Now the mission is on fire

7/27/09 Email Message

Dad,
I can't believe I'm here either. When Kaicho [my mission president] called me last week I was shocked. When he told me I was going to be AP, I didn't say anything for a few moments and he laughed and asked if I was alright. Well I don't know if I can answer that question even now. I guess we will see how it goes over the next few months here. And to answer your question, it's been about half and half since I've been here. Half of the APs have died [finished their missions]as APs and the other half have either gone trainer or ZL for their last 1 or 2 transfers. I don't know what will happen with me though. The youngest AP before me was on his 11th transfer. I'm only on my 9th. At this point I'm not really sure what Kaicho wants me to do in the future. We'll see...

I'm glad you got the package I sent you. It was way over due, so I'm sorry about that. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. Isn't that flag awesome? And you want to know something cool? One of our Eikaiwa [english class] students went to Osaka to visit her daughter and before she left I asked her to bring something back for my dad. So she brought that flag back for me. So that flag is actually from your mission. Cool huh? I thought it was beautiful. I'm glad you liked it.

So this last week was a very new experience. Apart from transferring to the honbu [mission home], I also got my first Nihonjin [japanese] companion. His name is Takami choro and he is from Gifu ken in the Nagoya mission. He's way cool and so hilarious. He makes the funiest sounds all the time and he's a great cook. He pretty much cooks every meal for all of us four in the honbu. And thats another weird thing. I now live with three other Elders instead of just one. The other two are my former Zone Leaders - Oswald choro (from Idaho) and Kawabata choro (from Fukuoka). We speak so much Japanese all the time. Which is awesome because that means I've learned soo much in just a few days. In that regard I'm way excited for this opportunity to work closely with two Nihonjins. I'm expected to be an interpreter for the honbu so I'm going to need all the help I can get. My new ward is awesome too. It's called Nagamachi and it is the biggest ward in the mission. About 120 people come every week. I was pretty much shocked when I walked into church on Sunday. I'm excited to work with the members here.

There are so many good things going on around the mission right now. Recently Tateoka Kaicho challenged us to start committing our investigators to baptism on the first or second lesson. Since that time our baptisms have gone from the lowest in Japan to the highest. In a little over a month we have seen our baptisms and baptism dates triple. And they arent slowing down. When I first came to the mission missionaries saw baptism as some rare miracle that only happened every once in a while. But now we are seeing miracles happen left and right. Tateoka Kaicho has really shaken things up. Before he came the mission was really kind of stale and sloppy. He's brought a lot of changes and really energized everyone. He has really inspired us to be bold and energetic. Now the mission is on fire. Members are excited, missionaries are filled with entusiasm, and best of all those we are teaching are feeling the power of the Spirit like never before. Each and everyday we are going out with power from the Lord and inviting people to come unto Christ. Its really something incredible to be a part of. Its awesome! I am so happy to be here right now. Im really happy for this chance to work so closely with Kaicho and learn as much as I can from him and the other missionaries. I think these next few months will be soo much fun. I cant wait!

I miss you and i love you. Hope to hear from you soon!
Much Love,

Elder Brendan Kingsford