the one where he got bubbles

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with Monday, we went around and found some cool shrines and went on a really cool hike to a shrine on top of this mountain. We also hit up the sandlot and played ball with our boys. 

Tuesday, we had DCM, so most of our day was traveling there and back. But we did have a fun object lesson during DCM that my comp and I came up with for our training, and some other guys had to eat these creme filled pastries without their hands, which was pretty fun.

Wednesday, we played ball, and they aren't taking it easy on us, so we are really having to put in the work so we can keep hitting home runs 

Friday, we hit up baseball again and just had a slug fest the last two innings... these old guys were getting tired, and the pitches started slowing down...the rest is history. We also have had some really good conversations with these guys and have really good relationships with them!

Sunday we went to this piano recital in a nearby city that we got invited to last saturday and it was great! After the recital, they played lots of games and had us join with everyone else, and we had no idea what we were doing. But I won one of the games and got a bubble wand so that was fetching sick 🔥

Spiritual thought:

2 Nephi 2:2

Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.

"God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way."

–C.S. Lewis 

"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny."

–C.S. Lewis 

Our lives are not easy. But all of the hard times: the failed tests, the broken hearts, the sicknesses, the pain, the confusion, the busy weeks, the frustrations and all of the other difficult things we go through, they are all there so that God can make our lives better. It can be really hard to go through some things, lots of things, in life. But if we push through the bad, God will give us grandeur and blessings that stretch farther than we can see. 

So, for all of you who are going through hardships, trust in God. Trust in His infinite love for you. Trust that He knows what He is doing. Even if it just seems hard right now, the blessings at the end of it all will always make the challenging times worth your effort. 

Well, that's all I got this week! Feel free to email me! Also sorry I've been slacking on pictures lately but I'll try to do better! 

Dog #36

P day hike

37... Elder Hall is only at 20😬😬

the one with baseball and oranges

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Holy, we had a lot of fun this week...

Starting wìth Monday, we wanted to spend some time playing baseball on P day, so a couple days prior, we got a mitt, a bat, and a ball. We were also hoping that we would be able to use it to find some people and have fun with people we see around. So Monday, we went to the sandlot and were throwing the ball around when some grandpas pulled up and then some more and some more all in all there were like 20 grandpas that all came to the other side of the lot. We saw throwing some balls around...becsuse they were warming up for a game😆😆 Having nothing bettet to do, my comp and I went over and started cheering them on anytime anything happened, and they were loving it. They were all cracking up and just having fun. When the last couple innings came around, one guy came up to us and motioned for us to come down and step up to the plate. So we go down, grab a bat, and get ready to hit some nukes. The best part is this was softball, so we got this ball getting lobbed over to us. Needless to say, we both just started hitting dingers and home runs, which was awesome. From that moment on, they just started calling us "Major" as in Major Leagues. We ended the game, and you know what snack they had?? Oranges!! Apparently, baseball and oranges are the perfect combo across the globe. 

Tuesday, we had DCM (district council meeting) in a far away city, so most of our day was just traveling there and back. But we made it back in time for ping pong, so it was a good day.

Wednesday was also a killer day. So going back to monday, at the end of the game, one of the guys told us that the next game was Wednesday at 3:00pm so you bet that we snagged our gear and ran over for the next game. Spent the next couple hours getting to know all of the guys and hitting nukes (the perfect combo for missionaries) and just had a good time. At the end of the game, we were all just talking and eating oranges when they said the next game was Friday at 3:00 pm. Yeah, you best believe we made that our top priority. After baseball, we met up with another one of our buddies and played basketball with him, his friends, his dad, and his dad's friends. So, all around, a good day for sports. 

Friday, we headed back out to the sandlot and had another great game. They have gotten to know us better so they dont take it easy on us anymore... all these guys are at least 70 years old, but man, can they move. Not a single one of them looks like they are in their 70s. Most look like they would be in their 50s. It's crazy how healthy Japanese people are. But its great because they are all retired and dont have much to do with their lives, so they just play ball 3 times a week. After the game, they made sure we were coming to all of the games next week. So now we play softball every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So that's the story of how we joined a 70+ softball league at the ripe age of 19. 

Saturday, we got on our bikes and headed an hour away to the city that I hadn't been to yet. We ended up talking to lots of great people and had a good day! We were biking by this community center type place, and we heard someone playing the piano REALLY well, so we stopped in to see what it was, and it was a piano recital rehearsal! All the people playing the piano were teenagers but they were all so good! We ended up staying and watching the rest of the rehearsal and helped them all clean up after. They gave us lots of snacks and told us the performance is next Sunday at 1:30. So next week, we are gonna have to book it out of church so we can get there on time, but it should be awesome! We also hit KFC on the way home and took some flicks with our boy Sanders. 

Spiritual Thought:

Alma 34:41 

But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions.

Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance.

–Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

As a zone, we are focusing on faith, hope, and charity this transfer! Last week, I talked about faith, so today, I want to talk about hope!

I love this scripture because we all have our own personal struggles and challenges in life, but we just need to be patient, hold on, and hope that the Lord will take care of it for us. I love in Uchtdorf's quote how he relates hope to trust and how we just need to put our trust in God, and we will be blessed for it!

Sorry for the longer email, but I hope you liked the story:) Well, that's all I got this week, but man, was it a good week! Overall, it was super fun, and I have loved playing softball with the お祖父ちゃん! Feel free to email me!

Number 35🔥🔥

It had to be done...

😤🔥

Number 36 in the books

The One With a Little Shibui👌

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with Monday, we were still with the other elders outside of our area waiting for Zone Conference, and we spent the day going on a couple hikes and to some shrines around their area. Pretty fun day, just chilling with the other guys.

Tuesday, we had ZONE CONFERENCE!!! It was awesome!! We talked about sooo many good things, but one of the most talked about subjects was faith! We talked about all the power that faith has, and they challenged us to read the Book of Mormon and find all the ways that everyone is using faith. We also talked about shibui👌 which just means that we want to have a good mission culture. We really want to focus on faith, hope, and charity and each one is one finger to make this 👌. It was a good but long day, and it's SUPER far from our area, so we spent the whole rest of the day traveling back. Sadly, we couldn't make it home, so we stayed another night in Toyo. 

Thursday, we spent lots of time doing service! We started with going to this place called PAFIO, which is like a community center, and helped our friends clean up the project surrounding the disabled kids in the area. After that, we went to an inactive members house and helped her clean up her backyard because she has two goats! It was pretty fun and the goats were sick

Saturday we went with our photogropther friend, Misaki, and spent the day going to cool places and taking LOTS of pictures! It was pretty fun, and we got some fire flicks, so it was a really good day! That night we stopped and got some crepes (theres this killer crepe shop that we go to like three times a week) and while we were eating them, sone 15 year old girls threw a 5¥ coin at me (imagine a nickle). We are not sure exactly what it means, but we think it's some sort of courting thing🤣🤣

Spiritual Thought:

Alma 32:21&27

21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

So how does one “come unto Christ” in response to this constant invitation? The scriptures give scores of examples and avenues. You are well acquainted with the most basic ones. The easiest and the earliest comes simply with the desire of our heart, the most basic form of faith that we know. “If ye can no more than desire to believe,” Alma says, exercising just “a particle of faith,” giving even a small place for the promises of God to find a home—that is enough to begin. Just believing, just having a “molecule” of faith—simply hoping for things which are not yet seen in our lives, but which are nevertheless truly there to be bestowed—that simple step, when focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, has ever been and always will be the first principle of His eternal gospel, the first step out of despair.

–Jeffrey R. Holland 

Sticking with the theme from Zone Conference, today is all about faith! Faith really is the first and most important step we take towards the gospel of Jesus Christ! Without it, we wouldn't be able to do any of the other things! And I love that we don’t always have to have this CRAZY amount of faith...as long as you have a little bit, enough to lead you to act, then it'll all work out through the power of Christ, our Savior. 

Well, that's all I've got this week! I hope everyone has a killer week! Feel free to email me! 

Zone conference! Shibui👌

Ichiban! ☝️

More zone conference flicks

🔥🔥

美味しい食べ物！

Lunch break!

Practicing teaching!

P day hitting a hike

"I don't like sand..."

Seminary Graduation!

More pics at seminary graduation

We are becoming best friends with the 7/11 workers

31!

32...we're hitting triple digits before I go home

Good week for dogs...ending the week at 34

Some more flicks with the dogs

Hitting some service