feb 18th

here's the next installment from our favorite elder:

Update on my end, the new comp is great we get along well, his style is a little different from my past comp but its not a bad thing. we are weekly having companionship inventory. but we have only really been together for a week. we have interviews tommorow so i am always excited/nervous for those.. had an interesting dream last night about my interview, but that's a different story.
The ankle is better, i am walking but somewhat painfully but i'm not going to let that stop me! missionary work is fun! i am really trying to work as hard as i can, my new comp is a hard worker, i can remember earlier on when i first got here, i was just waiting for time to go by hoping we could go back to the appartment, now i find myself working hard in everything, the key is only focusing on one thing at a time. when i used to return to the apartment i wanted to just take a nap or relax, now i am anxiously studying either japanese, pmg (preach my gospel), or jesus the christ, and i truly am happy. sure i think about home every now and again, but when that happens i just get to work, as president hinkley's father wrote, forget yourself and go to work. as president hunter said "work work work, and you will be happy." it seems as though i have finally understood their statements. earlier this week we had a mission conference by elder choi of korea an area of the 70 one of the things he suggested of us to do was with all of the commotion of the economy, and tragedies that are happening back home was to find a way to tie it into the gospel. an example used was by pres. packer- he called elder choi one night and asked how the economy was effecting korea. elder choi told him, and elder packer replied, dosen't it make you so grateful that in a time where the world is in so much distress we have a promise from the lord that all we have to do is obey his commandments and we will receive protection and blessings?
we truly have been given the blessing of commandments and a living prophet, that literally all we need do is to listen and obey, and we are promised protection, and happiness.
the snow festival this past week was a great time, i will send you all the pictures, pretty amazing all of the stuff there, tons of people too!!
well i love you alll!! you're in my prayers, and my heart
Love elder lawler

Feb 10 Letter

From his latest letter:

"well transfers are official. i am staying in otaru for another transfer.. my new companion is elder christian. elder nelson went zone leader to a place called hakodate. I'm really excited for this next transfer, hope things go good, my comp is hawaiian, he seems really cool, he is known as a way hard worker so that will be fun. my ankle is much better, i just wrap it now, if you could send some ace bandage wraps for me that would be nice, they only have temporary daily ones, so they aren't the best, but i can walk fine and all of that.
Have not heard from mom in a couple weeks.. whats up? Sounds great about the work out and weight loss dad, i do like the sports updates, please keep them coming, i have tons to say about them probably too much so thats why i don't comment back on them.
The last week has been pretty good, taught a really good lesson one with a lady that use to live in tonga i have some pretty high hopes for her. other than that it was a lot of helping elder nelson pack and doing last minute stuff. I love you all continue to update me on life, in a bit of a hurry, we are going to the big annual snow festival in sapporo!!"

He also had some desperate plea for decent hair gel and LETTERS. He even had me break into his facebook account to beg for more mail. Sooo.... let's get into the Valentine's loving spirit and send Elder Rora (Lawler) some mail. His address is located on the left of this blog for your writing convenience ;)

Here are some pictures I found online of the snow festival he's talking about just because it feels like all posts should have at least one picture.

Feb 3

This is a long one, but it's a good one...

yo yo! its been a crazy week!!! all starting off with thursday, day one of ankle injury, pretty sucky, we were confined to the appartment, so we went through the area book, we called everyone in there!! that took the whole day up. then we made carmels with some people in the ward it was pretty awesome, they were a lot of fun. fugita passed her baptismal interview with flying colors!
Friday was another day in the appartment or solitary confinment as i like to call it, i was way sick of being there! earlier in the morning i was thinking about what we could do, i had the random idea to just go through the phonebook and try approaches and see if we could pick anyone up, when it came time to go to work, elder nelson had the same thought and mentioned it so we gave it a try. i thought we should start and do all the names that ended in fugita (would be the equivelent of calling all the smiths in the phonebook) after 2 hours we had nothing, just a couple contacts but no pick ups. finnally elder nelson talked to a guy who likes english picked him up and took a come to church commitment, pretty wild! we were excited.
saturday was the day of fugita's baptism. the first one i would get to watch, i liked it. The baptism was great, as soon as fugita came out of the water she was crying. she was very touched and graetful. just how grateful i did not know but would soon find out. when she went up to bear her testimony she was very emotional. she could not really speak much, but whatever she said it was expressing her gratitude, it was very sincere. then to my astonishment she closed her eyes bowed her head and started saying a prayer, at first i was stunned, i didnt know what to do, i thought it was very weird but than as i listened to the prayer it hit me, she was so grateful, so overcome with emotion and gratitude that she knew of no other way than to thank her Heavenly Father than to offer a prayer to Him. i was very touched by her prayer, in which she said she was older and commited sinns and how greatful she now was that they were washed away, she thanked the missionaries, and everyone that helped teach her. I have never seen someone so humbled and greatful. This is what a mission is all about!! fugitas conversion and experience will forever be engraved in my mind.
Sunday we confirmed fugita as a member and gave her the spirit, and the other fugita from the phone book came to church, he is about 30 or so very tall for a japanese person, after church he said he enjoyed, but was not really interested in religion, but agreed to meet with us again to talk in enlgish and get to know us.
Monday started off with teaching tatsuya (phone book guy) at first we talked, he is very smart and very good at english, he started to explain japanes culture, history, background. i learned a lot, very fasinating!! he talked about the way japanese people think, act, it was amazing, i learned a lot, and it made a lot of sense. he than told us how he was different why he was not like the rest. he said about ten years ago he was very unhappy. all he did was work. he got up at 6:30 took a train to work, went to work, worked, took a train back got home at 12:30 at night, slept and then did it all over again, every day, no vacation, no weekend. he repeated that life stlye for 5 years. one day he said it was too much, he fainted, woke up in a hospital. when he woke up people thought he was mental, but he explains he had awoken, and broke free of the life he was trapped in, he stoped working, and lived, his girlfriend thought he was crazy and left him, to this day it is a sensitive subject. i was very taken back by his story. as i just listend i found so many thing he said that highlighted messages of our gospel, i just listend, never said anything unless he asked me a question. and he talked, a lot. he told us when he came to church he felt a peace, a sense of love, and unity. he agreed to come to church next week, again. I am very excited for him! the lord guided us to find him, in a very perculiar way, but i am so greatful to have found him, it can be said it was a coincidence or fate, but it is nothing short of the tender mercies of the lord, and his gathering of his elect. even if tatsuya turns into nothing i have learned a great deal from this experience. after that we had another lesson with a 25 year old kid named hashimoto. we went over his reading and discovered he had, had quite the experience. he said at first he did underdstand mosiah 3 the spot where we gave him to read, so he than went and read mosiah 1-4 and he gave a perfect explanation to us of all the chapters. it was amazing, just as we were about to move on i asked him how he felt and he could not describe it, he said it was more than just learning, he felt something, he said he felt like he should pray but didnt. we told him that was the spirit, from there the lesson went great! he offered one of the best prayers i have heard from an inverstigator ever!!
Tuesday was a day full of member visits and meals, it was a lot of fun.
This last week tried my faith with my ankle injury, but it proved when we are given afflictions and trials, the lord is testing us to see if he can bless us, he wants to shower us with blessings but wants us to prove that we want them, that we will submite to his will, i was patcient in my small affliction, and the blessings from heaven we received without end!!! How great is my calling
With all my love
Elder Daniel Henry Lawler

Now for some pictures... too bad there is no cane in view.

Fujita's baptism 

Can you believe  it looks like dano is actually enjoying the food in Japan? I keep holding out for his first encounter with squid and fish soup...

jan 20 & 27 update

So I figure it's been long enough since someone posted something on this blog... "Uncle Dano Missionary" as Eli calls him is doing pretty well on the other side of the world. Here are some excerpts from his Jan 20 and Jan 27 emails.
Here he is with his district in Otaru:

Jan 20 email to Becca:
This week was way good! had a baptism!! Honma, she is amazing really solid, well prepared, Pres Daniels interviewed her and was very impressed with her knowledge and complimented us on our teaching. we also had our interviews with him, we are top three in the mission in every key indicator!! and leading in most! pretty sure my companion is going zone leader next transfer that is what everyone said. went on splits this week with a japanese elder, watanabe he is way cool it was a lot of fun, the whole apartment is japanese, its was a pretty wild time! i will get you those pictures next week !! (this is the last picture at the bottom) oh real quick one picture is of the baptism obviously, the other one is way funny we went to an old investigators house we had never met with before, and they were way crazy!! the doll in the picture is like their kid.. they are old and don't have any kids so they went a little crazy i guess, bought a doll and act like its their kid, the grandpa carries it everywhere, they have pictures with it, at like all these different places, they have a room for her, have over 50 pairs of shoes for her, they have fake food for her, it was way weird, i was laughing the whole time at them! me and elder nelson were dying. the food was way good, and they want to feed us again so probably will go back...

I would like everyone to closely examine "the doll family" because Grandpa is wearing a truly spectacular wardrobe combination. I'm also not sure whether he has 2 doll children or if the child (who would be the bigger doll) has a doll who is a toy.

Jan 27 update to the family:
okay real quick update, had a bad incident yesterday playing basketball with some potential investigators. I went for a lay up and got under cut.. went to the doctor today and i tore two ligaments in my ankle, but im not too bad. They gave me a cane. As of now i can walk, slowly, with my cane, i am not sure what will happen for transfers, if they will keep me in the field of if they will put me in the mission home. hopefully my ankle will heal fast and i can stay in the field but i am not sure. Other than that everything has gone really well this week. went on two more splits, and found out some things i don't want to do as a missionary, the elders i went on splits with were what we call wanpaku, lazy. Our baptism got moved from last saturday to this saturday on the 31st. she is looking really really solid. we did the prep interview and went over baptismal questions and she was amazing!! i am really excited for her and she said she was really excited to be baptized!! that made our week! other than that nothing too exciting has happened this week. we had a couple of interesting lessons this week. one with a women about 29. we shared the joseph smith experience, and asked her what she imagined it looked like, then showed her a picture. she said i saw it a little different. she went up to the board and drew a ufo with a beam coming down, and jesus and god in the beam, very interesting, i tried not to laugh but was unsuccessful. i recovered and told her she was off. I will never forget that one. this week i have really noticed i am understanding a lot more when people speak now, i still struggle speaking but i can understand much better now. i would encourage anyone reading this email, to turn to your heavenly father and talk with him, being on a mission has shown me how much god loves everyone of us he knows who we are! he loves us! he wants us to be happy! and he wants to hear from use, he has given us a way to talk with him, and feel his love, through prayer and reading the book of mormon we can know and feel the love of our creator and father. The lord will continue to pour out his blessings as we make and effort to follow his beloved son jesus christ. I love you all!!!! and am so proud to be a missionary!!

As you can see, Dano is doing well and we're all very proud of him. I'll try to be more responsible about posting on this so all of Dano's fans can follow him. In case you were concerned he was getting too grown up or serious I have included the following pictures: