68th week in Japan
11/28/2016
感謝 (Appreciation)

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone has had a great week! Did you all eat a lot of
food for Thanksgiving? I hope so. In all honesty though, my companion
and I actually completely forgot about it because nobody really
celebrates thanksgiving in Japan. We had smoothies and edamame for
dinner. It turned out to be a great Thanksgiving week though, with
many miracles to be grateful for.

This past week we were able to go to a nearby city called Ayabe. A few
of the members in the Fukuchiyama branch live there. It is about a 20
minute ride to get there. Similar to going to Hurricane from St.
George. Anyways, we visited a member named Ishida kyoudai. He is the
man! He owns a sushi shop and fed us some absolutely delicious sushi.
He wanted us to teach him a lesson about the "Wonderfulness of the
Celestial Kingdom" his words haha. As we taught it made me realize how
grateful I am to know of the Plan of Salvation. It has been mentioned
a lot in the past general conference and in some recent devotionals
that we have had in Japan. Having the knowledge of the Plan of
Salvation is such a blessing! I am grateful to know that I can live
with my family forever through making right choices in this life.

After our lesson we went out to go tracting and visit some
investigators with Ishida kyoudai. He loves doing missionary work and
he always talks about how it makes him so much happier. He loves the
missionaries too. We were able to find a few new good potential
investigators, have a few laughs, and really enjoy ourselves. One of
the things that I have noticed in Fukuchiyama is how much more
enjoyable it is to go out and do missionary work when you are with a
member. It is a win, win because the members strengthen their desire
to share the gospel as well. I am grateful for the miracles we were
able to see last week through working with the members.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. It is an
indescribably joyful experience to be serving the Lord for this short
amount of time that I have been given. I owe the Lord everything that
I have. Mosiah was right when he said,

 "And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come
to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his
goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of
your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls,
even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in
remembrance, the greatness of God"

Our God truly is great for all that he has given us. He is always
there for us when we need him. He loves us. In the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.

Ponderizing scripture: Alma 41:8

Questions:

How did your Thanksgiving go?  Did you guys do anything there? Did you get any packages?

1. It went well, but we did forget about it... We didn't do anything
special. I am going to work on showing appreciation this week though.
I did not get the package yet, but the slip came. We should have it by
tomorrow. Thanks tons!

How are things going with your zone? Have you been out to see the area with the new missionaries yet?

2. The zone is doing well. Everyone is working hard. I have been out
to that area before, but not this transfer. We had an exchange last
week with the Maizuru elders though, which was fun.

  Have you had any interviews with President Welch lately?  Any zone conferences?

3. We had interviews last transfer and zone conference is coming up this Friday.

Have you seen if there are any Christmas nativities there in Japan yet?  Are there a lot of stores in your area where you can go shopping?

4. There are not many stores in this area. They honestly don't really
have nativities here because people don't celebrate the birth of
Christ, but I was able to pull something together. You may have to
find a stable but I got all the pieces.

Do the Japanese people make pie much or have hot chocolate there?

5. Pie isn't that big of a thing here, but people do drink hot
chocolate a bit. They have a lot of coffee and tea here too. Tea is
huge in Japan.

How do you feel about the language now?  Are the missionaries in your district pretty good with the language? 

6. I actually feel fairly comfortable with the language. I can say
pretty much what I want to. Sometimes it is in a roundabout way, but I
can get the point across. The new district leader is fluent in
Japanese because he lived here for a few years.

Well I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Christmas will be
coming up soon so don't forget to remember the true meaning of
Christmas. Also a new video came out on gospel library and it is
amazing! I would recommend you all watch it. It is called,
"LIGHTtheWORLD" Have a great week!

Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老