Week 25 Tottori: Oh Snow!

konnichiwa minasan!

this week was crazy! it was filled with crazy snowstorms, exhausting

travel, getting chased by people witH katanas, and the changing of our

missionary schedulE! this week has got me all over the place but i am

also stoked out of my mind! at the beginning of this week we traveled

to the zone leader area to do interviews with the mission president,

but then A crazy snowstorm hit japan and all of the tRains and

highways got closed so we were stuck in The zone leaders' area. we

took advantage of the situation and did some companion exchanges, i

was with tanaka chōrō and it was a blast! he hardly knows any english

so i was full japanese for the whole exchange. we went around helping

people left and right get their cars pushed out of the snow and then

teaching lessons where we could. but my coMpanion was with the other

zone leader and apparently they housed into someone who wasn't really

friendly with our church. the guy ended whipping out his katana and

chasing them out of that neIghborhood! they called the police and took

care of things but it sounded like a crazy night for them! we were

finally able to Get back to tottori a couple days later after enough

of the snow melted. tHat was definitely some of the most exhausting

travel I have done yeT on the mission.

after that we were able to watch this year's worldwide Mission

broadcast where they announced that there is going to be changes for

every missionaries schedule throughout the world. the change is

effecting different missionaries differently depending on where they

are serving. some places missionaries are even waking up early or

later based on their specIfic circumstances! we learn what exactly our

new schedule will be sometime this week. i'm so excited to see what

changes for us! they also loosened up a lot of the iNdividual

companionships abilities to choose more freely how their schedule is

going to go. they mentioned in the broaDcast that it seems like the

lord is really giving more trust to his missionaries. this really made

me reflect on whether or not i am truly worthy of the lord's trust.

agency is one of the greatest gifts that god has given us and really

Shows how much he trusts us. heavenly father and jesus christ love us

so much and they want more than anyThing for us to be happy. they have

given us the path and the tools that are required to achieve that

never-ending happiness, but it is up to us to choose the path that

they have made. satan has done a really good job of making other

"foRbidden paths" appear to be the path to happinEss but ultimately

they will just end in heartbreak and emptiNess. true lasting happiness

can only be attained by following christ and his path for us. with

this new schedule i know that there will be more temptations to be

lazy and not work as hard, but i am committinG right now to give the

lord my all. i love my savior so much and this opportunity that i have

to serve with him is truly such a privilege. i know that by staying on

this paTh we will receive more joy than we can even imagine. christ

truly is the way (2 nephi 31:20-21). i love you all and Hope that your

week is awesome!

全てはよし

アルレッドL老

Week 24 Tottori: Lead Me Guide Me

こんにちは。

this week was great! we workEd hard and taught a ton of lessons and

had an awesome zone training meeting. at the zone training meeting i

learned a ton about receiving personal revelation. the spirit truly

can guide us in everything that we do if we just commit to the lord to

follow eVerything that he asks. sometimes that can be rEal difficult,

but that's the thing, it requires complete trust in our heavenly

father and jesus chRist. as soon as we put our trust in them the

spirit will teach us the things that the lord wants us to do. if we

follow those promptings then the Lord will reveal more to us, then if

we follow those we will receive more and more until we are entirelY

being lead by the spirit in all things. the scriptures teach this

perfectly, in 2 nephi 28:30, it says, "blessed are those who hearken

unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for THey shall

learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth i will give more; and from

them that shall say, we have enough, from them shall be taken away

even that which they have." this is how the lord works, by giving us

little by little so that we are always able to progress. so lately i

have been trying really hard to lIsten to the small promptings of the

spirit so that someday i can be led by the spirit iN all of my

missionary work. it really was such a great meetinG.

besides that we have just been working so hard to find new

investIgators. we keep finding people that seem really promiSing but

then the completely dissapear. if only they knew how incredibly

vAluable this message truly is. but i know that as we continue to Work

hard and follow that spirit that leads us to do good then wE will find

those who will receive us. i love this work so much and sharing it

makes me feel so amazing. my japaneSe is still very choppy but man i

can't tell you how many times the wOrds have just flown out of my

mouth when i need to be bold in testifying about soMething. it really

is so amazing. well i love you all and hope that you have a great

weEk!

elder allred

Our Zone Training Meeting Crew

Week 23 Tottori: Fast Offerings

hello everyone!

this week was crazy! first i must confess i had not paid fast

offeRings on my mission thus far due to how complicated it is in japan

and we just have been failing to get the branch president to help us.

but last monday we paid them! on the way to the post office to send

them in it was raining so hard and mighty thunderings did ring

throughout all the land, but we finished paying our fast offerings and

when we stepped out of the building yEa, the rains did stop and the

thunderings did cease and the sun did break forth out of the clouds

and did shed forth her warmth upon all the earth. and the beauty

thereof was exceedingly great. it was like a message from heaven that

we definitely have been needing to pay our fast offerings. i will for

sure from here on out. however later that day I realized that I had

left my iPad at the post office, and when we went back it was gone.

and i was freaked out because i had a lot of important things on it

that i hadn't backEd up yet.

but the Next day we went to a mission conference and i saw miracles

along the way. first was i got my ipad back! someone had returned it

to the post office after attempting to open it a quite a few Times and

got it disabled for a while. but i got it back so it's all good! at

the mission conference it was so awesome! elder whiting from the area

70 taught tons of great things about receiving revelation through the

spirit, and progressing towarDs becoming a better missionary. my

favorite thing that I learned from the devotional was that, we should

be progressing and making changes to be better all the time, as soon

as we stop progressing and becoming more like christ, satan wins. also

he tAught if you want to see miracles first you have to get out of the

boat. these things have been reaffirmed in my mInd time and time

again. the truly amazing thing about this gospel is that it is

centered on christ and us progressing each day to become more and more

like christ. he is truly, as the scriptures say, the way. it is only

through him that we make it back to our father in heaven, so let us

make steps down that path everyday. i love my savior with all of my

heart. so many times on my mission already i have been lifted up and

given more strength than i know would ever be possible without him. in

the language, in the rejection, and in my own feelings of

discouragement. he has rescued me time and time again and i am nothing

but indebted to him. i will declare his word and abide in his love. i

am so greatful for this unbelieveable opportunity to labor with the

Lord in his vineyard. because i've seen how much he loves his

children, and i am amazed beyond belief that he would trust me with

the gathering of his precious sheep. i love my mission, and i love all

of You for your support and love. i hope that your week is すばらしい！and

that each day we can make a step towards christ no matter where we are

on that path.

頑張りましょう！

アルレッド長老

It snowed in Totorri!

Angels

My smile is super crooked because half my face was numb.

Week 22 Tottori: Group Stuff

こんにちはみなさん！

i hope that youR first week of 2017 was a great one! mine sure was!

this wEek we did tons of finding trying to deepen our pool of

investigators. this included hours and hours of housing, stopping

everyone we Passed, and an hour and a half bike ridE deep into the

ceNter of the 田舎. but though it was definitely a trying effort to

press on we did it and we found some awesome new investigators. two of

which came to church which is more investigators this branch has seen

at church at once in a long Time! the members were losing their minds!

they were so good though as they went up for fast and testimony

meeting And bore their testimoNies for these people they had never

met. the spirit was so strong and our investigators Could definitely

feel it. their namEs were iwatake san and fujinawa san. they were so

cool and both saId that they would try to come next week so we are

just So excited!

also this week i learned that in the far reaches of tottori (that

Place that took an hour and a half to bike to) us white americans aRe

only a thing of ledgend. i swear, the people were looking at us like

we were a exOtic creature that was hopelessly lost in their little

village, but little do they know that they are actually the ones who

are lost and we were here to bring them back to the fold. at one point

a Group of seven or so kids saw us and started fReaking out, they ran

out into the strEet and jumped and yelled, "herro" and "hao aah you?"

i turned and waved back at them and they all started cheering! it was

hilariouS! half the time i was a monster the other half i was matt

damon. i love the inaka so much! we finally found our less active that

we went there to visit and he was Sick and couldn't walk. we testified

of the healing power of the atonement and that through faith he could

walk again. he told us that he wasn't worthy of faith and

unfortunately despite our attempts to explain to hIm that no one is

beyond the reach of the redeeming love of the savior he would not

change his mind. we gave him alma 32 to read as a commitment then made

the long jOurney home. it was an interesting week for sure. but look

forward to the many more that we will have this year in dedicated

service to our lord. i hope that you all have the bestest of weeks

this Next week. i love you all so much!

mata ne!

elder allred

My companion sat on a camel on p-day

We took senior pics down at the Inaka

Pose

Week 21 Tottori: I've Got a Goal to Set More Goals

明けましておめでとうございます！

i can't believe that it is already 2017! that is so nuts! the weeks are flying by, i can hardly keep up with what day it is. like really, me and my companion went to bed saturday nIght and then woke up and went to church in the morning and we didn't even realize that it was new years until the ward memBers started coming up to us and saying "happi nu yia" in broken english! but it was a great day to start off the new year indeed. we made pizza (or as clOse as japan can get to pizza) at a members house and taught a very powerful lesson about setting goals and the book of mormon. before the mission i hated setting goals. i felt like writing down goals just stressed me out and that i could just manage everything that i wanted to do in my head. bUt since coming out on a mission i have realized how truly valuable goals are. in pmg it says, "i am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set Goals in our life and learn how to master the tecHniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached buT a small part of our full potential. when one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." man i wish that i would have understood how useful goals really are before my mission! i could've leArned so much more in school and aCcomplished so much more in my personal passions. set goaLs and love them! i know that as we set goals, especially goals of spirituAlity and of doing the work of christ, we will see impRovement and progression beyond what we thought was possIble. we will make a greater difference in the strength of the spirit in our own lives and we will become a much brighter example and tool in the hands of our lord. i love you all so very much and i hope that this year becomes the New best year of your livEs! leT us all press on in the work of the lord!

elder allred

here are the fun things that have happened this week!

Harvesting mushrooms for a less active member.

Dinner at the Ogawa's house

The largest POND in Japan