Hey mom! <3
How are you? How is your health doing these days? And you said a few weeks ago that your ribs were doing better, right? Sorry, I forgot. Haha I hope that you are doing well! Also, thank you for sharing that experience that you shared with me about church and your calling. I know that what you felt from God. I have felt Him so frequently on my mission, and actually quite a few times today, when I really did not do anything particularly special. I know that He is there and He wants to comfort us and give us blessings, we just need to listen for Him.
Well, what to say this week! haha Let me talk about a string of blessings that continue to happen. Blessing number one is the Ringwood Taikai. (Elder Ringwood Conference) Elder Ringwood is the Area President for the Asia North Area (I believe). He is called of God. This past Thursday he came and did a conference with us for 4 hours (two two hour sessions). It was so incredible. I learned so much, and really it is all just about being obedient to the Lord. It brings power, and I have felt that. Follow the Lord exactly, and everything will work out. Anyway, Elder Squire took a lot of notes, and he shared one particular one with me the next day. He showed me that randomly he had felt impressed to write "Make cookies for Norton and his family." So we decided that we were going to go to Costco today, (which we did) and we got chocolate chips for the cookies! haha But, the miracle keeps going. We met with Norton Friday and talked about Christ and the Holy Ghost, and he told us he honestly doesn't really care. He doesn't see how it applies to him (which we have been working with him about and talking about the past couple days). He is very sukoshi zutsu (little by little). We were walking him home after meeting with him, and guess who we ran in to coming back from work? His dad. We have never met his parents, and we randomly ran into his dad! We were SOO happy. His dad was super nice and outgoing, and he said that the house wasn't clean right then, so he wasn't sure if we could come in, but we told him we had another appointment so it was okay. We left to go to our appointment, but were thrilled to get to meet his father. And really, that was the miracle. But the Lord decided to take it WAY further than I ever would have imagined. We were going to a members house for dinner on Sunday with Norton too, and I was talking to him about the Book of Mormon. He said that he didn't have his right then . . .because he had "borrowed it to my dad" as he put it. I asked him what he meant. He said that when he was leaving to go, his dad picked up the Book of Mormon and asked him if he could read it. So Norton lent it to his dad. Now, we don't know exactly what he felt while he was reading, how much he read, or anything like that. But as I was sitting at the members house I had an impression that the Lord was preparing the Norton family, and that He has a work for us to do with them. We are going to make cookies tomorrow and take them over to their house. I am so excited, and I am going to trust the Lord that He will prepare the way for us to meet with his parents and teach all of them so that they can begin to come to Christ. This gospel is real. It is true, and I love it.
Another miracle is a lady named Kate Boyer. She was married to an American, and lived in America for 20 years so her English is amazing!! She got a flyer for our English class from us the other day when we were handing them out, but then came back and said that she wants to learn writing English. And then she asked if we were Mormon, and said she really really wanted to know what the Mormons believed. She has had a lot of interaction with Christian churches in the United States, and she has always wondered why the Mormons were different, and why they were so fushigi (mysterious, unknown; kind of like that). We needed another male member in order to meet with her to teach her (we had that planned for Thursday night) but we couldn't find one. Quick side note. There is one really hard thing with working in Japan as a missionary. Everyone is super super busy, and they work all of the time. It is hard to find a member to go with us, and sometimes it is hard to meet with investigators too. They work so so so so hard, all the time. Anyway, we knew that we eventually wanted to refer her to the sister missionaries anyway because they can plan to meet with her easier, and set things up nicely so they were going to come with us too. We got to the church, and then our Elders quorum president showed up. It was a miracle! He often comes here (I think he is here now) to do a "secret workout" (He is super funny about not letting anyone know what he does in it). We asked him to come teach with us and he said he would come and sit there, but be quiet. Well, she came, and asked a ton of questions and talked so so much, and we just listened and helped her understand our beliefs, and you can't understand everything all at once. But our Elders quorum president opened up and helped us so so much. It was great. She seems like she really wants to know, and desires to learn, so I am excited to see how she progresses with the sisters!!
Anyway, there are probably the two biggest miracles of the week. Thank you so much for your support. I love you mom. The Lord is working miracles in Japan, and all throughout the world. I love you so so much, and I hope that you have a fantastic week! I miss you, and I am so glad that I can trust the Lord to take care of you while I am here in Japan. Don't forget to smile and laugh every day.
Love, Elder Livingston
Note: Some name have been changed for privacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment