Japan Tokyo South Mission: Heyyyy

Well... Elder Cook, my last companion is now closer to all of you than I am, in Utah. Elder Nelson came in on Thursday and we kicked things off right! On the way home we sad hi to a group around our age. We sparked up a convo and they were each from a different country: Peru (Aaron) Japan (Hiroshi), & Vietnam (Yen). We talked a bit and Elder Nelson just bossed up and asked them to come back to the church with us.. And that's what we did! Gave them a church tour and started talking about the Book of Mormon. We looked around and of course had one in Japanese, looked a bit more and found one in Vietnamese, but couldn't find on in Spanish! :( They were totally cool with sitting down and talking about it together. The Japanese guy kept saying, "this is so cool!" We decided to read the introduction together. We start reading and I look underneath some hymn books on the table and sitting right there is a Spanish BoM! If it wasn't enough of a blessing to have one at the church, the fact that it just happen to be sitting on the table of the room we went to? Just so awesome. Since Aaron is Catholic he actually helped us out a ton with explaining things to the other two. We ended up challenging them to be baptized if they feel the teachings are true. They said yes and Aaron said, "yeah, like I'm Christian and this book is Spanish so this is easy for me." He has since been reading the BoM and will come to English class with his girlfriend (Yen) this Wednesday!

Then a couple days later we were riding on the train. I had an immediate feeling to talk to the kid next to me but honestly I just wasn't feeling it. There are times where I'm just tired and just want to relax for a bit. So I sit there for half the ride but couldn't fight the feeling. His name is Ryutorou, we talked for a bit and he said he doesn't believe in God. I asked him if God did exist, what kind of being would he be? He says, "someone that guides us and helps us know what path we should take." I was shocked. I never hear answers like that. Turns out he had been reading a book recently that talked about it. I told him a bit about the path God wants us to take, gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he added me on Facebook. The best part is I messaged him maybe 5 minutes after meeting and he had read the whole pamphlet, and told me he is thankful I reached out to him because he has been wanting to learn more about Christ for a while. :)

Shintaro gets me way nervous every week. We loose contact with him every week because he is busy but he always follows through and comes to church. He came this last week and since he can't meet until next Sunday when his baptismal date is we uh... We gave him everything. We taught him about tithing, 10 commandments, Sabbath day, law of chastity, pretty much all the commandments and he agreed to keep them all. He's looking real solid for the 7/31 baptismal date, we're getting pretty excited. I can't believe how much he is understanding and how willing he is to follow the teachings. People think it's because I am a good missionary or something lol but really I've just been really privileged to meet such prepared people on my mission.

I also got a chance to play basketball with a kid named Ryo about my age. He lived in Ohio for ten years and brought a friend who lived in Tennessee. They were both sooo chill. It was nice to speak in a Japanese & English mix with them. We went to this siiick gym to play and I got so tired so fast. I'm way out of shape but it felt good to play again. Also went to Costco today :) went with Bro. Misu from Hachioji & Ishi from Atsugi. They are the best.

Thanks for reading, love you guys :)

1. The three friends we brought back to the church Elder Nelson's first day here

2. A pic from last week we forgot, Ahamadou and his girlfriend. They have been meeting with missionaries for a long time but their parents are anti-Mormon :/