LEAPING FROM THE BOAT

Well, first off, I just barely got the package that you sent me today, so I suppose its a good thing that we were delayed by a day because it made it so I could reply to all of that! thanks so much for all the food! SOOOO MUCH CANDY! And I'm glad to have that pasta stuff! Now I just have to go buy some butter for it. Food here is pretty expensive sometimes. So I buy pretty cheap stuff, but things like meat and cheese, and possibly butter get pretty crazy. I love all the pictures, especially the one that has all of my friends and me in it! But I also love that you included my baptismal pictures, and the picture of Dad when he was in Japan. Pretty sweet stuff! I have to go buy a convenient photo album for them, but that should be pretty fine, because the hyaku en stores (100 yen ($1) store) here are pretty awesome. You can buy anything there! So, I'll be sure to get something for that.

Well, this week was pretty interesting. Waterbury Choro and I were working really hard, but you know, some stuff just doesn't work out. Our one other yakusokusha ended up dropping us, asking us not to come to visit him anymore, so that was a big bummer. But we really saw tons of miracles this week. Like, for example, Thursday after our weekly planning session. Every Thursday, we have a big planning meeting for our next week, and its supposed to be 2-3 hours long. Well, this week, nagaku natte shimaimashita. :( It went way too long. By the time that it was over, we had only 30 minutes to go out and proselyte. But we went out in faith, knowing that we could find God's elect if He wanted us to. We went to the local Shoutengai to talk to people. The first few people that we talked to rejected us, but then we stopped one person that we talked to for a while. He agreed to meet with us the very next day, and now he's one of our investigators! In fact, we found 7 new investigators this last week!!! That's pretty crazy stuff. One of our investigators is from Cuba, and so we teach him in English. He speaks Spanish, alright English, and not very much Japanese, but he's married to someone from Kakogawa. Actually, his wife became an investigator too! It was pretty crazy, because when we were teaching in English, his wife didn't understand, when we talked in Japanese, he didn't understand, and when they talked to each other in spanish, we didn't understand. Which was pretty funny.

I just wrote a letter for my mission president, but here, you can have it too!

"We talked about really doubling our faith and just trusting that the Lord will help us. I figured that I really need help, but that if I just trust and go to work, He'll help me. So while we were waiting for the train at the Akashi eki, there was a young man that was waiting in front of us. I felt like I should talk to him, but I started to justify not talking to him. But then I remembered about what we talked about and just made up my mind to go talk to him. So I went, and I don't know what happened, but it wasn't me. I was able to have an actual normal conversation with him, which is pretty crazy because I'm not good enough for that. We talked to him all the way from Akashi to Kakogawa, but he was headed to Himeji. In the end, he wasn't interested, but it showed to me once again that the Lord will give aid to those that trust him and work for him. And then, that same day, we found a small family that was once interested in hearing about the gospel, and they're coming to Eikaiwa tonight! Really, miracles are happening right now. It wasn't until Peter lept from the boat that the miracle of him walking on water was able to happen. I think too often, I like staying in my little safe boat, too afraid to show the faith to give it all the Lord. But we can't see miracles until it's all in His hands. We cant just ease away from out boat into the water. We need to just jump. I think I'm coming to understand this, and about what you were saying about doubling our faith. I'm really going to work hard for this, because it makes so much sense. I need to trust in the Lord completely, and just leap from my boat. Like you said yesterday, He won't let me fail."

There, now I don't have to type that twice. Well, thanks so much for all you've done for me! There are going to be some sweet miracles going on here in Kakogawa, and even here in Japan! Thanks for the package! One day, I'll have to send you guys a package, but I'm still getting the hang of everything here in Japan. Well, I'm going to send this message now. Love you!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) simple smiley attack this week. O______o