Monday, December 14, 2015

15th week in Japan
11/22/22
A week full of Miracles!

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Dear Family and Friends,

I just want you all to know how much I am grateful for all of you.
Thanksgiving is coming up pretty soon, so I hope that will be fun for
you all. Even though people in Japan don't celebrate thanksgiving, I
know that Weakley choro and I will surely be celebrating it. This past
week has been a week full of the spirit! I truly love and cannot even
describe what a blessing it is to have the spirit. I is incredible to me
that Heavenly Father loves us enough to give us such a wonderful gift.
Throughout this week I have been truly looking for the spirit and
trying to follow its guidance.

Last week we had interviews with President Welch. I cannot believe
that even though he is so busy he still has time to meet with each of
his missionaries individually. President Welch truly has the power of
teaching by the spirit. Over the past few weeks I have been thinking
about how I can help my investigators progress more and how to teach
them by the spirit. So before my interviews I prepared a couple
questions to ask President Welch about that topic. During my interview
the coolest thing happened. Without even knowing what questions I had
to ask him, he told me exactly what I needed to hear. It was like he
read my mind or something! That just goes to show that President Welch
is truly called by God. As missionaries we always talk about how he is
so full of wisdom. I am truly grateful for President and Sister Welch
and for all that they do for us missionaries.

Throughout the remainder of the week I started looking for how I could
apply what President Welch had taught me in my interview with him. I
can honestly say that I have seen miracles happen because of it. We
have a standard to get 2 investigators to church each week. As Weakley
choro and I applied what we have been learning from President Welch we
were able to get 5 investigators to church last week. We have seen the
spirit touching the lives of our investigators even more.

So the past week has been really interesting with all the rain we have
received lately. Being from St. George it is crazy to see how much it
just pours when it rains here in Japan. The last couple of weeks have
been a little chilly and rainy, but I am so excited for the winter
time that is coming up. I really do love breaking out the Christmas
music, and getting out the warm heater with hot chocolate. Because of
the rain we had to go get a tune up on our bikes, and for some reason
my kickstand got busted, so they made me pay for it. I tried to
refrain from being too upset haha. I also had to replace my back
brakes and my pedal, but that wasn't too expensive thankfully. Riding
around on bikes all the time is actually something that I truly do
enjoy though.

This Sunday was one of the greatest days that I have had out here on
my mission! I have truly seen Heavenly Father work miracles with the
Okayama Nishi ward. On Friday night Weakley choro and I were talking
about giving talks in church. He said that he has done it a couple of
times before on his mission. Then ironically the next morning Egi
kyodai called us saying that he wanted me to give a talk in sacrament
meeting. I had completely thought that I was safe this week with
singing and giving the shuwa prayer in sacrament! Apparently I was
not. On Sunday it was a little nerve racking to get up in front of
everyone, but I could truly feel the spirits comfort helping me to
know what to say. I talked to the ward about missionary work. Over the
past little while, our ward hasn't really been involved in our
missionary work, so Weakley choro and I were wondering how we could
help them. We had ward council meeting after church on Sunday, and the
ward really worked hard to give us any help that we need with joint
lessons! They also helped fellowship all the investigators that we
brought to church. Weakley choro and I were gifted with the
opportunity of singing "How Great Thou Art" in sacrament meeting also.
We sang the first verse in Japanese and the last verse in English, and
the spirit completely filled the room. Sunday was a day full of the
spirit and miracles.

This past week I have been ponderizing Alma 26:12. In God's strength
our weaknesses can be made strong. I have seen that have a huge affect
on me while on my mission. I have a countless number of weaknesses,
but through God's strength I have been able to be made stronger. I
hope that everyone has still been ponderizing. In Deven G. Durrant's
talk he said that we could be ponderizing for the rest of our lives,
and then he promises us the blessing of feeling an increase in
spirituality. Please continue to try to ponder the scriptures. The
prophets made so many sacrifices for us to be able to have the
scriptures. I have truly developed a love for the scriptures on my
mission. They are God's words, and because he loves us he has
preserved them for us in these days. Lets all continually read and
ponder about the scriptures.

Questions:

1. Yes I still write in my journal everyday. I actually had to buy a new one
that I will probably be writing in soon. I have almost filled up my
first one.

2. Yes we got the Thanksgiving package! Thank you so much! We will be
cooking all that for Thanksgiving day.

3.  I haven't seen too many crazy animals that are different than in the USA. I
think that is because I live in a very city area. We saw some
endangered cranes at the big park that we went to though. We also have
a cockroach problem at the apartment. I have seen some huge spiders
all over the place too. Maybe I can send some more pictures haha.

4. The next transfers are on December 14th. It is coming up so fast! I
feel like my 3rd transfer just started.

5. Yes we have a ward Christmas party on the 19th. It will be a lot of fun.

6. My favorite place I have been to is probably the Okayama park that we went to. It
was extremely beautiful. Maybe I can go there again before I leave
Okayama. I think we are going to go to the Okayama castle today.

7. I wouldn't say I have a favorite person in the ward. I really love
them all! Mitchel kyodai, our ward missionary, is really awesome.

Thank you all for your help and support. Hopefully thanksgiving goes
well for everyone. Have a good Holiday. We will try and do something
here this week. I love you all and pray for you always,

Hirschi 長老

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