Happenings in Augest

Fun In Japan

Kanto festival 8/10/14

We did get a pretty big earthquake here. It was actually the first one I have felt since I came to Akita. It was right in the middle of sacrament meeting, which is always kind of funny because everyone including the speaker suddenly pause and it lasted for about a minute which is actually pretty long for an earthquake. Its typhoon season here so we keep getting those, its basically constant rain but we are able to keep ourselves pretty dry.






Kanto Festival



Missionary experiences are always good. Things are going pretty good here recently. Our district got most of the numbers for lessons taught for this last week in our zone which was good, and the sisters have a baptismal date for next month which is very exciting. Also one of the Tongan boys is getting baptized this Saturday so we are all looking forward to that. We found someone recently that may become a new investigator this week, we are having dinner with him and the branch president later this week so hopefully that goes well. Our investigator surprised us and actually came to church this last Sunday. We are also teaching him later this week and hopefully he can come to the baptism this week also, it would be a very good experience for him. We feel really good about him and our hoping that he is getting close to excepting a baptism date also. We will hopefully get I-pads soon, my guess is maybe around Christmas time, but I don't really know for sure. We had a less active in my last area that wasn't able to come to church so me and my companion brought her the sacrament every week, she was very grateful for it.

Love you,
Elder Canepari

I also attached a few pictures from the Kanto festival.





Kanto Festaval



Aug 17, 2014

Here last Saturday one of the Tongan boys turned 8 and was able to get baptized, his father of course baptized him but it was still nice to see a baptism even though it wasn't one of our investigators. All though the sister missionaries here have an investigator that excepted a baptism date for next month, and we got the transfer calls and me and my companion are still here so I will get to be here for that. I don't know which one of us will preform the baptism but I'll let you guys know about that when it gets closer.

Also with the one investigator that I do have we brought up baptism in the last lesson, we hadn't planned on it before hand but both me and my companion felt prompted to ask him if he would be baptized. I know the last Elders here asked him twice and he declined both times saying "kibishi" which means he thought it was a little strict. This time his reply was "mada" which means not yet. We asked him what his concerns were and they mostly seemed to be about the waters depth and temperature, we told him that of course we can work with that. We asked him to think and pray about it. He has been really good about keep our commitments and we have a lesson with him on Wednesday so we will see how that goes.

 Keep being strong! The Lord puts obstacles in our path so that we can gain great strength, and with his help we can accomplish all things!

-Elder Canepari

A letter to Elder Canepari's Mom

8/12/14

Sister Canepari,

 Elder Canepari is an inspiration to us all. I thought you might want to read what his current companion wrote about him in his weekly letter to the mission president. He wrote:

“I love my companion! Canepari Choro is doing great! His attitude about dendou [missionary work] is best summed up in this experience we had last night. We were trying to contact someone and this little grandmother opened her door. After we had exchanged some pleasantries, she then told us (very politely) to "akiramete kudasai!" Then she closed the door. My Japanese is still lacking, so I had to look up this word, but "Akirameru" translates to "give up" or "abandon," so basically she was telling two LDS missionaries to "Please give up" on doing missionary work. Elder Canepari just started laughing as we walked away from the door. After we had gotten away from the house, he said, with a big smile on his face, that someone telling him to "give up" just made him want to try harder. I love working with him. “

Sincerely,

President Jeff Smith

8/31/14

I remember reading that article on faith. There are 2 words that I have realized have a little different meaning that what I thought when I left on a mission and that is faith and hope. I think that when most people think about the word hope they think its something that they want to happen but isn't very likely, just something they wish would happen. I have learned that in the church hope is more than just wishing for something, when we have hope we change the way we think and act about the situations in life that we go through.

Faith has been something that I have probably learned the most about on my mission. We are told to always have faith and without faith we cannot see miracles. I used to believe that faith is something that if we have enough of we can do anything. There are lots of examples in the New Testament, like when the apostles see Jesus walking on water and Peter jumps out to him and then as he starts walking towards him he becomes afraid and starts falling into the water and calling out for Jesus to save him, and then Jesus says "O ye of little faith". I have noticed that those words are used a lot. The scripture that puzzled me the most, which is in not just the New Testament but also the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants is the scripture where Jesus talks about how if we have faith as a tiny mustard seed we can move mountains. For the longest time the scripture has puzzled me. I have never been able to command a mountain to move into the sea, and does that mean that I don't have faith as a small mustard seed? But a few weeks ago when I was reading that scripture I realized that the word faith has a different meaning which also changed the meaning of the scripture for me. Having faith doesn't mean that we just can see whatever miracles we want and that we can command mountains to be moved, having faith means that we are following the commandments of God and that we are willing to follow his will whatever it may be. My mission president told us when he got here that if we want more faith we need to be more obedient. I didn't initially understand how faith and obedience have a correlation but if we are being obedient than God will know that we do

Japan Sendai Mission

have faith. And if we have faith as a tiny mustard seed we can command the mountains that block our way. Not real mountains, but the spiritual mountains. The mountains of hard tests, trials and faith testing moments.

I have also grown a lot spiritually since mom was diagnosed with cancer. Around the time when I started high school I noticed that I had stopped doing personal prayers and personal scripture study. The day you told me that mom had cancer was the first time I really prayed in several years. And it was the first time that I told myself I should be reading the scriptures. I used to pray every night asking God to remove mom of her cancer. I used to think that if mom wasn't cured of her cancer than itBut then there was a great talk during general conference, I believe it was President Uchtdorf who gave it but he said that when we are going through challenges and trials in life we shouldn't be immediately  meant that I didn't have enough faith.

 praying to God asking him to remove them. That sentence hit me right to the core and I realized that that's all I have ever done my whole life when I get a challenge. He said rather we should be thanking God. Thanking Him for the opportunity we have had to go through this challenge so that we might be able to learn and grow, I now know what the word faith really means, it means that even though we may be going through a hard challenge through faith in Jesus Christ we are willing to accept that by His will anything can be accomplished and we need to have trust in him because He knows what's best, and although challenges are hard we need to have them so that we can learn and grow and we should be thankful for them. I wouldn't say that I am thankful that mom has cancer, but I am thankful that because she has cancer we are all as a family learning and growing and hopefully becoming better people. It has given me greater purpose in life, as a person as well as a missionary.

I know that by aligning our will with the Lords we can get through life's challenges bravely, boldly, and with the faith that no matter what happens God knows best.

I love you so much

love,


-Elder Canepari

Aug 31

This last P-Day we went to this place called the OGA Aquarium, which was really cool. Then on Tuesday we went to a hanabi show. Hanabi is Japanese for Fireworks. The kanji (花火) literally mean flowers fire. It was really cool and I have some pictures from both that I will attach.

 We got a new investigator this last week, and both he and our other investigator came to sacrament meeting. Then one of the members in our branch asked if my and my companion could come teach a short lesson or something to her father who is currently living in an old folks home. We were talking with him for about a half hour when she told us that she wanted us to give him a blessing. My companion looked at me and I said "well I guess I can give it". I had never given a blessing in Japanese before so I was a little nervous, but I think it went good. Afterwards I told them I hadn't given a blessing in Japanese before and she said " I don't believe it". I guess my Japanese has been getting a bit better although I still feel like I can hardly understand and speak the language. But I hear that's how you feel even when you are on the plane going home. 

This months Liahona had a really great thing in the back that I read and wanted to share with you guys.

Where can I find hope?

"Everyone of us has times when we need to know things will get better....My declaration is that this is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in time of need. There is help. There is happiness....Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. Some blessings come soon, some come late, some don't come until heaven but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."

-Elder Jeffery R. Holland 

As you might know every week we have weekly planning, where we plan literally every hour for the next week. Its usually about 3 hours and is really boring. But this time we combined it with dinner and ended up having a lot more fun and being a lot more awake (probably from the soda). love you so much!

Love you guys,

-Elder Canepari


And yes, I know my hair is looking a little long, the branch president actually commented on it at church, I'm getting it cut today.