WOW ..Week 15! & Merry Christmas!

This week was faster than the last! 

How’s everybody doing? I’m doing amazing. I learn something new every single day, and it’s amazing! I LOVE it!

This week was cold and fun i think! 

Monday was more of a relaxed day, we watched the first presidency Christmas Devotional which was awesome of course! after that we returned to our apartment When Pday was over.

Tuesday we had our weekly visit with our buddy Panchhi! Pray for him he’s progressing but very slowlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. We passed out A LOT of Flyers that day for our Christmas party and English class. Good COLD day :)

Wednesday went and visited a less active member and was fed a ton! (Members love to watch me eat because they’ve never seen nor knew anyone could eat a lot as much as i do I guess haha!) After that we went to Ping Pong Night! We hold it every Wednesday at the Church :) Super fun to wreck everyone that plays me! (JK HA)

Thursday was a special day, we went to an old folks home and sang for them all Christmas hymns. I’m no singer, but I’d sing again for them any day. Seeing their faces and how happy they were to see us made me cry so hard!! I love them! It was a great experience. 

Friday was an awesome Zone training meeting! I got to meet a lot of new missionaries and learn new things from the Zone Leaders. After i left on a companion exchange with Elder Maeno a Japanese missionary. SO HARD. I had to ONLY speak Japanese and it was very difficult yet a good learning experience. Our next transfer day falls on my birthday so we'll see how that goes! I don't want to go cause I LOVE it here!

Saturday we ended the exchange, tried to meet a few people but they weren't home. So we went to the ward Christmas Party! That was pretty fun and we actually had more nonmembers than members there. GREAT missionary opportunity. The members here are awesome! They literally fear NOTHING when it comes to sharing the gospel.

Which brings me to my next point! This morning I prayed earnestly on what i can share with you today. As I began my study i was studying 2 Nephi 7-8. Lots of good stuff. But the main thing i pulled from that was fearing god more than fearing man. Verse 6 says: I gave my back to the smiter, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. i hid not my face from shame and spitting.

These are the words of Isaiah being quoted by the prophet Jacob. He took the reviling and still followed god! Chapter 8, verse 7-8. Go and look that one up! Basically, to mainly those of you at school still and those with your friends, do not be afraid to share the gospel, stand firm in what you believe (2 Nephi 8:1) and all glory to the God on high! Those who revile against you are there to try and take you down, OR they are waiting to hear your words and testimony of the Gospel! Just remember to follow the Spirit and teach from the heart when the opportunity arises. There’s is nothing more important to a missionary than the members he or she works with. Or to those who are not of this faith, I advise to listen in on to our message :) we can only invite you; we aren’t here to make you attend!

I love you all so very much. Please enjoy and remember the reason for the Season :) 

PS Write me more often people!!!  I’d LOVE to hear from you all! :)

Elder Preciado 

プレシア度長老

 This lady is in love with me so much she cut her hair just like mine.

 and... I made this delicious squid!

Here are little girls at the Christmas party who were attached to me! Love you all :)

Greetings from 日本 Week 14

Hello folks, 

This week was by far one of the best weeks of my entire mission. So many good things happened and has been felt and guided by the spirit. Wow what a week!

This week, I’ve been beginning to realize the blessings and importance of prayer.

Monday was a dandy ole Preparation Day. I decided to begin that day with a special prayer and favor from our Father in Heaven. I said, Heavenly Father, let’s have a good day today and i want something great to happen! My companion and I began our normal preparation day, did what we needed to do. We were out proselyting by 6 PM as usual. We headed over to the next Eki (Train Station) to hand out our English class flyers to people. Keeping what I asked Heavenly Father for in mind, i was determined to find and work hard! Time rolled on, and nothing was happening. Right before we left, we saw this high school kid whom we met a few weeks earlier, We stopped him and started up a good convo! He LOVES American History, with that being said, we bore witness and testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave him one, since you know, its American history ;) I knew heavenly father saw my faith and we were able to meet that kid again. We plan on seeing him again and discussing it! When we have righteous desires, the lord will grant them as long as we show faith and do our part.

Tuesday was good, hit up our friend Panchhi and taught him a good lesson; we are slowly progressing more and more with him. We must be patient! After we stayed and ate at his Indian restaurant and he challenged me to beat his na`an record again. If i did I said he had to put a picture of us missionaries on his wall in the restaurant for holding the record! So I did! I beat it again and now will be seeing a beautiful missionary man on his wall very soon ;) hahaha jk

Wednesday we didn’t really know what to do, we got mixed up on one of our appointment times and it fell through. So as we were wondering what to do, I decided to offer up a prayer considering that the Lord provided for us before, why not try again! We had a sudden prompting to fly on over to Suda Eki (which is pretty far) we weren’t` sure but we went with it. We showed up, and nothing/no one was there, we were pretty upset, we looked around there, tried contacting houses, nothing, We came back and found a small little whole in the wall Udon shop. Tried it out and it was pretty good! The shop owner was very friendly and we talked for about an hour or so? Maybe more. We talked about the gospel with him and about his family and asked if we could visit him sometime, He says aww, man no you would never find my house, we asked where it was, and he said right next to Suda Eki! We told him we were JUST there and knew EXACTLY where it was. We were pretty stoked!

Sometimes when we pray, and follow certain feelings, you may not realize the purpose, or reason at first, but this experience comforted us, may not seem like a huge thing, but it doesn’t need to be, I knew the Lord was guiding us that day because of our faith in him and in prayer.

Thursday had our best lesson with our Nigerian friend. We met him at the Eki and taught him all of lesson 1. I knew he felt it! I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. After the lesson he said, Can I like go to church sometime? This sounds amazing. We looked at each other and went, uhhh yeah bro! You can go whenever! So hopefully he went yesterday in Osaka which is where he lives! It was also special because i finished the Book of Mormon for the second time :)

Friday was on a comp. exchange w/ Elder Brown. Best comp. exchange yet. talked all about football! Man I miss those days of playing. SHOUT OUT TO MY HUSKIES AT CENTENNIAL FOR GOING TO STATE, GRIND ON!!!

Nothing else too special went on the rest of the week. Just been working hard and having an amazing time here in Japan.

In regards to my experiences and the things I learned this week, I have some things to share with you concerning prayer.

Prayer is a VERY special thing! It’s a way we can communicate with our Father in Heaven, our Master, and our Creator of the Universe. With that being said, prayer is more than just blessing the food at dinner, its more than saying the same things every time, it’s more than just throwing it up to the heavens and expecting a miracle to happen. You are LITERALLY talking to God personally. A very important part of prayer is listening too. If we ask God for help or an answer, and we don’t listen closely through the spirit, then we can expect NOT to get anything in return! When we pray we should pray strongly and openly, giving the desires of our hearts, AND having the faith KNOWING that you WILL receive an answer. Having the faith in knowing is one of the most important parts. Then it’s up to US to be patient and ready to receive what the Lord is trying to tell us. 

Sometimes we may not understand the things we receive. We may think, what? huh? what does this mean? why this? why that? Many instances have occurred for me here in the mission field. But it’s always important to constantly inquire of the Lord when such things occur. Alma 34: 17-27 (Please Read!) Talks about always praying unto the Lord! Lets take a look at Nephi. When he made it through the wilderness and made it to the sea, He went and asked God what to do. The Lord commanded him to build a ship! So Nephi being the beast he is, having the” I will go and do” Attitude, went and built the ship. Nephi had NO clue how to build a boat. But he knew it’s what he had to do so he was gonna do it no matter what. It says Nephi went back and forth; up and down the mountain constantly inquiring of the Lord what he should do next. Eventually because he showed his faith, his diligence, and listened to the spirit, he was guided correctly and was able to construct the ship needed to sail to the Americas. 

Remember these things the next time you pray, remember that EVERY prayer is a conversation to our heavenly father. Remember the importance of it and pray always! I KNOW and testify that it will bless you and you will see the Lords hand helping you in your own lives.

I love you all very much and hope you all have a good holiday season. Remember HE is the GIFT!!


プレシア度長老

Elder Preciado

a funny bike we saw

our Christmas Tree!

and dinner at a Sukiyas restaraunt. big bowl of gyudon! YUM!

Hellooo! Week 13

What is up my fellow friends and family!?

This week was one of the fastest, coldest, longest (yes i know i just said it was fast and long!) of my mission so far. Not to mention one of the most spiritual! I am glad to hear things are going well at home and I’m so pumped too that my knee is doing good!

Let me start off by saying it was snowing!! That`ll give ya a glimpse of how cold it is. The humidity is what makes it A BAJILLION times colder than it actually is. But that ain'

t gonna stop this missionary from doing what he’s called to do.

Monday was a normal preparation day for me., nothing new.

Tuesday was a crazy, but special day. We went and home taught an older couple in the ward with the branch missionary. Things with them are great and hope they will serve a mission together! Afterward while heading over near the Eki (train station) My front tire randomly popped and i almost flew over the handle bars into the middle of the road. After that crazy madness we walked over to the nearest bike shop to get it fixed but the guy was about to close up shop and he would let us leave my bike there to get it fixed the next day. So we had to walk the rest of the way and we missed our train. I was upset because we missed an opportunity to meet an awesome potential investigator. It was late, but we decided to still go over to the area where we planned to head to. We felt like we should but the guy wasn't gonna be there. we followed through anyway. While waiting, we met a young kid there, who really wants to learn more about the church! I knew why my tire popped, but heavenly father could’ve changed things in a bit safer way ya think haha? I'm safe though don’t ya’ll worry.

Wednesday was great. I had some pants that needed to be fixed so i took them in a while back and finally went to go pick them up really quick. After we were wondering what to do, we had tons of time. We prayed about it because we needed some help. After what happened the day before, i had faith knowing that God would guide us, after we ended praying, we both said, Lets go to the EKI!! (again don’t know why but we did, we had a weird feeling about it! but again, followed through). When we arrived we looked amongst the crowd of people and BOOM a huge African American man standing among them. We looked at each other and knew exactly why we needed to be there..for him! We went and talked to him for probably the next hour or so about him and his life, his beliefs, and how we could help him. (Thank the lord he spoke English, obviously!) He wants to meet with us now so we found a new investigator! 

From these experiences it has helped me realize that this is the LORDS work. I always have running in my head, JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL! TAKE IT FROM MY HANDS! Hahaha you may be laughing but its true, I’m letting him take my wheel that way I can magnify my calling to serve as best I can.

The rest of the week was nothing too special other than we headed to a less active members house to make mochi last Saturday! He invited the ward so there was a good amount of people there. Mochi is delicious its basically rice smashed into a big huge ball, looks like dough and is veryyy squishy. You take a huge wooden hammer and smash it it all into a bowl! (Ill show a picture.) That event was fun ,Loved it!

This week I received a lot of emails from fellow friends and family telling me how great I am and what not because I helped our needy friend out. I’m nothing special people! Out here on the mission, and like I've stated before, I've come to know Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father very well. I've also gained a lot of revelation through my daily prayer and scripture study. Doing what I did wasn't for the reason of being praised or thought highly of, it was simply because I’m doing what I’m called to do as a missionary. I’ve been called to serve by a living prophet, to serve the people of Japan! Luckily, I found an opportunity to help our friend out and I took it!  Jesus Christ spent his entire life serving others; he is the symbol of Charity. He did everything merely because he loved others. Being here in Japan has been amazing! I've grown to love these people so very much. I will always love them by serving them. I've never developed such a strong testimony as I have now. I’ve never had the desire to follow and become like our savior Jesus Christ, as I have now. I desire to one day be like him, and it all starts with our desires and our acts. THAT’S why i did what i did.  I do appreciate the kind words from every one, I really do! But I want you to know that all glory goes to the throne above. 

I can’t even tell you how much fun I’m having and how much of a blessing experience this is. There’s no greater satisfaction than finding and learning the things my heavenly father wants me to have, and then sharing that with others. The cool thing is, people here don’t have a Christian background. You might be thinking That’s rough!! But to me, it’s a blessing and a privilege. I get to introduce to these people for the first time, who their lord and savior, Jesus Christ is. A lot of people don’t believe it, and the works hard. They always say for every door you knock in Japan someone in Africa gets baptized hahaha. That’s okay! It’s not about the numbers, its about the peoples eternal salvation. I can’t wait for you and momma to experience the joy of being called to serve.

Please pray for me and my investigators. We've been working hard and got 13 now! Some so stiff, so pray their hearts are softened. I want all to know whom are reading this, that i love you all very much! I miss you all very much but that’s okay. I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing!  Remember to always Read and pray daily.

Scripture of the week, Moroni 7:33-48, regards charity

The Lord and I love you :)

プレシア度長老

Elder Preciado

BUSIEST WEEK OF THE MISSION SO FAR. Week 12!

Hello all!

Monday, was Preparation day obviously but we had to travel to Semboku, which is an hour away for a baptismal interview. Because it was so far we had to stay the night over there in the area with the Semboku Elders. The guy passed his Interview so that’s all that matters right?! 

The next day, my companion had to travel to Kobe for District Leader Training which left me on a companionship exchange with Elder Barton over in Sakai. Elder Barton is a BRAND NEW MISSIONARY. We both don’t have the greatest language abilities yet, especially him ha he just got here. And so basically we went forth with faith talking to everyone we could. We did have an appointment with a REALLY old man that the Sakai Elders are teaching. A man who LOVES music, literally any form of music. ANYTHING. even the ticking of a clock. Crazy but the man is awesome. He’s a little crazy! but a ball of fun! He had me right my full name down on a paper in English and Japanese so I wrote, Jacob Matthew Preciado, and then ヤコブマタイプレシア度長老. He has to read with his glasses and a magnifying glass haha, so he read my name and his eyes get HUGE. He says, Your name is JACOB, Jacob MATTHEW. YOU’RE A PROPHET. And so the rest of the visit he kept treating me like he was with Jesus the entire time, giving me food and popsicles and all sorts of stuff. It was weird and uncomfortable, but I love that guy and bless him and his soul!

Wednesday I came back, but then went on ANOTHER companion exchange with my good ole buddy Elder Steers :) Love that guy so much! and it was good to work with him again. That whole day takes us to Thursday. This time I had to travel to Kobe for TTT Meeting, or Trainer Trainee Training Meeting. (That’s a mouthful) That was a solid day. I headed there and got to see all my old buddies from the MTC!! Got to see my bro Elder Eccles. Shout out to him! Love that guy. That was also thanksgiving. They fed us a thanksgiving meal as best they could at that meeting. Wasn't quite like home, but I still enjoyed it. I appreciated them for trying their best! It was great! After the meeting ended, me and my companion hit up Burger King since we both have been craving a burger. That was Deluxe, not to mention expensive! BUT, Well worth it. Twas a good thanksgiving dinner :) 

Friday came back but then went on ANOTHER companion exchange! this time with Elder Urry. Guy is hilarious! super fun to be around and we both jam on the ocarina together. That was awesome. That night we visited our friend Panchhi at his Indian restaurant for dinner that night. We ordered an all you can eat meal where you get unlimited na`an, which is a really good Indian bread tortilla thing. These pieces are big too. Probably about the size of two dinner plates? Panchhi asks me if I eat a lot. and then asked me to beat his Restaurant record for the amount of na`an eaten. Best believe I smashed it. Ate all 9!

Saturday was my first relaxed normal day in the area. Got some stuff done, visited some people, and had a few good lessons. Not to mention I’m back on the bike again! Feels so good to ride and feels good to get skinny again! haha a lot more exercise. Sunday was a good day we had church and then were invited over to a member’s home for dinner. Things have been awesome and I’m loving every second of it all! 

This week, I want you to continue reading the book of Mormon! That way you can get that personal revelation meant for YOU! I’ve already heard some of you are beginning the challenge! That makes me SOO happy!

 頑張って下さい！(Work hard!)

I love you all and hope you have a good week. I know i will!

Elder Preciado