34th week in Japan

4/3/2016

Finding the Elect

Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone doing? I hope that conference went well, and that everyone enjoyed all of the talks. I am more than excited to watch it next weekend. This past week I have come to realize a lot about finding those who have been prepared to hear our message. I know that Heavenly Father truly has prepared people to hear the message of the gospel. We just have to show forth our faith and do his will. When we work our hardest to do Heavenly Father's will, he will bless us for our efforts. This week we have learned a lot about how to find those who have been prepared, by doing what Heavenly Father asks of us.

I have been pondering a lot about how to find new people as our efforts have seemed somewhat ineffective this transfer. We have worked all the hours of the day that we should and I thought that we were doing what Heavenly Father would want us to. We did a lot of tracting and some streeting on the days that it was possible, but we haven't seemed to be able to find anyone who is ready to hear the message. Over time I have come to realize that Heavenly Father's will is not for us to go out tracting everyday, but to work with the members in our branch to find those who are ready. Through working together to do missionary work our will has become more aligned with Heavenly Father's. As we work with the members we will see everything change in our missionary work. The members are the ones who know who are ready to hear the gospel, not the missionaries. The members have been living in this area all of their lives, but the missionaries are always changing. They know these people. With their help we can find those who are ready.

On Wednesday last week we had the privilege to go with the branch to a park in Uwajima called Nanrakoen. We started out with a picnic and we were able to build a better relationship with the branch members. We had a fun quiz, laughed and sang songs together. My love for these people just keeps growing more and more. It is amazing to see how good these people are and how much faith they have. We were able to walk around in the park for a while and see the cherry blossoms. It was so much fun to be able to talk with the members and get to know them more.

Later on in the week we were also able to attend another event in Uwajima with the members. Fairly recently a new bridge was built to an island called 力 (Ku). They had a big festival and we went cycling around the entire island with the ward members. We were able to meet a ton of different people and hopefully some of the people we met can become new investigators. They had a lot of fun events and Japanese music that was pretty cool. They also did the tradition of carrying this giant monster (Uwajima's mascot) around the island. It was interesting and a really good way to work both with the ward, and meet new people to tell about the gospel.

My favorite part of our week was being able to go to church on Sunday. At church we are able to learn and grow from each other. Fast and testimony meeting is always so spirit filled. When I hear these members testify of the gospel and what they know to be true I am just blown away at how much faith they have. I also love being able to share my testimony every fast Sunday with these members. Being able to always testify of our Savior Jesus Christ is such a blessing as a missionary. I am so grateful for these members and for this opportunity to be serving in the Lord's work.

My Ponderizing scripture for this week was Mosiah 16:8. "But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ."

Questions:

1. We did not get to hear conference this week, but we will be able to next week.

2. The next transfer calls are on April 18th. I really hope that I won't be leaving this area yet. I still feel like I just got here, but if I did happen to leave I would miss everyone. I don't know if there is just one person that I could say I would miss the most. I love all of these people. They are all such good people.

3. I actually didn't hear about April fools day here from anyone haha. I don't think they celebrate it or do anything here.

4. Yes, the cherry blossoms here are very beautiful. I will send you some pictures.

5. Yes, I still am writing in my journal every night, but I often fall asleep while I am writing. I am always way tired when I get to bed at night, so it has become a little more difficult to write every night. I still do it though haha. My companion writes in his every now and then. I usually write just before I go to sleep.

6. My companion can play the piano about the same as me. (Just the right hand simply). He doesn't play any other instruments, but he is super smart. Got a 34 on his ACT and graduated early from highschool to go to BYU for a year. He is getting more used to speaking Japanese. I feel he is learning a lot faster than I was at the beginning of my mission, so that is great!

7. We met a really cool girl from France at the park the other day, who seemed to have some interest in what we teach. Philburn choro was pretty happy because he studied French in high school, so he could speak to her a little bit. Her mom is Japanese and her dad is French. Hopefully we can keep meeting with her and set up a baptismal date for her. We also have met with Kinoshita san (one of our current investigators) a lot recently. He is super cool and wants us to keep coming back. Hopefully we can also help set up a baptismal date for him.

8. One of my favorite places in this area is to go up to the Uwajima castle. Also when Tanaka choro was here we went to Yusu, which was a pretty cool place. I would like to go back there sometime. The Ku island was really cool to cycle around this week.

I hope conference was great! I am super excited to watch it. Hope everyone is doing well. Have a great week! Love all of you,

Hirschi 長老