Place: Shizuoka
Companion: Elder Nakatsuka
Aight sorry folks its gonna be a short one this week!
We had a lot of cool stuff happen this week! We went out with Hitoshi and his friend from New York to go see a few tourist sites in Shizuoka. We went to Nihondaira and Miho no Matsubara. It was way cool! You could see Mt. Fuji so well! We were way lucky because there was not a cloud in the sky. We also got to play around on the tetrapods out in the ocean and take lots of pictures. It's also Chinese New Year so theres tons of Chinese people everywhere. We had a great lesson with Hara san. He's progressing so well and feeling the Spirit! Thanks everyone for your prayers. He will come to church this week and tell us when he is ready to get baptized.
We met with Shu san a few times. He's really fun but he needs to get serious about investigating the gospel or we will probably have to put him on the back burner for now.
OH ALSO YOU PRABABLY ALL HEARD BUT THEY CHANGED A BUNCH OF STUFF ABOUT P DAY AND THE DAILY SCHEDULE! So now P day will start at 8 am. And also nightly planning is no longer a thing! We will be doing all of our planning in the morning. That's gonna be so weird! Way excited for the change though. Change is way fun.
Of course, the highlight of the week was Kato sans baptism. So many miracles led up to her baptism. She is a friend of Matsunaga shimai and was invited to come to the ward Christmas party a month an a half ago. She came and talked with the members and was very impressed. She attended church on Christmas and then made a new years resolution to come to church every week! A couple weeks ago, after Sunday school she made an appointment to take the lessons from the sister missionaries and Matsunaga shimai. Elder Taylor got to baptize her yesterday and it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. All of us missionaries here in Shizuoka have been working hard to see a baptism. We have labored much in the Spirit and prayed hard to maybe see just some kind of success. We originally had three baptisms scheduled for the 29th but two of them fell through. Kato San's baptism was incredible! It was a great reminder to me that all we have to do is do our best and do everything we can to be worthy of a baptism and then leave it up to the Lord to let us see success. This time He let the sisters see a baptism! It was amazing.
Well. Next week is transfers and Ive been here for six months now so I'm probably going to get transferred. I love Shizuoka. I have grown a lot in my other areas but I feel like here is where I finally learned to be a missionary. I have learned the importance of giving up our will and wanting what the Lord wants. Only then can we ever be free. And not just for missionaries but for everyone.
Many missionaries and members have things that they want to do but they put those off so they can do what the Lord wants. But in order to truly be happy, we must change our desires to God's desires and our wants to His wants. Anything else will lead to unfulfilled membership in the church. Desiring what God desires for us will bring us greater joy and fulfillment and we will become happy in this life. That's what lets missionaries ride for miles in the rain with a smile on their face. That's what lets you overcome any trial. All you have to do is sacrifice what you want for what God wants. The Gospel is awesome. The mission is awesome. Life is good. God is good.
Sorry for the random rant. I gotta go.
Love y'all!
Elder Johnson
Ps: I'm starting to think of ways to do member missionary work when I get back so if any of y'all have any good ideas let me know.
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