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MTC Week 6

   Well, week 6 in the MTC was pretty great! Last p-day was our last
TRC with Americans. This week and next week, we get to teach over
Skype to people in Japan! Super excited about that! Hopefully we can
get our lesson across in our broken Japanese... On Thursday, Jones
Chōrō and I taught one of our investigators, Ota San, about sacrament
meeting and were able to have him attend the following Sunday! That
same day, we studied Helaman 5 in class, which I would highly
recommend taking a look through. On Friday, we taught our other
investigator, Aoi San, about Seisan Kai (Sacrament meeting) as well
and she was able to attend with us the following Sunday as well!
Saturday was pretty uneventful. We did not have any lessons scheduled
so we spent a lot of time prepping for this week. We did however, play
a mad game of beach volleyball during exercise time. We got our zone's
top 6 vs the other Japanese zone's top 6, and even though keeping score is
against the rules, our zone pretty much dominated! On Sunday, I gave
my first talk in Japanese! The way that talks work around here is that
every Sunday, everyone prepares a talk on a certain topic but nobody
knows who's giving a talk until the branch presidency announces it at
the beginning of Seisan kai, and I guess it was my lucky day. Our
topic was Faith in Jesus Christ. I did a lot of studying in Alma 32
this past week about faith. I would highly recommend studying that
chapter. Also, Sunday was our Senpai's last day. We got to hear the
song "I'll Find You My Friend" again, and again the tears were rolling.
I wish that everyone could experience the spirit of that song being
sung by missionaries on their last day. It truly is something special.
On Monday we taught Ota San again about baptism and invited him to
be baptized. He declined the invitation twice but we were able to
testify of baptism and teach through the spirit with our broken
Japanese. I wasn't going to do so but I was prompted to ask one last
time at the time of our testimonies and he said yes! As missionaries, it is
so important be in tune with the spirit. Without the spirit, we will not
convert anyone! On Tuesday we taught our other investigator, Aoi san
about baptism as well. She committed as well and with far less
struggle than Ota San. Jones Chōrō and I were very excited that things
were finally starting to look up with our investigators.

[Note from Barry:  At the Missionary Training Center (MTC), the
missionaries train through role play.  The people that Elder Sadler taught
are role playing someone who might be interested in learning more about
the gospel of Jesus Christ.  All lessons/discussions are in Japanese.  It
sounds like this week they will start interacting with people in Japan
through Skype.  That will help even more with language training and
learning the lessons that they will be teaching when they arrive in Japan
next month.]

     Today is the third Wednesday, which means new kohai! We are super
excited to get new kohai and officially become dai-senpai! On the
other hand, a lot of us have really come to realize how short our time
really is on our missions. We have to make the most of every moment
because we only have 2 years to serve and the rest of eternity to look
back on what we did. We are receiving two districts of kohai today.
One of them is completely Nihonjin (Japanese people) and the other is
Gaijin (anybody else). The Nihonjin will leave the same time we do,
since they only have to be here for three weeks. We are super excited
to receive all of them!
    In last night's devotional, we heard from Elder Nattress of the
seventy. He spoke to us about how through Christ and his atonement we
can do all things. He shared the story of president Gordon B. Hinkley
when he was on his mission. Elder Hinkley served during the time of
the Great Depression. His mother had just passed away and he was
called to serve in England. Elder Hinkley wrote home saying that he
felt like he was wasting his time and his father's money. His father
wrote back with five words saying, "Be not afraid, only Believe".
President Hinkley could never have predicted then, the influence he
has had on the world today because of the decision he made then to
serve his mission with honor. We also spoke about how we are set apart
to be missionaries and have been called exactly where the Lord wants
us. No matter what we think, through the Lord, we are good enough to
overcome any trial in our path. Our nature never changes; sometimes we
define ourselves by our mistakes, but we will always be children of
the most high God. As we trust in the Savior and his atonement, we
will be able to overcome and thrive in the midst of our trials and
tribulations.
    Once again, the emails from home were all so great! Glad to hear
everything is going good at home! Running over deer and whatnot. I'm
sure there will be plenty of stories to hear when I get back! I do
miss the Friday and Saturday night football games a ton! Glad to see
Jemison is having a little more success this year than they did last
year! Its real tough having to miss all the games. And on top of that,
no swimming of fishing... Pretty big sacrifice for a Bama boy. Those
will be among the first things to do when I get back!
     I don't have the words to express the gratitude and love I have
for my family. It is that same love that drives me to give up my
family for two years so that I can go save even just one other family
in Japan. Family is so important, never take it for granted. I love my
family, keep up the good work! Your love and support means everything
to me. I love you all so much!

~Elder Sadler



Early Morning Yoga




My Zone


Encouragement Left by the Missionaries Leaving for Japan


District 5B!

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