Sometimes God Requires Us to Walk by Faith Fully Relying on His Will to Make Us Great.

 Good Morning!!!!! And Night!!!!!

I hope that life is treating everyone alright. I don't have much to say, but here's something I really liked.

President Hugh B. Brown said, “Wherever in life great spiritual values

await man’s appropriation, only faith can appropriate them. Man cannot

live without faith, because in life’s adventure the central problem is

character-building--which is not a product of logic, but of faith in

ideals and sacrificial devotion to them.”

Sometimes God requires us to walk by faith fully relying on his will to make us great. This puts it better than I could put it.

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

        ‘Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

        And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.

        That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.’”

I am grateful for the opportunity I've been blessed with to serve God's children in Japan. I know that I'm here for a reason and that we all have purpose and possibility in life. We can always find that in Christ.

Elder Frisch

 I forgot how much we play games in our family. Japan is all about technology. It makes me sick to see a lot of 40 year-old guys without jobs, living at home, playing video games, and watching cartoons. I'm glad we played games as a family to build good relationships. I'm doing good. We got dropped by two investigators, who I really liked, so that was tough.

That's so nice of you to visit the older people. One of my favorite things every week is visiting this old folks home. This one lady, named Nagasawa, is convinced that we met some other place before this and she is so funny.
I love you, too.
Love,
Eli

I'm pretending to eat Nakano Choro. He's an old guy missionary from Osaka.

Thanks for talking to me tonight. Thank you for your example and all

you have done for me.
I love you.
Love,
Eli

“You may have riches and wealth untold,

Baskets of jewels and caskets of gold,

But richer than I, you will never be

For I had a mother who read to me.”

Good morning everyone!
The snow has pretty much all melted and it's just raining now. Hail is just a normal thing here which is pretty goofy. Riding a bike in hail does feel not very good. We went to a family in the ward’s house for dinner last night, named the Kashiwa's. We had a tasty array of Japanese winter food like Oden and Shabu Shabu which are soup kind of deals. Super good. Here are some pictures. I love you guys, and say, “Hi!” to Savanah for me in a week!
I love you all!
Love,
Eli

The Honbu is where the mission president lives and the home base of the mission. Wow, right now I'm usually up around 6:15 exercise till 7 eat and get ready until 8 do companion, personal, and language study until 11, eat lunch, and get out at 12 and we have to be back at 9pm unless we have a member appointment. Here are pictures from this awesome sushi place we went to where we watched a guy make it. It came with the sushi, miso soup, egg stuff, tempura stuff, and a pudding dessert. Yum.

Off To The Races

This week flew by way fast but it was full of miracles. We ended up finding 4 investigators and had a less active lady come to church. I saw my first baptism in Japan this week! It may have been an 8 year old girl in the ward, but it was still cool. I've been in Japan for 5 months now! It feels pretty fast for me. Sorry, I'm not sure what else to say. Missionary work is missionary work. But it's the best work because it's God's work. 

Here's a quote from something I read recently that I really liked.

“Although I may not be my brother’s keeper, I am my brother’s brother,
and ‘because I have been given much, I too must give.’”

I always have to remind myself that these people that I'm here for are my long lost brothers and sisters. I've been blessed to have the gospel in my life, and I need to share it. I know the gospel will bring happiness into the lives of all those who accept it. Thanks everyone.
Elder Frisch

Sunday Church Program

I think it's partially in English because there's one girl in the ward from California who teaches English or for when there are visitors. I realize more and more how important English is as a language. It's used everywhere. I'm not sure why it's on the stamp. We were at a members house the other day and he said he was reading the Book of Mormon in English and he doesn't even speak English. He said it makes sense when he translates it from English more than the Japanese version. Specifically, he was talking about the tree of life vision. English really is the language of the restoration for a reason, I think. My testimony has grown more on the importance of relying on the spirit and acting on it. If I even have an inkling of a thought to knock on some door, I'll stop, and knock. Even if they aren't interested, I know that the time it took will put some prepared person in my path maybe 5 hours later. I know the spirit is prompting us all day. We just always need to be prepared and in the right attitude to accept it. I see President Ishi around every 6 weeks.

I love you,

Love Eli 

President Ishi is like a happy little Japanese man. He's about 5'2" and always smiling. His English is decent and he likes to tell stories. His mom was a convert, so he is pumped for missionary work. He likes to come up with little slogans, too.

Yes, everything has its purpose.

Navajo tacos.... I miss those. My meals are lots of curry, rice, stews, pasta, omelette, oatmeal, pancakes, yakisoba (like Chinese noodles) and stuff like that. That's cool that you already have someone new in the guest house. Savanah will be home so soon! That was fast. I have my boots that keep my feet dry but they aren't worn into, yet, so my feet get pretty sore. I'm pretty used to always being kind of wet. I've done my tissue magic, my red ball magic and some card magic. I really don't have time to practice the UFO trick, but maybe one day I will. Would you be able to send me a curry recipe you use with curry powder? We just buy the box of curry blocks.

I love you, too.

Sometimes Things Are Difficult, But You Can Always Make A Difference

Kenrokuen in the snow

Kenrokuen in the snow

Good morning!!!!!

It's been another classic week in this Japanese wilderness, and I'm doing all right. We started out with a English class student, named Nagase, calling out of nowhere and wanting to learn about the church. He's 81, so this is pretty rare for older Japanese people wanting to study religion. He listened and wants to talk again. This week was a lot of finding and knocking doors. Not anything too fancy. 

We did play Futsol this week, which is like soccer on a basketball court. That was pretty fun. I met this man yesterday, who talked with me for about 20 minutes about God. I did my best to testify that God loves him and we are all his children. Because he is our father we look like him and he wants us to come back to him. The Buddhist background of everyone here is an obstacle but obstacles are put in our way to make us stronger.

 On a clear day, rise and look around you,

And you’ll see who you are.

On a clear day, how it will astound you--

That the glow of your being outshines every star …

And on a clear day …

You can see forever and ever more.

-anonymous

Sometimes things are difficult but you can always make a difference.-Elder Frisch

Elder Frisch in Kenrokuen in the snow

Hey Mom and Dad,

Thanks for the email! I am doing great, and yes, I am staying warm enough. We don't have kerosene heaters, we just have these things that are their own little unit and blow hot air. I think it's gotten probably a couple below zero. I'm not sure. We have been getting more snow lately or it will snow during the day, but won't stick. My companion is a good kid. He's super quiet, and I think sometimes what we have to do as missionaries, like going up to random people, can be a little nerve racking for him. It's alright though. Senior companions make the plans for the day, lead throughout the day, talk to everyone and lead out on things and write the reports and things. I do say that I miss Arizona weather. I like it when it's hot because of the sun.  

That's crazy how Savanah will be home in 3 weeks! That passed pretty quick. It'll be funny to see how much the ward will have changed when I get home. I'm glad that dad is doing well at work. He has been working hard and it's paying off. I'm happy to see God blessing our family. Right now, I technically have no investigators.  I've really been working to find people, but nothing much has come up. We housed for 8 hours straight without dinner the other night in the snow, and didn't find anybody, so sometimes things like that are tough. We did see three miracles that help me to understand that this is God's work and not ours and we just need to be always working, so God can trust us whenever. First, I was praying the other night for God to put someone in my path to accept the gospel because the scriptures do say, "Ask and ye shall receive". So, in my head popped "Family Mart at 11:02" so, I fell asleep and woke up the next morning thinking the same thing. So, we headed out to Family Mart and what do you know, we stopped the guy walking in at 11:02 and we talked for a bit and he said that he'd like to hear more, so, we exchanged numbers and said we could meet again. Secondly, a guy from English class, who had said he didn't want to talk about religion because his family told him not to, called out of the blue, and said he wanted to talk again. We met, and he liked what we talked about, and he wants to talk again. Lastly, we met a guy named Sunata on the street, who called out of nowhere and invited us to his mochitsuki, but it was during church, so we couldn't come, but he will meet us today. So we have potentials. I love you mom and dad!

Love,

Eli

Goodnight, Mom, I love you!
Love,
Eli

Happy New Year!

Eating soup with chopsticks

Hi everyone!!!

Sorry this will be short. I saw a bunch of miracles this week. I haven't found any families on my mission, and this past week we found four, plus 16 other potential investigators! It was awesome. I know that the gospel can change anyone's life. Life's good and Japan is good. This is a video of what we are doing today. We are making mochi.

 

Keep it up.
Elder Frisch

Good morning Mom!
We have a ward New Year’s party today, so I will be on and off. I am feeling awesome.  We fasted yesterday. It's pretty tough making it to 5pm while bike riding and stuff, but it brings miracles. I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast that were bomb. The week after Christmas members fed us so much that I got up to 95 kilos! I'm back to 89 this morning. We had ward council yesterday and I got to tell them what I wanted from them. I said I would like people to teach. Elder Bednar once said we are the professional teachers and the members are professional finders. I love finding but if the members find, then the investigator will have ward support. I love you!
Love,
Eli

Goodnight guys!!!!!
Love you all!!
Love,
Eli

あけましておめでとうございます! That means happy new year

 Happy New Year!
It's 2017 and the year of the chicken (I think). I had a great week and the awesome opportunity to  teach people in Japan about Christ this holiday season. I took a couple minutes this morning to set myself some New Year’s goals, but I approached it differently. I set one big goal like " I want to learn to be patient with others" but then below I wrote about 5-10 ways that would help me progress towards this goal. I felt like setting the little goals would help me to take the little steps in the direction of the big picture. Everyone should try this with one thing. Anyways, missionary work was fun this week. Lots of member appointments and being exposed to more classic Japanese culture. I got to make mochi, rice cake stuff, by whacking steamed rice with a mallet until it turns into super sticky stuff and I got to try some classic New Year’s food. Overall a great week.

皆んな祝福があるように

I wish everyone the best in 2017

Elder Frisch

The mochi thing

The mochi thing

The mochi thing

Happy New Year Everybody!!!!!!
I made it to 2017 before everyone and it was crazy!!! How was New Year’s? Mine was pretty cool. It's pretty much the biggest holiday in
Japan, so the Mission President set apart four days for us to clean, clean up records, take a whole day to read the Book of Mormon and stuff like that. We have eaten with members more in this week than I think my whole mission! I'll attach some pictures.
Akemashiteomedetougozaimasu! That's Happy New Year!

I will do the Book of Mormon reading tomorrow. Even though these days are sort of take a break days, they are way busy anyway, and we still have appointments. I didn't see any fireworks. We still had to be in bed at 10:30. I wish I could've seen them! Yup, good ole sushi. More pics.

Love you guys,

Love Eli

A baller took us to conveyor sushi. New record of 25 plates

Yeah, I don't know what these are.

We did a thing called a mochitsuki which is where you make the mochi rice cake stuff. Here's a video.

He kept saying don't hit it so hard:)

 I finally had a lady tell me I could help her! She needed a dresser carried down some stairs so that was good. Thanks for all of the service you are doing for people! It makes you feel good, huh? I'm glad the boys are having fun with their Christmas presents. It sounds like everyone is training for an iron man or something! I better train, too. I love you and keep up the good work.
Love,
Eli

Happy New Year all!!!
Love you guys.
Good night.
Love,
Eli