August 10, 2015

Another week, another typhoon, another two days inside :( This week was interesting, it is weird to know that my companion is for sure leaving and I think it gave us both a lot more energy to push harder and work to find those people the Lord wants us to. And we saw many miracles this week, but we also had some big disappointments. 

Yudai was supposed to get baptized on Sunday but because of the typhoon and some other things we weren't able to have the baptismal service, but we will hopefully be able to have it next week. So please pray for that! We also saw a lot of awesome miracles this week, we had a young family come to church which was so cool to see how excited the ward got. They loved it, the Ooki family is so awesome. It is a mom with her two children who are 8 and 5, they are the stinking coolest little girls ever. They loved church, and are very willing to listen to our message and are very excepting and see what can come from teaching them more. We know the Lord has a great plan in store for them! 

During the typhoon I had an awesome experience of getting to call Kouta from my first area of Miyazaki, he was the baptism we had right after I got in to Japan. It was amazing to talk to him, and any missionaries that want to feel good about their language progression should call someone from their first area later on. I never felt like I was progressing in the language and was still stuck in the same place, but I was able to talk to him for 30 minutes about all kind of stuff and understood it all. It is such a blessing from the Lord to be able to be given these gifts from the spirit and I feel so grateful to him. Kouta was able to go to the temple a few weeks ago and is preparing to serve a mission!!!!!!!! I am so excited for him, and to see how much more he can help the kingdom of God grow!

We had another amazing miracle yesterday, we have been teaching a lady Hitomi recently who is married to a man from switzerland, we had talked to him a few times and he was fine with us coming over. But yesterday we went to their house and taught for an hour to him about our church. We were able to explain our beliefs, and he was very nice and respectful as he listened. He doesnt like organized religion because he was forced to attend as a kid so he has a hard time thinking of it as a good thing. But he does want to come to church, and see what it is like! But we are praying that as we teach them more his heart will be softened and they will be able to receive baptism! They also gave us DELICIOUS Swiss Chocolate I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I ate it. So good. 

It was cool to see the Lord testing us as well this week, right after we got out from the typhoon Elder Lucas`s bike broke in a pretty spectacular way hahahaha the gear shifter just broke cleanly off and his chain snapped in half as he was changing gears. The bike has been through a good mission ;) So we had to walk 10 minutes back home, and then 30 minutes to a members house to borrow their bike. But we were able to talk a lot and have some good bonding time. I am gonna miss him a lot, he has been an amazing companion who has taught me SO much. But I know the Lord has a plan for me to be able to let me continually grow and progress. So I am excited to see what it is. I am for sure staying here in Ishigaki though! 

Love you all so much, never forget that the Lord knows everyone individually He knows our problems and our joys. And he wants to help us always, we just have to be willing to ask Him and turn to Him. I pray for all of you every day!

Elder Krebs 

ps. Typhoon was suppppper cool and strong. just btdubs

August 2, 2015

Hello everyone!!

What an amazing week in the Gaki! We had some sad news yesterday as the mom of the two people that are supposed to get baptized wasnt able to come to church yesterday so she can`t get baptized then :( But we had an awesome lesson with the son, yudai, and he still really wants to be baptized and he believes everything he said, our branch president told him about a youth conference they have in Okinawa and he looks like he will be going! So he will be getting baptized this week on Saturday or Sunday so please pray for him!! 

We were able to teach a lot of lessons this week, and we were kept very busy with all of them as well as preparing Yudai and his mom for baptism! Saturday was probably the best day of all! We got to play basketball with yudai in the morning, and then we had kids english class which was awesome. Tons of kids come every week now and they are super cool. like ice cold. We really enjoy teaching them! Then we had to come home and do our studies and prepare for a dinner that we had that night with our branch president and an investigator family! We made super yummy breadsticks to bring over and they bought pizza which is ridiculously expensive in Japan. We were able to watch the last 15 minutes of meet the mormons in Japanese which was really good. The spirit was there strongly and that family and our branch presidents family really built a strong relationship! I love when we are able to work with the members it makes the work so much more effective here!

We got to see a lot of cool miracles just in our lessons this week and being able to still find more people to teach in just the short amount of time that we have to knock on doors or talk to people on the street. The Lord is truly blessing us with those people who are prepared to hear this message in Ishigaki, and I am so grateful!

Elder Lucas leaves next week though to go home to America. It is way scary as I have been able to learn a lot from him and he has helped me a lot, the ward loves him as do all of our investigators. So it will be hard when he leaves but I know that The Lord is the reason this work is progressing and so this area of Ishigaki will continue to explode with my next companion as well!!

Love you all and hope you are well!

Elder Krebs

July 26, 2015

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

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

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

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

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