Week 33: March 20, 2017 - Spring is Here!

Hey everyone!

I'll start out by apologizing, there is a lack of pictures from the

past week. But, because spring is coming up, and I'm in Japan, cherry

blossoms will bloom soon! So keep posted, I'll make sure to send lots

of beautiful pictures next week, or the week after, or whenever they

bloom.

With that said, besides the photographic evidence to the contrary,

this past week has been an amazing week! The biggest highlight is

probably the fact that we had not one, not two, but three

investigators come to church! Ippo, Kodzuma, and Idzuno all made it,

and they all benefited, as might be expected. I'm not Japanese, and

Elder Erickson isn't Japanese, but all the members are, and it helps

our investigators so much to understand everything. But more that

literal understanding, the feeling of church works miracles. Just by

coming, and feeling the warmth and love, you can see that it affects

people, it makes them want to learn more. It was a pretty big miracle

last week.

And in a similar fashion, we had miracles basically all the time.

Kodzuma and Ippo are both preparing for baptismal dates, and as part

of that, both of them are in the process of stopping smoking. Having

never gone through it, I can't compare how difficult it must be, but

both of them have found help from the heavens, and will be able to

make their dates. And, just in the past week, we have felt so much

love and help from the members with them. Kinoshita Kyodai and

Suziyoshi Shimai basically adopted our investigators, and so it's

impossible for them not to feel loved, and impossible for them to feel

alone. More than anything the help members can give has stuck out to

me, because it's exactly what Christ would do if he were here.

I also got to see a miracle on splits with Elder Christensen, who went

through the MTC with me in the other district. So we are both pretty

new to this whole missionary thing, but got to go out together in his

area, down in Kumamoto. As part of that we taught one of the families

he has found, teaching with a grand total of 11 months in the country

between us. But through the grace and help of God, the lady we taught

felt peace and comfort. I can promise that this is His true work,

because if it wasn't, sending two 20 year olds out wouldn't work. You

wouldn't have hundreds of missionaries going out in all types of

weather, 24/7, and finding people ready to change, to improve their

lives for the better if this wasn't true. God is in every aspect of

this work, and I love having the chance to be even the smallest

instrument in his hand.

Love you all, thanks for all the love and emails!

Elder Mitchell Woodhouse