Japan Tokyo South Mission: What A Week!

What a week! I thought maybe I may have overdone it with how much I talked about Motoki last week. I was dead wrong. This kid is soo awesome! We see him about every other day and today we are playing ultimate frisbee with him! I will talk about him more in a little.

We were riding our bikes home after Elder Molen had bought some new running shoes. He was behind me and all of a sudden I heard a big clash of metal and knew right away he had wrecked. I turn around and he was sitting on the road with his bike behind him looking around. He looked soo lost & confused and I couldn't help but bust up laughing so hard. He then leaned over to grab something off the road that broke off his bike. By the time I got back to him and asked how he was, he was pretty angry. Not because he wrecked but because his bike light broke. I realized he didn't have a single scratch from it and told him how lucky he is but he was too angry about his bike light to care. Lol I seriously could not stop laughing on the side of the road. He couldn't remember how the wreck happened until we got home and he remembered the bag his shoes were in was on his handle and hit his knee when he was riding which shot the bag straight into his front tire spokes. The bag was ripped to shreds, soo funny.

Just a few other little things before I get into the good stuff. Nakamura is doing a lot better. He had a rough streak there for a while but he came to church this last week and I guess was talking about how he just wants to forget himself and follow God's will in his life. He is so dang humble. We also took a trip to Tokyo, one of the most exhausting days ever. We had to go to Idabashi for Elder Molen's doctor appointment but accidentally went to Itabashi. So we missed the appointment. Then we went to Kichijoji to fix my retainer and then go to Itabashi for the rescheduled appointment. On the way home one of the trains was delayed.. Soo that took up our whole day (10 AM to 9 PM).

Ok! So Motoki! Earlier in the week we had dinner with the Larsens and invited Motoki. He came and we watched The Restoration. Then the Larsen family did some great testifying to him including Sister Larsen's conversion story. Awesome stuff. Motoki then went home and watched The Restoration in Japanese. His English is good but he wanted to understand it better. He still hadn't prayed about being baptized on May 15th, but did that night. The next time we saw him was at basketball Saturday. Afterwards we had a lesson on repentance. Before we started we asked about his prayer and how he feels. He said he hadn't felt the Spirit yet but he always feels mental clarity when he prays and felt it when he watched The Restoration. Instead of hopping on that and telling him it's the Spirit we just kept asking questions and eventually he started the recognize times he has felt it. He said that if he tries to feel it he can and he is going to do that from here on out (so should we). I just love some of the things he says. He teaches himself. We talked some of the commandments and he said he thinks everyone should keep commandments. Haha though then he brought up that he drinks 5 cups of coffee a day and heard that scientists say it's healthy. We talked about how we don't know everything but believe it's a commandment from God. He looks at us and says, "if Jesus says it's bad, no one can say it's good!" Hahaha we busted up way hard. At the end of the lesson there were some testimonies and a lot of powerful silence. Though he said he hadn't found his answer we still challenged him to be baptized on May 15th and he said, "yes! That sounds good." He came into the lesson saying he hadn't found an answer and left with his answer. He found the answer to his prayer during the lesson. Never forget to pray for, listen to, & follow the guidance of the spirit. You can be an answer to others'
prayers and doing so brings one of the most accomplished and joyful feelings.

Yesterday was Stake Conference. President Whiting of the 70 and President Wada were there. Good to hear from them. I love my mission president so much! He is such a hero to me. There was a kid around my age there from another ward who is a little mentally challenged and while I was talking to President he came up and started touching president's nose and telling him he wants to pluck the gray hairs out of his nose. Hilarious. Motoki came as well and he loved it. He has been to church 3 weeks in a row and I think he likes it more than I do haha. He was going around and introducing himself to the members and telling some of them about his baptism, so awesome. He is so outgoing, I swear he isn't Japanese. Such a baller. I'm pretty stoked about this kid if you haven't noticed :)

Oh also I made the connection today that one of the sisters hometown that served here in Yamate is the same one that Kohei, my homie from Atsugi, is going to college at. It's Oita, which was basically the epicenter of the recent big earthquake in the Kyushu area. I guess it's still shaking there... But anyways I had them talk on the phone and she will try and hook him up with her family and the missionaries there!!

Love you guys

Pics

1. Motoki and the ultimate crew (he is standing in front of me)