Miracles, Miracles, and more Miracles!

This week was probably one of craziest weeks I have ever seen on my mission as far as seeing miracles go. We saw so many that Elder Strickland just got home last night, exhausted after booking it home to make it back on time and just sat in our chairs staring at eachother in unbelief at all the cool stuff we saw. I'll first give you alittle run down of the week and then try and list some of the cool miracles we saw and why exactly we think we saw them.

This past week was had companion exchanges with two sets of Zone leaders. The first one on Tuesday was with the Nagasaki ZL's and the second one on Thursday was with the Hiroshima ZL's. But before I go into that I want to talk about the first miracle we saw this week, it actually happened right after pday last week. We go to the church for an appointment we made that we honestly thought was a little sketchy. Our guy, Kyousuke shows up and little do we know he is a kinjin! (Direct translation is "golden person" but we use it to mean some one that is prepared to hear the gospel). We teach him simply what we believe, figure out some of his needs, talk about baptism and set a date for June 17th! He then comes to church the next day, loves it and
sets up times to meet for this next week. He is a 22 year old and just got out of college.

Next we had companion exchanges and we saw so many cool little experiences I don't even know where to begin. Each and every day we went out and prayed to see specific miracles and tried our best to be obedient, follow the spirit and Heavenly Father blessed us abundantly. One thing our mission president has been teaching us is the more often we pray to see specific miracles, then we have the necessary faith and act according to that faith (work hard and expect to see success), Heavenly Father will answer our prayers and bless us with the righteous desires we have. For example, yesterday elder Strickland and I had about 6 hours to proselyte, so we asked to find a highschool kid that we could teach a lesson to on the spot, and then find a college student who would could get to come to church to become friends with our other college investigators. Sure enough a couple hours into dendo, we find the coolest 15 year old kid I've ever met. Go to a nearby park, teach him the whole restoration and he wants to read the Book of Mormon and meet again. Then as we were booking it home last night we were at a stoplight and I decided to talk to this kid who was walking in the opposite direction, he stops, we talk for a few minutes and he says he is really interested in how our church is different
from others. We set up an appointment for the next day at the church (tonight) and exchanged numbers, he said he wants to come to church as well (there is our college kid!)

This past week I have seen more miracles than I thought it was possible for two missionaries to even see. And as I look back at this week I realize it was because we went out every single day and we didn't waste any time, we worked as hard as we could, talked with everyone we came in contact with,  followed the spirit, and focused solely on the work. It was probably one of the hardest weeks I've worked on my whole mission. It was such a huge testimony strengthener for me as I remembered who really is in charge of this work. I'm so thankful for my companion Elder Strickland, I have never met a missionary more focused and more dedicated in the work than he is. He constantly helps and pushes me to be the very best and I'm so grateful I get to work together with him.

I know that this work is true, part of the reason I know that is because we were clearly guided by our Heavenly Father to find so many different people this week with their own individual concerns and needs, all ready to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. In a city with almost 3 million people, we talked to lots of people every day and finding as many prepared people as we did isn't just a coincidence. As we do our best to become better missionaries, forget about ourselves and focus more on the work, Heavenly Father truly blesses us. Being a missionary here in Fukuoka at this particular time in the best mission in the world is just the most amazing experience ever. I can't put into words how much I love the mission and the people here in Japan. There are so many of them just ready and waiting for us to go find them, we just have to do our part! Quite the pressure I sometimes feel but I know we aren't alone, He always helps us.

I hope my next week and yours is as good as this one was! I love you all and thank you for your support!

Elder Sherrill