Another Week Down, 1 Year Older!

Looking for the elect

Hello, hello, hello! Today is one of the best days of the year (in my
opinion) because it's my birthday! Although, technically it's not
really my birthday because I was born in America and in America right
now it is the 24th, but in Japan it's the 25th so I'm celebrating!
Haha. When you turn 20 in Japan it is when you become an adult, much
like 18 is for America. Today I don't really have anything specific or
fun planned for my birthday. My companion asked me what I wanted to do
and my response was "relax and eat ice cream". So that's what we are
going to do haha.

But anyways, on to last week, we had lots of stuff happen. On P-Day
last week a member took us out to an all you can eat restaurant as
well as got us ice cream. He used to be the branch president and is
super nice as you can tell. He loves rock music and the Beatles. All
the members here actually feed us a ton. I have eaten more here in
Nakatsu at members homes than I have during my first five transfers
combined. I think this may become my favorite area ;) haha.

I'm not sure how much I have already said about our investigators but
right now we have 1 main investigator and one other that has some
potential. Our first main investigator is Kayo, I talked about her a
little in last weeks email but she is still doing good and
progressing! We met with her once this week and tried to set a more
specific baptism date but she wasn't willing to since she said she
doesn't understand it all completely. It's really funny because she
says she believes all we tell her and she says she feels good about it
but hasn't understood it logically yet so doesn't want to set a
specific date yet. We are hopeful we can get a date with her soon
though. The other investigator with potential is Matsukage. I only met
her once but as we bore testimony of the first vision and the Book of
Mormon it was really easy to tell it touched her. When we extended the
Book of Mormon to her she was shocked we were giving her such an
important book for free. We testified it would help her and the trials
she is facing currently and she promised she would read the section we
asked her to read before our next visit this week.

This week our dendo was pretty fun. We went to a highschool and handed
out tons of Eikaiwa flyers and that was pretty cool. Highschool kids
usually love to talk with Americans and it was good English practice
for them, hopefully some of them will actually come to our free
English class! We also got a couple return appointments this week
which is always good, I really want to build our teaching pool because
we don't have to much we are working with right now. Most of our
lessons are taught to less active members which is good but I really
want to help find some new people to help strengthen the branch. Just
a couple days ago we went to play basketball with some potential
investigators and it was probably the best workout I have gotten since
I've been in Japan. They were super good so it was a pretty intense
game. I was so dead tired afterwards that I could hardly bike home
haha. The main guy who runs it we are trying to work with but it's
pretty slow, so we are only planning on going every now and then since
it's not the most effective use of our time. One other thing about
Japan summers are the spiders... I have never seen so many, so HUGE,
and so ugly of spiders since I've been to Japan. I mean I guess some
of them look kind of cool but when they are the size of your palm and
their web is 3 feet wide, I'm not a huge fan of them. Plus whenever I
park my bike for a couple hours to dendo I come back and they always
have made webs in my helmet and on my bike! Just last night I put my
helmet on and felt a web hit my head so I threw the helmet off and
sure enough, two little spiders chillin in my helmet. That has to be
probably my least favorite thing about the summer haha.

To end I'd like to share a quick scripture I came across in my studies
this week. It is Matthew 8:20, "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man
hath not where to lay his head." As my companion and I discussed this
scripture we talked about its meaning. We concluded that it meant that
these other creatures such as the fox and bird have places of refuge,
but Jesus (the Son of man) has no place to rest his head. Pretty much
saying to be his disciple and follow him is not easy, but ultimately
worth it. Having the opportunity to follow His example and preach
repentance and the Gospel to others is such a blessing! Even though it
is difficult sometimes the positives always far outweigh the
negatives. I love this message I get to share and I'm thankful for
everyone who supports me as I do so. I love you all! Have a great
week!

Love, Elder Sherrill