The Nihonjin Switch

Dear Family and Friends,

So when I first got here in Saijo all the way back in ....wow....that
was in October, me and my companion were teaching mostly English
speakers. Foreigners from china or wherever. But now we are actually
teaching mostly Japanese. Which either means our Japanese has
improved, or my English has gotten worse. Probably both to be honest.
But either way it's good :)

Tuesday this week we had a zone conference where President and the
assistants did training and it was way inspiring! I learned a lot. I
also learned that our mission is apparently getting Ipads in the
summer. And the word on the block among missionaries who have already
started the ipad program is that each missionary is given an ipad that
they keep their whole mission and then take home with them. I'm pretty
excited. But not just for myself because they really will be able to
help so much with the work. I'm grateful for all the tools the lord is
providing to do his work!

We have been struggling recently to get appointments with a lot of our
investigators because they are very busy, but there have been some
really cool things happening.

We were finally able to get in contact with the Moritas, which has
been hard recently and got the wifes number now too! Yes! That will
hopefully improve our contact ability by 50%. We will hopefully get a
lesson with them tomorrow.

And Gary and his wife are simply experiencing amazing miracles. It
still blows my mind that they moved in right next to the lambs. They
are having dinner at the lambs tonight so hopefully it goes well!

So Saturday of last week we were returning to our apartment before
dinner and were just about home when we saw a guy rolling a suit case
home. At first I thought "Oh he has a suit case I don't want to bother
him" But I realized of course he needs the gospel too so we stopped
and talked to him. And it was so good! We chatted and laughed for like
20 min on the street, and it turns out he believed God was true and
actually wants to come closer to him, so we set up a new appointment
and he actually invited us to his apartment (something japanese
college students have never done to me before)

And this week we were able to meet and teach him twice after that! His
name is Shohei and he is way interested. He has had experiences where
he has felt God's influence in his life, and wants to know more and
come closer to Him. He is way sincere. He is in Fukuoka for the next 3
weeks, but in April we should be able to meet him regularly!
(Hopefully I don't transfer before then) He is way cool!

This last saturday me and my companion and sister Ito and Williams
went over to Takaki shimai's apartment, the recent convert who was
baptized a few weeks ago, to help her clean her really messy house.
Turns out we were there 6 hours, and there was still a lot left. (she
was quite the hoarder) But it was good! We don't get a whole lot of
opportunities for service so it was really fun! While we were cleaning
though the magnet for my name tag fell off and I couldn't find it, I
was pretty bummed as it is hard to replace and necessary to wear one
of my nametags.

We finally left and went to the store to pick up some snacks for
eikaiwa, and then right as we stop, my companion points down to the
ground. And there laying on the ground was the magnet for my nametag.
"What!? Where did that come from!?" I believe firmly it was a tender
mercy of the Lord. I was way surprised to find it there. Somehow it
must have fallen from me at just the right place and time for us to
find it, and not in the messy apartment or even while we were biking
on the road. I am so thankful for tender mercies!

Sunday we had church and it was pretty scarce on members, just the
missionaries and our chinese recent converts, (Ito shimai represented
as the only Japanese) They were all sick or couldn't come for some
reason. And I gave a talk on Moroni, how difficult it must have been
to see his entire life and family and civilization go to nothing, but
to have seen a vision of our day and kept going, seen 80,000
missionaries and over 140 temples covering the earth, all because of
the work he would do alone on a little book.

I'm so thankful that I got to live in this dispensation and be part of
this great hastening of the work! I love it!

Love you all!
Elder Walton

English Class Party Game.

The Elders having lunch with recent converts Haishan and Shunka and
soon to be member Riyu deciding who prays with the classic gun game.
Maybe not an entirely appropriate way to decide who prays....

And the trash we removed from Takaki Shimai's apartment