Japan week #55

Hey!! :)

   This has been a very fun and crazy and sad week!

       Transfers have come and gone, and things went down! First off, my four man apartment is now only a two man! And because of that, I got all of the other elders investigators...which is NUTS. I now have four people's work to do this transfer, and only half the people to do it all. It's going to be nuts, I've actually been a bit stressed about it. :P It's going to require some HARD work this transfer, harder than before!

     My new companion is elder numano from kanagawa. He's on his fourth transfer, and I'm his first american companion! So this is going to be an extra fun transfer. ;) I hope he likes working his butt off, because that's how I like to roll!

    So we had a baptism scheduled for last saturday, but we haven't been able to meet him for two weeks, so it dropped. :( Which makes me way sad! He's way cool, and he's way prepared, and he needs to get baptized!

    It's been way fun having a native companion again. It's been four transfers since my last one, and it feels like forever! My japanese is going to get so much better! ;) He really wants to learn english a lot too though, so we're going to have to figure out something to work there. I'd rather just speak japanese! ;) who needs that english!

    So yeah, this transfer is probably going to be one of my single hardest ones, but also probably one of the best. Lots of work, lots of fun, and lots of miracles. It's the best combination, and in my eyes its the best way to dendo. :)

 love you all very much! Can't wait to hear from you soon!

   Love, Mike

Japan week #54

Hello!

     It's been a great week! I don't really have anything to report, it's just been a fun week and a lot of hard work! Our convert of last week has been doing really good! He's never been happier, and he's been enjoying the spirit all the more in his life. :) It's been such an amazing thing to see! 

    Transfers are this week, and my comp is definitely going to get the boot! He's been here for four now, we've been together for two...it spells transfer, so that's crazy! 

  So...I'm thinking way hard of what to write about but...I have no idea. :P This week was a very uneventful week. Nothing crazy at all. :P It's just been fun and we've been working hard! 

 Love, Mike

    P.S. せめないでね!

Pictures from the baptism August 9th

Japan week #53

Hey everyone! 

      So this has been one of the single hardest weeks of my mission, and one of the most rewarding and happy. :) I saw my first baptism this week! I was able on the evening of the 9th last week to perform the baptism of my dear friend Oshima Ryuji. :) And it was a sacred experience that I will NEVER forget! 

     I started the week with some really bad news, and some personal challenges that came from it. And that's been plaguing me all week, but I've been so focused on others this week, and I've been praying harder than I ever have before, and I know that I've been helped, and in some ways that I don't know, in order to make it through this week. It's been a very special experience, and I'll be grateful for it forever! We were at the church basically that entire day getting all the last details worked out, and getting all set up for it. :) And it all went very very smoothly! I was so happy! :D I asked a ward member that I love, and that I feel like I received revelation for, to perform the confirmation, and that was also a very powerful experience. I've never been able to be a part of those ordinances before, and it was such a spirit bomb. And I only messed up the baptism words once. ;) HAHA!! 

    So we're very excited from here on out to continue to help him grow, and continue having spiritual experiences. :) 

       In other exciting news, our other investigator, Motoyama San, is doing really well! He has a date for the 23rd of this month, and he's SO READY! He wants to get baptized so bad, and he got over his own problem with tithing in his OWN personal study and prayers, and we hadn't had a lesson or really talked about it much at all with him yet. :P He's SO DANG AWESOME! So that's excited fro two weeks out from here!! :D 

       Other than that, this week was  another one of hard work, and good times. :) It's started raining again, and it's been great. ;) 

 Thanks for all you do! Love you all!

    Love, Mike

Japan week #52

Hey everyone!! :) 

This week has been an epic one! Elder B and I have been working hard, and this week we saw our fair share of miracles. :) Most notably we made another baptismal date this week with a man called M san. He's from Nagayo, moved to Sapporo about a month ago. He owns his own sushi restaurant, and he's WAY cool! His family is supposed to come to Sapporo in September, and they all were taking the lessons back in Nagayo together. So that is SICK! And so we taught our first lesson to him this week, and we made a fast  baptismal date because he has been taught basically everything, and he remembers it all, and he really wants to be baptized. And since he's been to church a number of times now, and so he can really make it I think! :D The only thing I'm worried about there is that he might have a problem with the law of tithing. We were talking to him, and I felt like he might have an issue with that so... : / But things are looking good there!

   The catch with him though, is that he is deaf. ;) HAHA!! So I've been learning sign language, and it's epic! :) I love it.

     And O San is also doing really well! He's on his way to baptism this week, and we're very very excited. :) 

 Sorry this is short, but I've gotta hop off. Got stuffs to do today! LOVE YOU ALL!

 Love, Mike