The Best 2 Years: Elder Jace Thompson in Omaha/Japan: the one where he doesn't even know where to begin

"Boom, you looking for this?"

This week was absolutely phenomenal, and it was filled to the brim with miracles... get ready for a long one.

Starting with Monday, we went to a meat buffet with one of our members, and it was so awesome! I don't think I'll ever get sick of the meat buffets here! After that, we went to Osaka castle and ended up seeing a bunch of other missionaries there... They were all there for a zone P day, and we happened to run into them, and it was pretty funny! Overall, it was a pretty good p day

Tuesday, we had District Council, and it was super fun! I tried to make it more fun, so we did a kahoot...to all you missionaries out there, in case you didn't already know, kahoot is not blocked on our phones. Do with that what you will. Lately, we have also been seeing a crazy amount of miracles! Changing the way we plan the day and praying more often have completely changed missionary work for us! I'll share two experiences that we had.

On Wednesday, we were biking to place where we wanted to street people and abruptly, my comp stopped and was like, "I kinda feel like we should knock that apartment" I look to my right and see a MASSIVE apartment that had 15 floors and at least 25 apartments on each floor. While I was looking over at it, he continued and said, "... but I don't know if it's just me or not. " So we decided to hit a quick prayer, and when we ended, he looked at me and was like, "Yeah, we should knock it." and I replied,"Yeah, and we need to start on the 6th floor." Without another word, we biked over and headed straight to the sixth floor. We had been knocking for maybe 10 minutes when a nice old lady answered the door. We told her that we were teaching about God and Jesus Christ and asked her if she wanted to hear a quick lesson from us. To our surprise, she said yes. We began teaching her about God's love for her and introduced the Book of Mormon. She agreed to take and read it, and we talked about the next time we would come over. I love this experience because my comp and I could not have found her if we were working alone. He received the initial prompting to stop and go into the apartment. If not for him, we wouldn't have stopped there in the first place. After that, I was able to receive direction on exactly where we should go. It truly shows the importance of having companionship unity when doing the Lords work.

Later that day, we were on our way home, and during daily planning that day, my comp had another strong impression to go to a specific park and talk to someone there. The time we had planned to go to the park was nearing, and we didn't have as much time as we would have liked. We were also visiting some non active members, so we decided to only bike past the park, and if there were lots of people, we would stop by for a few minutes on our way home. We passed the park and there was no one. Just desolate. So we visited the members on our way home, and we still felt like we needed to go to the park. As a missionary, I always try to say hello to people as I bike or walk past them. Our first time passing the park, I had said hi to this one white guy who, when I greeted him, beamed a very bright smile. As we approached the park, I saw someone who I recognized. That same guy, with the same smile on his face. As soon as he saw us, he started walking over to us and was so excited to see us. He told us about how when I had said hello to him, that it really made his day and after that, every person he passed by, he made sure to greet them. He ended up being from Minnesota and really wanted to talk with us about what we believe. We agreed to meet up the next week, and it was another amazing miracle.

Thursday we went to one of the biggest festivals in Japan with our friend Kai! It was so much fun, and they had SO MANY fireworks! It was so cool and we had such a good time with him! But it was so crowded! There were over 1 million people there, and boy could you feel it!

Friday, we had Ping Pong night, and it was so great! Last week, we met a new friend named Ayane, and she is so awesome! She just made it to Japan this week, so she came to ping pong night, and we met her in person! She is super fun and SO elect! We are hoping to get her baptized next transfer 🤞🤞

Saturday, we had eikaiwa, and it was as good as usual! It was a really fun day! Kai and Saw Say Muu came, and it was so good to see both of them at eikaiwa!

Sunday was AMAZING! We had FOUR of our friends come to church! We had Muu, Mima, Ayane, and Kai all come! It was SUCH a good day, and they are all becoming friends with each other, and it is so cool to see! After the second hour, we talked and ate snacks with everyone, and the ward did such a wonderful job at getting to know them. Also, Mima has been wanting to get baptized for a while, but he has been a little scared to tell his family and his Buddhist community, so he hasn't set a date yet. But today, things changed. He sent my comp and I a message about how before he gets baptized, he wants to visit his ancestors' grave to pay them respect. He invited us to come with him and we are so excited. While talking about what day and time we wanted to go and started talking about baptism a little more. He told me that he wanted me to baptize him, and because of that, he wanted to get baptized this coming transfer while I am still for sure here. I was so excited to hear the news, and we set his baptismal date for August 25th. Please keep praying for him that he will be able to make his date!

Well, this has already been a really long email, and I've already talked about lots of spiritual experiences, so I will forgo the spiritual thought this week. Feel free to email me!

That's all, folks.