Week 12!!!

Wow well this week was definitely the most incredible week I have had on my entire mission so far, and I am sure that I will have more amazing ones like it.  It was one of those weeks that just seemed to fly by, but we accomplished so many things that it was truly amazing!  Such an amazing week. 

 

  So the first thing that we did was the barbeque on Tuesday!  That was an incredible experience.  First, it was pouring rain and it was the first day in Japan that I had seen a rain storm so it was really awesome!  But we went to the church and met up with some members from the ward and we went to a old person home and did some service there!  We washed some wheel chairs, and then after that we went upstairs and got to spend some time with these old Japanese people!  It was amazing!  We sang some songs for them, played guitar and piano and stuff, and then played a little game with them!  It was so fun to really just get to bond with these cute old people, and it was such a blessing to get to serve.  After that we all loaded up the cars and headed up into the mountains for a barbeque.  The pictures do not do it justice!  I wish I could have video'd the whole thing because really it was just so amazing.  It really didn't look real.  We had our barbeque which was amazing because it was just basically throw everything on the grill thats right in front of you and just eat till you can't eat anymore!  It ended up being a really fun day and a good way to serve.

 

  So next was I went on exchanges for the first time!  I ended up going on exchanges with our zone leader Elder Coleman.  He is awesome!  He is from Texas, but is only a few transfers from going home so he is just an amazing missionary.  I learned so much from him!  We were so blessed as we were together for only 24 hrs we were able to find 2 new investigators.  Miracle.  I was so amazed.  We ended up going to his area and doing a lot of different things.  We went and passed out Eikaywa(english class) cards on a super busy intersection and it was so much fun!  It was so fun trying to stop people and talk to them even though I don't always know all the words I just had to go for it!  Elder Coleman was really good at pushing me and making me want to just do it!  So much fun.  Then we got up the next morning and went on a bike ride to this HUGE soccer stadium that is by his apartment.  This stadium puts Rio tinto to shame I'm not kidding.  Amazing stadium!  Then we went back and studied, and before we went to the station to exchange back we did some finding.  I was able to give an entire intro to the Book of Mormon to a few people!  It was so cool!  I was incredibly nervous..but I grew so much from it.  The exchanges were amazing and I realized that you really can learn so much from switching companions for just a little while and I was so grateful to have that opportunity!

 

  Ok so next might have been my second favorite thing of the week...2 weeks ago we met a guy named W________and he loved soccer and invited us to come play!  So, Thursday night we were able to go play with him and all of his friends!  How amazing is that!  We got to play in a gym some super fun futsal and it was a blast!  They were all actually super good!  They are all on the same team, and play really well together so it was so much fun to play with them!  We all played really well, and they all were telling us to come back next week so we are going back again this Thursday!  It is such a good opportunity to meet all of these young guys and hopefully we can get them all to church!  It would be such an amazing thing to get some younger people in our ward, so we will see how that goes!  We want to see if W__________would want to go to a Pro soccer game at that stadium cause we can go if we go with an investigator! So we will see!

 

  So the best part of this week was obviously this weekend.  AMAZING.  Seriously Friday we didn't have much, we taught a lot of lessons and had ping pong night which is always fun.  Found some cool people.  But Saturday was the big day!  We had W_________baptism!  So cool!  Here where we are right now, we don't have a font so we had to go to another city to have him baptized! We rode over with him and taught him on the way, then had an amazing baptism!  Elder Sellers was able to baptize him and he did such an amazing job.  The spirit was so strong and he was so happy as he came out he was just smiling.  We were actually able to have some investigators come to the baptism and I think that they definitely felt the spirit, so it will be amazing to teach them this week and see what they thought!  So yesterday, Sunday, I had the opportunity to confirm W__________.  I was so nervous because I had to do it all in Japanese.  I practiced a good amount before, and I still just felt so nervous sitting in sacrament meeting waiting to do it.  Finally it was time and all morning I had been praying to have the Gift of Tongues and just confirm him the way the Lord would confirm him and that the spirit would be there.  We all stood up and gathered around him, and as I was about to start, I just felt so at peace.  I wasn't nervous or scared or anything.  I began the prayer and the words just came to mind really easy. I was able to confirm him with very little flaws, and it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life.  I was able to bless him after that through the spirit he would be able to know what to do, that he would always have the desire to do right, that he would always have the desire to help people, and that he would always be ready to serve.  I closed and the spirit just came over the room.  It was so strong and just an amazing experience, one that I will NEVER forget.

 

  Something that was so amazing was that here in our mission we have a thing called the standards of excellance.  They are a list of numbers that push our mission to set high goals and strive to reach them the following week.  They include having 5 progressing investigators, 20 lessons taught, 5 member present lessons, 2 new investigators, 1 new referral, and a few other things.  For almost an entire year this area has failed hitting these numbers, meaning that they got less than 50%.  This week, our third week in the mission, we were able to hit the standard of excellance.  The mission is having us type up our miracles to send out to the entire mission to get everyone excited that yes even the lowest area is baptizing and hitting the standard.  The time is now!

 

  I just want to bear my testimony that I know that this church is true and that this is the Lords work!  I have never seen the Lords hand more involved in anything in my life than it is here and it is amazing.  We are so blessed as missionaries to have this chance to bring others unto Christ and bring that happiness we have in our lives to them.  I have already seen it change lives in the short 3 weeks I have been here, but I know that it is true and I know that it is happeneing.  Miracles literally happen daily here, and I know that as we continue to work our best, and be exactly obediant, we will be able to continue to see these miracles.  That baptism was actually the first one for our area here in 2 yrs.  How amazing for us to come in and get a baptism right from the start.  Miracles, miracles, miracles.

 

  I am so lucky to have such an amazing family at home.  Thank you so much, I am always so happy and proud to be representing this amazing church, as well as my family back home.  I love you all so much and I know this church is true!

 

All my love,

 

Elder Cottle