February and March Emails: Colossians 2:5-7

Peace be the journey uncle B:

5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your lives, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so ^awalk ye in him:

 7 ^aRooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with ^bthanksgiving.

Jonah and his snow man



Family Picture Dec 2012

Brandon Rodd (Uncle B who passed away 2/14/14 from a rare cancer)
He's now watching over Jonah from Heaven....Peace Be The Journey

Uncle B watches over me from heaven now, he is my guardian angel

February 16, 2014

 (Jonah was told by his mission president that Brandon had passed away 2/14)

 

wow where to start.... Kaicho (Mission President) called me this morning.  It was pretty rough.  Please give my love to aunty val, coco, jared and aunty aimee.

 I will continue to pray for them and the rest of the fam in every prayer.  Hows everyone doing?

Today is such a great example of how truly blessed we are to have this gospel.  The passing of uncle Brandon is very sad and yet i am filled with peace and comfort despite being so far away from all of you.  I know that he is in a better place.  He is free of his past ailments and worries and is probably surfing or something up there. I am so gratefull for the knowledge that we will see him again.  This knowledge is the exact reason i came to japan.  I left all of you, my family, for just a short time so that i could help other families be together forever.  The gospel has allowed for this moment, despite the sadness, to be filled with joy and hope.  

 

I know that this church is true and that it contains the fullness of the gospel of our savior Jesus Christ. I know that our redeemer atoned and died for us that we may return to live with him and our families throughout the eternities.  I know that we will be reunited with our loved ones again. I know that we can one day recieve exhaltation and eternal life in the life to come predicated on our obedience to the Lords commandments.

I am doing fine dont worry about me.  Nothing will stop me from doing all i can to serve the Lord.  uh idk where the new pad is except its super close to the church.  i love my new area it has some city so its way better cause there are people here haha.  my new comp is cool. hes pretty quiet but we get along well.  church was good we had an investigator come which was pretty cool.  most spiritual thing was uh takashi sans last lesson with me and smart back in miki. Hes a cool guy and im sure he will get baptized soon.  hardest thing uh transfering was pretty crazy.  most fun was also transfering cause i got to see a bunch of places.  today we are going to a sports store and then to a couple of recycle shops with the other two missionarys that live with us. i live in the ZL apartment so thats different. i dont really need anything right now.  didnt eat anything cool yet but we are in the same district as the elders from shingu and they are gunna get me some dolphin so ill lyk when i taste that.  no hawaii people but like 60% of everyone in japan has been to hawaii and no gaijin in the ward but the ward is pretty big and theres a lot of good people here.  should be a fun and interesting transfer.

March 2, 2014

 

Herro everyone! im am doing well so no worry.  the language is coming along but its still tough. tough to stay focused on language stuffs when i have scriptures to study as well.  The investigators are chuggin along. we have a couple of really cool guys but they are all progressing pretty slow. sometimes i just wanna yell YOU GOTTA PRAY BRO but i remain silent haha.  today we are going to kimii deta which you should be able to google. its a shrine to the south of the city.  didn't get the box yet but ill be watching for it.  Favorite thing this past week was going back to ibaraki to hear Elder Whiting of the 70 speak to us.  he is awesome.  Hardest thing is just the daily grind of no thank yous but its all part of the job.  I don't need anything.  we are going with an investigator and with the other two elders to a all you can eat yakiniku/shabushabu place for lunch on my bday so should be good.  companionship is going good.  this week we are finishing following the training plan on knowing the savior so all of my study has been to better understand who he is.  the weather is pretty nice, not too cold.  the new area is good we can actually street here which is nice. its a kind of grody city but there's also lots to see here and i can see the ocean from time to time.  other than that nothing new except im gunna be 20!!!! holy moly where did the time go.  next transfer is my 1/4 mark. pretty cray anyways

Love you guys!!!