32nd week in Japan
3/20/2016
Repentance is truly a gift

Dear Family and Friends,

I just want to start off by saying how grateful I am for this opportunity to serve as a missionary for the Lord. It is such a privilege to be part of this work. Thank you all for your support while I have been out here. I hope that everyone is doing well. I hope that Davi and George are recovering well. Say happy birthday to grandpa for me too would ya. Anyways this past week has been another good week here in Uwajima. I am continually amazed at the members here and how faithful they are. This past week I have learned a lot about Christ, his atonement, and repentance.

At the beginning of our week last week we were able to teach a lot of people after our P day ended. I still find it difficult to find people who are ready to hear the gospel here in Japan, but I do know that there are people who have been prepared. We just have to keep teaching as many people as we can to find them. Something that I have come to realize over this past week is that I need to be working a lot harder. Yes, we do our study and get out to serve everyday, but I need to be studying even harder and showing more love to these people as we go out to teach. Everyone needs the gospel in their lives. Following the gospel is the only way that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again; however, so many people do not know about the gospel. These people are our brothers and sisters. They are Heavenly Father's children! He loves every single one of his children. They are so precious in his eyes. They need what we have. They need our help.

Realizing that God loves all of his children pushes me to work harder, to give more effort to sharing the gospel. Heavenly Father loves us, he has given us so much. The least that I can do for all he has given me is serve him with all of my heart, might, mind, strength. I talked about this in one of my recent emails, but I know that with God's help anything is possible. Even though I am weak myself, I can be made strong through Christ. Christ's atonement is so real. I have felt it have a huge impact on my life. My companion and I were not able to reach President Welch's standard of teaching 20 people last week. I felt pretty down about not being a good trainer/district leader. Just last night I knelt down to ask Heavenly Father for forgiveness for not giving him all my effort to help his children. I felt the strongest sense of comfort from the spirit. I know that I can change and become a better missionary because of what Christ has done for me. He has gone through all of our trials, temptations, sins, and more pain than anyone can possibly imagine because of his love for us. I can only imagine how hard it was for our Heavenly Father to send him to Earth, knowing that he would go through the atonement (John 3:16).

Jesus Christ is our savior. He loves us more than we can imagine. He came to Earth and performed the atonement. Because of his incredible sacrifice each of us have the opportunity to live with God again for eternity. I am truly grateful for him.

I want to challenge each of you to think about the savior this week. Think of everything that he has done for you. There is a new video put out by the church on gospel library for Easter. I want to ask each of you to watch the video and post the link on Facebook, Twitter, or some other social media website. Share about the savior Jesus Christ with those around you.

My Ponderizing scripture for this week was 2 Nephi 30:8.

Questions:

1. My companion is doing well with the language. I remember when I was a trainee and didn't know anything. I feel like he is for sure ahead of where I was. He likes Uwajima a lot. I feel like Uwajima is quite a bit different from most of the other areas in the mission, so it is interesting for this to be his first area.

2. I don't think we will be able to see the temple dedication, but I hope that it goes well.

3. I know that one of the ladies at our English class wore green on st. Patrick's, but nobody else really celebrated it haha. I did get the Easter package thanks so much. I truly appreciate all that you do. You are the best! We will probably have to cook some eggs and decorate them on March 27th even if nobody else really does haha.

4. We have been teaching a lot of new people and seeing new faces, but it is hard to find people who are interested in the gospel. When we do exchanges we actually go to the Zone Leader area and stay there. That is President Welch's new change with exchanges. We go to Matsuyama, but it is also a great place.

5. We have district meeting almost every Friday. About 4 or 5 times a transfer. As a district leader now I have to prepare the meeting and conduct it. It usually goes for about an hour and half, but the district here is great. I try to make it a big discussion so we can all learn from each other how to improve and help people reach baptism.

6. My companion likes to cook a few different things. He said he liked to do baking at home. Because we can't really read the labels on the food here, it is kind of difficult to cook, but we try new things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

7. The members here give referrals but almost never invite us to teach the investigators in there home. It has happened a few times, but not too often. The members are all always just so busy. People in Japan work so hard, and the education system here is crazy strict. I do love the members to death though, and they are incredible people.

Thank you all for everything. Hope everyone is doing well. Love and pray for you always,

Hirschi 長老