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

Week #21

so to fill you in on my incredible week, i haven't seen more then 30 min of the sun for he past five days, my doryo has been really sick, so we were told to stay inside, on the bright side its given me allot of study time and i got through the rest of alma Helamen and half way through 3rd nephi in the book of mormon and a big lump of pages in jesus the christ, and i do intend to read it in japanese when iv finished in ego, but for me it will be a very large kanji learning experience at first cuz, I'v only really just started having a good kanji study and there is allot of them in that book, iv definitely warmed up o eating more veggies on my mission, our average meals consist of eggs toast and miso soup in the morning pilOvegies and rice for lunch with fruit then pilOvegies for dinner with fruit. its really good though, and i definitely feel a lot healthier. this coming week should be a lot more active i think, since my doryo is feeling better, i am rather exited to get going again.

my spiritual message this week is kind of about learning and how every one was right when they say that high school could have been way easier than i made it out to be, not really but thats kind of how i feel sometimes.

we have been taught always in the church of the importance of learning, one of the things that made Christ  the most amazing teacher aside from the fact of being half god, was that he knew lots of stuff, and used all those things that he had learned to teach people, in parables and metaphors wonderful examples that are around us all the time, and one of the best things we can study is the gospel because in the long run its the most important knowledge we can gain and there is so much of it. always study the scriptures and the material there is to study, expand your knowledge on many other things as well with the gospel as the base of it all and it will expand all that you learn as long as it is the truth.

and more than anything involve heavenly father in every part of your life, when you are earnestly seeking knowledge heavenly father will help. in return the best way to repay heavenly father is by serving him by using you new knowledge to bring more souls unto is kingdom.

please never forget Him or Jesus Christ capacity. they love each and everyone of us more than we have the human capacity to understand. and they will help us, hey will bless us, they can save us, we just have to have the faith to open the door.

i love you all and miss you all, but not too much,

stay strong stay faithful until the end,

kemp chourou

Week #20

Thanks for the story, that’s super cool, so I had my first experience baptizing someone this last Saturday, Kojima shimai is finally baptized! It’s so cool then my comp confirmed her on Sunday.

Things have been going pretty well so far the new language study plan has been working well so far at keeping me interested which is like crucial for me with learning things, I'm exited to keep it going, i think I've got another good 3 or transfers before I start feeling comfortable with it, but things are coming along. My comp and i are going o start eating allot healthier once we go shopping today so we shall see where that goes, and a really cool thing real quick, my comp had the phone in his pocket and took it out to do something and realized that he had but dialed someone we had never met but who was in he hospital and now wants us to come by and visit, super cool I’m thinking, the spirit works in mysterious ways.

One thing I’ve been doing allot of lately is reading Jesus the Christ I’m already half way through the thing and am loving every moment, the saviors life is so interesting and a wonderful example, I would strongly suggest the reading of it.

Oh yeah I need recipes, now healthy would be good, but also I want your recipe for short ribs dad that would make my day if I could have some of that wonderful stuff, and i kind of enjoy cooking now so send them all in,

That’s most all for now, ill leave you with this though, study the saviors life, he was and is incredible and your love for him will grow so much when you know that all he did and went through was for us from my own study i can truly testify that i love my savior Jesus Christ, i will never fully understand all he did for all of us or for me as an individual he knows all of our pain and all of our desires all of our need and all of our vices, he wants nothing but the best for us and has and has told us just how to do it "come fallow me" through this we commit to become his servant through it we become his friends and through i we become his children as the 2000 to Helaman, we can only become so much on our own, but through him there is no limit. Please don't fall astray; this is the only way,

I love you all with every particle of my being but greater than my love is heavenly fathers love and Christ's love, remember them.

I know this is where I need to be; I miss you, but not too much

Again, I love you

Elder Connor Kemp

Week #19

Alrighty then where to start i guess ill start by saying hat this transfer feels like some of the hardest I've worked so far in my mission so much so that I've half way broken down twice in the past week, mostly over language and feeling like i cant help people as much as id like but these have been much needed experiences. my current dorio is awesome he's helped me o set up a really good way to study and it looks promising. on the brighter side of things the work has definitely payed off, one of our investigators Kojima is set to be baptized this Saturday. she's been an investigator since july and has allot of struggles but we finally just asked her again and she said she would. we're working hard with her now to get her that much more ready for it. these sort of times are what make allot of the really hard times worth it i think. finally helping someone to open that gate to the correct path, she has a 4 year old son and now he will be able to grow up in the gospel he already loves primary and has made friends with some of the other kids there,

now we just need to help our other investigators get to this wonderful point as well, ill work my hardest to get them there.

if there is one thing i would ask of all of you it would be to help the missionaries in you ward, i cant tell you how helpful it is when we receive help from the members. i don't have allot of pics this time on account of being so busy. but we have found a way to use drawing to serve people and to help them get involved with there friends a we are drawing gospel pictures for people so ill sen what pics i have.

my last note would be to please trust in the lord, he knows our situations better than we do and through him we can find the path that is best.

pray always study the scriptures, and read jesus the christ, its really good.

i love you all and miss you... but not too much,

kemp chourou

p.s. you guys need to send me pics too ya know

Week#18

こんにちわ、私の家族

i like he joke thats a good one,

not a ton to report but ill tell you what i've got, I'm still here in tokuama but elder lawson is back at home now, and my new dorio is a one webber chourou, i shall sendeth thee mine pics, the work really feels like its picking up here in just he last few days, and i'm loving it, our investigators are all doing fairly well and are moving along,

for the new year we woke up at like 5 or so and hike up a mountain with some of the young men and leaders it was a good hike and we got up in time to see the first sunrise of the new, privileges of being in the land of the rising sun, or in scripture format, and we did rise in the early morn of the first day before even the light had shone upon the land, and in our weariness we were swept away by the car of kanatoshi, to the base of an exceedingly high mountain, for it came to passexceedingly that i did behold it to be exceedingly high, to exceed that of many which were in all the land of tokuyama. and we did set forth and did clime this mountain, and we did make good time in that as we beheld the blessed veiw of the land, a new light had only just begun to brighten the land all about the mountain. and it came to pass that we did wait in patiencearrival for the arrival of that which we did anticipate with such excitement in our hearts, and behold, it came to pass that our patience was not in vain for we did behold the first light of the sun of this the new year of our Lord 2014, and behold the sight of which was pleasing unto not only the eye but also the soul, now behold it came to pass we did take many pictures. and thus began the 2014th year since the birth of our Lord and thus ended the second transfer of mine own mission in the land of the riseing sun.

thats all for now i think, i love you all and miss you, but not too much,

stay stong stay faithfull,

kemp chourou

Art work from the Desk of Kemp Chourou

Week #17

love the jokes! they always help to give me a laugh.

any way ill send you some pics that i have right now, but the card with he camera was not big enough, 1 gbt only holds 123 pics about and all of the pictures from our trip to salt lake withe he stake president we on there so i took like 12 pics then it said it was full, thankfully i have 2 gbt card that i got so i switched them I'm probably not sure if that will get me even my whole mission though ill probably get another one, i will probably take allot more pics than you think,but any way i do have to express allot of thanks that camera is sick thank you sooooo much! also the Peanut butter made me sooo happy, iv been truly blessed with yasashii sugiru riyoshin- way too nice parents- i cant express that feeling enough, there are so many people out there who's parents really don't care all hat much, but i have never once felt any thing but care and love from both of you, thank you so much and not just for the peanut butter.

 

so my week has been pretty good most of the normal stuff but we also did a junkai- splits-with the elders from yanai, and area pretty close by and ha was a fun time i got ahold of some copic markers last p-day which makes i so i can color things well, which i could never do before without a computer,

to answer you question about he language, yes it is going well I've finally settled down with an easy effective way to study each day, just five new tongo every day and 2 bunpo on a flash card, and i record it in a note book for every day review, I've been struggling to find i way they feel effective for a while and this seems to be working, you said you got that book about japanese grammar, are you studying it, i hope you are because when i see you at the end of my mission I'm speaking only japanese until my welcome home talk, so be prepared, you have done scouting,so i know you can.

 

its COLD here and like emily i feel like a wimp because its probably way colder in twin, but i spent six weeks in Okinawa and it changed me.... I'm still a wimp aren't i.

 

no snow here yet i think that usually gets here about end of january, and i should be in tokuyama for that,

oh yeah to answer your other question about the language i am able to hold a conversation at leased with gospel stuff it starts to get difficult when it leaves gospel, and i still struggle with understanding people cuz hey talk super fast and when they through in other words or grammar i don't know i can get lost but i can get the gist of things usually and my companion is in his last transfer so here understands everything which makes up for every thing i lack. i wont get to do much with leaning to read the language until i feel good about speaking i, i can read there alphabet but not allot of kanji, i can only read and wright like 30 kanji and there are thousands of them. thankfully the scriptures have furigana which is the hiragana reading next to each kanji so i read scriptures usually every language study.

 

I've definitely noticed the payoff for hard work out here, id like to stress the importance of that in my message this week.

dad you already know that well seeing as where you are as far as career, but every one can apply this for anything

especially when you involve heavenly father through prayer, people out here and me as well are always surprised at how good missionary language skills are for only being in japan for a short time, and the reason for that is because the gift of tongues is readily available to those who seek it, meaning working as hard as you can to learn it, focusing on the purpose and praying to thanks and to ask for help, heavenly father wants to help us with our lives but he wants us to make him out main priority and he requirers us to pray and ask for help. apply this to every thing you do and consecrate all you actions unto the lord through prayer before you drive somewhere pray for safety when you are seeking to learn something new ask that you may be able to remember it for are righteous purpose or future use, we can always use our time and talents to server the lord, even I'm able o draw pictures to help explain lessons and exemplify principles, heavenly father will Bless your ability to do these things,i know it

i love you all so much and cant wait to talk to you on Christmas

kemp choro

p.s. you might just be able to come and pick me up here I'm going to talk to kaichou about it when i see him next

Week #16

ah! no mail, you hurt me deep dad, you hurt me deep.

any way, ill give you a bit of a rundown of my week. we've been pretty busy lately we had to teach two eikaiwa casses-english classes, our own and hofu's the sisters there are both nihonjin so teaching ego is a little tough, we also had zone taikai-zone conference, and we accidentally let one lesson earlier in the week go way too long but other than that we've been out doing work work work, which is good, yesterday we had fast sunday of course and i was really good, we had a lesson with a 19 year old student names fujita san he's really cool, and sat in on a lesson with Kojima shimai, she has a baptismal date for this month,but she is struggling a little right now with testimony but she is progressing i can see it,

its coooolllld here its in the 30s right now, which is really cold cuz i've been in Okinawa which is hot, any way thank you so much for the big coat it is so useful.

my companionship is great when we can draw like on p-day, i'm his art sensei which is kind of fun.

so to share a cool experience from yesterday.

we went out to go see a less active member, like a 30 min bike ride out, but anyway, we get to there neighborhood and my comp has been there before but only remembers what the house looks like, so we were using the g.p.s. to find it but wee having allot of trouble. then i had a prompting and i old my comp that we should prey, then that we should just do housing in the \. the first house we go to we start talking o a guy through a kekko box-an intercom. and he said he was Buddhist which is common and i'm just like, "daijobu desu, watashitachi no messeji wa minasan o taskeru koto dekimasu" so he's like "well ok" and he comes to the door and we share a totsuzen lesson- short lesson, and give him a pamphlet he wouldn't take a book of mormon but he seemed interested and especially interested in eikaiwa so it was really cool. so not much happened at the rest of the houses but right as we were leaving my cop looks at a house thats kind of hiding and recognizes it , yes its the less actives house. so this was a really cool experience it gave me a little phrase to live by "when in doubt, do the work" these things happen to often in missionary work for it o be coincidence, and any way i no longer believe in coincidence every thing happens for a reason, never forget that and always try to make the best of he situations your put it. and always, always thank heavenly father for those things.

i love you all my family and my friends alike.

i miss you allot ,but not too much

i think about you... but not too much

 またね

ケンプ長老