Dear Family and Friends,
This has been yet again one of the very best weeks of my mission.
Last Monday, 8/7/17 was my companion Elder Jensen's Birthday! We were able to have a really good time with an awesome older, hilarious couple in the ward, and they also bought a cake for him from Costco! It was very nice. Then we went to visit the yokoishi family, and yokoishi papa gave him a really cool Japanese/America flag pin! It is really cool! Very nice of them.
On Tuesday we met a bunch of teenagers at the church played ping pong with them, and then taught them about God, and were able to have a really good introduction to God and prayer lesson with them. Then we went and did service for a member in the ward, with the sisters. We helped her pull all the weeds out of her pretty big garden. It was a really good time. Then she fed us the best ice cream and brownie desert ever. Sister fujita is such an awesome member. Her husband has been less active for about a year now, and is almost impossible to meet, so just pray for him, that he will be willing to come back to the church. Then we taught english class, which is always a really good time.
Wednesday/Thursday: we were able to meet those teenagers again and they really showed some progress. One of them had prayed, and the other 2 had kind of tried, but had just kind of not followed through. Now they have all prayed, and are really starting to recognize a relationship with God. They are all also getting a lot better at "Jungle" which is a game that we play using the ping pong table, balls and paddles, but you hit it off of the floor, and you go in order, and you can hit it anywhere and as many times on the table as you want, but only on the floor once. Such a fun game. Then we met a couple other younger investigators, taught them the first vision, and had a really good lesson with them. We have had a lots of opportunities to teach recently, and it is a really great blessing. We ended up being able to give out 7 book of Mormons, and have several really good appointments with different teenagers this week. I have a lot of faith in the younger generation, and strongly believe that when the younger generation all starts accepting the Gospel and believing in Christ and in God, they will convert and the church will be able to really explode in Japan.
On Friday we had Zone Conference, I also had the opportunity to give training at zone conference which was a great opportunity to learn a lot for me. I love learning, and I love teaching. We learned so much about faith, and really what it means to have and exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is and will always be the first principle of the Gospel. I love learning about Faith in Jesus Christ, and want to become a master of Faith. If we can learn to have really strong faith then we will be able to do just about anything that God needs us to do. I love this Gospel.
Saturday was one of the most special days of my mission! Yokoishi nauhiro and Yokoishi fuyu, were able to be baptized! They have been through it all and have come out on top and were able to enter into the waters of baptism and become clean, and make sacred covenants with their Heavenly Father, and declare that they are willing to follow Jesus Christ. Although it really is ideal that a member baptizes the investigator, there is something very special when someone asks you to baptize them. Yokoishi papa asked me to baptize him when we were going over the program 2 weeks ago. I felt very blessed and very happy to have a man who I have grown to love so much ask me to baptize him. The story of Yokoishi papa will be something that will always strengthen my faith and will always be remembered as absolutely one of the reasons that I was assigned to serve in Japan. I love yokoishi papa and fuyu chan. We had a beautiful baptismal service. I really felt God's love so strongly for me and also for the Yokoishi family. I know that God's love is real. I know that he loves His children and that he loves me. I have learned so much as a missionary, and am so blessed to have this 2 years. Yokoishi papa has taught me that if anyone will read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church, and do it all with a little bit of humility, and a slight willingness to change/learn, then they will gain a testimony and will be able to come unto Christ through baptism. Yokoishi papa bore a powerful testimony today where he couldn't keep back the tears which was really cool and surprising to see. He referenced that the Book of Mormon teaches that God will provide a way for us to accomplish His will, and he feels that he has become pure and clean, and that God really has provided a way for him to accomplish God's will. Very powerful testimony for a new convert, very pleasing to see. I have been able to witness God Change Yokoishi papa, and that has changed me. I know that God's power is real. I love this work. I love you all.
Yesterday we had 10 investigators in our Sacrament meeting! Not counting the two that were baptized, because they were baptized! Haha. But we had 10 investigators, and a lot of visitors, including one the office elderly couple missionaries! They are so awesome! It was a full chapel, and Elder Stone, my zone leader comp, in the same apartment gave his final talk before he goes home to America, and then we had a really awesome lesson with all those investigators in Sunday school about the spirit, oh and of course equally as special as the baptism was them being confirmed a member of the church, and being able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! So awesome! we were able to be in the circle, and I really felt the power of the priesthood as two different members of the bishopric who have gotten really close to the yokoishi family, confirmed them. It was so special.
Today we went to Costco and to the shopping outlets over by Costco, which is actually in my old area toyohira! But an english class student took us their in his car, and I got some really cool new things, and we got a lot of great food from Costco! Life is too good!
Love,
コノバー長老
Elder Conover
Elder Conover
Right now I don't have any pics of the baptism, so I will send more with the sister missionaries too and stuff next week!
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