Knockin' On Heaven's Door

June 27, 2010

Hey everyone! Thanks for the emails and pictures! Sounds like you guys had a fun time this week. Did you get Kody Graham's address? And how is Andrew Wardell doing? Drew looked pretty good. Sounds like he had a good mission. Sorry I haven't sent many pictures. My camera is not charged because I left my charger in Maizuru. OOps. But before I forget here are the Camera choices that I have. Olympus FE-400, Olympus u water u-550wp, Casio ex-512, Casio Ex-gi, Niko coolpix 53000. Here are some of the choices. One of the Casio's is pretty expensive. I am transferring so I have to buy it next Pday so if you could find the best one and in the email next week tell me about it. Thanks. You guys are too nice. But ya I am transferring. I transfer on July 8th to the island of Shikoku. It is in the Hiroshima Mission and like Maizuru. It is like 5 or more hours away from the mission home. Pretty out there. My area is called Niihama and missionaries haven't been in it for a while. Me and a Japanese elder named Kudo are going in knowing nothing about it. The branch has about 20 members and I am excited. It is definitely in the middle of know where and I am saying goodbye to civilization. I don't know if I will have email or not but it was fun while it lasted! lol. I won`t be a Zone Leader anymore either. Pretty much I will be with Campbell choro for a transfer and a half when it is all said and done. When I leave another elder from the Hiroshima mission will replace me. All right, there is all the boring informational stuff. Sorry. Yamashita is doing good but he is still homeless with no job. It is really sad and I can't do a whole lot for him. This is where the ward comes in but it is hard because there is no way to contact him. Kind of a tough situation but he has all he needs, which is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. You all will probably like this story. Me and Campbell were riding home for the night trying to make curfew. I was truckin along on my bike when I saw this guy in a park playing the guitar. I felt that we should talk to him so we stopped and went up to him. His name was Hirano and is way nice. He is really good at the guitar and you will never guess what song he played for us. You guessed it Guns and roses knockin on heavens door. He was way good at imitating Axel rose. It turns out that Hiranos son had recently died and that Hirano almost committed suicide because he missed him so much. We shared the special message of the Plan of Salvation and he wants to hear more. I wish you guys could've been there. It was just super special because I know he was prepared to hear the message. Oh, and this is another good story. There is this other investigator named Hayashi. He is 23 and has already seen two baptisms. At the second baptism the spirit was really strong when the guy Shota got baptized. I asked Hayashi if he felt anything different when Shota got baptized and he said doki doki, which is like excited. Hayashi felt a feeling that is hard to explain because it is from a higher force. Hayashi felt the spirit and he wants to feel it more. He has a baptismal date for July 24th. If I look back on my mission so far the people that have progressed towards baptism or have gotten baptized was because of personal experiences that they felt. Hayashi accepted to be baptized without hearing any lessons. He simply saw a baptism, felt the spirit and wanted that in his life. On the way home he asked if we were Catholic or Protestant. This tells me that perfect understanding is impossible but perfectly understanding a feeling isn't. Well I have to go because I am going to a Brazilian all you can eat restaurant with Sarai, the Brazilian investigator, and some other people. The mission is great and I love it. I am very happy and loving it. Best experience of my life. I love you all and feel blessed to be apart of such a great family. Till next week.