Another Fun Week Here on the Coast

Dear Friends and Family,

Its been another exciting week down here in Yokosuka. It sure has been really busy this past week due to all the things that I have to do as a Zone and all the things that Elder Ford has to do as a  District Leader. President Wada really has us all working our butts off to ensure that the Tokyo South Mission runs well and without any sort of hiccups.

This past week the Zone has really been focusing on how to help others overcome their problems with specifically the Word of Wisdom. In all of the District meetings that I attended with Elder Ford this week I had the chance to practice teaching about the Word of Wisdom to many different missionaries and even some non-members. What I did find out through my own personal studies as well as through teaching that a lot of the Word of wisdom (like not drinking Alcohol and also not doing drugs) is for our own benefit. The Lord has commanded us to not partake of any harmful substances that might inhibit us in our progression. It was just a thought that occurred to me as I was helping to train the other missionaries on how to properly teach the word of wisdom -dom.

This past Thursday we had another Mission Leadership Council conference in the mission home. It was really good to see all olf my missionary leader friends and get to spend the day discussing how we can better help those in our zones as well as our district leaders better fulfill their purposes by inviting them to come unto Christ. Elder Young was there, he said that one of the friends I had back in Tokorozawa (Christian, i may not have mentioned about him in earlier emails) really really really wants to get baptized. Christian is from France and has extremely large faith. He wants to learn so much about the church and really loves reading from the Book of Mormon. He should be getting Baptized within the next couple of weeks. I am so excited to see him progress and hear about how things are going with him from Elder Young.As for Yokosuka, things here are REALLY slow. The area has not seen any success in several transfers and the branch is really small. I talked to President Wada about it a little bit in one of my weekly letters and it seems that we just need to hit it hard and work smart and inspired in order to find those that will receive us. I really think that we can see miracles here in Yokosuka but its going to take a whole lot of faith and a whole lot of God's hand in directing us to where we should go.

This week we met with a potential investigator named Yamauchi. Yamauchi is a 22 year old guy that works at a factory making scaffolding. I think that he really enjoys what he does. he is full of energy and LOVES to talk. Elder Ford thought that he spoke really really polite Japanese on the phone but when i met him, it turns out that his Japanese is just really really un-polite and that's why Elder Ford couldn't understand what he was saying.

Brother Smith, our ward mission leader in the Yokosuka branch sat all the missionaries down yesterday and we talked really long and hard about how to work more effectively as a team and how we should be using each others talents in order to help people. He talked a lot about how serving a mission in Japan has really blessed him in his life and how if he didn't smother his talent of Japanese he would probably not have the good job that he has working for the military that he has now. It was a really good talk and its important that we make sure that we know what were good at and strive to develop that which we are not good at in order to make us better individuals.Brother Smith has two daughters that just recently returned from their missions. He had all of us missionaries go talk to them after church and all seven of us had a really great conversation about what they had learned so farr in their missions. They both said that they had learned a lot about themselves but mostly about patience and that no effort is wasted. They both served in Japan. It was a really good little discussion. You could feel the spirit really well in the room.

Well, that's all there really is for this week. We are meeting with the areas only investigator this week on Wednesday so hopefully we will be able to make some progress in helping them along with their progression. I'm just really excited to meet this family that ive heard so much about. I think that were most likely going to go eat some good Japanese food and have a quick lesson or something like that. I don't really know. However I think that it will be good no matter what happens.

Shout out to Cathryn DeLong for entering the MTC on Wednesday to start her own little adventure as a Sister Missionary. Please make sure to write her and send her emails!

Oh, and at a members house this week one of their kids pooped on the floor while we were all eating dinner. It was hilarious. At another members house we were talking all about where each person would like to go on a mission. The 12 year old son said japan, their 8 year old daughter said South america and their 4 year old son said "THE JUNGLE OF DEATH!!!!" as he punched a clenched fist into the air. I couldn't stop laughing and his parents were super embarrassed because they didn't know where he learned " The jungle of death" from. It was too funny. I he too wants to go to South America I guess...Well that's all that happened this week. I think that it will be an even better week his upcoming week. I look forward to hearing from all of you in the next couple of weeks.

Very Respectfully,
Elder J. Alan Farr

Hello from 横須賀!

Dear Everyone,

I am writing from confines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church building located in Yokosuka Japan! I'm am only a two minute walk away from the gates to the US Naval base and let me tell you the area is absolutely beautiful. Its not quite as beautiful as Annapolis is at night but its pretty stinking pretty. Our apartment is about a 1 minute walk from the shore so if a Tsunami comes in were probably toast but it's okay since were missionaries and what not. The Church looks out for its own. Especially the missionaries that are here in Japan. Even if it looks like we might be trouble the church will have us evacuated out promptly!

So on Monday we got our transfer calls and Elder Young and I were really saddened that we were going to be moved around the mission and not see each other. I think the biggest part of our transfer was that we were not going to be able to work out as hard as we had been last transfer with newer, less-motivated as we, companions. But its okay because my "new companion" Elder Ford really enjoys running and working out. We did sprints our first day together and I nearly killed him with how many we were doing. We did push-ups this morning and he just about died at 1000 while i continued and finished off the remaining 1000. Its certainly a change from having a Olympic qualifying companion to a non-Olympic companion. But please don't get me wrong, I love Elder Ford regardless of his Olympic entering chances! He and are are going to have a great time together I know it!

The Japanese ward he is rather small. Actually its only a branch of about 10-15 active members. Its a really small unit with its number of active members slowly dwindling. There is a lot of work to be done here to help not only the branch but also the people whole live here in Yokosua learn about the Church. God thing that President Wada sent a team of expert-missionaries. Along with Elder Ford and I are the Senior Military Relation Missionaries, Sister and Elder Addinton as well as two other Sister missionaries, Sister Dansie and Sister Hurlbut. Everyone is really great and i think that it should be a pretty good transfer for pretty much everyone. I don't foresee any problems. There aren't really any people who the elders were teaching when I transferred in so its going to be a whole lot of talking to people and knocking on doors to find the prepared. I think that a lot of our focus this transfer is going to mainly consist of us visiting the members and helping to strengthen the members that we do have and work with and through them to help find people to teach. It certainly is going to be a very interesting transfer here in Yokosuka. I'm certainly excited to see what kinds of miracleswill occur in the next couple of weeks!

One highlight of the Week was that one of the Members in the branch's son got baptized. on Friday we went to the base to go and watch it and there was this random Japanese man who had happened to show up. He knew a little bit about the Mormons on an very simple basic level such as that we didn't smoke Alcohol or Drink Tobacco. We ended up teaching him a very very simple lesson while the entire service was going on and he got to experience a little bit of what it is like to be a member. He says he works up in Tokyo so hopefully hes not too busy for us to teach him later on. he was a very eccentric man so teaching him about the restored Gospel should be pretty fun! That's all for this week, I hope you all have an excellent week! Oorah.

Very Respectfully,
Elder J. Alan Farr


Pics: Me and elder young in front of Tokorozawa's church, weird poster is that man hiding amongst others' meat?, Lunch! Chicken!