48th week in Japan
7/12/2016
諦めないで！ (Don't Give Up!)

Dear Family and Friends,

Right now I feel as though I am without the words to describe the tender mercies that the Lord has bestowed upon us this last week. My heart is so full of gratitude and joy. Heavenly Father truly does love each one of us! I have learned that God is truly a God of miracles! This past week has been full of miracle after miracle. God has been so merciful towards us and we will forever be full of gratitude. This gospel is truly a gospel of joy. I can honestly say that this transfer has been the transfer where I have grown and learned the most on my entire mission. Even though there has been many hard times, God has never let me down! He has always been there! I know, with all the certainty of my heart, that I can always put my trust in the Lord.

One of the greatest miracles I have ever seen happen in my life took place last week. It was only followed up by more incredible miracles after that. Last week my companion and I had a day where we decided that we had some finding time so we went housing (tracting). It was in the middle of a hot day and we were having no success. We were going to door after door and everyone had declined to hear the message of the gospel. Just when we were about to give up and go back to the church we went to one more house. The front door was open with the screen closed and we went up to the door. I called out to see if anyone was home and a very kind old lady came to the front door. We told her who we were and asked if we could share a message with her. She gladly accepted to hear our message. We came inside the front door in the entranceway. She told us to wait for a second and came and brought us some pillows to sit on (because we can't enter her house if only she is there). She explained to us how her husband had passed away some time ago and she felt very lonely at home. My companion and I both instantly felt the spirit tell us that we needed to talk to this lady about eternal families. So we did. We explained how one day she would be able to meet with her husband after this life. When she heard it she was instantly filled with joy. She was so happy. We preceded to tell her about how she could do so. We talked to her about being baptized and showed her a picture of baptism. The spirit then told me that I needed to invite her to baptism. So I asked her if she would be willing to be baptized. She accepted! We talked about being baptized on August 28th and she said she would talk to her family and set it as a goal. My companion and I left her home continually giving thanks to God for such a great miracle.

I learned one thing on that Tuesday last week. I learned that we can never give up! We must continue the fight to the end. Enduring to the end may sometimes be difficult, but it will always be the road that leads to the most joy. More joy than we can ever imagine. This transfer I experienced so many moments of feeling unsuccessful. I can honestly say that I felt as though I wanted to go home at some points. I felt like what I was doing out here was pointless, and it was in those times that I prayed to God with all of my soul. I cried to him for help and for comfort. Not only did God give me comfort in those times of need, but he answered my prayers. He gave me the success that I had so much desire to see. He just wanted me to show forth my faith and keep pushing until the very end. He has put me through the furnace of fire this transfer and it has completely changed me.

Just yesterday I experienced the biggest miracle I have seen in my entire life. The branch President asked me to give a talk in church on Sunday. I chose to talk about obedience and told the story that I emailed a while back about Nephi. He is such a hero to me. I talked about how being obedient brings us so many blessings in our lives. During the time of my talk the spirit was really working upon one of our investigators who came to church. We had a plan to meet with her later that night. We met at the church with her and the Hasegawa couple in the area. We came to the lesson prepared to teach about prayer. We started the lesson with a hymn and then sister Hasegawa gave an opening prayer. We then followed up with how our investigator was doing with her prayers. She said she had been praying about baptism. She felt something tell her this morning that she needed to be baptized on Tuesday this week. Sister Katayama Midori decided that she needs to be baptized on the 12th of July. My heart immediately jumped! When she told me that I could not believe what she had said. I didn't know if I had heard her wrong or she had actually said that she wants to be baptized on Tuesday this week. After all those constant prayers to have her heart opened, God had opened her heart. He poured out his spirit upon her like he had done for Alma and his people (Alma 8:10). She told us as she was thinking in the morning about baptism a strong impression came over her that she needed to be baptized. God is a God of miracles! I have never felt more joy in my entire life! If this is what the celestial kingdom feels like, then I know without a doubt I am going to do whatever it takes to get there with my family and friends.

We continually gave thanks to God for all the miracles he helped us to see. Sometimes we just have to wait for his time. God works in mysterious ways. We just have to continually show our faith to him and never give up. If we do so, he will, in the end, bless us for our efforts. I would just like to share a quote that I found recently that has changed my outlook on life. I was reading from a talk given in a worldwide devotional for young adults. The talk is titled "Becoming the Person you Were Born to Be," by Wendy Watson Nelson. Her talk is about doing what it takes to become the person who God wants you to be. In her talk she says "My dear brothers and sisters, whom I love, the reality is that someday you and I will each have an individual, face-to-face interview with the Savior Himself. When this eventuality becomes real to us, we will be willing to do whatever it takes to be prepared!" When I read this my eyes were opened. I have come to recognize how important it is that we continually make the right choices in this life. We will all one day stand with the Savior face-to-face. How important is it that we are prepared for that time? When this becomes a reality to us in this life, we will be willing to do anything... Anything, to be worthy in the presence of the Savior.

My Ponderizing scripture for this week was 2 Nephi 10:23. "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves--to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life."

Questions:

1. We didn't have zone conference this week or meet with President Welch, but we did have Zone Training Meeting. I did get to see quite a few missionaries there.

2. I think if I am transferred I will miss the beautiful scenery here in Uwajima. Also they have some big festivals that are coming up in Uwajima pretty soon. I will probably miss out on those...

3. Yes, I got both of the packages you sent! Thanks so much! You are the best! 

4. If you are planning on sending stuff for Logan's mission, I think mostly the same stuff you sent me for my mission is great. I wouldn't buy him a coat and I would choose a different bag. However, it will depend mostly on where he goes. Also a pretty big backpack would be good. We have to put groceries in our backpacks every week. If he is going somewhere where it rains a lot maybe a decently water resistant backpack would be good. If he is going to use a car I don't think it would matter. 

5. The Japanese here in Uwajima do swimming in the summer. All of the high schools have swimming pools, which is pretty cool. They are going to have some big festivals going on in the summer that I will probably miss. The kids don't get out of school. It goes year round. They have a few breaks here and there, but not summer like ours. The schools in Japan are way strict.

6. I don't have time to play many games. I have seen the Japanese play shogi, which is Japanese chess. That looks really fun, but I still have no idea how to play. I will have to learn before I go home.

7. I don't read too much else besides the scriptures in Japanese because most books don't have furigana, which is hiragana written above the kanji so that you know how to read the kanji. There is a ton of kanji in Japanese and it is really really hard to read. I don't know hardly any. I try to memorize one a day for my language study, but it is pretty difficult to remember them.

8. My companion likes curry, stew, yakisoba, ramen, gyoza, pasta, pizza, Mexican food, and many others.   

9. Do you think it is harder for the Japanese to learn English or harder for someone that is American to learn Japanese?

That is a very good question. I am not sure. There are hard and easy things about both. Writing and reading in Japanese is way harder to learn than English. However, in English we pronounce a lot of different letters that they do not have in Japanese. Learning to pronounce new letters is way hard for Japanese people. It is pretty easy from English to Japanese because we have most of the letters in our alphabet that they have in theirs.

Everyone have a great week this week please! Look for the miracles that God gives you each and every day. I love you all!

Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老