Monday, March 20, 2017

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

No comments:

Post a Comment