Week 72! Busy busy McGuu

Dear family!

Another great week!  Things are going amazing here in Nagaoka and you can really feel the fire picking up.  I know that we are going to see an amazing Christmas season here in Nagaoka with a lot of baptisms!  We are already looking like we will be going "white" and I think that there are even more people ready to be baptized than just one in each area!  Exciting.  Things are happening all over the Tokyo Japan mission right now and it's so fun to see.  With this big goal that we have, every single missionary in the mission is working every day to see miracles in their own areas, and we are seeing them!  President Budge is helping the mission a lot by being engaged with all the missionaries and really inspiring everyone.  I feel so lucky to be a missionary here!  It is crazy to me how much President and Sister Budge do for us and how much they are always helping.  It is definitely a huge blessing being able to serve with them!  Actually this week we had the chance to have President Interviews here in Nagaoka and it was way good!  We were able to have an interview with President Budge, as well as have a little talk with Sister Budge while we were waiting for our interviews which was way good!  I really feel like every time I have an interview with President Budge I come out of it so much wiser!  Haha but really he always gives such good advice and is just way relaxed about things.  It's never a stress to have to talk to him but just something that we get to look forward to!  It's a blessing to have such an amazing mission president!

So church this week in the Zone was really good!  Right now we have a goal that is focusing on church, but not only investigators, but focuses on all of the work of salvation including Recent Converts and Less actives. This is a fun way to look at ALL of the people that God is working with, and to see all of the work that the missionaries are doing every day, because we get to hear about all the less actives and recent converts coming.  This week there were tons of people at church, and all the missionaries were just really excited!  I think that was probably the best part of the week was not only did we help a lot of people by helping them come to church this week, but the missionaries were all able to really feel the joy, and experience that happiness that comes when we help lots of people come to church.  It was a great Sunday yesterday, and I think that everyone is really excited to work even harder this week and have an even better week next week.  To be honest, church wasn't great here in Nagaoka, we didn't have very many people come which wasn't very fun..but we have awesome plans for next week and so we will be working really hard all week to have a huge week next Sunday!  This week was a little bit frustrating when we didn't have a very good Sunday, and I was kind of sitting there thinking about why we weren't able to have very many people come and a thought came to my mind that was something one of my soccer coaches told me forever ago when I was super young, and something I have kind of kept my whole life and heard my whole life playing sports, but it was that when we lose a game we learn a lot more than when we win a game.  It hit me pretty hard that maybe we didn't work as well as we should have this last week, and God was helping us learn so that we can be better missionaries and work better every week to get people to church.  It was something that I don't think that I will be forgetting any time soon!

Something else we had this week was exchanges in Sanjo and I had the opportunity to work with a new missionary Elder Fryzel, and he is doing really really well.  I am extremely impressed by the missionary that he is becoming.  It's way fun to work with the new missionaries in the mission!  It was also really really fun to work in Sanjo again and have the chance to be back in my first area!  It's always really nostalgic and crazy, but it's fun to be back there.  We also had another exchange this week and I got to go with another brand new missionary Elder Richards!  Way fun to have that chance to learn from them, and really just grow from their faith!  These new missionaries have such strong faith and really know that they can do anything with God's help which is so good.  I am always trying to increase that faith, and it's nice to have younger missionaries help me out with that;) 

This week was a learning week!  I felt at times like we might not be able to get every thing that we had to get done done, but we did and it was because God was helping us!  I'm really lucky to have Elder Wheatley with me working way hard and having fun while we do it.  Something I have realized is that God needs us not only to be obedient and working hard, but that he needs us to do that with a smile on our face.  If we don't have that, we can't fully show these people the blessing that the church is in our lives.  Thank you all for always being so good to me!  I have to give a special shout out to my amazing mother Mom I love you!  Thank you again for the amazing birthday package!  It was perfect thank you.  I have an amazing family! Love you all so much have a great week I'll talk to you soon!  

Love,

Logan

ps - this next week is transfer calls, so I will let you know whats going on!

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Splits in Sanjo!

Companion selfies!

Sweet view on the riverside. 

Made some homemade cookies!

Yummy!!!

Week 71! Can I get a hello with that?

Dear Everyone!

This has been a great week up here in Nagaoka Zone and great things are happening that are really exciting!  It is so fun to see how the Lord is hastening his work, and how we are being blessed to just be a part of it!  Things here in Nagaoka are going really well, and as a district here we have great unity and desire to improve and see many more baptisms here! Right now our district leader is doing a great job and is helping the district stay united and always trying to improve.  It's fun to be in this District, because I really feel like there are no limits to what we can do!  We have the Zone leaders, the Sister Training Leaders, and the District Leader and his companion all in one area, in one district and so it is just fun to see everyone doing so many amazing things!  I think that President Budge really wants Nagaoka to be doing amazing things, so he has really put some amazing missionaries up here!  It's fun to be able to work with such amazing missionaries so that I can improve and do better!

S this week was a thing called a "Daigaku Blitz," which daigaku in english is college!  This week we decided as a mission that we would all go on last Friday to the college's around our area and just talk to everyone and try to find really prepared college students!  It was a way fun idea, and it was a great way too make everyone in the mission excited!  So we had the Daigaku blitz and we saw amazing things here in Nagaoka Zone!  There are a couple of daigaku's here in Nagaoka, and then in Joetsu and Sanjo there were only fairly small ones, but it still worked out and we still saw tons of miracles.  Here in Nagaoka, we didn't really have any huge miracles with daigakusei (college students)  probably because there weren't any huge colleges around here to dendo very hard, but there were TONS of miracles on the way to the daigaku's and just because we had the blitz.  I feel like that was the best part about the blitz was that it gave everyone here in Nagaoka something exciting to work really hard for.  I know that I certainly felt like I was a part of something a lot bigger than just Elder Wheatley and I in Nagaoka.  It was fun to think about all the missionaries in the mission working hard just like we were to see miracles, and with all that faith and excitement, we saw amazing things!  I think that the blitz went extremely well and we are excited for the next one!

Right now in Elder Wheatley and I's companionship we are seeing a lot of exciting things.  We have three investigators right now that are really progressing to baptism, H_____, Y____, and L____. We really want to try and see them baptized by the end of this transfer, and really believe that they are ready and can do it.  Two of them have dates right now, and the other knows that he would be baptized if he found out that this church was right for him. I really have never seen another area this on fire before.  Nagaoka is just seeing absolutely amazing things.  There are people in every companionship who should be ready for baptism at least by next month and we know that there are more to come.  Everyone is finding, inviting, and teaching, and when we can we are teaching with members and getting people to church.  Everything is going so well right now.  The missionaries here are all striving daily to be exactly obedient, and striving to be better personally so that they can see the miracles that they know God wants them to see.  This Christmas season is exciting!  You really can feel it in the air that there is something special coming.  Right now we know that the mission has been a little slow getting off to this baptismal goal of 100, but I know that there is a reason that we as leaders felt the spirit in that meeting when we prayed together.  The Lord wants this goal to happen, and He is going to strengthen and lift us up to be able to accomplish it!

This week was way good!  Things are going good out here in Nagaoka and it's crazy that it is getting cold again!  The transfer is coming to an end quickly! Thank you all for always being such a SUPER support to me and backing me up every step of the way as I'm out here.  I love you all so much!  Have a great week, and I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Logan

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Week 70!

Hello!

Today before I say anything I just have to say THANK YOU to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!! It was so nice to hear from all of you and feel the love all the way from America! Thank you for you love, support, and prayers! It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had, and it was crazy that it was my second birthday in Japan! It was great to spend the birthday here in Nagaoka, in an area where I have been for a long time where I have so many great friends and so many people that I love! It was also a huge blessing to spend the weekend listening to the living prophet and apostles, and having the chance to be spiritually recharged! We were able to have a party after the last session on Sunday with some of the branch members, and a Sister from the branch who is one of my favorite members in the branch bought and brought me a cake! I took some pictures so I will send those but it was so great! I really couldn't have had a better birthday, it was so soo good! Thank you again for a great birthday wishes they all meant so much!

So it was another great week here in Nagaoka!  We are being so blessed here in the Zone, and in this area that it really is hard to put it all into an email!  But, I am so grateful for the things that we are seeing.  We know that we are all up here for a reason and it has been great to hear about each of the miracles that each companionship is having.  

This week was a great week because we had General Conference, and so it was a great chance to have lots of people be able to come, and see what the conference was like.  It was really great because we were able to just put a huge focus on General Conference all through out the week in our zone and in our own area and because of that we were able to help a lot of people come to the conference and experience that special spirit that is there!  It was also really great because we had a great opportunity here in Nagaoka to watch it here!  Usually, all of the members here go up to Niigata to watch the Conference which is always really great, but it is very difficult to get less active members or investigators too be able to go and so this Conference Elder Wheatley and I really thought about it a lot, and shot the idea to N ______and he thought that it was a good idea!  So we were able to get one of the dvd's here and were able to watch it with investigators and members who weren't going to be able to make it all the way up to Niigata.  The turn out was great! We ended up having 7 Less active members come to the conference over the weekend, and for every single one of them it was a great experience.  We also were able to have a good amount of investigators come as well, and the turn out for the weekend was a huge success!  We were really blessed to be able to watch it this weekend in Nagaoka.

Something else this week was Elder Wheatley and I were able to go on exchanges with the Joetsu Elders!  We went to their district meeting, and Elder Hardin did a really great job with the meeting.  I had the chance to work with Elder Hardin in Joetsu, and we were able to have a great day!  We had time to get out and find, as well as time to teach investigators.  It was really good to be working with Elder Hardin and it was a really great exchange with him!  Great exchange!  It's so fun to have the opportunity to work with so many missionaries on you mission!  Really before my mission, I never really thought about that aspect of missionary work, but it has been such a blessing for me to work with so many amazing missionaries and learn so much from each of them.  Excited to continue to learn from them as I continue to have those opportunities.

Things are going great.  The Zone is excited about this goal of 100 baptisms in the mission by the end of the year, and everyone is working extremely hard to accomplish it!  Their amazing faith and desire strengthens my faith and desire.  I am so grateful for the opportunity and blessing that I have to serve here in this mission! I love japan, I love President and Sister Budge, and just feel so blessed to be working here. There are miracles happening all over, and it is a huge blessing to be a missionary at this time! Thank you again for the birthday wishes, and for always supporting me! I love you and I'll talk to you all soon!

Love,

Logan

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Birthday love with a birthday cake a member got him!

Done with bikes, moving to scooters. 

After General Conference with Y____

Lunch with a less active and Elder Wheatley

Eating with a less active and her friend. 

Week 69 転勤！！

Another great week here in Nagaoka!  The transfers were great, and I have to say that I am really really excited to be here another transfer in this Zone! I really am so grateful for the chance that I have now to be a part of all the amazing things that are happening in Nagaoka Zone right now.  With the transfers we had ALOT of changes in the Zone, but I really feel like we have been stacked up here which is really exciting!  It has been fun to see the growth since I have arrived in Nagaoka, and I really feel like something special is happening here in the Zone.  The new missionaries up here are amazing, the District leaders we have are dedicated and excited, everything just seems to be on the rise, and I really feel like the timing is perfect for the Christmas season, and to see these 100 baptisms between now and the end of December.

So yeah that is a big goal that the mission has recently created!  In this mission, we want to see 100 people be baptized between now and the end of Christmas!  This is a really high goal, and a lot more than has ever been done in this mission before, but when we were in our leadership meeting, the thought came out, and we all had a really special experience where we all got down and prayed and asked God if that was a goal that we should do in the mission.  The spirit was really strong, and we felt like that is a goal that we can accomplish!  So, I am sure you will be hearing a lot about the "100 people" goal but that is what it is!  

As a Zone on Friday we were able to gather together and have our Christmas meeting and it was great.  We were able to talk about accountability to start, and kind of talked about how we want to be more accountable as a mission and gave them a few things that they can start doing to help their accountability.  Then we hopped right into Christmas and reviewed some of the things that we did last year, and talked about what was so special during the season last year.  We talked about the changes and then we started to talk about what we wanted to do this year.  We talked about the MLC experience that we had, and as we told them the spirit was really strong, and everyone in the Zone could really feel how special of a goal this was.  We also had not only Elder Wheatley and I who participated in the meeting, but Elder Crockett, Elder Mobley, and Sister Stitch were all at the meeting and we asked about how they felt as they were in that room and knelt to pray.  They all bore strong testimony on the powerful spirit that was there as one of the most powerful experiences on their mission!  The spirit was really strong, and we finished it off with President and Sister Budge's testimony video which really just finished it off great.  Everyone was feeling the spirit, and everyone got really excited about this goal that we have.  It was really good to see them all get excited, and we know that everyone is really going to be working hard for that goal here in Nagaoka Zone!

We are being extremely blessed right now in our area. It's something that I know isn't us, but it really is the Lord hastening his work in His time, and we are really just the lucky ones who get to be involved in his work. I am working my hardest to be worthy of his blessings, but ultimately it just comes down to him blessing us tremendously.  Right now we have two people in particular who are looking really strong for baptism soon.  H______is a guy who has been meeting the missionaries for a long time, but really hasn't made tons of progression until now.  He has started to progress because he is able to meet a lot more than he used to, and he has come to church consistently 2 weeks in a row which is huge for him.  He was able to participate in the baptismal service and he felt the spirit really strongly and is thinking a lot about baptism.  We are excited for him and the progress he is making! Also we have L_____a Vietnamese guy who has tons of interest in the gospel.  He came to church last week, and felt the spirit incredibly strong and said that he has never felt anything like that before. We committed him to baptism, and he wants to receive it but he just wants to make sure that it is what he wants, because he knows once he receives it it will change his life forever.  Things are really good in Nagaoka right now and we are so excited to see all the amazing miracles that will happen here!  Thank you for all you do for me I am grateful everyday for everything you help me with!  I will talk to you soon!  Love you!

Love,

Logan

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Matching sweatsuits. Is there even a Salt Lake City University?

We made s'mores!!!