Nagoya Higashi, Kariya | Week 4 T.7 :: Remember Who You Are

Hi again

(Mom and dad, I could not figure out how to make the group, it didn't work so here we are again lol) しょうがない

As of yesterday, our man H san is now H kyoudai! He was baptized, and next week he will complete his baptism by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. The service was good, there was a couple hiccups, but mostly little things that only I could notice. He felt a lot of support from the ward members and also my mission president was able to attend. The important thing is he was able to take this first step in coming unto Christ, and the joy that he felt from doing so. My companion and I had the opportunity to be witnesses for his baptism! It was my first time since the policy change, and was a special thing to experience. He's such a cutie, he couldn't stop smiling both before and after the service haha. I'll never forget how happy he was and the words he said in his German accent "I feelz zlike I'm vre-born." Such a piviledge and honor to know this guy! He's 45 years old, so his next step is to find an H Shimai if you know what I'm talking about lol.

Its finally getting cold over here in Kariya :) Never thought I'd be happy for colder weather, I'm not usually a fan of cold. After experiencing summer as a missionary in Japan, I changed my mind. iykyk

We got 3 referrals from an awesome ward member. M, J and C san. They're from the Phillipines and were around the same age as eachother. 2 of them actually came to H sans baptism and they had a wonderful experience and want to come again next week!

We were able to meet with 2 friends from our previous teaching pool for the first time this transfer both on the same day. It felt so good to finally meet them, and they both have some great potential. A san, from Brazil. And K san from India. We taught A san in portuguese using google translate, we taught her about the Plan of Salvtion. It was the best Plan of Salvaton lesson I ever had. We were able to give our friend K san a tour of our chapel and she said she wants to start coming.

We had a special Zone Conference when Elder Choi, member of the North Asia Area Presidency. I took away a lot of things from this. He advised us to take notes in a way that we focus on the things we feel, and specific actions we will do from what we felt. I felt a lot of inspiration and revelation from that, and have already begun to see how it will bless me.

One specific thing that stood out to me was when he told us to "remember who you are". He showed us the trailor of the new live animation Lion King, it was cool and felt kinda foreign to see that kind of stuff. We also heard an experience of an Elder from a mission in Korea who passed out one day and lost a couple years of his memory, unfortunately one of those years was the year he converted to the Gospel. So at that time he was a missionary, yet had no idea if God loved him, or even existed. He eventally had a miraculous recovery and got all of his memory back when he went to the temple. Such a bizzare and miraculous experience. You can find more about it on ldsliving.com or something like that.

Hearing that made me so thankful for the memory and knowledge that I have. But whats more important is what I do with that knowledge. I thought a lot about Laman and Lemuel, (shout out to the new BoM videos). They saw a lot of the same things that Nephi did, however they would forget about the great mercies of the Lord and the experiences they had. Nephi remembered, and he acted upon what he knew and God continued to trust him with more and more. Laman and Lemuel went the opposite way. From this, I hope to always remember the experiences that I have, but more importantly act upon the knowledge that I do have so that I can continually earn the Lords trust. One way I decided is to be better at writting in my journal (thats kinda why I make my emails so long). I also want just act more, and complain less. "obey today, understand tomorrow."

Have a good week♡