Love from Japan

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been so long since you have heard from me, but my last day was spent on an airplane flying to Japan.  The flight wasn't too bad even though it was around 17 hours and then Japan is 15 hours ahead of Utah so I jumped around 30 hours ahead in time. Well, I would have put a smiley face there, but I have no idea how to use this keyboard. It is so weird, and the space bar is like the same size of all the other keys so it is quite difficult.  Anyways, I actually talked to two different people-one at the airport and one on the airplane. Both experiences were really cool. The lady on the airplane said she would read the Book of Mormon.  I have actually had less success out here in the field though. Well, that is not exactly true. My companion and I have two appointments scheduled in the next two weeks, but finding people to teach is way difficult. I love talking to all the people I can though. My companion's name is Elder Shimbashi and he is from Canada.  He is a great Elder.  Actually though, Elder Emery from my home ward is in the same apartment as me, and that has been really nice to have someone I know here. My apartment is actually way super small and we all sleep on futons on a tatami mat room area, which is basically just a little bit softer than the floor, but actually I love it.  Japanese culture is such an amazing thing. Although, I do kinda miss electric dryer machines. I love everything here in Japan.  Well, I don't have very much time, but I love all of you so much and I hope you are doing well. Hopefully this next week I will have a little more success to report. I miss you guys a ton! P.S. Sorry I probably won't be able to send any pictures this week because the computer doesn't really work very well.

With Love

Elder Bedard

From Lis: Abe's not even in the US anymore so be sure to support him and send love from America!

Farewell US

November 16, 2013

Well everyone, it is finally here, I finally get to leave to Japan on Monday. I am so so excited!  Packing actually felt a little weird today, almost as if the MTC had become my new home. Weird right :D  Earlier this week, me and my companion got released as zone leaders, and I really had mixed feelings about it.  I miss being a leader and being able to help all of the new missionaries, but I quickly realized that I didn't have to stop helping them just because it wasn't my calling anymore.  I have also had a lot more time to study, which has been really amazing.  I progressed so very much this week, and I am pumped to see how much Nihongo I really know.  Something super sad that I realized this week is that I am not going to be able to go to the temple anymore... That breaks my heart; the Temple has been the only real place of refuge from life for me while I have been here at the temple, and any letters help ;)  One thing that I have learned from the MTC is that the power from personal study is like the most amazing thing. I treasure that time so very much. I know that when we take time to come closer to Christ through reading and deeply pondering and desiring to learn, God will guide us in ways we could never imagine.  Oh, I forgot to tell you, Elder L. Tom Perry came this last Tuesday to talk to us, and wow that was so very amazing. There are two main things that I learned from him the first is that we have the opportunity to actually develop Godlike attributes while we are here on the Earth. This is made possible through our loving Savior Jesus Christ. The other was taught me through the Spirit; humility is a characteristic with which, if we master, we can gain way to the hearts of others.  Man, I have enjoyed learning Japanese and the Gospel so very much. Japanese is probably the funnest thing in the world to learn :D (other than the Gospel of course). So funny thing happened the other day. My Brazilian roommate wanted to get a gift for his girlfriend, so after finding the perfect thing he goes to the checkout and everyone just stares at him.  You might ask why... he set down a blouse and a skirt to buy them.  He quickly clarified that they were a gift. Later I found out how much he spent, a whopping $80 dollars, so I asked what the special occasion was. There was none. All I could say was, "Siedschlag Choro" You must be in love.  He has just made my time so fun here at the MTC and is actually going to the same mission as me, unlike my roommate. Anyways, he is also a really good sport, so he can handle jokes well.  Anyways so yesterday I was reading the Fall in True to the Faith when a thought came to my head that that I thought was really interesting and want to share with everyone .  The thought that came to my head was that Heavenly Father knows every sin we are going to commit, so does he make it possible that we can benefit from every single one of them in some way?  I think so.  A prime example of this is the Fall. God knew Eve would give into temptation, and thus made that part of his plan of Salvation so that all man  could be benefited and be tested.  Granted, they were still punished, which will happen to all who sin, but through Christ's Atonement we have the opportunity to repent, learn from the experience, and actually come closer to Heavenly Father and Christ.  Well you don't have to believe me, but I just wanted to share it with you and keep in mind, I am not saying sin is good. By all means it is a terrible thing that can drag us down to hell if we let it, but because we are members of Christ's true church we can always return to Him. Anyways, I love all of you so very much and I hope you are doing well!

     -Elder Bedard

From Lis: Take a moment and send our Elder Bedard a welcome to Japan or farewell US email/letter!

NEW Address:

Elder Abraham Nephi Bedard

Japan Nagoya Mission 

1-304 Itakadai, Meitou-ku, 

Nagoya-shi, Aichi

465-0028

JAPAN 

Email Address:

abraham.bedard@myldsmail.net

Attached Photos

Me and one of my two teachers. He is so amazing, fun,
and inspirational. I love him!

Me and Alec Smith. 

Me and Alec Smith. It has been so nice to spend time 
with one of my friends from before the MTC.

The member volunteers that we have taught throughout our stay here.  Normally you only teach a member once the whole time you are here, but we taught these people several times each and those were some of the most amazing experiences I had here.  Brother Kowalski is the taller American and he was having a really tough time with something going on with his daughter and we were actually able to help him get through it and give him advice and comfort him through the Spirit.  He told us what a literal miracle it has been for him to have had a relationship with us and be taught by us.  Brother Nagano is just super amazing and such a Spiritual guy.  He helped us a ton with our Japanese and actually told us the last time we taught him that we have "the glow" and both me and my companion were like what? :D It was such a cool thing to do here.  The other ladies are just as amazing and are their wives.

All the elders in my class with Bingham Sensei.

loving Everyone

November 9, 2013

Me just obviously looking like a Jedi

Dear Everyone,

I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS TO GO TO NAGOYA!
And I am actually the travel leader of a small group of 9 going
there. Essentially I get to make sure no one gets lost or
 misses our flights etc...

     Wow this week just flew by like crazy!  I hope that everyone is doing really well.  I have pretty much recovered from the illness that I had, which is great because I leave in like about a week! I am so crazy excited, and I just got my flight plans yesterday, so I leave the MTC Monday Nov 18 at 3:30 am and my flight leaves at 7:30 am then I fly to Detroit.  After that, I leave for Nagoya and will arrive there on Nov 19 at 7:30 pm!  I have a really really long flight ahead of me, but hopefully I will get to talk to some Nihonjin (Japanese person) while I am on the plane and practice my Nihongo.  Other then that I will probably sleep and read my seiten (scriptures), "Jesus the Christ", my Pikachu/grammar book, and study tango (vocabulary).  Anyway this week was actually really fun, but first things first I was playing some intense volleyball yesterday and was running to do a spike, jumped up and hit the ball with like just my thumb because I was off balance.  Anyways, I did something to my thumb (nothing serious, probably just a bad jam),  but there is internal bruising, so we will see how letter writing goes today.  I have a scripture that I want to share with everyone that has taught me the only way to become more Christlike. The scripture is 1st John Chapter 4 verses (I think) 7-9.  Essentially God loves everyone, so if we don't love everyone then we don't know God.  The scripture says that we need to love EVERYONE.  That has been a real challenge for me, especially before my mission, but I have been praying for help and I have really come to closer to Christ as a result of heeding the words of this scripture.  Just the other day I was walking out of the cafeteria and an Elder said excuse me in a sarcastic way then ran right into me as if he was trying to establish dominance, It was actually quite funny.  Anyways normally I would probably have not taken that lightly and would have reacted in a negative way toward him, but honestly when that happened I felt sorry for him and hoped that his day would get better, then I realized that I loved him for who he was, which was someone serving a mission for God and I respect that :) Moral of the story, people are gonna be people no matter what you do, we are all mortals so none of us are perfect, nonetheless  we still need to love everyone for who they are and if we do, we will know Christ better then we ever have before because we will begin to become like unto him.  Wow time here in the MTC really flew by pretty crazily fast :D It feels like I just entered at tops a week ago, which makes me realize if this went by fast then my time in the field is going to go by even more so, and then pretty soon I will be back home speaking Japanese all the time :D  Anyways, I love you all so very much and I hope you are doing well. Iesu Kiristu ni shitgae tsuzukeba nandemo dekiru to shitte imasu!  (I know that if we continue to follow Jesus Christ, we can do anything!) minasan o ai shite imasu! 

     -Bedard Choro

The last pic is of me with my favorite jam, and my favorite Japanese learning book. Its called a Pikachu and it has a ton load of useful grammar. I could read that book and eat that jam all day long :D

Their Love for Us

Abe and random elders in his district.

November 2, 2013

Hey everyone! Wow this week went by really fast, and guess what?  I only have two more weeks until I leave for Japan! That is crazy!  This past week I was in bed and feeling really crappy and coughing a storm up so I didn't get to do a lot. But I continued to study and try to work hard, and, after much prayer and perseverance, I am mostly recovered from the illnesses I had.  So quick funny story: there are two similar words in Japanese-one being doseiai and the other being dosei. The first means homosexual and the second means living together with someone before you are married. I bet you can already see where this is going :D Anyways, so yesterday me and my companion taught the law of chastity for the first time. We were explaining what the different parts of the commandment were and then I asked the investigator, because I knew he had a girlfriend, "Dosei shite imasu ka?" which means do you currently live with someone? The investigator, who is my sensei, thought I said doseiai and my companion didn't know the difference between the two, so they both start cracking up in the middle of our lesson and then after I ask my sensei if I said the right word he realized that he had heard the other word. He felt really bad and apologized a ton afterwards, but all three of us were cracking up and couldn't continue to teach the lesson. After much effort, I began teaching the rest of the law and then as I began sharing some personal experiences about following commandments and baring my testimony I began crying as I felt the Spirit so powerfully. Never before had I openly cried in a lesson. Our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ loves us so much.  I know that with all my heart, and what great comfort and courage that knowledge does bring to my heart.  This church is the best thing on this earth today, and I know that if we follow the commandments of God we will never be happier in our lives and never will we make Christ and our Heavenly Father more happy.  It is that simple and yet so many people fail to realize the importance and worth of the commandments.  Anyways, through the Spirit and personal testimony we were really able to save that lesson and turn it into one of the most powerful and spiritual  experiences my companion, I and the investigator had ever had.  I love being a missionary so much; it is the most amazing experience I have ever had and I am not even in the mission field yet.  Oh Halloween was Thursday, Happy late Halloween!!! We didn't do anything in the Missionary Training Center to celebrate, except for that night me and my fellow missionaries ate a bunch of funky foreign candy that Lis had sent me. A lot of it was good and a lot of it was pretty rough :D That was a good night.  Also last Saturday, after I had already emailed everyone, me and my companion went and did a sealing session instead of an endowment session, and wow that was a great experience.  It was my first time and I had never felt more joy contained in a single room my whole life.  The things that being in this church enables us to do are amazing and powerful; where else are eternal families taught? Not really anywhere else.  I love Christ's church and all the blessing that come from it. Anyways, I miss you guys and hope everything is well.  I love you all and miss you. Matsu Jitsu Seito Iesu Kirisuto Kyokai wa shinjitsu desu yo!

     -Elder Bedard

"Me (Abe) and the hilarious Brazilian elder in
my roomthat I have become great friends with
and who's also going to Nagoya, Japan."

From Lis: I really enjoyed this message and I hope you all did too! In fact, I know Abe would love it if you take a quick moment and messaged him what you liked about it, your reaction, and what you've been up to. He loves hearing from you guys!

Email: abraham.bedard@myldsmail.net

Address: 

Elder Abraham Bedard

Nov 19 JPN-NAG

2009 N 900 E Unit 139

Provo, UT 84602

Abe with a member of Vocal Point, an acapella group. 

A beautiful tree at the temple a few weeks ago.