11 May 2014 - Mother's Day Skype (Half Way Mark for Travis' Mission, But Who is Counting)

This first part is written by Kris, Travis' mom.  Since it was Mother's Day, we got one of our 2 phone calls/skype calls we get a year with Travis.  It was so awesome to talk to him and to actually see his face.  He is doing so good and best of all, he still has his sense of humor and had us all laughing.  He loves his mission so much and the people he is working with.  In fact, I had to remind him that it was his one year anniversary of being a missionary. H e said time has gone so fast he didn't even realize it.  For our conversation,  Steve, (Dad), Mason, Olivia, Cassi and I were at home in Califonia.  Kara and Kyoshi were at their condo in Orem, Utah and Kyle and Erin were in Des Moines, Iowa (they are working there for the summer) and Travis was in Japan and we all group skyped.  Technology is awesome!!!!    We talked for 45 mins..  Travis was cute, he had questions he had thought about beforehand to ask each person.  The time went by to quickly and there was so much more we wanted to talk about.  He mostly just wanted updates on every ones lives and we wanted details as to what he does each day.  Anyway, I was a wonderful Mother's Day and we can't wait until Christmas for the next call.  

Travis is at the church Skyping us.

Kara and Kyoshi in Utah, Kyle and Erin in Iowa, Travis in Japan and the rest of us at home in Calif.

Love that smile!

It is 11:00pm in Utah (past Kara's bed time), It is 12:00am in Iowa, 10:00pm in Calif. and 2:00pm the next day in Japan.

After we skyped, we received this letter from Travis:

Yeah so we skyped, so you prolly don't really need a letter.  This is what I wrote to Kaicho (Mission President).   Nice talkin to ya!   Still a beautiful fam!

The work in Kagoshima is great. This week we were able to meet with investigator Irisa san and talk about the blessings that come from living in Christ`s example. The spirit was strong and she expressed her desire to live according to God`s will and wants to work towards a baptismal date we set for June 22nd. She owns her own coffee shop and works everyday of the week, which could become a trial of faith for her in her path to baptism but I have faith the spirit will soften her heart and she will know what will be best for her. 

We were able to meet with less active Ohashi kyodai.   We are meeting with him and studying the Book of Mormon weekly and this week we explained to him the benefits of serving others, and how the branch needs more Priesthood holders and his service in the branch.   He seemed responsive and intended on coming to church yesterday but Totsuzen had to visit his 97 year old grandmother. 

This week we were able to meet with Sano Kaicho the District President as well as Peterson Kyodai to talk about better working with the members in Kagoshima. They are currently doing a fireside in all of the areas to help the members become more missionary minded and help them to understand how they can be a missionary in their everyday life. Coincidentally Elder Sasaki and I felt like the Kagoshima Zone needed to put more focus on the members and member present lessons this transfer and from that we feel the other key indicators will rise as well. What we want to do is to sort of meet the members half way in their attempts to be everyday missionaries and help them to be those missionaries that the District Presidency has a vision of.   We have various ideas and plans we have discussed with Sano Kaicho that we will do this transfer to help the missionary work be more in unity in Kagoshima.   We will be doing a District wide fast with the members and missionaries together on June 1st for this sort of unity and success in missionary work for both the members and the full-time missionaries.   The District Presidency talked about better utilizing the calling of the Dendo Shunnin (ward missionary) and from the missionaries side we will be doing mogis with the members every week, to better help them understand the teachings in the Preach My Gospel and what is to be expected anytime they will joint with any missionary. When missionaries see a miracle they will call any member when they get home at 9 (for just a few minutes) to share the excitement of this miracle and to get the member more involved ask for their prayers or help for this person or family included in the miracle.   The missionaries will be expected to do this about 3 times per week.   We are also working on a schedule to help the missionaries know what members can joint at what time during the week.   Peterson Kyodai and Sano Kaicho talked about what kind of schedules were effective and not effective in the past so we have received good ideas from them on how to best get the members involved.   The district presidency has a lot of dendo fire and really hope the members can catch this same vision.   We will do our best to help the members to catch this vision and further the work. 

Elder Bloomfield


                                                       Thought for the week: