あいする兄弟、姉妹、皆さん こんにちは、
this last week has been all over the place Just like usual. my beloved companion has unfortunately fallen ill and we have been spending a lot of time at the doctors and in the apartment, but nevertheless miracles were beheld. my fAvorite one this week however was when i was on a comPanion exchange with a younger missionary named elder bailey in my area of sumoto. we had set the goal to go out And give out at least 1 book of mormon before the day's end. and so we ventured out and were turNed down one after another until finally later in the evening a younger japanese grammar teacher answEred his door and gave ear to our message. it was a way fun experience. me and elder bailey's japanese are still a work in progress and several mistakes were made as we attempted to give the mesSage of the restoration of christ's gospel whilE making connections to his profession as a teacher. but though our words were simple and our ability to answer his questions was rough, our testimonies were pure and the spirit was felt very strong as we testified of the truth. he accepted our book of mormon and then since he was a japanese grammar teacher i asked him if he had any corrections to our message. he just started laughing. then he gave a few pointers on testifying in japanese. then seeing a great opportunity asked him to demonstrate as if i were him and he was us. he accepted and took the book of mormon and testified to us that he knew that it was true and that he wanted us to read it to so that we could feel of the joy that it has brought him in his life. it was the greatest first contact in the world. never before have i started a contact explaining to someone what the book of mormon is and ended with the contact testifying to me of his testimony of the restoration. it was incredible! afterwards we set up a time to meet again and he saId that we would definitely read and wanted to talk more. i love miracles!
so that was a really cool experience and i was feeling pretty good about my japanese for being able to carry that converSation in the way that it turned out. but then the humbling came coming. at church i had an opportunity to translate one of our members talks from english to japanese while up at the pulpit. it was way hard but i felt like i did a half decent job that is until maekawa shimai, an 96 year old member who comes to church every week, came up to me and said that she was sure that i gave a great talk, but that she was sorry because she didn't understand it because she doesn't speak english. then later i was asked to read a scripture in japanese. i read the scripture for the class and then after, that same member called out (in japanese), "is it alright if we have someone read the scripture again in japanese because i don't understand english!" so apparently my japanese is still unrecognizable as japanese to some people, so i guess that i Have a lot more work to do than i thought. i am so grateful for humbling experiences in the gospel. i truly have felt so much joy this last week and am so grateful for the tender mercies of the lord And his love and strength in working each day. i know that i cannot do this work on my own, i owe absolutely everything to him. i love my lord and savior jesus christ and my eternal father in heaven with all of my heart and am so grateful foR this opportunity to share that joy with as many people as i can each anD every day. i love you all and am so grateful for the prayers and support that you are all constantly give to me. i hope that you have an amazing week. go be a light!
elder allred
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I thrusted in the sickle with my might but I guess I am going to need
a stronger sickle…
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