Monday, July 29, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Pictures!
Logan loves the Japanese people!
Logan and his buddy he played soccer with growing up. They are going to the same mission, same date!
The district!
He can pick him up??
Another week! Week 8!
wow, another week for real? this is just crazy how fast things are flying by at this point. the craziest part is that i got travel plans yesterday! this is real! i really am going to leave the mtc and go to japan! it is so exciting. Next monday, we will be leaving the mtc about 1 o clock to catch our flight at 4 that heads the LA! we then will leave that airport at 7 ish, and head to Japan! the weirdest part is that we will get there at 11pm....the next day! so we literally will like miss a day heading there! it is going to be so crazy! but i am so excited and i just know this is going to be a slow week because i won't be able to stop thinking about going! but it is so good and things are great!
ok so first thing is that..this week has been really really good! our district has really been awesome this week at focusing and working as hard as we can before the mtc is over and we are in Nihon! so that has been great! i felt like it has been a very successful week and i can only hope that this next week will be even better! to start the week i just kinda brought up to the district how we all are the most amazing missionaries and just kinda said that i know that if we use these last few weeks the best we can, the lord will help us and make sure we are as prepared(as we can be) and be where we need to be when we get to japan. so i really think that everyone kinda worked together and made sure that we were working our hardest! so it has been an amazing week!
so something that kinda stood out to me this week was well..there were a couple things i guess but one was we had a sub teacher, and me and my companion were supposed to teach our normal teacher, but since they were gone we got to teach this teacher named hugo sensei! his kudosha(investigator) name was tominaga san, and he was our first investigator! we taught him for a few weeks at the very start, so we were able to teach him again and kind of follow up and talk to him! it was such a neat experience, because at this point we could understand sooooo much more than we used to be able to, and it was so much fun, and so much more spiritual!! so we talked to him about how he was doing and he told us that he wanted to continue to improve, and what he needed to work on to get better and keep improving. I had the thought to ask how his book of mormon reading was going and he said that it was good, but he still had not really read very far into it. i asked him if he would be willing to try and read it all, and that he would receive so many blessings if he did, and would really gain a greater knowledge of the gospel. he said he would try, but asked how long it should be for him to read it. we challenged him to read it in a month from that day. he was shocked and told us we were crazy. we then told him that we would read the entire book with him, in one month, if he did too. he couldn't believe it, but he excepted the challenge! and said that he would do it! so now we will be following up via email in a month to see how the scripure reading went! im so excited! it was a very cool experience, and i really felt the spirit so strongly!
one more quick experience was this last tuesday. we always have a devotional at the marriot center and afterwords we come back and as a district have a really cool little review and talk about what we learned. they are always soooooo spiritual and seriously one of my favorite things we do here in the mtc. our district has such an amazing spirit, and the things that people say are so amazing and inspired! i feel like i always hear something that i need to hear and something that really helps my week. so when we did this this last sunday, it was seriously one of the best ones! we all just told like what we got out of it, and it was truly amazing. I can't even remember exactly what everyone said, but once we were done and everyone had gone, right before the prayer i just told everyone how much i appreciated their thoughts, and how much i have learned from everyone. i was so grateful for the spirit that they helped me feel, and it was really an amazing experiece! i am sooooo grateful for my district! they have made the mtc a great place for me.
so really there isn't much more to tell about this week, i only have one more week in here and then i am heading to japan! i love all of you so much! know that i pray for you every night, and that i know that this gospel is true! i love the work i am doing, and can not wait to be doing it in japan! love you all!
love,
Cottle choro
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Sunday, July 21, 2013
Week 7!!
Another week! Well, the crazy thing is that i only have 2 more p days in the mtc until i leave!! it is getting so exciting and i really cant wait! but..it is also getting pretty intense realizing that we leave so soon and although i have learned a lot of japanese...I am not fluent! so it is getting very real here...but its so fun and i can't wait. i guess we get our travel plans this week! this thursday i think..so that is going to be crazy! but so cool! so i will let everyone know next saturdaywhen i leave and where we go and stuff! exciting things here! So this week has been really great, people said that this week and last week were kinda like "hump" weeks to get past and that they were like the slowest weeks, and they weren't horrible! i could see how people thought they were the worst, at times they did seem to drag on but over all it was a pretty good week! i did kinda have an "incident" in the gym this week though that kind of upset me for a little bit..haha. it was just that moment where i was so sick of people ALWAYS telling me what to do and over such silly things. I was playing 4 square and this guy played a soft shot into my square so i kinda leaned forward and got it but sorta..rolled after? then the mtc people said i was gone if i did that again..it was quite funny. so i just went off in the gym and just kinda shot baskets by myself just kinda bugged that i was getting in trouble for something so childish! through out the rest of the day i was just kinda in a bad mood, really for no reason until i got to class and we started with a spiritual thought. I don't even remember what our teacher said, but suddenly i felt so much better and just realized that i was doing good and i should be grateful for everything i have and not be upset for something so silly..the rest of the night went great and i really learned that you know things are definitely not going to be how i want them to be all the time in the mission. but i just have to try and be as grateful as i can for everything, and everything will be great.
So one other thing that was really cool that we had happen to us was we had a skype session of TRC! so basically what happened was we got to do like a spiritual thought through a video skype on a computer to a nihongen!(japanese person) it was so cool! i was so nervous that it would be so hard and stuff but it went really well! our guy was from kobe, japan and he was such a nice guy! we talked to him about prayer and just how it was important and how it can bless our lives. he was a member, so he was really nice to us and would help us if our sentences were a little off. WHAT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE! it got me so excited to finally get to japan and be teaching like that all day everyday! it was scary at first, but once we were going it was so fun, and i just loved every second of it!
Really this week has been great though and i really have come to love the mtc. there are definitely some things that are getting old..the food..some people;) haha but i really do love it and i am realizing now that i am going to miss it! but i am so excited to leave, and it is just coming so fast i cant believe it. I love all of you so much and just know how much i appreciate you all! i will talk to you all soon...love you!!!!!
your elder,
Cottle Choro
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Week 6!
Dear loved ones!
Crazy to me that yet another p day has come and I am emailing again! can you believe that i have been here 6 weeks already and just about to start my 7th? haha it is beyond crazy to me to think that it has been this long already. But it is so good! It has been a really good week! I started this week off really setting some goals with the language, and our investigators and different things and i was really able to hit my goals. they talk alot about that here in the mtc..how goal making is so important in the mission and i can really see why now. it really forced me to reallly focus this week and make sure i was doing everything i could to learn what i need to learn to fulfil my purpose, which is to invite others to come unto christ, and to become the best missionary i can be.
Things are really good here though! i am now officially a veteran..and our group is now the oldest in the entire mtc, well on monday we are. it is so weird cause it seems like yesterday that i was the one who was all new and didn't know how to do everything here and people were always helping me out and now..im the one helping people out and telling them where stuff is..its crazy! it is crazy to me how fast time moves when you get so busy. we are just thrown straight into this work, and even though its hard, it is so much fun to watch yourself grow, and see the potential you really have as a missionary. I think back to where i was when i first got here, and where i am now spiritually, and with the gengo(language) and it literally is just amazing i can not believe the difference. the mtc truly is an amazing place.
So not a lot changed this last week..i have to apologize because the in the mtc you just don't have a lot of different things happen..it is VERY routine, and it is good! i love it here i really do, but just not a lot to send home every week! however this last sunday, after our devotional we were able to watch the joseph smith movie(the new one) in nihongo!(japanese) it was such a neat experience! i love that movie, and i was kinda nervous to watch it in japanese because i didn't think i would be able to understand, and i would be more frusturated than anything but that wasn't the case! it was so amazing to watch it in the language i would be teaching in! the spirit was so strong..and well you all know how good that movie is..but the best part was i actually could understand a lot of it! it made me feel so good about things and i really felt like the lord was showing me you know yes cottle choro you are getting this, and this is possible, and you are improving even when you might think that you are struggling. it was really a great way to start this week off and i was so grateful for that. the other thing that stood out to me was yesterday we did a ego daniji(english fast). and that was humbling. our teachers were saying that we should try to SYL(speak your language) more and someone offered the idea and we decided we would do it friday. that meant that we would not speak english, at all, alllll daayyyyy loonnnggg. i was nervous. but our teachers said that it was a good way to show your faith to the lord and show your dedication. so we woke up friday morningand it was 100% japanese all day. it was cool to see that there were definitely things that i can say in japanese that i usually say in english and it was good to see that i can definitely speak more than i think. however it also humbled me in a way of showing me that i have a long ways to go..and that i need to continue to try and work even harder than i am to try and get my japanese to where i want it to be when i leave for japan.
Well..i hope that everyone is doing good and that things are great at home! i am so blessed by the amazing support i have back home..its kind of unbelievable. i love you all so very very much! keep sending the love in dear elder form..:) i love hearing how you all are doing! i pray for you everynight and i know that this church is true! i am so grateful for this opportunity!
Talk to you soon!
With all my love,
Logan
Monday, July 8, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
He's been in a month! 5th email!
Dear Family!
I can not believe that this week was my month mark! It has literally flown by and it is crazy to believe that I am getting so close to hopping on a plane and flying to Japan! It is so close..and it is insane to think that I will be teaching real people in a month! But i am also so incredibly excited..i can not wait to be in the field and teaching the japanese people. this week we had some nihongen(japanese) choro to shimai tachi (elders and sisters) that come here to the mtc for two weeks and just learn simple gospel things and then fly back to japan for their mission. the choro tachi are just living two doors down from us and it is so fun to talk to them! we can communicate pretty well with the little japanese we know and the little english they know and i ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! they are the most kind fun loving people i have ever met..it has hit me this week as to why i have been called to teach these people. i geniunely love them and i haven't even been to japan yet! it is so fun to talk to them, and have them tell us our japanese is "good" haha even though we all just laugh because we know that its not true...they are just so nice to us! i just feel like i connect with them really well..and thats all i want to do!
So besides the amazing nihongen being here..sadly there is not much new that is happening to me recently..our district is doing amazing and we are growing closer every day! it has been great to just continue growing with them everyday and working together to get better at japanese. it is such a blessing to have a district! and a great one at that! they help so much..i don't know what i would do if i had a bad district..it would definitely be a struggle! I just want to make sure everyone who has written me and keeps writing me how much it means to me! i love the dear elders..and letters and different things that i keep getting from people! it is soooo nice and it helps so much. it always seems that i get something great from someone when i need it most...i guess just those tender mercies the lord provides when we are trying our best! I have a strong testimony in that! The lord knows us perfectly and knows exactly how far he can stretch us so that we grow the most we possibly can. I am so grateful and blessed to have this opportunity to serve..and know that it is EXACTLY where i need to be! I love you all so much and just know that every single one of you is in my prayers! Have a great week and i will talk to you soon! (hopefully hear from you sooner:)
Love you!
Love your choro,
Logan
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
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