So, this week was transfer week and I have a new companion. His name is Elder Wells. He's a pretty young missionary, but I like him a lot. Pretty quiet, but has a great heart. The poor guy was stuck with one of the most difficult missionaries in the mission last transfer and was about ready to kill himself. Things are quite different than with Elder Dursteler. He was pretty amazing. Still is. It's nice that he's still in my apartment. Also, he and I are going to Fukuoka tonight to be trained by president.....flying again. This is so much fun! But yeah. It's pretty great stuff.

Elder Wells and I have been really focused on helping K san. He's so close to Baptism, but he's been really struggling with smoking. He hasn't smoked for more than a week, but that's because he has no money to use. He's afraid that when he gets money, he will smoke again because he REALLY wants to smoke. Well, the other problem we were facing was that he couldn't get to church on his own. He has no way to get himself there....so we gave him enough money to use the monorail.....and he didn't show...

I was so worried that he had bought some cigarettes, but when we went to visit him, he had just slept in. He had the money in a little case and said that he was not going to spend it on anything, but getting himself to church. So, I'm really grateful that he's showing so much faith. Unfortunately, he didn't get to church, but his conversion is still coming little by little.

Other than that, we have really just been settling in to being new companions.

We are finding out that the biggest issue with some obedience issues is that some missionaries are not focused on the mission. They aren't focused on the people. President just shut down music in the mission and said if it isn't Motab or EFY it's not ok because people were listening to normal music like Pompeii by Bastille.....Yeah. I wasn't even home when that song came out, but everyone in the mission "Justified" it for some reason. It was pretty bad. So, now we are working with some disobedience out here. So that's a thing. Something that Elder Dursteler does not do well with. He gets pretty mad when there are disobedience issues. It's scary. Haha, It's really easy to be obedient around him. Not that I had a problem before.

So that's what's going on. I'm really happy and I love this ward so much. Things are pretty stress free. My biggest concern is what tie I'm going to wear to Fukuoka tomorrow. (BTW thanks for the package. I just barely got it!)

I love you all and we'll keep killing it out here,

Elder Low

As you know, today is transfer day. Sorry I didn't warn you earlier this week. I'm staying. No surprise there.....BUT, here is one interesting change about this week: Elder Dursteler is still the other Zone leader.....but he's not going to be my companion. I am now with Elder Wells. Poor guy wasn't on the Christmas card......so you can't look him up that way. Hahaha, the honbu kinda forgot about him for the christmas card. BUT he's a great guy. He has an interesting personality. He doesn't smile a lot, but I think he's a really happy guy. HAha, just kinda a tough guy. I'm really excited though.

Also, in other news, we're still working with K san......and he quit smoking. He's only quit for 6 days....but that's still pretty good. We're really excited for him. He started showering and dressing nicely every day.. Also, he doesn't have any suicidal thoughts anymore. It's amazing to see the difference. You can see how much this gospel has already blessed his life. We're coming quickly up on his baptismal date. We're going to have to see him just about every single day from here on out. His date is the 6th of April.

I don't really know what else to tell you. I'm going to try sending pictures through the computer today, but we'll see what happens.

I'm really excited for this next transfer. We're going to be seeing tons of miracles. I can't wait.

.....until then, we have a lot of stuff we have to accomplish. We have to go to the airport and help all the new elders come in and all the old elders go out. Then we get to fly to Fukuoka again....I don't know. It's kinda nice. I get to feel like a really rich guy. The honbu pays for me to go to Fukuoka and back....It's a pretty pricey ticket.....I'm really lucky.

I love the pictures of Grandma and Grandpa's new rooms. Made me laugh a little bit. Grandpa really likes his guns....Kinda a scary room. ;)

Anyway, I don't really have much else to say. I'm still just pushing along. We'll see how this picture thing works out. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Low

Still being a missionary. Still loving it. Elder Dursteler and I had a pretty good week. A couple of disappointments, but nothing too bad. Pretty standard. Here are the highlights of the week:

We had Zone Conference on Thursday. It was pretty nuts. We had 6 elders staying in our apartment. Two AP's and the Elders from Ishigaki.....It was kinda crazy. Not a lot of room in a missionary apartment with four guys.....adding six was a little much. It was good though. Then we had zone conference....haha, and I kinda got sick. Not super sick, but I had a crazy head ache and I've had a pretty annoying cold recently. Not a bad one to keep me inside all the time.....just a little annoying. It was a really good conference though. I love getting to see president and I feel like he really trusts me.....But I was pretty quiet on that day.

Zone Conference. Click to enlarge.

Our investigator U san came to church yesterday......Haha, he's 22.....and he really likes this 19 year old girl in our ward. He told us that earlier in the week and we didn't take it super seriously.....Then he came to church with this bag full of presents.....Haha, he kept asking where she was and when he finally found her, he asked her to sit by him.....she said no. THEN in sunday school he was telling us, "I think after church, I'm going to confess my love to her".....She denied him again and he was really disappointed.....but he's coming to church next week!!

Also, we have been working really hard with K san....... We really focused on testifying on how he can overcome all things because the Savior overcame all things. If he relies on the Atonement, he can quit smoking. This week, we are going to really follow up with him to make sure he's doing the basic things.

We also had a dinner appointment with one of our new investigators. His name is T....actually, he brought his wife too. We had a really awesome talk about the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed our lives. They seemed pretty interested and in the end they took a book.

Other than that, our week was pretty normal. Lots of hard work. Falling asleep REALLY fast at 10:30. It's really nice being able to sleep so easily when you work so hard. I'm doing great....still trying to figure out pictures...are you getting them yet?

Love,

Elder Low

I had quite a week. Let me just jump in.

We had an appointment with our baptismal date investigator this last Thursday. I feel like he is becoming more and more happy. BUT we had a happening...

We went to his house to teach him the end of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The whole enduring to the end and obedience part. It was going really well. We had a member there and everything. His apartment is kinda a mess, but that's not really a problem. The problem was this. Suddenly in the middle of the lesson, his eyes widened and he turned around as if he heard someone in the room. We stopped teaching. He looked back at us looking really confused.

We started asking if something was wrong and if he was ok......he just kinda sat there and shivered as if he was freezing. Then he started shaking. Not violently, but enough. Like he was cold. We asked again, "What's wrong?" and nothing. His eyes were still wide as if he was freaking out about something and he didn't say anything. Then it got freaky.

His wide eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head. He twisted his head to the side and tightened every single muscle in his body and let out a pained scream. It was really long and freaky. Then he fell out of his chair and started swinging at the air in front of him. Our member ran and grabbed him while Elder Dursteller and I called the cops. He started foaming at the mouth and continued to shake. Now, he was shaking pretty violently. Then he stopped completely as if he was dead. No breathing. Nothing. Our member started checking pulse and stuff and then he let out a huge gasp of air and said "I don't want to die".

Long story short, the ambulance came and he was just sitting there and was really freaked out. They took him to the hospital for a day and then he came home. We went and talked to him and he said that he doesn't remember any of it. He said he heard something weird and then all of the sudden, he was in the hospital. He will know what the cause was on Thursday.....we are pretty freaked out. It was probably the scariest moment of my mission.....and I've had pretty freaky moments.

Speaking of which, We just had 2 pretty big earthquakes. One was in the middle of the night. We all woke up and everything was shaking like crazy. I hear it was a 6.5. It was pretty scary.

Also, big news! I get to go to Miyako on Wednesday! I'm super excited and I'll finally get to meet the missionaries there!

Other than that, Elder Dursteller and I are working SO hard. We found 4 new investigators this week. Things are going better than they ever have on my mission. We are just moving so quickly and we don't have any problems in the ward or in the area.

Quick fun story: there is a professional chef in our ward and he wanted to welcome me to the ward.....with something called wasabi baptism. It's just a sushi roll with TONS of wasabi. Everyone in Naha does it....IT hurt SO bad. It was awful.

Anyway, I'm sorry about photos. I don't have a place to get wi-fi here so I might need to send them through the computer. We'll see.

Love You,

Elder Low

I have had a really busy week this week. I flew up to Fukuoka and had a great time with all the zone leaders in the mission. It was kinda weird. I had just been in Fukuoka two days earlier....It's crazy. My mission just spent a couple thousand dollars on me so that I could come up to Fukuoka. I feel really blessed. Also, because we have the islands Miyako and Ishigaki in our  zone, we had to have a special Skype training meeting with the two islands. In other words, Elder Dursteller and I have spent the last week training the zone about what we learned from Fukuoka.

The zone is really great. Lots of cool people.... My companion Elder Dursteller is WAY out of my league. His Japanese is perfect. His teaching is amazing. He's a spiritual giant. I feel so bad. I'm trying to keep up. He's just a really really good missionary. I'm learning so much from him.

This week, we made another Baptismal date with our investigator. He's kinda crazy....to say it simply, he randomly cancels appointments and then shows up to them anyway. It's gotten to the point that we just show up when he cancels and he still comes. BUT he is really interested in the Book of Mormon and wants revelation from God.

Other than that, this next month is Zone conference and the mission is going to have a 7 to 8 hour zone conference. President Gustafsen is having all the missionaries prepare to demonstrate how to do all aspects of the work. I'm so so excited. It's going to be really fun.

Other than that, I'm still working hard and we're still seeing great success. The Ward is great and HUGE. I can't wait to see more miracles. We have already been so blessed.

Elder Low

Well, I'm back on the island. I transferred down to the city of Naha in Okinawa and I'm the zone leader with Elder Dursteller from Provo. We have a huge Investigator pool in comparison to Isahaya.  It's also really nice to have a companion that knows Japanese. Don't get me wrong, I love my companions........It's a nice change though.

The other day, we set a baptismal date for an investigator here in Naha. He really really needs our help. He set a Baptismal date kinda cuz he's lost all hope. He's a big focus of ours.

Also, my roommate in Naha....is Elder Brackenbury again. The guy from the MTC that was really......fun. He's kinda weird, but I'm excited to be with him again. He's super nice and he likes me lots. :)

Today, we are flying back to Fukuoka for a conference with the mission leaders and President. We just kinda report how our zones are doing and all that stuff......it's kinda scary though. I don't really know the zone. I'm only been here for like 4 days. I'm basically leaving that all up to Elder Dursteller. The zone is quite an interesting zone. We have two islands off of Okinawa. Miyako and Ishigaki. Sounds like we will get to go to Miyako for a little some day.

So, Elder Dursteller is pretty much a boss. He's a couple years older than me. He's 22. He is way cool though and FREAKING fluent and Japanese. He can read and speak perfectly. It makes me feel kinda stupid, but I'm learning so much from him.

Anyway, that's all I have. I'm sorry about pictures. I will get back to those soon. I've been super busy.

Love you,
Elder Low

So, we had a pretty eventful week.  I got to go up to Fukuoka on Tuesday which was a blast.

Arriving at Hakata Station in Fukuoka

We stayed in the Fukuoka house (6 Elders in one house and then we added another five....It's pretty big) and I got to eat at McDonalds.....I had something called a "Hot and Groovy Burger"....I don't know about America but the Japanese Mac's are doing this vintage burger thing.......It was sooo good.

Then, the next morning, I went to the Fukuoka Stake center and had an interview with Elder Aoyagi of the First Quorum of the Seventy.....He is such a boss. He asked what the biggest struggles in my mission are right now and gave me some awesome advice. He committed me to finish the "Lesson Mastery" program. I'm finishing that up tonight. However, he promised that if I did it, people would listen to me. He asked me to say a prayer at the end of our interview and then he said, "Elder Low...I love you . You have such a light about you. You are a very special Missionary."  It was such a special experience.

Then we had a missionary conference with him. He's amazing. I was so pumped at the end of the conference and the Spirit was SOO strong.

Click on photo to enlarge.

 

On top of that, I got to see Elder Redd AND Elder Wirthlin. It was the first time we were all together. It was a blast. We ate lunch together. It felt kinda weird though.....haha, Elder Redd accidentally called me Randy. I love those Elders.

Elders Wirthlin, Low, and Redd

Well, after coming home from Fukuoka.....I got sick. Haha, it was a real bummer. I had to spend the day at the Apartment and I felt so bad for my two comps because they had to sit and stay with me. I also got to wear one of those masks all week.

I announced to the branch and Eikaiwa (English) class that I will probably transfer this week. They were all SOO upset. It was really hard to say goodbye to my Eikaiwa class. Haha, all the moms started crying. Most of our English class students are teenage boys and their parents. Apparently all these teenage boys talk about me a lot. Anyway, the parents want to change this whole "transfer" system because it is terrible.....It made me really sad that I'll probably leave them.

My Eikaiwa class.

Also, today I have a couple appointments with branch members so I can say goodbye....Haha, I haven't even got the call yet....I think  I'm out though.

Then yesterday, I got to go on splits with Elders Coelho and Malcom. We found two new investigators! It was miracle. We had a wonderful day and worked really really hard all day long.

It was a really good week. I guess I'll let you know how transfers go....but I think I'm out of here. I can't wait to find out!

I Love you all,
Elder Low