January 4th, 2015

Hey family,

Sorry I sent a pretty lame email last week. We were super busy and had

all kinds of appointments and things we needed to get done over here

in the promised land of Koshigaya.

I thank you dearly for all of the presents, letters, and love you

sent to me this Christmas. I felt the support and love from all of you

and want you to know how grateful I am to know and come from such

great people. All the gifts fit wonderfully and keep me very warm.

Sisters, those ridiculously big poofy socks you sent are the best

things ever. There is no carpet in Tokyo so the floor gets very cold

sometimes.

I have so much that happened over the last two weeks, but I'm just

going to highlight a few of the good ones in no particular order soooo

sorry, but not sorry.

I think the first thing want to talk about is my Christmas experience.

First off it was great to talk to all of you that were there via

Skype. I'm sorry it was a pain to get ahold of you. To be honest, I

was extremely nervous about it. Almost to the point of getting sick

right before hand hahaha I really didn't want to call, but I knew I

needed to. I'm sorry if I was awkward or quiet—I simply had no idea

what to say. Dad said I seemed happy and I suppose that is what I want

you all to know. I have never been this consistently happy in all my

life. There are difficult times but the pure joy that accompanies the

work of salvation is without compare in this life. So please rest easy

even if I seem weird and do not want to talk hahaha.

Firstly, I want to talk about our experience Christmas Eve. We finished

all of our calls and reports early to set aside a good half hour to

devote solely to the birth of the Savior. We started off by singing

Silent Night and as soon as the words left our lips the most pure

tender presence of the spirit settled over our apartment. We had

received a tree from Burch Choro’s mom and lit it up with our space

heater that gave the room a very quiet, reverent feeling. From there we

opened the scriptures and read from Luke. As we sat there reading

about the one reason we all chose to come to Japan the spirit touched

each and every one of our hearts together. The best way I can describe

is is by quoting the scripture from the Book of Mormon about having

“one faith and one baptism…with hearts knit together in unity and

love one towards another.”  It truly was as if the spirit of God was

uniting our hearts and speaking and moving through each of us together

in that dimly lit apartment. After reading the story of Christ’s birth

we each bore our own personal testimony of the Savior to each other. I

don't want to describe what happened next because I believe it was

beyond sacred, but I felt something I don't think I could describe

even if I tried. Suffice it to say that I know perfectly why I am

here, and I know the love that God the Father and the Savior have for the

Japanese people. Everyone said that you find out the true sanctity

behind Christmas as a missionary. That proved to be more than true for me.

Christmas missionary work was an absolute blast and we were able to

have some wonderful contacts with people. Unfortunately no one became

new investigators, but what happened the day after Christmas made up

for all of that.

Before I came to this area, the ward made a goal to have a baptism the day after

Christmas. One day Hughes and Burch Choro prayed that someone would

come to the church who desired to be baptized, and the next day a part

member family’s husband came walking into the church saying he was

ready to be with his family forever. The sisters took over teaching

him and Christmas week we still weren't sure if he was ready or not.

The zone leaders came and did an interview and okay’d the baptism. So

we set the day officially for the twenty sixth. The morning of the 26th, just

before the service, Hughes Choro called his family back in the States. He chose to have

only his mom, dad, and grandma Skype in and then invited our

investigator Mae sit in for a lesson with his family. It was amazing.

Mae speaks fluent English and he started right off saying how grateful

he was for the church and the missionaries. He testified his wife was

still alive because of the prayers of himself and the missionaries. From

here Hughes Choro’s family took over. He didn't even have to say

anything. His mother, father, and grandmother taught perfectly and far

better than any missionary I have worked with ever could. It was so

powerful. Right after that we all attended the baptism together and

got punched in the face by the spirit. Sakaniwa Kyodai, the man who

was baptized, gave the best recent convert testimony that Elder Hughes

said he has ever heard, and Mae loved it. After the meeting he said he

could not think of one reason not to join the church, except that his

family said they would disown him if he did anything beyond attend eikaiwa,

and game night with our church. He needs a lot of prayer but he is so very close to

baptism. I was also emailed by president Nagano saying that Yuta San back in Kamagaya was

close to baptism as well.

This week we had shogatsu (New Year Celebration) which is crazy here. Missionary work is not

very effective, but we managed to do a lot more than most other

companionships and stay busy which was a blessing from the Lord. Mae

also blessed us with one incredible experience. We gave him a lesson

about how similar jinjas, Shinto shrines, and Jewish temples were and

how God loves the Japanese people and has prepared them for the gospel

by showing them parts of truths over generations of time. The next day

we took a huge tour of Tokyo. Mae took us to Asakusa, Nishiarai, and

Meiji jingu and the empirical palace grounds. I was blown away. There

were tens of thousands of people there. It was just like something out

of the New Testament. A whole lot of people making sacred ground not

so sacred for reasons they cannot explain to you. Even the temple

priests can't tell you why they do the ordinances they do.  Dad can

explain these things but so much is similar to the gospel it is way

cool. I have pictures but not too much time to talk about all this. We

taught and viewed all day long and it was one of the coolest

experiences I have ever had. We went through about six different areas

and zones doing this, but we had special permission to do it. There is

so much more but I just don’t have time to talk about it.

We are all very sad to see Hughes Choro going home. I definitely want

more time to learn from him, but he's leaving all the same. That being

said, we had transfer calls today and I will be the district leader for

Koshigaya with Burch Choro as my companion. I have only been here two

and a half weeks so I still don't know much, but I'll manage.   God

qualifies all whom He calls so if you weren't qualified, he never would

have called you. I'm actually really excited. This area is great.

Also last night we had dinner with the Suzuki family. The father

served his mission in Pocatello way back so we had a great time with

them. I'll try to get all these pictures out..it may take a few weeks.

Dad, I'm sorry we didn't talk too much, maybe next time it will be

smoother and we can have some better time to talk. I was nervous

anyway and didn't speak all that well.

I love you all!!!  Aunt Launette thank you so very much for the email I love you.

Love,

Viehweg Choro

Tori Temple