April 6, 2015

Wow! I cannot believe I have already been in Japan for 6 weeks! Or a transfer, it is already starting to feel like home! But definitely not more than 1047 Rockbridge road!!

We had such an amazing easter week and saw so many miracles and had so many great experiences. This was probably the most wonderful Easter I have ever had, being able to focus on Christ so much more, and know what this week was truly about. I studied all week about his life and what he did for us each day on this last week of his life, and It was amazing to come closer to him every single day! He truly loves us so much, and went through such terrible things to bring us more happiness in our lives and to help us become better people through his atonement!

Last week was way good, we worked our little hearts out to get as many people to church as possible on Easter and with the four Elders we had 9 nonmembers there! 9!!! Last week we had only one! It is amazing to see the Lord progressing his work every single day and seeing the miracles that come from working hard and obeying the Lords commandments as well as the mission rules!! I love this gospel so much, and am so grateful for Jesus Christ!

This week we went to a sakura park and just spent time there, it was BEAUTIFUL! But sadly they are dying already :(

I am having so much fun here, the members here are sooo kind and loving and really want to help this work progress as well! It is so great to see there excitement over missionary work! I just love this work!

Not to brag or anything...but here we go...I am the record holder for whack a mole at an all you can eat place here in miyazaki. Hold your applause please. I really couldn't have done it without the love and support from my parents my whole life. I also want to thank all of my friends who helped me accomplish this feat as well. Cheers. the old record was 69 and I got 138...doubled...

I love this work and I love easter and I love UK basketball even when they lose...the dummies....

Hope everyone is doing well,

Love

Elder Krebs

*FOR FAMILY:

This week really has been amazing and I feel like I have grown so much closer to the Lord and learned so much about him as I truly focused on studying his life and his sacrifice. And I just couldn't get over how thankful I am for his sacrifice for everyone. He loves us all so much and knows us all individually!

This week was also by far the hardest of my mission so far, our mission president gave us a goal to get 2 investigators at church and 2 new baptismal dates. And on sunday we had no baptismal dates, and all day I had faith that we would get them that day. And then all of our lessons fell through and no one could meet and we weren't able to get any, I just felt terrible that we weren't even able to come close to his goal. And I really just had to reflect on whether I was working as hard as I could and what I could improve on. It was really trying but I felt like I grew from the experience, I was just relying on my trainer a lot, and he has a hard time putting himself out there to commit the people to be baptized or to do things such as that. And I just realized that I can't rely on him to do everything, I have to be bold and do those things as well.

Yesterday we went on splits and I went with a second transfer elder hahahahahah it was SO FUN! Neither of us speak Japanese well so we just bore our testimonies and tried to invite them to stuff! We got 3 new investigators in ONE DAY! It was amazing to see the miracles from our faith in the Lord to help us accomplish our goals that we had set out. We taught an awesome lesson to this kid who has been playing basketball with us every week and coming to our english class. He is pretty much fluent in English and is going to college in Arkansas in a year! he is way cool, so we just decided to text him and see if we could teach him about our church, and he was all about it, we taught him about prayer and about the spirit! He recognized the spirit as we prayed with him and said he felt really calm, happy, and warm and he wanted to learn more and be able to know that God existed!!! It was such a great miracle and the spirit was soooo strong there!! I just love this work, the lessons like that make up for how hard last week was.

I love this work,

Love.

Elder Krebs

March 29, 2015

Hello everyone!!!!

This week was phenomenal!! I loved every second of it, I have been just on a spiritual high from Elder Nelsons training and trying to apply his teachings to my life!!

This week was way way way fun! On Tuesday I got to go on splits with the zone leaders which was way way amazing! They are both stud missionaries and such amazing examples! The Elder that I went with was Elder Bullock, it his last transfer in the field, so he has 2 weeks left on his mission! We went out to the beach to find some new people and to invite people to the sports activities that we have been setting up, and watching him do missionary work was something else. He was such a good example of what a good missionary should be like. It was such a great learning experience, we just talked with people and became friends and they become so much more willing to talk with us. They think the foreign white dudes are cool, so they wanted to talk with us. And they are always blown away that we speak Japanese. Well at least he did, I am still learning. But we met a lot of great people and had so many amazing and funny experiences hahahahaha

Our eikawa is one of my favorite things that we do. It is the free english class that the missionaries put on, it is so fun! Especially since me and another Elder, our district leader Elder Jameson, get to teach kids eikaiwa!! It is a stinking blast, all these little kids are just crazy, they are running around we just sing lots of songs and try to go over something like colors or animals or something along those lines. It is a blast!!!!

Funny story, we have a man in our ward who is Indonesian! His only name is risky, just risky. How sick is that? Our district leader asked him if he could have another name what it would be and he just looked at him and said "Business" hahahahahah we were dying. He is so awesome!

These week we got a ton of sports activities set up, we are trying to really focus on getting a better image for religion in Japan. Japan does not have good experiences with religion but the view is getting better more and more. They are starting to understand the importance and need for religion. So on Saturday we set up a ping pong tournament and had some kids come as well as a basketball game on Saturday! It was a blast!! It was so good to play basketball! We had one kid who is just so cool, his name is Akio and he stayed with us all day, he is so great!

I love this work so much, the work is progressing so well!

I just want to end with my testimony on this Easter week.

I know that Christ truly lived on this Earth, he taught and he testified, he was perfect in every possible way. He was our perfect example. I know that he suffered through things that we could never possibly imagine in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross at Calvary, he loves each of us individually, he knows each of our problems and all of our needs. He wants us to be better, he wants us to take advantage of his atonement and to be changed through his power and his sacrifice. I love Jesus the Christ with all of my heart, and am so grateful to be able to dedicate my whole life to him over these next two years.

I love you all so much!!

Elder Krebs


I almost forgot!! It is Sakura season here in Japan! The BYU-tiful cherry blossoms stinking everywhere!! We have gotten some great pics with them that I will send along!!

Love you all

HOPPY EASTER! (get it hoppy #StillFunny)

Me with a prince charming we found in the mall last p day as well hahahaha

companions that cook together preach the gospel together :)

...So I just barely got a call from one of the counselors in our mission presidency who lives in our area so we know him really well! He just called and said that they don't want missionaries wearing lighter suits while teaching and doing missionary work as much anymore, so he wants me to only wear my light grey one for mission meetings and things like that...and then he invited me to go suit shopping with him today, he wants me to buy a new suit with him hahahahahahaha it was a funny conversation he is an awesome guy. So I may be buying a new suit today I don't know how much money is in my account! I took out that two hundred to buy random things I needed like sweat pants to sleep in and a rain suit, so I have about a hundred and fifty of that left (haven't bought my rain suit yet, there is an old one that was left in our apartment that I may steal) But just so you know! I am not sure exactly what the counselor wants but I guess I am going on a shopping spree with him today ;) whoot.

Love you tons,

Elder Krebs

March 23, 2015

OKAY! Starting this off and being blunt, NO ONE TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT UNLESS UK WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP! OR IF THEY LOSE (which they wont) It makes it sooooooo hard to focus, I just start thinking about whether or not Tyler Ulis can dunk yet (; or if Willie Cauley-Stein has gotten any sick new tattoos....Go Cats! I am excited they are doing well! Just send me a championship shirt ;)

This week has been busy! We were able to do missionary work Monday through Thursday! We saw a lot of miracles, we found this amazing man who I think I mentioned in my last email, he is from Nepal. He has been so prepared for the gospel, we taught him four lessons in five days! When we met him on the street he wanted to meet again, we didn't have to ask and he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. In the lessons he would ask us all these amazing questions about Christ, and we were able to testify about him. We were able to help him recognize the Holy Ghost and how it feels to him as well as how it can help him and guide him. We watched the Restoration video with him, and after he said he felt just so warm and that everything in him was moving, he said he felt the Guidance from the Lord. It was so amazing to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ change someone, at the end of the last lesson he said he wanted to be baptized!!! But he is moving to Tokyo, I am so sad to see him leave. But I think it is such a blessing that the Church is the same all around the world. The missionaries in Tokyo will teach him the same thing we would here and the same doctrine!

So on Friday we went up to Fukuoka (A four and a half our bus ride) because we had a big Ipad training with Elder Nelson. It was amazing to get to hear from an apostle of God! The Spirit he brings was so amazing. The whole mission is so excited to get Ipads and progress the work of the Lord in different and more effective ways! We should be getting them in about a month, they are going to be so amazing and sooo useful!

Then the next day after that we went to a District conference, and spent all that day in Kagoshima, it was a way fun trip! I felt so spiritually edified and I feel as if I grew a lot and learned a lot!! We stayed in other Elders apartments those two nights and there were 8 of us in an apartment that is made for 4 at a max. It was nice and tight! Way fun ;)

I love this gospel, and I love all of you so much! I hope that you are all planning on going to Church on Easter! Or on inviting someone! It will be such a great experience!!

Love you all,

Elder Krebs




Family Email -

Can you believe I have been in Japan for a month already???? It goes by so fast! I have loved every minute and have grown so much and I hope I am changing for the better! I am doing a 40 day fast right now, I am not saying anything mean about anyone and not singing any worldly songs! I want to focus on the work 100 percent! I don't want to be distracted by worldly things! And I want to have the spirit of the Lord with me and I know that will come through being kind and positive to everyone!

I am also trying to find things in every missionary I meet to emulate so that I can improve to become the most effective and faithful servant of the Lord! There are so many amazing missionaries in this mission, and they have amazing faith and amazing work ethic that I want to emulate so that I can see miracles as they do! I want to be the greatest missionary I can be, and use the strengths I have been given as well as strengthen other things in my life and in my missionary work!

I know this Church is true, I have seen this gospel change lives already and bring people that comfort and peace that I am blessed to feel every single day. It is through the Lord that all of these things come to pass! How great of a blessing is that! I challenge you all to bring someone who is less active or not a member to church on Easter Sunday! That is the only birthday present I want! Share the gospel!

Love you all so much, I pray for all of you every night!

Love,

Elder Krebs