I love that are really just dang awesome.

Here is Elder Kelson Eliot's email to the world for September, 25 2014. He seems good. Star Trek is great!! Two things to note, she talks about being able to sing in the Priesthood Session of General Conference. General Conference happens twice a hear in downtown Salt Lake City in the Conference Center. It seats 21,000 people. And the session is broadcast thoughout the world, soooo we might get to see him!

Also, he would love letters. He mentions that you can go towww.dearelder.com, type a letter their and send it. It is free and he gets it in the form of a mailed letter that day. Make his day!!
Thanks. Shawn Eliot (Kelson's Dad)

Kelson and his little sister Sidney

Yo People of the world that is my friends and families and all the other people that I love that are really just dang awesome.
I fell like time just doesn't exist in the MTC. We just got here and already we have Dai Senpai (people that got here about a month before us) leaving. It's insane. I found out that I am in the same branch that Jeff Roylance (good friend that is in Sapporo now) was in. He was my Dai Senpai's Senpai. (people that got here a few weeks before them) I talked with Johnson Kaichou (my branch president) a little bit about Jeff. It sounds like he had a lot of fun here. He had this habit of falling over in his chair in the cafeteria. Lol i can only imagine.

Well this week was kind of crazy. I got over my cold, but still had a sore throat, so on Sunday Johson Kaichou told me to go to the clinic on Monday to make sure it was just a sore throat. I did and not to my surprise it was just a sore throat. The Doctor had me get a bunch of pills to take, to make it heal faster, one of which was Banophen. Banophen tends to make the Sinus's Dry and helps with Congestion. Well the only problem is my Sinus's suck. I started taking it, and Tuesday morning I had a bloody nose. I had another one that afternoon, and another one right before I went to bed. The next early in the morning i had a bloody nose again. And then when I woke up I had one, after gym and a shower I got another, and right before we started class I got another. Well they all got taken care of just fine, but after My DPL (daily planning session) I stood up and got that feeling of standing up too fast, but it didn't pass. That feeling stayed. I felt like I was going to pass out, and if I wasn't drinking water I probably would've. So I went back to the Clinic and explained what had been going on. The Doctor told me to stop taking the Banophen (duh!) and taught me how to stop a bloody nose (already knew that) and then told me that I need to drink a lot of electrolytes and rest. So he ordered me to bed rest, but didn't want me walking back to the Residence. So he had me sleep in the... Wait for it.... SICK BAY. They call it the Sick Bay. When he told me I'd be spending most of my day in Sick Bay, my Trekky Instincts went BOOM. I Was so excited. When we went in i said "Computer activate the Emergency Medical Hologram" The doctor looked at me like it was the weirdest thing he'd ever heard anyone say. I just laughed and say "It's a Trekky thing" and gave him a "live long and prosper" sign. So yesterday I slept pretty much all day. The Sick bay was just a bed, and a tray, with a curtain to block out the light. It wasn't super fancy its name was just awesome. I'm doing better now, I'm still a little dizzy but I'm not passing out.

So yeah that was great. But the other really cool thing that happened was last Tuesday we had Elder Scott come and talk to us about Prayer. It was the same talk that took place in the Utah Valley Regional Conference except it was geared towards missionaries. The best part of that was getting to see my aunt Becki Sitting up there with him. She is his Secretary and comes to a lot of things like that with him. After he was done I ran outside and found her. Literally the Highlight of my week, but apparently it's rare to get an Apostle to come to speak to us so it was a way awesome opportunity. They broadcast it to all the other MTC's, and I got to sing in the Choir. It was awesome. but after that, This last Tuesday, we had ANOTHER apostle come speak to us. It was Elder Ballard. He talked about goal setting, and about "Rising up" to the occasion. The one funny thing he said, was that every morning when the alarm went off he'd look at it and say "Well. I'm still here. Better get up" he talked about how every morning we should wake up ready to work and have a good attitude about it. It was a way cool talk. I also got to sing in the choir for the broadcast. Again. It was kind of a big deal. It was awesome.

So Choir. This is one of the coolest things of my life. On Sunday we were informed that the Elder's had been invited to sing in Priesthood session of General Conference. Only 365 seats. They handed out a "survey" of questions to decide who they wanted in the choir, and...... Wait for it....... I got in. I get to sing as a base for Priesthood session. I'm so excited. We start practice this Friday. It's going to be So awesome.

Well that's all the time I have for this week. If you have extra time you should Hop on www.dearelder.com and send me a letter. It always makes my day when I get a letter. Dearelder.com it completely free and get's me the letter that same day you send it. It'll explain it all when you get on there. You'll need the following information. Elder Kelson Eliot, Nov04 JPN-SAP mission (Japan Sapporo) Unit 12, and I don't know if you'll need it or not but i'm in district 68E. IF you have time send me something. Also you should send me questions so that I have stuff to talk about. It's hard coming up with these letters every week.
Oh well Till Next week
Stay awesome
Elder Kelson Eliot

Yes, there is an MTC on Star Trek Voyager

www.mormon.org

Busy Bee

The MTC District, ready to take on the world

Elder's Eliot and Adachi

Well hello Beautiful!

Peek-a-boo!

Lamanite Warrior

The Brittish are taking over the Provo LDS Temple

Kelson's MTC Companion Elder Thompson

Kelson teaches and Investigator

Elder Eliot and Elder Thompson

Provo LDS Temple Flowers

Kelson and Aunt Becki

Because you need a red one too!

Blue Japanese Hymnal

What A Time

Here's Elder Kelson Eliot's week two letter. Wow he is quite the writer. What was I worried about. HA Shawn Eliot

What A Time

Wow 2 weeks. Nuh uh. It has not been 2 weeks. You can not tell me that I have been in the MTC for 2 weeks. I just got here yesterday didn't I? Well I guess 2 weeks. Oh well. So the MTC is AWESOME. and at the same time its like. NOT AWESOME. It's way cool because we are living the gospel 24/7 here. There is not a time in our day when we are not doing something gospel oriented. It's so cool. You feel the spirit so much here. But it's not awesome in the fact that we all want to get out of here and go somewhere. I want to go to Japan right now. Except I need to learn the language first. hehe. But wow Japanese. It has come so easily to me. I can't remember what I wrote about it last week so I'll write it maybe again. I can already Pray and Testify in Japanese. I can even give a short watered down version of the first lesson. But I have to tell you about this way cool experience that happened this week. The 3rd day we got here we started teaching investigators (not real investigators, but one of our teachers pretending to be one of the investigators they taught in the field, so it's like we are teaching real people only we're not, it's confusing) and it wasn't in English. We were thrown right in to Japanese. We had a few hours to prepare for it, with what we wanted to say and what we wanted to teach about, and then Boom. We had to teach it. So our first lesson I kind of bombed. I accidentally left my notebook with all of the things I had written about what I wanted to say in my classroom. Whoops. So once we got in and said a prayer, rather than asking him about himself and trying to learn who he is and what he is like, I went straight into "Joseph Smith was a Prophet and saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ..." It was a disaster. We fixed it the next day though and I've been doing a lot better since then, but the other day, we had just gotten a new investigator. His name is Hiroshi San. We went in and started talking to him, and I had my notebook with stuff written in Japanese of what I wanted to say, but Guess what. I didn't use my notebook at all. I was able to hear what he was saying, and respond straight from my brain. There were words I was using i didn't even know I had learned. I only had to look up 2 words to help me. I felt the spirit so much, and the Gift of Tongues is so real. It was way cool. We've now only had 2 lessons, and he's gone from not believing in God at all, to Praying and Reading the Book of Mormon, and thinking about baptism. He is so so so cool. It was an awesome experience. We got to see Elder Scott on Tuesday. For those of you in Utah County, you heard the talk he gave. He gave the same talk to us that he did in Regional Conference, except he added somethings to orient it towards missionaries. It was a cool talk, and the best part was my Aunt Becki got to sit right next to him. So after the devotional was over I got to go and see Becki. After she left we were heading back to our classroom and a bunch of people stopped us wanting to know who she was and how I knew her. I'm somewhat famous now. It was way cool, The other cool thing I want to share from Tuesday, was from Choir. We sang Be still My Soul for the devotional, but our conductor told us some cool stories to get us in the mood. The one I really liked, was when he started talking about everything that God has done. Just think about the Universe and beyond and how huge it is and how much of it He created, and then imagine us. Worrying about little things like, what am I going to wear for my date this weekend, or I'm not doing well in school, and then you stop and say. Be still my soul. The Lord is on my side. This amazing guy that has built Galaxies unnumbered is rooting for me. He then talked about when Moses was told to go and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. And he said it something like this "Moses go tell Pharaoh to let my people go" Says God
"I'll do what you want, but Lord he is strong. Are you sure we want to mess with him, I mean he can build pyramids. And it only takes him few years. Honestly I think we should leave this guy alone" Says Moses
"Oh he can build pyramids huh. He sounds pretty strong." Says God Sarcastically "Moses I am he that created all of you. I created this earth and all the inhabitants on it, not to mention everything else I've created. If I wanted to I could destroy the earth by blinking. Go tell Pharaoh to let my people go" Says God.
Anyway that was just a way cool story. Remember it.
Well I don't have anymore time for anything else. I tried to send pictures, but the computers are being weird, so i'll find out how to do it and send them next week. Sorry.
I love you all a ton. The church is true. Love it and Live it.
See you next week
This is Elder Eliot. Signing Off
Sit Ubu Sit.

www.mormon.org

So the MTC ...

Kelson's dad here, (Shawn Eliot), here is a copy of Elder Eliot's first letter. He seems to be loving the MTC for sure. For those that don't get the whole missionary thing, the MTC is the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. He will be there until November 4th and then off to Sapporo, Japan. A district in the MTC is a group of Elders and Sisters that do just about everything together including study. Now for his first letter.

Hi all.
So the MTC ... that place though. It’s AWESOME. Everyone here is so kind and helpful. Our zone is just the coolest. The second we got here they were in making friends and giving us advice. My district is just the best though. For all future or current missionaries, sorry, your district will be cool, but not as cool as mine. There are 8 of us, and used to be 9. There are 3 shimai (sisters) in our district, Carr Shimai, Collyer Shimai, and Shurz Shimai. Then there are 5 choro (elders), Reed Choro (the district leader), Sedgwick Choro, and Everett Choro. They are the triple companionship. There there’s me and Thompson Choro. I’ll send pics next week. The other choro was Mickelson Choro. He had to go home for medical reasons. He was a great choro though and had a very strong testimony. If you could all keep him in your prayers, we are hoping he’ll return soon. If he returns very soon, he can even still be part of our district. But aside from that, my companion is pretty dang awesome. He is from HurriCANE (not in) and he is a band “geek”. He did marching band, and jazz band, and pep band. He is also way into cars. Before coming out here, he and his brother finished a 2 year long project. The restored a way old Volkswagen bug. He showed me the before and after pics. They were pretty cool. It seemed like he was very good and that is was hard work.

I’ve gotten to see lots of other people I know here. I see Elder Chase Dietz almost every day. We have gym at the same time and we usually play volleyball together. Also Elder Mac Johnson is in my branch/zone and is my neighbor in the dorms. Elder Hunter McKee is in the first floor of our residence building. I see Elder Riley Carter fairly often, too. I got to see Mr. Bradley (3rd grade teacher from Mt. Loafer) today at the temple. In talking with him, I found out that he got to go to Sapporo and a short time into his mission he got transferred to be one of the first missionaries to start the Sendai mission.

So our second day here there was a special devotional for all missionaries going to Japan. Brother Irie gave his conversion story. When he was a young man in high school, he was Buddhist. One day he was walking away from school with his friends when he heard someone say “(Japanese characters Kelson’s mom can’t decipher)” which is weird to hear in Japan. Puzzled he turned around. H saw 2 (more Japanese characters). They asked him if he would be willing to listen to their message. They started talking about Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. Eventually they asked him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. He said “I can’t. I only pray to Buddha.” They asked him if just for 2 weeks he could make an exception. So he said “I’m sorry Buddha, I’m going to pray to God for just 2 weeks.” He did and so received a witness that it was true. He took the rest of the discussions. They asked him to be baptized. He told them that he would ask his parents. When he asked them, they got very angry. His dad got a knife and said, “If you get baptized I will cut open your stomach.” Brother Irie was scared and told the missionaries he couldn’t because of this. His family called the rest of the relatives over and they all decided to take him to a Buddhist temple and have him speak to a Buddhist priest. He didn’t want to go but did to please his family. While he was there the priest told him everything about Mormons: we don’t drink coffee or tea, etc. But because Brother Irie seemed so “at peace” that he told his parents to let him get baptized. The agreed on one condition. He wasn’t allowed to go on a mission. Because he assumed that only Americans could go on missions, he agreed. He then found out he could go and really wanted to. So for 3 years he prayed that his parents hearts would be softened. Finally, they agreed to let him go. He went to Fukuoka Japan. When he got back he came over to America to go to BYU. Naturally he got to teach over at the MTC. Well, after awhile his brother called him, and said he was coming to America and wanted to come visit. Well, he smoked a lot, so Brother Irie slyly said, “Ok, but you can’t smoke in Utah.” So his brother agreed not to smoke. His brother decided to stay for a few weeks, and it got to the point that Brother Irie’s class was going to Japan. The Saturday before they left, Brother Irie asked his brother to come in and talk to his missionaries so that they could have practice speaking to an actual nihonjin (Kelson’s mom hopes that is right). To Brother Irie’s surprise his brother said sure. So his missionaries spent a few days preparing and when the day came they were able to flawlessly teach him. Brother Irie said “I wondered who had replaced my missionaries.” They were able to get him to take a Morumon Sho, and got him to Pray with a big card that listed the steps of prayer. In the very end they asked him, “Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?” Well, not wanting to disaapoint them, but also not ready to make that commitment, he said, “Chourou to Shimai, I’ll make you a deal, I will read this Morumon Sho and when I get back to Japan I will find the missionaries and finish the discussions, and get baptized.” So he was converted and was able to quit smoking right here in this MTC, not too long ago. It was a real cool story. I felt the spirit several times that day. It bore witness to me that it really is possible to learn Japanese and that the MTC is a place of miracles.

I hope you are all doing well. I’d love to hear from you all. If you want you could use this program called Dear Elder.com to send me stuff. The info you’ll need for that is my departure date: Nov 04, my unit #: 12, my mission: Japan Sapporo (JPN-SAP), and my name: Elder Kelson Eliot. I love you all so much. Till next week

(Japanese characters)
Elder Kelson Eliot

www.mormon.org

Missionary Blog

Missionary Blog

This is the beginning of the missionary blog for Elder Kelson Eliot. He has been on his LDS mission for almost two months now and (finally) leaves from the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Monday 11/03/2014 to Sapporo Japan. I (Kelson's dad) will be posting his letters and photos on this blog. I will list them in chronlogical order so some you might have seen already. Please continue to follow him and enjoy his work and travels. I know he would love and appreciate your letters or emails.

email is: kelson.eliot@myldsmail.net
Mailing address in Japan is:

Elder Kelson Eliot
Japan Sapporo Mission
Kita 2 jo Nishi 24 Chome 1-25
Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi
Hokkaido, Japan 064

www.mormon.org