11th week in Japan
10/25/2015
Stake Conference and Zone Conference

Dear Family and Friends,

It is so good to be able to write each of you today. This past week
has been a blast! Like every week is here in Japan. I come to just
love the people more and more everyday. I have truly grown to enjoy my
study time in the morning. I am especially grateful for the
opportunity that I have to take 1 hour out of my day just to study the
gospel. I have truly come to know the importance of the scriptures and
missionary work. I just started the New Testament after finishing the
Book of Mormon. I am currently reading from Mark chapter 2. It is
truly amazing to see how hand in hand the Book of Mormon goes with the
Bible.

Last Friday we had zone conference. For zone conference President and
sister Welch came to our zone to teach us. Before going to zone
conference he had us read Alma chapters 5-40. He wanted us to read
those chapters, and while we read we searched and pondered about the
doctrine of Christ. Honestly I know that president Welch does receive
revelation. He could not have picked any better chapters for us to
read from the Book of Mormon. During zone conference he taught us
about these chapters and how they apply to missionary work. He had us
each share our favorite scriptures from these chapters. I decided that
instead of sharing Alma 33:23, (my favorite scripture in the Book of
Mormon) that I would share Alma 13:27. While reflecting back on Elder
Renlund's talk at general conference and truly seeking to see people
through God's eyes rather than my own, I really saw why Alma was such
a great missionary. Alma talks about how he desires from the bottom of
his heart, even to the point where it is literally pain, that the people
would hearken to his words. Now I don't know about you, but I think
that he knew what it meant to see people through God's eyes. Even
though we cannot comprehend how much Heavenly Father loves us, Alma
was definitely an example of trying to see others through God's eyes.
Lets all be like Alma and try to see others how God sees each one of
us.

We had Stake Conference on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Elder
Choi of the seventy, President Welch, and our stake president all gave
talks. Our stake president is actually American, but the funny thing
is if I were to hear him without looking at him, I would not be able
to tell at all. He sounded like a Japanese person when he gave his
talk, and I haven't heard him speak English yet. Anyways President and
Sister Welch both gave some heartfelt testimonies on Sunday night.
Even though President Welch was speaking in Japanese, you can just
truly feel the spirit from the words that he spoke. On Sunday morning
Elder Choi of the Seventy gave a talk to us. He was extremely straight
forward with us. He talked about how we need to bring others to the
gospel. He said that we need to be firm in standing for what is right.
He said "if you don't like it, you should like it." He also talked
about how the gospel is fun, and he proceeded to sing "I am a child of
God" in his native Korean tongue, solo. He then had all of us stand up
and join him in Japanese. Honestly the spirit was so strong in that
meeting, that it is hard to describe. I am very grateful for the
opportunity I had to attend Stake Conference last weekend.

For this transfer our zone vision is to "Go where the spirit is." I
feel like over the past few days I have really started to recognize
how important it is as missionaries that we do exactly that. Sometimes
going where the spirit is may be something just as simple as finding
where to go streeting or where someone's house is. Just the other day
after Stake Conference we had an appointment late that night, so we
had to rush quickly to the park to meet an investigator. We didn't
know how to get to the park without going back home first, but that
would have taken a lot longer. On the way riding back I felt like we
should take a bridge across to get to the park. It seemed really
familiar to me and sure enough it led to the park. We made it right on
time for our lesson. Another experience I had that was a little odd is
something us missionaries call "Lehi Dendo." I don't know whether it
is actually something that has happened before or not, but
missionaries always talk about how Lehi was overcome with the spirit
often and would fall asleep. He had a vision in his sleep, and the
missionaries will always crack jokes about how we should do some Lehi
dendo ourselves (to get some sleep). Anyways in the middle of the
night I woke up and wrote something on my sticky note. I didn't
remember at all that I had written this note until I woke up the next
morning (I must have sleep walked and wrote it). I saw it on my desk
and it said two words, "Apply Learning." I am still not sure why I
wrote it down, but I guess I had better get working on applying the
things I have learned lately haha.

Last week I invited everyone to join me on the scripture Ponderizing.
How is it going for you? As we follow the counsel of the prophets and
apostles, we will be able to learn and grow so much more. We will be
continually blessed for it. For my scripture I chose to ponderize
Either 12:4. I honestly have really thought about what it means to
make faith our anchor. We need to seek to grow our faith each week so
that it becomes our anchor to hold strong and steadfast. Growing faith
takes time, but as we continually go to church, read from the
scriptures, pray, fast, and do all the things that God has commanded
us, we can make our faith become strong. My challenge for this week is
to really seek to gain faith from scripture reading. As I have started
the New Testament it has become a little more difficult to understand
my scripture reading. That is why this week I want to work hard to
ponder about what I am reading and seek to strengthen my faith. I
invite each of you to do the same.

Questions:
1. I am okay on the case for my iPad. They gave me something to cover
it with. I also have a map app that helps a lot. Thank you though. I
have been able to find my way around better.

2. I have not been given a talk for church on Sunday. Goldhamer choro
gave one the week before he left though. Maybe I will have that chance
soon, we will have to see.

3. Next transfers are on the first of November. I don't think that I
will be transferring somewhere new, but I do not know.

4. My bike is holding up really well. Last Monday I took it in for a
free tune up. They tightened some things, and put in a new screw which
was nice. I have not put on the kit yet, but I will probably do that
today.

5. Yes, I think we will be carving pumpkins for Halloween. We are going to have a
ward party on the 31st and hopefully we can carve some there.
Missionaries are actually okay to dress up, so my companion came up
with the idea that we should dress up as ness and lucas from super
smash bros. We are going to look for some really cheap clothes or
clothes at the apartment and try to see what we can do. It is going to
be a lot of fun.

6. Yes I actually have learned a little origami. A little girl named Hana (flower) taught
Weakley choro and I a few things. She is really funny and about the
same age as Brinly.

7. I have not been able to give out any cards yet. I need to get that
out today so that I don't forget for the next week.

Please let Sheila and George know that I got their card for Halloween, and I am super grateful.  Thanks so much.

Thank you to everyone for reading my emails. You are all awesome.
Thank you for your support and love. I love each of you and pray for
you daily.

Hirschi 長老