2 June 2014 - Busy Week, Not Much Time to Email

Gomen  (sorry) no time, but here is my letter to president. 

Dear President, 

The work continues to move along.  As far as our area goes, much progress was able to be made this week. After Kameda san came to church she completely changed.   She is a different investigator, two weeks ago she would hardly open up to us at all when we met with her this week she told us when she first met us she felt something special about us, as she watched a video about the Book of Mormon on youtube she felt it was all true and that is why she wanted to come to church.  She told us she feels baptism is a bridge from the darkness she feels to light, and when I asked her if she truly believes from the bottom of her heart she can be made pure through baptism, she surprised us with a firm and undoubted `hai, shinjitteimasu (yes, very much).`   Her daughter seems to be just as touched by the gospel and has begun saying prayers for her and as a family every night.   It is amazing how the gospel changes people right before your eyes.   She is progressing toward her baptismal date well. 

Our other investigator Irisa san`s faith grew a lot this week.  She told her co-worker how she felt at church last week, and invited her to come with her next time, and yesterday her co-worker came with her to both a baptism and church.   She loves the gospel and loves the message Christ teaches, and has began to receive her own answers to prayers this week as well.   She told us ever since she started taking the lessons from the missionaries her cafe has been blessed and more and more people have been coming to her cafe and she believes `it is because of the spirit we leave in the shop when we teach our lessons.` 

I had heard from my father and other members about the success they found in basketball dendo, and decided I wanted to try it.   It worked out really well.   We played basketball with some high school students for about 30 minutes, then taught them about our purpose and miracles we have seen, they all asked for Book of Mormon and to meet again next week to talk about prayer. 

The zone is genki (happy) and working well. 

Elder Bloomfield

Thought for the week:

26 May 2014 - Piano Concert

Hey hey hey.

So this week was good.   They all are.   We were able to set up a baptismal date with an  investigator named Kameda san.   She has 6 kids and they are all under like 9 years old.   She is way otsukaresama (very active).   But it is a young family and they came to church!   It was quite the adventure and way fun. She only came with 4 of the kids, because the oldest 2 had soccer practice, so the kids who came were, 5, 4, 3, and 2 years old.   Sacrament meeting was a riot. Haven't babysat so hardcore in quite a while.   I think I took a bathroom break at least 4 times, I also gave up plenty of pages in my daily planner to be drawn on with crayon, went and found some neat cars for them to play with, which turned into the two year old throwing them, and the mom got way embarrassed they were so loud but the branch members were amazing in thanking her and saying how happy they are to have them there that it reminds them of when they had young kids and such so it was good. haha   Oh and primary was great to.   So sometimes when we visit them for the lessons the two year old is just chillin in the house naked, so I think its a usual thing for him.but in the middle of primary he proceeded to tell us he peed in his diaper so he was done with it, took it off and just started walking around without no pants on.   So that was fun to see the sister in primary chase him to put his diaper back on. but it was way cool to have them at church. The 5 year old actually said the closing prayer in primary and apparently today they were telling their mom about God and the things in the plan of salvation that they learned in primary. 

Irisa san is progressing well. she loves church a lot and told us this week she has had many opportunities in her life to be baptized, but never did, and just feels like this is her time now.   We are working on helping her to know how to really receive answers from God and to know if this is really true.   

We went to a member`s violin and piano concert with her and a less active and it was way cool.   It was on the 10th floor of this building in the middle of Kagoshima with all glass walls.   You could just see Kagoshima all around you. and after everyone left the member let us play on the piano a little bit.  It was way cool.   I felt like the Piano Guys or something just playing the piano on a cliff in Africa or whatever cool place they play the piano these days. 

Oh also another cool thing this week is, well first off, missionaries and kind of Christianity in general, has kind of a bad image in southern Japan and here in Kagoshima. There have been people who have claimed to be missionaries in the past,   They come in and teach people and collect money, and then just leave with peoples money and so because of that a lot of people really hate missionaries and hate us when they see us and so a lot of people don't really have a good image or don't know what to think about Christianity, but Irisa san really loved church and was talking to her friend this week who said she had always wondered about Christian churches like why there is talk about them and such, and when she found out it's just a normal church and what we actually do at church from Irisa san, she got way excited and wants to come and is going to come to church with Irisa san this week.   So that was cool as well. 

Well can't really think of anything else.  Oh yeah,  last week I found a churo (the Mexican things) and McDonald's.   I was way excited and was eating it as I walked,   The first bite was just oh so delicious, and as I was walking this huge black hawk thing almost nails me in the face as it flies past me and next thing I know my churo is gone and the hawk is real satisfied. he just snatched it right out of my hand.  haha   It was pretty scary and a bummer but I got a good laugh from it. 

Well see you tomorrow!

Elder Bloomfield

Travis is hooking up skype for other Elders

Thought for the week:

18 May 2014 - Ways to Stop Some One From Snorring

Hey there,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MOM AND CASSI!

Well this week was a good time.   Irisa san is progressing a lot and is pretty golden.   We made a calendar for her in order to help her see what all needs to be done and what will be taught before she is baptized.   We made it to help her see the vision of her baptism better.   We had her put nice lil Jesus stickers on the days we would meet and the days she would come to church.   She said she felt like a little child again with the stickers so it was a good time.   She was able to come to church and really loved it. 

This week we had shibo taikai.  I don't know what you call that in English, maybe like branch council or something.   The thing you have like once or twice a year.   But it was way cool because the Johnston couple had family in town Sunday, so we were able to invite a bunch of people to come to church and some brought friends as well so in addition to our investigators at church there were a total of about 10 nonmembers at church on Sunday.  It was way cool.   The special musical number was way beautiful too, a sister played the violin while another shimai (sisters) played the organ and then one of the kyodai (brother) sang.   It was perfect because Irisa actually sings opera so she was lovin it and even was crying during one of the talks because she said she was just so happy and could feel the spirit so strong.   So church was way cool.   

We also had ZTM this week.   Kaicho wants to start doing open houses quarterly in each of the areas so we did a open house at the ZTM to kind of show all the missionaries what we want to happen at the open house.   There were songs sung, testimonies given, the "Because of him"  video was watched, and more beautiful musical pieces given.  I was pretty dang satisfied for what we were able to pull off in the time we had to prepare between MLC in Fukuoka on Thursday and ZTM  Friday back in Kagoshima at noon.   A lot of missionaries said it was the best ZTM they had been to so far and they were excited to apply the stuff we did training on.   So hey if the open houses don't work in all of the areas at least they sure did bring the spirit to zone training meeting.   Thanks! 

Well more cool miracles happened this week but I can't really remember them right now.   I walked in a store to use the restroom and a like 5 year old kid just looked at me and was like kamsamnida!   So I spoke some Korean to him and went on my way laughing.   Then after I came out of the restroom,  He saw me and proceeded again to attempt to talk to the foreigner, only in Korean again.   It was pretty funny, his mom noticed us battling out Korean words we know and she was like hey are you crazy he's not Korean!   Then he looked at me and was like oh really?   Are you from India?   So I told him,   haha  "no sorry little guy I'm American".   So then he says, `ohhhh! herro!   I'm fine thank you and you!`... kids these days.. so pure. 

Hmm well I can't really think of much more but the work is awesome!   Oh also one of the elders in the apartment was snoring wayyy loud last night, so because I couldn't sleep,  I finally got the courage and decided I had to do something.   So I figured a little nudge to his head from my foot would do the trick.  -nope.. slept right through it. i  I was laughing pretty hard, I think I kicked his head at least 9 or 10 times and he never woke up.   haha   Eventually I had to kick his pillow out from under him so his head would fall..   That worked pretty well. 

Well I hope all is well.   Life is good.   The volcano isn't so bad when it just rains all day, so that's good.

Elder Bloomfield

Thought for the week:

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:

5 May 2014 - Happy Kodomo No Hi (Children's Day)

Hey hey hey!   Happy kodomo no hi! (Children's Day) 

So last week was a good time.   This morning has been fun.   We woke up at 4:30am  to bike out to attend seminary this morning, only to find out it is still Golden Week (Japans Spring Break) and there is no seminary.   haha   I got a pretty good laugh out of it.   We also found out the place where we usually email, is closed because of Golden Week, so we had to climb the mountain to the church and us 4 missionaries are sharing this one computer.   haha.   So I also got a pretty good laugh from this one.   One of the other Elders is a lil upset at how our day has gone so far, but needless to say, I don't have much time today. 

This week we met a guy named Watanabe san.   It is cool because lately President has been talking about how much our church is becoming known and lately many many people are meeting missionaries time and time again which was not very common before now.   So we streeted into Watanabe san and found out he received a Book of Mormon about a year ago.   He never met with the missionaries again so we assumed he never really read much of it.   During our lesson later in the week we asked him about it and he said he read the entire Book of Mormon and later in the lesson when we wanted to share with him how he can come to know of its truthfulness he told us, "oh I pretty much have a lot of the same thoughts of the Book of Mormon. I think it's true already.   We were like what!   Hey hey there buddy there ya go!   He was way cool and that was a cool miracle from the week. 

Similar to that we met with a woman named Irisa san.   Similar to Watanabe san, 3 years ago when her husband was near death in the hospital the missionaries randomly called her and taught her about prayer.   Then she said she didn't have contact with them again but through prayer she was able to overcome that challenge and her husband was able to become healthy again despite his sickness in the hospital and has a way strong testimony of prayer and prays everyday for the most part.   Now we come and find her and are able to teach her even more and help her to progress to her loving Heavenly Father.   It just goes to show that no effort goes unwaisted.   Seeds are planted and peoples lives are changed when much of the time we have no idea.   God knows what he is doing, we must trust him. 

Today is transfers and I am kind of bummed.   The zone saw so many cool miracles this transfer and I don't want people to transfer out.   April was a pretty dang cool month for the zone.   Alot of the areas are building up and making way solid growth.   The zone was actually able to find 4x as many investigators last month compared to January.   It just keeps building up each month, it is way cool to see the growth every week. 

Well much love to all.   I should prolly let the other Elder email now but see ya next Monday! on MOTHERS DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY ERIN!

Love ya,

Elder Bloomfield

Hangin with the Primary 

                                            Thought for the Week:

27 April 2014 - Satan is So Strong

Hey whats up fam.?

So this week was interesting.   First off we went to Naze for splits from Monday to Wednesday.   In the space of maybe like 40 hours, I had 25 hours worth of boat riding.   I'll send you a picture of what we slept on.  It was basically just a big room with a bunch of futons.   It was pretty fun.   On the way to Naze I slept near an old man who judging by the amount of times he farted, I would say he was having stomach problems.  

When we were in Naze we streeted into a German friend named Albert.   We found out he was going to be riding the same boat as us to go back to Kagoshima and after we got on the boat he happened to be sleeping right next to papa. So we got to talk to him quite a bit and talk with him in the morning as well as we hung out on top of the boat just looking at the water.   He is a doctor here in Japan for a science something meeting and never new the `Mormon community sends out their young all across the world.` he was a way cool guy.   We gave him a Book of Mormon and hope to see him again someday. 

Last week Uda san was pretty golden but this week it seems Satan had other plans.   They said they wanted to find the truth and be baptized on the 25th of May.   Sunday we told them sorry but we will not be back in Kagoshima until Wednesday, they told us well then you are coming over on Wednesday and we want to cook for you!   When we called on Wednesday, Uda san told us from here on please do not visit anymore and don't tell us about Christianity.   We were very confused on how the attitude and their feelings could change so fast.   We were able to set up an appointment to visit them on Saturday and we found out while we were in Naze one of the members visited her and said some things that she should not have.   We know the member had good intentions but because of some of the doctrine the member was trying to preach and a sickness Uda san has caught lately, they came to the conclusion that they must stick with their Buddhism roots, they hate Christianity, and don't want to hear us speak about it again.   It was very unfortunate and we will continue to pray her heart can be softened.

Our other investigator with a baptismal date named Yumata san became difficult as well. He has sincere interest in the truth of our message but also is in a difficult financial situation and was hoping for help from us.   When we explained to him with a member the policies of the church and how we would love to buy food for him and help him in what ways we can, but that we can not just give him money, he became surprisingly very angry and told us he doesn't want our help anymore.   We will try and visit him again and see if we can come to an understanding with him but it seems his pride is keeping him from accepting the help the church has to offer and not just giving him money. 

So, that was pretty wild.   Sometimes we wonder why Satan has to be so strong in missionary work but it is eternal life I suppose.   The atonement was never easy, so the missionary work shouldn't be either.   It's a dang good thing it is fun though deshouuuu!!   I find vast amounts of joy and happiness in the days where we have too much to do we can't even eat dinner and we come home exhausted and spent.   There is no other work in the world where the more you work, the more you give up, the happier you are.   Pretty neato aye? 

The zone is genki (happy) and doing well.   This week the challenge in our 6 week program was to focus on member present lessons and reaching Kaichos (Mission President) standards.   Once again in those areas we saw ridiculous amazing miracles and the zone`s member present lessons this week doubled compared to the previous weeks averages.

Apparently for the rest of the summer the ash from the volcano is going to be wayyyy bad and I thought I understood when I walked out of the apartment and couldn't even see the concrete floor because it was filled with gray ash it was bad, but then this guy told us, "oh yeah today there wasn't much ash, it will get much much worse."     So naturally,  I'm way excited.   It should be a good times wearing protective goggles for a few months.

Next week,

Elder Bloomfield

Good bud, Albert the German

 The water (ocean) on the way to Naze

Another picture of the ocean

Deep in thought observing the scenery.

Room where everyone sleeps on the Ferry

Testing out his skills on the boat.

Thought for the week:

20 April 2014 - Any Thing is Possible

So this week was pretty wild and there is so much to tell so I will see what I can do.

Miracle 1- We were on splits in Miyakonojo and we showed up to an appointment to meet this dude at his apartment only to find his two buddies outside his apartment door. They said they were also waiting for him so we taught them about the gospel for a solid 30 mins. gave them Books of Mormons, and they told us they wanted to meet again next week. They still live with their parents so they wanted to just meet in front of their friends apartment again.  haha   It was pretty funny.   When we left they were both reading the Book of Mormon in their car.

Miracle 2- We meet a girl named Naoko every week and this week we focused on the atonement. She expressed her nervousness about her upcoming trip to Australia and was so happy to know that Christ suffered for everyone, and understands all of our trials whether we are Christian or not, and she can receive help from God and Christ when she goes to Australia.   She came to church Sunday and loved it.

Miracle 3- President set a goal for the mission 3 weeks ago that everyone could be able to give the Gift  of Christ with a baptismal date before Easter.   Last week we had 6 appointments fall through and at the beginning of the week we didn't really have anyone we could set a date with.   I was kinda worried because I knew we need to set the example for the zone, and we were expected to set the example for the zone.  We didn't have much dendo (proselyting)time on Monday, we were on splits Tuesday, we had to do Kaicho`s (Mission President) interviews on Friday, and we still don't have Elder Sasaki`s bike so we have to walk everywhere... which didn't leave us with much time left.   We fasted and prayed that God could prepare the way that we could find a new investigator prepared to progress towards baptism this week.   On Wednesday after we got home from Miyakonojo Jukai, we received a call about a man who said he has `worries` in his life and wanted to meet the missionaries.   He told us he is having financial problems and has no money but has a 3 month old baby and a wife he needs to care for.   He told us he wants to know how to receive help from God in situations where he can't do it himself.   We were able to meet him a few times last week and he expressed his desire to know if this church is true and we set a date for May 25th for him to work towards to be baptized.

Miracle 4-  This next one there is so much to tell.  A few weeks ago a crazy lady kissed Elder Mukaitani and my hand on the street.   Do you remember that?   Well we saw her walking so we decided to help her carry her groceries home.  She invited us in and talked about her grandson who passed away recently and she didn't understand why because he was so young.   We taught her about how she will see him again one day and she was way happy.   We taught her how to pray and (haha) when we prayed at the end it was pretty hilarious.  We taught her everything,   She was way excited, Elder Sasaki said a prayer and then she just didn't move and kept her eyes closed and arms folded (she is 80 years old by the way).   Elder Sasaki was like umm maam, uda san, maam we finished the prayer.   Uda san we finished. and she didn't move.   So then I yelled AMEN! and she looks up, oh! its over?   Okay! haha   It was way funny.   Saturday we met her again and when we prayed, it was just as good as the first one. haha  Sasaki was saying the prayer again and  in the middle of the prayer out of no where Uda san (the wife) just yells AMEN! haha   I think she tried to anticipate this one and missed it a bit, and then after the prayer actually finished, her husband did the same thing as she had done before and didn't move and so the wife punched him and was like hey its over! and he was just like oh oh!   I must have fallen asleep! Sunday we met with them after church and as we were teaching the restoration and we were like `God and Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith, we know of its truth...` and taught about that and then about 4 minutes later Uda san (the way funny wife) looks at the picture of the Restoration that we already explained and was like wow! This is Joseph Smith!?   He is so young! and who is that above him?  Is that some married couple? haha Never mind the beard and long hair they have, not to mention we had JUST explained it was God and Jesus Christ, but apparently they look like a married couple haha.   After she said that her husband punched her and was like are you baka??   That's Christ and God!   They are wayyy funny and so cute.   They really want to know if it is true as well.   They told us they have never heard of something like this before and want to know if it is true and we were able to set a baptismal goal with both of them as well for May 25th.   Oh and also when she prayed at the end she was way excited to pray and then just straight up read the pamphlet hahah `Address Heavenly Father... Express thanks...` I felt bad, I broke a little laugh in the middle of her prayer. haha   Luckily she can't hear anything unless you are basically yelling at them.   They love Elder Sasaki and I a lot and asked us to visit them everyday.   Daily contact will not be a problem,   However each lesson we have with them, the wife smokes at least 4 cigarettes which is quite the problem, which she even expressed concern about for her baptism but it is an obstacle she says she wants to overcome.

Miracle 5 - The zone challenge this week in our `Believing is Seeing Program` was to work on Hope and Humility as well as invite as many people to sacrament as possible.   As a result we were able to see many miracles this week and the number of investigators at sacrament meetings in the zone this week was almost double the average of the last few weeks.   It seems whatever challenge we have for that week the key indicator related for that challenge, always has a lot of success, so obviously that success is possible.  I just want to know how we can be having that success in every key indicator every week, and not just the one we are focusing on for that week.   Everyone is working very hard and want to see success,   We will prayerfully seek and study how we can best be having that success in every area every week.

Miracle 6-  I love the Easter thing (I sent him a Easter package that has scriptures and stories relating to the last week of Christ's life) and being able to read about what Christ did and more about him everyday until his resurrection.   It was way cool and I learned a lot so thanks mom. 

We have a 40 day program I have done before in the mission life.   Basically you look at things that are keeping you from having the spirit with you all day long, you fast for 24 hours to know what things you need to stop in order to have the spirit more with you, then for 40 days you don't do those things.   The result is you will have more success as a missionary, be better able to testify with more conviction, and be better led by the spirit and such.   These 40 day fast things do wonders aye!?

Yesterday was Easter and Christ was resurrected for all of us, our families, our happiness, our successes, our pains... I have become so lost in the work and life is just so good.   There were a lot more miracles this week too but this letter is too long. but once again I was reminded about how anything is possible and this really is the Lords work.   As we stay close to him we actually do HIS work.   I am so blessed everyday and all I can say is old grandmas are the best.

Elder Bloomfield

Elder Dolbin at Presidents Interviews in Fukuoka

Little Friend that came to the Easter Party at the Park.  They decorated Eater Eggs and had a Easter Egg Hunt.

Thought for the Week: