Elder Landon Paskett's Journeys in Japan: April 10, 2017--Countdown to Easter

My beautiful mom,

Yeah things are great here! That is surprising it wasn't the same in Fukuoka back in the day...I mean, they have a temple there! I'm pretty sure Sendai is on the slower of the Japan missions too. I think part of it may be a cultural loosening, I think that is especially true among the smart phone and internet generation. Also, I think preach my
gospel has a lot to do with it as well. He Lord is hastening His work!

Yeah it was a bummer Y had to move away, the Akita missionaries haven't been able to meet with him yet. But, we'll try and introduce them to him this week when we go up for DTM.

It's been a way busy week! We had exchanges twice, with the DL on Tuesday and then with the ZLs on Friday. That meant that I took a train to Akita and back on Wednesday morning, then again on Thursday morning, then we took a Shink to Morioka Thursday night, and had to get up at 3:30 in the morning on Saturday to take the 5:20 train back to Yokote in time to show general conference. It was an exhausting week haha but so good.

I Shimai and S Kyodai both came to conference on Saturday, it was so good! At the very beginning, the motab was singing and I Shimai was totally in tears, the spirit was so strong. And we hadn't even gotten into any of the talks yet! I Shimai stayed for both sessions on Saturday and had originally told us she wasn't able to come to the Sunday ones, but she ended up cancelling her Sunday plans so that she could come watch!! It was so great. And we had branch members there on Sunday so she was able to sit by our branch mission leader's wife and they are good friends now! S Kyodai came up to us after and was like, "hey, that lady, I, is Chinese. She seems to really like this stuff. You should teach her." We decided that that would be a good idea.

On Saturday night, we went over to T K's (a less-active member) apartment to watch the priesthood session with him. He didn't smoke at all during conference even though he really wanted to! Afterwards, we had a very interesting conversation with him. He said he likes us as friends, but he is no longer interested in Christ and the church because he hates one of the missionaries who taught him. He said that whenever he wouldn't keep commitments like reading the Book of Mormon, he would just tell him "yome!" and he just didn't feel any love from him. Always just ordering him to do things, without any praise for things done well. I'm confident that he'll be able to forgive and come through eventually, but it would have been so much easier to have just kept him active and feeling loved in the first place. It makes me want to make sure I always show love to investigators as I am helping them to keep commitments and progress!

Saw so many other miracles this week that I dont have time to write about...on splits in Morioka, we just happened to ask for directions from a guy who got a Book of Mormon from missionaries a year ago and is now interested in learning more. We stopped by K san's house and taught him about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon, and he asked us why he needs to pray about it, because he already believes it is true! On Saturday night, we weren't sure when our train was leaving, but the road blocker arms at the RR crossing came down right as we were passing by, giving us a warning that the train was coming and giving us just enough time to run to the Eki and catch the last train (that would get us home in time) seconds before it left!

Things are going great here, I hope you are Genki and having fun with the wedding prep!! Make sure and keep that cardboard cutout polished and shiny ;) I love you so much!!
--
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett