Week #25

No jokes!?! I'm hurt.

But not really.

    Thank you for answering my call about the recipes, more or less i need healthy stuff of course although we can have something really good every once and a wile, mostly things using vegetable, I'm restricted to a stove a small toaster microwave and rice cooker so no oven stuff, other than that I’m pretty much good of any thing you like, i just need more variety.

I’m starting to do video journals, and ill wright down any big things that happen, iv done it for like 10 days now and I really like it, I feel like its easier to get out all that’s on my mind and its visible so that’s cool, I’m sending home my first SD with journals, i want to switch between 2 SD’s and send the other one home have you guys empty it and send it back if you could, and I'll continue to do that same thing so you guys can see me and what’s going on, where I'm at and such, i thought that might be kind of good for both of us, tell me what you think.

  the week was pretty good, lots of travel, we went to Fukuoka again for elder Webber's 2nd appointment both times we've taken he Shinkansen which is cool, i goes way faster than all other travel, 45 min by shink rather than hours by bus, so yeah way better. Sorry that’s the bullet train for you guys. Its like an airplane inside but way more comfortable, much less cramped and stuff.

  weather has been getting steadily warmer i cant wait till spring though for a little while it will be really hot cuz we don't get to lose the suits till the end of march, but such is life, at least I'm not in Okinawa the summers there are supposed to be bad  especially with the island humidity although I'm right on the ocean so we'll see how it is here,

You know what’s weird, I'm turning 19 next transfer, that’s really weird, also how fast this is all flying by i mean its really fast, i feel like it was just yesterday that i left you guys in the MTC drive way, then all the wonder of being in japan and now this all seems like every day life, i mean i recognize that everyone and everything is really small but it just seems so normal, i mean when did a Prius start looking like a medium sized car, I'll be honest its all leaving me quite confused.

Anyway we are slowly starting to get back out there as the weather gets better, the language is beginning to catch on, and things are progressing well this work moves forward like crazy.

As a spiritual message today my comp has told me. Repent ye repent ye all ye end of my house and friends and such, in the midst of our lives we sometimes forget that repentance is something we need always, its not always just saying sorry for single acts either, life needs to be a constant repentance process always striving to root out those things which are not good and live the commandments always, we cannot do this alone even if it seems like we can if we are not trying to improve something about ourselves every day something is wrong and we need to stop and think about our current life direction, pray always and stay humble, recognize that the fact of life is that we make mistakes every day and by ourselves we can't

Overcome a single one of those mistakes, because the price for a single sin is an eternity of separation from God and guilt for that sin, the only way they can be paid for with any hope of salvation I through the atonement of Christ and through that repentance that is what enduring to the end means, not holding your ground but moving forward,

i love you all, never forget your savior, cuz he didn't ever forget you first, love your savior because he loved you first, repentant and accept the saving he is offering because he paid the price first.

Stay strong, stay faithful, stay diligent, stay loving, stay repentant your the best, I love you.

Bubby,

Elder Kemp 

Week #24

right, i guess it was a little mean but as for where I'm transferring i wrote that in hiragana within the letter, but ill tell you what it says anyway, I'm not transferring I'm sticking right here in okuyama for another transfer, as is my doryo webber chourou.

 so we'll make the best of it as usual, ill admit through language study and such, i have been able to improve in speaking but i just cant seem to understand people, i try my best to listen but man, its just to many words to fast, it kills me because i want nothing more than to teach these people by what they need but i cant understand what they need, but sorry about that my little selfish rant, ill ganbara tsuzukeyo(ill continue doing my best), saigo made ne, (until the end, ya know).

aside from that im doing really good were slowly getting back to work here, since webber chourous been pretty sick up till now and is still suffering from it a bit. to day after lunch were heading down to fukuoka by shinkansen(the bullet train)(not the real translation but thats what you guys know it by.) so that webber chourou can get a checkup with the doc.

 

half the week was spent inside after having just gotten back out cuz the sickness came back a bit, but when we did get out on wednsday i think we found 3 potential investigators so that was really cool, we got out again yesterday to visit a few people after church, one morimoto san we had an appointment with but he was rather drunk when we got there so we rescheduled for thursday. then we went and visited some pi's fuji san and hashimoto san, with both we were able to share a spiritual message, so yokatta to that.

 

i'v lost a bit more weight recently I'm down to about 126 kilos or 278 or so lbs. i started at 310 when i got into the mtc. and dad remember how we got those belts and weren't sure how big to get them well im on the smallest hole of all of them right now and will need to make new holes if this  continues.

 

weather here is pretty cold most days although nothing compared to Twin Falls I assume. I'm  going to come back a wimp to the cold, i know it. but any way, we had a nice day yesterday and that was good since we had o ride the bikes allot.

 

as far as a spiritual message for the week ill simply talk about the power of patience something I've always struggled with, mom and dad I'm sue you can agree that i was an  impatient child and it s sill the same now i always want to be good at the language now, have a baptism now, but things don't usually happen as fast as we would like,ne(right?) well suffice to say i, however difficult it is to fallow myself, do know of the power of patience and hard work until the end, i recall back when i was down in Okinawa i went on junkai(splits) with our zone leader we hadn't seen much  with the little time we had, It was after conference, we had a little time while waiting for our ride so he decides to do a bit of housing in the area, still no success up until the last door of the last apartment, right as i was dang ready to head back because our ride was supposed to be there, at that last door we get an answer and are able to talk to this guy share a message and he says that missionaries can come back, after this we head back and get back to our spot right as our ride pulls up, i think i remember them apologizing for being late for whatever raason but it was the perfect timing.

    we cant always tell how things are going to play out, we don't need to know, we need only to trust in our heavenly father that if we do what were suppose to do and put our full effort forward he will make things work, we will all have those times when we knock on tons of doors with no answer or we study so hard but cant understand people, or  as with job we may lose all of wealth family and friends, but there is an end, one to each day to each hour, and as long as we are patient in our afflictions strive forward though the end seems far off we as job will have so much the greater than we lost.

don give in to the temptation to quit, strive for the goal press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, and what ever comes will be worth it, i know these things are true i know this gospel is true, i know that through christ any thing is possible.

 

i love you all friends, family, dogs, etc. you mean every thing to me and you have no replacement.

i miss you but not too much,

stay strong stay faithful stay patient in your afflictions, and i will too,

elder connor kemp 

Week 23

こんにちは、家族と友達元気ですか？

 

Mwahahahaha!, you will have to decipher it if you want to know what it says, but i suppose you already do something like that whenever you read my letters, my ego is warui, gomenne, it will probably only get worse as i try to switch more to nihongo,

 

this week has been kind of slow, we still don't get out much, because my comps. health is so up and down, but we are getting some good done, our apao has been neglected of a good deep cleaning for what seems like years so this has been an ongoing project, (to all moms everywhere: one blessing of the mission which I'm convinced is slightly directed to you is that, 1st missionaries cant work without the spirit, 2nd missionaries have a hard time feeling the sprit when there apartment is messy and dirty, 3rd and in conclusion missionaries learn to clean because the cant work effectively with out the spirit. aren't  you happy?) i have strongly gained a testimony of this as well because now that the apartment is clean every thing works better I've started losing weight again and the work can proceed!

 

let us pray that i bring this knowledge home with me. btw i just got my call for transfers aaaaand, わたしはふくおかにてんきんしません　やああああああ！ every body cheer! have fun with that. if you look up a simple hiragana chart you should be able to read it, so ganbate.

 

i've been drawing a little and am working on my own drawing of christ, i will send pics.

 

nihongo is going well i really like my language study plan and it works very well I'm slowly starting to be able to understand people allot better and will ganbaritsuzukemasho.

 

we are sharing a message to day about fasting so ill mention a little here,

 

a pattern exists within the scriptures when they talk about fasting, "and they did fast and pray oft" "for i did fast and pray much" etc. fasting doesn't go with out much prayer, fast sunday is usually enough fasting for the average life but it is easy to make its importance fall into the back ground, we have been commanded that we should observe the fast, but that doesn't just mean not eating on the first sunday of the month, fasting is not fasting unless it is accompanied by purpose of mind and much prayer, its just being hungry otherwise, it is a good practice to start your fast with a specific prayer dedicating the fast to a purpose and keeping that thing on mind throughout the fast then ending the fast with a specific prayer. with that when you have purpose to the fast the hunger isn't all that noticeable which is nice cuz i like food.

but anyway to end  my little shpeel i will simply bare my testimony that iv seen and felt the power of the fast its not always in the way that you expect or originally may have wanted, but heavenly father knows what we need more so than we do. and will answer to a faithful fast accordingly, please don't waist the opportunity.

i love you all sooooooo much i don't have enough ooooo's to express, i couldn't ask for better family and friends,and though I'm 1000 miles of water and 15 hours in the future from you i can always feel you as part of my life.

 

be safe, be diligent, be faithful, and send be recipes.

kemp chourou

 

It's like Being a Celebrity-- Me and the AP's

I think it looks a little funny out of context, but here you go!

 

Week #22

I'm going o have to keep it short unfortunately cuz we have an appointment today pretty soon, but as a bit of an update, we had stake conference this last Sunday and zone conference on Monday hence the late emails, the conferences were great Auyagi Chourou of the 2nd quorum of the 70  trained us on Monday it was really good. that was all up north in Hiroshima so so we had to sleep over for two days at the apartment of that areas elders, it was lodes of fun though, we found a new investigator right before we left for Hiroshima and he is who we are teaching today, it should be good, the language is going well as always, its just these in between times, that my natural impatience sets in, but its good. Our recent convert's doing really well and came to Stake Taikai as well.

 

I really cant believe that is already February of 2014, in 7 months my mission will be half over and this past 5 months has gone by in a blur, I'm starting to see my old comps words turn to truth, the days are long but the weeks are short the months are shorter and in the time it took to say that the transfers over, but that's next week so there is  still more to do,

that kind of leads me into my message of the week, it is much the same idea as yours, dad.

The time we have is a gift, before we came to the earth we wanted nothing more that to prove our love to heavenly father, we knew it  would be hard, we knew some of us wouldn't make it but we knew that in the end it would be worth every pain every loss every impatient moment, please don't waste this chance. It's the only one we get to do it right. if you've fallen away you can come back. his atonement is exclusive to no one but we have to make the change. i love you all so much, I'm not perfect but I'll keep doing my best, all i ask, all heavenly father has asked is that you do the same.

 

I miss you all, but not too much

 

Your friend, brother, son etc.,

Connor