42nd week in Japan
5/30/2016
The Sacrament

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone has had a great week this past week. I know that
my companion Elder Philburn and I sure have. Being our last week of
the transfer we tried to work hard to help as many people as we could.
I feel like I learned so much this transfer and I am so grateful for
the chance that I had to be district leader again. I have truly come
to love the people here and the missionaries in my district. I have
learned so much from each one of them, and I look forward to hopefully
having another transfer with these people in Uwajima. We will be
getting our transfer calls tomorrow to see what happens.

The last week of the transfer was a blast. Earlier in the week we were
able to do a half English teaching half gospel discussion with one of
our new investigators named Fukumi Yamada San. She is really cool and
seems to be very accepting. We met her at Eikaiwa and she seems to
like the influence that we have on her kids. We taught one of her kids
English at her home and then taught her about our purpose as
missionaries. Hopefully through continuing the lessons with her she
will accept the gospel into her life and accept the invitation to be
baptized.

We had a great district meeting followed by a trip with the Hasegawa
couple to a few places in our area on Friday last week. It was good to
be able to visit a few of the less actives and to help them out with
their lessons. I am truly grateful for the Hasegawa couple. They have
shown us so much love and they are such good missionaries.

One very important thing that I have come to recognize on my mission
is the significance of the sacrament. During sacrament meeting every
week you can just feel the spirit so strongly. It is a time to
separate yourself from the world and think of the savior. Being able
to forget about the things of the world and focus my thoughts on the
savior is such a peaceful feeling. Back in America, every time I would
take the sacrament I would read a few verses that my dad told me to
read during a sacrament meeting about 7 or 8 years ago (Luke
22:40-44). Ever since that time I have recognized how powerful the
taking the sacrament truly is. The savior suffered for each one of us
individually. I know that he knows us and he loves us. We must always
remember him, and by so doing we may always have his spirit with us.

My Ponderizing scripture this week was 3 Nephi 27:6. 6
わたしの名を受け、最後まで堪え忍ぶ者は、�Kわりの日に救われるであろう。

Questions:

1. The kids here have school year round. They have a spring and fall break I
think, but that is about it. I think they have the same amount of
grades as we do. I am not really sure on the school graduations.

2. Yes, we are going to try to play basketball next Saturday if I stay
in the area.

3. Maybe I will send some stuff home if I do get transferred. I don't know if I will have
any time though. I don't think I will.

4. Music is pretty popular here. I don't really like the music that is
popular here in Japan, but that's alright. There is quite a bit of
American music here. Japanese people like to listen to American music.
Yes, we use a lot of formal/honorific language. Especially when
praying.

5. We have not tried to make sushi at our apartment yet, but we had a
meal with an investigator yesterday and we made sushi with her. We
don't make it on our own. My favorite fish might be salmon or sashimi.

7. They do have libraries here. Their books seem to be similar to ours, but
their kanji is impossible to read haha. We always go to the post
office or convenience stores to take out cash when we need it.

Thank you all for your love and support. Have a great week!

Elder Hirschi