Hi y'all!
Hope you all had a good week. With school coming to an end and only two more weeks left til it's summer break, exciting stuff! By the way, talking with some people here about school vacation time- American schooling has roughly 1/3 of the year off due to vacation, not including weekends.. Japan has school year round with limited and spotty vacation periods plus their weekends more often than not have schooling, sporting and cramming school events. So be grateful for Americas schooling program:)
We had a really good week. Found some new peoples to teach, got to see all my friends in the mission and had the opportunity to see and hear from an area seventy, a member of the Presidency of the 70, and an apostle!
On Monday we had some extra time before dendou for the rest of the evening so we went to the basketball courts to see a PI and play some basketball. By doing so, we found a new investigator and ran into the sister missionaries investigator and her daughter and got to talk a lot with them about good wholesome, deep things. Then we headed to the church and had a lesson with Fujita San.
Tuesday was a long meet with Fujita San. He made us food. Then him and Elder Okamoto had a jam session at a nearby park. Picture attached below. Had a lesson later that evening with a new investigator named Miura. Single guy, works at the prefectural office, pretty solid lesson, we're meeting with him again on Thursday.
Wednesday was the big event. The one time of year where the whole mission gathered together to hear from church leadership. We grabbed the morning bus to Sendai, grabbed some lunch at my favorite gyuutan place as an apartment (cow tongue, famous in Sendai) then headed to the church to be spiritually fed. We first heard from our President, Pres Smith and his wife. They bragged about our greatness in front of the other leaders present. We then heard from a member of the area presidency and his wife- the Yamashita`s (same ones that visited our mission in Januray.) They are so solid and full of character and just way genuine and fun Japanese people. We then heard from Elder Gong of the Presidency of the 70 and his wife. Although he has an asian name and face, he is very very english. Powerful man. We then sang as an entire mission of about 110 people "As Sisters in Zion, Armies of Helaman EFY Medley." Brought the house down. I couldnt sing for parts of it cause I was crying. Afterwhich, we heard from Elder Gary E Stevenson of the Quorum of the 12 and his wife. He is the youngest member of the 12 at 61, but is already so wise and powerful and just comfortable to be around. His wife is way cool too.
There was obviously a ton I learned and felt from all of these great leaders in the short 2 hours we were with them. Short, but filled with the spirit and packed with things that matter. I can share with you all about the things we need to do better to find and to help people be baptized but since most of that doesn't pertain to most of you, I will tell you the part I thought was way cool.
Elder Stevenson and President Smith both served in the Nagoya Japan mission. They served at the same time. They served in the same district. My mission president was older than him in the mission as to make him the senpai but I think they were both just stud missionaries. When president smith picked him up at the airport on Wednesday morning, elder stevenson mentioned it was like the sons of Mosiah reuniting in a good cause, but 40 years later instead of 14. What elder Stevenson told to us clearly and powerfully and sincerely is that he looked up to President Smith as a young missionary and still does today. He sees him as an example in his life. I thought that was so cool and so powerful for an apostle to be humble enough and sincere enough to pay such a compliment. And I feel so blessed to have President Smith as my mission president.
It was a great meeting and a powerful experience.
We set up a baptismal date for the middle of July with one of our new investigators named Takeuchi san. Way solid guy and he`ll make a great member. Sotoyama san came to church for us for the first hour then left for his animae event. Good week and the zone is on fire!!
Well, this is already long enough, so here`s some pictures.
Have another great week!!!
Elder Robins
ロビンズ長老
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