the one with Ismail

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with last Monday, we went to what's called the tower of the sun for P day! It was really cool, and we went with all of the Nishinomiya missionaries. I have lots and lots of pictures of it on the album, so go check it out to see what it looks like!

Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder McMaster, and we had a blast! We spent the whole day bouncing around from one way of finding to the next and tried pretty much everything we could think of, which was pretty fun. 

Friday, we had our game night as per usual, and it's been so much fun. One of our friends, named Yuta, comes every week, and him and I play ping pong for almost the entire time. He is really good so when I get home imma be cracked at ping pong. 

Saturday was sooo long, but it was good! We started out with service in the morning, which we do every Saturday. Then we had a lesson with Ismail, and we put him on date for baptism!!! It was such a good lesson about the plan of salvation and it was great! I told him that transfers were on February 19th so either me or my comp would be gone by then so I asked if we could try and do a day before that and he said the 18th would be perfect! So, hopefully, things go well, and I can see him get baptized before I'm gone! After that, we went to some basketball courts and played basketball with all of the Nishinomiya missionaries and met lots of new friends! We then rushed back to the church for eikaiwa and then had some meetings after so, dinner didn't happen until 9:00. But it was such a good day, and I was so happy for Ismail!

Spiritual thought:

Moroni 10:32

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

"My brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life. Indeed it is only with that reassurance burning in our soul that we can have the confidence to keep trying to improve, keep seeking forgiveness for our sins, and keep extending that grace to our neighbor."

- Elder Jeffrey R Holland

Since being on my mission, I have learned A LOT. But ever since getting to Japan, I have learned so much about love. In our mission, we have a saying, "High Love, High Expectations." Our mission President, Sano会長, shows so much love to every missionary. Because he loves us so much, he has very high expectations. But it's very easy to live up to these expectations without it feeling burdensome because everyone simply wants to make president proud and happy because we love him. The mission culture here is absolutely amazing because it's all built upon love. And our lives are all bulit upon God's love for us. He loves us so much more than we can possibly fathom. And if we reciprocate that love back to God, everything he asks us to do; every commandment, standard, prompting, etc, will never feel burdensome to follow. And when we follow the commandments God has given us, we will not only see his spirit and blessing pour out upon us, but we will be able to bless the lives of others around us. 

Well, that's all I got this week! Feel free to email me this week! 

Got the greatest book of mormon of all time with me

"MOUNTAIN DEWWW" –Olan Rogers

Friday night flicks

Blurry pic of service 🔥

Moving some other missionaries' friends!

Never seen this before...tastes like you would expect

Hands down the best burger in Japan...

America still has it beat, but DANG this was good

Tower of the sun in Kyoto

Got the greatest book of mormon of all time with me

Got pics from the camera at the tower of the sun!

Some lost city type vibes

The backside of the tower of the sun

Everyone just looking absolutely lost

Inside the tower

You could only take pics on the first floor but it is the tree of life

and has tons of animals going up the whole tree

Totem pole outside the tower

We made an attempt...

The animals that filled the pole

Totem pole #2

Animals of pole #2

Went to a museum at the end

Man, night of the museum is such a good movie

Yeah the boat from moana

How it looked on water

Rocks.

Totem poles 3, 4, and 5

Idk my mom told me to take a pic with something weird

Finally...something worthwhile

Man that would've been so sick

Some things make no sense

Found my sister in Japan

(I'll let them decide which sister it is)

Dragon...thing

Buddha

The second thing worthwhile

Kung Fu Panda #2 Vibes

This dude is made out of plants...or something like that

Something worthwhile #3

More Kung Fu Panda #2 Vibes

The Last worthwhile thing in this museum that

took like an hour and a half to get through

A hut inside the museum

Full pic Tower of the Sun!

Been a minute...22-19

the one where he went to a castle 🏰

"Boom you looking for this?"

Starting with Tuesday we went to a super cool castle! However it doesn't look like a traditional Japanese castle at all! It was also full of tons of optical illusions for taking pictures. It was a ton of fun though and probably the most fun P Day I've had in Japan!

Wednesday we had another party at Takuya's house and he taught us how to make Hiroshima style okonomiyaki and it was so good! After eating we played lots of card games and we taught him how to play Go Fish. I absolutely loved it and we played it like 4 or 5 times with him XD. 

Thursday we went to dinner with a member and we went to this really old place and he said he hadn't been there in 30 years so he couldnt guarantee the taste. We spent the entire dinner listening him to hate on everything he was given which was hilarious. Some food he said was ok at best and then other things he tried and said he wouldnt eat. We had almost 20 ぎょうざ which are like pot stickers and he tried one and said he wouldnt eat anymore so my comp and I had to down the rest.

Friday we spent a big chunck of the day helping other missionaries move someone in their ward which was a lot of fun! Now, you might think that I would finally move someone where there isn't cat hair everywhere because I haven't seen a single pet cat in Japan. However, you couldn't be more wrong. Yours truly is unable to move someone on the mission save they have cat hair on every inch of everything they own😐😑😐

On the bright side, we got free lunch and even though there was cat hair EVERYWHERE it was still fun and I really enjoy being able to serve and do things with my hands so it was good. To end the day, we played ping pong and card games at the church and had 5 of our friends show up! We've been doing it every friday and its been so great!

Spiritual Thought 

2 Nephi 27:23

For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."

–C.S Lewis 

Ah yeah miracles are just the best...

God really does bless us in so many ways and he truly is a God of miracles. I know that God fills our lives with miracles all we have to do is look for them! This week I want to hear about the miracles in your guy's lives! So please look for the miracles that God puts into your life this week and send me an email with them! I REALLY want to hear from you guys!

Well that was my week and man did it fly by!! Having P day on Tuesday always makes the next week go by so fast! I hope to see your miracles this week!!

Get ready I got a lot of Zone Conference pics!

After Zone Conference we went to dinner together for sister Tatafu's birthday

The Birthday gang

More ゾーン大会 pics!

Sister Eve's last transfer and zone conference!

Me and Elder Kondel getting a nice duet on the piano going XD

More ZC pics

Lots and lots of pics

Even more ZC pics

Tons of selfies

ZC is the best!

Don't worry almost done!

And this is the last pic of Zone Conference!

All of the Nishinomiya missionaries!

The view of the train ride up to a castle for P Day!

P day lunch!

Pics inside the castle!

Lots of sweet places for pictures!

*Test Drive violently playing in the background*

"Shrek! I'm looking down! Ohhhhhhh"

Me and Spiderman have never been seen in the same room together...

just a thought

"You are the chosen one!"

Lots and lots of optical illusions

Nothing beats reading the モルモン賞

Lots of pics today!

"I would have followed you, my Brother… my Captain… my King!"

"You threw off my groove!"

More pics at the castle

Even more pics

EVEN more pics

Enos 1:12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence,

the Lord said unto me:

I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.

1 Nephi 1:1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents,

therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father;

and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days,

nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days;

yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God,

therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

Engrish in Japan

The princes and the prince lived happily🤣

2D family photo

Such a happy family

Not such a happy famiky

Full view of the castle

The gang at the top of the castle

Holy this pic goes hard🔥🔥

The boys

🔥🔥

いちばん

Lots of views of up top!

So many cool Lookout places

Random nutcrackers

The process of making them??

The tram up to the top!

Pics of the castle from afar

More pics of the gang on the tram

The place where we get all of the dogs😋

Cool view of Himeji castle

Lots of paintings, which were all done by people

with disabilities and they didn't use their hands 🤯🤯

Takuya taught us how to make okonomiyaki!

This is round 1...

Hiroshima style okonomiyaki

Round 2 of okonomiyaki

Round 3

Trying to make it ourselves