Elder Logan Cottle: Week 78! Miracle Week!

Heyyoo!

This has been amazing! We saw one of the biggest miracles I have seen
on my mission this week! We wanted to visit a less-active member on
Wednesday and had planned to go up there around 1. We got a call
during lunch from the assistant and he wanted to talk about the zone.
So we went over to the church to Skype with him. It pushed us back
about a half hour on our time so we really wanted to get up there. One
of the last things that the assistant said to us was that in Nagaoka,
our job was easy because all you have to do is talk to everyone. We
didn't know why he said that, but we started on our 15 minute bike
journey up to the less-active's house. On the way we got stopped at a
red light and saw this tall man walking across the street. He was
coming closer and we both called out to him. Normally we probably
wouldn't have because we were already late for this appointment, but
we remembered the assistant's advice (turns out it was revelation). So
we started talking with him and found out that he is from China, his
grandmother is Christian, and he has a lot of interest in Christ!
Recently because it is the Christmas season, we have been showing the
video He is the Gift, and the church has put the video out in all
languages, so we had it in Chinese! We talked about Christmas and
showed it to him. At the end we asked what he thought and he said, "I
loved it!" He really wanted to meet again and we set up to meet on
Saturday at 2. Later that night we realized that the Christmas Party
was Saturday at 5 and we would be practicing with the Branch at 2. So
we called him and switched it to 4. Fast forward to Saturday. We
played basketball with some investigators in the morning and were
planning on being to our apartment around 2 to change. The buses were
a little slow because of all the snow, so we got back around 2:30. We
got a message from Sun (this Chinese man) and he asked where we were!
He had miss understood that we changed it to 4, but we hurried to
where we were supposed to meet and walked with him to the church. He
hung out, got to know the members, and had a great time while we
practiced and hung out with him! We taught the Restoration with a
member before the Christmas Party started and at the end, his only
question was, "What does God want me to do?" The member answered
perfectly and said that first and foremost He wants us to return to
Him! And we learn how to do that at church! Sun asked us if he could
come to church the next day! He came and had a great time! He is
really prepared and we are excited for him! All-in-all he spent about 5 hours at the church on Saturday, 3 hours on Sunday, and loved every
minute of it! It was awesome!

Elder Wheatley and I are doing great. I have absolutely no
complaints! I have learned so much from him over the last 3 transfers
it has been a great experience. We have been able to get along
extremely well since day one, which has just made the dendo that much
better. We really never had to try and get used to each other, and
that just made it so good to be able to get right into the work and
continue to push it forward here in Nagaoka. We also saw another
miracle this week that is hopefully going to change the branch out
here. There is a recent convert here in Nagaoka named N______ who
was baptized with Sister Clark and Sister Hanashiro, and she has
amazing dendo fire and really wants to share the church with as many
people as she can. She is 17, and she has an older brother who is 19.
They are both full Brazilian, but have lived here their whole life and
speak Japanese perfectly. But ever since N_______was baptized, she
has been teaching her brother, B____, and has been trying to help him
come to church. He is a really shy guy, but she was able to bring him
to eikaiwa one day and we were able to meet him and just get to know
him and be his friend. After he met us, he started asking N_______
questions about the church and about temples and about lots of things.
So, she would teach him, but she wanted him to come to church and take
the lessons with us. We started messaging him, and this last week we
were able to set up and appointment to eat ramen with him and
N______. We met up, and things went really well! We just got to
know him a lot better, and then the church just came up naturally and
we talked about what we believe and how it makes us happy and he
thought everything was really good. We talked about temples and he
says that some day he would love to try and go inside. We talked
about how N______ had just entered the church after she learned
enough and said that he could do the same if he wanted to learn more.
He said that he has interest, and because he doesn't have a job right
now he has time to meet! We invited him to come to the Christmas
party, and he was able to come and have a great time. He is really
prepared and we see him with the potential of being baptized in
January! It would be amazing to have a brother and sister who are
strong and active in the church here in Nagaoka who are so young!
Exciting to see that there are so many people here who are prepared
and who have real potential! Excited to see how things go!

Another huge miracle that has been happening over the course of a few
weeks. We woke up on Sunday to a message on our phone from L____(the
Vietnamese guy). He said that he was going to try and come to church!
We messaged him, but got no reply. Around 9:00 he messaged back and
said that he had just missed the bus, but would be on the next bus and
would make it to the station at 10:30. He would be late for church,
but we were really excited still! We got it all planned out to leave
sacrament meeting early and go pick him up in the car with a member
because the snow was falling like crazy! We messaged us back and said
that the train was late and he would get there around 11:00 instead so
we waited, but it was later than he thought so he got there at 11:30.
Anyway, we picked him up and brought him back to the church. We were
able to participate in the last little bit of Gospel Principles and it
was all on the Spirit. We then did a lesson with him and a member from
Fiji that moved here recently. It was really good! He said the he was
never able to put a name on it before, but now he knows what the
Spirit feels like. He said that there have been times in his life
where he has felt to do something or not to do something and the good
or bad things have come from how he listened. It was amazing! He
shared the experience that he had on Sunday morning. He felt the
Spirit tell him to go to bed Saturday nightearly, but he ignored it
and played video games until late. He woke up Sunday morning at about
8:30, but felt tired and didn't want to go to church. When he closed
his eyes, he said that my face popped into his mind and said, "Sleep
is for the poor!" hahaha it was from an earlier lesson we had
previously, and I guess he remembered what I said! Haha we bore
testimony that it was the Spirit that brought that back to his
remembrance. In his prayer at the end he said that he was sorry for
"ignoring" Him (Heavenly Father), but he was going to do better from
now on and try to feel the Spirit as much as possible! His faith has
grown so much over the last few weeks! It is really awesome to
experience and be a part of! When we told him that we had transfer
calls the next day, he said that neither of us could leave because we
were his best friends! It felt really good for him to say that and it
has been fun to get to know him!

This week was also had a Christmas party here that was a tremendous
success. We started planning this party right after Halloween, and
really pushed that we wanted to have tons of people come, and for it
to be a great opportunity for members to Dendo their friends and
invite other people to the church. We worked really closely with the
branch here, and had the idea to do a play, and kind of reenact the
Nativity, and then have lots of musical numbers done by the branch and
by the missionaries. We got everything prepped, and this Saturday we
had the party and it was amazing! We ended up having a total of around
60 people who attended, and had maybe around 35-40 non members in
attendance! The party went great and every single person had a great
time and left with a smile on their face. It was great to see
everyone kind of catch the true meaning, and we finished the party by
watching He is the Gift which really just topped everything off really
well. It really felt amazing to see so many people in the church, and
helped me catch the vision of how many people God really wants
attending this building here in Nagaoka. It was an incredible
opportunity for so many people to come, and it really excited the
branch! They are getting ready to plan the next activity already!

This week has been amazing! As some of you may already know, this
will be my last week in Nagaoka because we got transfer calls and I
will be transferring! The crazy part is that I will be transferring
back to the area that I just came from! I served in Shibuya for 2
transfers earlier this year, and then transferred here and have spent
5 transfers here, and now I get to go back! Apparently there are
amazing things happening there, and I am so excited to have the chance
to serve back in the big city again! I loved Shibuya when I was there
last year with Elder Egbert, and I felt like I had to leave too soon,
so I am way excited to have the chance to go back and work there
again! I will also obviously have a new companion, and he is
Japanese! This will be my first Japanese companion, but I am way
excited for it! His name is Elder Suguwara, and he actually used to
be in my zone up here, he was trained in Sanjo actually! I'm excited
to get to work with him and excited to have the chance to speak a lot
more Japanese;) This transfer has been so much fun, and I can't
believe that it is already at an end! I am so excited to see all the
things that happen here in Nagaoka, because there are so many people
who are prepared to be baptized! I know that Nagaoka is always going
to have a special place in my heart, and the people that I got to meet
here are some of my best friends in Japan! It has been a blessing to
work here and I know that the Lord has some stuff He wants me to take
care of back in Shibuya! Thank you all for all your support! I am
sorry that this email is so long...but there were just too many
amazing things that happened this week! Love you and I will talk to
you soon!

Love,

Logan

This is something we are doing in the mission right now for
Christmas, so I thought I would send my picture home!