A Journey with a Driscoll - Letter to Mom - 5 July, 2015

Hey Mom,

How are you doing?? I can not believe that you just up and went to Disneyland without telling me! ;D  haha Also, I didn't even know that you were planning on going to Lake Powell before that. haha Do you have any other crazy fun plans for the summer?

As I am sure that you may have seen, it has been raining here every single day for about the last week or two. That has been a little bit rough, but it is okay. We have seen so so many miracles, which is something that I want to talk about. Elder Driscoll is way cool, and a way good companion. I am so grateful to be able to work with him. We actually came to Japan on the same plane! It is way fun. And he loves soccer. :) But, I want to talk about this past.....Saturday! :) It was such a good day. It rained a lot that day too. ;D haha

So, first of all we had a lesson with our good friend Adam. He is the one who grew up a little bit in London, so he has flawless English. Elder Driscoll and I did a practice lesson for him in the morning on Saturday, and I felt like it was going to go really well. Usually our lessons with him consist of a lot of his questions, and us just trying to answer them. But Saturday was different! He always starts out with reviewing what we had done in the past week, like what we were talking about, and then going from there. Last time we had talked about the Book of Mormon, so he said that he was going to read the introduction and the testimonies. Saturday he said that he couldn't find the app (Gospel Library) that we were talking about, so he looked it up online and found it and started reading that part. I was shocked. I haven't seen that much commitment from people before. It was way cool to hear it. He said that it was good, and he learned some interesting things. Then we got to teach him the entire Restoration lesson, which we hadn't done in one lesson before, so that was really good. He had to go early because his baby started crying, but we were able to invite him to ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith had really seen them, and if what we had taught was true.

That was the first miracle of the day, and it was a super good one. We could have ended the day there and felt so good. I loved it so so much. But, second, we had a lesson with a man named Roger. I think I have mentioned him before too, but he is Nepalese. He is super nice, and loves the gospel and Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. He just isn't quite confident enough to receive baptism and commit to that. He disappeared for about two months, and then randomly texted us Friday night and told us that he wanted to meet with us! It was so great. I was so thrilled that he had finally responded to us. So, right after meeting with Adam we got to meet up with Roger. We walked around the corner in our church to go and meet him in front of the church and there he was . . .with a friend!! It was a little bit of a shock, but we were thrilled. His friend, Randall, is super nice. He is also Nepalese, and really wants to learn more about the gospel, as well as start coming to church regularly. I think that he is going to progress really well. We got to talk to them about the Plan of Salvation a bit, and that was really good. I also got to play piano for them too. :) haha I am getting better at adding things to hymns to make them more like solo pieces, so that is fun! I have practiced a bit here for different conferences and stuff. It isn't anything fancy, but it sounds pretty fancy. haha ;D It was really good. I am really excited for him to come to church. We haven't been able to get anyone to come to church recently, and it is something that we are  really working on. I know that as we continue to invite people, we are going to make lots of progress, and help them come closer to Christ.

I also got to start two amazing journeys yesterday and today! Journey number one: I made a better meal plan so that I can eat healthier (after getting your advice I made a plan) as well as working out harder (if Dad finishes P90X3 for me soon, that will help). I am way excited to see how that one goes. The second one: I am going to read the entire standard works before I go home, from this point on. I started reading in Genesis yesterday, and I really learned that it talks a lot about God, right there at the beginning. I do not  understand how some people believe the things that they do about God (like he is shapeless, and everywhere, and nowhere, and unknowable) because in the very first chapter of the Bible it very plainly teaches differently. Anyway, I am really excited to learn all of the different things that the Bible and the Book of Mormon have to offer. I just need to make sure to stay on top of it! haha

Mom, thank you for everything! I hope that you are doing okay, and that you are having a great time at the beach, and in Disneyland! I love you so so so much! :) <3 <3

Love, Elder Livingston


Note: Some names may have been changed for privacy.