Elder Colton Winegar's Mission Blog: 5/8/2016 Mother's Day

Minnasan konnichiwa!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all mothers everywhere! Aren't mothers just the best? I just got done talking to my family over skype, and it was so good to see everyone. It was even better to have
special guest appearances of my cousin Brennan and Aunt Michelle! Thank you so much, it was so great to see you two! 40 minutes was definitely way too short, but I guess it just makes me look forward to Christmas that much more.

I think I'm going to keep it short today, but I want to share some of the awesome things that went on here last week. I got to go on a couple missionary exchanges, which was way awesome. First was with Elder Olsen, one of the people that came to Japan at the same time as me. He is super awesome, and a great example to me. In between contacts and lessons, he shared tons of insights and experiences he has been having on his mission, and it really opened my eyes to the type of missionary I want to become. We didn't end up teaching a ton of lessons, but we met some awesome people. We saw one boy outside a phone store waving a sign to attract business, and he looked so happy that we decided we had to talk to him. We didn't mean for it to turn into a lesson necessarily, but he told us all about how he believes in God and wants to make it to heaven. We told him we had a book that could help him do that, and we were able to see the excitement on his face as we pulled out the Book of Mormon. Soon after that, though, another worker came over to see what we wanted, and we had to leave quickly. Elder Olsen left the Book of Mormon in a place where the boy could pick it up later, and we headed off. When we came back, the book and the boy were gone. We really hope the boy can get in contact with us again, and that he will read the Book of Mormon. The next exchange was with Elder Nohagi, a Japanese missionary that lived in Utah for about a year as part of a study abroad program. Needless to say, his English was totally fluent. We also had some way awesome experiences together, and he taught me a lot about how to work more effectively, and really just having your thoughts and desires focused on Christ.

Finally, we were able to go to a Zone Training Meeting. I got to see my last companion give his first zone training, and he was awesome! Way to go Elder Madruga! We had great discussions about inviting people to be baptized, how we can be more effective teachers, and how to extend better commitments. We are trying to use all the things we learned, and it is really changing the way I am trying to approach people.

Those were the highlights of this week, hope everyone is doing well, and hanging in there! I love all of you so much, and especially you, mom! Thank you for always being there to support me, and thank you for teaching me through your example to love God, and to follow Him in all things. You are the best!
Love,
Winegar長老より