Skype was so good!! I don't think I have ever been so happy. It was so much better for me this time. I felt so much more refreshed and ready to go as opposed to the other times where I was just like, oh wow, now this is harder - haha. I obviously was a little shaken up at the end when it shut off, but I still am just so happy we got to see eachother and to hear from everyone! You all look great!! It was so natural though. It honestly wasn't that big of a shocker hearing your voices or anything. It felt so good and was so comforting. I really have the best family ever. I can't wait to seee you again on the next one, and then at Houston Airport.'

 

So afterwards we were able to have a good day. We went to a Bounenkai with other men in the ward. It was at an all you acan eat Italian place and we were able to bring a new investigator. It went really well and he knows how to pray now and really likes  everyone. He speaks English but he learned in Scotland or something so he has a hilarious accent. So cool to hear it from a Japanese person. He is pretty good at English. We then were able to meet with our new friend H*** and eat Indo Curry. It is right next to our apartment.:P It went really well and he asked why I became a missionary so I basically just related exactly what I had just told all of you - haha. He is really cool. This ward is amazing. 

 

So, what they do in Japan is they have a basket for the missionaries and everyone dumps food in there. Which we get a lot but it's still not going to member's house. Well this ward does the member house thing! We have like 6 member visits set up for the next 2 weeks. I have only been to like 5 in my whole misison - haha so I am happy. Yesterday we went to one and it was the K**** family. We were abel to teach the Plan of Salvation to them for practice. It felt so good because when we teach investigators, most of the time we just do a little bit of each lesson because it is all so new. But to teach all of it, in Japanese, was so great. I love teaching in Japanese. They complimented my companion and also they made me feel really good because they said the way I explained it was the easiest to understand and clearest they had ever heard from missionaries. It made me feel so good because I have been working for over a year now on how to explain this stuff to Japanese people. To hear them say that, plus have Skype, it was just so fulfilling to see how far I have come.

 

I love doing this. I miss you all so much, but I know that this mission is important. I love you all so much!! I miss you!!!!!!!! Thanks for being so awesome!!!!!!

Love, Elder Mason Proctor

 

 

Skype for 11:00 my time on Friday and for your Thursday night will work! I love you all and am so excited to see you!!!!!!! I actually went out last week and bought a new screen protector for my iPad because my old one was cheap and I wanted to be able to see you in detail - haha. So I am ready haha. So I am in my new area now Kamagaya. IT is really cool. My new companion is Gaijin (not Japanese - foreigner) and he is from Provo, Utah -  literally two minutes from the MTC. It is a lot of fun so far though. I love training. It's fun having a companion that is seeing everything for the first time. He is still freaking out over the song that goes off in each town at 5:00 pm and at all the ramen shops and sushi and just all the japanese stuff. It's a lot of fun to show him around and stuff. He has good Japanese. Probably one of the better ones of his MTC district, but obviously is still brand new and MTC Japanese is not Japanese - haha. It's fun though because my Japanese has gotten so much better in the last couple of days because I know I have to focus on everything they say because I am the one who will understand. It has helped a lot and has been fun.

 

The ward here is amazing!?!?! They are on fire. They love us and we have meals planned and our basket was full of wrapped presents?!?! We have a tree in our tiny apartment and it literally looks like Christmas at our apartment - haha. We moved in as the 3rd set of missionaries for the area and the ward is going crazy that there are 6 missionaries. Our apartment is tiny and there was not enough stuff for 4 people the first days though. I slept on a blanket and the wood floor the first nights.....ow. But yesterday new futons came and they are the best in my whole mission. I call mine "my cloud" because it is so big and fluffy. I had the best sleep of my msision yesterday. I am still going on about it because it is so life changing for me. I hope I am here for 4 transfers now. I miss Chiba very much,  but I am getting used to this. We have an appointment tonight already and it should be fun. We are eating ramen with T***, a RM's friend. Oh yeah - haha, also we found some people all throughout our first couple of days so even though we are opening Kamagaya, we already are seeing success.

 

It's weird being transfer 11. I am old now (missionary old). People call me an "old missionary" - haha.  I like it though and it is helping me work harder. I am so excited for skype. My new companion's name is Elder Fountain by the way.

 

Have questions ready and lets just enjoy what we have. I love you so much. I have felt the Spirit so strongly as I have been reflecting over the last few years of my life. I really have come closer to God and I know I want to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of my life. I love you all so much and I'll see you on Friday!!!!! Your Thursday - haha.  I love you!!!

Love,
プロクター長老

I got my transfer call form President Budge at 7:50 am this morning and I am leaving Chiba. It has been my favorite area. It has a big city, so many buildings, so many people, and the ward is great. So I will miss it but my new area is going to be Kamagaya about an hour away and I will be training another brand new missionary! Wooh! Honestly in the back of my mind that is what I wanted to do - haha. We are going to a new area too, so starting from scratch. I am excited. I hope I get a new Nihonjin (Japanese) missionary but obviously anyone is great. I am done with my stint as Zone Leader for now. It was really fun and a great learning experience.

So, this past week was a great week. We taught S*** again, the Chinese guy, and he set a baptismal date for next month!! Wooh! It is so much fun to teach him becasue we teach him in English and use the Chinese pamphlets then to check his understanding, he writes the Kanji of what he thinks and we can know if he understood or not. It is really cool and such a spiritual experience. He came to church too. E***, one of my long time friends from here that I have been talking with since July came too. He is the one that might have found the cure for cancer. I can't remember if I told you about him. He had cancer, used his medicine he had been using on his animals, he is a vet, and his cancer has gone away month by month. He has a chart and also has a factory producing his medicine. He lives in a nice nice apartment too, so he is legitimate. Still unbelievable - haha but pretty interesting. He came to church though. We also were able to use that Plan of Salvation puzzle multiple times yesterday. It is so good and easy to understand. We taught K***, an old guy who lives in a high rise apartment with an incredible view, taught him about the Clestial Kingdom, then turned around and the sunset on Tokyo Bay was amazing. So we said that is the glory of the sun and it clicked for him:) So cool.

 

Also, M*** dad passed away but he is taking it well. He was old and it was his time. We used the puzzle for him too.

 

I got my Christmas package! It is awesome!! I opened the ties and bookmarks, but not the bigger ones. Waiting 'till Christmas for that. The hot chocolate is amazing and that candy is going to last me a while, so thanks! Best family ever. My companion Elder Packer was shocked. He thinks you are the best family because of all the packages and stuff. You guys really are. You have sent so much and it means SOOOOOOO much to me. You too Hannah. He counted it up with all the holidays I have gotten packages and realized how crazy it is - haha I really love you all so much!!!!!!

Next week is skype. They said 24 through 26 so I honestly would rather do the 26. that would mean we get to feel the excitement of it being so close to Skype longer, but also a lot of missionaries will maybe do it that day. I guess it doesn't matter though so lets do 26 I guess? I Love you all!! Have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Proctor

I'm gonna miss this Indo Curry place :(

Sensi Proctor at English class.

Last soccer day with this good friend.

Goodbye's are hard.

Wonderful Chiba Member

Crazy newly baptized member in my last area - soooo fun.

I think my dad will be getting me one of these when I get home?

Another good friend in Chiba.

 

Looking forward to Skype session!

 

I had another interesting fast week in Chiba. First cool experience I want to share is about a guy named S***. He is from China and doesn't speak Japanese yet and his English isn't the greatest. We met him because he is now living with a Chinese less-active and that is how it happened. So we invited him to play basketball but he couldn't find the right station so we ened up just going to the church. Once there we sang Nearer my God to thee while I sang Japanese, Elder Packer played the piano, and S*** sang in Chinese. So Japanese Kanji (the little picture things you think of) actually comes from China. They adopted it from China way back when. So most of them have the same meanings just different ways of pronouncing and Japanese also has two alphabets. Anyways, Becase the Kanji are the same, I was able to teach S*** about God and Christ by just pointing out the Kanji and saying simple English. I pointed out God and peace and heaven and stuff and coming closer to God and was able to teach a Chinese man in broken English by showing him Kanji and him understanding in Chinese while I was reading in Japanese. Gift of tongues is pretty cool - haha. That experience was definitely one of the biggest times on my mission where I felt God was helping me.

 

Second cool experience. We were housing and we use that "He is the gift" video like Crazy now. So we house with it and a house that was super decorated with Chrismtas lights was there. We went to the house and knocked and a mom answered on the ping pong box and we sung a English Christmas song. Then she came out and was holding a new born baby. It was so Mary like - haha so we showed her the video and right at the end when its Jesus and Mary, the lady was holding her baby the exact same way as in the video. We asked if we could come back later and she said sure. So next time if her husband is home, wooh! Cool experience huh.

We also went to the temple today. Great as always and I was able to get your Christmas gifts. So cool. You'll like it. I love you all so much. I hope you are having a great December. It's getting cold here but I am liking it better - haha I love you all!!!!!

Love, Elder Proctor
プロクター長老

 

 

 

It's December!!?!?!?! ‏

 

Hey everyone!!! I hope you had a great week. From mom and dad's email it sounds like everyone is doing very well. That camp sounded like a lot of fun and I am glad you are all enjoying the puzzles. Just before I forget, There is a transfer the week before Christmas, so if you are going to send me a gift, send it now or wait a little bit because if I get transferred, which is pretty certain, then it might get sent to Chiba and that would be super taihen to deal with. So either send it for sure this week but not next week. Send it two weeks from now if you are going to send a gift later. I hope that made sense.

 

It was a crazy week. We had a zone Pday (preparation day) and bought cake and played dodge ball and blow Ping-Pong. It was pretty fun but very stressful because Elder Packer and I went all the way to Makuhari by bike and train, then lugged a cake back and it took a good 4 hours. So I am excited for todays relaxing Pday - haha then, Tuesday we had zone conference and we got trained on how to use the new church video and to get ready for Christmas! I am so happy and it is so much easier to dendo during Christmas time.

Wednesday I went on a split in O*** and it rained all day and we were riding our bikes....all day. So I froze and it was windy but hey, we did it - haha not to mention Elder Burt's bike had a puncture and we had to walk an hour home at the end. Good split though with Elder Burt. He was my MTC District leader and now he is a district leader in the Chiba zone. Then Thursday I went to Narita where the airport is, on a split and we rode a long time up and down hills but found an investigator and they are now teaching him. WOOH! It was cool too to see the airport where this Japanese adventure started. Then Friday another split with Elder Lammintaus from Finland and it was fun. I ate Indo curry with him for Thanksgiving and it was good. Thursday didn't work out for  Thanksgiving. This week also we had tons of Costco food and cake so it felt like Thanksgiving. We also yesterday had a tiny ward party and it was for Thanksgiving and it went well.

A lot of people we are working with are moving towards Christ. It's fun to watch the Sri Lankan guy has a Sri lankan book of Mormon now and he is reading and all of our investigators are reading the Book of Mormon now. D***, is getting baptized later. He said he isn't ready so we are waiting. The sisters are teaching a girl A*** and she should be baptized. Her friend is a member so this week at Eikaiwa I am going to show them the picture of Chrissy and her friend being baptized to help them get it done this month for Christmas. Pretty cool because it is the same situation as Chrissy and her  friend. 

I am enjoying Japan. I love Japan so much. Favorite place in the world besides home. It is awesome. So fun, I love Japanese, I truly just have such a tender spot in my heart for this place. It is the place where my testimony has grown and I really am developing Christ-like love. I love Japan. I am so thankful for Japan. Have a great week and see you this month:)))))Thanks for the package by the way. So awesome!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Proctor
プロクター長老

Zone Conference slide show pose - Neat sunset in Japan

Elder Lammintaus

Elder Spindler

Elder Burk - I am soaked and cold and . . . freeking happy!!