Week #34

Excerpt from Dad's letter this week that explains Connor's comments:
[OK the blond joke of the week
WANTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER (actual AP headline) Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego, was visiting her inlaws. While there, she went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head. One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car. He noticed that Linda's eyes were now open, and she looked very strange. He asked her if she was okay, and Linda replied that she'd been shot in the back of the head, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour. The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head. When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid. And yes, Linda is a blonde.]

where is the world going to when people are like that, i mean all are the children of our heavenly father, but isn't part of this life's purpose to learn, especially common sense,

ya i don't really have any thing to be unhappy bout at the moment accept that i didn't eat breakfast this morning, but that was my fault, the elders i live with now are great, we have good laughs every day, and the work is coming along thus far, plus i really loved pres. ukdorfs talk about being happy and grateful in your circumstances and despite your circumstances, its just so much more fun to be happy than sad so why look at the bad when there is still so much good, the world may be going to crap but the church is growing every day, more people receive the wonderful message of Jesus Christ's true gospel every day, as missionaries we are told to be in the world but not of it, i feel like i understand that so much more now, there may be bad stuff going on every day, but there are also good things, its our choice to either press forward look for the good things and see them, or stand still and let the world envelope us.

  for example the Japanese language, sure I'm not as proficient as id like to be, but I'm way better than i ever could have been in such a short time on my own, and i know from experience and as a witness that if i just study some every day than i will continue to progress, its up to me to progress or regress, I've experienced both and i think i know which is more fun and satisfying.

  to kind of answer  your question about the weather, its the rainy season, nuff said, but i guess its a good thing that i like rain, 

our investigator furugen shimai is continuing to progress towards baptism, she really is awesome. 

the transfer is almost up, i feel like i just got here, this was the fastest one yet, and I've herd that it just gets faster, there 2 years really go by really fast.

if any body has any ideas to be more effective, to magnify my calling, i am open to here.

love you guys always 

stay strong stay faithful stay diligent, just keep swimming.

elder connor kemp    

Week #33

konnichiwa all parental, siblingle and friendly units, how are you doing in our little city of twin,

   today here in shuri as per the rainy season its super grey out side, thus i fear for rain, but thats fine however it does spike the humidity.

we currently have two progressing investigators as i may have mention, yamashiro san and furugen san, as per cool things, furugen shimai who is 85 years old and cant here or see well and we can understand her well, HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE!, set for the 10th of may, but really she has such a desire to fallow Christ, more or less her wording was, i don't understand it all yet but i really want to fallow Christ, and she's always eager to learn what heavenly father wants for her ahh, i love obaachan dendo. yamashiro san is also great she really wants to learn but especially lately she is very busy, we are trying to help her currently.

on other news, 

we found 3 new investigators while housing recently and intend to visit them this week, 2 families and an old man and a few other potential investigators so were exited for the coming week, the language is coming along as usual I'm pretty off and on with understanding but at least speech feels natural and i have a big list I'm compiling of grammar stuff from my books, of things i want to include in my vocab more, its just taking a while to do so at the moment, but ill get it set up soon, 

other than that stuff the week wasn't all that eventful, we teach eikaiwa or English classes twice a week now, one a kids class that's allot of fun and one of the little girls is totally crushing on my comp. its hilarious, he just say's shut up when we tease him about it, in normal class one of the newer students is jacked out of his mind and he's a painter, like a really freak-in good one too I've only seen pics on a phone of his stuff but it looks really good, i want know his ways! 

I've been bad about pics lately so sorry for that i need to get my camera charged, I've just been busy lately but thats no excuse. ill send some pics of all my wonderful surroundings for you guys next week. 

this is all you get for now.

love you all soooooooo much your the best 

stay strong stay faithful stay diligent, just keep swimming.

Connor/elder kemp

 

Week #32

I always love hearing from you guys, always serves to brighten the week even when its rainy. Good week this week, we had mensetsu(interviews ) with kaicho(president) and had conference the two days after that. mensetusu was on my b-day so when they found out they went and got ice cream and sang, that night the DL stayed at are place and the snuck a cake past me and a bunch of other stuff, needless to say it was a great b-day the guys here are great. 

Conference was awesome lots of really good talks; I need to make sure i make my notes a big part of my study for a wile. Area’s doing great accepted we’ve been pretty busy lately so doesn’t feel like allot of time for finding, but I’m hopeful to go back out this week for real.

Allergies have been hitting my comp and i a bit lately, not supper bad but enough that I cant comfortably wear contacts, so I went and picked up a pare of glasses, turns out now I actually like the glasses and may just keep the contacts in reserve for like spurts and stuff, we’ll see I guess, anyway that would be were all my personal money ended up in the end that and a new back pack. so ill say thank you so much since it came from you guys really.

I have been loosing weight but i also feel like I’m becoming a puny little girl, i have no weights to lift aside from my self, and wile pushups are great, some of the weight I’ve lost, i fear is from muscle.

but ill try my best to stay strong, my comp. Happened to, before his mission be a health fanatic for lack of a better term), so we have had some good health related talks, he going to be helping me be healthier from now on, from those talks I feel I have to send a voice of warning, diet soda is really bad, sorry mom, it my be absent in calories but it messes with you body systems, drastically accelerates cancer growth and possibility and messes with insulin levels which can lead to diabetes. While it’s better to stop drinking soda all to gather, if you must drink it drink non diet, I know the feeling however I may give in to an a and w now and then but not even once a week I think, I would suggest the same, gomen.

I’ll try to draw stuff when the opportunity presents itself, I really have wanted to, it just hasn’t been happening.

Any way today should be fun were headed to the big city of Naha Wich we are a few suburbs of, and will see some shops and stuff, so ya.

I’ll send a pic of me with glasses which in Japanese is (megane)

Anyway that’s all for now 

stay strong stay faithful stay diligent  just keep swimming and bring those who don’t have the gospel to the life the do not yet know, they will love you for it.

I love you all and pray that you will have success in your missionary efforts, and that you will start feeling better, 

Aishitemasuyo!

Ganbatekudasai!

Connor

Week #31

wow, lots of cool things going on all over it seems, there are so many foreign missionaries in the ward no its crazy, tell jordan gambate kudasai for me, I'm sure she's going to love it over there. so, yes we are in a four man apartment which is really fun, however it dose bring up the challenge of not falling into to many tangents, but things are pretty good so far the kanke in the apartment is good we all get along great.

   as far as the cooking situation i don't think we have the bags your talking about but we have pasta and canned stuff, some good italian recipes would be great, we all like that stuff, 

    i Haven't seen conference yet cuz we get it a week later, so ill see it next sunday. 

 so to tell you a little about who I'm working with right now, yamashiro san is our current progressing investigator she loves learning and really wants to find the truth, the on problem thats holding her back right now is that she takes care of her 85 year old mother and her whole family is opposed to religion, so we will keep working with her and see how things go.

the next, is onaga kiyodai a less active member loves video games was baptized 5 years ago but never really felt he understood the Book of Mormon all that well he's really willing to listen, and really wants to understand better, so were currently trying to help him with that, we had to explain to him pretty straight forward that his understanding the gospel and daily study needs to come first before video games, he took it well and agreed. we hope to help him a lot from here out.

the last really cool thing is a recent reactivated member nakamura shimai and by reactivated i mean the after years of inactivity and some missionary visits she got up and came to church 3 weeks ago with her non member friend. yeah for obachan dendo (grandma proslighting) and she's come every week since she's great, a little crazy but great,

   the ward here is awesome as well its the biggest ward i've been in yet and there all super nice, one is a return missionary from this mission who had been in this aria on his mission and married one of the members in the ward after going back to america, he now lives here again, thats brenen kyodai he's awesome. 

   the language is coming along for me here i feel like i can understand the majority of what people mean when they speak but i still have a long way to go, on that note, if any one knows any good fun language learning methods, oshiete kudasai (pleas teach me) 

any way that all for now love you guys

stay strong stay faithful stay diligent 

just keep swimming 

Connor

Week #30

konnichiwa minasan

I feels like forever since last p-day, things where a bit hectic with transfers, i nearly mess-up with a train transfer and i lost my ticket in the process, thankfully i met other missionaries there and the guy who we spoke to was very nice and, thanks to all the evidence from the other missionaries he let me through without having to buy another which is really good cuz the Train ticket was like 60 bucks. after that i had other senkyoshi with me so it when smoothly, and we got to the plain just fine, i got to see a bunch of people again in Okinawa and some one from my mtc district, oh yeah  and my trainer area chourou is now a zone leader in Fukuoka so i got to see him again, that was cool.

And now i'm on to transfer 5 here in my new aria of shuri in naha Okinawa, its the only landlocked area in Okinawa and also the smallest, but its a ton houses and danchi(apartment building) more or less the residential area, but its great I'm loving it so far and the weathers actually been very nice, I'm just dreading when the summer heat decides to roll around,but, before that its getting in to rainy season here and its going to start coming down like crazy,

My new comp. is elder Zimmerman, he's great, super nice and I'm exited to really get to work with him, I'm in a four man again the other elders are inagaki and Richards chourou there also great and the last couple of days have been really good. the ward here is super cool we have a return mission president and a bunch of return missionaries, every one is super nice.

Now its p-day and I'm ready to get the work started with some knowledge about this area, and really get out there and serve these people, i love being back down here in Okinawa, the people are a bit more laid back and open to talking which is really nice.

Oh yeah we actually have a sort of oven now so i can make things like that if you send some recipes please.

Any way about out of time now, so ill leave you with with my usual susume

i love you all,i really don't know where id be without you, definitely not out here in this wonderful work that's for sure but really you have all been a light in my life that i could learn from feel love and warmth from and always receive help from. always strive to be that kind of person for everyone you meet. keep up the hard work and pray and seek always to do more

stay strong stay faithful stay diligent, just keep swimming

minasan wa otskaresama desu yo

aishitemasu yo!

Connor

Week #29

konnochiwa minasan.

I’m transferring, after 3 great transfers here in ouyam I'm headed on back down to Okinawa I'll tell you the specifics when I know. Unfortunately as we are moving into spring here in yamaguchi the sakura trees are about to bloom, and I'm leaving Honshu and heading to Okinawa which doesn't have sakura trees, right before they really bloom, zannen (unfortunate), but I'm exited to head back to Okinawa, it's gonna be a hot one summer in Okinawa is infamous for heat and humidity especially in the summer, I only hit the tail end of that when I was in Okinawa and some days were still pretty ridiculous. But, shikatta ga nai(nothing can be done).

On the bright side as far as the sakura trees go heavenly father knew how much I wanted to see them and provided a blooming tree, it was totally out of the way and unexpected but I got some pictures, its only in like fourth of the full bloom or even that but its something.

I just found out the name of my area is called shuri, so ya

This week has been really good we had a lot of chances to get out and dendo, which really raises the spirits high, I've been physically tired every night but happy every day, not kanke(relationship) issues really at all and I'm exited to continue in a new place.

We found a new investigator named Ono san he's 18 (just like me!) and going to the daigaku(college) for kiyudo (a Japanese archery sport) unfortunately when we came for the following app. he wasn’t home, zannen desu ne. But I hope they will be able to come in contact with him again,

   

The same day we contacted him was a big finding day, the most contacts and totsuzens (short lessons) I've ever done in one go, it was like 72 contacted people 11 short lessons 3 Books of Mormon and 2 baptismal invitations, it was like half of our weekly total in a day, the most important part however wasn't how many contacted, its really in those found it really helps to keep the spirits high when we keep our eye single to the work, focusing on finding those heavenly father has prepared. And we've definitely found some

Always remember your all as much of missionaries as i am the only difference is that i have the privilege to have this as my only responsibility, always remember that the best missionary work happens through members of the church, not through knocking on doors, the full time missionaries are just individuals who help the wards do missionary work, we're able to focus on those being taught rather than our job or our families but we also can't make the same connections with people as you can at work and through other things because we don't have the sufficient time, we however will happily accept anyone the members have invited. the missionaries are a tool for the Lords work and to the ward, the ward isn't a tool of the missionaries, work hard and keep your eye single to the work and you will see as many and more miracles than we do,

You are all missionaries even if you don't have a name tag, gambate kudasai and never forget, I love you all family friends and all, you're the best, stay strong stay faithful stay diligent just keep swimming.

-Connor

Week #28

i wish i could send you more pictures but my comp has told me to stop except on p-day and we are always packed on p-day i don't think we've been able to go on a zone p-day ever. but it's fine I'll try really hard to get some pics today and get them to you next week.

 so as for my comp. its mostly personal stuff i don't know it all my self suffice to say its stress stuff but we're doing good right now, and i understand how to help him, correction is hard but when its necessary i can still help,

   no worries, i have no intention to give up language study i still study every day, it just hasn't felt as effective as it used to, so I'm looking for other ways to study.

That's really cool that the party went well, i wish i could have been there for it. it must have been fun lifting the pig, i remember.  seems like the party is becoming more and more ya know big it's like we have more to it each time now, ill be exited to participate when i come back,

that's unfortunate that you have to live in Idaho weather right now, the last couple of days here have been beautiful, no wind about high 50s not a cloud in the sky, its great but I'm not going to like it for long once the heat and humidity spike in the summer its going to be reeeealy fun.

   nothing super interesting here aside from the progression of the kingdom but, ya know that's everyday stuff out here, Jordan. things are good here but lately there a little slow with a lot of inside work I'm eager to get back out and house, i never thought I'd say that.

 oh yeah, i meant to remind you, when i come back I'm not going to speak English until my welcome home talk. maybe it's a little mean but it will be fun i know it.

so, i gave a talk on Sunday, the first one since my farewell talk, and i at least was able to say all that i wanted to, but man Japanese is hard sometimes, but I'm starting to be able to say the same idea in an easier to say way so that i don't get held up for too long. every one said it was good but everyone also says my nihongo is good, so its hard to know when they really are just saying it.　anyway my talk was on the joy of missionary work and how by applying steps that missionaries follow to do it the Lords opportunity experiences way members can have the same joy and experiences.

the main points were, first we must make a commitment personally and to heavenly father that his work will come first and where ever you are you will strive to fallow his will and focus on that work.

the second was, praying for opportunities i never did this before my mission because i was afraid he opportunity would actually come and I'd be at a loss for words or just wouldn't know how to act, but really its nothing like pulling a Samuel the Lamenite, in most cases, with you friends just extending the invitation to talk about it is enough, its not something we should ever force on to a friend or any one, but make it an obvious part of your life and don't hide your feelings about it,

third is acting in those opportunities, like if your having lunch with your friend bob, you can say something like ( hay bob i want to share something with you that's important to me, but if your not interested in it after we talk please don't accept. ) this is important because we must recognize that they will learn when there ready to learn not when we are ready to teach them.

the forth more or less is about the above par about not hiding it, make church and work life one in the same talk about things you did at church or experiences from activities with your not yet member friends this gives them an opening to ask questions, along with that, don't flood people with doctrinal things that you like about the gospel. find out the interest why they have that interest and try to teach simply to the apparent needs. for example if they ask a question, a simple response o find out more is why do you ask,

  if we try these things in our lives every day taking every opportunity we will see success and we will really feel joy beyond that of what we expected .

    lastly, making goals and deadlines, like i will find someone who will accept missionary lessons by may 30th, then do all you can to meet that goal, and share the goal with heavenly father, he will help.

i encourage all who read this to try and fallow some of these principles, i know that is you do you will find so much joy and you will help many of Gods children to come unto Christ.i testify of that.

i love you and miss  you but not to much

stay strong stay faithful stay diligent, just keep swimming on through it all

Connor

Week #27

Konnichwa! Genkidesu ka?

Thanks for the encouragement there, thankfully we don't get doors slammed in our faces here everyone is super polite the worst we get is when people say "kekko desu." Things here are going well, and our investigators are doing well, we reactivated a dropped investigator and are working hard with him we have a few exiting things we intend to try to help all of them right now. The language is going well although I've fallen back into a study slump I'm bored of the study method so its not very effective any more, if you have any ideas i'll try them. On the bright side I did learn a lot while it lasted and I feel like understanding is becoming easier, its harder to translate now than it is to just accept things in Japanese, I look forward to more progress.

So as a health up date I started my mission an uncomfortable 310 lbs I currently weigh 270 and it continues to go down each week. I feel a lot more energy and we run a mile every Wednesday and Saturday and I can do the whole thing finally. Pushups are easier too!

Things really are great out here I'm loving and learning more each day and am so grateful for this opportunity to serve Heavenly Father. If you can find a book at Deseret Book called the "Power Of An Everyday Missionary", it's fantastic and it will help with all aspects of member missionary work, it doesn't seem intimidating at all now, READ IT!

That's all I've got time for now sorry. Thanks for all that you guys do have done and are, I love you all so much!

Stay strong stay faithful stay diligent, just keep on a swimming.

Love, your son, brother and friend

Connor

Week #26

konnichwa,

 

Happy to receive the recipes though seeing the ingredients now for the spare ribs I've been doing more or less just that but without the marinating iv been finding a few good ways to cook here and there and its been going well, another thing to add to the list of cook-able's is fish, unfortunately for most of the things made using canned products, we don't see much of them here unfortunately but it kind of forces me to cook with fresh veggies any way so its all good.

 

To answer your question about the letter from kaicho, we became co senior this transfer, didn't really change much since webber choro has been out twice as long as me, but they send the letter any way.

 

So we had zone taikai (conference) this week, yesterday actually, kaicho and the APs trained us about planning and teaching and related subjects, it was really good and its made me think a lot, I really hope to improve from it and will strive to every day I've got.

 

Here's a question for ya pops, how did you make proselytizing activities fun? Cuz any one who does any housing or streeting more or less receives the countless way of saying "NO" quite a few times so how do you keep things fun?

 

I'll keep gambaruing every day, but I expect the same from you all, to explain I will go through my end statements which I always send, stay stong- satan's got an army on his side to work against you every day and is a master at what he does but no skill can stand up to the power we can receive from heavenly father, when you stand firm and have the foundation of faith that he builds us on nothing in this world can break your spirit, 

stay faithful- we live in a world where the things around us change all the time, values are lessening and morals dwindling we however know the one who never changes (I am the same yesterday today and forever), we can always hold on to the lord teaches us because it never changes i may become more specific more understood but it doesn't change and if we have the faith to hold on especiallyto it especially when there seems talwayso be a batter way or no end, the blessings will be opened to us, we will see and understand what heavenly father wants for us.

stay diligent- always work forward  you cant ever let yourself say your done enough keep learning keep praying keep repenting keep serving others enduring to the end doesn't mean sitting it out it means doing the work through it, if we aren't moving forward we're moving backward.

 

I love you all so much, your the best family and friends an 18 year old kid serving his Lord in a strange country could ask for.

Stay strong, stay faithful, stay diligent, and just keep swimming; through it all.

Your son, freind, brother,

Elder Connor Kemp

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