Pictures!

I have been studying The Book of Mormon for Selflessness and Love over the past eight months or so. I took an English copy we had, and read it from the beginning. This morning I read Moroni 8 and glanced over the rest of the it at all the notes I made. I was astounded to see what I had learned! When I went over those things I could hardly believe I was the one who had written those notes; they all seemed so new to me. As I read, the Spirit was really there. What a wonder of a book that is! I know The Book of Mormon is true!

Anyways I don`t have a lot of time! 

This Week we had a way awesome lesson with the son-in-law of one of the members here and on Saturday we had a Halloween party where we met another referral and I talked with him all night! What cool miracles and a cool introduction to the Kumamoto Nagamine Ward!

Back in Nago:

Elder Jameson

 Leaving Nago 

  Nago From the Plane

  On the bus coming to Kumamoto 

My desk....

Its made out of wooden poles and rope from the 100Yen store.

Its just part of being a three-man. :) 

 Elder KirkhamElder Lee 

Transfer Calls and Bike Wrecks

A ton happened this week (including getting hit by a car :), don't worry I'm fine) so, I'm not sure I will have time to write all that I want to write but regardless, this week was awesome! From last Monday until now we have seen a lot of good things. This is the letter that I wrote to President Gustafson this week

Kaicho,
This week was awesome! Lots of good work, and lots of miracles. Mostly just finding, but inspired finding.
We worked with the Spirit and found many prepared people. The one example that sticks out to me now is a new investigator we found on Saturday. We had fifteen minutes before we had to head home and so we decided on visiting one of three different apartments through prayer. The first door we came to was a very prepared mother named Nishikawa. We met again last night before the crash and it was a great lesson.
We are also teaching families that were found in the recent weeks. One of those families is named Kobashigawa. We met them on Sunday, and, although we both felt our teaching could have been much better, Elder Jameson and I were really impressed with the family. I have no doubt that they are prepared to hear the gospel.
I just finished personal study. I read from the beginning of Moroni 7 and one of the things that I noticed was how Mormon gave credit to the grace of God the Father and Jesus Christ, and to the "gift of his calling" for the opportunity to teach.
What a lesson to me! What a blessing it is to be able to serve God! What a blessing!
I am so grateful for the chance I have been given to serve God in this work. I hope that His grace will continue to abide with me.
I'm glad I got to talk to you this morning. Thank you for always working with such zeal for us!
Truly, Elder Bevan

The crash happened last night at about 8:55, on our way to the apartment. Somebody just didn't see me and drove out form a street and hit me. It wasn't fast or anything and I feel like I really was really protected. I only have a couple of scratches on my leg, and that is it. My tires are pretty bent up though so I am going to have to replace them. The lady was way nice and way worried, and Elder Jameson and I both invited her to our Halloween Party. What a cool way to meet the missionaries right! :) I hope she gets baptized. 

This morning we read over the rules that our mission has about wrecks and realized we needed to call President, so I called him and he took things very smoothly and kindly, and since today is the day we hear if we are transferring or not, he also gave me my transfer call. I am transferring to Kumamoto into a trio companionship!
Yesterday was also splits with the district leader Elder French and that helped me to feel good about leaving Nago in other missionaries hands. I love this work! I am so glad I got to work here in Nago!

Finally I wanted to answer this letter from Grandpa Ashby:

Hi Elder,       We had a very nice Sabbath day today.  Your grandma gave a great lesson on honesty in our gospel principles class and sacrament meeting was just what we needed.   The speaker quoted the following:  "Help thy brother to bring his boat across the water and lo thy own boat has arrived at the shore."    What a great and true statement. "         The Savior said it this way, "He that findeth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospel shall find it."                    So?   How much have you lost? 

I think that I have a lost a lot. Not in any way enough, but a lot. Over my time in Nago I have lost pride and blinding misconceptions or excuses that I put on myself. I have lost face in front of people I really care about, and esteem in front I people I would have wanted to impress. I have lost a lot of faith in myself, and I have gained the world instead. I have gained strength in place of disabling excuses, and faith in the Savior in place of Faith in myself. I love the Savior. I am so glad to serve Him.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Bevan

From Elder Jameson's blog:

After, they had to go home early, we went to visit N. Man that lesson was epic. But what was pure revelation was the prep and what happened before the lesson. Elder Bevan knew so well what to teach her. We got there and she wasn't there. We were so sad. We prayed to know what to do next. We were standing there. and I prayed 3 more times. I wasn't getting anything. I turned to Elder Bevan and said, "I don't know. I don't feel like we should anything around here." So we waited and were about to pray again when she pulled up. She got out and we talked. A great lesson. A really heart felt lesson. All about purifying hearts because she said that is what she likes the most. She said in the lesson, "we teach the same thing. When I read the scripture (Moroni 7:45) we teach the same thing." Then later she said "your faces are glowing and I can see that your hearts are pure" We said to that "it is because of the message. We promise you if you apply this message to your life, you will receive this too." A little while later the husband came out and yelled at us to leave because it was late, but she told us to come again and wanted to learn more.

On the way back last night Elder Bevan was hit by a car. Complete change of story, yeah I know.  But the lady didn't see him. He is okay but his bike needs new tires because they are warped. She was freaking out but Elder Bevan was so loving. She said "you people are good people." I said "to show we have no bad feelings, we want you to come to our Halloween party!" She accepted and said she would come to our party. Who knows? Maybe she needed to hit Elder Bevan to be introduced to the gospel?

Elder Jameson's version of our week and Typhoon VongFong

Elder Jameson wrote:

Tuesday was a weird day. We had district meeting and afterwards we met with E, who is doing great, and another member who's name is Miyagi. They are both awesome and doing well.
We didn't eat dinner at 5 but went to do service with this lady named W. Elder Bevan is good with working his way to gospel topics during things. I'm just blunt and go straight to it. Last week he asked her if she wanted to study the Book Of Mormon. She said sure. Huge miracle because she said she would never study. The Spirit works with people. We had a great lesson but when we showed her the pictures of the prophet, she was upset saying there were no girls. That was super hard to explain in Japanese. It was good at the end.

Monday night we had a good miracle happen during planning. I asked Elder Bevan who we should visit. At that moment I had a feeling to visit a person that we haven't visited in a while. Elder Bevan said that it wasn't a good idea because he isn't home all the time. I looked at him and said "lets pray about it" so we prayed. After the prayer he said we can visit him but on the way back home. Again I had a pressing feeling to visit him but with a exact time of 7 pm. I told him and we made a schedule around that. We went at 7 to visit him. He said he just had returned home.  We talked about general conference and he said he would come to priesthood. (Which was cancelled because of the typhoon but still awesome.) After we left we said a prayer of thanks. He came walking by about 3 minutes later saying he was going on a walk. If we had visited him at a different time, we wouldn't have met him. After that we prayed again to see where to go and we met this couple from Hong Kong. We found out the hard way how to speak to them. They look Japanese so we spoke Japanese back but they spoke broken Japanese with a hard accent. Then we asked in English if they spoke English. They did and fluently. It was super cool and we invited them to visit mormon.org to see how this message can help their life.

Wednesday was crazy. We went out early to dendo because we had a late lunch appointment, which also pushed dinner back and it became a weird day.

But we visited this lady named N. She is basically fluent in English but she has some past mistake that haunts her so she doesn't come to church. She was active for a long time. We are trying to think of ways to help her. We went to eat afterwards and we dendoed around. Things were sparse. We did meet a mom that was concerned for her life after this one. Maybe things will progress with that. We eventually were able to meet the high school student from the other week, M. We met outside McDonalds. He thought hard about the question of a perfect world. He said, "if I kill someone and get a good lesson from that, is that okay?" Not quite. We taught him about repentance and the Book of Mormon. Repentance through the Book of Mormon actually, and the Godhead. He is such a great kid and he is the top student and president of his class. A really smart kid. He invited us to an activity he is planning for the 25th. Maybe this will be good :).

Thursday was filled with weekly planning and visiting E. She has changed so much. It fills me with so much joy to see her changing. She even keeps a daily journal for the things she prays for. How many of us members do that?

Friday, stuck inside planning for things. Then the typhoon started. It wasn't raining and the winds weren't that strong so we got some work done, some return appointments. Yeah! If we don't die in the typhoon!!

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the apartment. A lot of time with Elder Bevan. A lot. It turned out well. Our relationship is great. We worked on the area book and less active book to organize it in a way to be helpful for other missionaries coming through this area.
Honestly being in a concrete apartment is awesome. The storm didn't do anything to us. Completely safe inside. The power went out for like an hour but that was at night.
That was our week. We need to still watch general conference. I'm still looking forward to it!

Typhoons and Things

Hello Everyone!

This here is my companion and Nago's giant pig statue. Unlike the rest of Japan (I'm am fairly sure) pork is part of the traditional Okinawan food. I could be wrong about that though so don't kill me if you find out I'm wrong. :) Below that is a picture of me and Nago's famous Brother Miyagi. He is a way awesome convert of a little over a year ago and we all love him. He overcame a lot to join the church and if I know anything about it he is an awesome example of how the Atonement changes people. He has a little bit of a mental problem, but he is just a ton of fun to be around. He meets us about every week to study from the scriptures and every once in a while we go out to eat together. I love to hear his prayers. You can tell that he is talking to the Father. 

The last picture is this way awesome kid we found a while back. He is just seventeen, but he really thinks deeply about things and is a way hard worker. He is completely determined to become the top of the business world and has thought a lot about what kinds of things he will need to do to get there. He is the top of his school and I think that he is  ahead a grade... anyways he way cool! Hopefully he starts progressing!

 

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​At the end of this week a big typhoon came again. It got here on Friday night and went all day Saturday and yesterday. That wasn't any fun because we were inside the whole time, and didn't get to see general conference. We worked on organizing our records and area book a bit though, and that was good.

I love working with the people here. I love to work with the members and the people we meet on the street! We did some calling while we were stuck inside and I think just about every time I got off the phone I felt great! I don't really know why I love to talk with these people so much but I think it is one of my favorite parts of the mission. I love their voices and their language. I love this mission!

I love the Lord. I know that this is the true and only church of God. I love this church and the gospel that it declares. I am so grateful for the confidence and peace it affords. I love my Savior Jesus Christ.

My love to all,

Elder Bevan

TYPHOON VONGFONG

Dear Parents of the Japan Fukuoka Mission Missionaries,

As you may have heard, there is a Typhoon of considerable size coming to Japan. The Japan Fukuoka Mission has an Emergency Plan and we made sure each area and companionship had a 72-hour emergency kit with water, food and flashlights with extra batteries. They were instructed to stay indoors and we will keep them updated daily if needed. All the emergency precautions took place and all the missionaries are safe. We will notify you again when the Typhoon is past. We appreciate your son/daughter work in the mission and pray for their protection. Thank you for your concern and prayers.

Japan Fukuoka Mission.

日本福岡伝道部で働いている宣教師の御両親へ、

もうお聞きになったと思いますが、かなり大規模の台風が日本へ向かっています。日本福岡伝道部では緊急対策があり、各同僚組みが７２時間緊急キット（水、食料、懐中電灯と電池）を持っている事を確認致しました。宣教師達はアパート内に残り、必要ならば私達が彼らに必要な情報を提供します。必要な準備は全て出来ており、宣教師は皆安全です。台風が去った後、又お知らせ致します。皆さんの愛する息子・娘達の伝道部での働きに感謝し、彼らの安全を祈っています。

皆さんの懸念と祈りに感謝しています。

日本福岡伝道部

pill boxes

From Nate's companion, Elder Jameson's Blog:

We spent some time though to think about our investigators and to better help them. We thought of two families who we can barely meet. "How can they feel the spirit without us being there?" We thought of one of those daily pill boxes for morning, lunch, and dinner pills. We put candy in some and scriptures in others. That way they can have incentive and a way to pray and read the scriptures as a family.

We were able to give them out on Sunday. But that's all the time we had to give. Hopefully we will be able to see some results from daily prayer and scripture study.

Leaders

"Junkai" (splits) in beautiful Nago. The elder below is the Zone leader Elder Jolly.

I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time. I was catching up on conference stuff and the like. We will be watching General Conference next week, because Japan time is ahead of America's. We are all excited for it. 

I hope you all had fun!

This week was good. We had a special training in Naha from President and the Assistants. I got to spend the night with the AP's before we went down there and it was so good. I know both of them and I think that they are wonderful examples. I love to follow inspired leaders and to learn by the spirit. I know that the callings we receive are inspired, and that when a leader is inspired to say something, or to speak on a certain topic, the Spirit can speak through them. I Love to hear the Words that the Spirit directs and never fail to find solace in them.

This morning for personal study I read from Ether 12 about selflessness. (I have been studying the Book of Mormon about selflessness for most of my mission and am almost finished with it). One of the things that I noticed this time was that the Lord, in His ultimate selfless love, will offer us individually comfort when we need it. When Moroni was worried about his weakness the Lord spoke to him the words that would bring him comfort (I'll let you find the specific words I'm thinking about). I hope that I can follow that example in the way I love others.  

I love you all. I love this work!

I love seeing the Lord's work role out. 

love,

Elder Bevan

Words

So I don't have a ton of time left and I want to get some things out, so this might be short, but I hope that you liked the pictures. I'll try and send something like that every week.

This Sunday in sacrament meeting we confirmed Egawa Shimai a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Branch president was voice in the confirmation and it was powerful. I do not exactly know how to describe the things that I heard and felt. I love to have spiritual experiences in the Japanese language. By the way that you change the words you can tell how much you respect and love the person to whom you are speaking, and in the same way, how powerful the admonition or command you are giving is.

My companion and I were thinking about the wording of the Confirmation ordinance, and how we might say it, but I was off. The command "receive the Holly Ghost" is translated to "Seirei o uke yo!", the most powerful. command form that I know, and the same form into which the Savior's words were translated when he healed the sick and commanded them to rise or be made whole. 

From then on the Spirit was felt, and I believe that it was received. I love that Spirit.

Do we always follow the Lord's command to receive the Holy Ghost? I hope so, and I'm trying.

Love to all,

Elder Bevan

breakfast...

This is Nato and an egg. I mix this into a cup of rice for breakfast every day. I think it is pretty delicious, but Elder Jameson is kind of a picky eater and doesn't agree.

This is just a random park with a funky cement slide I thought was cool...

everything is cement here!

and this is my companion :)..

This week was really awesome. Egawa finally got baptized!!!!!! It was great! before that we had some trouble with relations in the branch and were worried about whether or not we were going to be able to do it at all, but everything turned out all-right. 
I really learned a lot about the Atonement and how much the Savior cares for us. So many of you helped my by your letters and emails. Thank you! I really felt God's love by your support and words. Thank you! 
I know that the Savior knows and loves us. I am so grateful for His infinite Atonement.


This is Elder Jameson, Egawa Etsuko, and I just before her Baptism! We had a lot of trouble getting her to this point but it was so awesome to see her finally be able to be baptized. 

Sept. 14, 2014 New Companion!

Ah! I'm so sorry I forgot my camera!

I hope you will forgive me:).

 

I didn't transfer! but I got a new companion named Elder Jameson. He is from Indiana, has two older sisters (one who served a mission in Malan Italy, the other is married) and one younger sister. He studied for a year at BYU in economics, and plays the trumpet, swam on his high school's swim team and is an all around stud. He entered the MTC on the 26th of June 2013, and is on his tenth transfer. From what I've seen he is bold, faithful, and energetic.

Cool companion.

Elder Robinson (to our surprize) transfered to Hiroshima. I kinda thought that I would be the one leaving, but that is all part of the plan. Hheavenly Father really does know our circumstances and what we need. I am excited to start this new transfer with Elder Jameson, he sure is a blessing. Heavenly Father has also answered me prayers in wonderful ways. I love to spend the first fifteen minutes of personal study in prayer. I love to talk with my Father.

 Love you all.

Truly Elder Bevan

Sept. 8, 2014

We dont have a lot of time. Right now we are emailing from Nagos library because the one at the church refused to work.

I loved getting all of your emails! Thank you so much!

Things are going well. I am learning a lot and am very blessed.

Funny story; yesterday we had some time to knock on doors. At one door a man opened holding a misbehaving dog (middle sized) in his arms. He didnt seem super interested so I tried to hear a little bit about him by asking about his dog. I meant to ask how old the dog was (in Japanese you can often leave out the subject of a sentence) but he misunderstood and thought I was asking how old he was. He said 40 and I, astounded, said "wow! thats old!" before I had time to completely process what he was saying. Yeah... Whoops! :)

Anyways I love you all. Im out of time. Thanks

Elder Bevan

This was P-day, we had to wait for the computers to open up at the library and so we went out to the park outside. I thought that the tower behind me was pretty cool!

 This is looking North over Nago from the top of the tower

This is looking East

This is looking south onto the Ocean 

This is looking West.

 I think that gives a pretty good idea of what Nago is like. The weather is great just about now.

Aug. 31, 2014

Quick Update On Egawa:
She really wants to change her life and be baptized. We have needed to work patiently with her and slowly, but she really is a joy to be around. She literally gives us food every day. Tons of it. We have to bike it all back to our apartment everyday, and we are constantly having to rearrange the fridge to fit it all. :) She is great.
She often says she hears voices, and before we began meeting with her she believed in a thing called "Yutaa", which is like a religion or belief that teaches that people can communicate with spirits and with God. That was kind of a worry this week, her baptism was delayed, but we think it will be OK. She is doing well.
The best thing about being a missionary is working hard, doing well, and coming home utterly exhausted because you worked as hard as you could all day. The worst is the times when I don't know what to do, or we get sick or something and have to spend time inside, not doing missionary work. I HATE that. I was sick yesterday... I swear, I cannot stand that feeling. Sometimes, all I have to go on is the knowledge that the Savior will pick up the slack, and that He knows my burdens and mistakes, and that is what keeps me moving.Jesus Christ is faithful to all of His promises and all that He has said. The blessings of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, of the sacrament, of the Priesthood (and all that includes), and the blessings received in the Temple are so aparent in my life. He is merciful to the overcoming of all of our weakness if we will turn to Him. I know that those blessings are absolutely, truly, real.
Love to all,

 Elder Bevan

This is zone p-day... with real live American style Hamburgers!

                                      This is also zone p-day, feeding each other M&M's with chopsticks

Staying Focused on the Work

This week I have been thinking a bit about goals, and since it is a big part of our lives I guess I'll write about how the Lord helped us to achieve these goals this week. I really feel like they have helped me to focus on what I ought to focus on and given me something to work for. What a blessing it has been!

The first goal on our weekly list is baptisms and confirmations for the week, usually it is empty.

The second is baptismal dates, our goal for last week was one, and it was filled! Sister Egawa Etsuko finally decided that she wanted to be baptized! We have met with her almost daily for a long time now, and she has been such a blessing to us. Even before this week we had decided on a date that we thought she could make. We set that date with her on Wednesday (for this coming Sunday) and went over the baptismal interview questions with her. I think that she is ready! We do have a little bit to teach her but that will be Ok I think. One of her big hurtles has been coming to church and she committed to keeping the Sabbath day holy by Saturday, and kept that commitment yesterday. 

That is the third goal: sacrament-meeting attendance. This week our goal was two, and it was also filled. Sister Egawa and Brother Sato were the ones who came. Sato was the boy (he is nineteen) that came last week in the rain. He kept his promise and came again this week. It was wonderful. He could even stay for the full three hours! They were both taken care of by wonderful members.

The fourth goal is lessons taught with members present. We have wonderful members that help us so much but I think mostly by my fault as a senior companion we did not fill this goal. We will need to be working hard to get that goal from now on. I think it is important for the progression of those we teach. 

Our goal for other lessons taught was filled.

We are working on others, things like referrals and new investigators and such. We need to work hard for these things and we are so blessed to see success!

I think that making and filling goals is one of the biggest lessons I have learned on my mission. It is a great blessing to see the Lord help us to fill them. I am grateful that He does so. I am so grateful to See the Lord's hand in this work. I know that this is His church. It is His gospel. I have asked and received that answer. What a blessing that is!  I love this work!

Love to all,

Don't be afraid to write! :)

Elder Bevan :)

Food is fine. Sister Egawa has just given us so much food that we cannot keep up with her :) Church members don't really feed us. 

We get about 280$ a month. Money is fine. 

Thanks for caring! 

Japanese  school is year round, but they do get a summer break... i'm not really sure about schools here, their school system is completely different than ours. 

Love you! 

Us "young" missionaries in Nago

We see miracle everyday. We are not very good teachers and we are not good at Japanese, and Elder Robinson and I are still pretty young in the mission (between us we don't even have ten transfers total, sixteen transfers is a two year mission), but we still see miracles.  This week we got all of our goals for lessons taught, sacrament meeting attendances, new investigators, and member involvement visits. One of the investigators that came to church we met on the street. He said he had interest in religion (what!), we shared the first vision and invited him to church. He said he would, and true to his word he came in the pouring rain. Wearing a white shirt and tie none the less! The other investigator was Egawa Etsuko, who we have been working with for maybe a month or more now. (She has been basically our main source of food since we met her. She never sends us away without some food.) What a blessing! We have wanted her to come for so long! It is so wonderful to see the Lord working in us to fill our goals. I feel like if we can keep up the good work and continue to rely on Him we will see success. 

It is pretty hard on Elder Robinson, the little things that get at all of us sometimes are hard for Him. We have been working hard though and he is improving dramatically. His Language has gone from un-understandable to passable (a huge jump). He has improved in so many ways. It is so good to work with him and see him work so hard on things. I love all of my companions, and couldn't be happier :) 

I love the Mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know this is the work of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Savior.

With love to all,

Elder Bevan

Aug. 11, 2014 Joy

This week was pretty boring by way of things to report. I and Elder Robinson are getting a feel for how we will work together, and so things are coming along, well. 

I think the one small thing that I want to share, is our experience with the Nakasone Family. We barely got to talk to them this week but the little we did was wonderful, the family is reading the book of Mormon and it looks like we will be able to meet twice a week for at least this week. After we talked to them I was walking on cloud nine. It was a late appointment, and I looked up into the stars with great gratitude fro such a great blessing. I was blessed to know that I would have great joy and happiness on my mission. That night was one of those times. 

Thanks for all of your prayers. I am so grateful that I came from such a good home. I know this is the Savior's  true Church.

With all love,

Elder Bevan 

2 Man Nago!

Last Tuesday was transfer calls, and since there was a big chance of someone leaving we all decided to go to Nago's famous Aquarium. It was a very long bike ride, we took at least an hour and a half of riding to get there. Just before we got to the gate of the Aquarium we got a call from Kaicho (usually it is not the mission president who calls, we were all excited). He told us that Nago was becoming a 2man area, that I and Elder Robinson were going to be companions, that Elder Conlon (our district leader would be sent to Yamaguchi, and that Elder Malen would be going to Hiroshima as a district leader. None of us expected that anyone would really leave so it was quite a surprise. 

Elder Robinson is now on his fourth transfer. He is the oldest of three boys, plays violin VERY well, and is talented in many other ways. I have had the chance to work with him before now, so that is a blessing. It should be a good transfer. 

The Aquarium was awesome. If I am not wrong, it is the 2nd largest in the world. It has three whale sharks. It is Awesome!

Before we came all the way back Elder Malen and I went to try and meet the same person that we did the other week, but still could not find her. Along the way there was a less active, so we had set up and appointment. When we got there, we were set down at a table until Sister Uechi could make it back. When she did , we had a good talk, and then, miracle of miracles; her friend, (who we had coincidentally met two weeks before, in that far corner of the island, when we had been doing the very same thing) came in. It turned into a lesson, and sister Uechi was testifying and the whole sha-bang! 

What a great last day with Elder Malen. We worked hard and saw miracles. I hope I keep it up with Elder Robinson this transfer. 

I Love This Work! I know that this is The Church of God, His kingdom on the Earth. I am excited to keep going!

This is from Elder Conlon, our last p-day, on the way to the Aquarium. E. Conlon is the one on the ground.

With all love, Elder Bevan 

July 28, 14

This week was good, we saw a lot of miracles, as always.Finding new people to teach is always a joy, and there is always somethings good in the day.Our investigators are kind of struggling though. One of the greatest challenges we have in Japan is meeting people. They are just always busy. Always! it kind of drives me crazy.

This Sunday I saw a cool miracle. I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting by the Branch president (cool he trusts us!!!!!), and despite my many faults, my prayers were answered and I gave the talk as needed. My Japanese is far from perfect, even during the talk I made a lot of mistakes I'm sure, but the Spirit was there, and I gave what I think the Lord would have had me give. You have got to realize how nervous I was! I was so worried that it would be less than it needed to be, or that I would not be able to say what I needed to say, but as I stood up I could see how the Spirit was helping me to say what I needed to say. What  wonderful blessing! It was so great!

Today we are going to Nago's world famous aquarium so I don't have a tone of time to write. Hopefully I will have pictures to send next week. Thank you all for your wonderful support and love!

I love you all!

4 Man Area

Okinawa Aquarium

                                                    Last few moments as a 4 man area.

Typhoon and Stuff

Hey everyone! Nago is just fine and dandy. Typhoons are just a part of life down here, nothing really big. In fact, this time of year is called typhoon season. There might be another one coming this week, we are not sure yet. If there was ever a place prepared for a typhoon it is Japan. Everything is made for rain. Everything. 

The roads all have great drainage systems, the houses are made to withstand rain, if it is not made of concrete, it was made to take the weather, and so nothing was really hurt by the typhoon except the plant life (which took a pretty good beating). A few houses had a little water damage, and one house was hurt by the wind, so there is not really anything to be done by way of service, but that is good I guess.

We stayed inside while the typhoon lasted. For the second day the power was out, but by the end of study we could go out again and we actually were able to get in three lessons that day! What a miracle and a blessing! On the third day everything was dry again and the only remnants of the typhoon are the branches here and there that were broken in the storm. So that is that. :)

Besides the typhoon, things are pretty normal. Our investigators need help and prayers. They are facing a lot of adversity and trial. We must have the lord's help in these things or they will all fail. Yesterday we wanted to go to meet a referral, a Grandma that had taken us out to dinner. We rode for four hours there and back, next to the ocean and over the island (meaning huge stinking mountains :). We did not find her before we had to come back for appointments. 

For anyone who does not understand humidity I will describe the scene for you. Not a single article of our clothing was dry, and when we put on our helmets, sweat squeegeed out of the head bands and dripped down onto our ties... yeah it was 大変. We were exhausted when we finally returned to Nago, and we had accomplished nothing that we went to do. 

I think I learned a little of patience from that. I learned that I need to be a little more quiet, and a little more patient, and a little more diligent. I learned that I should go and do the things I am asked to do with no complaints at all. I learned that even when we are doing something difficult, even when they do not turn out the way you want them to, there is still beauty along the way. I am so grateful for a Father who created such a beautiful world for us to live in. I am so grateful to be serving here. I love this work.