Dear Mama Stouto,
Man, I love that you can speak Japanese. I'm finding myself on a
regular basis switching L's and R's, and beginning sentences in English only to
realize that what I want to say isn't compatible with English grammar patterns
and end up finishing in Japanese. Not to mention I just use a lot of Japanese
words that are just mendokusai to say in English. (That means like, "a
pain in the neck". But it's easier to say in Japanese!! ;)
I'm genki! :D I'm glad you got to see a couple of pics and
videos from the zone conference and blitz, those nights were fantastic. As
always, it was like the windows of heaven were just swung open and revelation
was dumped out! It's amazing how something general enough for a large group of
missionaries can be full of specific answers to personal prayers.
Then
afterwords, everyone else went out to do some crazy dendo (or just streeting
with lots of Book of Mormons and faith), but instead of that, we went to a
hospital (Elder Ishikawa, Elder Broberg, and I) and visited a member's son. It was
a really sweet opportunity and I made a great new friend. He's exactly what I
would have been like as a Japanese High school student (Please notice the 3DS
and Manga on his desk ;) I felt so blessed to be able to bear my testimony
to him and make him smile and remember that God loves him :)
Yes, Toshiki's mom and little brothers are members already! They
are an amazing support system. Right now, he and his girlfriend are doing
fantastic! They're progressing so well. On the topic, here's a picture of our
last lesson...................
IS THAT NATSUKASHII (nostalgic) OR WHAT?!?! Elder Li and I got
one more run, and it was such an amazing night for me. I grew and learned so
much from my old companion. He's become an even more amazing missionary than he
was back in Shibuya. On the topic, we saw some amazing miracles this week.
I'm running low on time now, but to make a long story short, we
felt prompted to go back to the college that we had a hard time getting into
because President Nagano has been very clear that the future of our missionary
work is going to be within Mission School. That through us helping the younger
generation, we will be able to find Heavenly Father's prepared children in a
non-threatening environment. So we went looking to make friends with someone
who wanted to learn English, worried that they might ask us to leave, and
instead at the door we ran into my old Eikaiwa student who asked us to come to
his office, then introduced us to a number of his fellow teachers! It was a
miracle of mass proportions that could change Sanjo as we know it, and we
offered so many prayers of thanks. Please pray for the mission school and for
the youth of Japan!!
We saw many other miracles as we met with Mark and he told us
he's seriously thinking about becoming a missionary, but first getting baptized
into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was such a spiritual
day, I can't explain it all.
Very simply I want to echo Elder Li's words. That sometimes we
need to go back to Jerusalem and get the plates, even if going back is hard and
scary, the Lord will protect us. And even if we don't know beforehand what we
will do, the spirit will lead us :)
We had a car that day, so that was new!!
One last pic with a best friend who changed my life.
Awwww, I'm glad Hudson... well, not "remembers" me, but I'm glad that he knows who I am. Have you been making sure to let him smell my shoes so that he'll recognize me when I see him again? ;)
Elder T. Stout and I have been visiting a member named brother Yoshida every single week. He's been in really rough shape for quite some time. He's never able to get out or even really do lessons because he has so little energy, but hosting us at his house brings him so much joy. Even though he falls asleep a hundred times in each meeting, it's always really good for him :) Helps him feel really involved in the ward. It also helps him feel a lot of love. He always insists on pouring us cups of hot chocolate (usually so much water you can hardly taste the chocolate... ;) Anyway, all he can really do for us is show reruns of ancient seminary films cuz we can't watch anything else and he can't do anything but watch TV, and so I'm pretty versed in really old video clips. Some of them are hysterically bad ;)
Elder Stout and I celebrated some good ol' fashion Japanese Valentine's day with our "Kanshya chocolate" which you get from a
friend to a friend. If we weren't missionaries, I'm sure it would be pretty
demeaning to receive such a gift, but seeing as we're missionaries and got this
from Mr. Cozy, it was a huge compliment ;)
The two of us have been staying relatively healthy, although we
have found a few new favorite desserts here that we can't help but buy every
P-Day.... (Yes, it is still the goal to lose a significant amount of
weight. In my defense of this picture, I weigh a lot less than I did the day I
left home ;)
Another pic that needed to be taken with another best friend who
has changed my life forever. Having him at the apartment again was so much fun!
:) What an outstanding Elder just like his companion.
We're having fun, seeing miracles, loving the work, and really
afraid about transfer calls next week. Please pray we'll be together one more to
see all of our good friend's baptisms together! Elder T. Stout is worried sick,
I have to give him a warm glass of milk every night before bed. (That was a
lie. Mugicha, but basically the same thing ;)
I love you so much Mama, thanks for your wonderful emails each
week. Sorry this one was a little crazy and all over the place, that's how the
week itself actually was though, so it works :)
Talk to you soon, love you and Dada!!!
Elder Stout :D
πΊπΈ • π―π΅
γΉγΏγ¦γι·θ ^o^
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