Jupiter! Two Baptisms!

Hey there, all you happy people!

This week was fantastic. Quite possibly the best week of my entire mission so far. We had a lesson with Matias at the McDonald's again. We were a little more bold with him this time, but it helped us let him know his own role in learning the Gospel. We got to visit a less-active we haven't visited in awhile named Shams. He's a funny guy from Iran. We were able to help him with some translation for his resume and we set another appointment for this week.

We visited the Hall family this week and we talked about their friends who they want to invite to hear the Gospel. We wrote down a list of eleven people then immediately visited them together. We sang a Christmas song and then invited them to the Christmas party. It was cool to see the people we visited light up when we sang a song and talked with them.

This week we were able to go to two baptisms. The bishop's daughter was baptized on Wednesday night and a bunch of the Sisters' investigators came. Little Ayaka-chan was so cute. So then on Friday my boy Wei Jing Xuan in Gokiso gets dunked! I walked into the church before the service and I almost tackled him. He has such a sick testimony! He was talking about how he didn't know how to overcome difficulty in his life until he met Elder Ludlow and I on the street. He began to elaborate on how he knows his life with change, but it's for the better. I was talking to him afterward and told him how Elder Ludlow and I were studying one day and I was falling asleep, so we went to go get ice cream at the convenience store. On the way home from buying ice cream we ran into Wei. Boom. I am so humbled and thankful to be a part of the salvation of another one of Heavenly Father's children.

A former investigator in Fukutoku named Makino-san was able to come to the Wei's baptism as well. We are getting to be good friends with him and we're currently trying to get him back into the investigator pool. On Saturday we did service together and had some fun at a ward barbecue, then later that night we got on top of our apartment (completely permissible, don't worry) and looked at Jupiter and her four moons with Makino-san's telescope. You could see Jupiter's rings! It was mind-blowing. A member, Tsuzuku Kyodai, also hung out with us and was really good at fellowshipping Makino-san.

Last night we visited a member family named the Hisakas. I looooooove members. The Hisakas are way nice and we were able to help their thirteen-year-old son know how he can gain his own testimony. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon everyday and then next month during Testimony Meeting bear his testimony. He said he would. It was a pretty heavy, Spiritual moment for me. Not sure why. But I think his parents will help him and talk with him. He'll be fine.

That's kind of the news this week. Love you all.

Love,

Elder Sanderson