The Best 2 Years: Elder Jace Thompson in Omaha/Japan: the one with new years in okayama

"Boom, you looking for this?"

Starting with Wednesday, we woke up bright and early and went with the ward to a sunrise hike for New years. It is a tradition in Japan to, on the first day of the new year, hike and watch the first sunrise of the year!😁😁 It was super beautiful, and I got some awesome flicks, so you'll have to go check them out. After that, we went to the kawamoto family's house (an awesome family in our ward), and we had a traditional New Year's meal with them! 😋😁 We spent a long time there, and then we went home and had a pretty chill evening for p day!

Thursday, we had elders and sisters conference!! Last year, we had all of the elders in the entire mission go to the same church building, and we had a very big basketball tournament. this year, we weren't able to do that, and so instead, we did a smaller version of that as a zone. It was supposed to be just elders, but we decided to invite the sisters, and we all played lots of sports, board games, card games, and other random stuff!😁😁 Of course, the other Okayama missionaries and I played "Bang! the dice game" for the entire day😆😆 After that, we met up with a new friend from one of our language exchange apps, ate some food with him, and he was super cool!!😁😁

Friday, we had another mission leadership conference in Kobe, and we were talking about all of the new goals that we wanted to create for the mission for the new year.😁 We spent the whole day talking about a bunch of different things that we can improve as a mission and different plans to keep becoming better! 😁😁 That took pretty much the entire day, and we ended up getting back later that night and finished the day by eating some dinner and messaging lots of our friends.

Saturday, We woke up early and went with the Maki family, awesome family in our ward, and we did some service for some people in the community by helping them pick up lots of trash. After that, we went to lunch with an awesome family in our ward, the Baba family, and they made us tacos!! 😆😆😆 They were SO GOOD and it had been a minute since I had eaten tacos, so it was very refreshing 😆😆😁 At first, their kids were very shy but we started talking about things they like and I mentioned that my favorite movie was How to Train Your Dragon and they both lit up, ran to their rooms, and grabbed How to Train Your Dragon stuffed animals. After that, they couldn't stop playing with us, and they were having such a great time.😆😆 Even in Japan, it's an absolutely phenomenal movie.

Sunday, our friend Mari came to church!!😆😆 it was her first time coming to church, and she seemed to really enjoy it! She said after that she felt so happy while she was there and that she had a great time! 😊😊 After church, as usual, we had lots of different phone calls with missionaries, a Devotional, studies, and because it was a fast sunday, ate a really big dinner! 😁

Spiritual Thought:

2 Nephi 26:33

For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile

"As we take up our crosses and follow Him, it would be tragic indeed if the weight of our challenges did not make us more empathetic for and more attentive to the burdens being carried by others. It is one of the most powerful paradoxes of the Crucifixion that the arms of the Savior were stretched wide open and then nailed there, unwittingly but accurately portraying that every man, woman, and child in the entire human family is not only welcome but invited into His redeeming, exalting embrace."

—Jeffrey R. Holland

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

That's all, folks.