Week 19 Tottori: It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

konnichiwa minasan!

this week was senior week for me in my training, which essentially

means i get to pretend to be the senior companion for a week while

having a trainee's speaking ability. as you can imagine it was really

fun. but as hard as leading all of the planning, teaching, appointment

setting, and reporting things that we have going on is, the most

daunting task i had to accomplish this week was being in charge of the

phone. the phone is scary for two reasons. one, to text we have to use

kanJi (the complicated japanese characters that look like this 脱藩),

and two, people talk at inhuman speeds and it's impossible to fake

like you get what's gOing on on the phone. so mix all that with an

inexperienced trainee and instead of saying that my companion's bike

broke and he was so sad he cried, i accidentally told a member that mY

companion's bike broke and he was so sad that he died. and she was

like "what? is thaT why you answered the phone this week?" it was

rough.

but despite the uncoordinated planning meetings and awkward teaching

appOintments that happened this week we saw a huge miracle! this

saTurday we went with a bunch of our english class students and made

soba noodles. one of our english students brought his friend yuji with

him. we talked to yuji about churcH and he was really interested. he

told us that his hobby was studying the bible, and wE were like...

this guy is a staight 金人 (kinjin). we invited him to church and he

came yesterday! our ward members fellowshiped him so super well and we

taught him about the restoration. we asked him if he read a little and

prayed about the book of mormon and got an answer if he Would be

baptized. and he said, "of course!" we are so stoked! we found out

that he had been to church meetings before so he could pOssibly be

baptized this year! this is the miracle that we have been looking for.

i have felt the love of our savior so strong the last few days and

know that through him and his infinite atonement all things are

possible! i know that as soon as we accept that his woRk needs to be

done in his way and start completely relying on the spirit as our

guide and put full trust in him, then we will receive strength beyond

our own and miracles will flow into our Lives. he lives and supports

everyone who comes unto him and establishes their founDation upon his

rock. i love being a missionary and i love you all! i hope that you

all have the merriest of christmases and the happiest of new years!

メーリクリスマス！

愛しています！

アルレッド長老

Here is our Soba making experience!

All Done!