17 January 2012

How goes ye down in the land of Gilbert? It was good to hear from the both of ya's. I am so sorry that this email is a bit late. Today we went and did a session at the temple and we got back a bit later than i thought we would. I will tell you why later in this email but gomen. (sorry).

Mom, thanks so much on giving me the advice that you did. I really enjoied reading about it. Its crazy to see how much Job really had to go through yet his faith was so strong. I really wish that my faith is strong. That was something i was pondering about in the temple today. I love you guys so much and am very proud that both of ya are MY parents. I miss you guys but tomorrow i will be able to see ya. Its coming quick.

My Power-Week was really good. I know that the Lord blessed us with amazing expirences that i will never forget. Since this week was my power-week i will let ya know how it went. You guys will be blown away. It was just an amazing week.

Well last monday we found a new investigator right off the back and he seems really super nice. His name is Tatsuya but poeple call him Tattoo. He doesnt have any tattoo's and he is very nice and polite. So that was super good and got things started off very well. Tuesday we had a 5 zone conference in a area called Kichijoji. He was an amazing conference but everytime i have a conference, i get so sleepy. They are so spiritually uplifting and such, that my spirit just gets drained and all i want to do is sleep. Sister Albrecht used a video clip from a video that we have in our house. Do you remember the movie of the football coach who believes in God and uses faith for his coaching style? THere is also a part where a player carries another person across the football field on his back? Anyway, she used that video and it was way good and a motiation. I love getting together with all the missionaries and seeing and hearing how everyone is doing. I also love talking and being around the President. I really love him alot. It was a good tiring day. It pretty much took all day. Wednesday gets really intresting. As a missionary, i have high's and lows. When the highs are high, they are HIGH. THe same goes with the lows. The highs come and go very quickly, the lows seem to linger for awhile longer. Anyway, while streeting i placed a book of mormon to a guy who said he was intrested but didnt want to give us any contact info. That really just sucks. After streeting for like 3 hours we had a lesson with a man named Abe. Abe was a member referral. He actually doesnt live in my area or even in my mission. He lives in Sendai. He comes to my area for work once a month. His wife was the sister of a member in my ward. His wife passed away in the tsunami. I just have to say that i was so grateful that i was able to teach this man. When i said the opening prayer, he started crying. The lesson was super powerful and simple. We taught him about God and his love for us, Eternal Families, and Prayer and a bit about the Holy Ghost. He was in tears the whole lesson and so was i. I know that through me and my comp he was filling the Spirit. He had such good questions and i was able to understand and answer them with a power testimony. One such question was "Can you fill the Spirit even if you dont believe in God?". I testified and promised him that since God is our Loving Heavenly Father and we are His children, everybody in the world can feel Gods love for them and they will some point in their lives. When i said this, I wish you could of seen the change in his face and eyes. It was amazing to see the change in his eyes and face when I promised and testified these things. I know he was feeling Gods love. He is such a prepared person. I am so grateful that i was able to let him feel what this whole church is about. Not teach, FEEL!!!! I was on my highest high on my mission during and after that lesson. After his lesson we went to meet another guy. We were like 30 minutes late because we got lost and the first thing the guy started doing is just yelling and chewying us out. My high was gone and we were in the lows. We didnt let it get to us though because we just thought it was funny how we went from a really high to a lower than low. The nest day we met with Abe again before he left back home. When he came in he was asking how many lessons we give until someone can be baptized and how long it takes until someone can be baptized. He wants to be baptized. How amazing is that. THe elders up in Sendai are getting an amazingly prepared person. We taught him about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and temples. He was fascinated with the temple and understood why it was so important. Once again i know that the spirit was strongly felt in that lesson. Not becasue he was crying but becasue i could see it in his face. I know that he really has a desire to learn and follow Jesus Christ so that he can return to his wife. He wants to meet with the missionaries everytime he comes down. We changed hi slife forever. Its amazing. Friday we had splits and i went with a missionary who is on transfer 3. He owned me up on japanese. He is so good at it. He was saying stuff that i didnt know. I had to look up so many words. He is a beast at the langauge and i can tell that he has been blessed with the gift of tongues. It was a big pill to swallow and not get down on myself for not being that good as a 6th transfer missionary. We had a lesson with a investigator named Koh. He is 19 and was baptized into the Catholic church. He had great questions about the difference between the LDS and Catholoic church. So we told him. He was super suprised. I know that the lesson was good becasue i got to tell him about the Restoration and then we set a baptismal date with him for the 4th of February. He has great faith in Jesus and God. All he needs to know is that Joseph Smith really saw God and Jesus and restored their Gospel. He is in the process of doing that right now. I know he will get his answer. He is one of my best friends over here. We are meeting with him tomorrow for lunch. This is the 1st baptismal date in my area in over 8 or 9 months i htink. I heard that this area was a really hard area because the ward doesnt like the missionaries. But i really think we are changing that. In the past 4 weeks we have had 18 lessons and 9 of those have been with a member. I know that the Missionaries now have the trust of the ward. We went from 2 people at our missionary meeting wiht the mission leader to about 10 poeple. Its becomeing a hit. Its great to see. THe Lord is really blessing us. Saturday we had another lesson with a investigator named Shiozawa. He is 18. He really wanted to know why we are on the earth. So we told him about Returning to God and preparing to meet him. We told him hat he cna do that by the 5 principles of the gospel: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Enduring (Enjoiing) to the End. He accpeted baptism too. His date is for the 25th of February. My comps birthday. What amazing miracles the Lord is allowing us to see right. I liked how you talked to Bug about how wards give missionaries talks at the last moment. On saturday i got a call and they asked me to give a talk on sunday about service and the blessings that come from it. I just thought that was really funny becasue it happened to me. So i gave a talk on sunday also with last minute notice. Sunday was good and we might have found a really prepared man. We shall see.

So taht was my week pretty much. I know that the Lord really allowed me and my comp to see miracles. It was absolutely fantastic. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Our hard work is paying off. THe ward is trusting us, we have an investigator pool, we have baptismal dates, and more people are coing to our english class. We have been working really hard to build it up but it is paying off. All we have to do now is finish up the last 2 weeks until transfers. THen i will be on Transfer 7. Or the HUMP Transfer becuase that is when i hit my 1 year mark. I have only like 8 weeks till my 1 year mark. Crazy!!!!

Yesterday i have another really funny expirence to share. We wer passing out english flies and this old grandma called me over. I went over and she just started talking to me in half japanese and half way broken english. She was talking about how her dad is chinese and her mom is japanese. She was also teaching me how to pass out fliers. She talked to me for like half hour. I was just listening becuase who knws how long its been since someone has talked to her. Anyways while she was talking to me about this and that, she kept grabbing my coat and like rubbing my arms and stuff. THen she pulled me in really close and started whispering. She then kissed me on the cheek. It was really wierd. Some random old lady kissed me. She was 76 but looked like 105. But it was way funny and a good expirence. Not many people can say they were kissed on thiere missions. I just dont have to tell people how old she is. hhahaha.

Today at the temple was great.I thought about my faith and stuff like that and really had good feelings about it. I was also thinking about my mission thus far and the people who i have touched. I found out that 2 peopel in my last area want to be baptized. One is a man and his son the Ushimaru. He is from South America. I found out that he has a date, the other is an 18 year old named Kenji. I took Kenji to church once but now he wants to be baptized. I felt really good. I then started to think about all the poele who i have taught. I decided that i needed to keep in touch with them more. So after the Temple i went and visited a man named Sugiyama. He is my investigator from my 1st transfer. He really appreciated our visit and we talked about the scriptures and stuff. I really appreciated him and i felt really good seeing him. I think taht is why my Temple session was so good because i recieved revelation on something that i need to do.

I love you guys so much. More than you know. I was looking at pic on sunday night and i just love you guys so much. I cant wait to talk and see you again. I need you to send me back my camera cards as soon as possibel. My card now is getting really full. You guys will love the one i will be sending home when i get a spare card. It is so cool. Its got tons of videos and stuff like that. There is not much else that i need to tell you guys. But i do LoVE all of you nad appreciated everyting that you do for me. Tell everyone that i love them and hope to hear from them. I hope you all have a great week. I will get back to ya on my monday next week. That is your Sunday. Take it easy and God Bless you Always