March 8, 2015

Wowzers!!! What an amazing week, it was sooo busy and went by sooo fast!!! I can't believe how fast it went!! We had so many things to do with preparing for Kouta's baptism and we had a zone training all day with the mission president on Friday which was amazing!! Then on Saturday we had a futsol activity for three hours and then we had Kouta's baptism, it was such a beautiful night, I don't know if I have ever felt the spirit like that before. Seeing him be baptized and then recieving the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost the next day was such a beautiful thing. You can just see the light of Christ in his eyes and the joy he feels in joining this Church. I know that the Lord has truly prepared him for this his whole life, and I hope that I am able to see that light and happiness enter many peoples lives over my mission. That is the real goal is to bring them happiness through this perfect gospel, and seeing someone accept our message and want to be baptized is such a testimony to me that this truly is the Lord's work and he loves everyone so much!

So that was probably the miracle of the week, getting to see him Baptized we were also able to learn a lot, we didn't get to do as much missionary work as normal but it was still a good week of finding people and talking to them about the gospel!

Honestly the joy I find in being able to have one person talk to us about their beliefs and find out more about them is so much, I feel so blessed to have this wonderful calling from God to be one of his representatives and be able to talk often about this perfect gospel.

We had a funny experience this week hahahahahahahaha we had found this amazing lady who wanted to talk to us about the gospel and she talked to us for almost an hour on the street. So we went to visit her at her house, and we learned that along with her interest in the gospel she also just had an interest in having someone to talk to hahahahahaha needless to say this little grandma talked to us for an hour and we left with some disgusting vegetable juice and a bunch of Christmas lights, it was quite the experience hahahahahahahaha as soon as we walked out of the apartment I just started busting out laughing she is so sweet, and really does have an interest in the gospel but she would go on 20 minute long tangents and we would just sit there listening me not understanding a word she said and my companion just smiling and nodding it was a great experience :)

I love this work, and I hope everyone is doing well, I encourage you all to try and bring a friend to church on Sunday, if you are already a member. If not a member you should attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Easter Sunday, I promise that you will feel Christ's love and that you will be able to feel a happiness and spirit that you never have in your life before.

I know this gospel is true. With all of my heart.

Love you all,

Elder Krebs

March 1, 2015

Wowowowowowowowowow! I love it here so much, I could not have asked for a better first week. I have learned so much and have gained so much faith and knowledge in our Savior Jesus Christ! So I came into my first area on Thursday....MIYAZAKI! It is a beautiful city on the East coast of Kyushu farther down south. It is such a beautiful area, I live in an apartment with 4 Elders one of whom is one of the older missionaries from my Zone from the MTC, it is very nice having someone I know here. My trainers name is Elder Crawford, he is AMAZING!! He is a hard worker and we are always going never wasting time which is perfect, he does a great job of letting me practice my Japanese and work on my Nihongo skillzzz while we proselyte. I just can't get over the fact that I am in Japan already, it is so beautiful and EVERYONE is so nice, I love the people so much even when they say no to us they always say sorry or excuse me after they don't get mad at us. They are truly so nice and amazing. The thing that stands out the most though here....their bathrooms. If the Japanese have one thing figured out it is their bathrooms, the one in our apartment is absolutely beautiful *insert heart faced emoji* we have a bidet toilet that has a heated seat *one hundred heart faced emoji's* it is so nice. And our shower is amazing as well, I love it here!!

We have really seen a ton of miracles here, they have been truly amazing and strengthened my testimony of the Lord! The work really is progressing here in Japan and is moving at such a good pace, the Lord's hand is everywhere in this work! One of the miracles we have seen is while Elder Crawford and I were riding home for dinner an old man rang his bell and had us ride over to him, he started to tell us that he was a less active who hadn't been to Church in 20 years and now he wanted to come back, he was so happy to see us and was telling us that now that he has more time he wants to see the missionaries and come back to church. How amazing is that????

Another miracle is our investigator Kouta, he is getting baptized this Saturday!!!! He is so excited and has a strong testimony of the Church, his mom is a less active who has recently come back to Church, so he started taking the lessons again, he is a 22 year old. He is so great and really believes the things that we are teaching him! We love meeting with him! Funny story with him hahaha we were at the mall going to grab dinner with him on Friday night so that we could talk with him about how he is feeling about his baptism coming up, my companion and Kouta were talking about whether or not he believed in the Church, I wasn't paying too much attention as I usually can't understand when they are talking Japanese hahahaha but right after Kouta said he believed the Church was true I was looking at a Japanese KFC which has chicken more like Canes than like KFC back home and I just said Woah Chigau!! And chigau can either mean that something is different or just that something is wrong so right after he said the Church was true I basically said you are wrong hahahahahahahaha they both just started dying laughing and I had to explain that the Church was true and that KFC is just different than in America hahahaha.

I really feel good about my Japanese for where I am right now, I feel pretty comfortable talking with people but it is just hearing that I have a lot of trouble with, the speed that they talk at is really hard to understand plus my vocab isn't the best right now. But it gets better every day and I feel the Lord really blesses me every day with the language, my companion is really good at Japanese he is at transfer 12 right now, so 6 weeks times 12 is how long he has been in the field.

I love it so much here, I love the people, I love my companion, I love my district and my area and my ward. This is truly where the Lord wants me to serve and I feel so blessed to be able to be here. I am working as hard as I can, I don't want to have any regrets after my mission. This is the Lord's work and is so important so there are no excuses to slack off ever!! I love this work and I love this Church.

Hope everyone is well, love you all!

Elder Krebs

ps. Loving the Japanese food, but we are going to an all you can eat pizza place for Lunch...lessgo

February 25, 2015

I am in Japan!!! We arrived in Fukuoka after over 24 hours of traveling last night at 9:45! It was a good day, I sat next to an amazing member on my 10 hour flight from Portland to Japan! He was a bishop in the Philippines and worked for the Church family history program! He told me lots of great stories and we were able to talk about the gospel the whole flight!

As soon as we arrived at the mission home we went to bed, it was one of the best nights of sleep in my life hahahahaha I was so tired and just so out of it from all the flights and everything! But I am in Japan and I love it, Gustafson Kaicho seems amazing, I have really loved getting to know him and his wife.

First thoughts of Japan, it is soooo beautiful here in Fukuoka, the temple is right above the mission home which is gorgeous. The food is yummy, or at least what we have had so far I really enjoy it! But the best part...the Japanese have really nailed the bathroom the shower was so nice and like preset to a perfect temperature and good pressure and the toilets are just fantastic...heated seats and everything they really treat us right ;)

Love you so much, I am so excited to serve the Lord!!! We start proselyting in 2 hours then dinner, then we meet our companions and learn our new area!!!! This Church is so true, I have felt the Spirit since I have arrived here and I am loving everything about this beautiful country!

Love,

Elder Krebs

February 19, 2015

Holy Cow!!!!!!! 4 days left in the MTC I cannot believe I have been here for over 9 weeks already! It has been such an amazing experience and I feel like I have learned and grown so much. I am grateful for the opportunities I have had in the MTC to grow and learn so much!

My testimony of this gospel has increased ten fold. I truly do know that this is the Lord's work and I know this because the spirit has testified to me and because I have seen the tender mercies and miracles of the Lord every single day here in the MTC. There were definitely hard times here, like learning how to speak Japanese....but the times I struggled in lessons or in speaking Japanese I don't remember I remember the good times and the blessings and miracles I have seen as well as the constant spirit I have felt here!

This week has been really fun, we got a new group of Nihonjin(native Japanese) that moved in with us so instead of two in our room we have five. It has been so great getting to speak to them and work on my Japanese with them. And it is way fun to work with them on their English. We were going through the Alphabet and I was singing the song and we got to LMNOP and they had a little bit of trouble saying it that fast hahahahaha...I just told them it was one letter and moved on ;)

Yesterday was wacko, we got to teach two lessons. Be traffic hosts for all the new missionaries entering in. And then My companion and I helped with one of the new missionary training activities that night! It was so much fun to do all those things and to serve and help!

I am going to be so sad to leave my companion Elder Vanalfen! He is a stud and is such a great Elder who is going to be an amazing missionary! We have had so much fun this past week teaching and have had some really funny experiences together! But don't worry we still have a 14 hours of flying where we get to sit next to each other ;)

I got my FLIGHT PLANS! I leave Monday at 3 AM :(( We go straight from Salt Lake to Tokyo, but our branch president said we should have a pit stop in Portland in between that! I am so excited to get to Japan and teach all those amazing people!!

I love this gospel so much, I love the MTC and everything it has helped me with, I haven't loved every second but those times that were hard were the things that made me grow the most. I feel as if I have changed a lot in the MTC and I can't wait to transition to the next phase of my mission!

Love you all more than Mom's home made cookies,

Elder Krebs