Hello everyone!
Another Hot and Humid week in Ishigaki!
This week in Ishigaki was one of the best we have had yet! The last two weeks had been kind of rough because we had missed two or three days of missionary work in each one because of the training and typhoon. But we had the whole week to just go hard this week! We were able to see a lot of miracles, and meet with a lot of people that we had been unable to meet with recently. We were able to have a lot of lessons and work a lot with the taira family! Their baptismal date is on 8/9 and is looking really solid! So please pray for them! We were also able to see another miracle this week with Hayashi san, we hadnt been able to meet or contact her for a while but I called her two nights ago and she answered after one ring and was super nice and kind and apologized, she has been working two jobs lately and has had no time to meet. But we were able to quickly set up an appointment for Today at 7;30 so hopefully we can help her start progressing again, and teach her the lessons so that she can come closer to Christ.
We met a lot of really kind people this week that were willing to meet again and seemed to be really interested in this message! On Friday night we were knocking houses and we knocked on a house with two houses in it, one on the top floor and one on the bottom. The one on the top floor had a license plate from Kentucky hanging up right in her entrance, and not just from Kentucky, from Fayette county! I flipped out, she was really funny and nice and said she had just bought it online somewhere hahaha But she also was interested in learning more about the Church and said we could come back and that she would definitely be coming to our free english class! Then the person in the house beneath her was this super confident bigger japanese lady which you dont find very often and she just had us come right into her entrance and talked to us for about ten minutes. She was awesome, apparently her husband is kind of christian and she has been wanting to learn about God and Christ recently! We get to meet with both of them tomorrownight!
The work is progressing so well here, the Lord has so much in store for this area and for all the people of Japan! This country is going to be a strong place for the church in the future, and it is not too far off. The hearts of these people are turning towards Christ and to our Heavenly Father. I know that God is our Loving Heavenly Father, he wants all of us to be happy and to return to Him. He has given us a perfect plan, that we can gain so much hope and peace from. I love this gospel, I love the Book of Mormon, and I love my savior. Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy and happy!
Love you all,
Elder Krebs
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
July 20, 2015 (Fisher of Fish)
Hey Everyone!!
I just got back from fishing in the ocean so I came up with that catchy title to remind you all that I am still funny.
This week was interesting, we moved our eikaiwa to tuesday because we were flying to the bigger island to meet the new mission president so we didn`t have any time to do missionary work really until we got back which was late thursday night because we missed our first flight eeek. But when we got back it was fun to ride over all of Ishigaki to go to the three appointments that we had missed because of the flight. We taught one, rescheduled another, and the third wasnt there :(
Meeting President Egan was amazing, he is a wonderful, kind, and fun man! We could feel the love that he had for us and for this mission and the people of Japan in only hearing him talk one time. He has a strong testimony and a good plan for this mission, I know that we are going to see miracles if we follow him. He interviewed everyone in the mission in just 10 days! The interview was good it was just a get to know you only five minutes, the first question he asked was if I was a Kentucky blue devils fan (he had heard I was a big fan from my brother Matt who he had met in Fukuoka a little bit earlier), and then I told him that if he wanted to talk basketball the interview would go much longer than 5 minutes ;) We also got trained on the next step of our Ipads which is putting the investigator records and planning with it, so that was a lot of fun!
Friday was a good day, we had to do weekly planning and then go to a lot of appointments, it was a great night where we saw a lot of miracles and were able to find some new people to teach as well. It is amazing to see this area turn around like this, it used to be an area that was taboo and we have completely changed the image. The Lord knows that this is the time for Ishigaki to explode and I am so grateful that I get to be here at this time. Elder Lucas is so amazing and we are doing everything we can for this area!
Saturday was a lot of bike riding, we went to teach our new eikaiwa class which is thirty minutes by bike! It went really well, a ton of kids come every week, around 15 and it is awesome to get to know them and have fun with them, I love working with japanese kids they are so honest and so kind to everyone no matter what!
Sunday was a BLAST! Church was amazing as always, and then we went and were able to teach a couple lessons as well as reschedule an appointment, then we went to a big festival with a lot of members, it was a good time to get to know them better and have a lot of fun. Elder Lucas and I got asked to help carry this wood pallet thing with a guy on top and you slam two of the pallets together and two people fight on top. It was pretty cool I guess...perks of being white in a country with not many white people!
I love this work, I know this church is true, I hope everyone is doing well and I pray for my friends and family every single night. I love every single one of you and hope you are all happy and healthy. Always turn to Christ first in times of trial, He is our greatest source of comfort and Love and if we turn to him we will always come back happier and relieved of our burdens.
Love you all,
Elder Krebs
I just got back from fishing in the ocean so I came up with that catchy title to remind you all that I am still funny.
This week was interesting, we moved our eikaiwa to tuesday because we were flying to the bigger island to meet the new mission president so we didn`t have any time to do missionary work really until we got back which was late thursday night because we missed our first flight eeek. But when we got back it was fun to ride over all of Ishigaki to go to the three appointments that we had missed because of the flight. We taught one, rescheduled another, and the third wasnt there :(
Meeting President Egan was amazing, he is a wonderful, kind, and fun man! We could feel the love that he had for us and for this mission and the people of Japan in only hearing him talk one time. He has a strong testimony and a good plan for this mission, I know that we are going to see miracles if we follow him. He interviewed everyone in the mission in just 10 days! The interview was good it was just a get to know you only five minutes, the first question he asked was if I was a Kentucky blue devils fan (he had heard I was a big fan from my brother Matt who he had met in Fukuoka a little bit earlier), and then I told him that if he wanted to talk basketball the interview would go much longer than 5 minutes ;) We also got trained on the next step of our Ipads which is putting the investigator records and planning with it, so that was a lot of fun!
Friday was a good day, we had to do weekly planning and then go to a lot of appointments, it was a great night where we saw a lot of miracles and were able to find some new people to teach as well. It is amazing to see this area turn around like this, it used to be an area that was taboo and we have completely changed the image. The Lord knows that this is the time for Ishigaki to explode and I am so grateful that I get to be here at this time. Elder Lucas is so amazing and we are doing everything we can for this area!
Saturday was a lot of bike riding, we went to teach our new eikaiwa class which is thirty minutes by bike! It went really well, a ton of kids come every week, around 15 and it is awesome to get to know them and have fun with them, I love working with japanese kids they are so honest and so kind to everyone no matter what!
Sunday was a BLAST! Church was amazing as always, and then we went and were able to teach a couple lessons as well as reschedule an appointment, then we went to a big festival with a lot of members, it was a good time to get to know them better and have a lot of fun. Elder Lucas and I got asked to help carry this wood pallet thing with a guy on top and you slam two of the pallets together and two people fight on top. It was pretty cool I guess...perks of being white in a country with not many white people!
I love this work, I know this church is true, I hope everyone is doing well and I pray for my friends and family every single night. I love every single one of you and hope you are all happy and healthy. Always turn to Christ first in times of trial, He is our greatest source of comfort and Love and if we turn to him we will always come back happier and relieved of our burdens.
Love you all,
Elder Krebs
July 12, 2015
Hello everyone!
So in Japan they only number their big storms which is wayyyyyy lame. So I have named the typhoon that came this week Terry. Terry the Typhoon. It was a pretty big Typhoon. We were inside all day on Thursday and Friday which was way hard, but we were able to get a lot of work done that needed to be done with organizing a lot of things and getting ready to put a lot of our records into the Ipads. whooooooo.
Other than that though this week was pretty amazing! We were able to find a lot of new people to teach, and able to work with a lot of the people that are progressing now. We got to pick MANGOS this week! It was a pretty cool experience, if you non islanders don`t now mangos are a pretty high maintenance fruit. But we were able to pick about 3 thousand dollars worth of them. In japan they are 15 dollars for ONE MANGO. It is out of this world. Fresh mangos and pineapples are worth the 100 degree temperature and humidity. I have never eaten anything as delicious as them.
This week we are going to meet with our new mission president, we are flying up to the big island of Okinawa on Wednesday and meet him on Thursday! It is pretty exciting here in the mission right now!
Last week was also my first time going on splits with someone who only speaks Japanese! It was fun to be forced to use my Japanese all day long! Elder Haoka is a 2nd transfer missionary and I am only 4th so it was a good time with some young missionaries! The Lord blessed us to find a lot of new investigators and to have some great lessons, we really felt guided by the Spirit and were really blessed all day long! One of the people we met and made an appointment with has a cool miracle. yesterday Elder Lucas went back to his house to meet with him, he wasnt there but his wife was and she was AMAZING she asked so many questions about our church and about what we believe and what is different about our church and her heart was really touched by the Spirit as we testified and she really wants us to come back and teach their whole family about this gospel! So please pray for the Nakazato family!
I have been focusing on loving the people this week! The Japanese people have such a great culture and language. I truly do love them and I feel God`s love for every person that we talk with! I am grateful to get to work with the Japanese people every day (except for when Terry the Typhoon comes :()
I love you all so much and hope you had a great week! This church is true, I know it with all my heart. Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord, and he helped bring the fullness of his gospel back once again to this earth. We have received so many blessings from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we always need to have a prayer of thanks in our hearts for him!
Love you!
Elder Krebs
So in Japan they only number their big storms which is wayyyyyy lame. So I have named the typhoon that came this week Terry. Terry the Typhoon. It was a pretty big Typhoon. We were inside all day on Thursday and Friday which was way hard, but we were able to get a lot of work done that needed to be done with organizing a lot of things and getting ready to put a lot of our records into the Ipads. whooooooo.
Other than that though this week was pretty amazing! We were able to find a lot of new people to teach, and able to work with a lot of the people that are progressing now. We got to pick MANGOS this week! It was a pretty cool experience, if you non islanders don`t now mangos are a pretty high maintenance fruit. But we were able to pick about 3 thousand dollars worth of them. In japan they are 15 dollars for ONE MANGO. It is out of this world. Fresh mangos and pineapples are worth the 100 degree temperature and humidity. I have never eaten anything as delicious as them.
This week we are going to meet with our new mission president, we are flying up to the big island of Okinawa on Wednesday and meet him on Thursday! It is pretty exciting here in the mission right now!
Last week was also my first time going on splits with someone who only speaks Japanese! It was fun to be forced to use my Japanese all day long! Elder Haoka is a 2nd transfer missionary and I am only 4th so it was a good time with some young missionaries! The Lord blessed us to find a lot of new investigators and to have some great lessons, we really felt guided by the Spirit and were really blessed all day long! One of the people we met and made an appointment with has a cool miracle. yesterday Elder Lucas went back to his house to meet with him, he wasnt there but his wife was and she was AMAZING she asked so many questions about our church and about what we believe and what is different about our church and her heart was really touched by the Spirit as we testified and she really wants us to come back and teach their whole family about this gospel! So please pray for the Nakazato family!
I have been focusing on loving the people this week! The Japanese people have such a great culture and language. I truly do love them and I feel God`s love for every person that we talk with! I am grateful to get to work with the Japanese people every day (except for when Terry the Typhoon comes :()
I love you all so much and hope you had a great week! This church is true, I know it with all my heart. Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord, and he helped bring the fullness of his gospel back once again to this earth. We have received so many blessings from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we always need to have a prayer of thanks in our hearts for him!
Love you!
Elder Krebs
July 5, 2015
This week was amazing!
I first want to say happy birthday to the greatest dad in the whole world! I am so grateful for him and for everything that he taught me growing up and his example of being firm in the faith at all times and always being a true example of what a follower of Christ should be like. He has a firm testimony and is one of the nicest people in this world! I love him!
I also want to say how sad I am for the passing of Elder Packer, he was an amazing man who did so much for the Kingdom of God he helped so many people. And was truly a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am grateful for him and all of the wisdom I have gained from him over the years as I listened to him talk.
We didn't get as much time to teach lessons or to find new investigators as we would have liked but we were able to have a couple of great activities and I think really accomplish what the Lord wanted us to do!
One of the coolest experiences we had was we were going to teach a lesson to a man we had met the other day and he said he wanted to learn english as well. So we believed we were going to teach an english lesson for a little and then a church lesson, which is one of the programs they use in our mission. But we get to his apartment complex and he had like 15 kids waiting for us to teach them english that lived in the apartment complex! We were able to teach an english class to all these kids which went great and then teach the Dad a lesson! It was such an amazing experience to build good relationships in this area! We were also able to help him plant banana trees which was pretty fun, it was a really cool experience for us. It is weird that I live in a place where mangos and banana trees are just everywhere! #IslandLife
We were also able to have an AMAZING 4th of July party, it was a blast. We made red pancakes and put blueberry Jam and coconut shavings on them to make an american flag! We had a lot of English class students there, members, and investigators! Such a great experience to build good relations with them! We cut up like 10 pineapples that we received the other day from an investigator and Elder Lucas cooked hashbrowns and made some delicious buttermilk syrup. I manned the Pancake grill, a skill I learned from my awesome dad and grandpa. It was a really great activity!
Elder Lucas and I have had some great experiences with continuing to strength our faith in the Lord here and to progress this work. We see his hand every day and we know that he loves and cares for this area of ishigaki and we pray every day for it.
Please pray for the Taira family and for Hayashi that they will be able to progress towards their baptismal dates!
I love you all!
Elder Krebs
I first want to say happy birthday to the greatest dad in the whole world! I am so grateful for him and for everything that he taught me growing up and his example of being firm in the faith at all times and always being a true example of what a follower of Christ should be like. He has a firm testimony and is one of the nicest people in this world! I love him!
I also want to say how sad I am for the passing of Elder Packer, he was an amazing man who did so much for the Kingdom of God he helped so many people. And was truly a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am grateful for him and all of the wisdom I have gained from him over the years as I listened to him talk.
We didn't get as much time to teach lessons or to find new investigators as we would have liked but we were able to have a couple of great activities and I think really accomplish what the Lord wanted us to do!
One of the coolest experiences we had was we were going to teach a lesson to a man we had met the other day and he said he wanted to learn english as well. So we believed we were going to teach an english lesson for a little and then a church lesson, which is one of the programs they use in our mission. But we get to his apartment complex and he had like 15 kids waiting for us to teach them english that lived in the apartment complex! We were able to teach an english class to all these kids which went great and then teach the Dad a lesson! It was such an amazing experience to build good relationships in this area! We were also able to help him plant banana trees which was pretty fun, it was a really cool experience for us. It is weird that I live in a place where mangos and banana trees are just everywhere! #IslandLife
We were also able to have an AMAZING 4th of July party, it was a blast. We made red pancakes and put blueberry Jam and coconut shavings on them to make an american flag! We had a lot of English class students there, members, and investigators! Such a great experience to build good relations with them! We cut up like 10 pineapples that we received the other day from an investigator and Elder Lucas cooked hashbrowns and made some delicious buttermilk syrup. I manned the Pancake grill, a skill I learned from my awesome dad and grandpa. It was a really great activity!
Elder Lucas and I have had some great experiences with continuing to strength our faith in the Lord here and to progress this work. We see his hand every day and we know that he loves and cares for this area of ishigaki and we pray every day for it.
Please pray for the Taira family and for Hayashi that they will be able to progress towards their baptismal dates!
I love you all!
Elder Krebs
June 28, 2015
Hello everyone!
So every day this week has been around 90 degrees but it always says feels like 110 which is really fun! But with lots of work comes lots of miracles and blessings, this area is crazy hahahaha the people are so kind and it seems like everyone is willing and ready to accept the gospel, every door we knock on seems to be another person that is interested in God or wants to hear more about our message! It is also fun to see the people that we have found begin to progress and to teach them the lessons, before it was just getting to know them a lot and finding their interests so that we could help them the most. But now we are able to teach the lessons and help them learn about this gospel and then make the decision for themselves of if they want to receive it!
This week was way interesting, we had some pretty awesome moments! First I wanna give a rundown on our baptismal dates for right now! We have some amazing people that we are teaching that are progressing really really well. But our baptismal dates right now are a mom and her 15 year old son Misona and Yudai, he is a stud and is about 6`2" Se ga takai for a kid that age in japan. They are both way interested in the message and in being able to be baptized in the Church. The mom was more bimio before but she is way solid now and has gained a lot more interest as she learned more about the restoration. The son is a boss, his prayers are amazing, so heart felt he truly wants to know more about God and he is probably the most humble person I have ever met in my life. Our other baptismal date is Hayashi she is 23 years old and just the sweetest person, she really wants to understand God and learn more about Christ and why he is important, she had been baptized in another Christian church but didnt remember the name or anything else about it hahaha so we are really just teaching her all the lessons and she is just soaking it all in, she accepts it all and really believes it is true, she has been praying recently and it has really helped her life. She is so great and all 3 of our baptismal dates are really really solid!
On Friday we had service where we picked up trash and it was right next to a beach and Elder Lucas and I saw some crabs on the beach shore, but it isnt sand it is these rocks that have been put in there so little did Elder Lucas know as he was running towards the crabs to catch one (maybe to eat?) that the rocks at the bottom are slick from the water coming on them, and he biffed it and slid down right into the ocean but he kept his head above the water so he wasnt swimming. But he lost his hat and it was floating in the water, I felt like I should be a good companion and grab his hat, but little did I learn that the steps were slippery so I also biffed it and fell into the water...but I kept my head up. So no interviews with the mission president were necessary...thank goodness. ;) But never fear we were riding back home last night and there was a crab walking across the street...like 2 miles from the beach hahahaha so Elder Lucas ran over it with his bike so we beat satan in the end!
Egan kaicho replaces Gustafson kaicho this week in the Fukuoka mission, so there is lots of gossip and talking going all around the mission! It will be exciting to see how the mission changes because of the mission presidents changing, but I know that the Lord will continue to help this mission progress so that we can help build the Kingdom of God!
I just wanted to share a quick scripture to end, and that is Romans 8:31 it has given me more comfort than I think any other scripture I have read. it says "If God be for us, who can be against us" It has given me so much strength to go out and preach this gospel with unweariness no matter how much the people say they do not want to hear it we just have to be bold and loving and not worry about anything else because God is always with us, he is for us and he is supporting us every second of every day. So why does it matter if people are against us, we know we are on the winning team!
I love you all so much and hope you are doing well!
Elder Krebs
So every day this week has been around 90 degrees but it always says feels like 110 which is really fun! But with lots of work comes lots of miracles and blessings, this area is crazy hahahaha the people are so kind and it seems like everyone is willing and ready to accept the gospel, every door we knock on seems to be another person that is interested in God or wants to hear more about our message! It is also fun to see the people that we have found begin to progress and to teach them the lessons, before it was just getting to know them a lot and finding their interests so that we could help them the most. But now we are able to teach the lessons and help them learn about this gospel and then make the decision for themselves of if they want to receive it!
This week was way interesting, we had some pretty awesome moments! First I wanna give a rundown on our baptismal dates for right now! We have some amazing people that we are teaching that are progressing really really well. But our baptismal dates right now are a mom and her 15 year old son Misona and Yudai, he is a stud and is about 6`2" Se ga takai for a kid that age in japan. They are both way interested in the message and in being able to be baptized in the Church. The mom was more bimio before but she is way solid now and has gained a lot more interest as she learned more about the restoration. The son is a boss, his prayers are amazing, so heart felt he truly wants to know more about God and he is probably the most humble person I have ever met in my life. Our other baptismal date is Hayashi she is 23 years old and just the sweetest person, she really wants to understand God and learn more about Christ and why he is important, she had been baptized in another Christian church but didnt remember the name or anything else about it hahaha so we are really just teaching her all the lessons and she is just soaking it all in, she accepts it all and really believes it is true, she has been praying recently and it has really helped her life. She is so great and all 3 of our baptismal dates are really really solid!
On Friday we had service where we picked up trash and it was right next to a beach and Elder Lucas and I saw some crabs on the beach shore, but it isnt sand it is these rocks that have been put in there so little did Elder Lucas know as he was running towards the crabs to catch one (maybe to eat?) that the rocks at the bottom are slick from the water coming on them, and he biffed it and slid down right into the ocean but he kept his head above the water so he wasnt swimming. But he lost his hat and it was floating in the water, I felt like I should be a good companion and grab his hat, but little did I learn that the steps were slippery so I also biffed it and fell into the water...but I kept my head up. So no interviews with the mission president were necessary...thank goodness. ;) But never fear we were riding back home last night and there was a crab walking across the street...like 2 miles from the beach hahahaha so Elder Lucas ran over it with his bike so we beat satan in the end!
Egan kaicho replaces Gustafson kaicho this week in the Fukuoka mission, so there is lots of gossip and talking going all around the mission! It will be exciting to see how the mission changes because of the mission presidents changing, but I know that the Lord will continue to help this mission progress so that we can help build the Kingdom of God!
I just wanted to share a quick scripture to end, and that is Romans 8:31 it has given me more comfort than I think any other scripture I have read. it says "If God be for us, who can be against us" It has given me so much strength to go out and preach this gospel with unweariness no matter how much the people say they do not want to hear it we just have to be bold and loving and not worry about anything else because God is always with us, he is for us and he is supporting us every second of every day. So why does it matter if people are against us, we know we are on the winning team!
I love you all so much and hope you are doing well!
Elder Krebs
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