April 13, 2010

Hey Family!! Thanks for writing me Grandma and Grandpa Shand! I received your emails. ありがとうございます！！So this has really been a good week here!! We have two baptismal dates right now, but one of them is probably going to change. One is with the guy from Sri Lankan, I talked about last week, and the other is with a Portuguese man who was really funny. We left some Portuguese restoration booklets the church has in different stores in the Portuguese block in our mission. One guy called and is like, "Is this really true? Did Joseph Smith really see God and Jesus Christ"? My companion was like "yea of course"! That is why I came here to Japan!! And he was like "really, and did Peter James and John really appear to Joseph and give him the priesthood"? So we met with him, and my we taught the 1st lesson. My companion taught most of it in Portuguese, but I did some in Japanese. Halfway through he left and brought us some tea, and we said we can`t drink it, so we started talking about the word of wisdom for a minute just about not drinking tea, and coffee. He said really? So should I stop drinking tea and coffee too? We were like if you get baptized your going to covenant not to. Then he said but since you told me I know. Which means I should just stop now right? Of course we said yes. Well we left with a baptismal date with him, cause he totally knew this was all true. We asked whether or not he believed in the First vision, and he said, well I have to don`t I? If i don`t God will be angry with me. So he said he`d come to church, and bring his wife too. Awesome!
So there were 5 people at General Conference on Saturday, and we watched it all in English. Then Sunday morning we had more people, and we started watching it in English, but Sakakisan came so we went and sat by him. And we did the rest in Japanese. But it was really good practice for me. I understood a lot of words, but not exactly what they were talking about. The language is coming pretty well. I`m feeling good about it. We talk to people a lot on the streets so that is really good practice. The Kokosei [High school students] are the best to talk to for me cause they`re much easier to understand.
Well I love this country! The people are so nice, and so funny! I love it. This church is true!! Even in Japan! The gift of tongues is real, and so very helpful. I`m so grateful for my mission these past three month. Three months ago today I went into the MTC, that is crazy. Oh! If someone reads this who knows them, I saw Benji Lambson, Eric Fonnesbeck and some others on the Priesthood session Saturday night. You guys did great!! I love you all! Thanks for all you love and support!
Family!!
So I`m in the Kiyru zone, Kiryu city, Kiryu Stake, Kiryu ward. Lots of Kiryu. Haha. And mom can you let me know how much money i have in my account again, cause i`m not sure how much exactly it is, cause the conversion into yen. And i`m not sure what the fee is for withdrawing. So I can`t withdraw a lot of money at once, so that is why I have been doing withdrawing [ten thousand yen] at a time. But I was able to pull out two the other day, so I was able to pay my companion back for my bike, and everything is good now. Thanks for working on that. Well I love you. I miss you guys, but I`m glad I`m here. Wedding stuff is too boring unless your the ones getting married. Thanks for all the prayers for me, and I pray for you all every night!! 愛しているよ！　この福音がしんじつだと知っています！　がんばりましょう！！
　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Stewart 長老