Third email!!!!

Dear family,

 

  It is crazy how time flies by.  it is also really exciting.  can you believe that i have already started my third week? its so weird! but things are so good and i am really loving it here! things have gotten much more intense though....we just got two new investigators..so we are now teaching two at once! so we started that this week..and it is really difficult!  we have one named shohei san, and one named komeda san.  it is so awesome to see ourselves growing as we have been teaching for a long time.  i remember when we would barely be able to pray with them..and now we are teaching them how to pray without even thinking about it.  i can almost say anything i want in a prayer at this point..which is really exciting.  i can also bear my testimony almost completely in japanese and i have learned how to put sentences together and i am learning so many phrases that i could use while in the field and while teaching our investigators this week!

 

  if its ok i want to kinda share an experience i had this week that really was incredible for me atleast.  so it was a pretty normal day..im not sure what day it was this week but we had a lesson to teach after dinner around..6 o clock.  we had kind of prepared a lesson we had already taught her about the book of mormon and about jesus christ and we had committed her to read part of the book of mormon.  however we thought we had asked her to pray as well..but that was our other investigator. so when we got to the lesson we sat down and we started following up on commitments asking if she had read the book of mormon, which she had and she shared with us part of that. then i asked her how she had felt as she read the book of mormon and she said that she wasn't sure how she felt..so my following question was well did you pray about it and how did you feel as you prayed.  she then went on to say that she didn't know how to pray..and that she wasn't sure of the order.  discouraging. we ended up teaching her how to pray and then asked her to pray about the morumon sho (book of mormon) and she accepted..but coming out of that room i felt frusturated. i was frusturated and felt that we had taken a step back and hadn't gone anywhere with the lesson and that we were just at the same spot as we were and i was just kind of bummed out. so we came back to class and the next thing we had planned for the night was to go and meet with a guy who is like the boss of the entire korean and japanese language districts.  he was a younger guy..not married but really cool.  we sat down and of course, all japanese, he began to ask us why the plan of salvation was so important and we began having a really good discussion about the plan of salvation.  he had us practice teaching it to each other as companions a couple of times, and had us really focus on the spirit, annndd only explain it using 6 sentences! it was hard..but the spirit built so strong! he then had earl choro (the one mom knows) come up to the front and it was all quiet and the teacher said "earl choro, i don't know why i had you come up here, but the spirit testified to me that i need to learn from you today. i dont know why, but there is something that i need to learn from you today that spirit is telling me so strongly. sit and think, let the spirit tell you what to say and help me today." there was a long pause, and just so you know earl choro is the kindest sweetest guy here, wouldn't hurt a fly, but he isnt the most social and doesn't talk alot. he then started to explain the plan of happiness and about the atonement and about how incredible it is that through that, we can return to live with our heavenly father. he then talked about how nobody is perfect and we have all made mistakes but no matter how big the mistake, we can always find christ, and he testified of that.  the spirit was so strong as the was just a long quiet pause, the teacher started tearing up and he just said arigato(thank you) earl choro. arigato.  i didn't even realize that at this same time im all teared up and i could not help but feel that the heavenly father had brought this strong spirit to this meeting to strengthen me, since i had had a hard day, and possibly other missionaries in our district who i wasn't aware were struggling too.  there have not been many times in my life that i have felt the spirit so strongly.  i walked out of that room feeling so relieved, and so refreshed knowing that jesus christ knows how far we can go..and knowing that when i am struggling and feel like i can go no further i can ALWAYS turn to him.  he knows everything we are going through, and i recieved such a strong testimony that the atonement helps with not only our sins, but with our trials and hardships and anything that we struggle through in life.  i came out of that room with an even stronger testimony of jesus christ and his atonement and the power that it can bring all of us.

 

  so yeah everything is really good here.  i absolutely LOVE  our district. we got so lucky because the other district that came in the same day as us they are all really weird shimai tachi (sisters) and they only have like a few cool choro tachi (elders).  our sisters are seriously so cool and bring the spirit so strong which is so nice! 

 

  well im out of time, thing really are so great here and i am so grateful for such a great support group back home. you all are seriously amazing and pleassseeee keep the dear elders coming.  i will try to write some back today and throught out the week when i have time, but know that i love all of you so much and you give me strength! i know this church is true! im so blessed to be out here! love and miss you all!

 

love,

 

Logan (Cottle choro)