We Love The Old Person Raia!

Elder Raia sounds really happy and excited about the work! He is so funny sometimes!

"Hey Hey Hey! Hows it going? I'm good. This last week was transfer week so a little bit busy but it was still fun. I just want to say something really fast. I saw Leesha's blog thing for me or whatever you want to call it but she wrote "we love elder raia" and then translated into "我々は年上のＲＡＩＡを愛します" which translates really funny! It means "we love the old person raia" hahaha but its all good! (I guess I shouldn't trust English to Japanese translating websites. :) Thanks Elder Raia for the correction. Maybe you can correct them too when you get home. Ha Ha!)

So this last Saturday we had a baptism here in Kamisugi. Kyokani san got baptized and I got to baptize her...4 times. The sister missionaries, when they filled up the font, didn't plug it up all the way so it was waaaaaaaaaay low! But everyone was like just try it and see if it will work and the first 3 times didn't go. we were close but no good. So we had to turn on the water again and members used other faucets and brought buckets of water to fill it up. Then on the 4th time we were OK. It was kinda humorous. Also, in regards to our investigator Miyuki san, she came to church for the first time! Elder Hyde and I actually fasted that she could go and have a spiritual experience and it was one of the most spiritual sacrament meetings Ive ever been to! This girl named Manami gave her homecoming talk and It was sSSSSOOOOO good!!!! I think she really liked church."He is still so cool. . .Nothing could change that!

Good job Elder Raia!! Shun the inappropriate!!!

Another Transfer

Here is the latest from Elder Raia. . .

I'm great! Elder Hyde and I are staying for another transfer. But our zone changed quite a bit.

Pretty much all of our investigators have fallen off the face of the earth except for one. Shes doing good. We're meeting her tonight and I think shes going to come to the baptismal service this Saturday. The sister missionaries investigator is getting baptized and she actually asked me to baptize her so that's really cool! (Sounds like his investigators could use our prayers)

We got a letter from his Mission President that says he is coming home on April 2nd! We cant wait to see him!

When looking through pictures he sent us I noticed a bit of a theme. . .lets see if anyone else notices it.

Ha Ha!! Those are some good pictures!! :)

Three Months and Counting. . .

Yes. . . It is true. . .Three months and counting until Elder Raia comes home! Can you believe how quickly time has gone by???

We talked to him on Christmas day (the day after Christmas for him.) It was fun to talk to him! He has a little bit of an accent. :) He told us that the end of his last transfer will be on March 31st, and that around the 1st of April he will probably be on a flight home! We are so excited! He of course, has mixed feelings. While he misses us all, he feels like his time there has been so short. I'm sure it will be hard for him to leave all the people that he has grown to love there.

But for now its back to work for him.

Well. . .He can't work ALL the time!

Looks like he may be a mean ping pong player by the time he gets back!

We are all so excited to see him, hear all his stories, hear him speak Japanese, have him make us some tasty Japanese food, and see how fast he can eat with chopsticks. :) But for the next three months he still has a lot of work still to do!

Merry Christmas!

Elder Raia is doing well. . . Working hard and keeping busy. We can't believe his two years are winding down, and we are SO excited to talk to him on Christmas!!!!

I’m doing great! This week we had Zone conference and it was really good! We have the best missionaries in this zone! And we just talked to President this morning and were changing the mission a lot. Everything is going to a monthly bases rather than a 6 week bases. That means monthly splits, monthly zone conferences, and monthly interviews. I think it will really help our mission. Right now we are 17 baptisms a way from doubling last years baptisms and next year we want to do the same thing. 180 baptisms. So in order to do that, we need a change like this and all the missionaries need to step it up in all the phases of the work.

Some missionaries teach investigators just because they are told to. They teach them the message of the restoration because it’s in Preach my Gospel, which is a good thing, but not the best. Missionaries need to be teaching for the right purposes. They need to be teaching to the needs of their investigators. They need to be teaching because they want their investigators to come to Jesus Christ and to become happy. It sounds obvious but sometimes they become "robot missionaries".

I love this picture! Make sure you look closely to see his reflection! Ha Ha!

メリークリスマス, 楽しいクリスマスをお過ごし下さい, クリスマスに交わされる挨拶

(Merry Christmas!)

Prayers For Investigators

Elder Raia is doing great. . . working hard as always.

Their area just got two new senior couple missionaries. They are going to be starting up the Out Reach program in the area. It is a place for youth ages 18-29 to go hang out. "Its supposed to help members of that age stay active and to get less active members active again. Apparently Elder L. Tom Perry started this up when he was a mission president in Europe, its taking a lot of planning and support."

They are working with some investigators and would like us to pray for them. One sister is working on the word of wisdom and one brother is praying for an answer about if the Book of Mormon is true.

"This week I did something interesting in my scripture study. I read Joseph Smith history
and Mormon 9 at the same time. I would read 4-6 verses of one and then switch to
the other. I was really good because they are related in some sense and it made
me feel closer to the prophets that wrote the Book of Mormon and also to Joseph Smith who saw the "God of miracles". "

Here are some fun pics of Elder Raia. . . Enjoy

Just A Little Update

Here is a little update on Elder Raia,

"This week was good. We had zone conference on Wed. It was good. It was about planning and using our time wisely. . ."

One of their investigators came to church on Sunday. He is doing very good and has a baptismal date set for Nov. 14th.

He heard from the mission home about three investigators he was working with in Koriyama. They have baptismal dates set and are doing really good. He says, "I'm still upset that I cant be there, but I glad to be here in Kamisugi.

I found a really good scripture this week about obedience. Mosiah 5:13. (For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart) Its like, if we don't serve God and obey his commandment, then there is no way that we can know Him. We learn of Him as we follow Him. Its a way simply passage but it hit me pretty hard."

I just love it when he tells us about scriptures that have touched him. Here is a recent picture of Elder Raia.

New in Kamisugi

Elder Raia was transferred to Kamisugi (which I cant seem to find on the map) and he is ready to work! He is still the zone leader and his new companion's name is Elder Allred. Here is what he has to say:

"Hey everyone! I'm great. Kamisugi is really good. Its a HUGE area!! There are so many people here. Two days ago we had a baptism. It was really cool. Hes a pretty young kid. 24-25ish. There are some other recent converts here that are the same age. They're all way cool and want to go on missions. One has only been baptized for three week and he already wants us to help him learn the lessons. This area is really sweet but I'm still sad I left Koriyama. I felt like my time there was too short. But Ill do my best and try to help everyone here."

Keep up the great work Elder Raia. . . We're all praying for you!