Elder Jason Sherrill: Japan Fukuoka Mission: Loving Life in Beautiful Okinawa

This past week FLEW by! It seemed like one of the fastest weeks of my mission. It was filled with so many experiences I'm not sure how I managed to pack it into just one week. Since we just recently became a three man companionship it was a little interesting as the week began but we sure had a lot of fun! I love the other two elders I am with and since I already know them it wasn't to awkward joining their companionship. Plus, joining with another companionship makes both of your teaching pools become one so you teach a lot more which is always a bonus! Teaching lessons is what being a missionary is all about, I wish I could just teach lessons back to back all day, every day. But until then, we still have good ol' proselyting which is always a great time because of all the wonderful and interesting people you meet.

To begin the week we had splits with some other missionaries in a neighboring area and I had the chance to go with two great elders, Elder Roncal and Elder Mizukawa. During our split we taught 2 lessons to a couple of new investigators and it was just so cool to teach together and feel the spirit testify as we taught simple truths of the gospel. One of the new investigators we passed over to the sisters but the other two we kept so I'll keep you all updated on them! Their names are Sachiko and Takuya, they are a mom and a son and way prepared.

The next day I went to a lesson with the other elders investigator and we did half lesson and half pottery! Their investigator is a way experienced pottery maker and is letting us make cups/plates and letting us paint them! They won't be finished until next week but I'll be sure to show you how they turn out.

The next big thing we did was LARC Adventures! To begin I'll explain what "LARC" is, it is an acronym for "Less Active, Recent Converts". So in other words, members that don't come to church and members that just joined the church. In our Okinawa ward we have a huge list of Less actives we are trying to contact and lots of them live far away. So what we do is something called LARC adventures, where we have Elder Foust (senior missionary with a car) drive us out to a far area early in the morning. We spend the whole day contacting all the LARC's in the area and dendo with what remaining time we have left. Then he picks us up late at night to return home. This time we had about 17 LARC's split between 2 companionships and there was an island we had to take a ferry to because a couple members lived there so I have some way cool pictures from that! Also, while we were on this small island we went to the only restaurant they had there and asked the lady if we could sign the wall and she said yes! So now our names will always be there haha. The name of the island is Tsuken island, I'll send you an aerial photo to help you see just how small and remote it is.

Later in the week we had some more time to dendo (proselyte) which was really good. On Saturday we played soccer with some of the Japanese youth and one of our investigators who is 19 and I almost broke my ankle so that was kind of scary; I couldn't walk on it for the rest of the day but thankfully it has healed some and the swelling has been going down so I think I will be okay. The next day on Sunday the weather was absolutely perfect and our ward mission leader invited us over for dinner and it was the coolest thing! He lives right by the beach so he took us there really quick before going to his home and it was just gorgeous. I have some pictures so you guys can see too!

While we were at his home we decided to share the new First Vision video the church came out with. I'm not sure if any of you have seen it or not but it is incredible. It simply, yet powerfully portrays Joseph Smith's experience he had in the sacred grove as he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. Seeing the video was just another testimony to me that his experience and vision was real. I know Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw and because of that we have this wonderful restored gospel to enjoy and work in until the time our Savior comes to us again in full glory and power. I would like to invite you guys to watch the video if you haven't seen it before, I'll add the link below. Other than that, that was about it for this week. Obviously there were tons of other things that happened but that's all I have time to share. I love you all, have a great week!