62nd week in Japan
10/17/2016
福音を分かち合うこと (Sharing the Gospel)

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a great first full week in my new area of Fukuchiyama. I
am grateful for the opportunity that I have to work with Elder Johnson
and this great branch. We are working our hardest to do all that we
can to help each of the missionaries in the Fukuchiyama zone to see a
baptism by the end of the year.

This past week has been full of a lot of hard work and helping members
recognize the joy of sharing the gospel. The branch that I am
currently in has about 20 active members. They all have great faith
and a few of them love coming to dendou with us. We have been able to
work hard with them and see many miracles through doing so. One of the
members is named Yokoyama kyoudai. My first Sunday here I got to go on
a split with him, which was fun. We went out and worked hard. We were
able to teach a few people and by the end he said "dendou wa tanoshii
desu ne!" Which means missionary work is fun! He was sad that we had
to head back because he wanted to continue sharing the gospel.

Towards the end of last week we also had the opportunity to work with
a member named Toku kyoudai. He is a fairly recent convert to the
church and he has a powerful testimony. The first lesson that I ever
taught with him was with a less active. The less active isn't going to
church because of some problems that he has, but during that lesson
Toku kyoudai testified boldly of what the less active would need to do
in order to overcome these problems.

We also were able to do some finding with this same member on a
different day. It was late and as we began our dendou we did not see
much success. We knocked on a few doors, but they all rejected to hear
the message that we had brought them. After knocking a few more doors
Toku kyoudai said to us "You guys are doing it wrong, you have to
start with a prayer." We had totally forgotten to pray before we
started. So Toku kyoudai offered us a simple but powerful prayer
asking Heavenly Father that we could see a miracle. As soon as we
finished the prayer the first person who's door we knocked on was
prepared. He met the missionaries previously and he had received a
book of mormon. He had read 1/3 of the Book of Mormon and he said that
he reads at least a page a day. We were able to set up another
appointment with him for the next week. It was amazing to see the
faith of this great member.

I love these people. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to
share this gospel. There is truly nothing else like it. My favorite
quote from Preach My Gospel is by Joseph Smith. It says, "After all
has been said and done, the greatest and most important duty is to
preach the gospel." This is the salvation of Heavenly Father's
children, our brothers and sisters. There is nothing more important
than this work. I know that God loves us and all of his children. We
can see miracles if we continually seek to do his will. In the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.

Questions:

Does the Ipad have a timer on it so you can have it take a picture?

1. Yes, it does.

Is your companion also a zone leader?  Do they usually put two zone leaders together?

2. Yes, he is also a zone leader. The zone leaders are always companions.

 What is your companion’s first name?  Does he like to cook?

3. He doesn't really like to cook, but it is all good because we don't
eat much anyways. His first name is Erik.

What is your ward like in your new area?  Are there many youth?

4. It is actually a branch. It is absolutely amazing. I love these
people already. There are no youth in the branch, yet.

How is it being a zone leader?  What are some of the things you do as a zone leader?

5. It is good. It isn't that much different. We plan and do meetings
for the zone. We also have follow ups with the district leaders.

 Is there anything else you think we should send with Logan that you would have liked to have or that you think would help him?

6. I think he should be good. I can't think of anything else.

When you transfer do you just package up your luggage and mail it to your area?

7. Yes, we pack it up and send it through a system called sagawa.

Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Hirschi

Fukuchiyama castle