August 2011 New Missionaries

We had the opportunity to go and welcome 5 great elders into our
mission this week! Elder Ashcroft (Colorado), Elder Parry (Utah),
Elder Ellsworth (Arizona), Elder Parra-Mauck (Utah),
and Elder Dinkel (Nebraska). They were able to get an
earlier flight in, which gave them more time to go out on the streets
and in the trains to dendo! They all did great!
We are excited to see the fantastic missionaires we know
they will each become!

Outside of the mission home their first day in Japan!
Elder Ashcroft, Elder Parry, Elder Ellsworth, Elder Parra-Mauck,
President and Sister Baird, Elder Soliai (AP), 
Elder Transtrum (AP), and Elder Dinkel.

Left to right:  Elder Dinkel, Elder Ellsworth, Elder Parra-Mauck,
Elder Ashcroft, and Elder Parry

All the new missionaires and their trainers outside of the Meito church! 

Elder Parry (left) and Elder Hollister- Kasugai


Coming to us from Bountiful, Utah, Elder Douglas Parry loves
baseball, football, basketball, racquetball and rugby.  He also enjoys
running and being with friends and family.  He has attended BYU,
and hopes to go into business.  He says he makes friends easily and
is an extrovert.  He has a hard work ethic.  He has had several
 experiences with prayer and some priesthood blessings that
have strengthened his testimony.

Elder Hollister has a burning desire to serve and 
protect the United States.  He wants to be a modern day
Helaman.  He was a strictly obedient  missionary.

Elder Ellsworth (left) and Elder Ogaki- Ichinomiya

Elder Tanner Ellsworth, coming from Mesa, Arizona, has played
piano and cello for many years.  He was in BYU Symphony
 Orchestra and traveled to Austria with his high school orchestra.
He also sings and loves learning.

When Elder Ogaki was young, he got lost in the mountains.
He prayed and soon found his parents.  He has had
a strong testimony of prayer ever since.

Elder Dinkel (left) and Elder Nelson

Shelton, Nebraska is home to Elder John Dinkel.  He is the oldest of 9 children and he loves to draw.  He wants to become a statesman and a constitutional scholar.  He always wants to do his best and is good at asking for help, working hard, thinking things through and pushing through hard times.

Elder Nelson says he's a little shy, but once he gets to know people he
becomes really talkative.  He loves to learn, enjoys doing puzzles
that make him think and work for an answer, and he sees
business management in his future.

Elder Parra-Mauck (left) and Elder Pearson- Okazaki

Elder Bryant Parra-Mauck is from Layton, Utah.  He loves
expressing himself through dance, and has a black belt in Karate.  
He also enjoys basketball, soccer and yo-yo's.  Elder Parra is 
studying to become a family therapist.   

Elder Pearson loves wood working and he designs landscapes.  
He also enjoys several sports, especially mountain biking.  
He has a long list of possible majors.  He calls himself 
quiet and calm when others are not.  He is usually positive, 
adjusts well to change, and can endure a lot without having a bad attitude.  

Elder Ashcroft (left) and Elder Valentine- Gokiso

From Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Elder Ashcroft loves music 

and golf. He is also a pianist. After giving 100%

on his mission, he wants to become a mechanical engineer. 

Elder Valentine puts high value on family.  He says of his
own family, "We are a loud bunch, very physical,
but love abounds in our family.  He really looks forward
to teaching his own family to be a forever family.

I Have Seen Him Change Completely

Elder Terrance Kutney

My miracle story takes place in Seto—beloved pottery city.  I transferred into the area in January with President Baird’s assurance that there were prepared people waiting for me. 

We visited an off-and-on investigator named Koike.  We were able to make an appointment with him and came back the next week.  He had been an investigator for 10 years.  This time, however, he had been thinking deeply after receiving a bit of a shock—his wife’s mother had died. 

To make a long story short, in our first lesson we taught the atonement and asked him “How would you feel if we told you that you could be forgiven of all your past mistakes?”  He was deeply moved and said, after some hesitation in stuttering English, “No, No! I can’t…”  

We could tell that he was feeling the Spirit work upon him, so we testified of the reality of Christ’s Atonement and asked him to be baptized.  He accepted, set a date, and hasn’t missed a day at church since.  I have seen him change completely.  We can see it, he can feel it and his wife knows it.  The next miracle is for his wife to join him.

Elder Voss and Elder Kutney, on right.

July 2011 New Missionaries

This week, we celebrated 4 new missionaries coming to our mission! Sister Shimoji (Naha), Elder DeMille (Utah), Elder Hiruta (Tsukuba), and Elder Kobayashi (Sapporo). It was great to meet and get to know them! They will be great missionaries!

Left to right: Sister Shimoji, Sister and President Baird,
Elder DeMille, Elder Hiruta, and Elder Kobayashi.

The missionaires shared their testimonies on the train as they came
to the mission home. This is a picture of a couple they met on the train.

The new missionaires standing outside the Meito church with their trainers.

Sister Shimoji (left) and Sister Kumagai- Matsumoto

Sister Ziona Shimoji from Okinawa, Japan has four people in her family.  She loves her family and the church.  She enjoys playing tennis, playing with children and being in nature.  Playing tennis makes her smile and calms her and being a part of nature helps her feel Heavenly Father’s love.  She looks forward to a temple marriage and lots of children. She wants to study the Gospel and spend a lot of time together with her family.  Sister Mado Kumagai is from Hokkaido, Japan.  Her twin sister served at the same time in Sendai.  She has 3 adopted brothers.  She loves to draw and make sweets, giving away her great cinamon rolls and cookies.  She also enjoys playing with children.    Her family's faith and love have given her self-esteem and confidence that she wants to share with others.

Elder DeMille (left) and Elder Voss- Matsumoto

Toquerville, Utah, near the beautiful canyonlands, is home for Elder Joshua DeMille.  He enjoys music, hiking and camping.  His favorite thing is just having fun with the family and his friends.  He also likes to create knick-knacks.  He wants to be known as someone who is always headed up, always trying to be better.  He describes himself as fun, good natured, random, honest, stubborn and a good peace maker.  He has always loved the Gospel and sees evidence of God in everything.

Elder Voss's talents are memory, physical capacity and relating well
with others.  He is slow to get angry or upset and people have told
him that his personality has a calming effect on them.  He relates well
to most people and quickly develops trust and friendship

Elder Hiruta (left) and Elder Ikeda- Kariya

Elder Naohiro Hiruta is from Fukushima, Japan.  He is the only member of the church in his family, but his family supports him well and he loves them. He started swimming when he was five, so he could enter university because of his swimming ability.  He wants to become a teacher and contribute to society.  Elder Hiruta wants to give hope and power to the children he teaches.

Elder Ikeda is optimistic and slow to anger.  He can easily love people.
He has already had one great missionary experience where a friend was baptized.

Elder Kobayashi (left) and Elder Brown- Gifu

Elder Yuto Kobayashi from Hokkaido, Japan knows traditional Japanese dance, and performed on the university dance team.  He looks forward to an eternal family.  He is studying architecture and wants to design homes and cities.  He wants to own his own architectural company.  He is kind, calm, and optimistic.

Elder Michael Brown hopes to be self-employed at some point, but hasn't decided what he wants to do because there are so many professions he would enjoy.  He knows that one of the many benefits of serving a mission is the potential for growth and independence.

May 2011 New Missionaries

This week we received three new missionaries.  Welcome to the mission--we already love you.

Sister Sakura Saito comes from a family of five, and both of her parents served as missionaries in Nagoya.  She is from Kanagawa, Japan and she loves her family.  She took piano lessons for 14 years and loves music because it brings the spirit.   One person who knows her well said Sister Asahi Nishimuro is one of  the most gifted teachers in the mission.  She comes to us from Yamanashi, Japan  and is serving at the same time as her brother.  She has two sisters who have also served in Japan. Elder Thomas Huish calls Mesa, AZ home, but he has also lived in Washington, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  He enjoys most sports, especially wake boarding and snowboarding.  He hopes to become a mechanical engineer, work for a company and design weapons or start his own design company.  Elder Huish is outgoing, strong willed, and trusting.  He wanted to serve a mission his whole life. Here they are with their trainers. Left to right:  Sister Nakatsuka training Sister Saito, Sister Nishimuro with her trainer Sister Clark, Sister and President Baird, Elder Huish with his trainer Elder Ikeda >

The Friend of Reason

Written by Sister Chalet Severson                   Nov. 25, 2010

When we were asked to tell our companions about a person who has shaped our life, I didn’t even need to think.  I knew exactly who that person was for me.   Her name is Candy Rendon.

She’s about ten years older than I am and has been an older-sister figure in my life since I was about 12.  We first met at church.  She was the camp director in my ward.  I had just moved into the ward and was a little on the quiet side.  Well…on the outside. Inside I was wild and rambunctious.  When I first met Candy, there was something different about her.  Not your normal leader.  She was way young, but was very grown up at the same time.  I don’t know what or why it was, but I instantly had a bond with her and knew we would be good friends.

Once camp came we went on a hike.  At the tail end of all the hikers was me, my friend Sam and Candy.  Candy, being the one trying to hurry us up, kept teasing us on how we were so slow and that we were young.  We should be faster than her.  Well, that’s all it took to bring the prankster out in me.  Once we sat down for a rest, I slipped a rock into her backpack.  This continued for about 10 more times as we continued our hike.  Once we were getting closer to the top, she was getting further and further behind.  The teasing now was aimed towards her and how she was so slow.  Once at the top, we all sat to eat our lunch.  She opened her back pack and found the rocks!  It then turned into dodge the rocks!  I was running, she was throwing.  We have been inseparable ever since.

Every big decision in my life, she was who I turned to.  She has been the voice in my head, the friend of reason.  I have always had her back and she’s had mine.  She continued on to become Young Women’s President and an even bigger influence in my Gospel life.  She was the person I wanted to be like as a young girl and now as I’m grown, I still look to her for guidance and a sister to spend time with.  I’ve lived with her right before my mission and was able to spend lots of time with her and her kids.  She’s an example to me.  She’s the definition of love and friendship.  She’s not just my best friend.  She’s my family, my sister.

Chalet Severson is third from left on front row.
Back row includes Elder Sorenson, Elder Stachowski, Elder Voss, and Elder Amussen
Front row, Sister Mimaki, Sister Shibata, and on right, Sister Harada

I Saw God's Hand In My Life Abundantly

Written by Elder Derrick Curtis

One of the greatest times on my mission was my time in Takabata.  It is the place I have felt most successful.  In just two transfers we found nine investigators, five of which were in just one week.  We were very busy and very happy.  

It was a miracle all of the good stuff that happened.  Most of the investigators were very interested and very committed to learning and growing.  The miracle sprung from two missionaries working hard to be obedient and striving to see success.  And by the grace of God, we saw it.  We were blessed. 

After I left the area, to my delight, two of those people were baptized and another family became yakusokushyas (someone who has a baptismal date). 

I loved my time in that area.  I thought I would end my mission there.  I was extremely sad to leave.  That transfer, I saw God’s hand in my life abundantly.  

The Church is true.  This I know.  

Labels and More Labels

Some transfers, especially the one after the Tsunami in 2011, were so large, all of the names wouldn't fit in the label area.  This post is simply to add those names so that you can find yourself.


So if your name is below, simply go to the blog called "April 2011 New Missionaries," and there will be your wonderful picture, and maybe even something about you (that hopefully, is true).  Once again, we welcome any additions or changes you might want to make.  Send an email to japannagoya.mission@ldschurch.org, and we will make changes and corrections.



Kervinen
Kutney
Madson
Ogaki
Otahara
Chubak
Pearson
Reynolds
Ring
Wilden
Wilcox
Shimajiri
Skankey
Wilson

But, if you are looking for Nakanishi or Shimohara, go to July 2012 blog.