Week 37 - June 18, 2012
   
Dear Family,
Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you. Thank you so much. I hope you had a great week and a great Sunday!

It's really starting to get warm and humid here now. It's still spring/the rainy season, but I'm sure summer will be in full-blast before we know it.

We spent this past week Monday night in Hachioji, an area about a half hour train ride from here. There were six elders there for the night because three of us were district leaders and had training the next day at the mission home. The three of our companion's all stayed together in Hachioji and proselyted there on Tuesday. The district leader training was a lot of fun. It was broken up into four main categories: Leadership qualities (with a little about baptismal interviews), effective companionship exchanges, effective district meetings, and motivating.

After the district leader training on Tuesday, I went on companionship exchange with Elder Petersen, one of my zone leaders, here in Sagamihara. We taught a lesson to Okamoto kyodai and really pushed for him to set a baptismal date to work towards. He wants to be baptized, but everything seems really complicated in his head and he has a hard time realizing the need for a goal to work towards so that he can progress better. After his lesson Elder Petersen and I were walking back to the apartment, talking to everyone along the way, and we met a man named Amagai. After talking to him for a little we went back to the church, taught him about the gospel of Christ, and set a baptismal date for the first of next month. We actually learned that he was a former investigator about two years ago. Anyway, Elder Petersen and I met with him again the next day and taught him the plan of salvation. I gave him a white shirt and a few cheap dollar ties to use to come to church on Sunday.

Wednesday night English class was a lot of fun as usual. The member who normally teaches our beginner class couldn't make it, so I had to teach it. It was the first time I had taught any class besides advanced, but it was fun.

On Thursday we finally made it out to the Shiyakusho, or city hall, to update my companion's gaijin card. They like us to update it within the week our addresses change.

I held district meeting on Friday. I love my district. My district is comprised of the zone leaders, Elder Petersen (half Japanese, half American, fluent in both languages,) and Elder Cragun from Draper, UT, Sister Derricott, Sister Takei, Elder Anderson (another half Japanese-American, but grew up speaking English), a new, first transfer missionary Elder Takaya from Osaka, then my companion Elder Orton and I. I focused my training at this past district meeting on forming habits, in order to change our characters and ultimately our destinies. In this zone, we have a 'Standard of Excellence' that's been set, and one of the things is to do the 'Evan's Challenge 100%.' The Evan's Challenge is to commit all investigators to be baptized on a specific date at the end of the first lesson and reinforce that date in all following lessons. So at district meeting we talked abou that
and how to form it into a habit and make it a part of ourselves.

We taught Silvia the plan of salvation on Friday with our bishop as joint. It was a great lesson. She's preparing for baptism on the seventh of next month.  The next day we taught Shimizu kyodai the law of chastity and more about prophets. His lesson went really well, also. He's a really quiet person, but we're developing a better relationship with him and he's opening up more. He's preparing for baptism on the 14th of next month. After his lesson we walked to the eki (train station) where we met another investigator and went out to Machida, the area next to ours. There was a classical music concert with some piano, violin, marimba, and even a few brass players, being held at the Machida church that President said would be fine to take investigators to. Okamoto kyodai rode his bike out there and met us at the church. We had a great time with three of our investigators and I think they all enjoyed it a lot. We spent almost an hour in transit there and another coming back, so we had a lot of good time to talk and become better friends. Actually on the way there, we got to the Machida train station, from which we were planning on taking a bus to the church, but, there weren't any buses coming soon enough, so we ended up just walking. From there we got a little lost, but there's not many better ways to get to know people than to get lost with them!

Yesterday, church was great. We had three investigators, Shimizu, Silvia, and Okamoto with us. After church, Elder Orton and I practiced, 'Come unto Jesus' with a few members for our ward conference in a few weeks.

Today we have three lessons scheduled. One with a college student named Takada who we met at the end of the week before last. He had met and learned with missionaries before, so when we stopped him on the street he already knew a little about the Book of Mormon. We're planning on teaching more about the Restoration. After that we'll teach and testify to Silvia about prophets, the Sabbath day, living the law of the land, and a little more on faith and prayer. Then later tonight we have a lesson with a lady named Naomi. I think I wrote about her last week, but she was converted to Christianity about a year ago, recently came to our English class, we taught her an introductory lesson, and now she's excited to hear about the restoration. We also have another lesson set with her for this Saturday where we'll probably teach the plan of salvation. It'll be a busy day, but in the time between lessons we'll find time to do a little grocery shopping and hopefully still be able to hit the streets and find new people.

This upcoming Thursday is our last all-mission conference with President and Sister Albrecht. They'll be returning to the states and President Budge will be taking over in just about two weeks. It's coming up really really fast. It's exciting wondering how the mission will change and what things will be like. From what I've heard of President Budge, he is an amazing person. He is called of God and I'm sure he will have this mission working really hard.

This upcoming Sunday is stake conference. We have a priesthood session and a broadcast session on Saturday, then the normal session on Sunday.

My companion is a hard worker and doesn't like to waste time. He doesn't hesitate to testify and promise blessings when we're on the streets talking to people. We're both pretty young missionaries, but through consistent hard work we know we'll be able to help many people.

Here's a good quote, I shared it with my district at district meeting:
"We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny."
-C.A. Hill

You all have the ability to change the destiny of your life, the destiny of this year, this month, even the destiny of today! Work with your thoughts, change your actions, develop habits, and you, as a person, will change. Thus changing your destiny.

I love you!! Take care!

Week 36 - June 11, 2012

• Transfers 3-5...

Dear Family,
My new companion, Elder Orton, is a great missionary and very hardworking.  He and I are actually the youngest companionship of Elders in the mission right now, and it's been a really exciting week.

We were able to help, over two days, a less-active member translate a business document from English to Japanese and share a mogi (practice) lesson on the Restoration.  He's actually been doing really well and has been coming to church fairly consistently lately. After the first day of his lesson on Tuesday we went out to Costco to get some groceries for the transfer.

We had two really great eikaiwa shokai lessons. One was with a Chinese university student named Chin. We met him at the Japanese class that we go to and were able to get him to come to eikaiwa. We taught him a little about the church and he's really excited to learn more about the Plan of Salvation and purpose of life. The other was with a lady named Naomi. She found our eikaiwa through the Internet and came three weeks ago. She was actually converted to Christianity a year ago and attends a church each Sunday. We shared a little about the church and she wants to hear more about the Restoration. She also wants to invite another eikaiwa student named Kawai to her next lesson. We shokai'd  Kawai a few weeks ago but she was a little apprehensive about learning more.  he's been coming to eikaiwa and our weekly outreach activities though. She and Naomi made friends at eikaiwa, and after hearing about the message that we're sharing, she said that she really wants to 'share God's love with Kawai too.' At the end of the lesson, Naomi said one of the best prayers I've heard from an investigator. She prayed for Kawai as well as for us, the missionaries, to be able to guide people unto Christ.  So we are excited to teach these three great people. It's wonderful to see people wanting to learn more about the truth, through our eikaiwa.

We had a great zone meeting on Friday. The zone leaders introduced a 'standard of excellence' for  the zone, which I really like. It's a great way for the zone to work on specific things in order to see miracles in all we do. The standards for our zone are: Love everyone, Find new friends everyday, Ask for referrals 100, Evan's challenge 100, and  Invite members to become friends with investigators. Asking for referrals 100 means literally to always ask for people to teach from everyone, including members, investigators, people we meet on the street, the cashiers at the stores, people who call... everyone. The Evan's challenge comes from Elder Evans when he visited the mission about a year and a half ago. He challenged the mission to commit to baptism in the first lesson, and to set a date in the second. He promised that through this more of the Japanese people would come unto Christ in this life than through any other way. Inviting members to become friends with investigators has to do with members not only being joints for lessons or fellowshipping at church, but actually becoming friends with investigators. That is so important. There was a lot of testimony of miracles through faith at the zone meeting, and it was great. We will really see an amazing transfer and I'm so excited.

We taught Silvia, the Brazilian lady that came to eikaiwa, on Friday after the zone meeting. We taught her the Gospel of Christ: Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. She committed to being baptized on the 7th of next month as we were standing in front of the font. She will need to really strive to increase her faith as much as possible, in order to really be converted.

We taught/reviewed the Gospel of Christ with Shimizu on Saturday and he committed to being baptized on the 14th of next month. He will also need to increase his faith, and find the strength to follow the Word of Wisdom, in order to experience the blessings that God has in store for him.

We had a really fun dinner with the Nishimura family last night. They're a wonderful family consisting of  12 and 16 year year old sons,  a 17 year old daughter, and 20 year old twins. Their daughter, Maiko, is a really great person, but has moved away from the church. It was one of the hardest things for Elder Orton and I to watch as their dad called everyone over for prayer and she quietly got up and left the room. It just broke our hearts. She really knows what's right and she feels guilt for not doing the right things.  It's hard to know how to help her, but the most important thing is to just show unconditional love. Elder Orton and I felt probably only a small portion of the pain that parents feel around the world as their children make wrong choices. Cameron kyodai (American member that lives on the U.S. Army Base) came over to the Nishimura's to share a home teaching lesson, and we were able to fit our bikes into the back of his van and he took us home.

Tomorrow I have district leader training at the mission office. I'm really excited, and grateful that I'll be able to see the mission home one more time before the presidents change.  This transfer is really starting off great.  I have an awesome companion in an amazing area, and through consistent hard work, will see miracles.

If you'd like to read a good talk, try to find 'Flaxen Threads' on the BYU speeches page. It's really good if you want to build better habits.

I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your love and support. It's great to hear about how everyone is doing. Good luck and work hard, Kauluwehi! I love you! Take care!

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher

Week 35 - June 4, 2012 

• ·   Transfer 5

Hello family! 

It's definitely been an eventful week here in Sagamihara! As for transfers, I'm still here, but my companion has transferred. My new companion is Elder Orton from Spanish Fork, Utah. He's Elder Hee's doki (MTC group,)  so he came to Japan in the beginning of February this year. Elder Richmond and I caught the train this morning to Shinjuku (biggest train station in the world,) where we met our companions and went to our areas. I'll also be the new district leader, so that's exciting.  Including myself, I have six elders and two sisters in my district.

We had an amazing eikaiwa on Wednesday. There were only 20 people total, a little less than we've had lately, but it was still a great night.  On Monday night while passing out eikaiwa flyers I talked with a younger  (freshman in college age) Chinese guy and gave him a flyer. He actually didn't take a flyer when he first walked past me, but he was hanging around near where I was so I walked up to him to try again to get him to take a flyer. He stared at me for a few seconds, then just told me that he was Chinese (in English.) We had a hard time communicating because he spoke very little English and Japanese, but he ended up taking a flyer and said that he'd call. The next day he called and we set up a time to meet at the station to go to eikaiwa. That was after a bunch of trying to communicate in English, Japanese, and Chinese. He kept just going off in Chinese and mixing all three languages into one, but we managed to communicate a little. I emailed him a short mail about meeting at the station in kanji so he'd understand. But when it came time to meet, we were on the phone with him, both us and he were saying that we were in front of the station, but he was nowhere to be found. We ended up realizing that he was at another station, so we explained as best we could that we'd be there soon, then went straight there, but still had the hardest time finding him. After about 25 more minutes of searching, we found him and began making our way to the church. While walking to the church, trying our best to communicate, he asked what we were doing in Japan, so I pulled out my name tag (which has the church name in Chinese written on the back) and he said that he and all of his family were members! It was hard to believe him at first, because that's pretty rare, and he hadn't recognized us as missionaries, but we were still pretty excited by now. We were eventually able to get him on the phone with a Chinese member in our ward, and long story short, he is a member... and it's a miracle that we found him! I wrote to you last week about our goal to hand out over 1,600 flyers. Well, Monday night was the last night of that goal and those flyers were the very last of our 1,600... If we had chosen to only do 1,000 or 1,300 or even 1,550, all still great numbers, we probably never would have met him.  He was completely active in China, attending church each week, but he hadn't known any members or where the church was since he'd arrived in Japan two months ago, so he hadn't been going. It was definitely a miracle that was brought about by so many inspired things. The zone leaders were guided to set our zone theme as building eikaiwa, our goal for flyers for that week was meant to be, and we were supposed to be at that station at that time. It's amazing.

Also after eikaiwa that night, a Brazilian lady who we taught an introduction lesson to last week said that she'd been reading in the Japanese copy of the Book of Mormon we had given her and she wanted to know more. We taught her more about the restoration this past Saturday and she attended all three hours of church yesterday.

On Friday after district meeting my companion (now former companion) Elder Richmond got into a little accident with a taxi. He was just turning a blind corner as we were leaving the church and a taxi was just coming to a stop. So they weren't going too fast, but collided, he went up onto the hood, and came back down on his feet. His front rim was bent up pretty badly, so we've spent some time the past few days getting a new rim and putting that all back together. His body's all fine though. According to Japanese law, the taxi driver's at fault (it's almost always the bigger vehicle,)  but Elder Richmond didn't file a report or anything.

Anyway, we had two great lessons on Saturday. Both investigators are doing well. Saturday night we had our weekly outreach activity. We had an 'activity race', consisting of a bunch of small activities (things like dropping a coin into a cup, completing a course with an egg on a spoon, upping a pedometer 40 steps while it's on your forehead with a headstrap, eating a cracker from your forehead without using hands, blowing up balloons, etc.) Pretty much just a bunch of kind of pointless activities, but the last two of the list of activities that needed to be completed were to help someone and to pay someone a compliment. We tried to relate it to the idea of not getting too busy and caught up in things that don't really matter much to give help or pay compliments, etc. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

So it's the beginning of a new transfer! I'm here in Sagamihara as a fifth transfer missionary, working with Elder Orton, a fourth transfer missionary. We're excited and ready to work hard. Thank you for your love and support! I love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher

Week 34 - May 29, 2012

• Transfers 3-4...

Dear Mom and Family,
How are all of you? I hope great! Have you received the letters/envelopes that I've sent lately? There should've been one for Kauluwehi, one for Mom, and one for Mikela. Kauluwehi, I hope you had a great Senior Bash, Seminary Graduation, Mauna ‘Ala visit, Graduation, and Grad Night. It sounds like it was a pretty eventful week! And good job all of you other kids on finishing another school year! Thanks for a copy of your talk, mom. I really like it. How is the ward doing? Has it grown at all recently? I saw on lds.org that right now it's Elder Kniff and Elder Taylor in the ward, if I remember correctly. Tell them I say hi.. and I hope you're working with them at least a little! It'd be really great if you were able to go out and work with them for a few hours one day, Keawe.

It's been great here in Sagamihara. We've been passing out Eikaiwa flyers at the train stations a lot more lately. We got just over 1600 flyers out last week and had 25 people at Eikaiwa, 21 students (8 new) and 4 members. It's been a lot fun. Our zone (10 companionships) had 14 new students last week, so we made up a little over half of that number. If that's what it takes (1600 flyers for 8 new students)  then I'm more than willing to put the work in, as long as we can introduce the gospel to those 8 people who would have never known about it otherwise. We're hoping to continue building it and working to keep all of the new students coming back each week. I'd like to make a detailed plan for our Eikaiwa, detailing past growth and plans for the future, to present to our bishopric the first week of next transfer. Right now we only have two classes, with no members  running the reception desk, making it difficult to teach to everyone's needs and to schedule shokai (introduction) lessons with all of them. If we can build our Eikaiwa into three to four classes and at least eight members each week, it could be a really effective finding tool. Members can be more involved in missionary work and many people will  be able to have prolonged interaction with missionaries, members, and church activities.

On Saturday we had an 'egg drop' for our outreach activity. Each team (most were just one person, some had two or three) had 10 pairs of chopsticks, one balloon, five big pieces of paper, one meter of twine, 10 small rubber bands, scissors, tape, and an unboiled egg wrapped in a plastic bag. Out of the 10 eggs that we dropped (from the second story of the church,)  three survived. It was a lot of fun! We ended up having two investigators, one Eikaiwa student, and bunch of members in attendance. In the end, each team was awarded points according to how well they did and how little supplies they used, and were able to "buy" treats with their points. I'll attach a few pictures! (probably to your other email, mom.)

Yesterday we spent our time from about 11:00 am to 4:00 pm in the backyard of a lady's apartment taking a deck down. We got a call on Sunday night from a member in a branch in a place called Senzokuike asking if we would be able to give a little service.  It was a lot fun. There was Elder Richmond and I along with a member originally from Tanzania, living in Japan. The deck was probably only about 10ft. x 5ft. with walls, a grill area, and a small roof, but it took us a while. We'll probably be heading back sometime next week to help load all of the wood and everything into a truck.

This morning we were able to get into an 8:45 am endowment session at the Tokyo Temple. It's always great to be in the temple and to meet with all of the other missionaries.  It seems like my MTC district is all doing really good.

I've attached a copy of some notes that were taken at our Elder Clarke conference, if you'd like to look at them. I'm not sure who wrote them (probably one of the couple missionaries) but they were posted on our online mission portal for us to use.

All in all, the work is amazing and continuing to move on! As for this week’s schedule so far, we have Eikaiwa tomorrow, a mogi (practice) lesson with a less-active member on Thursday, district meeting and lunch (because it's the last one of the transfer) on Friday, we might go bowling with a small group of investigators Friday night, transfer calls on Saturday morning, another mogi lesson with another less-active member on Saturday, and our weekly outreach activity Saturday night. It's exciting and I'm having a great time. I love you so so much and am grateful for all of your support and prayers. Take care and have a great week!!

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher

Snacks and prizes.

Supplies.

Our bishop's son and his friend...this egg did not survive.

Just as everyone began building.

Elder Richmond's and my egg survived.

Tiny and no tape used...but this egg survived too!

Week 33 - May 21, 2012

• Sagamihara

Hello,
How is everybody doing this week? Kauluwehi, is your graduation this Sunday the 27th? I was logged into my lds.org account and saw the calendar for the stake. That's a little bummer that it's on a Sunday morning, but congratulations on graduating. It's almost summer, I bet it's been a little more dry lately? It's definitely warm here. Today it's only about 25 degrees Celsius and a little humid... I think that's about 78ish degrees Fahrenheit.

Anyway, this week was a lot of fun here in Sagamihara. On Tuesday, the day after I talked with you, we had an all mission conference with Elder Clarke of the Seventy. So we took the trains to Shibuya, the center of the world, and the conference was held in the Temple Annex Center, a building just off of the Tokyo Temple. It was a great conference as they always are. I really enjoyed Elder Clarke's "no nonsense, just work hard" kind of attitude. He trained a little about how, if we have the potential to become Gods, how could we ever have an "I can't do that" or "That's just how the people are here, there's nothing we can do." kind of attitude. I liked that a lot. Really, each of us, each of God's children, has the potential to become a God or Goddess. Our Father in Heaven sees us with that potential in all we do. If you believe that, how can you not believe in yourself when it comes to small things in this world? Later in the conference, Elder Clarke also brought all of the former bishops to the front of the chapel (there were about eight of them, comprised of our mission president, one of the translators, and a few of the couple missionaries) and asked them how many times the missionaries in their wards took flowers to their wife and a card to them, thanking them for their hard work. None of them could say that it had happened. Elder Clarke also asked all of the missionaries who had prayed for their bishop by name that morning to raise their hand. Nobody raised their hand. He told us that he had done that in innumerable conferences with thousands of missionaries and the result was always the same. It was a good reminder for me that our bishops are the ones who hold the keys to the missionary work in our wards and areas. After the conference we had a lesson scheduled, but it was raining so that was cancelled. Because we had a little bit of time Elder Richmond and I bought a vase and some flowers and two pairs of socks to take to the bishop and his wife. We have such an amazing, hard-working bishop, and I really am so grateful for him.

At Wednesday night English class we had 19 people in attendance.
That's a change from four the first week of the transfer, and it's
been a blessing being able to schedule shoukai (introduction) lessons. We have a 30-minute introduction lesson with each new English student. If they have interest, we teach them more. If they don't, then they're of course still welcome at Eikaiwa each week. On Saturday we had a ward barbecue at a riverside area called Takadabashi. It was about a 45 minute bike ride, actually just past the area I sent pictures of a little while ago. I'll send more pictures. We were able to get one of our new Eikaiwa students out to that. Through our love and sincere care for these new friends, they will see the blessings that they have been searching for. Other than the new Eikaiwa student, we had four investigators, one less-active member, and a bunch of members friends in attendance at the barbeque as well. We all had a great time.

Yesterday we ate dinner with a young part-member family. It was their only son, Yoshiki's, fourth birthday. The mom is Chinese and a member, her husband is Japanese and not a member. We didn't know much about their family at all before leaving for their home. We only know the mom, not how old her son would be, how many children she has, or who were members, but we grabbed a few of the small wallet-sized 'For the Strength of Youth' foldable cards. They proved to be great for the husband, who knows a decent amount about the church, but will be able to appreciate more the standards that strong church youth have. Members maintain their agency, God will never take that, but through Christ we know what choices will make us happiest. We can of course choose what we may, we just know the choices that lead to the most happiness.

My companion says that 60th west is kind of near the Old Bingham Highway. He says that past his house is a road called U-111, then the mountains after that.

This upcoming week we have a Mini Zone Conference (just my zone) and interviews with president. The week after that is the last week of this transfer, so next week we'll be able to go to the temple again, meaning P-day will be on Tuesday instead of Monday. And we'll get transfer calls at the end of that week too. It seems like I'll be staying here and getting a new companion, but nobody really knows!

As for the scripture stickers, just one compact set would be great.
Thank you so much!

Two scriptures that I read recently that touched my heart:

"Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with
anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things
should be done away." (3 Nephi 11:30)

"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works. And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out." (Alma 7:23-25)

Recently I've been working harder to develop Christlike attributes.
Over the past little while I feel like I've grown a lot in terms of
learning how to overcome frustrations with love. It's definitely hard at times, to hide frustrations or to respond to opposition in a loving manner... but it's always possible. The old adage, "What would Jesus do?" is good here.. When it's essential to be in tune with the spirit, which really, is always, it's important to remember to not be angry.

Quoting a talk I read recently, "Irritations and frustrations will
occur, but frequent anger and contention do not persist where the
gospel of Jesus Christ is practiced."

Anyway, I love you all so much. Take care and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher

Riverside area called Takadabashi.

Sagamihara Ward BBQ.

Week 32 - May 14, 2012

Sagamihara

Dear Family, I loved talking to all of you earlier today! I'm so glad you're all doing good. Congratulations Keanu on winning your two basketball games. Good luck with your next one! Good job with Basketball, Keawe. Keep on working hard and consistently in the weightroom, it pays off. And focus to get your grades up. If you can keep an upward trend of grades from here, colleges will be interested in you. Congratulations Mikela on becoming a Senior and being able to go to SOAR. And congratulations Kauluwehi, graduating from high school and heading to BYU-Provo. I'm so proud of all of you!!  Kauluwehi, Mikela, and Keawe, good luck with upcoming finals. Work hard! And Keanu, have fun these last few weeks of school. Keep up the good grades! A few pictures are attached from the past two weeks... the titles are numbered, so here's a short description/story of each: 1 (5/712) View of inside the grocery store we've been going to when we don't head to Costco. It's called OK Super! and it's right across the street from the church. It looks pretty normal right? 2 (5/7/12) Another of in the store 3 (5/11/12) We went to the Takatsuka Family home on Friday evening for dinner and a quick "mogi"(practice) lesson(about a 30min. bike ride.) Sister Takatsuka, Izumi left for the MTC today. When she enters the MTC, that'll make eight full-time missionaries out from our ward, with another with his call. In addition to that, there's about 25 other young single adults in the ward, so the number of missionaries out could really be doubled! The day before we went out there my companion popped the tube of his back tire so we bought a new one and replaced it that night. I bought a patch kit to keep with me just in case, and the same tire went flat as we were on the way to their house! So I ended up using my new patch kit the day after I bought it. It's been ok since. Anyway, we made these to give to Izumi shimai to use when teaching the plan of salvation in Sendai(where she'll be heading for her mission.) 4 (5/11/12) Spirit body and physical body to use with the plan of salvation set 5 (5/11/12) Plan of salvation set continued 6 (5/11/12) Continued 7 (5/11/12) Gospel of Christ, drawn by a Japanese Elder in an area next to mine(English is #17) We gave this to Izumi shimai as well. 8 (5/11/12) Restoration drawing that we gave to Izumi shimai. 9 (5/11/12) A little river that we passed on our way to the Takatsuka home. This is the most inaka(rural) I've seen our area so far. 10 (5/11/12) Elder Richmond looking at the river. My bike behind him. We actually have the same bike, different colors though. 11 (5/11/12) Koi(colorful carp) in the river 12 (5/11/12) A view of the same small river as we biked along it 13 (5/11/12) A view from an overpass. Again, the most inaka I've seen since, really, I've been in Japan. Besides this I haven't left the city much. 14 (5/11/12) View from the same overpass 15 (5/11/12) Me on the bridge that you can see in picture #13 16 (5/11/12) View from the bridge 17 (5/11/12) English version of the drawing of the Gospel of Christ(Japanese is #7) I love all of you so much. Thank you for all of your love and support. I so appreciate your wonderful smiles and spirits. I think about you often! You are a such a huge part of my foundation, and motivate me so much to work harder and be better! Please continue to read and pray daily as a family. I love you! Take care. Love, Elder Rindlisbacher

Week 31 – May 7, 2012

• Sagamihara

Dear Mom and Family, 

I hope you've all been great and had a great week. Sagamihara has been great. It's been another productive week. As far as Mother's Day, the number to call is 011-81-80-2149-6144, at 6:00 pm your time. If it would be better to call another time, let me know via email soon! Otherwise I'll be on Skype and with the phone at that time. It'll be 1:00 pm on Monday here.

Tuesday I took Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies to seminary and it seemed like they went well. I made some chocolate ones later, but I think they might have been too sweet for early in the morning, especially with Japanese people. They don't really like sweet things, for the most part. I think I'll put some Congo Bars using Grandma's recipe in tonight for tomorrow morning seminary.

We had our district meeting this past Thursday. We studied a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar called, “The Atonement and Journey of Mortality”.  

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?lang=eng&query=*+(name%3a"David+A.+Bednar") 

It's a great talk, I really like it. It's helped me to understand and appreciate Christ's atonement more. I believe that there is an ideal home. I think many people in the world now don't believe that there is. But there is. There is a perfect home. It is possible. Elder Campbell, an elder in my district, spoke of a convert he knows. He said that the turning point in this man's life was the night he went to the bishop's house for dinner. He was investigating the church, and seeing the way that the bishop's family and home was, made him think that he was in a movie setting. He was 'searching for the cameras the entire night.' If the gospel and atonement of Christ are the center and foundation of our lives as families, we can achieve a 'perfect family.' I truly believe that it is true. I think about families a lot now. It seems like all the time. I hope that Pukalani ward is doing great! I'm sure they all are. I am so grateful for the amazing love and support that I was given while growing up there. That is so essential. In this work, it can come to a point where if you can just get an investigator to church, they will know that baptism is what they want, just by the love that they feel. There is a special feeling and love in every church building with every ward. But that love can be developed into another kind of love. Another love that will feel like so much more to those who don't fully understand it yet. 

Saturday at 4:30 pm we had a lesson with Shimizu kyoudai. Elder Watanabe Kan (the first Japanese Mission President) and Yasuda shimai, the great sister we had dinner with last week Sunday, jointed with us. We came to find out that Shimizu kyoudai has more of a problem with the Word of Wisdom than we thought. He has a small problem with tobacco and alcohol. But I believe that if he can exercise faith, find other ways to relieve stress, he will really feel God's love and strength for him. Our main focus with him, as of lately, has been to work with the ward to fellowship him as much as possible. He really needs to know that we all love him. Sagamihara Ward has been great. I love greeting everyone each Sunday as they come to church. Elder Richmond and I have been able to build strong relationships with them and I am so grateful for them. Many of the people I have met and come to know on my mission are some of the best people in the world.

Saturday night for our outreach activity we watched 'The Testaments.' We had a really good turnout of members with three investigators also in attendance. The next day in church on Sunday we had the same three investigators with us. We attended Gospel Principles class with the three of them. It was taught by Yasuda shimai and was focused on the same talk by Elder Bednar that we studied on Thursday at our district meeting. Yasuda shimai shared a powerful and spiritual lesson and was fighting tears almost the entire time. She is always extremely happy and always smiling. Okamoto kyoudai, one of our investigators, commented before the lesson that she was 'always, always happy.' She built off of that asking everyone why she always seems happy. And if there are others that seem the same way. She was baptized just over 10 years ago, and she used her fairly recent conversion story to really hit home with our investigators. We taught two of them together after her lesson.

So it's been a great week. Elder Richmond and I are doing well with just the two of us here now. I 'm grateful for him as my companion. We've been growing a lot together.

Matthew 11:28-30 

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Why is Christ's burden light? Really, his burden is not light at all. The reason his burden is light is because he has so much strength. If we but come unto him, we can partake of that strength, and truly do more than we could ever without it. Our burdens will truly become light. Not because they will necessarily change or be taken away, but because we will receive Christ's strength to either carry them or change them ourselves. For that I am so grateful and so dependent.  

I love you all so much!! Thank you!! Have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher