The Gospel is True

Heyya!

Well it was another good week. I'll admit, because of Golden Week it was a little slow in terms of lessons and there was a point where I was wondering if what I was doing was effective, but I was trying to put my shoulder to the wheel. In the end we were blessed. We got a lot of appointments scheduled for the upcoming days and we also got a new investigator.

We have been working with Hirano Shimai lately to help her husband receive the Gospel. He isn't hantai at all and they have prayers when they eat meals, so he has some pretty good exposure to the Church. We got to visit them last night and Hirano Shimai's husband is now an investigator! We committed him to pray with Hirano Shimai, with him saying the prayer.

We also had a fantastic lesson with Ouchi san last Saturday. We all felt the Spirit so strong. It started with us expounding some scriptures in Helaman (where Ouchi san is currently reading) and it moved from there to the Plan of Salvation. It got to the point where Suzuki Choro and I knew we needed to invite Ouchi san to be baptized. Ouchi san recognized that it was coming, so he told us to not invite him to baptism. We continued talking and eventually found ourselves reading Moses 1:39. The Spirit was thriving in all of us at that moment. I could tell Ouchi san felt something because he said if what we read is true, then we need to live the Gospel. We helped him recognize the Spirit's presence there that night, but we couldn't get much else out of him. He has been an investigator for 20 years. I didn't know how to help him, so I fasted for him yesterday. In Priesthood meeting the teacher was sharing his conversion story. I wished so bad that Ouchi san could have been there. I did, however, receive revelation to help Ouchi san. It was a really neat experience.

So ya, Skype call. I will call on Monday here, so it will be your Sunday evening. That's the plan. 7:30. Can't believe another call home is already here. I'll have one left after this one. Eep!

Recently we have been finding lots of Brazilians that we can't communicate with. They are usually pretty interested in the church too. So, I have started studying Portuguese. It's pretty funny to say phrases in the apartment and Suzuki Choro gives me a strange look. I can say that I'm a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that I don't speak Portuguese. I can also refer them to someone who does speak Portuguese. But this week I am getting more language material, so that will help. I am still mainly studying Japanese still though. I have also figured out recently that if ever there is a large word in English that I don't know in Japanese, I can just say it in Katakana (the Japanese alphabet used to turn foreign words into Japanese ex. Komputa=computer). If I say the word in Katakana, it is usually understood. Of course you can't just speak in Katakana. For example, I didn't know the word "reaction" so I said "riakushon". Boom, Japanese. Big words like that often have a Katakana equivalent, I have found.

This week we found out that we have been okay'd to take the Bullet Train to Nagoya when we have conferences now. I'm super stoked. It will only take us 1 hr 10 mins to travel what used to take us 3 and a half hours.

Kind of random stuff, but I get my excitement off of these things. The life of a Missionary.

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Sanderson