Week 3 in Japan (Week 12)

Can't believe it's already week 3 in Japan! Seems like just last week I reported to the MTC! Week 3 has been great so far! Today, we went to Anoshima, which is a small island in Tokyo bay. It was so much fun! We woke up early this morning and biked for an hour to the coast to do our studies. It was so great to be on the ocean again! After studies we went to check out the island. It was awesome. We went down to some rocks around the bottom of the island and accidentally got our feet soaking wet... it was a ton of fun though. No regrets! P-days [preparation days] are pretty great around here! On Sunday, we had stake conference. It was pretty good, just really hard to stay awake... especially when you don't understand much of anything. Oh well, slowly but surely.

Other than all the fun we have, this past week was pretty long. Me and Dowdle 長老 are in a little bit of a rut right now. We had to push back our baptism date to January 14 but it is looking pretty solid for that day. We will see. Our other investigators are not really working with us much right now either so we are doing what we can to find people who are interested. We are meeting someone on the 16 who looks very promising though! It's a great story how that came to be. So this guy who was an investigator like 5 or so years ago wasn't interested when the missionaries taught him. But last week, he calls up the missionary who taught him (who has long since been home by now) and says he is ready to accept the gospel now! So that missionary calls me and Dowdle 長老 up and puts us in contact! We are super excited to meet this new guy!

Missionary work has a crazy way about it. The vast majority of the people we talk to will turn down our message and say they aren't interested. But, we have planted a seed in those people's hearts. We
can never know of the full effect the gospel of Jesus Christ has on someone's life. We may not be able to convert everyone, but we can open our mouths to everyone. Sometimes it's awkward and almost all the time it's difficult. I believe Elder Holland said it best, "Why would it ever be easy for us, when it was never easy for him (Jesus Christ)". Missionary work is difficult, but the rewards far outweigh the struggles. Now is the time for everyone to be a missionary. Those wearing badges are not the only missionaries though. The church members and friends are our greatest resource! We are all missionaries! There is no way two eighteen year old boys could do this by themselves. Everyone has to throw in!

Well that's all the time I have today. To everyone back home and all my 友達 in the field, 愛しています!!! Keep on keepin' on!

サドラー長老