Konnichiwa everyone! Emailing you from my new area of Maebashi. Just finished getting all settled in and stuff, and I'm stoked to write about some of the stuff that has been happening here in Japan! Just want to say really how thankful I am to be a missionary here in Japan at such an awesome time. The Japanese people have truly been prepared to hear the Gospel, and not just the Japanese people in Japan, but as well people who moved to Japan who didn't have a chance to hear the Gospel in their own country. This week... I'm going to TWO baptisimal services for two investigators!! First, Perera, our awesome Sri Lankan investigator in Oyama, who was just about ready to be baptized when I was transferred. He called me up last night to let me know he's going to be baptized this Saturday, and he wants me there. I'm so excited to travel a bit this week, and go see these amazing people come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. Just wanted to say, I love being a missionary so much! It's completely changed my life, and made me a better person. It's been so far from easy, but I am truly loving it. I've made some really awesome eternal friends here, and I'm just stoked to go forward! Just yeah, haha, it's been a really awesome Christmas season so far. :)
This week was really intense but awesome!! I went and picked up Elder Tu'ua, my new companion, and he and I went down to the Honbu in Tokyo to go receive some awesome trainer and trainee training. All of the missionaries were there, and we got to go in and see where all of them were going, as well as who their new companions are. What was so cool was my entire MTC district was there!! It was an awesome reunion, and we just got pumped for what's in store for all of us. We're basically all training now, which is crazy intense, but we're stoked! I've hit that point I think where missionary life just seems so natural and normal, and it's hard to remember everything that came before! I really love it though! So after the training, Elder Tu'ua and I started heading down to Maebashi, where they were having a baptism that night. Elder Martinez, my zone leader, was going to be going home the next day, and he finished off his mission with a baptism. It was seriously so awesome, and it was so cool to see such an awesome way to seal off his mission with such an awesome thing! Elder Martinez is just awesome! It was such a great service, and yesterday the man baptized, Keshab (Nepal), received the gift of the Holy Ghost! It was so awesome, and his smile just really built my testimony so much. There are truly prepared people everywhere, and the Lord is bringing them to the Gospel all the time. I feel so blessed to be apart of this awesome work, and just to be here. :)
It sounds like everyone back home is doing so great this week! Honestly this weeks emails made me way stoked and happy for all of you! Whit, so dang proud of you!! Life is just gonna take off for you I know it, and Lex I'm so stoked to hear you're moving to the Bay Area! These things falling in place should just show you that the Lord has some really awesome stuff in store for you, I know that there's things on the way! Tyler, it sounds like life's really going for you too, especially with that Scion. ;) Haha, Mom and Dad, I'm so stoked to hear about all of the missionary work you guys are doing! Missionaries and members really do have to work together in a companionship, and then the work can truly go forward, and it sounds like you guys are seeing it in the ward! 4 baptisms!!! That's so intense, I bet those Elders are just stoked, and especially thankful to you guys. Aw man, I just love you guys so much!! I'm really so thankful to have such an awesome family. :) There Lord is really blessing us so much everyday, and I'm so thankful for that. We just gotta keep going forward with faith, and I know that those blessings will keep coming! ESPECIALLY THE BYU ACCEPTANCE THING! I can't believe it!! I'm so stoked though, and it really showed me that miracles happen everyday! I mean... I just got into BYU! That's a pretty gnarly miracle!
I just gotta say I really love being a District Leader here in Maebashi! It was pretty stressful at first, but I've started to just love calling everyone at night. My district is actually one of the biggest in the mission, so I have a lot of people to call! But it's seriously so awesome. They all have so much faith and a strong desire to serve their Heavenly Father, it really builds my faith up so much whenever I call them up! It's a lot of responsibility, but I really love it so much. The Lord is strengthening me everyday, and I'm so thankful for that!
I'm really so stoked for this week, and I can't wait for the photos I'll be sending next week! I'm so thankful to be here and sharing this message with all of those around me. I'm so thankful to all that the Lord has given me, and for all the blessings he has given me. :)
I'm so stoked to talk to all of you NEXT WEEK! How crazy is that?? Weren't you just dropping me off at the curb in June? Time really is flying by so quick, but I'm so stoked to talk to you all! Have an awesome week, know I love you guys so much and am praying for you everyday by name! LOVE YOU!
-Elder Justesen
No comments:
Post a Comment