"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." -Alma 26:12

Monday, July 4, 2016

7/3/2016 Elder Tanaka is feeling better


Minnasan konnichiwa,

How is everyone doing this week? Hope everyone is doing well. My companion, Elder Tanaka is finally better, so we are pretty happy about that. He was sick from Monday until Thursday, and we were stuck in the apartment for most of that time, so I don't have a whole lot of shareable experiences from this week. It was an awesome time for me to reflect and think about my life, though, so in a way it was definitely a blessing from God.
The rest of the week was pretty full considering it was only three days, though, so that was great.

On Friday we had a combined district meeting with the Tsuyama district missionaries. In all, there were about 14 missionaries there this time, and I learned a lot from everyone's ideas and comments.

On Saturdayy, we had a pretty cool experience. We had a lesson planned for Tuesday, but because Tanaka choro got sick, we had to reschedule it. We changed it to Saturday, a day we normally don't go out to the part of the city where this person lives. As we were biking over to his house, though, we ran into a guy that we had talked to on the streets a few weeks ago. He actually lives pretty far away, about five hours by car, but occasionally comes here for work. We thought we wouldn't ever see him again, but we were able to meet him again and have a short conversation. He is still really busy, and will only be here for the weekend, so we never would have seen him if we had been able to go to our lesson as usual on Tuesday. That was just one more confirmation to me that God knows us, He knows His children, and He wants to help us. If we trust Him and His knowledge, we can receive the help and guidance we need.

Sunday, was also pretty fun, since we were able to go on missionary exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Madruga again, so good to catch up with him about his experiences, and also to hear about how everyone in Izumo is doing. Elder Matsumoto went with my companion, but it was so good to see him again too. He has changed a lot since we were in the same apartment in Kouchi, and is such a good example of showing love to others. It was great to catch up with him as well, even though they were only around for the day.

This week felt pretty different from most weeks on my mission so far, but we continue to see miracles just the same. I have really been reminded lately that God loves me personally, and that He loves each of His children. It is in the small things that I am learning to recognize this love, and I promise anyone that wants to look for these small evidences that God loves you, that you will find them. And when you notice those things, I would like to invite you to express your gratitude to God through prayer. Tell Him how you are feeling, what you are struggling with, and especially what you are thankful for. It's an awesome experience. I'd also like to thank you all, family, friends, everyone, for all that you mean to me. Your examples keep me striving to be better, and to learn more. You are all the best!

Winegar長老より

Cycling activity- apparently this entire hill that we are on top of is a gigantic tomb (kind of like pyramids in Egypt).  At least I think that's what they said.  My Japanese vocabulary still doesn't include things like tombs and such, totally just going off context here.
Cycling activity part 2- a nice big pagoda.
Dinner with the Mukaitani and Okamoto families.


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