Kon'nichiwa Minasan! (hello everyone) This week has been great! Today is my fifth week mark! I can't believe it's been that long already! It's going by so fast! I kinda feel bad because I don't have that many crazy/cool stories yet. Everyday here is about the same haha! this week on Friday, all of the missionaries were able to watch Pres. Packer's funeral! It was really awesome. On Sundays our Branch President chooses two or three missionaries at random to give talks in Japanese.. so we all have to prepare one each week just in case we're called on. I was called on last Sunday haha so I got to give my first talk in Japanese! It was scary but it was so fun! 

My companion and I were having some difficulty getting through to one of our investigators and he didn't seem interested at all.. so we stopped the lesson and just told him how it is! We told him that we love him and that God loves him. We told him that we and Heavenly Father want him to be happy and to be able to receive all the blessings that are in store for him but that he has to help himself by keeping his commitments to read the Book Of Mormon and to pray everyday. after he could see that we genuinely cared for him and his happiness, he opened up and said that he would keep his commitments! The Spirit was so strong; it was awesome! In fact, the spirit was so strong that we felt prompted to ask him if he would prepare to be baptized and he said that he would. This Gospel is true and we all knew it before we came to this earth. That's why when people hear about it, it rings true to them! Sometimes we just have work a little extra hard to remind people of who they are and why there here.

I've only been out for five weeks but I can say that my testimony has grown and my view on life has changed. There are so many things that I'm starting to realize are not as important as I once thought they were. And there are other things that I feel are most important. I'm so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be here and lean how to be a better person and hopefully help others become better along the way! This is Christ's Church and His gospel. It is true; there is no way it can't be. 

I love and miss you all so much! Be safe and God bless.

Love, 

Elder Osborne

Also, for you Heritage Kids out there look who I ran into

This week has been great! I feel like I don't have that much to write about as far as what I've been doing cause everyday is pretty much identical to the next but I have some really cool experiences!  For our devotional, we had Jenny oaks Baker (Elder Dallin H. Oaks' daughter) come and speak and perform with her kids! It was so awesome! It was amazing to see her whole family playing together.  I didn't get word that many of you were fasting for McKay as the letter came the day after Fast Sunday because the mail room was closed all weekend, but something really cool happened! When I read your letter about fasting for McKay on Sunday, my heart sunk because I thought that I had missed it... but then I realized that on Sunday, when I was starting my fast, I was asking for strength to be a better missionary and right before I closed my prayer, I felt like I needed to fast for McKay and for his health. So I added that in to my prayer to start my fast! I'm so grateful and happy to know that I was fasting for McKay with the family and I didn't even know it! I count that and a blessing and a tender mercy from the lord. :)

So the 4th here was pretty much a normal day until the end. we had a special devotional which was awesome and really reminded me of heritage and of how much i love this country! After the devotional, we got to go out to the parking lot and watch the fireworks from the stadium! It was really cool.

My Japanese is getting better and my companion and I are teaching all the time. it's getting way less scary every time we do it, so that's good haha! I really like it here and i love my District, roommates and my companion. Heavenly Father is definitely looking out for me. :)

Again, I love you! be safe and I'll talk to you soon. 

Love, Elder Osborne

I just walked out of singing for all the new mission presidents, The Twelve, and the Prophet! Words cannot describe the feelings and the spirit that were there. It was so fun and it was an amazing experience. Yesterday when we were in one of the meeting rooms in 1M, David A. Bednar came in while we were practicing!!! He came in willy nilly and said, "Brother Egget, (who is the choir conductor) asked me to come sing and be in the choir with you all, but I have to conduct so count your blessings." HaHa :) He then told us how grateful he was for us singing and sharing our talents with all of them. He told us that he loves us and went back to conduct. It was so crazy how the room changed when he walked in. He is without a doubt a prophet of God.

My district and all the other missionaries going to Fukuoka, had to amazing opportunity to meet our new mission president! They are so amazing. I feel so blessed! They are so sweet and fun. My Mission President, Pres. Egan was an amusement park consultant before being called and he said that he loved his job because he got to help people learn to have fun and work hard. This is a big part of our mission vision. :) Our mission vision is:

1. Work Hard

2. Work Smart

3. Be Strictly Obedient

4. Have Fun

5. Come Home Tired

I love our vision and I will always do my best to live the mission vision. :) So when we were meeting the presidents, something amazing happened! Everyone was going around and telling things about themselves. Almost everyone was saying that they love the spirit that music brings and when it came to me I expressed how important music is to me and how I know that we can bring souls to the light with music. I also talked about Inspire and my experience from that and then Pres Egan said that he and his wife love music and that the spirit that it brings as well! He told us that his parents were in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and that his wife is a piano player!! When he said that, I felt so good because I was really worried that he wouldn't want music to be a major form of missionary work. But I can tell that he and his wife both have a strong testimony about the power of music. I felt like this is where I'm supposed to be, I mean, I knew it before, but I really knewat this meeting. I felt so much comfort. I feel that the Lord was looking out for me. :) and here's the best part; after the meeting get-to-know you session, he came up and hugged me, shook my hand and said, "We are going to use you!" I was so happy to hear that.

Love, 

Elder Osborne

P.S. I got my new name tags for Japan! they are in katakana

Hey Family and friends!! 

Wow! it has been one week! They have a saying here that the days are weeks and the weeks are days. Is so true because the days feel like they are never going to end :) but the weeks go by so fast. it's weird. The food ranges from really good to MacDonald's...I mean, that most of the food is tasty, but you feel so unhealthy after eating it. XD haha I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast yesterday so that was awesome! 

My first day was a little stressful just because it was all new, but now that I've got the hang of things, it;s really great! The learning is so fast paced here! We started learning Japanese right when I got here and the next day we taught our first investigator! haha Since then we've taught 4 lessons and he just said yes to baptism!!! I love teaching so much haha even when we're teaching in broken Japanese!  Even though we have only had Japanese for one week, our investigator could understand enough to know what we were saying! the gift of tongues is real!! 

My companion's name is Elder Hardy and he is so awesome! We are "on point" and we work really well together! Oh and he is 6'5" haha :P He and I got to pass the sacrament to our branch on Sunday and I got to sing  "I Need Thee Every Hour"  with my zone leader, Elder Hanagan! I loved singing so much! Speaking of singing, there is a new mission president's seminar next week and all the apostles and the prophet are going to be there to teach the new missions presidents! (my mission pres, included!!) so i was one of 36 chosen to sing in a special MTC choir for that event! I've been going to rehearsals every morning this week! I love it and i'm so excited and blessed for the opportunity! Thank you for all the support and prayers! I love you all!

-Elder Osborne

Week 1: Dallin Enters the MTC

"Hey Family! Wow! I'm here at the mtc and we are all allowed to write a few sentences home to let you know that I'm safe. I can't talk long, but I'll email you on Thursdays which are my p-days. I love you and miss you all so much!"
-Elder Osborne