May 10, 2015

Hello!!

What an amazing week!! My testimony this week was strengthened on member present lessons! Members are amazing!!! This week we met with our new investigator Tsuda, who had been a previous investigator but they found last week! He is reallllly hard to focus though, he just talks about history and math. But on Monday we brought a member, and this member just was amazing he is an older member who has been a temple president and worked in the temple for 10 years!  He just told our investigator about eternal families and how he can be with his family for ever and do their ordinances because they have all passed away. And Tsuda basically asked us what time he could get baptized on the 6th hahahaha he is soooo amazing and is so set on getting baptized our other lesson with him this week he told us that he feels that through the lord he can do anything! He came to church - which was a miracle!

We had another member present the next day with our investigator Akio the 17 year old! And we brought kouta who was just baptized and it was amazing, they connected really well. Having members is so helpful because they can relate to what the investigators are going through! Because they grew up in the same culture and were mostly converts it is just so amazing!!

I just love this work! We had so much fun this week!! We saw so many miracles we had a great experience where we decided to fast to find new investigators because our pool of people to teach was getting kind of low! And we were able to find two new investigators and had a ton of amazing contacts. It was really great I love being able to see people come closer to the Lord! And seeing how they change as they come closer to him and learn about him!

I just feel so blessed to be serving in this area! We see miracles every single day I wish I had time to tell you all about them!

I love you all so much and I pray for you all every day, I hope everyone is doing well!!

Love,

Elder Krebs

May 3, 2015

This week went by ridiculously fast....I swear I was just sending emails from last week!!

We had soooo much fun this week, and saw so many miracles!! We didn't have as much time to do missionary work this week as in teaching appointments and knocking and talking to people because we had two HUGE activities with the wards and stakes! We had a huge sports activity on Wednesday that was really great!! There were about 200 people there! We played all kinds of sports, someone brought a football so we had some fun with that! Did all kinds of races and relays it was just a great day and the whether was PERFECT! I got a little red but nothing too bad! Of course the Miyazaki branch won the whole thing!!! I will send pictures In a little bit!

Then on Saturday we had a huge ward BBQ at the beach! It was amazing!! We were able to have 6 investigators come! And a few Less active members! It was so great to see them enjoying themselves and meeting all the amazing ward members and building great relationships! I felt so blessed to able to have the opportunity to have the BBQ. Akio and I took some kids on in basketball and beat them. They have actually started calling me the John Wall of Miyazaki ;) hahahahahaha I wish...

It was a really sunny day for the beach BBQ...and we were out in the sun from 10:00-5:00 because during the BBQ Elder Crawford got a flat tire hahahaha so we had to walk an hour and a half to get it to the bike shop to get the tire fixed. It was way fun we met some really nice people on the way and saw some miracles. We are gonna try to do flat tire missionary work more often ;) but because of all the sun we both got roasted. Hahahaha I will send a picture. The sun turned me into a cherry blossom. But it was so worth it! That BBQ was the miracle of the week just getting to meet with so many investigators. Some who were having some trouble but really just loved the activity!!

I love this work so much, I gained a really strong testimony of fasting yesterday! It was such a great day of feeling the spirit so strongly all day and really focusing on what is most important not other random things!! I feel so blessed to be a servant of the Lord Jesus the Christ. And I am grateful for the opportunity to be in Japan serving these amazing people and inviting them to come closer to their Lord and Savior! What an amazing opportunity!!

Love you all,

Elder Krebs

April 26, 2015

This week was all over the place! So Monday was p-day then Tuesday morning we went up to Kagoshima about a 2 and a half hour train ride and got out training on iPads! So we have those now and they are way nice for the work, we have gotten to use them to help us a few times in teaching situations! Then that night we went to stay with some other elders cause we had another training the next day! It was all about just the most effective ways to do missionary work and it was AMAZING I learned so many great things and felt so much better afterwards! Then we took a track back to Miyazaki and had to ride straight to the church for our free English class! Then to the apartment to eat dinner and plan! It was wacko!

Then Thursday and Friday we worked our bums off trying to find some new investigators we had a lot of faith and said a lot of prayers to be able to find people that were prepared for us to teach about this gospel and we were able to find two! And one of them is this amazing young family!! They are the Otsuba family! They are so great, so nice she is a single Mom with three young children that are so kind and loving! It was just an amazing week and I feel like the Lord has blessed us so much to be able to find the people that we are supposed to find. I feel so lucky that he trusts us enough to teach these precious children of his.

On Sunday we were able to meet with tsuzubara again! He is so prepared, he really wants to change so we are really emphasizing the importance of christs atonement and how important it is and how much it will help him!!

We had a lot of fun this week too! On Thursday we were riding down a street we ride down almost every day and for the first time we noticed that in this nice suburban neighborhood one family just has a goat chilling in their yard hahahahahaha me and my companion saw it at the same time and just stopped our bikes hahahaha I got an awesome picture I will attach hahaha it was so funny we stopped and I said "you've goat to be kidding me" hahahaha I thought it was hilarious but my companion thought otherwise so I said "sorry that was baaaaaad" ;) I still got it ;)

I just want to share a scripture that I have been sharing a lot with members and has really hit me a lot this week it is 2 Nephi 25: 23 and 26

23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can
do.
26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

That scripture has strengthened me a lot and really helped me come closer to Christ, and trust in him because I know that his grace can save us. I am nowhere near perfect but I am trying my hardest to please the Lord as I serve every day in the beautiful country of Japan I trust that this is where he wants me to be and I am doing what he wants me to do! I love the Lord and I love this gospel, I know this Church is true! Love you all so much!!

Elder Krebs

We made Okinawa donuts holy cow they were DELICIOUS! I call it our little donut meth lab 

April 19, 2015

There is no doubt this is the Lord's work!!!

This week has just been absolutely ridiculous! I cannot believe it still, the miracles we have seen have been amazing, and has helped my faith grow so much!

So we were able to set up THREE baptismal dates this week! THREE! These people have been prepared by the Lord. It is through the Lord that all of these things are possible, it has been amazing to see them grow and progress, I can feel the Lords love for them as they come closer to him, and learn about Christ and who he is to them, and why He is so important in their life. It has been so great to see them want to change, to realize the people that they can become!

The most amazing thing happened yesterday (sunday) So we get to Church, and then right at the end of sacrament meeting this man walks in. We start talking with him and he is a former investigator, he had learned about the Church and then decided not to learn any more, we were talking with him, and he said he prayed last night to receive help and to change his life. He then had a dream with a whiteboard and the church times and the church name. So when he woke up he came to Church! We were able to teach him and able to invite him to come closer to Christ through baptism. and he said he wanted to be baptized and wanted to change and come closer to Christ to become a better person and more like the savior!!! It was so amazing, the Lord knows all of his children. He knows exactly what they need and he knew that tsuzubara san needed the Church at this time! Everyone is being prepared to hear the gospel, we just have to help them find it!

The rest of this week was amazing as well, we were able to go to a zone training on Thursday, which was great! Our zone leaders are fantastic, and great examples of the kinds of missionaries we should all be. We have some crazy big goals for this transfer but we know that if we work in faith and try our hardest we will be blessed by the Lord to accomplish our goals!

Tomorrow we have a big training with President Gustafson (sp?) and we recieve our Ipads!!! We are so excited to have them to help the missionary work, and for all of the wonderful resources they have! But it is a huge responsibility to have them and we understand that!

So this week the other Elders had a hilarious experience! They were talking to this man about to get on a bus, and the man said he was blind but that he had to go because the bus was getting there. And Elder Jameson our fearless district leader, handed him one of our fliers for our weekly english class. And the man just handed it back and said "I am blind" hahahahahahahahahahahaha needless to say we need to get some brail fliers just in case.

I love the Lord, and I know this is his work. His hand is in everything that we do! I pray for all of my friends and family every night, I hope you are all doing well! GOOD LUCK ON FINALS TO ANYONE TAKING THEM! YOU CAN DO IT!

Love you all

Elder Krebs

April 12, 2015

What an amazing and crazy week!!!

It was transfers week so we got a new Elder in the apartment! He is half Japanese, his name is Elder Kikuchi! He is a great Elder, it is his dying transfer so he goes home in 6 weeks, it is pretty crazy. I am in an apartment with 4 Elders who all have 4 months or less. It is kind of a crazy perspective but I am learning a ton from all of their experiences!! They help me become better every single day and help me with the language a lot as well!

So I totally forgot to tell about the one of the best parts of last week! On Saturday the day before Easter we had an Easter egg dying activity! (shout out to mom for the egg dying kit) It was soooo fun we had a lot of people show up and made and died about 80 eggs and I of course made creamed eggs with them after!

This week has been really hectic, because of the transfers. But we were able to get in a lot of work! Elder Crawford really wanted to focus on teaching people more and having a lot of lessons! As well as focusing on finding! We doubled our lessons taught and doubled our new investigators! It was so amazing to see the work progress, and moving along! I love the Lord and everything he blesses us with!

This week for P-day we went to a planetarium! It was soooooooooooo Japanese. They talked about the stars for like 10 minutes and then just put a little cartoon on the screen for the next 40 minutes. I fell asleep pretty fast hahahahahaha

General conference was so amazing this weekend (we watch it a week later) I learned so much and felt so blessed to hear from our living prophets. That is one of the most amazing things about our Church is our prophets that guide us and help us in our lives. It is such an amazing blessing! I gained a lot from conference even if a ton of the talks were about getting married....oh well. I will watch them again in 2 years hahahaha

This week it has rained a lot, it has been awesome! I LOVE the rain! As long as I have my rain suit on I am good to go ;)

So next week on Tuesday we get our Ipads!!! We are all way excited! It is gonna be such a help for the work here! Just so you know when we do get facebook DO NOT MESSAGE ME! We aren't allowed to message family or friends!

I love you all so much, I know this Church is true with everything in me.

Love,

Elder Krebs