November 8, 2015

What a whitewashing wacky week...WOW!

Hello everyone, don't worry as well as still having my sense of humor I still remember how to alliterate well...

This week was a blast! And way crazy! We had a fun day on Wednesday saying goodbye to everyone and finishing packing. The Sendai branch is amazing, I was only there 6 weeks and when I left that made it seem like I had been there forever. I was so glad for the opportunity to work with them and see so many miracles in the beautiful place of Sendai! But I am excited to move on to the next place the Lord wants me to go to....

yamaGUCCI!

My new companion is elder Rawlinsom from fairview, Utah. Population: 1,400. He is AMAZING. He is so ready to go, and willing to do anything for the work. He wants to improve, and wants to work as hard as possible to see miracles here! He has already strengthened my faith so much over these past few days and I know I will learn more from him this transfer! We have seen some crazy miracles including teaching the most prepared 11 year old in the history of the world...this kid is crazy. He is a friend of a members son who has come to church a couple times and she asked us to try teaching a lesson...kid is crazy. His first question was "why did the people build the Tower of Babel and why did God confound the languages??" It was an intense lesson and he felt the spirit and recognized it super well. It was a pretty crazy experience. And hopefully as we work in faith him and his whole family will be able to be baptized!!

We are going to be working a lot finding new investigators out here in yamaGUCCI. We whitewashed in and I will admit it was kind of discouraging seeing the completely blank area book. But Elder Rawlinson just said "let's get to work and fill it up" so that's what we are going to do! Our motto for the transfer is "Let's go swimming!" Meaning we are gonna build our investigator pool nice and big little by little through our hard work and receiving lots of help from Heavenly Father.

Love you all so much!

Elder Krebs

November 2, 2015

Craziness here in the Japan Fukuoka mission, the whole world has turned upside down! It is going to be a pretty crazy transfer. But I am excited for it, and I am praying for the Lords help every single day! Our mission is super young now, so there is going to be a lot of interesting things going on for the next few transfers! Super pumped to see how the Lord blesses us all!

This week was awesome! We had splits on Tuesday in another area which was a lot of fun, they sell tim tams there at some store so we tim tam slammed the crap that night. May have bought a pack of tim tams for each person and it was one of the happiest 10 minutes of my life. WE LOVE TIM TAMS! We have some awesome missionaries in Taniyama so it was a good day to learn a lot from Elder Robinson!

 We were able to meet with Wan san a lot this week, and to teach him about the gospel and how he can change, he thinks he is a bad person and wants to be good. And when we taught him how through baptism and the gospel he was willing to do anything. He is so ready and will definitely be prepared to be baptized on 11\21 so please keep praying for him! Paul and Roel as well are progressing well towards their dates. And onaka san is amazing! He is so ready and wants to become happier, and when we meet with him and talk on the phone he already seems like a different person. So much happier, and so much closer to God. All through the gospel! BLESSINGS!

Thursday was a fun little Halloween party, it was with our english class and we had some fun games set up and ready to go. They all loved it and we all ate lots of candy! Friday was splits again with the two elders in our apartment, I went with Elder Murdock he has been here for 6 weeks now in Japan. His Japanese is so good, I was way impressed. We saw some crazy miracles and were able to set a baptismal date with a man that they had met before. He was way interested and ready to go so we figured we might as well set it right there and he accepted it and was willing to learn more!

Halloween in Japan is rather lame, no one likes candy here...so nothing to crazy went down. We were able to teach Paul and Roel and Wan which was a HUGE miracle!

Sunday, I took a 5 HOUR BUS RIDE. It was rough. all the way up to Fukuoka and got some training from Kaicho because I get to train a new elder from america next transfer and some other fun stuff. It was a great time though, we had an AMAZING training, I am grateful for the Lord for calling amazing servants like kaicho to help us grow and to push me and help me learn!

We met some way nice people this week, and I am grateful for that. I am sadly almost for sure leaving sendai this transfer so I am bummed but excited to go to a new area with a new companion and learn lots of new things and grow! The Lord will bless if we trust in him with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.

Love you all,

Elder Krebs

October 26, 2015

Hello everyone!!!

WHAT A WEEK! Lots of crazy awesome miracles!! Bet you want to hear about them dont ya, cool here we go.

Well the biggest one was we were able to go on splits with the zone leaders on tuesday, which was an absolute blast. It was so good to work with them, I got to work with Elder Jackson who goes home next week. So it was good to just go hard, and talk with a lot of people. My companion and the other zone leader went out and just converted half of sendai, we got some awesome return appointments. Especially with Onaka san, the big middle! He is a cool 40 year old dude, and we went back on friday to meet him, and he was loving everything so we asked him if he wanted to be baptized he said yes. So we just set a date right there and he wants to be baptized on 12/5 so please pray for Onaka san!!

Paul and Roel are doing well, we found the pamphlets in Tagalog for the lessons on line and were able to give those to them and they were way excited! So now they can better understand what we are teaching them, and apply it more! They are still progressing well to be baptized in 2 weeks! And Wan san, we werent able to meet cause he has been way busy but we will meet with him next week for sure!

We finally met with this perfect person Yoshidome on monday night, and he is so prepared, he is a 20 year old STUD! He loves everything about the teachings and wants to come to church and read from the book of mormon, he is doing this dancing thing in a big festival next week so he has no time but after that we should be able to meet often and get him progressing towards baptism and towards Jesus Christ!

Saturday we got to play ball! SPACE JAM! Paul and Roel came, Paul is a straight hooper, he played on some legit teams in the Philippines apparently so it made sense. It was fun to look like a fool again playing basketball! ;)

on Sunday we had an awesome halloween party that we helped with, it was an awesome opportunity for the community to see the missionaries in a better way. There was tons of young families and we were able to just have fun and to help them see that we are more than just way weird white dudes, we are way weird white dudes who love to have fun!! The parents and kids all loved it and we got to play games and do some `trick or treating` it was the lamest trick or treating ever...and a week early.

I love this work, I have loved looking at Larry A. Lawrences talk `what lack I yet` it was a game changer in conference. And something that has helped me change and grow since my mission started. The Lord has given me all kinds of answers for how I can improve...I am far from where I need to be but I know that I am on the right path if I follow the Lords guidance.

Love you all so much,

Elder Krebs

October 18, 2015

Please read the subject line for a description of what this week was like! (This week was cool!)

We had some good times this week as we were teaching, and knocking, and teaching, and knocking. I feel like the pioneer children! But I am also so grateful for the time that I have. Nothing brings me happiness more than being able to talk with someone about the awesomeness of the gospel and testifying to them about the joy it has brought to my life! 

Paul, Roel, and Wan the three people with baptismal dates are progressing really well  right now. They are so excited to be baptized and are excited for the help and happiness that it is going to bring to their lives! They always talk about wanting to be free from the bad things and from past mistakes. They truly understand the importance of the gospel and what they can gain from it, so please pray that they will be able to take that step in following Christ through baptism on November 8! 

We were able to go around and meet a lot of really nice people, and set up appointments to meet with them again! One awesome lady Uenojo was way excited to meet with us as she had gone to a christian school but never paid attention so she wants to learn more now! She is so kind, and a really great person! The Lord is truly preparing Sendai!

I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord! I am grateful that He chose President Egan as our mission president. We had interviews this week and it was such a great experience, you can just feel how much he truly loves the work, the Lord, and all of the missionaries. I am grateful for him and all of his hard work! 

Sunday was one of the best days of my mission! We had district conference. And nobody remembers except for my mom maybe but Miyazaki was my first area. And it is in the district that I am in now. So I got to see ALL the members again! It was amazing, so fun to see them and talk to them and actually understand what they are saying now. It was a huge tender mercy from the Lord, they are all so happy and it was just amazing as well to see just how much I have changed since then! 

I love the Lord!

Love you all so much, even my family who keeps bragging about how fun their week together in Kentucky was...even them. ;)

Elder Krebs

October 11, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

I love general conference!!! It is better than Christmas as a missionary!! But maybe even over general conference was all the members in our branch here telling me I looked like Zac Efron this week...almost brought me to tears I was so happy. ;) Christmas came two months early this year!

Well I think the thing I learned most from conference was how amazing my mom is. I know that as a missionary I cant really lie, so everyone should know that she is perfect! It made me so grateful for my amazing parents and my family for how much they have helped me in my life! Bummed that they are all partying it up in KY without me, but I am grateful beyond belief to have the opportunity to share this gospel of happiness every single day!!

This week was super great, we got to go on splits on tuesday in another area, and I got to do a fun training with the district. The theme for it was `I heart dendou`. dendou means missionary work in Japanese. And we were able to go through a lot of the points that made this work so enjoyable, I was able to learn so much as I prepared and learned from the scriptures. Splits were way fun, we found all kinds of awesome people in the area of Taniyama! We made a goal at the beginning of the day to find a 25-30 year old dude who would want to learn more and listen, and we found this amazing super cool stud who was pumped to hear a message and basically set up an appointment with us!! The Lord blesses as we plan and make goals and then work our butts off to accomplish them!

Back in sendai it was kind of crazy all week, with lots of activities and general conference among other things. But we were still able to find and talk with a lot of people. And find some people in our area that are way prepared to hear this message including a super awesome guy named yoshimade, he is 20 and was way pumped to learn and here more about christianity! What more could you ask for? We are meeting with him soon so I will let you know how that goes!

Yesterday we saw an awesome miracle! So Paul and Roel the two Filipinos who have baptismal dates have a neighbor and friend named Wan from china that we had met before and he seemed like he wanted to hear more. He had met with the missionaries a little bit before and was interested, so we finally were able to meet with him yesterday. He is amazing!! He was taking everything in and just realized the true amazingness of the gospel. (I know amazingness probably isnt a word) he was accepting everything we said as truth, as he had never really heard anything about God in his life before and had no idea. It all just sounded so amazing to him, it is amazing to see the Lord preparing these people to hear the message! We were able to commit him to be baptized on the same day as Roel and Paul! So please pray that they will all be able to be baptized on 11/8!

The work is moving along so well here in Sendai, and the Lord has truly blessed us beyond belief because of the work we are putting in. I am nowhere near perfect, but I am grateful for the Lord for making up for my imperfections and preparing the way for the gospel to roll forth among the people here! This is just the start and we have an amazing vision for what sendai will become in the near future! Lets work hard!! WHOOT!

I love this church, I know that it is true. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet today. We are so lucky to have that influence and power on this earth again, and we can never be grateful enough to God for everything he gives us!

Life is great!!!

Love,

Elder Krebs

October 6, 2015

HELLO EVERYONE!

Well first off, a big shout out to the Japan Fukuoka Mission alumni Elder Stevenson for becoming a member of the quorom of the twelve apostles. #BestMission We were excited to hear that and hope that he will come visit us soon. All the branch here was excited because most of them met him a couple years ago when he came to our mission!

This week has been AMAZING! The area was kind of slow so I wanted to just go out and find people to teach and to talk to. So we did that. A lot of it. It was amazing! We saw all kinds of crazy miracles every single day! And the people who we are able to teach has sky rocketed and we just see more miracles every day as our faith grows! I love sendai so much!

The biggest miracle this week was Roel and Paul, we met them my first week here and they are studs. They are from the Philippines, they speak a little english and a little japanese and are golden. They want to be baptized so bad, we were worried mainly because of the language barrier though, and so we were praying and thinking about it. And who shows up to church that sunday but Micheal a man from the Philippines, he is a member and is here for the month. We made baptismal dates for them on 11/7 so it is perfect. He is going to be able to teach them with us every sunday until their baptism. LIKE WHAT THE HECK! Heavenly Father just plopped him right there for us. #MIRACLES

We were also able to meet an amazing lady named Hidaka, she is way prepared and let us in and we were able to teach a lesson the first time we met her, she wants to learn more and apply it to her life. And when we gave her the Book of Mormon she was flipping out, and was so happy and asked us if we could come back soon to answer the questions she will have after she reads from it. hahahaha we said yes we would come back for sure. 

I love elder Malone and his beautiful Japanese that keeps me from looking like an idiot, we have already seen this area start to see a lot of success. And it is only going to continue and grow from here until we are having baptisms every week!!! I know that this area can grow every week, and that the Lord will lead us to the people we are supposed to meet, as long as we are worthy and work our little butts off. 

It is finally starting to cool down a little bit! Glad I will probably be down south here for the winter so that will be way nice! I love this work, I feel so blessed for everything the Lord has given me. I will never be able to repay him for it, but I can definitely work my hardest every day and give him every second of these two years. 

Love you all tons,

Elder Krebs

September 27, 2015

Hello everyone!!

Well this week was crazyyyyyyyy. We finished off the week, trying to pack and get as many lessons in as possible in Ishigaki. Which was a wonderful experience of being able to share my last testimony with many of the wonderful investigators that I have gotten so close to over the past four months on that beautiful island. I am grateful for everything that I was able to learn there and for all the amazing experiences I was able to have there. But also bummed as I left right as it was starting to cool down a little bit :( 

On thursday morning I flew to Naha, then I flew to Fukuoka, then I got to ride a bullet train down to sendai, it was WAY cool. Ridiculously fast and way smooth it was a neat experience. I got down to sendai finally and met my new companion Elder Malone, he is a 2nd transfer missionary who is fluent at Japanese because he is half! #Blessings the Lord knew I would need some help. I am excited to work down here in this wonderful area of Sendai! The ward here is amazing, and loves the missionaries, we hardly have to shop they give us so much stuff. It is beautiful. And they give us a lot of help with missionary work and helping us teach lessons and other things like that, they are really great and really helpful. 

We have some really great investigators that they have been working with for a while and just have a couple problems before baptism but we should be able to help them receive baptism soon! And I am wanting to focus on just getting TONS of new people to teach, to work on teaching as many people as possible through lots of knocking doors and working with members to ask for referrals! I am excited to see this area explode and help the people in Sendai receive the true gospel of Jesus Christ! 

The apartment I am in is easily the youngest in the mission, a full mission is 16 transfers. And all of ours added up is 15. We have a first transfer new missionary straight from America, Elder Murdock. Then my companion Elder Malone who is still a second transfer. Then me and one of my friends from the MTC that I came to Japan with Elder Scheunmen (probably spelled it wrong) But we have been having a lot of fun, and are excited to see this mission see a lot of success and this area.

A gospel topic I have been focusing and thinking about a lot lately is the law of the harvest. That we truly reap what we sow. We have to go out there and give it everything that we have not holding anything back and the Lord can`t help but bless us out the wazzooo. I am grateful for that promise as it motivates me and gives me the hope to work as hard as possible, even when it gets hard sometimes.

I love you all so much, and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Krebs

September 23, 2015

Hello Everyone!!

Leaving Ishigaki :(((((((((((((( Super bummed, I absolutely love everything about this area and about the members and investigators but know that the Lord wants me in Sendai working there. If any one knows Japan geography it is not the sendai super far up north. There is one on Kyushu as well! It is a great area that I have been able to go to the area a couple times and stayed the night. Plus Elder Lucas served there for a long time as well, so I have heard all kinds of good things. I am SO excited! I get to to return to my zone from when I was a greenie as well! 

In Sendai I will be a getting a little baby at my nine month mark. I will be training a newer missionary, I am pretty stinking scared because...Japanese is hard but I am also so excited for the opportunity!!

This week was the beeeeest! We were able to see so many miracles and meet with so many new people we taught all kinds of first lessons. it has been amazing to see the Lord continually bless this area! I feel very blessed to have been here in this time and help the work progress here! 

We saw an amazing miracle on Wednesday, there is a member in the ward who has a husband that is not a member. He loves the teachings but thinks he is too old to join and has bad eye sight so that hinders him as well. But this week the spirit hit him full force. He was having a terrible time, and was pretty depressed and wasn't eating or anything, then he said he prayed and the spirit just came over him and when we visited on Wednesday he was a different person! It was amazing to see how much this gospel truly changes lives. He was not the same person, he was so happy so excited to see us and just was raving about how amazing he felt and how much he wanted to join the church. The other two elders who have been teaching him were so excited, the Lord truly worked a huge miracle in the heart of Kazuo san this week in Ishigaki.

Feeling so grateful for everything that the Lord has given me here and how much I have been able to grow as well. I pray that I was able to do everything that I was meant to do here in Ishigaki and hope to continue to do what needs to be done as I move on to Sendai on thursday! I love the Lord!!

This is the true church of Jesus Christ on this earth, I know that with all of my heart. Hope everyone is doing well and is safe! Pray for all of you often!

Love,

Elder Krebs

September 14, 2015

This week was faster than a typhoon...

This week was a lot of knocking on doors and we saw soooo many miracles! It was crazy how many people were prepared to hear this message and we have all the appointments with them this week so we are going to be very busy. I can`t even put into words how much the Lord blessed us last week as Elder Quinn and I both made a concentrated effort to improve ourselves. The Lord definitely noticed us putting in that little bit of extra work. We were able to make 18 return appointments which should definitely keep us nice and busy, I am so grateful for this work and for the Lord for preparing these peoples hearts!

We had one great experience on thursday as we were going around we remembered a family that we had met about 3 weeks ago, who said we could come back when it was September so we decided to swing by. It was the greatest moment ever, the mom opened the door and was super happy to see us and wanted us to come back to teach the kids and the parents. We have a family home evening activity planned to do with the two parents and 4 kids tonight. It was such a crazy miracle to see how willing she was to just let us into her home and to learn about this wonderful gospel!

Friday we got to have splits, I went with Elder Allen who is a 15 transfer missionary (realy old) and it was a good time, he is absolutely hilarious and we were able to find a lot of people who were willing to have us come back and teach some more. #TooManyMiracles

Saturday we got to see Yudai play some basketball, his middle school team played an adult team and were beating them pretty good. Couldnt have made the adults feel very good about themselves. ;) Then we had an eikaiwa with some kids, it is so great to see them gain interest in learning english, more kids come every single week from this area of apartments and they all love learning. So much different from American kids, I cant imagine ever taking an hour and a half out of my saturday to go listen to people speak japanese...

Sunday we had an amazing lesson with Shimabukuro she has been an investigator for a while, the lesson yesterday was really special and spiritual. We were all feeling the spirit very strongly and were all being influenced by it for sure it was helping Elder Quinn and I testify more boldly, we brought a member who was crying pretty hard the whole time as we testified of the truthfulness of the restoration and the prophet Joseph Smith it made me so grateful for everything I have been able to learn and know as I grew up about these things. I love this gospel so much, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share it with everyone!

I just want to leave you with one of my favorite scriptures

Jacob 6:12 - be wise, what more can I say

boom

Love you all so much,

Elder Krebs

September 6, 2015

This week was really great and we saw TONS of miracles! The first part of the week went really fast, we had a lot of random things that needed to get done around the area as well as this kind of volunteer missionary couple that has been helping us out here moved back to Sapporo this week :( Those first three days shot by so fast and then we hopped on a plane to go up to Naha for a conference with Elder Choir of the seventy. It was so fun to get to meet so many missionaries and get to know them after being with just the four elders here on Ishigaki for a while now! I had a lot of fun especially being with people who have been in Japan around the same time as me, since my apartments have been almost mainly older missionaries!

The conference was AMAZING! I can`t put into words, I went in with a lot of questions and ideas for how I can improve and it seemed like Elder Choi talked about every single one of them. He really helped me and I felt the whisperings of the spirit throughout and I truly felt enlightened from his council and from his words. He spoke a lot about elevating our thoughts and putting them as close to God`s as possible. How we can work our hardest and start with our thoughts which moves to actions, habits, characteristics, destiny. AKA Mrs. Holmes thing that she taught me all the time as a kid. It was fun to see that come back and how much it affected me at that time. Everything comes from our thoughts. We have to make our thoughts higher and more in line with the Lords and we can accomplish all things.

We got back late on friday night, and then saturday was pretty ridiculous! We taught five lessons! And we met with Yudai after what had been a while of not meeting, it turns out that since school has started he hasnt been able to get home until 8:30 at night and that schedule goes until the end of this month. Japanese school is absolutely ridiculous, they put those kids through so much.But he was way pumped to get to see us, we also got to teach the Yabukis who have a baptismal date on the fourth of october. AND THEY CAME TO CHURCH! In ishigaki one of the hardest things is church attendance and they both showed up fifteen minutes early! It was great to see them there, she even dressed up for it! It was also fun to see the Lords timing, as Elder Quinn got two flat tires that day and we were still able to meet with everyone somehow, as well as teach more lessons than we had planned for. I also ate raw fish that had been caught from the ocean an hour before, it was DELICIOUS! Japanese people are way nice and good at sharing their raw fish ;)

Sunday was great with the Yabukis coming to church, we also had a couple lessons and a lot of time to talk to people and make a few return appointments, it was a great experience for me to just continually see how much the Lord is blessing this area. I know that as we continue to work that the Lord will bless this area even more and slowly but surely many baptisms will come and many people will want to hear this message. But it has to come through us doing all of the small and simple things right now to bring that great thing to pass.

I love this work, and I love you all more than the new couch and washing machine we are getting today! Keep your thoughts elevated and enjoy life!

Love,

Elder Krebs

August 31, 2015

Friends and Fam,

WHAT A WEEK! We had all kinds of stuff going on, once typhoon clean up was over we got back to the grind. It was a holiday called o-Bon (pronounced oh-bone) this week, which is comparative to Christmas in America. Families get together for 3 days and eat at the ginormous graves here in Ishigaki, they believe the spirits of their ancestors come and eat with them, it was cool to experience as well as see more of the Japanese culture. Ancestors are very important here, and it made missionary work very fun as we were able to relate everything back to ancestors and eternal families, a lot of people thought it was a good idea but since it was o-Bon they just said come back after so hopefully we will get to meet with them soon!

Wednesday was a good day of dendo(missionary work), we were supposed to have a lesson in the afternoon but it cancelled because o-Bon started that day which was a bummer, she is a lady named Catherine she is Japanese, speaks English, and catholic! She has been taught the lessons before, but we were able to meet another one of her friends from the Catholic Church while knocking doors, who just so happens to be the grandma of some of the kids we play basketball with a lot, so all kinds of neat connections there, and that grandma really wanted to study with us and with Catherine! But we are meeting on Tuesday so hakuna Matata! Then English class that night, fun as always! We had a cool miracle when a less active from Tokyo came to our English class, he had served in the Fukuoka mission 10 years ago, and was just visiting Okinawa for fun, it was a neat experience to hear about his mission I hope we were able to help him grow some desires to return to church again.

Thursday was a fun weekly planning, I really enjoy working with Elder Quinn and am grateful to be able to learn more again from an older missionary! We were able to plan effectively for next week and are really getting the vibe for Ishigaki. #Vibe #Radical then we dendoed all night long! It was way cool, way cool.

Friday we got to go to a legit festival type thing for o-Bon with a member, it was fun and really interesting... I will try to send videos later Japan has a pretty rocking culture, I love it. We were also able to meet hitomi, aka super prepared awesome nice grandma. She already has almost all of the same beliefs as us and when she hears the lessons she accepts it all. But entering into the church through baptism is hard for her because she has had bad experiences in the past with churches. But we are working to help her overcome that as she feels and learns from the spirit more!

Saturday was splits with my main man elder Haoka we have gone together a few times before so it is fun to get to work more with him. As a Japanese person his Japanese is pretty dang good so it was fun to learn a lot there and refine a lot of the things we say a lot, so that it sounds more natural. We were able to see a lot of miracles, and find a few new people for him and Elder Allen to teach! We ate at A&W for dinner which is always delish, in Japan no restaurants have free refills, not even McDonald's...which is really hard for me. But A&W has all you can drink root beer, so I usually use it to my advantage and drink a lot...🏻️it is cool to have seen Elder Haoka change a lot over these last 3 transfers, we came in to Ishigaki together and he was a brand new missionary and he is a completely different person now. He has so much confidence and is just happier! I hope I have been able to change that much, I needed it a lot more than he did when he started his mission.

Sunday was stake conference! Whooooooooooooooot! We were able to teach a lesson with our branch president before church to an investigator named Yuki. Dude is a stud. 30, super talented at music and drawing, just an all around awesome guy, we taught the restoration and he seemed to really like it and was excited about the idea of prayer. Our branch president said it was a great lesson so that was really good to hear from him. Elder Quinn and I are starting to really get in a rhythm of teaching. #Blessings we had all kinds of other lessons and were way busy with those. At the end of the night one lesson fell through and we had a little extra time, we felt like we should go visit a couple people who had said we could come back In a nearby apartment, and met with one! An awesome lady from Indonesia, she is catholic but has stopped going, she really wants to strengthen her relationship with God so she took the Book of Mormon and wants to meet again soon! #Miracles

I feel so blessed to be in such an amazing area! The Lords hand is in everything, I have recently been thinking about how much we have to truly rely on the Lord in every aspect of our lives. There is no way people would agree to meet with us unless the Lord was touching their hearts, I often think about what I would do if two Asians showed up at my door in America and in broken English told me they want to teach me more about God and Jesus Christ. First I laugh, but then I realize that that is exactly what it is like for these people, and they say YES. There is a power in this message and it is only as we rely on the savior that this work can truly roll forth. I love the Lord. I have enjoyed psalm 23 this week about the Lord being our Shepherd. It has given me a lot of comfort that he will guide us, especially when life gets harder.

I love you all so much!

Elder Krebs

August 25, 2015 TYPHOON

THIS WEEK WAS Crazy! We had a ginormous typhoon hit us on Sunday. It is the biggest this area has seen in 50 years the city got pretty destroyed so we were out all yesterday doing service so I am emailing a day later. I will send some pictures and videos later, it was pretty dangerous! Water started coming into our apartment and I had to get up every 30 minutes from 10:30 to 2:00 am to wring out towels and replace them. I was pretty pooped the next day but the apartment was safe so I feel blessed, and we had power all night which was way rare here almost no one did. We had a cool experience when the power went out for like 10 minutes we decided to pray that it would come back so we didn't sweat to death that night, we prayed and it came back like 10 seconds later and didn't go out again after it had been flickering all night before that. Lord truly knows us all and answers prayers even over a small thing like that. We had a mini sacrament meeting on the apartment since we couldn't go to church and it was a really great experience.

Clean up was crazy, the church got flooded, and it got flooded again today as well... But we got to go to a ton of investigators and members to help them!

Other than that though we had an amazing week, Yudai should be getting baptized next week! And we were able to meet with a man and his wife twice this week and made a baptismal date for 10/4 with them, the yabukis! They are amazing, he had received a Book of Mormon like 10 years ago but left it in his hometown, after we met once he had his family ship it down and he started reading it by himself and so did his wife, they have some amazing questions, and are really prepared to hear this message! They are so amazing, I am excited to help them progress and learn more about Christ, a missionaries calling is so amazing!! I am so blessed!

On Saturday we didn't know whether the typhoon would be coming so we planned a lot of proselyting time, so we were out for 7 hours knocking doors! It felt soooo good we haven't had much time to do that lately and it was a great experience! People in Japan are all so kind. I am grateful to be here! On Tuesday we were able to teach a lot of lessons! The lord blesses us as we keep working hard here and he really wants to see Ishigaki see success, so we will keep on pushing!

Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Krebs

August 16, 2015

I am still in beautiful Ishigaki! Loving every second, it is fun to see a new companion adjusting to the heat down here ;) He is doing great though! His name is Elder Quinn an Elder from California, an awesome guy and really kind. He is older and only has 3 months left on his mission, which further teaches me that the Lord knows I need a lot of help! I am grateful for the older missionaries I have been able to work with here and learn so much from. We are excited to continue to help Ishigaki grow and progress!

This week was pretty stressful with transfers and getting everything ready for Elder Lucas to leave we got to visit and meet with a lot of the members and investigators though! One of the members gave us Japanese KFC, that was pretty fun to try it out! More like chik-fil-a to be honest. We got to see a lot of our investigators and Elder Lucas was able to testify and they were all really receptive so I am excited to continue to help this area grow and continue where we left off with Elder Quinn. So whoot for missionary work in Ishigaki! 

It is fun doing missionary work with a new companion, and learning how they teach, how they talk to people and things such as that! Adjusting is a good thing, and it has helped me learn a lot. We have been able to teach quite a few lessons together already which is a blessing and I am grateful for the opportunity. We met one new investigator our first night together named Yabuki who is AWESOME! He knows a lot about Christian churches, and has been wanting to learn more, he has some interesting questions such as can his cats go to heaven with him, because he LOVES his cats. He is just an awesome 35 year old man who works on a boat all day, I am excited to teach him more!

We had a cool experience yesterday, we were knocking an apartment and we looked down and the other two elders were riding their bikes past us. We asked them where they were going and they said to a less active, and I felt pretty strongly that we should join so we ran down and rode to the less actives house with them. They were just going to get the address of his son so they could try to meet with him, but he let us in, and he had served a mission and I felt like we should try to bring that up. So I started asking him questions about his mission, and we were able to talk with him for about an hour about his mission and he was getting pretty teary thinking about the experiences he had and seemed like he was going to put a lot more effort into finding a new job so that he can come to church again! It was a great experience and just shows that the Lord always has a plan in mind and to see all the little things that happen that made it possible for us to go and meet with him on his one day off in like a month. 

I love Ishigaki, I love Elder Quinn, and I love the gospel! I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy!

Love you all,

Elder Krebs

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