Week 48: July 3, 2107 - Zone Conference and Interviews

Welcome to summer!

So, my big realization for the week was the fact that even though

everyone around me is and old missionary, and going home sooner rather

than later, I'm not! I've got plenty of time left to help the people

of Japan, and I've been blessed to be able to use all of it! So with

that out of the way, the mission is back to a day to day party, the

chance to be able to focus on moving one foot at a time. It makes life

simpler, and makes everything much more fun!

But besides that realization, the past week doesn't have many amazing

pieces of news. We had the chance to gather with the Ginowan and Naha

Zones for interviews and zone conference, which is standard, but it

also meant that the two far reaching islands, Miyako and Ishigaki, had

the chance to come up to Okinawa. As it happens, Elder Erickson and

Elder Harris, from Omuta and Yamaguchi happened to be on Miyako, and

so I got to meet them. Missionary time is crazy, because it feels like

it's been forever, but neither of them have actually been gone that

long. Nonetheless, it was really fun to meet people I had lived with

before, and hear about their experiences on the Lords errand.

Our other miracle was fast and testimony meeting with the military

branch. We have had a couple of missionaries leaving recently, and

more on the way, so our first speaker was the father of one of the

soon to be departed elders, bearing his testimony for his son. But it

was amazing, because he gave a beautiful testimony of getting off of

the edge. He had lived basically a Dry-Mormon lifestyle, because his

wife was a member, without getting baptized until 5 years ago. But in

his word, he has been soaring through the air from the moment he

entered the font. There is no way to describe the benefits of living

the gospel with the accompaniment of the Holy Ghost without

experiencing it yourself. It's like describing salt without using the

word salt, or salty, or anything of the like. You just need to act.

Well, it's fun to be out, and I love all my time I've had here, both

past and future, of things left to come. Love you all,

Elder Mitchell Woodhouse