6/15 Today I Flew

Herrooo! How's everyone doing?!
This week has been AWESOME! Lots of miracles all the time!
We got to work as God's hands in so many ways this week! It's the best
feeling! We're just like wandering through life, trying to do all we
can to help these people and God is just taking our stumblings and
making them into something great! Like I have no idea what to do most
of the time, but God just kinda some way or another has us do what he
wants us to do, say what he wants us to say, go where he wants us to
go, I've felt the spirit stronger than ever this week!
So starting from Monday, we had three lessons, and that's on the day
we have "off" and when your p-day is that good you just know you're
going to have a good week :D We had 8 member appointments this week as
well, everyone wanted to hang out with us! A big part is they want to
say bye to Hardcastle before he leaves, everyone thinks he's going to
transfer (he's been here almost 9 months...) so that was way good,
lots of food :D
We also had zone conference this week with Yamashita kaicho and
shimai, they did an open question and answer with everyone, and we
said our last goodbyes, they're leaving next week at the end of the
transfer, it's way sad. I love them.
So we had a lot of appointments this week, which is awesome, but it
also meant we had absolutely no time to try and find, to go knock
houses, or talk to people on the streets, so it was interesting to see
how God would find people for us even thought we didn't have time to
find haha. I found one investigator while Hardcastle was trying to
figure out where we were on the map, just talking to a guy on the
street, he said he believes in God and wants to know more about him,
so we're teaching him this Friday, then on Sunday we still hadn't
found anyone else, and we had set the goal for 2-7. Which is a big
leap of faith for Hardcastle, he used to set it at 1-7 but he's
realized every time we've set the goal at 2-7 and prayed to accomplish
that goal, we've always gotten it. So now we wanted to see if the
pattern would keep even if we couldn't spend much time on it...and low
and behold a guy we had talked to on the street almost a month and a
half earlier randomly came to church and brought his wife and baby! So
now we get to teach a family! Yah! I love families :D Working with
Hardcastle this transfer has been 100% different than last transfer.
Last transfer he wouldn't street contact (OYM) because he said it
didn't work, and he had a pretty low expectations for what we could
do, but now this transfer the only finding we've done has been OYM,
our obedience is way better, dendo is fun again, our friendship is
good, we see miracles everyday. It's a way cool transition to watch,
the ward here is changing, their faith and love for each other and the
gospel is growing stronger, Hardcastle's faith is way strong now, life
is just good haha :)
So some other miracles, there was seriously 3 or 4 a day that were
easily recognizable, so I don't know how many I'll be able to write
about haha. Anyways Wednesday we got a call from Ichikawa shimai, one
of my favorite members, asking for a blessing. She wanted to go to he
temple with her daughter who just got off her mission. But she had a
really bad toothache and it was painful to do stuff...so we gave her a
blessing and in it told her she would be healed so she could
experience the spirit of the temple with her daughter unhindered. So
the next mowning she texted us and said she had no pain. Then on
Sunday she told us that she was pain free the whole time she was in
Tokyo, but then as soon as she got back to Toyota, she had pain again
Haha. So that kinda stinks, but it's a cool witness to the power of a
priesthood blessing.
We also have another blessing last night to sister Linguiton, she's a
Philippena lady, and she probably has breast cancer, the test result
aren't 100% yet but...it looks pretty bad. So we went over and shared
a message of comfort and gave her a blessing. We shared D&C 121:7-8
and 122
"7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine
afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou
shalt triumph over all thy foes."
122 is God talking to Joseph smith when he was in Carthidge Jail, just
before he was killed.
"7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of
murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast
into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce
winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the
elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws
of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son,
that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy
good.
8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with
thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known,
and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man
can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever."
It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. We were
able to comfort her and her family, and help them have faith hope and
courage, that God is in control, and will never let them go threw
something that they can't handle, I'm confident there will be a
miracle with sister Linguiton, her faith is strong, and you can feel
the strength and love of her and her family. She's going back to the
Philippians next week so I might not get to see her again. But I

definitely will keep in contact, I want to know what God has planned
for her.
So this email got long already, sorry about that. But just one or two
more cool things...so we had a BBQ today as a district activity, me
and Hardcastle just bought our own BBQ haha it was fun, played
frisbee, soccer, bubbles, water fight all the good stuff. Anyways at
the park there there was a guy kiting his paraglider....which is just
cool, so of course I had to go talk to him, so me and Larson our zone
leader went over and ended up becoming way good friends with this guy,
he's a 72 year old dude named kato, he was a taxi driver, but he
somehow has tons of cash to blow...since he had three paragliders, and
a propeller to go with it. So he gave me and Larson flight lessons! In
Japanese haha...I spent almost an hour flying his paraglider! Haha
it's on my bucket list to go paragliding! I already went skydiving and
hang gliding, this is the last one I needed to get haha. So I've got
another paragliding lesson this Thursday, and in return we agreed to
teach him how to become happy through the gospel of Jesus Christ haha.
Life's always an adventure :D We're not doing real flights, that's
probably against the implied mission rules, but I'm getting good at
controlling the parachute, which is what you've got to learn before
you can fly.
I also spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday, about faith miracles and
the Book of Mormon. I testified that if the ward members studied the
Book of Mormon everyday they would be able to recognize miracles in
their life, everyday. That's another thing, so I reset my personal
goals this week, I figured out if I read 10 pages of the Book of
Mormon a day I'd be able to finish before the end of next transfer
(it's a week longer than normal) so I testified about that, and how's
it's blessed me and our work just this week. I'm also reading the
grammar book 10 pages a day. I'll finish that by the end of next
transfer too. And I'm writing in my journal! Before I didn't ever, I
was always spending all my free time memorizing/studying the ninja,
it's a book with the phrases and sentences to teach all the lessons.
The Yamashitas really want everyone to pass it off, by reciting it to
your companion and a ward member, or the zone leaders. So this week I
went crazy on it, I woke up at 4:30 a few times to get extra study
time in, so I could pass it off before zone conference. That's when
your receive your badge for it, and I wanted to finish it as kinda a
going away thank you gift to the Yamashita's. So now I have time to do

all the stuff I had grounded myself from doing before haha.