There Can Be Miracles

I am in quite a good mood this week. I received Mom's package this week and I am so excited to make those brownies (and the BBQ Pringles are almost gone. . . :) we found an old cook book from the Okayama mission that has a brownie recipe in it, and it works out great too, but I am SOOOO excited to try those Duncan Hines brownies!!! MMMMM!! I love you! Thank you again for your sacrifices for me! I love you so much! I'm thankful for all the help you've given me. I'm thankful that you have supported me in my decisions and have trusted me to make them. My one year anniversary of actually starting Basic Training (ROTC/National Guard) is on the 6th of June. That was the beginning of a journey I needed to take. And it has all led to the here and now.

Thank you for the taco seasoning!!!! I made taco stuff twice this week. The first time I put in way too much water, but we had it over rice, topped with Doritos and salsa, and it was okay. But then we pulled out the tortillas that Kobayashi Choro left and we had real taco/burritos -- even with Taco Bell sauce left by a former missionary. Delicious! The oven in our apato (apartment) actually works, but just barely! It's pretty ancient and limited to 250 degrees.

Mom, I'm glad you liked my little package. I'm guessing this year's birthday was a lot better than last year's ... It's hard to believe a year has already passed since I left you all and headed to Missouri for Basic Training! Time seems to fly right by. I don't think I was able to adequately express my thanks for your last letter. Thank you for your words. When I received your letter, I was going through some rough times and your letter really helped a lot. I want to talk about a couple of things that have changed for me. One is doing dishes a lot. Yeah, back when I was home, I didn't like to do dishes at all. It might just be that if I don't do dishes, we won't have clean dishes... but I have no problem doing them sow. So I'll make sure to help out a lot more when I'm home.

Last week's Zone Meeting and Interview with President Isa were both very good. I'm slowly understanding a little more of what Pres. Isa says in Japanese. . . but I did need some help from Atkin Choro for translation. Yeah, Pres. Isa is fluent in English, but there are a lot of Japanese Missionaries in the Zone, and not all of them speak English. But that's okay! It's hard to understand sometimes, but when I do understand parts and things start to click together, it's awesome!

Remember that we had to take dessert to the Zone meeting: Well, my Cinnamon Cake and Apple Crisp desserts worked out okay, but I forgot the cinnamon in the apple crisp, oh well. . . :)

Things in Izumo are doing quite well! Umetani San CAME TO CHURCH on Sunday!!!! It was the first time I've had an investigator at church with me! Her daughter Haruna came too. Elder Atkin went with her to Primary, and I *"ganbaro"'d with Umetani San in Sunday School with Brother Hamamura (he is such an awesome, fun, enthusiastic teacher!) *Ganbaru is a Japanese word which here means "to hang in there" or "try hard" etc. Sometimes it's easier even in our English conversations to still use the Japanese words, because sometimes, the translations in Japanese are easier than the English way of saying things. . . ;)

Umetani san loved church! And she understood things for the most part. She wants to be baptized; now we're praying for her to gain the courage to tell her husband. . . But hey, one of the miracles from this last week is that she was way nervous to ask her husband if she could go to church. She finally asked him and . . . He said "Yeah, no problem"!

And Haruna was amazing in Primary! She was the first person to raise her hand when the teacher asked, "Okay, who knows who God is?" She was also the first person to volunteer for prayer, and gave both the opening and closing prayers! And this was her first time at church!!

Things are just working out -- with our investigators, with contacting people who showed interest in being taught, and such. We must be doing something right. When I get those down notions that "I'm not doing enough" and “I need to be doing more" . . . Maybe for the current situation, I am doing enough.

One of our Zone Goals is to find something new from Preach My Gospel every week that we're not doing and to try doing it. I've been experimenting with Praying in Faith. I think Sundy told me about that activity from Chapter 4 about having prayers led by the spirit. I tried to work on my prayers a while ago, but I kind of slipped back into a little routine. Well, anyway, I've been really focusing on avoiding the whole "pick up the phone, order groceries, and hang up" style of prayer. I've been trying harder to pray in faith for things like my relationship with Elder Atkin, our Investigators, being able to meet with people, etc.. I'm not saying it's just because of MY prayers, but I think it's been having an effect. Prayer really is powerful when it is offered with a sincere heart. It seems like sometimes we fall into these little ruts of praying to God, but not really thinking about how he can actually hear us, and about how he actually cares about us. Try it out, look at that Evaluate your Prayers activity from Chapter 4 of PMG.

I'm glad I get to be working with Atkin Choro. We are pretty different; we share some similar interests but our senses of humor are completely different. And, I get the feeling that he thinks I'm a stick in the mud when I don't laugh at all of his jokes. Don't worry -- things are fine. We just both need to appreciate and understand each other better.

Well, transfers are coming up soon. It's crazy how time has flown by! And here I am in the start of my 6th month of the Mission. Wow. . . Well, obviously, we can't know ahead of time if we'll be transferred or not. . . But I would love to stay in Izumo another transfer! Elder Kobayashi got three transfers here, so maybe I will too! We'll see!