38th week in Japan
5/1/2016
Exciting News with a New Vision!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am grateful for this opportunity that I have to email you about how
Uwajima is going. This past week we have received some exciting news
that Elder Stevenson, one of the new apostles, will be coming to Kobe
Japan on May 22nd to speak to us. With this news President Welch has
asked us to do all that we can in our power to see a baptism happen
before May 22nd this month. We are praying our hearts out for these
people and seeking the needed revelation from Heavenly Father so that
we can see these miracles happen. I know that with the help of the
Lord that this can be made possible. I also know that the first step
to making this happen is by obtaining faith.

These past few weeks we have worked so hard to teach so many people
about the gospel. I feel like even though we have been able to teach
so many more people about the gospel by setting higher goals, it is
almost coming to the point where it is more of teaching lessons and
not teaching people. One thing that I have been trying to keep more
focus on at the end of this week is teaching people. I want to make
sure that we are not here to just get numbers. These people are
children of God. They are not just a baptismal statistic.

With that in mind, at the end of our P day last Monday we were able to
teach one of our investigators named Yamashita san (san is Mr/Mrs in
Japanese). Yamashita san is about 50 years old and he used to be a
gymnast. He now judges professional gymnastics and he will be judging
for the 2020 olympics also. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus
Christ and he accepted a baptismal date for the 26th of June. We have
come to build a good relationship with him over this time, and I have
faith that we can help him reach his baptismal date on the 26th next
month.

One thing that is hard to help people in Japan with is to help
them pray. Many of the people that are willing to listen still believe
in Buddhism and because of that it is hard to help them find the truth
when they are not willing to pray. I know that Heavenly Father has
prepared people for us who are ready to act on the message though. In
the end if investigators are not willing to act on our message, as
much as it breaks my heart not to meet with them anymore, they must be
dropped. Recently we had this situation with one of our investigators
named Kinoshita san. He is very willing to listen to our message and
is a super nice guy, but he is not willing to act. As sad as it was to
tell him that we can't meet anymore, I know that there are others who
are prepared.

Yesterday we had a very good fast Sunday! There is nothing that I love
more than hearing the members testimonies. It is incredible to me to
see how strong of testimonies these members have. Last week I sent an
email about faith. Hearing from the testimonies of the members in this
Ward really helped me to increase my own faith so much. I still cannot
understand everything that these people are saying, but it doesn't
matter if I cannot speak the language fluently because the spirit
speaks all languages. The spirit filled the room yesterday and I will
never forget the testimony of a little old lady named Sister Ootani.
Even though she is about 80 years old and is losing some of her
memory, she still has the most powerful testimony you can ever hear. I
could never forget it.

My Ponderizing scripture for this week was Moroni 7:33. I am doing my
Ponderizing scriptures in Japanese now and when I bore my testimony in
sacrament meeting I actually quoted my scripture from memory.
Ponderizing is such a great way to increase faith and understand the
scriptures. My love for the scriptures has increased from doing so,
and many of the members from the branch are now doing it with us. We
ask them frequently and they have become stronger from it.

Questions:

1. We haven't done any exchanges lately, but we had a chance to go to
Matsuyama for another baptismal interview. Their candidate passed! I
am excited for them to be able to have another baptism soon. We have
not had TTTM yet, but we leave for Kobe tomorrow.

2. Yes, I did get the package finally.  Thanks so much. 

3. We can actually skype you on our next Monday in Japan. Which will
be the 9th of May, probably the 8th for you. We would skype in at
around 8:00 a.m. On Monday morning here and that would be around 5:00
p.m. For you on Sunday night. Let me know what you think. Hopefully
that works. Yes, we will Skype at the church. Sadly we only have 40
minutes to Skype. It is pretty short, so if you have some questions
you want answered then come prepared haha.

4. My companion is improving his Japanese language a lot. I remember as a second transfer how hard it was to stay focused when you have no idea what anybody is saying, but he seems to be pretty focused still and is trying to figure out the needs of the people that we teach. We did not reserve the basketball court for this week because we will be gone for most of the week, but we can probably reserve it next week, we will see.

5. I need to create more goals for this transfer. One big thing that I
have started is a study journal. It helps me stay focused and I have
been writing down the needs of our investigators the people that we
teach inside and figuring out answers to their needs. It has seemed to
help. 

6. The number 1 best way to practice the language is just talking to people.

Nothing beats talking to a native speaker. Obviously studying is important to be
able to improve though. I study from a grammar book that helps out a
lot. I like to read from the Japanese Book of Mormon to improve my
pronunciation. I also read from the Japanese PMG and write down words
that I don't know and then apply it to my lessons.

7. I have actually ended up putting my music on my iPad. It is very
useful. I am good on music and stuff thanks. I do use the flash drive,
but this area doesn't have a CD player so I am using my iPad for now.

8. I have not had an interview with president recently. He will be coming to Matsuyama for Zone Conference pretty soon though. My companion did have to speak in church a couple weeks ago. He did a really good job. I also have to speak in church next week.

Thank you all for your prayers, love, and support. I truly appreciate
it. I love you all and have a great week. 皆さんは素晴らしいですね！ありがとうございます！

Hirschi 長老