Less than 4 weeks

Elder Johnson spoke at last week's devotional. He is a convert to the church and now he is a Seventy. He is so excited and fired up about the work which was a great example to me.
The temple brings me so much joy. I love going to the Provo temple every Tuesday.
Last Wednesday I was able to help someone that had some concerns through the mormon.org chat system in the Referral Center. He has been taking some lessons from the missionaries but he had some concerns.
I practiced teaching lesson 1 with Elder Coffey last Wednesday. That was cool. This week is lesson 2 in Japanese for the first time. How exciting!
I move to a different room and then back to my old room this week. Our district was in flux this week. Elder De Menezes got his surgery yesterday and had his mission change from Hiroshima to SLC South. He is way excited though. Two of the kohais moved up to our group since they know some japanese already. They both moved into our district. Unfortunately one of the elders in our district went home yesterday. We were all sad to see him go. All in all we now have 10 people in our district.
Yesterday I played an awesome game of basketball. I played on a team with Elder Stephen and Elder Coffey. We rocked.

Lots of love

Pictures, FINALLY!!!!!!

Pictures and captions from Elder Hogewoning:
A couple of great elders: Elder Clark and Elder Bonham. These two were amazing examples to me as senpai. They spoke Japanese a lot and were always warm and friendly.
Hey, look, it's me.  What is going on with my shoulders?
The epic tripanionship, America's finest.
The best district I ever had.
Just the elders.
What a beautiful backdrop for a temple.
It's Elder Hoffman on our first day holding up the Book of Mormon in Japanese.
Elder Stephens taking a picture of me taking a picture of him on our first day at the MTC.
That's Elder Coffey's room.  He lives just down the hall. PS That may or may not be Elder Coffey.  Another amazing first day photo.
(I love how Corey drew a map of his hallway on the back of the picture just to show us how close he and Preston live to each other.)
There's where I live.  It is simple yet stylishly functional.  You can't really see the desks, beds, or mirrors, but that trash can is pretty awesome.

Just waiting...

We're waiting for the next group of missionaries going to Japan to come. They'll be here tomorrow. I feel like I'm on a plateau. I need to keep moving forward and have patience with myself. I'm still learning and it is okay if it's a little slower sometimes. Teaching in Japanese last Thursday was a good experience. You realize how much you know and how much you don't. We were able to teach about God and prophets but that was pretty much it. It takes a lot of time to explain concepts when you have such a limited knowledge of the language. This week we'll hopefully get further into Lesson 1. Last week Elder Perry spoke at the Tuesday night devotional. He spoke about companions. He talked about how Alma and Amulek were great companions even though they didn't know each other before hand. That is just like me with my future companions. I won't know them but we can still have a great experience together. Elder Perry had a life long friend in his first companion, Elder Toleman. I hope that I can have great relationships with all of my companions. Sometimes I lose sight of Japan. It is so easy to get caught up with the daily schedule and learning Japanese. It is all for that single purpose of inviting Japanese to come unto Christ. I got to attend the Draper Temple dedication on Sunday. President Monson mentioned the missionaries in the dedicatory prayer. It made me feel amazing. Whenever someone prays for the missionaries it means so much more since I am a missionary now. I completely lost my train of thought... Anyway I think about all of you a lot. Help the missionaries out with referrals. They need the help.
Lots of love,
Elder Hogewoning

Senior Statesmen

All of the sempi left yesterday and today really early in the morning. I'll definitely miss them. Some of them were great examples to me and they will be great missionaries. Now we wait for the next group of Japanese missionaries that will come in next Wednesday (not tomorrow). So this week we just think about how little we know and how unprepared we are to help the next group of missionaries. It's weird to think that we are the examples now. I feel like am a learning so much so fast. Some of it sticks but some of it just flies right over my head. I wish I knew more; I just need to keep working hard and be patient with myself too. My companionship got shaken up on Sunday. Elder Stephens has been assigned to a sempi that has to stay to have surgery. That leaves me and Elder Hoffman in our own companionship. I loved our "tripanionship" but it is tough trying to juggle three opinions. I tried to always be the peacemaker but I felt like I wasn't providing enough input. I can already see why we are commanded to go two by two instead of three by three. I really want to improve on setting goals, especially goals to learn more Japanese. I feel like I could be learning faster if I set some specific goals and really focus on them. I love getting letters. The surprise ones are always exciting but ones from family and best friends are still the best. I love all of them though. They really buoy me up. I'm sending some pictures next week which is so terribly exciting (ha ha). I've never really been good at taking pictures and recording things in my journal. Last week was kind of bumpy but I know it will make me and my district all the stronger. I'm halfway to Japan but it still seems so far away. It will be here sooner than I think...

Lots of love,
Elder Hogewoning

It's all a blur

So I don't really feel like writing right now but that is what diligence is: doing what you're supposed to even when you don't feel like it. I got 5 letters last Friday and a package which was pretty exciting. The letters were from Christina, Dad, Marty/Kelsey, some people from the Grossmont institute, and the La Mesa 1st ward teachers quorum. The package was from my first cousin once removed, Leah. She is my great-aunt Dorthy's daughter. I got lots of food. Between my companions and I, we have quite a stash. I think we're set on junk food for the rest of our MTC stay. I love my district and my teachers, especially Brother Tsuchiya. He is really diligent in all aspects of his life, yet he still feels like he should be doing more. I can kind of relate to how he feels. The elders that came in 6 weeks before us (seniors or sempi in Japanese) are leaving this Monday and Tuesday. I can't believe we are already going to become sempi and have to set the example for the kohai (juniors) that come in a week after the sempi leave. I will definitely miss them. We are going to be doing all day Eigo Danjikis (English Fasts) on Wednesday and then every day starting on Friday (except for Sundays and Tuesdays). From 7:00AM to 9:30PM we'll be speaking Japanese. It's pretty intimidating, but if we have faith and try our best our ability to speak will grow rapidly. I'm blanking on what else to write about. I need questions or prompts or something. Lots of love, Elder Hogewoning

Corey's MTC District

Corey wrote, "From left to right-Elder Hoffman, Elder Stephens, Elder Burnette, me, Elder Devey, Elder Pomerleau, Elder McCarthy, our teacher Brother Tsuchiya Sisters in front: Sister Weatherby, Sister Sawada, and our other teacher Sister Lew This is my MTC district, 27H. Everyone is awesome. I love all of them. We are a little smaller than other districts (usually 12 instead of 9), but it's nice."

Week 3 (e-mail from Corey)

Hi everyone. Thanks for the letters and the love. I wish I could write to all of you, but I just don't have enough time. I thought a lot about family this week, especially Mom. A couple of inspired talks in meetings really helped me. The first wasn't really a whole talk, just a small portion. Elder Garn of the Quorum of the Seventy was last week's devotional speaker along with his wife. He said to begin comments that his wife lost both her parents by the age of 16. I felt blessed that my family situation wasn't and isn't that difficult. Even though my family isn't with me, it is still nice to know they are there. The other talk was during mission conference on Fast Sunday. Sister Breinholt talked about her family and her grandparents who were married for over 80 years. I am so grateful for the family I have and look forward to the family I will have in the future. On Thursday, Elder Stephens, Elder Hoffman and I taught lesson 1 again in the Training Resource Center (TRC). There is a mock investigator that we get to teach. Even though the investigators aren't real, we all still felt the Spirit. The three of us elders all felt the Spirit guiding us thoughout the lesson. We were all really stressed about the Japanese language task before the lesson, knocking on a door and talking with the person about their family. Our teacher, Tsuchiya sensei, encouraged us to pray before the lesson rather than to frantically continue practicing. It really calmed me down before and during the language and lesson portions of the TRC. Anyways the food is fine and I am eating quite well. My companions (yes I have 2) are great elders. They love to work hard and obey the rules. I don't know what I would have done if I had any other companion that wasn't so diligent. Thanks again for all of your support and love.

Elder Corey Hogewoning