Week 4 Livin On A Prayer- Oct 22,2015

Konnichiwa Minna-san!! Genki desu ka? I hope you liked my subject title because I'M HALFWAY DONE WITH THE MTC. Its gone so fast its kinda crazy but the individual days take so long. Some good stuff has happened this week so lets get started. First, I found out we can open our air vents and store drinks in there, since we dont have refrigerators.  All the air vents have been unscrewed in the past, so everyone just pops open their air vent and puts drinks or food inside. Yesterday we went on a hunt to find stuff. We found a Dr. Pepper, Aloe Drink (pomegranate flavor), and a game created by prior missionaries. The game is called Super Fight. In Super Fight, you draw a character card, a weapon card, and a power card. Then, you and your opponent argue about who would win in a fight, then everybody else judges. For example, last night I was Emperor Kuzco (as a llama), wqith a bow that shoots snakes, and the power to read minds. Howeverm every power card has a weakness and my weakness was that I cant see farther than 10 feet away. Its good fun. On a more important note, I have two baptismal commitments! Dennis, our English investigator, and Yoshida, our Japanese investigator. It's been a pleasure teaching them and I cant wait to teach them more.  Also, apparently they try to get an apostle speak once a month here, so we migtht have an apostle speak on sunday or tuesday. Either way, I'll send pictures when it happens. Japanese has been going good. I can now give a lesson without bringing my grammar and vocab books. I still need to use a dictionary however but what do you expect, Japanese is hard. Despite the difficulty of the language, I love learning Japanese. A few days ago, we had a member of the seventy speak to us. I would like to challenge all of you to ponder just how important Christ's atonemnt has been. That's been the topic of my studies for the past few days for my investigators. I want to say that the Atonement is the most important thing that has ever happened. Ponder it, pray about it, and appreciate it. It is the greatest gift mankind has ever received. We are all indebted to Christ, and in return all He asks is that we follow Him. That is a pretty sweet deal in my opinion. Well, this concludes my update. Its been great talking with you all, and as always- God be with you 'till we meet again.

Konnichiwa Minna-san!! Genki desu ka?

I hope you liked my subject title because I'M HALFWAY DONE WITH THE MTC. Its gone so fast its kinda crazy but the individual days take so long. Some good stuff has happened this week so lets get started.

First, I found out we can open our air vents and store drinks in there, since we dont have refrigerators.  All the air vents have been unscrewed in the past, so everyone just pops open their air vent and puts drinks or food inside. Yesterday we went on a hunt to find stuff. We found a Dr. Pepper, Aloe Drink (pomegranate flavor), and a game created by prior missionaries. The game is called Super Fight. In Super Fight, you draw a character card, a weapon card, and a power card. Then, you and your opponent argue about who would win in a fight, then everybody else judges. For example, last night I was Emperor Kuzco (as a llama), wqith a bow that shoots snakes, and the power to read minds. Howeverm every power card has a weakness and my weakness was that I cant see farther than 10 feet away. Its good fun.

On a more important note, I have two baptismal commitments! Dennis, our English investigator, and Yoshida, our Japanese investigator. It's been a pleasure teaching them and I cant wait to teach them more. 

Also, apparently they try to get an apostle speak once a month here, so we migtht have an apostle speak on sunday or tuesday. Either way, I'll send pictures when it happens.

Japanese has been going good. I can now give a lesson without bringing my grammar and vocab books. I still need to use a dictionary however but what do you expect, Japanese is hard.

Despite the difficulty of the language, I love learning Japanese. A few days ago, we had a member of the seventy speak to us. I would like to challenge all of you to ponder just how important Christ's atonemnt has been. That's been the topic of my studies for the past few days for my investigators. I want to say that the Atonement is the most important thing that has ever happened. Ponder it, pray about it, and appreciate it. It is the greatest gift mankind has ever received. We are all indebted to Christ, and in return all He asks is that we follow Him. That is a pretty sweet deal in my opinion.

Well, this concludes my update. Its been great talking with you all, and as always-

God be with you 'till we meet again.

Game they found in their air vent

Week 3- Oct. 15, 2015

Konnichiwa Minna-san!

Elder Moore reporting in from the MTC, just finished up 3 weeks. Only 6 more to go.

This week was pretty good. We did a ton of teaching, in english and in japanese. We lost a few investigators but not because we sucked. Our schedule just keeps getting messed up. 

However, this week was also a sad week. Our senpai left for their respective missions so now the dorm hall and the class building is sadly empty. Its really weird being the most experienced class in the zone. New japanese missionaries came yesterday but theyre not our kohai. They belong to the other zone but its still nice to see new senkyoushi.

Our english innestigator, Dennis, is no longer being taught by us. Its too bad because he was golden. Rasied catholic but had some concerns about the way they did stuff. We gave him the lessons on God, Jesus Christ, and the restoraation and BoM. He was so receptive. I'm confident we could have baptized him. 

My japanese is getting good. I no longer need to bring teaching rescources into lessons, and on monday nights we do TRC which is like family home evening but in your mission language. During the last trc, I didnt have to look in a book or dictionary once. I attribute this all to the spirit. Without it and the gift of tongues, this work would be impossible.

Any ways, lots of teaching, lots of studying. My life consists of books and characters i barely know how to read but I love it. I cant wait to actually get to Japan, and use what I'm learning. I am tired of the MTC food however. There are only a few food items I absolutely love. I eat a bagel and cream cheese avery day for breakfast. typing is really hard. Using japanese a lot more has been messing with my linguistics.

I got Grandmas Porter’s package. Tell her I said many thanks and I really enjoyed them. 

Thank you for tuning in to this weekly update.

This is Elder Moore, signing off. 

And of course, God be with you 'till we meet again.

Elder Moore and his companion posing as Samuel H. Smith

District temple walk

Ugly Tie Friday

Elder Miller and Elder Moore. Elder Miller was in our stake and went to the same high school. This was his last night before heading to Tokyo.

"The hardest book I've ever read"

MTC Zone

Pictures

We got some pictures e-mailed to us today. We also set up iCloud sharing so if you have an Apple ID and want to be added to the group to see pictures Brett adds, send me your ID and I'll send you an invitation.

MTC District

MTC District

     

Him and his companion

Week 2- Oct. 8, 2015

Konnichiwa Minna San!!

Just finished up the second of my nine weeks at the MTC. Lots has happened so I'll try to recap.

We got our teaching ipads, so please send me pictures of yourself and family so I can show people I actually have friends. Also on a more important note, General conference was this weekend. Watching General Conference here in the MTC certainly is a new experience. They pack all the missionaries in the gymnasium and we watch every session of conference. During one of the sunday sessions when Thomas S. Monson was starting to lean heavily on the pulpit you could literally feel the tension as the missionaries started to silently pray for our beloved prophet. Over 2000 missionaries were on the edge of their seats.

My companion and I also started to teach more investigators. We currently have 3 progressing investigators, two of which are in japanese. We taught our English investigator, Dennis, yesterday and he was really receptive. Born and raised Catholic but living in Utah. He is a really nice guy and I cant wait to teach him more. Today, we are teaching one of Japanese investigators, Yoshida-san. He has lots of questions about God and christianity. Teaching is going so well. My japanese has increased ten-fold, but my english is starting to decline. I keep wanting to use Japanese words in everyday conversation and accidently said a few during my English lesson (woops). 

Our Senpai are leaving this week. They have been great mentors and I'm sad to see them go. Whats really weird is I hosted the new missionaries yesterday. I'm considered experienced. A funny story happened last night though. I met this new English missionary who said he was from Vegas. I asked him where and he said around Craig and Durango. Turns out, we were in the same stake, same high school, and almost the same seminary class. He's in my dorm building only down the hall.

Well the MTC has been pretty great. The food isnt as great as advertised but there are some occasions where they get it right. For example, their tortellini is phenominal. I'm having a great time but I honestly cant wait until I get to leave and head to my mission. 

Thank you for listening minna-san, I'll tune in next week. Please remember to send me pictures and email me. I love getting mail.

Jaa nee. and God be with you till we meet again. 

Week 1- Oct 1, 2015

Hey sorry it took so long. A lot of my summary is in the main mission email but I'll give you the run down. My days consist of studying and praying for any guidance we can receive while teaching our investigator. My comp. got here the same day I did and is a pretty cool guy but he knows absolutely no Japanese so teaching is a bit hard but we've been doing good. Unfortunately I don’t get to go to Conference but it gets streamed to us. Apparently its a pretty big deal here. The language is going fine, certainly a lot of speaking but its been fun. I actually do have a list of stuff I'd like. Thank for your last package by the way I loved it.

I need my red lightsaber chopsticks, a few ugly ties (like one or two nasty colors and paisley, we have a tradition here called a tie draft. You insert your name tag in a box and lay a tie on the ground. Everyone does this and you’re supposed to put in your ugliest ties. As your name is chosen, you pick a new ugly tie and where it the next day. Its pretty fun) and some vitamins (sickness is rampant here and it hasn’t reached me yet).

Thank you guys for the letters! Keep them coming, we check the mail everyday! I cant send pictures yet. I apparently need a special cord from the MTC shop. But tomorrow i get my ipad so I'll start using pictures from that.

With love,

Elder Moore