Week 37! Rain, Snow, Sleet, Hail!

Dear みなさん！

I have to say that I really feel like this week went so soo fast what
do you all think?  This week, the weather was seriously so crazy.  We
had wind, snow, and crazy rainstorms all week!  But even though we had
unbelievable storms, we were still able to go out and find, teach, and
just mission work it up!  It really was way too fun of a week and it
definitely is just amazing here in Japan right now.  We really are
seeing the work being hastened right in front of our eyes it is
amazing!

 Ok so first, this weekend as a district leader I had the chance to
go on companion exchanges in Ushiku.  We had a District Meeting this
Friday, and I was able to give some trainings on Goals and how to
focus our efforts more on our investigators, and less focus on
ourselves, and how goals can really help us do that!  I really felt
like the training went good and that we were able to all come out of
it strengthened and ready to get out and work hard!  After that I just
stayed in Ushiku and had the chance to work with the Elders there,
while my companion and the other Mito Elders returned home.  We went
and taught some amazing people in an immigration center, and then were
able to go around and do some great finding activities.  I can't tell
you how much I learned from those two elders.  One of them, is a
transfer 15 and is about to go home.  The other, is one transfer below
me and they both have so much dendo fire!  I was so blessed to be able
to have worked with them and learned from them.  They really
strengthened my faith, and made me a better missionary!  Coming home
from that exchange the following morning though was intense.  The
train ride is normally 1 hour, but this time it was 3 1/2 because of
the rain and wind storm!  We finally make it back to Mito and as we
are riding our bikes home, there are parts in the streets where cars
are under water!  We took some pictures on Elder Nielson's camera,
however we don't really know how to get them to the ipads yet, so I
will work on that!  But we have some awesome pictures of our adventure
back home!

 So I am glad that you all liked the new way of sending a big email,
but then this week came and I got so busy so I only wrote two days!  I
will have a perfect 7/7 week this week I promise, but hopefully this
will do for this week!  This tells about some of the miracles and a
couple of the fun days of this week!

2/12/14 - Today was another amazing day out here in the dendo world.
I seriously love Japan, and I love Mito.  Today we had Eikaiwa, and I
was just able to talk to some of the members here, specifically the
T____ family, which Brother T____ is the bishop of the ward, and
they are amazing!  He actually told me to tell my mom hi, and that the
T_____'s  love her and my family!  They really are just the best family
ever and I just feel so blessed to have been able to come here and
spend so much time here!  Three transfers in one area is pretty
normal, but it is also pretty long!  But it really has been amazing
and I have loved every second of it.  The members really have just
been incredible, and if I had the chance to bring my parents out here
someday I would because I feel like this ward has just become family!
It is crazy how close you get to people as a missionary, and then you
just end up leaving them and going somewhere else.  One of the
craziest things happened today too because one of the members in our
ward who is really awesome Brother T_____, his daughter just returned
from her mission and had just had her interview with the stake
president and everything!  It was so crazy to think that missions
actually end at some point, and that this isn't forever!  It is kind
of sad to think about sometimes! I feel like I definitely miss things
from home, but I will be so sad to stop being a missionary and will be
so sad to leave Japan!  I love these people here and I am in love with
the country of Japan.  I love this work!  I am loving my mission so
much and I am so blessed to be in such an amazing mission.  Tokyo
Mission really is the best, and I am so blessed to be where I am
today, working with the amazing people that I am working with.

2/13/14 - Today was another amazing day and I just can not believe how
many miracles we are seeing right now!  The district is just seeing so
many miracles and we are just so blessed to be here right now!  Today
we had a really good day here in Mito!  We were able to do some weekly
planning which was really good, and then we were able to get out and
have some dendo time at the eki!  We hadn't been to the eki for a long
time, and so we were able to go and have some time there!  We started
talking to people, and the first person I talked to ended up being
really nice! I talked to him for a while, and he wanted to buy us
drinks.  This was about when I found out that he was wayy drunk
and has no idea what is happening.  We end up telling him that we are
ok just to have a coke, and so he bought us cokes and it was way nice!
We then just told him that we would try to give him a call later this
week and that we would love to meet him...when he isn't drunk haha.
After that, we were able to have a lesson at this man name C_______
that we met housing the other day.  He really seriously is one of the
nicest old guys I have ever met in my whole life!  When we met him, I
was kind of shocked that someone lived there because it was literally
like a shack that he was living in, but we knocked on the door and he
answered and said that we could come back Thursday.  So, we came back
today and he invited us in!  We kind of walked into the genkan, and it
was really one of those moments where I just wished I had my own
personal photographer to snap my sweet pic inside this crazy ghetto
house just to remember the good ol mission days.  The house was way
tiny and completely trashed, but he was so nice to let us step in.  We
were able to follow up with how the Book of Mormon was and asked if he
would like to come to church this week and he said that he would!  So
we are going to go pick him up about twenty minutes before church and
walk over with him!  It really was one of the coolest points in my
mission where I really just had to stop and look at where I am and how
cool it is that I get to live here in Japan and meet such amazing
people and go to such amazing places!  All is well here in Mito and I
really have nothing to complain about right now!  Hope that tomorrow
is as good as today was!

 So that is the journals from this week, but I will try to be better
next week!  Cool part about the story above is that that guy actually
came to church!  We did walk with him and just talked with him as we
walked to church and then he came right in and sat down by me!  He
loved the meeting and really loved the singing and the hymnbook!
Right after the closing prayer he turned to me and said, "I am coming
next week I promise!"  It was such a cool miracle!  We are planning on
visiting him tonight, and teaching a little more about those church
things that happened!  Please keep him in your prayers!

 I hope you all know how much I love you and how many prayers are
coming from Japan your way!  I think about each of you specifically in
my prayers, and I know that God is blessing us as we do turn to him
when we need help!  All he asks of us, is to ask!  I love this gospel,
I love this work, I love missionary work, and I love my Savior Jesus
Christ and the amazing sacrifice he has given me.  I know he lives,
and I know he wants each of us to return to live with him and our
Heavenly Father again.  All we have to do is accept him and try our
best!

 I will talk to you all soon!  Have great weeks and be safe!

All my love,
Elder Cottle
Sent from my iPad

Week 36! I-pads!!

 Hey everyone!  This week was a kind of a crazy week this week as
missionaries in the Tokyo Mission!  We all got iPads and it has been
so different!  With the iPad though, I thought it would be cool to
just type up a little every night in like a little digital journal.  I
am still writing in my journal the big stories, miracles and stuff
like that, but I think that this could be a cool way to give you all a
really detailed update of my week!  So you will all have to tell me
what you think, and see if it's good or not!

2/5/14 - Well.  This is brand new!  Today we were able to receive a
new tool for our missionary purposes..and that tool is a brand new
iPad mini!  They told us that someday we were going to get them, and
we finally got them.  It is a pretty crazy thing to have an iPad as a
missionary.  I actually kind of feel like I'm being rebellious or
something..its way funny!  I am so excited though to be able to have
this opportunity to have this amazing missionary tool.  It is crazy to
think that we are the only international mission who has this tool,
and that the entire church is watching us!  It is kind of intense, but
I know that if any mission can do it, it is the TOKYO, JAPAN mission.
This is the start of something new!

2/6/14 - This was the first full dendo day with an iPad.  I really am
still just shocked that we have these things, but they really are such
an amazing tool!  Today we had weekly planning, and it was definitely
difficult trying to do that with these new machines!  But, we were
able to get through it and still be effective!  The most amazing part
thing about this is that we have our area book all plugged in to our
iPad, and it keeps track of all our investigators all the time and it
is just way too cool how it works.  These things literally are just
perfect for a missionary, and I really think that as we use them
effectively, we will really be able to more fully fulfill our purpose,
which is to bring others unto Christ and to see people change their
lives and be baptized.  I am so grateful for the chance to be a
missionary today.  I want to become the most profitable servant I can
be, and not waist any of this precious time that I have here.  We are
so blessed as missionaries!

2/7/14 - Today was a really great day here in Mito!  At 3:00 at Mito
Eki, we were able to meet our friend R_______to talk about
the Restoration!  Today was really warm, so we were able to just take
a seat outside the Eki and talk.  We were able to give the entire
Restoration lesson, and part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he took
everything so good!   He really loves the church, and thinks that
there are no problems with it.  He isn't going to be able to come to
church, but we are going to meet with him next week before Eikaiwa.  I
REALLY want to set a baptismal date with him and baptize him soon!  He
really is so prepared, so hopefully we will be able to do that!  Other
than that we were able to continue up-dating these iPads so that they
can be effective instead of out of date, so that was really good!  We
were also able to have our DCS tonight, which is where the
missionaries in the ward meet with the Ward Mission Leader.  Our Ward
Mission Leader is Brother Uchida, and he is the best!  It is so cool
to think that Uncle Josh is back in South Carolina doing the same
thing!  I bet he does an amazing job, and that the missionaries love
him, because I seriously love Brother Uchida!  But today really was a
great day, and tomorrow we are supposed to get a ton of snow, so that
should be exciting!

2/8/14 - Today was CRAZY.  It dumped snow like crazy here in Mito
which is way crazy and really rare I guess!  We looked outside after
study and it was just white.  So, basically we just headed out in the
snow and worked way hard!  Me and Elder Lammintaus headed to the
church to have a Skype lesson with L_______. I seriously love him so much.
He is our Chinese investigator and he seriously is just the best.  We
are going to be friends forever!  But, we were able to have a Skype
lesson with him and we talked about the Plan of Salvation!  He really
liked it, and we were able to explain how we get to live with our
families forever after this life, and where we come from!  He seemed
way happy about the plan, and seemed to understand everything really
well!  Then, we were talking to him and he said that he wanted to
invite us over to his house for dinner!  How cool is that?  I have
never been to an investigators house for a lesson yet on my mission,
it just doesn't really happen in Japan, but it is happening this next
week!  We are going over there on Tuesday and we are going to teach
him some more and its just going to be the best!  I really am so
grateful that we met him at that activity, and so grateful that we
have had this opportunity to become such good friends with him!  I
seriously love him and I just want him to be happy, which is really
good news because we have the thing that makes people the happiest!
Life is good right now as a missionary, and I am just way too happy
tomorrow is Sunday.

2/9/14 - Yeah so remember when I said that it snowed a lot yesterday?
Yeah, it was psycho today.  We got a call from the bishop telling us
that church was pushed back until 1 o clock, and that it was only
going to go for 1 hour, which is crazy!  But, we got to stay inside
and have a way awesome Sunday Morning study which is way awesome.  I
just have to pause and say how amazing this keyboard is.  I LOVE MY
FAMILY.   They are the best for sending me sweet stuff all the time
and just hooking me up.  I am a very loved missionary.  Way too lucky.
Anyways, today was Sunday! We headed to church and it was just
ridiculous..Biking was crazy!  But, with God's help, we were able to
make it to the church!  We got there and immediately started shoveling
the sidewalks and streets and it was so cool to be out and serving!  I
loved shoveling the snow too.  Believe it our not, I actually really
missed it!  Reminded me of home!  But we were able to have a great
church meeting, and after words we had a lesson with Brother T_______.
He is a less active in the ward that I have grown really close to,
and I really want him to become active so bad!  But he seriously is
the greatest guy. Every single time we come, he tells us that he feels
the most happy when he is with us, and that we are his angels.  I
guess in some way, that is kind of what we are right?  But it has been
amazing to be teaching him, and really having the opportunity to turn
his life around, and really help him realize how much the church can
bless his life.  It really is amazing how much love you gain for
people out here!  I feel like as I have this opportunity to help
people progress and become closer to Jesus Christ, I am really able to
grow so close to them and develop so much love towards them!  I am so
grateful for this opportunity to be here in Japan serving these
people!  I absolutely love these little Japanese people.  I have never
met such kind, respectful people and I really have grown to love them
so much!  All I want to do here is my very best, and help these people
in the best way that I can.  Way too fun!

 There it is!  I don't really know if that will be very good or
interesting or not, but please let me know what you honestly think!
If the old way is better then just let me know!  But I just want to
say that I love this work.  This last week I really felt the Lord's
hand as I have been assigned to train a brand new missionary, a
district leader, and the oldest missionary here in Mito!  It was been
an amazing week though as we were able to see miracles not because we
are great missionaries, but because this is his work, and as we put
our trust in him, we are able to see miracles!  I know that this
church is true, and I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and
redeemer and I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have as
members of his church!  That is the reason I am here, to share that
happiness with the people of Japan!  I love you all and I will talk to
you all soon ok?  You are in my prayers!

Love,

Elder Cottle
Sent from my iPad

Week 35 Miracle Week!

So, I have definitely been struggling to send out a big email lately, but I want to change my ways!  But this week was just full of miracles and amazing things!  To start, we had an incredible opportunity this week to have Elder Whiting come tour the mission!  He is in the First Quorum of the Seventy, and if you aren't familiar with him, look up his talk "Temple Standard."  It is amazing!  But basically he is one of the most amazing men I have ever met!  We got to have a full day spent with him, just learning from a general authority and it was such a spiritual experience!  He walked in and the first thing that he talked about was that he was sent, and teaching us under the authority of the twelve, saying that Elder Packer sent him personally to come do this, and that the job of the seventy is that they go places and do things that the quorum of the twelve can not go because they don't have time to go everywhere in the world.  The spirit was just ridiculously strong when he walked in the room to teach us, and I just had this feeling that I really can't deny that he is a man called of God, and that this church is so true.

 

  In the conference we talked about a lot of different things, but one thing that really stood out to me was how he explained power.  He talked about how we all have authority to preach the gospel, but we have to work to gain that power and I thought that was so good!  He talked about how we have to learn the things and gain that power for ourselves if we want to be that "most profitable servant."  That was something I was really thinking about before going into the conference was "How can I be a more profitable servant, and become that missionary that I have always wanted to become?"  I felt like he was really just teaching to me and I can't believe how great the conference was!

 

  So after that, Elder Whiting selected a few missionaries that he wanted to interview after, and just talk to, and he picked me to be one of those!  Amazing opportunity right?  Personal interview with a general authority!  Yeah, I was a little nervous..but blown away by the amazing opportunity.  When it was my turn, he brought me in and we sat right down.  I said a prayer for us to start, and then we just talked!  He asked me about my family, and got to know me a little bit and it was really cool!  I won't lie I was nervous at the beginning, but once we started, he was just so loving and kind.  It was so cool to talk to him.  Then he just looked at me and he asked if I had any questions I wanted to ask him about anything.  Wow right?  I can ask a general authority any question I want..mysteries of the kingdom?  Haha no basically I just sat there for a second and then just asked how I can really work personally to become a better missionary, and just expressed to him that I wanted to be the most profitable servant possible.  He had talked a little about this during the conference, but he looked at me and told me he was going to tell me something that he didn't tell the whole group.  He started talking about how when I become that missionary, Satan is going to try everything he can to get me to fail.  He told me to be LASER BEAM focused on my goal, and when Satan tries to discourage and lead me away, to keep my end goal in mind.  It was so amazing!  I could feel the spirit so strongly as he was teaching right to me personally.  Right when I got home I journaled everything I felt in the interview, and just wrote out some things that he told me.  It was an incredible experience that I will never forget!  He also told me that when I see him again, he wants me to come up and tell him how things are going and give a report.  Looks like I have a new General Authority friend;)

 

  That was definitely an amazing part of the week, however we also had a great week here in Mito!  The next day was a classic missionary day.  It was cold, and rainy, and me and Elder Lammintaus had some finding time!  So, after we studied and planned, we headed out in the rain!  I won't lie everytime I do that I just really feel like a missionary because that is just what we do!  We go out and talk rain or shine right?  We headed to the Station to try to find some people, and to be honest at the start it wasn't good.  Because it was raining, everyone wanted to be inside, and so it just ended up being kind of difficult!  But, we continued to talk to everyone and finally I stopped this young kid with a really cool hat.  We started talking and he seemed like he had a little interest in our message.  He wanted to learn more, and so we set up a time to meet the next day!  It was great!  New investigator.  So after setting that appointment, we were just about to go back to the bikes to head home, but there was a kid who was walking by who had a really cool backpack.  I commented on it saying it was cool, and he stopped and we talked for a while.  I told him what we were doing and he was really interested!  He said he wanted to meet up, and I asked when his break was and he said Saturdays and Sundays were good!  So, we exchanged phone numbers and he agreed to come to church!  It was incredible.  We really were able to see miracles because we were being faithful missionaries and going out, even when it was hard to go out in the rain, and God blessed us with two prepared people in our path.

 

  L_______is still doing really well!  We were able to meet with him this week, and just teach him more things that he needed to know!  He is looking really good for February to be baptized, and I just can't wait to see the day that he is!  He came to church this week, and he wore his suit and just looked like a little member!  I am so blessed to know him for sure, he is seriously one of my best friends I have in Japan!  He is the best, and I can't wait to be his eternal friend!  Thank you so much for all your prayers, it is making a difference! 

 

  Seriously, this week really was amazing and we really were able to see so many miracles!  This next week is going to be another good one I know it.  The crazy part is, we get Ipads on Wednesday!  It is officially here, so we are all super excited about that!  It is really going to change the mission, and my mission forever!  Things will definitely never be the same that is for sure..but we are really excited to see how the ipads can just make us much better missionaries!

 

  Things really are just going great right now.  I love my companion Elder Lammintaus, I will send a voice recording today and have him say some stuff he is the best!  He is just really chill, and easy to get along with, and wants to just work super hard!  Perfect companion right?  The other two elders in the apartment are great, and it is just way too fun right now.  Thank you all so much for your amazing support!  I could not do this without all of your prayers and the support back home.  I am so blessed! I pray for you all daily, and think about you often!  I love this gospel, and I love missionary work.  It is the hastening of his work right now, and I am so blessed to just be a part!  Have amazing weeks, and I will talk to you all soon!

愛してるよ！

Love you!

 

Elder Cottle