across 


 Making Mochi



Refer to the picture above.  They are all making fun of the guy taking the
picture. Evidently, that's what he does with his hand 
in every picture......





Sunday, January 10, 2016

Week 10 in Japan






Konnichiwa!

This week was a super quick one! I want to share a quick experience
that we had his week. On Saturday, my companion and I were heading
over to an area that we hadn't been to so we didn't know how to get
there. We ended up stopping a guy on the street and asking him if he
could tell us how to get there. He was super nice and told us to
follow him and he would take us there. He took us all the way to the
place we needed, about 20-25 minutes away. We stopped in the middle of
a shoutengai (a big shopping street) and we thanked him for doing that
for us, and just started talking to him. While we were talking to him,
some Japanese guy walked up to me, and said in broken English "Are you
from the Mormon church?" I said yes, and moved over to talk to him. So
my companion was talking to one guy, and I was talking to the other.
The guy I was talking was named Takenaka. I found out that he was from
Tokyo and he was homeless. (He did not look homeless at all) His
business failed in Tokyo, and he lost his work, and his home. So he
moved down to Osaka because it's a little cheaper than Tokyo. He works
in the Shoutengai selling magazines and he sleeps behind the library.
I asked him what he knew about the church, and he said that he lived
by the Tokyo temple. Then he asked me if he came to our church, could
he learn about the bible and about Jesus Christ. I told him that
that's what we do as missionaries so if he could come to the church we
would love to teach him.
That night we were having a dinner activity with the other
missionaries and a couple of the people in the ward at 6. I told him
about the activity and invited him to come. He asked me if we could
pick him up at the train station at 6 that night, and I told him we
would be there. We taught him a little bit about how God was our
Heavenly Father while we were in the shoutengai. (at this point my
companion was helping me talk to Takenaka) At 6 o'clock, we went to
the train station and he was there waiting for us, with his suitcase
he was living out of and everything! We all ate some delicious
mabudofu that a member cooked for everyone. And then Takenaka asked if
he could learn about the bible and church. So we took him into another
room to teach him. He told us about his life, and losing his daughter
and all the struggles he is having. It almost brought us to tears. We
were able to teach him about what he wanted to know, and he wants to
meet regularly. He is a very nice guy, and just wants to make his
daughter, who passed away proud. Through meeting with him, I was so
grateful for what I have and what I have been given in my life. I want
to thank everyone for all that you have done for me in my life, and
for motivating me on my mission. I wouldn't be here today with out
every one of you. I'm super blessed.
Another interesting experience we had last night was talking to one of
our investigators who was wasted drunk. He called us to ask about our
appointment we were having later this week. But he was wasted and
couldn't get words out. On missions you see a lot of things. I see
something new every day. I'm loving my area, and the people in the
area. It's challenging not being able to speak the language, but the
language will come through working everyday to become better. Thank
you for all that you do! I love you all!
Evans Choro



Sunday, January 3, 2016

Happy New Year from Japan!


Happy New Years everyone!
ζ˜Žγ‘γΎγ—γ¦γŠγ‚γ§γ¨γ†γ”γ–γ„γΎγ™!

This week was definitely a fun one! On Tuesday, our whole zone went to
an area in our zone called Ibaraki to do a blitz. A blitz is when all
of us are in the same area, and we all go out and dendo and try to
strengthen the area. When we got there, we rented bikes and we chose
to rent electric mama chari's. (A Japanese bike) They were sooooo
fast, and definitely made riding a bike pretty fun.  Even though me
and my companion looked really awkward on them because we are so tall!
Haha. We went on kokkans (companionship exchanges)with the other
missionaries in the zone. I was companions with one of my favorite
people from the MTC! Vui choro!!! He is one transfer a head of me, so
we are both are pretty new to the field, but we had tons of fun. We
rode our bikes way down to the other side of that area, and did some
finding along the way. We were able to teach a couple lessons together
that day and it was way fun! That night we had 12 elders in one
apartment, which was lots of fun, but it was really squishy haha.

We met with an investigator this week named Kawaguchi. He is GOLDEN!
It was my first time meeting with him, and my companions second time.
We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the 5 steps which are
faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the
Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He was amazed about baptism when
we brought it up! He just kept saying "subarashii , subarashii"
(wonderful) so we decided to invite him to be baptized and he said
"Hai hai, itsudemo!" (Yes yes, whenever!) We explained to him that
here was stuff that we had to do to prepare him and we set a baptismal
goal for the 24th of this month. But on Sunday, he got called into
work, and wasn't able to come to church, so it looks like we will have
to push the baptism back to February. But that's okay! I'm excited
that he wants to follow Christ and change his life! Pray for him to
have his schedule work so that he can start coming to church, because
he really wants to come.

This week we are planning to invite 2 other people to get baptized.
One of them comes to church every week, and has for months, but she
just hasn't been baptized because no one has asked her haha. So
hopefully in the next couple weeks she will be baptized! The other
person is a really strong investigator that we think will accept the
invitation! I'll keep you all posted on how those go! As of right now,
we have 2 investigators with baptismal dates, and hopefully by the end
of this week, we can make it 4! The work in Japan is getting so big
right now!

New Years in Japan is huge. This whole past week, we haven't had to
make a meal other than breakfast. All of our lunches and dinners have
been with members at their house! Lots of people have work off, and
school off for a couple days, so families are all together. It was a
lot of fun to be able to be with our ward members in their homes, and
to be able to share messages with them to help strengthen their
families.

Anyways, I think that is all that really happened this past week. I
hope everyone had a safe, and happy New Years! Make goals and try to
reach them throughout this year! My goal this year is to learn
Japanese and to be able to use my Japanese to help and strengthen the
country of Japan!

Real quick just wanted to shout out to my companions bands! They are on
iTunes so go check them out! His band with his friends is called
Solarsuit and they opened for Imagine Dragons 2 years ago! His other
band is with some of his family and its called Luna Lune! They are
awesome!

Love you all! Have a safe week!
エバンズ長老


I have no captions for the pictures this week.  
All I know is that some of them are from their dinner appointments this week.