The Best 2 Years: Elder Jace Thompson in Omaha/Japan: the one with the actual pub

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with Monday, Elder Holmes and I had a pretty chill P day. We went to a sick garden and some other shrines and shops it was a pretty chill day, which was nice.

Tuesday, we had our Ping Pong game night and had 11 people come! It was awesome and such a fun night...I've got new people to try and beat now....

Wednesday, we took a day trip out to Ozu, which is about an hour and a half away from Uwajima, and spent the day trying to find people there. We hit up the Ozu Castle, and it was so cool! We met a bunch of high schoolers at the top who were trying to visit every castle in Japan.

Thursday, we learned how to juggle.

Friday, we took another day trip down to a garden that supposedly was really cool. It was also like an hour away but it was a pretty cool garden...the people there were really nice and gave us some...interesting food and drink. Had this fermented plum drink that was brutal. After the garden, we went to a nearby park and found a family playing soccer so we joined and had a party! We got their info, so hopefully, we can play again with them soon. Then we just started walking and found "the sandlot" but in Japan and then spent like an hour looking for a bus station. We did end up getting home, and all of that walking saved us a whopping 40 cents, so yeah, that was....something.

Saturday, we fixed Elder Holmes's bike because he popped a tire before I got here, and he's been using a loaner. After that, we went to what we now call "the pub." For some background, we met this dude last week after he chased us down because we were white. After talking with him, we found out he owned this bar, and it seemed pretty sick. So we finally decided to hit the pub this week and say hi to him and his wife. They had coffee, tea, and alcohol which is not exactly ideal for us, but then he told us he also had this juice. He said the juice makes you go "OooOOooooooO," so we prayed it wouldn't have anything bad and decided to get it. It ended up just being like a smoothy, and it was pretty good. We also met all of the locals at this pub and had some really funny conversations.

Spiritual thought:

2 Nephi 31:13

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.

"When doubt or difficulty comes, do not be afraid to ask for help. If we want it as humbly and honestly as this father did, we can get it. The scriptures phrase such earnest desire as being of “real intent,” pursued “with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God." I testify that in response to that kind of importuning, God will send help from both sides of the veil to strengthen our belief."

–Jeffrey R. Holland

I love the last sentence from Elder Holland... I think sometimes we expect God will only help us in these crazy ways involving angels or simmilar feats but I think more often than not, God uses others around us to help us with the difficulties of life.

Since being on the mission, I have had a lot to be grateful for and a lot I realized I took for granted back home. I'm so grateful for all of the friends, family, and people in my life who have been there to help me. I love how God puts these specific people in our lives because he knows how much they will help us in our lives. So, I hope this helps you remember just how amazing your friends and family are 🙂

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