No long email this week, but he sent this little one and will have to do for now.

Here are some answers to your questions.

1.  Which letter? The one with all of your letters in it did come.  Thank you so much that was so sweet!

2.  We have 2 baptismal dates, and they are going ok.  We need a little more love with them..but we will see how it goes!

3.  I sleep like a rock!  It is getting a little more chilly at nights...but my blanket I brought with me is amazing and I sleep really good!

4.  I am transferring.  Matsudo Zone, Mito Area.  Wayy excited.

5.  Um..Now that I have transferred..I'm not sure the day..let me look it up..I can't get into the portal..I will have to let you know as soon as I can.  I would love it if you fasted with me!

6.  Yes I got your email.  Your parents are amazing.  I love them so much.  Could I get one of their emails so I could send them something?

7.  I teach Eikaiwa (English) every week!  EveryWednesday at 7.  It is so much fun to get to teach people English.  It is one of my favorite times in the week!

 

  I am so lucky to have so much love!  It really is unbelieveable..I'm so blessed.  That is incredible to hear about soccer, and trying out again for the BYU soccer team when I get back. I have actually been thinking about it alot and I think that I could get back and work really hard to get where I need to be to play..I would love to have that opportunity..I don't want to pass it up if I have the chance!  Might as well try right?

 

  We didn't feel the earthquake, not big enough I don't think cause we were pretty far away.  I love you mom:)  I will try to send more audio files i promise!

 

Know how much I love you!

 

Love,

Logan

Week 20!!!!

Dear family!

 

  Today has been a very crazy day!  I do not have a lot of time, I have written to most of the family already, so I just wanted to share about the week really quickly!

 

  This week has been really good!  It was pretty averagely good week, until we had zone conference this weekend and then it was amazing!  What a great weekend!  We had President and Sister B_____up here in Niigata and we had a whole weekend of being spiritually uplifted!  How amazing.  I love President and Sister B____so much.  They are such amazing people and such amazing examples to me.  I love up to them so much! 

 

  In the conference we were able to learn, and get some really good tools on how we can be ready to teach more effectively, and then we had some conference with the members and it was all about Members and Missionaries working together!  That is kind of the big theme now a days in missionary work right?  So we talked about how we can more effectively do that!  It was such a blessing to see our entire zone just really get fired up and get really excited!  They are all ready to go out and talk to their friends and neighbors about the church, invite them, and then introduce them to us!  I think we are about to see a wave of success in missionary work like never seen before.  I am so incredibly excited!

 

  I know that this church is true.  I feel it, and I know it more and more everyday. In the conference this last weekend, there was so much power there.  The spirit was so strong, and I couldn't stop thinking how amazing it is to be a part of something so amazing.  It is such a blessing that we have the gospel in our lives, living in Utah, most people I knew were mormon, and I never really spent time with non-members.  As I have been here in Japan, I get to see people who live really sad lives, but as they come to know Jesus Christ and begin living the gospel, their lives completely change.  That is a testimony builder right there.  You can literally see them change.  It is like nothing I have ever seen.  Amazing.  I am so blessed to be a missionary at a time when the work is being hastened.  We are no long planting seeds.  "The field is white all ready to harvest."  It is.  I think that we are about to see some incredible things, some incredible miracles, and I am so lucky to be a part.

 

  I love you all so much.  Know that I pray and think about you all daily.  I know this church is true!  I love being a missionary.  Everyone please have an amazing week, and I will talk to you all soon!

 

Love,

 

Elder Cottle

Just finished a long bike ride with his companion!

Beautiful!

Logan and his companion!

Second letter of week 19!

Dear Family!

 

  Another week has come and gone, and it really has been a special one!  So blessed to be out here on a mission.  Everyday I have a moment when I just stop and think, how am I so lucky?  I really have been so blessed to see so many miracles on my mission already, and I can't wait to see more.  It is crazy to me to think that I really am here serving in Japan.  There are so many things that are so overwhelming as a missionary, but there are so many more things that bring so much joy that the overwhelming times are not even a big deal.  I have definitely had hard times..but I forget those times when I get to feel the joy of someone coming closer to Jesus Christ.  It is the most incredible feeling ever.

 

  So this week was a great week of work, just a really good week to be a missionary!  One of the highlights of the week was going on exchanges with my old buddy Elder Hall.  It was so much fun to work with him again!  He was able to come back to Sanjo and we were able to see some people that he hasn't seen for a while like Brother Y___ and it was way fun!  Elder Hall is such an incredible missionary and such a good example to me..I really have learned so much from him and it's so fun when we get the chance to work together!  We really have become really close even from just one transfer being together!  Love Elder Hall, such a good friend!

 

  But, after exchanges we were able to have a party for my birthday!  It was actually really awesome.  Our recent convert Sister M_____ actually set it all up to happen after Eikaiwa, and so at around 8 we had a little party!  They were all so nice to set it up and have it for me!  Everyone pitched in and got me a really nice tie!  It's a slim tie, they know me;)haha but it was so great!  It was so incredible to me that they would have a party for me!  So much fun we had such a great time.  So it was the week of my birthday, and I was lucky enough to have the best birthday present ever and have General Conference on my birthday!  It was seriously so amazing!  Seriously, I have never been so spiritually uplifted as I was this weekend!  We got to go to Niigata to watch it, and so we hopped on a train in the morning to head to Niigata, and watched it from 12:00-6:00.  We had our recent convert Brother W_____ and our less active Brother Y____come and it was so fun to talk to them in between sessions.  We were upstairs watching it with all the missionaries in English..and they had it downstairs in Japanese.  They really thought that it was good and I just absolutely loved it.  Such an amazing conference wasn't it?  Just like President Monson said, one of the most amazing he has ever been to!  I would have to agree..way good!

 

  So as far as the first birthday in the mission field went..it was way good!  Seriously..I don't know how it could have gone any better!  It was so fun and everyone was so nice.  I was so blessed to have so many people show so much love to me!  The Japanese people are really so full of love..It amazes me everyday how blessed I am to get to serve such a loving people for to years.  Really how lucky am I?  I also have to say how lucky I am having such an amazing family for sending me an amazing package this week.  Seriously?  I am way to loved..way too lucky!  Thank you so much for all the love that I have received!  I can barely handle it.  Thank you.  It makes the work so much better when you know you have amazing people supporting you back home. 

 

  This week really was one of the best in the mission.  I am really growing everyday as a missionary, in the language, and just as a person in general.  That is one of the biggest things I pulled from General Conference.  There were so many things and there are so many ways that I can improve in.  I have all these goals I have set and all these things I want to do and become not only as a missionary but for my entire life.  It has really helped me realize the person I want to be.  I know that the most happiness we can ever feel in this life is following the teachings of our leaders and of Jesus Christ.  As we do these things, and implement them in our lives, we will be so much happier.  I know this.  I have seen it!  I am lucky to be on a mission so that I can really focus on these things for 2 years, strengthen them, and share them with these people!  It is great.  I hope that everyone loved conference, I know that I really did!

 

  Well I am so blessed.  Thank you all for everything!  You have made my last week a very good one and I loved it.   Thank you for all the support and love you send me every week, it inspires me!  I love you all with all of my heart, and I will talk to you soon! 

 

With all my love,

 

Elder Cottle

First letter of week 19!

Dear Mom and Family,

 

  I am going to be on later today..actually probably later tonight..which is like 3 or 4 in the morning in america..we have an ward, well actually a district because we aren't quite big enough to be a ward..but we have one of those today so we are moving our p day a little later...so i had a little time before my shower to hop on and read all your letters and they were amazing!  I have the most amazing family in the world! You all sent the nicest stuff to me and I am so grateful to have such an amazing support system behind me as I am here in Japan.  I have to be honest..I have not received the packages yet..However, they did come on Saturday!  But..I was inNiigata, for General Conference and did not see the slips until Sunday night.  So we called the number and I should be getting them sent to me today or tomorrow!  Thank you mom(and the family im sure) and Rachel for sending me packages!  I know that it is not easy from America to japan..so seriously thank you:)

 

  My birthday was amazing this week our recent convert Sister M____ threw  a party for me and so we did that this last..Wednesday?  Yeah and then all these people there, most non-members pitched in and bought me a skinny tie hahaha they know me and my style;)  I also got a square tie from Elder S___ my old companion, a cake from the sanjo sisters, an amazing back massage from another Elder, Elder C____, and an amazing day full of the spirit after General Conference.  It was amazing this year huh?  I could not believe how lucky I was to have General Conference on my birthday!

 

  Thank you all for everything.  Seriously I love you all so much and I could feel your love all the way from America.  I hope you all enjoyed Conference as much as I did.  I think, to be honest, that was the first time in my life I have ever watched every single speaker, and every single hour of conference.  It was amazing.

 

  This church is true!  I know it, and God knows it and he is allowing me to share it with people.  He most definitely could do it by himself..but he allows us to grow from it.  I will email a full email later tonight..but i wanted to give you all something before sunday was over for you, letting you know how much i loved you and how great of a birthday i had:)  I will talk to you all soon!

 

With all my love,

 

Elder Cottle

Logan's kite flying day!

  Ok so for pictures this week we really only have one event, but a few pictures of it!  So I thought I would just kind of explain what is happening here.  Basically, Japan has some amazing cultural things they do, and one of these is to fly massive japanese kites.  Y____兄弟, my favorite less active, does this as a hobby.  He is actually on a kite flying team haha.  Basically these teams do this once a year and its this huge deal, they get these kites up and then once they are all up you compete in trying to bring other teams kites down, it is chaos!  But anyways, we went to go watch him and we started talking to one of the guys on another team.  All of a sudden before we know it, we are getting our fingers taped and getting ready to go fly their kite with them on their team!  They show me where to hold the rope and it is kind of hard to get these kites up at first because they are so massive, but they just tell me to grab it and run as fast as I can.  So, I do that and the kit shoots up into the sky!  Everyone is like screaming and then all of a sudden they are yelling at me in Japanese what I need to keep the kite doing.  I guess I was doing really good?...because as I'm flying this kite one of the guys takes off his "jersey" but it's just a classic japanese robe, and puts it on me!  All of a sudden I am on their team and doing all the flying and pulling!  It was amazing!  Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done.  The kite is really big so as the wind is pulling it, its hard work!  it is such a big kite that they don't have string, it is like legitimate rope!  But basically I was able to get the kite doing what they wanted, and the rest of the day everyone there kept telling me "good fight" haha.  An amazing experience!  So that is kind of what these pictures explain!

 

Week 18 with pics!!

How's my family doing?!

 

  Things in the country of Japan have been quite good this week.  Hahathings really have been great, we have been having a lot of fun and doing a lot of teaching!  Which is what we like!  This week as far as missionary work is concerned, was a week that we really needed!  We were really able to get back to where we wanted to be, and get back to teaching and progressing the people we want to progress!  Last week was a hard week, and we kind of had a hard time keeping our appointments..but this week was much better!  We were able to hit the Standards..for the most part.  There were a few things that we just barely missed...but we have a really good plan to hit them this coming week!

 

  This week I was able to get a little package from home...(thank you mom and whoever helped I love you)  and it was awesome!  It was so great to have a little bit of American food!  We have already eaten the oreos..and one of the mac n cheese's, but today we are going to get the other ingredients for the other stuff so we are excited to have that stuff for this next week!  I am so lucky to have such an amazing family that takes such good care of me, even when I'm thousands of miles away.  Thank you!

 

  The companionship has been great, and the missionary life has been great as well this week!  I really love my companion he is the man.  I am so lucky to have such an amazing trainer!  He has helped me improve so much already, and is really good at helping me learn Japanese.  I have really seen a jump in the last week in my competence!  Which is really exciting!  That is really the only thing I am ever stressed about.  I mean, I do stress about our investigators obviously, but I always feel that I could help our investigators so much more if I could just talk to them like I could in English, and just really have like those good heart to heart talks sometimes ya know?  So, I am really working on just having that patience that learning a language takes time, and just working my absolute hardest to learn the things I need to learn to be able to talk to people effectively.  That is actually one of the goals I have for this transfer is that by the end of it, I would be ready to train.  We will have another 35 missionaries coming into the Tokyo mission..and not very many missionaries over transfer 3...there really is a good chance that I am going to be training soon...and I want to make sure that I am doing everything I can to be ready in case I do end up training!  Pretty intense..but exciting stuff!

 

  I want to say thank you to everyone who has been writing me emails!  I seriously love them so much..I love hearing from everyone specifically, so keep that up!  I love hearing how you are doing, even the little things!  Thank you so much for all the love you send.  I really am so blessed to have such an amazing support system.

 

  I know this church is true!  I love this work.  I love the savior and all that he has done for me in my life.  I feel him strengthen me everyday when I might feel like I don't know if I can do it.  There really is power in being a missionary.  I am so blessed for this opportunity to serve the people of Japan.  There is no where else in the world I would rather be right now.  I know that the Lord has placed prepared people in our path, and that we are being given the opportunity to help with this great work.  Thank you all so much for your love and support!  I love each and everyone of you so much, and pray for you daily! 

 

  Everyone have an amazing week and I will talk to you soon!

 

All my love!

 

Elder Cottle

 

Flying huge Japanese kites!

Logan was so good they put a robe on him. :)

Look how huge these kites are!! He had to tape his fingers to hold the ropes if the kite.