I am a Three Horn

 I am a Three Horn

 

 

What is wrong with me? Why am I stuck? Why am I so down? I already know this so why am I not progressing? These are all questions I have been asking myself this past month and I have finally figured out the answer. PRIDE! I had allowed pride in my heart which had stopped my progression. Pride in my heart which has kept me from having the full power of the Spirit with me. I have been stubborn about being trained again. I kept saying to myself, " I already know this. All I need to do is learn the language and I am good." Little did I realize that yes I may know a lot in English and how things are done in the States but I have no clue about here in Brazil. I have been like Sarah from the movie The Land Before Time. She was always saying something like, "I don´t need too because I am a Three Horn." I have been constantly saying, " I don´t need to because I have already been trained." I was constantly thinking that I know what I am doing but when in all reality I don´t know. I don´t know exactly where I am going or doing. All my stubborness has done is get me lost, frustrated, and scared. However, with a little direction from my companion; he helped me get back on track. He has been like Little Foot. He has had love, humility, and patience with me and he knows the way right now a lot more than I do. He was not afraid to give me some correction because of his love. Just as the Lord will chasten us because of his love for us. As said in Hebrews 12:6-7  "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son/daughter whom he receiveth. If ye  endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons/daughters; for what son/daughter is he whom the father chasteneth not?" I know that that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to return home to him and his son. It is possible but we must not grow prideful and follow and listen to the one who knows how to get there. Listen and follow our Savior for he truly knows the way we can return. I will do all that I can to follow him and be like him!

Caught Up in Myself

Caught Up in Myself

 

 

I can´t believe that I have already been in Brasil for three weeks. I think the days are going by faster and faster!  I have been picking up the language so fast! I still have a hard time understanding somethings but it will come in time. I love the food and I am having a great time here. I am learning so much! I am also remembering things I have learned in the past. I have realized that as the past few weeks have gone on I have been so caught up in myself. So many things have been I,I,I or me,me,me. For example, "I am new or I am still learning the language." I have lost sight of why I am really here. I am not here so I can learn a language. I am here to serve my master the Lord. I had forgotten the true importance of selflessness but I have once again remembered. I know that if I put the people and the work of the Lord first I will learn faster than I could ever imagine. It doesn´t matter if I say something incorrect or sound wierd. The people may not understand me but the will understand my spirit if it is in line with the Spirit of God. That is what matters most because the Spirit will teach and testify more than correct grammer and pronounciation ever will. The Spirit of God is like a fire burning!

He Will Strengthen Me

He Will Strengthen Me

 

 

I am so tired!!!!!!! I have done so much walking this week that I think that my feet are completely worn out. They are no longer there. I can´t feel them anymore!!! All I eat are rice and beans and nothing else! Not really but it sure seems like it. I am in a city called Itapira and it has so many hills. I am constantly walking up, down, up, down, up, and down these hills constantly. With the walking I am constantly studying the language trying to speak with the people. I can normally communicate what I need to say but when it comes to understanding what they are saying.........well, that is another story. I look wierd enough walking around in a white shirt and tie with a name tag. Lets add that fact that when people talk to me I look like a confused and lost dog. Ha, but it is all good. Although this week has been rough and tiring I have learned so much. I have only been here for two weeks but yet it seem like it is so much longer. No, it is not because I am bored or hate it here but because of all the things I have learned. I have grown in the language and I am able to understand more and more each day. I don´t look so strange when I talk. My legs are getting stronger and the hills seem to be getting smaller and easier. I love the food especially te rice and beans. My love for the people here have grown so much. I am able to see the as children of God even more and how special each person is. There is so much more but I know that it is all because of the Lord. I know he has been here with me every step of the way. Even up those annoying hills. I know that all the weaknessess I have right now are only here to help me. I know I will grow in strength from them. Those that don´t kill me can only make me stronger! He is here with me and he will only strengthen me! 

Similarities in Our Differences

Similarities in Our Differences

 

 

Wow! I can´t believe that I am finally here in Brasil! There were a few brief moments when I thought I wasn´t going to make it. Oh well, what matters now is that I am finally here! It is so beautiful here! Everything is so green and there is so much wildlife. When I say wildlife all that I have really seen is just all the bugs in my house. Spiders, ants, and others that I have no clue what they are! The people are great and really friendly! The food is amazing and people weren´t joking when they said that you really do eat rice and beans everyday. There is so much that is different but there are somethings that will never change no matter where you are. One is that we are all children of our Heavenly Father. No matter what language we speak or color we are he loves us just the same. Second and most importantly the the gosple is exactly the same. The love people have for our Savior and his church are amazing. Even though I am now reading the Book of Mormon in a different language, it contains the same truths. I can still feel the same spirit with me and I have to same knowledge that the message we share as missionaries is true!

I Will be Kept Safe

My life is like this road. I have reached a blind corner where I am not sure what will be coming up. I am unsure of the things which lie ahead of me in Brazil. Is there tragedy or is there greatness? Where will it lead me too? Will I slide off to the side? I am not sure. However, I know that there is one thing which can help me to stay on the road. The guidance of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is like the guard rail. If I follow it's warnings and directions it will lead my way. I will be guided around the blind corners of my life. If I stay worthy of the constant companionship I will not lose my way. I know that as I will be kept safe.

Only One Track

 I am walking down the road with a big smile on my face. I feel good! We hear the phone go off. Oh no! It is the big man, President Hutchings! If he is calling to transfer me I will promise I will do better. I will work harder. I promise next time I wont eat the last slice of banana cream pie! I am praying in my heart that everything will be ok. Maybe he just needs to ask me something. Yeah, that is what it is. He just has a simple question to ask me. I am thinking these things but no, I was wrong. He has good news for me. I received my visa! I leave for Brazil this Monday. I have been waiting almost a year for my visa and now it is finally here. It is a good thing but... I feel torn now. Of course, once I feel like I know where I am going something like this comes and throws me off track. I finally felt like I knew where I was going with things. I was getting the hang of being a District Leader (the one who oversees a few other missionaries). I was really enjoying training a new missionary. I was finally getting the roads of the area down and finding many great people to teach. I was seeing many great miracles happen. I had come to love my district and area more than I ever thought I would. I have given my heart to the area and mission. I have lost myself in the work of the Lord. The Nashville, Tennessee mission has become a part of me and now I will start all over again. I have no clue where I am going anymore. I feel lost and I will have to find myself all over again. I feel myself falling.... No! I wont let myself fall again. I had just learned from my district the importance of staying positive and being grateful for the blessings in which I have received. I have to treasure these memories that I have made. I know that as long as I am grateful and follow my Savior I will be on the right track. There is only one correct way and it is his. I have realized that as I pass by the scenery and events will change but the destination will not. There is only one track to our Heavenly Father and it is the way of his son. I know that if I am following the Savior's tracks I will never be lost. I will be on path. I will make it to the end. I love my district and people of my area! I am grateful for the things in which I have learned from them. The friendship that have been made the the love that has been shared. However, I must go the way the Lord wants me to! I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God! He suffered and died for me so he could show me the way! I will follow him and do all I can to help others follow him. To help them receive the restored gospel. I love my Savior with all my heart and I will do his work. There is none who can deny me of my testimony of the Savior. There is none that can stop me from doing his will. There is none who can stop me from sharing his love.

We Are Together

This week I had the chance to go to Cummins Falls in Tennessee. It was so nice to be able to go out and see some of the natural beauty that our Heavenly Father had created. I love listening to the running waters. It was a good stress relief for me. The past few days I have been going crazy in my mind. Kind of lost on what I need to do. I have no clue where I am going and what is at the end. I have been thrown in front of others to lead. Can I really do it? Will I lead them the right way? Have I been looking back to help them up when they slip? Do they know that I truly care about them? That I want them to succeed. That I want them to go farther than I have. That I want us all to make it to the end and arrive in the same place together? What do I do? Someone please help me! These things are racing through my mind when I begin to realize that I am not alone on this journey. I remember that there are others who know the path. Who have walked down the trail and know all the things to watch for. I began to remember my Savior, Jesus Christ. How he has walked down a dark and lonesome path. He has gone farther than I will ever have to go. He walked down it so that when I would have to walk it I wouldn't be alone. He would be there to guide me and show me the way. He suffered so he could one day comfort me in my pain and sorrow. It doesn't take me long to soon realize that I went from the front of the line to end of the line. Watching every step the others make, praying that no one slips or gets hurt. As I am watching them I have completely forgotten about myself. My mind is completely focused on them. I could see where they were going and knew if I had to warn them of something. If they slipped I was at the bottom to catch them. All of the sudden it hits me that just because you are leading it doesn't always mean you are at the front of the lines. You are in the back watching them standing by incase they fall. You are the one serving not being served. Just as Jesus had lead by serving others. As it says in the bible, "he took upon him the form of a servant." -Philippians 2:7 I received the answer I was looking for. I had learned that I must lose myself in service. I must become as a servant. As I began to think of this my heart felt at peace. I felt calm. I knew that as I was leading I was being lead. I will help others come unto Christ by following him myself. I know that in the end I'll never be alone. There are others on the same path and we are not alone. When we reach the end, we are together!

I Know For Myself

I have now been moved to Cookeville, Tennessee. I am with a new missionary (Elder Duke) and have been called to be District Leader for the area. EVERYTHING is new to me and I feel like I am lost and don't know where to go. I feel like I had 500 lb. weight on my back and someone put 1,000 lbs. more! What do I do?! I would tear my hair out but it is already receding fast enough! ARGH!!! Can we say crazy much! Atleast I know there is one thing that will never change. That every single person out here is a daughter or son of our Heavenly Father. He loves them so much and I must do all that I can to help them receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone is different and has their own struggles and trials but this gospel is the universal answer to all our problems. It will give us a sense of happiness and peace that nothing on this Earth can. I know for myself because I have felt it. I have put myself in the same challenge I invite others to do which is to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is not true. When I did this I knew for a fact that it is true. That we now have a prophet on the Earth to lead and guide us. That no matter how lost I feel, I have a road map to life. I know for myself that these things are true and there is no one who can deny me of what I know! No one!

I want to share this happiness and joy with you! Please ask me any questions you may have and feel free to leave any comments of how God has helped you! God Bless!

Destiny or Tragedy?

The past couple of days have been rough. I have really been thinking about the people in Japan and how I wish I could be there to help. Being Japanese and have Japanese citizenship, a part of me feels that it is my responsibility to be there. That I should be there right now helping the people who are struggling with everything. In all honesty, this really tears me apart inside but I know that I have an even higher responsibilty to serve the Lord. I am here in Tennessee sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ for a reason. Why he has called me here, I don't know. However, I do know that I am serving my mission because I know how important it is to have the gospel in our lives. I know that this gospel can save souls because it has saved mine. Our Heavenly Father has a way for us to return home to him. He has revealed his plan of happiness to us through a prophet and continues to guide us through a prophet today. I know how important we all are to him and I am here to help people know that. I am torn up that I am not in Japan right now but I am glad that I am here serving the Lord. I don't know why he has allowed this tragedy to happen. However, I do know that those lives who have been lost are now home with our Father in Heaven. That we are all destined to move on from this life and he will be awaiting our return. I know that he is watching over those people in Japan along with you and me. I know that he loves us so very much and that he looks forward to the day when we return home to him! I know that my destiny to return home to him out weighs any tragedy that can come upon me. This time is just a time to prepare to meet him!  I know this with all my heart!

Spring is Coming

Guess what! What? Spring is here! Really? Yes indeed, you excited? I guess. What do you mean you guess? Well, I guess I just don't see what is so special about Spring. It just start to get hot and all the good holidays are over. What do you mean all the good holidays are over?! Well, Christmas is over. So what! What do you mean so what?! So what if Christmas is over, we still have Easter coming up! What is so special about Easter? WHAT?!?!?!?! I can't believe you don't know what is so special about Easter! I just don't see what is so special about a big bunny hiding eggs. My friend, my friend, there is so much more to Easter than that. Why don't you tell me then. Oh I will! Easter is not about some bunny or eggs. Easter is the time that we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ! We remember the pain and afflictions he went through in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. Even more, the day when his spirit was reunited with his body and conquered physical death! What he did for us so we could return to live with our Heavenly Father once again! The love and mercy our Savior showed us that day. That is what Easter is all about and there is no one who can tell my otherwise! WOW! I never though of Easter that way before! That makes me a lot more excited for Spring now! If that is what Easter means to you, I wonder what an apostle of Jesus Christ thoughts on Easter would be, hmmm. That is funny you say that, just to above you is a great video clip of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) and his thoughts on Easter. Go ahead and watch it. It is amazing! I will, thank you so much for clarifying the true meaning of Easter for me! Anytime my friend! If you have any other questions just shoot me a message on facebook! God Bless!

You Can't Stop the Truth

WHAH!! The past couple days have been super CRAZY, my friends! Doctor appointments, meetings, trainings, some unfortunate drama, and more. However, yesterday made up for it all. Elder Barnhart and I had a trainging yesterday with three other missionaries and it was very good. It was amazing how strong the Spirit was at our meeting. I guess that is good since the training was about how to teach with the Spirit. It was rough training and I was so drained afterwards but the things I learned when we walked out were completely worth it! I am ready to face the world. Bring it on Satan! You can't stand in my way from saving the souls of others! Satan, do you see how beautiful it is outside? See how the birds are singing, the squirrels are playing, the trees are blossoming, and how the Son of God is shining. HAHA that is right. The days will grow brighter and brighter as the truth is spread. There is no stopping the message of the restoration of the Christ's church. There is no stopping the fullness of the gospel helping souls which are lost. You can't stop the light shining into the darkness of others eyes. You can't stop this light becuase Jesus Christ is the light! No matter how much you try to hide or distort the truth you can't, Satan! Jesus restored his church through Joseph Smith and called him to be a prophet to guide the people these days. There is prophet on the Earth today to guide us away from you! With this guidance you pull us off the path of rightousness!

Check out some of these videos about the Restoration Christ's church.

http://www.mormon.org/videos/

We Are His Beautiful Children

I am a child of God. You are a child of God. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and he loves us very much. A love that is so pure and beautiful. A love that can bring pure happiness. At times we get so caught up in the world and it's distractions we forget who we are. Our desires and wants begin to be for those things which can not bring us true happiness. Our understanding of the true meaning of beauty becomes distorted by the standards and expectations of the world. We began to compare ourselves to those who are on the movie screens or the runways. In magazines and on posterboards. We lose sight of the beauty that each and everyone of us has. The beauty that is in each of our hearts.

Yesterday we met with a man who is an amazing example of how to love others as Christ did. Who shows his beauty from within his heart. He was beat up a few days ago and was in a lot of pain and was uncontrolably shaking. He was in pretty bad shape but not once did he show anger or wrath against those who hurt him. He began to cry while he was talking with us. Not because of his physical pain but because he had so much sorrow in his heart. He said that when he looked at them he saw them as family and it hurt him to see them doing something so wrong. However he kept saying how he is glad that it was him. He rather get hurt himself than someone else. There was a lot more said but in all his words you could tell how much love he had for the people. How he was still willing to forgive those who hurt him.
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I know that he is a child of God. I know that I am a child of God. I know that the more we come to know Christ and strive to be closer to him, we will begin to see those things wich truly matter in life. We will began to understand what true beauty is. We will recognize that we are all Children of God and notice their beauty which is inside. We will begin to know how to love others more. At the bottom is a link to a talk about loving one another. Please leave comments on what you think of my blogs and feel free to ask me any questions that you may have. 

http://lds.org/general-conference/1981/04/love-one-another?lang=eng&query=love+one+another

Come Follow Me as I Follow Him

So let me tell you something. Giving up two years of your life to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints is a lot harder then some may think. As missionaries we serve for 18 months to two years, completely dedicating our time to serving our the Lord. We come out here to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to show people how it can bring them closer to our Heavenly Father and Christ. We come out because we know how important the message is and how much it can help. We do this because we love the people so much. I know that the message we have to share is a message of God and that it is real. There are many who think that us Mormon Missionaries are abunch of weirdos, wackos, and nut jobs. I will admit, when I look at myself I can see it how people can think that. I am pretty crazy! However, we are normal people just like you and your neighbor. Well, maybe your neighbor is kind of strange. I can't say though. I bet they are nice people, they are children of God too. Anyways, the purpose of my blog is to invite others to Christ by receving the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. To share with you my personal stories and experiences with the gospel in my life right now. To show you the life of a Mormon Missionary. I hope that you enjoy my blog and that everytime you visit that you will leave it learning something new. If there are any who have questions or want to learn more about our message please let me know or any other Mormon Missionary or member. I hope to hear from you. Have a great day! God bless!

 

Today Will be as a Dream

It is amazing how fast time flies! It has been over four months since I have left home for my mission. It feels like I just left yesterday. I feel like I have a while before I return back home to Utah but I know that it will go by quick. The next thing I know, BAM!!!!! My mission is over and I go home. It is crazy to think this because some days I feel like they drag on for so long. I feel like I am stuck riding a snail to the finish line. Who then decides to take a nap!!! Finally he wakes up but now he starts going to the wrong direction! Then he decides to talk to his snail buddies off on the sidelines. Oh and by the way, if you thought snails moved slow you should hear them talk! While he is having fun I am stuck on top of his shell not being able to go anywhere! I have no control. I don't think I will ever make it to the end! Finally we get moving and we make it to the finish line. Tired and upset that nothing went my way I go home and go to bed. I wake up to realize the snail race was just a dream but a good lesson learned. I cannot control time or the things that go on around me but I can control how they affect me. I choose what kind of attitude I will have. As I was upset and angry I lost sight of the good things around me. I became ungrateful and unappreciative of the blessings in which I already had. Although things did not go my way, I need to take advantage of the good things in life. I need not to look at the bad but to be grateful. Be grateful as we have been commanded by the prophets of the scriptures and modern days. Be grateful for what I have so I may not miss what is to come. When tomorrow comes, today will be as a dream.

Check out this great talk on Gratitude by President Thomas S. Monson

http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude?lang=eng

I am Not Alone

I love when it rains!!! It brings such an amazing feeling. I feel tough when I am standing outside in the rain and it is just pouring down on me! I feel like I can conquer anything that stands in my way. Nothing can stop me! I am invincible! MUAHAHAHAHA!! Then slowly, I come to realize how weak I am. How easily I can be brought down or lost I can feel. A stream of tears begin to roll from my eyes. The tears blend in with the rain as it beats upon my face. I feel alone. I begin to think of my Savior as he too must have felt. How he suffered and died so that I wouldn't have to feel this way. He suffered spiritual loneliness so that we wouldn't have to. He suffered so he could comfort me. I began to feel a warmth come over me as if. I no longer felt as if I were alone or weak. I felt strong once again because of my Savior. It was still raining and my face was still wet. It was dark and wet outside but in my heart I could see the light! I know that I am not alone.

It is just the beginning

It is only the beginning to something great. What is young was something old. What was lost has now been found. That which was damaged is now restored. A light has been brought forth to show us the way. This is only the beginning my friends of something great.