Week 76! All I could write in a few minutes!

Hello everyone!

This was the week here in Nagaoka Zone! We were really needing a week like this one, and it was amazing to see the Lord helping all of the missionaries all over the zone see miracles that they needed to see! Almost every night on all of the calls this week we hear amazing miracles from the district leaders, and the faith in the zone has really jumped up to a new level and everyone is getting more and more excited. Right now every area has atleast one baptismal date before Christmas and all the dates look really strong! Yesterday there was a good number of the top ten that came to church, and things are really starting to heat up.  This week you could really just feel the Lord's hand pushing us along and guiding us all in the things that we needed to be doing, it was amazing.  We are excited to push forward into this next week!

Elder Wheatley and I are doing really good, and I feel like the area has some of the most potential it has ever had.  We are teaching a lot of people right now, but we are really working to be finding on the way so that we can keep our pool fresh and keep things moving forward and that has been really good.  The last couple of weeks we have just been extremely busy, and have been struggling to find time to find, but we put more focus on really trying to talk to as many people as we can each day and this week we were able to find 2 new solid investigators!  I really like this new thing we are doing called Meaningful Contacts, and Lessons to a PI because it has helped us see personally how many people we really are trying to talk to each day.  Basically a meaningful contact just is someone you gave a chance to hear your message, and lesson to a PI is to someone who might meet you again.  But as we have been using those stats to help our area, we have been able to find more people and become more effective.  Right now we have a couple of investigators who are very close to baptism, and it is just the point where we have to just hit that last solid lesson and they will be there, so we are working really hard for that.  As we look at our own teaching pool, there really are probably 3-4 people who really have a huge chance of being baptized before Christmas, so we are just going to work and focus on those people this week!

This week there really wasn't anything crazy exciting, but it was just a really solid week! I feel like everyone in the zone and this mission are just super excited for the season, and things are just rolling so smoothly I am really excited to see all the miracles this Christmas season! Thank you for your  support and all your prayers! I love you and I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Logan

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Playing a little ping pong. 

Working the baking skills, and making no bake cookies. 

A new Japanese restaurant they found. "Way good!"

Week 75! また風を引きました！

Hello!

Another great week here in Nagaoka Zone! It was a good week up here, and it is exciting to be a part of so many good things that are happening! Right now things in Elder Wheatley and I's companionship are going really well. It's now our 3rd transfer together and it's amazing how effective we can be after being together so long! We really have come to know each other really well, and how to work with each other! We are really fulfilling all of our responsibilities as leaders effectively and allowing ourselves to continue to see success in our area. There is a great balance in the companionship and I feel really lucky to be serving with Elder Wheatley!  

This Friday we had our Zone Meeting and it went really well. It's always exciting to have everyone gathered together as a Zone and to have the chance to learn from each other. The meeting went really well, and we put all of our focus on the Christmas goal, but more than that we focused on how we can accomplish it. I've really felt recently like everyone knows that we have this big goal, but the trick is helping the missionaries internalize the goal and then know what to do to accomplish it. We put a lot of focus on church and baptismal dates, as well as what happens once we set the baptismal date. We talked with everyone about how we can't just set the date, but we need to know that individual person's Road to Baptism, and get them working in that direction. I felt like the meeting went really well and he missionaries left excited to make some adjustments in their own Dendo and in their own areas!

After Zone meeting we went on exchanges with the Joetsu Elders A companionship Elder Hardin and Elder Hutchings. I had the chance to work with Elder Hutchings down in Joetsu and it was a great exchange. I while ago when I was back in Mito I had the chance to go on exchanges with Elder Hutchings when he was in Ushiku when we were younger missionaries, so it was great to get to go out with him again! Elder Hutchings is an amazing missionary and I really learned a lot from him. Something I noticed was just how hard of a worker he is. We were actually out in the pouring rain for the entire exchange, but it was great to have the chance to be working with a missionary who was dedicated to fulfilling his purpose! I got to hear about how Joetsu is going and it sounds like there are amazing things going on down there.  I feel like as far as the Christmas Miracle, Joetsu has more people that can  be there before Christmas, but those people need just a little more, and I think the missionaries are working hard to find and solve those problems.  

Right now Elder Wheatley and I's big focus is to get the people that we are working with ready for baptism for this Christmas season.  The Lord has given us a lot of people to work with, and we know that there are many of them prepared for baptism, so we really want to help them get there as soon as possible. We really think by showing that example and having baptisms here in Nagaoka, the Zone will continue to increase in faith and we will all be able to rejoice together in each others baptisms.  Things are going way good right now and even though it's starting to get cold and thats not the funnest, I really feel like over the rest of this transfer there are going to be some amazing baptisms here in the Zone!  Thank you all for all the amazing support you give me each week! You are amazing and I love each of you!

Talk to you soon!

Logan

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Week 74! 新潟大会！

Hello hello!

We had a great week here in Nagaoka this week and it has been a great week to start off the transfer!  Elder Wheatley and I are extremely excited to have the chance to work together again and we recognize that this is an awesome opportunity to work together as a companionship for 3 transfers, and that it's an awesome opportunity to see a lot of miracles.  This transfer was also really special because we only had one person out of the whole zone transfer, so we are excited that we get to work together for one more!  I am really excited about all the things that are happening in the Nagaoka Zone right now, and I am extremely excited to see what happens this transfer!

On Wednesday we had two new missionaries come to Nagaoka!  There is a couple that has been assigned to work here and we are way excited!  So the Makise Couple made it to Nagaoka and Elder Wheatley and I were able to go and meet them!  It was a great to get to welcome them to their new apartment, and help them bring up some of the things they had in the car.  We were able to get to know them a little bit, and just share with them our excitement to work with them and kind of fill them in on some of the miracles that are happening in the Zone.  They seem really excited to be here, and really seem to know how to dendo!  I was really impressed when they had been home for only a few minutes after taking a long car ride up here, and just started talking about all the activities and things that they want to do with us here in Nagaoka.  They were excited to hear about all the missionaries that are here, and were really excited to meet everyone at the Chihobu Takai.  I really think that this couple is going to be a huge help here in Nagaoka, and up in Niigata as well because they have so much fire and are excited and ready to work.

So this week was really solid for the zone, and everyone seems to be excited for this next transfer.  Everyone in the zone has set some really good goals, and this week was good for everyone to just kind of re settle in.  We will be having our Zone meeting this next Friday and we are excited to put lots of focus on this Christmas goal and to get everyone excited to get their people ready for baptism.  Right now in the Zone there are a good number of people that we already have who are really close to baptism, and some who are fairly new and are working their way up to it, so we are going to be talking a lot about the path to baptism and helping our friends be able to get to that point.  We also want to put a big focus on baptismal dates in the zone and really get those up, because we know that our friends have to have baptismal dates before they can be baptized!  It should be a great meeting and we are excited to meet together as a zone and learn from each other.

This weekend at the chihobu takai was great, and I really think it was good for the members.  That love and forgiveness are so important, especially in small groups and branches here where you are always talking to every member often, if there are problems they will come up easily!  I think that it was a great weekend for everyone and we all learned a lot! This week really has been a really good way to start off the transfer, and it was fun and exciting with everyone together over the weekend! We have some good things planned for this week, so I'm sure it's going to be a great week!  I hope you all have an amazing week as well!  I love you all and pray for you daily!  You all are such a great support to me I'm so lucky.  Talk to you soon!

Love,

Logan

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皆さん! Week 73!

This week was crazy, but it was a fun week. The first big thing that
happened was that we took a trip down to Tokyo! It was great what
happened was we had a big meeting with all of the zone leaders and
sister training leaders in Tokyo, but this time it was really special
because we got to have a tour of a really famous shrine in Japan
called the Meijijingu Shrine, which is located in downtown Tokyo.
President budge is actually good friends with one of the Shinto
priests there, and so he took us on a tour that most people never get
to go on! So on Wednesday we hopped on the bus and took a 5 hr ride
down to Tokyo, spent the night in the Honbu, and then got up and had
an amazing day at the shrine as a leadership group. I'll send
pictures, but it really was just an amazing day, and it is something
that I will remember forever. It was great because we were able to
learn more about Shinto, and what they believe, and so it really
helped me personally as a missionary on how I can better teach to the
japanese people. It was an amazing, short 2 day trip to Tokyo!

Then we had some amazing church miracles this week. There is a man
named K_____who we have been meeting with for a long time, and he has
never really made much progress, however this week we were able to get
a really good commitment from him that he would try and come, and that
we were going to meet him at a nearby grocery store in the morning and
then walk with him to church. We went to the grocery store in the
morning and he wasn't there, so we headed to the general location of
his house and started housing everyone. While we are housing we get a
call from a pay phone and it was him! He was at the grocery store but
had gotten there late! So we cruised back on our bikes and met him at
the grocery store, walked with him to the church and got to sit in
sacrament meeting with him! It was seriously amazing! He loved church
and really felt like it was a special place. He made huge progress
because of that and today in our lesson we started talking a lot more
seriously about baptism. Cool how the Lord really knows his children
and their needs and how to help them!

The last kind of important thing about this week was we had transfer
calls this morning...I have been here for 4 transfers which is a good
amount of time, and all though I didn't know for sure, I was pretty
positive that I was going to. However, God had different plans for me
because I am going to stay one more here in nagaoka! This will be
number 5 here which is actually really rare as a missionary to stay in
one area that long, at least in this mission, but I am way excited to
have the chance to continue to work with the people here! We were all
really shocked but actually in our entire zone, only one sister
transferred out! I think what is happening is president Budge is
really liking the way that nagaoka zone is looking right now, and
doesn't want to change much, especially during the Christmas season. I
think we are going to see some amazing things here in the zone this
transfer, I'm just way excited to be a part!

I love you all! I am so grateful for this church and the joy that it
brings me every day. This really is Gods true church on the earth
today! It's a blessing to be a part of the most important work this
world has ever seen. Thank you for your support, love, and prayers! I
will talk to you soon!
Love
Logan

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