Great Week!

 

 

This week was so cool. We have a new investigator named S**** and he really is the definition of a perfect investigator. He is 20 and really good at soccer and really feels like when he puts a lot of effort into his games and does well that it is because God is watching over him. Pretty cool huh. So we taught him the restoration and committed him to pray about all the parts and he thinks it is true. Wooh! he came to church yesterday and he wore a super nice suit that was just like all the other members where. (In japan everyone wears a suit to church no matter what) So some members didn't even think he was an investigator!!!! Plus, Elder Tsuchida and I taught Gospel Principles and taught about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. S**** testified of feeling it?!?!?! What is that!? YES!! So he should be baptized this coming month.

 

We also met with K*** this past week and he is still praying hard and coming closer to Christ. His parents are protestant and don't want him to come to our church, but he is going to give them the pass along card for the new Easter video and try to invite them. He is awesome. We play ping pong and he plays tennis so when we play ping pong, we basically play it like mini tennis. It's funny to watch. The sisters investigator Y**** is also being baptized this Saturday!! She asked me to do it too! She is 83 and really funny old lady. She calls the missionaries "kids". I did her interview yesterday and it went really well. She is so funny. That was a hilarious and spiritual interview. She said she does not know how much longer she has left, so she wants God's help for the rest of her time on earth haha also, she talked to me over and over again about how much she respected us for coming to Japan, learning Japanese, and doing this. She really respects the missionaries. Please pray that her dunking in the font goes safely. I am kind of worried - haha she is pretty old and fragile. S*** will definitely be next.

 

My companion  is great. We are enjoying the work. Things are going well now. Thanks for your prayers!!!!!!!! I want everyone to watch the new easter video now! It is great. It just heps me realize how true the Resurrection is. Also, I love how the church is so directed by God. They sent us an email and said the homepage of Youtube on easter Sunday is going to be the new video. The Church is so cool haha I love it. Funny story also. A couple of weeks ago when I went to Costco there was a European lady who spoke english and she was a worker. When I ordered, she spoke English and it was the weirdest thing ever. It was 1 year and a half since I had ordered in English. Weird stuff haha.

 

I love yo uall so much. Enjoy conference! I will see it two weeks from now haha. Keep doing your best. I love you!!!!!!! Another cool thing is T**** is 75 or so and only after three months of reading the Book of Mormon, he said he believes in God and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon changed a 75 year old japanese man to believe in Christ. The Book of Mormon really is from God. I love you all!!!

Love ,
Elder Proctor

Sent from my iPad

 

 

 

Kamagaya ‏still GREAT!

 

Well it was honestly a bit slower week investigator wise but as far as spirit and fun goes it was great. My new companion Elder Tsuchida is awesome!! He is helpful, nice, and JAPANESE haha, I love having a Japanese companion. It helps soooooooooo much. I am definitely going to have to find some Japanese people in Nacogdoches to talk to. Japanese is so much fun.

 

So, I have some cool news.......I got my returning missionary email.....The date is officially September 4, 2015. That's it so make sure you are ready to pick me up! It was such a weird feeling to get that email and it said "Returning missionary email, don't get trunky!" haha - I feel it though. It feels real. Especially looking back at October 2013 when I couldn't speak anything, and now I can go the whole day without having trouble. that's just language wise too, Spiritually I am a new person.

 

We had Elder Nelson come this past week because they are doing the iPads differently now. We can't use Facebook for like 12 weeks because they are doing the "Reset" is what they call it. They want to train us better because they want us to be better protected and more effective. Something that really touched me though is this. When we got the iPads we all thought it was to make our missionary work better nad hasten God's work, which it is, but they told us something in the conference. They said that the reason above that was they gave the missionaries iPads so that they could develop good habits with technology now so that when we get off our misssions, we won't be as susceptible to temptation. It really touched me becasue I saw the wisdom of God's prophets. I was touched too becasue then I looked back and I realized, I really do have good habits with it now. I never was a bad person, but the perversion that can and does happen on the internet is such a rampant thing right now that is destroying the nation and world and people in the church. The prohpets gave missionaries the iPads though because now, I plan on using it the same way at home. I will only use it when I have a purpose and not just to click around. It was so touching to see their foresight and how much they care. I am so thankful. It really was a touching conference too for those that actually had had a problem in the past or something. Really cool meeting. The church is led by God.

 

Two of our investigators came to church yesterday. That was cool. Plus, something funny that has been happening is this. Elder Tsuchida and I have a good way to talk to people. I use my foreigner-ness and get their attention. I speak only Enlgish and he translates when they don't understand, then once we get around to Gospel stuff, I start speaking Japanese and they are like "WHAT?!?" because the whole time I acted like I knkew nothing haha:P it works great. We played basketball last week too. Pretty fun. I also have our district vision that I made and I'll send it to you. I translated it into Japanese too so i think you'll like it. I love you all so much!! Havea great week!!!!!

Love, Elder Proctor

Sent from my iPad

 

 

I am not leaving!! Wooh! I am getting a new companion though. His name is.......Elder Tsuchida. Japanese!!!!!!! YES!!!!!! I am so happy. With a Japanese companion your Japanese language skills just skyrocket. I am so happy because now I will be able to understand better and work with the Japanese people better. I am so happy about it. Yes!!! I can't wait.

 

So, we had the goal for 8 people on Sunday and........it happened!! We had 6 non members and two random less actives we didn't even know. So it was awesome. The ward was on fire and really happy because they prayed for it to happen and it did. We got the 8!! We found one less active right before church when we went to the train station and tried to find an extra person. then, the greatest part of it all, T***, our first investigator came to church for the first time with his mom who is a member. He had an amazing experience and really learned a lot. I am so happy about that. He is now one of the most closet to baptism in the zone. He could be baptized by next month:)) Yes.

 

Two other random guys came to church because they saw our homepage?!?!? What! that never happens. So that was also a miracle that fulfilled our goal of 8. Yes!!! I really learned that if you set a high goal, it will happen if you work your hardest. We worked super hard too. It was funny because this is Elder Fountain's only area so we contacted all the peopel we knew in these past 3 months and we always said he was contacting everyone he has met in his mission - hhaa we did it though and it went great.

 

Something cool I thought you all would like is go on to Gospel Library app and do Japanese. Go under videos and listen to the ones that say for use for missionaries in Japan. It has lots of normal church Japanese and you could hear what we do everyday. I love you all so much. I am so happy to stay in Kamagaya. We have an appointment today with a new person. Wooh! Also, the ward is just great. They were so fired up and happy and didn't want any of us to transfer. I literally feel like this is my favorite ward because I finally know every one and feel like a part of it. Things are going great. I love you all, I have some good pictures I think, Have a great week!! Pray, work hard, and the miracles will follow!!!!

Love,
Elder Proctor

Sent from my iPad

 

 

This week was a little slower but still a lot of fun. I had a fun split with another missionary who was a district leader in the MTC with me. We got done and he was like, "wow, you look a lot better now than you did in Utah." and I was just like, "you have no idea".  haha.  Cool experience while that split was going on too. A guy came up to me while we were passing out fliers about the Gospel and Christ. He found out that I was from Texas and immediately, as always, said he knows Yu Darvish (Rangers Pitcher). I was like cool, but then he said, "CHUCK NORRIS!!" I didn't know he was from Texas but I was like,  yea, that too haha then the funniest thing, he made a Chuck Norris joke in Japanese. He said, "彼は死なないね！” That means, "He doesn't die right?!" and I just died and said, your right! It was so funny to hear that in Japanese. This guy eneded up taking a Book of Mormon:)

 

An Eikaiwa student who gave me $100 dollars and finally took it back invited us over for dinner instead. It went really well, they fed us a ton like always, and it was amaizng. We shared the Book of Mormon and he showed us a lot of stuff. So cool to see 70 year old Japanese men learn about Christ for the first time. K*** still has tons of interest but his parents haven't given him permission to go to our church because they are a different denomintation. He committed to pray that they will let him so can you all at home pray too!!!!!! It would be awesome if you could.

 

Funny thing that I can't remember if I told you or not. In priesthood a couple of weeks back we had a lesson about....Katanas haha literally, a brother brought one and they talked about it the whole time. He wanted to tie it in but it got carried away. I don't know sword making vocab in either English or Japanese so I don't know what happen either haha Super funny though to get a katana lesson in Japan during priesthood.

 

Another cool thing is an missionary who was in my zone a couple of transfers ago went home after one transfer. He just wasn't in to it but I was the one who went on a split with him to try to help him get it going. We went out to eat and I paid for him becasue he didn't have money at the time. He went home, but a couple of weeks ago he sent me a message on facebook that he is coimng back in a couple of months:)) I fasted for him before we went on the split and I was disappointed that he didn't stay, but it was awesome to see the Lords timing in that he is coming back soon. Nothing is ever pointless.

 

Today, K***, my frined from Chiba is taking us to Costco. He is driving all the way here. I am happy. Best thing for this week though is we got the whole ward praying for our goal of 8 non members at church next week. So can you pray for us too!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please!!!! The ward is freaking out about it. Also, it was awesome that one of the members said they feel like I have been here forever because I have fit in well:)) I love Kamagaya:) Transfers are next week, I dont want to go!!!!! I love you all and Happy Birthday!!! mom and dad!!!!!

This was an awesome week. We were able to teach someone every single day this week. That is the first time for our area. I am so excited that we have made it to the point of an area that does that. Wooh! K*** is our Protestant friend. He has a Filipino mom and Japanese dad who are both Protestant. We played ping pong with K***, He is really good by the way. It is so boring when investigators are good at ping pong, but K*** and I go at it when we play, but then we taught him the restoration again. He said sometimes he prays and bad stuff happens but then he doesn't pray and good does. We told him about God knowing all. He said that in his classs he wanted his friend in his class but it didn't happen when he prayed. We told him he can probably focus better now and that really helped him realize that God is guiding him. We are going to meet his mom this week. Oh yeah! Wish us luck. We gotta get his mom on board for this to work.

 

We also have Y***. He is awesome. We met him tons of times this week. Yesterday we did a lesson with a member who leaves on his misison in 3 weeks. We watched the "Hope of God's light" video and talked about coming to know God little by little. Eventually we got around to where we turned off all the lights in the room we were in. Then, we turned them on one by one and said, as we give effort to turn the lights on, Light appaears. We said God is the same, you have to try and slowly step by step He comes. Y*** liked that then the member testified hard about himself learning about God. Then Y**** asked about Japanese people beliving in lots of Gods. I told him they arent completely wrong. In Japan they believe in their ancestors and Gods of trees and stuff. Our ancestors in the spirit world and angels and other existences like that, really are there, they just arent "God." we believe in a bunch of supernatural essences too, just they aren't God. It was so cool to see his eyes open and it click. He said, so God is the top. and I was like yep. So that was cool.

 

Random thing I forgot to tell you I think. We housed into an ancient 92 year old lady. She was loud and healthy as ever. She had never prayed in her life and we asked if we could pray. She was like, why not, we tried and she was like, hmm, that was good. she didn't have interest but it was cool to have a 92 year old ancient Japanese lady pray for the first time. I love my mission.

 

So my name in Japanese is prounounced, "PU-RO-KU-TAA" Pooh roh ku taa. I ordered a new nametag, all excited it comes in and they messed up. It says, "PU-RO-DA-KU-TAA" pooh roh dakutaa. SO now I am Elder pro-doctor haha - I already sent the picture in though and I get another one for free.

 

Last thing I'll leave you with is something the stake president said at stake conference two days ago. "We should keep the commandment of daily prayer and scripture study, just like we keep the Word of Wisdom daily." Praying and studying the scriptures EVERYDAY is a commandment. We don't just stop the word of wisdom some days. Some people do with prayer and reading though. So remember that next time you don't want to read. Is that also the day you will decide, "Meh, today is not a word of wisdom day." I love you all and have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love, Elder Proctor