Pictures from the Park with Matsumoto

April 18th, 2016

Ohayoooo San! 

That's Kansai Ben. The way people say good morning in Osaka.

This week was sloooow.  We lost about everyone again except for our Korean Kim, and our Nigerian Adebayo.

I'll start with Adebayo.  He came to church again this week where the talks were given by couple missionaries who had just finished working in the Tokyo temple.  I had fun translating about sealings, endowment, and other temple related things...translating is so hard.  He got it all though and really surprised us when he asked, "So, can my wife and I go there and be married forever again?"  YOU BET we told him.  After that we taught him the plan of salvation which he loved.  He said right then and there the rest of his family needs to hear this message.  It's difficult finding time since he works from eight to eight six days a week, and she works from ten to ten on Sunday's...but we will work with them.  We committed him it be baptized by someone with the priesthood and he said yes.  After the lesson we walked downstairs for priesthood and he looked at us and said, "Next month I will go see my son at his school in Texas. The first thing I will do is take him to the nearest Latter Day Saint church there and convert him too."  We were beyond blown away.  When each day is filled with people telling you how much they do not like Christ or Christians, or cowering away at the mention of his name, or not even knowing who he is, it is so nice to know a man like Adebayo. He is an open, enormous, gentle giant with equally giant faith.  Please pray for him.  He picks up spoken language very well, but does not read so well, and there is no Book of Mormon translation in his native tongue.

The week was filled with finding. We walked hundreds of miles it feels like and talked to hundreds of people. It was a dry one. The last ten minutes on Saturday night we finally met one college kid with interest in the gospel.  Hopefully we can meet with him soon.

 

The pictures are from a huge public garden we went to with a man named Matsumoto Teruo.  He is really kind and has a little interest in religion so we gave him a Book of Mormon, but he doesn't seem to want to learn all that much.  Anyway, he offered to take us out to this place on p-day, today, and it was wonderful.  Sooo beautiful.  I had forgotten what peace is really like.  Here there are buildings, trains, sirens, and people constantly pressing around you.  It was almost too quiet out there.  I'll be a mess at home when all is quiet.,,if that day ever comes.  I hope it doesn't.

We also had interviews last week. It was great to see the Nagano's as always.  They are simply wonderful people and they always give me such good council. Sister Nagano is just like a mom to me.  It's strange but I actually feel like mom is around when I am with her.  It's very nice and we talk so well.  President Nagano is simply an inspired genius.

I forgot that we did a music night activity.  I sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in archaic Japanese.  I'm pretty sure no one understood it at all, I certainly didn't.  But it was fun and Banks Choro accompanied on the ukulele.  I had a balloon guitar in my hands to look the part.  I'll send pics.

Short one this week! Got stuff to do. All is well here and the earthquake you probably heard about was six hundred miles away down in Fukuoka. 

Oh dad I forgot, I met one of your doki (fellow elder from Sapporo days) from Sapporo!  His name is Takahashi Kyodai and he lives in neighboring Urawa ward! Nice guy. He made a post on the Facebook page for your group. I'll send a pick.

Love you all. Please keep praying for Japan. It is a very spiritually impoverished country but that's why we are here. Also talk to your bishop about what they do to help encourage missionary work. We need ideas here.

Love,

Viehweg Choro    Photo below is with Dad's fellow missionary from Sapporo, Kenji Takahashi

Nihon Sacred Grove

Bridge over rice paddies

Talent show

Tea Time

Wipeout Park

Wipeout Park

Teruo Matsumoto 

April 11th, 2016

Hey everyone,

I am very reflective right now. I think it is due to the fact that one year has passed since I left on my mission. I did not think so much experience and change could be packed into one year. Another reason I have such strong cause to think stems from seeing the last two sessions of conference this past Saturday.  What a powerful thing conference is.  And what a wampaku (rebellious--unruly) little brat I was for not appreciating it more when I was home.  Oh well, focus on the future.

I was touched by one of my favorite men in the world, President Uchtdorf both times he spoke and of course the last speaker, Elder Holland, really left me with some strong impressions.  As I look back on the year I have had in the service of the lord I am amazed at how this work has changed ME.  Many of you do not know the extent to which my soul was hurt and bruised before I left.  To put things bluntly, hope in my own future was left wanting, and true happiness and joy was almost unknown to me. I left for Japan with doubts, fears, and worries of all kinds one year ago.  The difference in who I was then, and who I was watching conference three days ago was astounding to me.  The only way changes like that could come upon a human being is if there was some Divine intervention by powers not understood or comprehendible to human minds. The miracle of the atonement and all it can do for a person has truly been revealed to me while out here.

As I sat and heard Elder Holland talk about the greatest commandment of all time, and then the greatest TRUTH of all time, I was reminded of a song you all know.  Leading up to conference the song 'Amazing Grace' was brought to the forefront of my mind time and again.  As I listened to Elder Holland I began to understand why. 

Amazing grace - grace of God, of Christ, the love with which they lift us higher.. 

How sweet the sound - sound of the gospel that sweetly and soothingly heals broken pieces of hearts and souls...

That saved a wretch like me - I TRULY was a wretch for much of my life. Unhappy with myself and In a constant state of despair and anxiety about the future, but how thankful I am that even someone as wretched as me can be lifted higher and healed by the grace and love of God and his son...

I once was lost - in every sense of the word lost from truths I had not seemed to grasp the importance of, lost in my desires, my relationships, my emotions and thoughts, devoid of things like confidence and self respect

But now am found - knowing who I am and what I am doing, the person who GOD wants me to be is slowly being found, joy is being found, love is being discovered, hope is flowing into my life from all directions...

Was blind but now I see - could not comprehend a world outside of the one I was stuck in, unwilling and devoid of desire to discover a world better than the one I was used to, but having reached out for the grace that is so sweet to the wounded soul and the sorrowing mind, I have felt, accepted, and now see the world through the eyes of the Savior.  One filled with hope and love and peace in all times that come with a fallen and imperfect world.

My heart, with all of its scars, calluses, bruises, and open wounds has been plunged into the sweet healing balm of Gilead that is the gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ and love and grace which accompany them. The simplest way I can put is that I have been healed, and I continue to heal day by day.  As I sought to find love for people I can't understand, and serve the way God would have me, and ever so slowly began to align my will with His, a transformation has taken place in me that I cannot seem to explain.  The gospel is true.  It has changed me forever, and it can change anyone willing to experiment on the word.  I can't tell you why but I felt like sharing that with all of you today.

This week we had some wonderful opportunities laid in front of us by the Lord.  We met three new investigators. One is from Nigeria, one is from Niger, and one is Japanese. 

Tuesday we found out the college kid we invited to be baptized did not want to learn anymore and decided to bike off to a far place we hadn't worked in yet.  While there we ran into a man named Isaac.  He is twenty two, Christian, and at the mention of prophets immediately became interested. He is very devout in his current faith, but is more than willing to read the Book of Mormon and meet with us. A very kind, special man.  He speaks Japanese best so we still teach him in Nihongo, but he is from Niger.

Thursday it rained so we went through the six hundred names we have in our phone to whittle them down. We got to a man named Adebayo.  He is from Nigeria and invited us over to see him and his family that same day.  He met missionaries a while ago, but got lost in transfers and accepted our invitation about coming to church and reading about the restoration.  He called his family into the living room to pray with us before leaving.  Sunday he came to church.  He got lost on his way so we missed sacrament meeting while finding him, but we met and were able to teach him about the restoration during sacrament.  He was very appreciative and said that of all churches he has been to he has never had people sit down with him and teach like we did. He also said he feels a lot like Joseph and lacking all kinds of knowledge.  Golden.  We will meet him next Sunday to and invite the whole family to learn.

Friday Elder Harrison woke up and couldn't see.  I guess some scar tissue in his eyes got irritated.  We went to the hospital again and I got to learn all kinds of new vocabulary for the ophthalmologist, hahaha.  I know Japanese health care too well...  He is on the mend but our day was shot with helping him out since he literally was blind for two days.  That makes visit number five for me to the hospital in the last two and a half transfers.  We had ten minutes so we said a prayer and walked to a seven eleven store.  On the way we stopped a kid who's mother is Protestant who also perked right up at the mention of prophets.  We will meet him and Isaac tomorrow to teach more.

Also our Korean investigator Kim is progressing slowly.  Slowly because his work is nuts, but he keeps all commitments in between visits and is acting as much as he needs to in order to receive a confirmation.  Pray for him!

That's all, everyone is healthy now so hopefully it stays that way.  Love you all, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for my mission. I don't want to come back.

Elder Viehweg

Napping with notebooks

With Banks and Gator

Adebayo and his daughter

April 4th, 2016 Cherry Blossoms

Goodness another week gone.  Hey everyone!

Spring is officially here and that means the Sakura (cherry blossoms) are in full bloom. I have never seen such beautiful blossoms in all my life. The trees look like they are covered in snow at night as we bike home to the apartment. It is actually gorgeous and I tried to capture some of the views in pictures I will send.

In other news I saw the general priesthood meeting and both Saturday sessions of conference on Sunday.  We were able to watch them live somehow?  I'm not sure how the physics works but it happened. Aside from president Uchtdorf, since he is my favorite, we decided to watch them all in Japanese. I think i understood about seventy five percent of what was being translated. Since we will read all of the talks in a week or so anyway, we decided to challenge ourselves. It was pretty tough on the brain. We arrived at the church at seven in time to help set up and do our Chosei with the shunin (meet with the zone leaders), and didn't end up leaving the church until seven forty five that night. We had all three sessions, contacting, reporting, member talk, stats, and letters to the mission president to get through. I have come to not enjoy Sunday's as much, hahaha.  All I do is collect numbers and reports and send them off to the zone leaders!  Of course I still love Sunday's, but there are so many other things we could be doing with our time...can't be helped. I've got a sweet spot in my heart for the topic of charity and for president Uchtdorf, so of course the priesthood talk he gave was perfect. We will see the other sessions of conference next Saturday.  By the end of the day I could no longer think in English.  My companion kept asking me the meaning of kanji he was studying while I did reports, and all I could say was the Japanese words.  Shannon said my spelling was atrocious so sorry if I don't make sense sometimes, haha.

This past week was okay. We had a few lessons with a young college student named Nobuyuki which went really well. He loves learning about religion and came prepared with questions about the law of chastity, tithing, family, Joseph Smith and his forty wives (took some work to correct that one) and other things. We were able to set up expectations to meet regularly with him and set a next appointment before running out of time. He still wanted to talk but we had taken an hour already so he asked if he could follow us while we dendoud (proselyted). We said sure!  If anything he would be able to see we aren't just young college aged kids ready to party in Japan, which is what most people think of us, and the reason young people sometimes agree to meet with us. He was surprised but in a good way.  The next lesson we taught the restoration. First we answered questions about the garment (no idea where he is getting this information).  He understood well and accepted the challenge to read and pray daily as well as read the testimony of Joseph Smith pamphlet. He also said he would be baptized if he felt the spirit. Unfortunately we have not been able to contact him since. Hopefully someone else finds him in the future.

Last Friday was a very special experience. We had been working on a less-active list the ward gave us about three hundred names long and hadn't had any success. There were a lot of "don't come backs" and instances where people had moved. One day we rode from one end of the area to the other to look for a house that no longer existed (the address situation in Japan is a disaster) and then biked over to an Eki we hadn't worked at before right next to lake town mall (the biggest in the world). It took forever and once there we just had a bunch of college kids make fun of us and mock us. We decided to call it quits and were walking away with our bikes when we called out to one young man walking toward us. He had just graduated high school and when we said who we were and what we do he told us to wait a minute and then proceeded to put up his bike so he could talk with us more.  We sat down on a bench and went through a pamphlet that talks about who we are and what we do on our iPads and discussed all the things we are trying to do as missionaries. After that we went through a "Who is God" pamphlet.  He said he didn't believe in God, but that he prayed everyday for someone to help him.  His family is not so great so the plan of salvation really gave him hope.  We set up a next appointment and got his contact info before leaving him with a Book of Mormon to read until we meet again. We have not been able to contact him either, but at least someone will in the future and he will be that much more prepared.

I can't think of a whole lot else that really happened this week. Elder Banks had to spend a lot of money at hospitals that hasn't been reimbursed to him yet so I had to basically be his mom for a few days.  That was funny.  I also got the "transfer district leader" training for the third time.  I guess that's it for news...  We work hard and we do all kinds of things, but the ones of note are written already. 

I saw Shayla on the screen singing with the choir during Saturday's session. I stood up in the middle of the sessions and pointed her out telling everyone she was my cousin, hahaha.  The members giggled at that. 

Thank you for all of the emails. The new baby is adorable and precious as ever. Pray for the district, one person is really struggling right now and needs lots of love. Pray for Japan. Find opportunities to go do some missionary work. All the stuff you already know much better than I.

Love you all!

Elder Viehweg

March 28th, 2016

Another week gone by...too fast-- Hello everyone,

We had a much better week here in Koshigaya. I think getting rid of and dropping more people who aren't ready to progress made room for  some very sweet blessings from the Lord. It sucks dropping people, and I honestly feel like my mission has consisted of finding people, and then dropping them. I don't like it one bit, but we always seem to end up hitting walls with people. The hardest was Fujieda. He's a super nice college kid my age, and is so polite he keeps some commitments, but has no desire to change. He has a testimony, but is too scared to act so he comes up with excuses not to act.  Anyway we dropped him and several others.

We were blessed for our actions on Tuesday last week. We found one young man job-searching who met missionaries before studying in America for a year who agreed to meet with us again. His name is Ryouta. We then found an old man named Saito who wanted to learn more, and then that afternoon we ran into one very special young man. Most teenagers here are wampaku (rebellious--wild) just like all teenagers everywhere, but this kid was very different. His name is Ikeda San and one of the first things we got out of him was that he believed in Christ. He went to a Christian kindergarten and elementary school and would attend church on days he didn't need to because he liked it so much. We asked if we could talk more and teach him and he pointed to McDonald's and said, "How about now?"  We were so pumped!  We went there and went through a new pamphlet on our iPads that explains all we do as missionaries, and he accepted all of it.  There is a section that talks about how missionaries are regular people with weaknesses, which he liked, and he shared some weaknesses from his own life.  We were able to teach from the Book of Mormon, give it to him, commit him to reading it, and set a next appointment. Such a special kid.  Only sixteen years old.

The next time we met him we went to a nearby park and taught the restoration.  We didn't teach very well, but he seemed to understand really well what we were saying.  He said he didn't need to pray about it because he didn't think we would lie to him hahaha, but we had him pray right then and there after explaining the purpose and doctrine behind it.  He said he felt like he was being moved by something he couldn't see or feel while praying.  We then committed him to being baptizing as he came to know the truth and he accepted.  We set the next appointment and said goodbye till Tuesday.  He needs prayers from all of you.

Thursday we had a lesson with Shouda and actually had Nagano Shimai, the mission mom, attend the lesson with us. Let me tell you THAT was humbling.  She came in and within five minutes exposed several issues that we hadn't seen or been aware of with Shouda's desire and testimony.  She took over almost the whole lesson and we were just fine to let her.  What an incredibly powerful woman.  I feel so blessed to have the mission presidency I do.  Shouda was pushed very hard by her, but he needs it. He got accepted to go do volunteer work for ten months in Thailand teaching Japanese so he will be leaving the country soon anyway.  We aren't afraid of pushing him and he needs it to grow.  Too many eternal investigators are kept in the same spot because missionaries are afraid of pushing them a little.

Unfortunately we are back in the hospital today.  Banks Choro has had a really bad ingrown hair or something for three days and it is enormous. Disgusting really...  I'd send a picture, but I don't want you to have nightmares.  We think it is actually staff because there are some other small bumps rising up on his skin.  I'm sick of hospitals... and Japanese hospitals a sketchy.  The equipment is so outdated and I guess Monday is a day off for hospitals here..so we couldn't find one that would take him.  And it wasn't even an emergency!  Pray for him!  Luckily we still have a great time together and I am so blessed to have him as a companion!

Love you all and hope you have a great week. Please please pray for the district.  We meet with people and find new people, but we can't seem to find people ready and willing to be baptized.  We need your prayers more than ever.  The youth both inside and outside of the church here are really struggling and it is sad to see.  But, having a blast!  Also! Good news!  I saw one of my kohai from the MTC the other day and he said I grew!!  That was the third person to tell me that, so it's confirmed--I'm getting bigger....

Elder Viehweg

Purifying Room

Local Temple

District Meeting

Crazy Elders

Local Temple

March 21st, 2016

Another week gone by...too fast-- Hello everyone,

We had a much better week here in Koshigaya. I think getting rid of and dropping more people who aren't ready to progress made room for  some very sweet blessings from the Lord. It sucks dropping people, and I honestly feel like my mission has consisted of finding people, and then dropping them. I don't like it one bit, but we always seem to end up hitting walls with people. The hardest was Fujieda. He's a super nice college kid my age, and is so polite he keeps some commitments, but has no desire to change. He has a testimony, but is too scared to act so he comes up with excuses not to act.  Anyway we dropped him and several others.

We were blessed for our actions on Tuesday last week. We found one young man job-searching who met missionaries before studying in America for a year who agreed to meet with us again. His name is Ryouta. We then found an old man named Saito who wanted to learn more, and then that afternoon we ran into one very special young man. Most teenagers here are wampaku (rebellious--wild) just like all teenagers everywhere, but this kid was very different. His name is Ikeda San and one of the first things we got out of him was that he believed in Christ. He went to a Christian kindergarten and elementary school and would attend church on days he didn't need to because he liked it so much. We asked if we could talk more and teach him and he pointed to McDonald's and said, "How about now?"  We were so pumped!  We went there and went through a new pamphlet on our iPads that explains all we do as missionaries, and he accepted all of it.  There is a section that talks about how missionaries are regular people with weaknesses, which he liked, and he shared some weaknesses from his own life.  We were able to teach from the Book of Mormon, give it to him, commit him to reading it, and set a next appointment. Such a special kid.  Only sixteen years old.

The next time we met him we went to a nearby park and taught the restoration.  We didn't teach very well, but he seemed to understand really well what we were saying.  He said he didn't need to pray about it because he didn't think we would lie to him hahaha, but we had him pray right then and there after explaining the purpose and doctrine behind it.  He said he felt like he was being moved by something he couldn't see or feel while praying.  We then committed him to being baptizing as he came to know the truth and he accepted.  We set the next appointment and said goodbye till Tuesday.  He needs prayers from all of you.

Thursday we had a lesson with Shouda and actually had Nagano Shimai, the mission mom, attend the lesson with us. Let me tell you THAT was humbling.  She came in and within five minutes exposed several issues that we hadn't seen or been aware of with Shouda's desire and testimony.  She took over almost the whole lesson and we were just fine to let her.  What an incredibly powerful woman.  I feel so blessed to have the mission presidency I do.  Shouda was pushed very hard by her, but he needs it. He got accepted to go do volunteer work for ten months in Thailand teaching Japanese so he will be leaving the country soon anyway.  We aren't afraid of pushing him and he needs it to grow.  Too many eternal investigators are kept in the same spot because missionaries are afraid of pushing them a little.

Unfortunately we are back in the hospital today.  Banks Choro has had a really bad ingrown hair or something for three days and it is enormous. Disgusting really...  I'd send a picture, but I don't want you to have nightmares.  We think it is actually staff because there are some other small bumps rising up on his skin.  I'm sick of hospitals... and Japanese hospitals a sketchy.  The equipment is so outdated and I guess Monday is a day off for hospitals here..so we couldn't find one that would take him.  And it wasn't even an emergency!  Pray for him!  Luckily we still have a great time together and I am so blessed to have him as a companion!

Love you all and hope you have a great week. Please please pray for the district.  We meet with people and find new people, but we can't seem to find people ready and willing to be baptized.  We need your prayers more than ever.  The youth both inside and outside of the church here are really struggling and it is sad to see.  But, having a blast!  Also! Good news!  I saw one of my kohai from the MTC the other day and he said I grew!!  That was the third person to tell me that, so it's confirmed--I'm getting bigger....

Elder Viehweg

March 14th, 2016

What's up minna!?

Dad I cannot believe Jordan is getting married either. He is one person that I could never see growing up, but alas it has happened. If he can, I suppose there is hope for me as well...  Hopefully, I'll learn something while out here. I'm kidding of course, I know that I have changed and grown in so many ways...  I wonder if any of you will even recognize me when you see me again, if that happens.

It's nice to know the inconsistent weather in Boise has not become inconsistent.  That always made for an interesting start to spring activities and sports. Things here are getting SO WET. My sheets are wet, my clothes that I hang out to dry for two days are wet, everything is wet, and it's not even the humid season yet. I'm not ready for the summer I experienced last year! That was soooo hot!  Anyway, it's been raining for about four or five days straight here.

Luckily I didn't have to make any phone calls to the mission office about elders in my district acting up this week, hahaha.  That was nice.  We actually had a little bit of a slow week this week. A lot of our investigators have decided that they do not want to act on what we say in order to get blessings, so we dropped all but one of them.  It was not fun and it was all too familiar from what happened in my last area, but we decided there was nothing else we could do for them.  You can't force someone to have desire or to have sincerity, all you can do is invite them to act.

We did have one good lesson with Shouda and Mei.  Shouda's was before ping pong and we taught along with a sweet old woman named Kawahara Shimai.  We taught about the restoration and it was really good.  Shouda understands very well and is open to learning.  He said he went to other Buddhist people to learn and was scared by them, but with us there is no fear.  He won't read on his own..but he will read if we send him something.  He does pray but cannot come to church because he teaches refugees on Sunday how to speak Japanese.  Hard to tell someone they have to quit that to obey God.  We are working on him though. 

Bible study with Mae and another person was hilarious. We taught about Job.  He did NOT like Job.  He said he was stupid and ignorant for not getting angry at God.  He was almost on the verge of tears when we said Job lost his family.  He was so angry at God, but we are not here to pat everyone on the back and say life will always be fine.  That's a lie.  Anyway, Mae knows the gospel is true, he is just proud and has built up his life from extreme poverty so he does not want to rely on anyone for anything, including God.  His kids are all wampaku (rebellious) and don't talk to him, and his wife is dying of breast cancer so this lesson hit him hard.  It's good for him though, he has gotten too comfortable in his setting.  We finally stopped torturing him and told the end of the story and he seemed to brighten up a little, hahaha.  It was interesting...  I've never seen a reaction quite like that before to a Bible story.

We also ran into an old lady who is less active.  She was sooo happy to see us.  Her kids are inactive, and her husband is in the hospital so she cannot come to church.  She was baptized about sixty years ago and has all these photos of momentous church history moments in Japan which she attended.  It was a great visit and a member was able to pick her up and bring her to church this past week.  So wonderful.  She is absolutely adorable and was running all over her house grabbing articles and journals to tell us her story.  Sweet member. 

That's all.  Shorter but there's other things that need to be done!  Love you all!

Elder Viehweg

Soccer Team

Silly Elders

Bowling with the zone