Splits, Donuts, and General Authorities🌊⛩🏝 (Week 72)

皆さんこんにちは! It’s been another adventurous week in the Land of the Rising Sun. And I might add, a cold adventure in a land where there seems to be a lack of heat from the Sun. Now you might recall my complaints in last week's email about the cold temperatures, but let me tell you, they were nothing compared to this week. We got snow last Monday, and it was a blast. Being from Alabama, it was probably the most snow I have ever seen. Somewhere between six and eight inches. There were lots of snow shoveling service opportunities, lol. Now here’s the rough part: the day after the snow, it got pretty warm so a lot of the snow melted pretty quick. So picture this, someone took a slushy and poured it literally everywhere, and then the temperature drops straight to 0 degrees Celsius. So now, there is just ice everywhere and the traffic has been insane. That’s what this past week has consisted of.

Despite the freezing temperatures though, we have been able to get out this week and see a lot of miracles. The first was on Wednesday, when we had the opportunity to go on splits with our 愛する Zone Leaders. Elder Gilbert and I got to go and teach our investigator and my good friend Reb in his home. We taught the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read 2 Nephi 31. There was some powerful testimony and the spirit was so strong. Reb was starting to get pretty emotional at the end and it was way awesome. We will be meeting with Reb again tonight and going with him to the Alex Boyé/Bless 4 concert coming up in Kichijoji next Monday. Good things are happening. The next experience, happened at Mr. Donuts. In reality, not a whole lot happened. In Japan, it is customary to bring a gift when you visit someone in their home, and so in order to express our gratitude and “sugar up” our recently found potential investigator, Kudo San, we bought some donuts and and tried to pay him a visit. Long story short, he wasn’t home so we ate the donuts for breakfast and we will try to visit Kudo San again this week.

And finally, experience number three this week was with one of the Asia North General Authorities, Elder Choi (pronounced like Chay (its Korean)). So this past Sunday, we had the privilege of hearing from Elder and Sister Choi in the Kohoku/Kanagawa Wards. There were a lot of things discussed, but I’ll just share one of the highlights. Elder Choi shared with us about how when he was young, he always wanted to be a General in the Army. As he grew up and walked down the wonderful path of life that all of us experience, he realized that the Lord had other plans for him as he was called to be a leader in the church and now a General Authority. When he was called, he was telling a friend of his dreams as a young lad and how he fantasized about become a General. Upon hearing this, his friend said, “Elder Choi, not only have you become a General, but the Lord has added authority to it! Can you not see the Lord's hand working in your life?” Even though we don’t always see it, the Lord’s hand is always working in our lives. He is watching us and guiding us as we traverse the pathways of life. I have seen that in my mission and I have seen that in my life. The Church is true!

It’s been a good week. We got transfer Calls today and Elder Low and I will be staying together here in Kohoku. I’m excited to continue working with him and see miracles together. Living and loving the mission. Hope everyone else has a good week as well! Until next time, 愛しています! また愛する同胞よ。

-Elder Sadler