Week 77 - March 20, 2017

There were a lot of random things so I'll try to remember them all.
Tuesday: We just got to do a whole lot of dendo. We housed a ton and it got pretty cold that day but it was no problem. We found one guy who said that he had met lots of Mormons before! He lived in San Diego at one point and he was only like 22 years old. He also went to Russia and said that he met Mormons there as well. He said we were super nice. We taught him all about the BoM and gave him one. He said he'd read it but that he doesn't really have time to meet for a while. So we will periodically see how he's doing until he makes time for the gospel. Way cool miracle.

Wednesday: We had a district meeting I know that. Everything else seems to have fled from my memory. Nice. Oh, I remembered. We went to the Takakusagi's house at night and they were super nice and had 3 kids going wild. It was pretty fun.
     But here is something I have been doing for a long time. So at the apartment here there is just a bunch of old trash and useless stuff so I'm healing it! I broke apart like 5 old chairs and dismantled a bunch of stuff. Also threw out like a bunch of bags of old stuff and a whole tone of useless junk.  I swear missionaries are so dirty.

Thursday:  We had a nice long planning session to get our investigators moving and we are just trying to repair the area book and phone and previous carelessness from missionaries. So we are still working on that. At night we had Ekaiwa which was normal as usual and I'm trying to think of better ways to get them more involved and stuff. The students are fun and good though.

Friday the highlight!  So we had a conference in Shonandai again and Elder Choi from the Asia north Area presidency came to speak to us! It was a way awesome conference with too many things to include but one thing that he emphasized a lot was this, "if you don't like it, like it!" He talked about opening our mouth anywhere and liking the things you don't like and having fun with missionary work. He calls it "fun with the spirit." He says if it isn't joyous and fun sometimes then it's just all hard which isn't what we want. Sister Choi was also funny and super, super nice. They reminded me a lot of President and Sister Wada, so it was like we had 2 sets of mission parents. Also, I got chosen to have a personal interview with Elder Choi so that was awesome! He is super nice and just wanted to hear my conviction and simple testimony of the gospel and in return gave me some encouragement with his testimony. The church leaders are really called of God. All you have to do to know that is see how they act with love all the time. Also I got to hug him at the end of the interview so I can now check of my list that I've hugged a general authority.

On Saturday it was way nice and warm. We had lunch with the Shuto Family and it was a really good lesson as well. We were able to share about how everyone is a child of God but not everyone knows that. We tied it in with the restoration and the family said they really felt the spirit. They want to invite their friends to learn or do something.  It's just they sometimes don't know how 'cause Japanese people don't talk to each other and are way shy, so ya. But I think they got fired up towards dendo so that's way good.  After that we housed for a while but nothing too big happened. Then we went to Kawasaki district meeting. It was Elder Murata last district meeting before he goes home so ya. We also got to open our transfer calls there! I'm staying in Kanagawa and my companion is going to be Elder Hemi. He is super nice and fun so I think we will get along just fine.

The last supper:  It was Elder Murata last Sunday as well as the last meal appointment that we had at night. Church was just wonderful as usual. We got to visit the Kude family in the daytime which was way great! They are a super nice family and have such strong faith it's crazy. We got to know them better as well as their 2 boys who we all want to help become good priesthood men. At night we went over to the Itou's whose house is connected to ours. Brother Itou was the former stake president and he rents out the part attached to his house to the church for the missionaries. We had a nice dinner and we got to give some words of thanks to my departing companion and to Elder Pierce who is moving areas.

Monday:  Normally it would be p-day but we were asked to do service at the temple 'cause they didn't have enough help at the baptistry. So we went and I got to do confirmations so basically I was able to help open the doors of the celestial kingdom to more people in that one day than in my whole mission.  Crazy, right!! That was a super good experience especially cause Motoki came with us so I got to go do baptisms with someone I helped baptize! Great time, definitely would recommend. At night we had a family home evening activity with a couple of members and we watched a spiritual video and all shared our opinions. It was actually way great.

Today is p-day! It's raining a bunch and we bought a lot of home cleaning items and other stuff 'cause I'm about to crack down on this apartment and eliminate all ゴミ. Anyway, yes the Gospel is true and families are forever. Keep believing and realize that family is happy when they follow the gospel. That's all for this week and I'll talk to you next time!

The gospel is the best!