Monday, October 11, 2010

Hey Family and Friends!

Hope your week was great! Ours was way amazing this week! For the less spiritual side of things, there was a huge festival here this week from Thursday until Friday. It was way awesome. We went with an American friend named Gary that we met recently and had a way good time. I will send some pictures. Well, we had some awesome miracles happen this week. We met with one investigator named Shigetani san and played ping-pong with him. Then we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he said he would like to be baptized! So his baptismal date is November 20! He is a way cool guy. And it was cool because the lesson just naturally flowed towards committing him to be baptized. I know that God wants all of His children to receive baptism. Through baptism is the key to receive the essential Gift of the Holy Ghost and a remission of your sins. It is truly the gate through which we should enter. Another cool thing that happened was Saturday. Katayama san came to church to watch General Conference. He told us that he found a job! He has been looking for a job for years and because he is keeping God`s commandments he was blessed to find a job. So, he agreed to be baptized in two weeks, But the branch president said that is too fast and he needs to get a better job before he can be baptized or he needs to get the consent of his brother. It is a really difficult situation for katayama san to be in. But I really do know that his faith is being strengthened every day. When we asked him, "Why do you think you were able to find a job" he said, " Because I pray and read the Book of Mormon everyday" It was such a powerful answer and so correct. Doing the little things every day qualifies us for the big blessings Heavenly Father wants to bestow upon us. Then probably the craziest miracle of them all also happened on Saturday. A man just came to the church on Saturday and asked for the Book of Mormon. His named is Takeda san. He met the missionaries in Fukuoka two years ago and received a Book of Mormon. He loved to read it and felt so much closer to God when he read it. But, he lost it and has been searching for it for a long time. Then he felt one day to walk up the road near our church and thought something was familiar about our church. So he went inside and asked if it was the same church. We gladly said yes. He has one of the strongest testimonies of the Book of Mormon I have heard. Because his life is falling apart right now, but he just knew that if he could get the Book then he would be alright. We taught him about the Restoration yesterday and invited him to be baptized on the 20th of November. He gladly accepted and said he would prepare to be baptized. He is truly the most prepared by the Lord of any person I have met on my mission. Through his righteous prayers to the Lord he was led to us. The Lord is preparing people all around us that WANT to hear the gospel. My testimony of missionary has developed and grown so much this week. The Lord is in this work and he does it through miracles. We just need to be worthy to participate with Him. I love this work so much and wouldn`t trade this opportunity to serve a mission for anything in the world. I love you all so much and I testify that God and our Savior Jesus Christ live. And they love everyone! Have a great week!

Stubbs choro