The Best 2 Years: Elder Jace Thompson in Omaha/Japan

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with Monday, we first went and bought some kimonos! They are like this cool Japanese traditional robe... I got flicks on the album, so go check them out! After that, we went and hiked this super cool Mountain😆😆 There was a super cool shrine at the very top of the mountain, and we took some sweet flicks, and the view was awesome!

Tuesday, we practiced some songs that we're going to be singing for our Ward Christmas concert! We also had DCM, which was as good as always, and then at night, we left and went to Kobe for exchanges with the APs.

Wednesday, we did exchanges, and it was a super good day! I went with Elder Caruthers and it was the first time we ever really worked together so it was really fun! We talked with a lot of people and were able to get a lot of phone numbers, so hopefully, they can keep in contact with them! At night, we also had Institute which was really fun because I have now gone three times, and I have gotten to know the people that come😆😆

Thursday was such a good day! 😆 We had another lesson with our favorite friend, sunami さん! The lesson went super great, and he is slowly starting to stop drinking coffee, alcohol, and smoking cigarettes!! 😁😁😁 Near the end of the lesson, he pulled out his wallet, emptied all of the cards and cash, and gave it to me as a gift😅😅 I tried to tell him no and give it back to him but he wouldn't take it back and kept insisting that it was a gift for me😂😂 That night, we also went to a nearby sports complex and played volleyball with a bunch of awesome people and had such a great time!😁😁

Friday, we had English class and it was super fun! 😁😁 After that, we spent some time trying to find new people and then, at the end of the day, went to dinner with one of our friends that we met off of a language exchange app! He's super cool, and hopefully, we can keep meeting with him! 😁😁

Saturday, we woke up early and drove 2 hours with a member and played some softball for a steak activity! 😆😆😆 It was an absolute party and brought me back to the good old days of Uwajima when I used to play softball with some Grandpas every week😆😆 Once we got home, we ate lunch at McDonald's, really today was a day of Classics, and then we had Sports night and we had two new friends come!! They are both super awesome, and we are hoping to keep on meeting up with them!😁😁

Sunday, Sunami came to church, and everything went really well! 😁😁 After church, we had a hot pot party with the YSA in our ward and our friends! We made some Japanese soup, and then we played a bunch of card games together! 😁😁

Spiritual Thought:

Jacob 3:1

But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.

When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected), he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along—illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation—he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us. —C.S. Lewis

Well, that's all I got for this week. feel free to email me!

That's all, folks.

Your boy got a kimono

We be looking fire....

Finally got some good indo curry in Okayama

Flicks of the hike we went on...

We found the bat cave

#86

First corndog from the mafia 😁#87

Exchanges with the APs

Ramen with our boy Daichi

Our volleyball friends! 😁😁

YSA game night at our ward!😁😁

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with Monday, we went to a really good udon for lunch, and then we went to okayama Castle! It was pretty cool, but it has all been rebuilt and renovated, so it was very new... On the bright side, though, they had a festival going on, so we got to take some flicks in Samurai armor and got to do some Japanese calligraphy. After that, we came back home and then did a big sports night with the ward!!! 😆😆😆 We played a bunch of basketball and volleyball and just had a super good time! 😁😁

Wednesday was a pretty chill day... we started by going to visit Sunamiさん (our friend from the mafia) and he was distraught because he couldn't find the Book of Mormon that we gave him and he wanted to read it so badly😆😆 so we gave him another one and he promised that he would read it for us and we had a really great lesson with him! 😁😁 We then English class and got to say hi to a lot of friends and then just talk with them for the rest of the night!

Thursday was such a good day! 😆😆 We went on exchanges with some Elders that are in our Zone, but they live pretty far away. So, we don't get to see them too often. Luckily, we got to spend pretty much the entire day trying to find new people, which was really refreshing. Since becoming a zone leader, I have not had a lot of time to go finding every day, so having a day where we could go finding for seven or eight hours was super nice! 😆😁 We ended up getting five people's phone numbers and had a really good day! 😆😆 The guy that I was with is Elder Walker, and he just got to Japan a few weeks ago, which makes me his mom!! And it was fun to be his first exchange! 😁😁

Friday, we ended up getting really busy and started the day by creating a goal for the zone to work towards this transfer... As a mission, we are focusing on sacrament attendances, so we made a goal to help the missionaries focus on inviting people to come to church! 😁😁 after that, we had a very big wish mission-wide meeting where we talked about a lot of changes that are going to be happening in our mission over the next few months! Our mission president went to a big mission conference and had a lot of new ideas of things that we could do as a mission to see more success! After that we went to dinner with our friend Chika! We went to a pasta place, and the pasta in Japan is just as mid as the pasta in America😐😐

Saturday, we were also really busy and started the day with a big family history meeting as a stake! After the activity, we went to Sushi with one of our Ward members who got baptized kind of recently and had a really fun time with him! On our way home, he wants to stop at a couple of clothing stores because they have very cheap stuff and me and my companion found matching fleece flannels for Christmas!! 😆😆😆 we are looking so cute now that we have matching jackets and matching sweaters (from our friend in the mafia) that's true companionship Unity right there😆😆 We then met up with a new friend from hellotalk and went to a good ramen place together! She said he wants to start coming to our sports night every week, so we are very excited! 😁😁 after eating with him we went to sports night and had lots of friends come and had an absolute party! 😆😆 we started the day by playing a bunch of football sports like flies up or five hundred! 😁😁 after that, everyone wanted to play a new game that I had introduced last week called KILL they all absolutely love that game, and they want to play it every single day😆😆

Sunday, we had our primary program in our ward, and it was so much fun😆😆😆 I forgot how good the primary songs are... they are all absolute bangers😁😆😆 we also had our friend from the mafia come, and he love church as usual! 😁 after church, we had a very big feast as a ward with a bunch of different snacks and food that were all super good! 😆😆 the rest of the day was filled with some song practice for a song that we will sing in church in a few weeks and then a bunch of different meetings that we have as Zone Leaders!

Spiritual Thought:

Helaman 5:41

And Aminadab said unto them: You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezrom; and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you.

[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.

—C.S. Lewis

Well, that's all I've got for this week! feel free to email me.

That's all, folks.