Miracle Week!

Hello everyone! Before I get started this will be a relatively short
email. As a district we are going to the Genbaku Dome today! It is a
building in Hiroshima that survived the atomic bomb drop and they
built a museum out of it. Then after that we are going to Costco! They
have one in Hiroshima so we figured we'd take advantage of it. I'll
make sure to send all the pictures of today in my next email home next
week. Which by the way next week my pday will be on Tuesday because
it's transfers week! I'll get to see if I stay in Saijo or go
somewhere else.

Anyways so on to this week, we saw a couple miracles! The first
miracle we saw was on our way to a lesson with Xie (a Chinese recent
convert). We were outside his apartment complex and right before we
parked our bikes some guy passed us on a moped and looked at us kind
of strange. We didn't think much of it and parked our bikes. As we
were about to leave our bikes he drives back and comes over to us. He
then asks us if we are the Mormon missionaries. We tell him yes and he
goes on to say how he heard from us a year ago and wants to hear our
message again. Kind of stunned my companion and I ask him when he'd
like to meet. Then he says, is right now okay? We're just like.. Uhh..
We are about to go teach a church member of ours but we'll tell him
it'll be another 30 minutes or so haha. So we go run and tell Xie the
story and he was more than okay with waiting as we taught this man.
His name is Yamamoto and he has been going through some difficulties
in his life lately and told us he has been thinking about religion,
especially the message the Mormon missionaries shared with him a while
back. So we taught him and he loved our message. We taught him once
more this week and have plans to meet with him again this week!

Then the next little miracle we saw was we ran into this young man
named Matsumoto while knocking on apartments. He is a senior in high
school and living by himself while his parents live in Fukuoka. We set
a return appointment with him and came back and taught him kind of our
purpose as missionaries and the restoration of the gospel. He was
really intrigued with our message and asked lots of questions. As we
taught him more and asked his thoughts he said it was really
interesting and he wanted to learn more. We then decided to extend a
baptismal invite with him and asked him if he came to know if our
message was true would he be baptized. Enthusiastically he responded,
"zehi, uketai desu!" Which means, "certainly, I want to be baptized!"
So that lesson went really well with him and we're excited to see
where it goes. Unfortunately he will be moving down near Fukuoka
though in about a month for college so we'll probably end up referring
him to the elders down there.

To end I'd like to share a little experience that's not a miracle but
just a testament of how the Lord really does guide us as missionaries
to help out His children. These past couple weeks we have been
teaching a member named Sister Nomura. She's been going through some
difficulties lately and has asked my companion and I to share with her
a spiritual message to help her. The morning of the day of the lesson
during breakfast we still had no idea what to share with her. As we
each went into our personal studies we decided to individually think
of what to share with her and then during companion study share our
ideas.  During my studies I had no idea what to share but I felt
prompted to have it be something from the Book of Mormon. I turned to
the contents page of the Book of Mormon to see all the different
chapters listed out. I looked at each one and prayed to know which
chapter to study. I felt prompted to go to go to Moroni, the last book
in the Book of Mormon. As I got to Moroni I prayed again to know which
chapter to study. I felt prompted to go to chapter 7 . As I read
chapter 7 verse 45 really stuck out to me. It says, "And charity
suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and
rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

After I read that I knew I wanted to share that scripture with her and
talk to her about the power of charity. When companionship study
started I went first to tell my companion what I was impressed to
share with nomura Shimai. He looked at me surprised and said how he
felt prompted to read that same chapter in the Book of Mormon! He read
Moroni chapter 7 and felt impressed to talk about charity with her
too. As we had the lesson with her it went really well! She said she
has been thinking of ways to share the gospel and through our
messaging of being able to share the gospel not only through our words
but actions as well she felt it was exactly what she needed to hear.

I know this work truly is guided by Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful
for all the wonderful experiences I'm having in Saijo right now. The
members and the people here are wonderful. I love you all and hope you
have a great week!

Love, elder Sherrill