supp all!!!!
this week was way good. it started off with a companion exchange with the zone leaders. i went to fukuoka to be with elder obayashi for a day and the other zone leader came to maebaru to be with elder harvard. it was really fun to work in fukuoka. it is really different from the counrty town that maebaru is. fukuoka is a huge, rockin city so it was really fun to experience dendo in fukuoka. we stopped by the mission office while we were there so that was pretty cool cuz i had not been there since i came to the mission. it was a little nastalgic just being in the mission home and seeing the temple again just thinking that the last time i was there was when i had just left the mtc. it was cool to look back and see how much things have changed since then. being with obayashi was really fun to. he goes home in april and he is from sendai. he is a really godo misisonary, i learned a ton from him. i always love working with the japanese elders cuz since they are fluent in the language and know the culture it seems like they just run a totally different offense compared to us americans. it kinda felt like practicing with a college team and then trying to play in the nfl. the japanese missionaries are so good. but its all good, cuz its the lord who called all the missionaries to be here so its comforting to know that everyone is here for a reason.
i also got a taste of city life when we rode to the main train station to hand out english class flyers in the morning to all the people going to and from work. well aparently obayashi and i were late so he cruzed down the streets of fukuoka. and when i say cruzed, i mean he booked it. not to mention that it was 8 in the morning with the streets flooded with people and bikers all in a hurry going to work. it was ridiculous. i felt like i was in a video game flying down the streets trying not to hit people or bikers. it was crazy. i was shooting through gaps and cutting off people like dad walks through new york city but the only differnece is that i was on a bike, going really fast so ur reaction time trims down to about two seconds in trying to negotiate not trying to hit people. the whole time i was like well maybe if i dont make eye contact with that guy i just nearly hit he wont really see me but then i remember that i am the only white american on the streets so....i quickly gave that thought process up. but we made it to the train station and it was the funnest most adrenaline pumping roller coaster ride through the streets of fukuoka ever.
later in the week we met with this 17 year old girl named sena. she is really nice and comes to our english class every week and is really good friends with this other girl in our ward. the elders before us told us that she may have some interest in the church so we had been teaching her the lessons after english class. this past week was the second time we had met with her and we went in with the game plan of talking about baptism. and we were going to ask her to get her parents permission to see if its ok to be taking the lessons from us. so it was a big night cuz in japan a lot the parents put the kuboot on the party when it comes to their kids meeting with the missionaries. so we wanted to talk about that. when we brought up the permission thing, she quickly told us that her mom already knows and is totally ok with her taking the lessons. so that was really good. we contiued to talk about baptism and then we asked her how she felt about baptism and she said she wants to be baptized! we were stoked. our mission leader wants us to talk with her parents before we set a baptismal date so pray that her parents will be ok with it and pray that sena will continue to want to be baptized and that she will recieve strength in her path to baptism. she is so good. she has such a pure heart, probably the nicest girl that you will ever meet. so pure and so ready for baptism. she understood baptism really well and has such a strong pure desire to follow christ, so pray for sena. she is awesome. and the feeling when someone says that want to be baptized is priceless. it really is. it is literally the best feeling i have ever felt, the happiest i have ever felt. its crazy i thought i knew what true joy felt like but i guess not. cuz that night talking with sena i was so happy for her cuz i know how baptism and joining the church will change and bless her life forever, into the eternities. it is so awesome. i love being a missionary everyday. but its crazy when you feel the joy that comes with someone really wanting to be baptized it makes the work that much more worth it. like i would experience all the down moments and more anytime just so sena or someone like that to be baptized. the work is so awesome. there is so much real joy in the work. its the best.
this week has been full of hard work and success in terms of people listening to us. i believe missionaries are successful everyday if they are obedient, worthy of the spirit and try their best but its really awesome when people listen to you. elder harvard and i taught the most lessons this week then i have any other week of my mission, so that was pretty cool. but once again i know that that kind of success is a gift from god and it comes on his time. elder harvard and i didnt do anything different then we have been doing all transfer. we still were just as obedient and worked just as hard as we have all transfer but this week the lord just blessed us with placing people in our paths to listen to us. it was really fun.
besides that, nothing too eventful this week except for the fact that our only heater in our apartment broke. our apartment is all wooden floors everywhere so even with a wokring heater our apartment is probably one of the coldest missionary apartments you could find in the mission but now with no heaters it is absolutely frigid. you can see your breath in our apartment. its crazy. so getting up and working out in the morning is pretty painful. after we take showers and with the 20 minutes we usually have before personal study we just lay back bundled up in our futons cuz its too cold. and then for personal study we put on the layers and make it work, its prety fun. we will get the heater fixed eventually.
this thursday we have elder ringwood of the seventy coming to speak to us. so we will head to fukuoka again and have a multi zone conference with elder ringwood, so i am really excited for that. and i will see elder peterson and elder cottle there so i am way stoked to talk to those guys again. and in febuary elder oaks is coming to speak to us so that should be really cool too. times are good in the fukuoka mission.
love you all. thanks for the mail and the support. you guys really do help a ton. love you
peace out from j-pan
ps. if i have failed to mention it i named my bike jenny. cuz elder harvard and i were talking the other day and i was like man, i either want to date or marry a girl named jenny so i can just be like i love you jenny when ever i want in my forrrest gump voice. then i realized that i could just name my bike jenny so i did. so now i can just be like i love you jennnyyy whenever we are riding around its so awesome
