Japan Tokyo South Mission: Boom

Yeahhhh buddy! I've got a surprise for all of y'all this week! Remember Tou Takuten (Jack), a Chinese investigator back in Hachioji? I've been talking about him just about every week so I hope you do. I was talking to him on FB and he asked if I would baptize him! So I took a trip back to Hachioji and got to baptize one of my best friends! We took some great pics, I'll send em. Jack & Choyo were both bouncing off the walls. One of my favorite parts was sitting next to Jack as all the missionaries sung "I'm trying to be like Jesus." It's Jack's favorite song and he was audibly trying to keep himself from crying. When we entered the water for the baptism I was naturally expecting the steamy warm water that usually awaits but was shocked to step into very cold water. The ward was stressing when I told them but it was actually way refreshing! Right afterwords Jack said "大好き!" Basically, "I loved it!" He shared his testimony afterwords and he shared pretty much his whole story. He is so solid. I assumed he would say it but he talked about how I "mailed him everyday trying to get him to meet with us" and once he and his girlfriend broke up and he was feeling very down he decided to give it a chance. I didn't email him everyday but he is convinced that I did and apparently that's why he asked me to baptize him haha. We went out to eat at one of Jack's favorite restaurants afterwords. It was so great to see all of my Hachioji friends again:

Jack - It all started back two months ago when Elders Cook, Nelson & I met him on the street. He was fairly nice but told us clearly he was not interested. He said he was looking for the truth, had already studied Christianity and feels like he is finding it with Buddhism. I felt like I should try and get his contact info anyway, then we started talking on FB. I asked him a few more times if he would meet and study with us and he got pretty annoyed with me. We saw him randomly on the street with his GF, first thing he said, "my girlfriend is Buddhist and I don't want to talk..." After a bit I invited him to come with us to a member's house for dinner, then he called me on FB. I didn't know it but he recently had a hard break up and was feeling super down. I threw Choyo (Chinese recent convert) on the phone and he went off in Chinese and convinced him to come. He was so happy to be with us that night, his attitude had completely changed. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to meet with us again and he was all for it. We met later that week and continued meeting 2-3 times a week until I left. He applied himself, studied and prayed with real intent to know the truth. He said that when he was feeling super down about his life and girlfriend he would pray and it would replace those feels with peace and joy. During that short time I saw an amazing transfiguration from an unhappy lost Jack to a confident, joyful one. Not even a week after he started lessons we were talking to a random guy on the the street and Jack saw us from a distance and joined the conversation and just started testifying to this dude about the happiness he has felt through prayer and reading the Book of Mormon. The guy said he didn't believe him... Jack said, "that's ok, I literally felt the exact same way a couple weeks ago, if you read and pray you will feel it too." Jack would hear about one of God's commandments and right away decide to follow it and ask us how we avoid the temptations of breaking the commandment. I remember we were teaching about the priesthood (God's power & authority) he said: I can tell you guys have it because you don't give up on people. I hadn't really realized it before but despite how easy it would have been to give up on him at the beginning we never did. I was thinking about that and how God will never give up on us and how Christ told us, "be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." We have a responsibility to share what we have been blessed with to those around us and we can't ever give up on them because we know God wouldn't.

Keisuke - You may remember hearing his name but I met him while passing out English class flyers, he came to English class, then started meeting with us a few times a week and coming to church. He felt like he should quit smoking about 6 months ago and was able to do so. He felt cleaner and more ready to try out Christianity in the process and was wanting to go to church, then he met me. The more we talked the more obvious it became that God has had his hand in his life. He has since decided that he will also be baptized and was able to see Jack's baptism. He came to lunch with us and it was so great to catch up with him. He lost his mother a while back and said he really loved hearing about the plan that God has created for us and everyone one of his children. I'm sure he finds a lot of peace in that knowledge as I have.

Shintaro - If you don't know, Shintaro is a college homie Elder Cook and I met and later baptized. I won't tell his whole story but it was great to see him again. We were a little worried about him but he is doing great :) He wasn't able to come to lunch with us though and I forgot to take a pic :/

It was also great to see Choyo, Brother Misu, other members and the missionaries there. Before this transfer I hadn't been back to a previous area and now I have been to Yamate, Tokorozawa and Hachioji! Today we are chillin with Ishii from Atsugi, he's such a homie. We ate some Ramen that I hadn't had in over a year and half, soo bomb. I'll send a pic. I think I've decide one of the only things that's better here than in America is the food. I'm totes def finna miss it.

This last week we also found a bunch of new friends! One of which came to church this last week named Kurenuma and another named Uchiyama who I hope I have more to share about in the future.

<3 you guys! Here's some pics, including some really bad puns lolz

1. Jack of all trades