Hey everyone!!! So... This will be the first email sent to you from the newest tool to help hasten this work... The iPad mini! Haha, it's still weird having one of these, but it's helped so much already in teaching our investigators, and I love it! It's been a pretty awesome week here in Tsukuba, and I'm excited to talk about some of the miracles that we saw this week.
It sounds like you all are doing really awesome! I'm happy to hear mom is doing better, stay healthy okay! And as well I'm way happy California got some rain finally! I was praying for my home state as well, so I'm glad to hear it got some good rain fall. It snowed like CRAZY here in Tsukuba this week! Seriously, it felt a little bit like Rexburg, haha, maybe just because Tsukuba is a college town, but it was crazy intense! We still worked way hard though, and some of my old dirt biking in the sand helped a ton with biking in the snow... It was gnarly cold, haha. But all in all a total blast, and The Lord really blessed us so much this week with some cool new people!
First off I wanted to talk about our investigator Ko a little bit! I think I may have mentioned him last week? He's a way cool college student that we met a little while ago, and he actually did a home stay in San Francisco and one of his friends is Mormon, and he wanted to learn more about what we do! His big dream is to have a family and being married, and it's been such a blast teaching him. Only hard part is he's having a hard time realizing that this gospel really has so much relevance in his life, especially in achieving those desires of his heart. He loves learning about these things, but he hasn't really been trying them out. So! Today we taught him primarily about prayer, and he committed to pray tonight! I got to make up a little card in Japanese about how to prayer, and I filled it with some sweet little doodles like I used to draw when I was little. I'm really so thankful to the help that The Lord has given me in this language. My Japanese is still far from perfect (haha) but the Lord has blessed me so much, and I'm really thankful for the help He has given me. The gift of tongues is truly so real, I'm so thankful for it. I remembered today that first Sunday I had in Japan with elder burgin and elder Hamada, and just how far I've come since then. The Lord has strengthened me so much, and it's been a total ether 12:27 experience.
That's one thing I love about the iPads! Scripture study has really become so amazing! They downloaded the gospel library app, and it's been so awesome to be so into the scriptures, and have them so easy at my fingertips. I've been really trying to study the life of Paul in Corinthians, and I've started to gain a new love of the New Testament. The scriptures truly are such amazing gifts that we have in our lives, and it's been so awesome to be even more deeply studying them with these awesome iPads. I've as well started the Book of Mormon over again, and I'm so excited for the new things to learn this time around!
I love being a missionary! Honestly I can't say that enough. Yeah, it's far for easy, has quite a few challenges, and some days just leave you beaten and trodden down, but it has truly been the most life changing and most awesome experience of my life. I'm especially thankful to be a Tokyo Japan missionary, and have the opportunity to meet so many awesome people everyday! The other day I met an amazing man named Mohammed from Nigeria, and we had such an awesome conversation about the scriptures. He was a member of the Islam faith, and there are some heavy rules that we cannot teach Muslim people at this time, but he and I had an awesome discussion about God, and especially about the scriptures. He pulled out his Koran on his iPad, and I pulled out my Book of Mormon on mine, and we just found all of the similarities, and those basic truths that Christ taught. It was probably one of the coolest experiences I've had so far, even though it couldn't go much further, but it was so awesome learning about his faith in God, and his desire to follow his teachings. I could really feel why I took that Middle Eastern class that semester. :) He and I talked about faith, and it was super edifying and uplifting.
I just want you all to know how much I love and appreciate you all so much. I can really feel of your love and prayers everyday, and I just want to say thank you so much. I couldn't ask for a more awesome family, and I'm so thankful to be a missionary at this awesome time in Japan. :) I still have so many kinks and weaknesses to work though, but The Lord is truly helping me so much everyday, and I feel so lucky and blessed to be a missionary of this incredible Gospel. It's changed my life so much, and I'm so thankful for it. This church is truly amazing, it's been really cool to use the "I'm a Mormon" ads our teaching appointments, and it just helps me see how truly incredible this church is. We as members are far from perfect, but we're perfected in Christ, and His infinite grace is what keeps us steady on the waves. Sorry, I've been loving teaching about waves and ocean analogies lately in Japanese. :) Gotta love being a missionary right? Haha, well I just want to say I love you guys so much!! Crazy that I've been a missionary for 8 months, but I'm so excited to just keep giving this work my all. My three words I've been trying to keep in my mind lately are:
信仰: Shinko which means faith.
愛: ai which means love.
働き: hataraki which means work.
The gospel is true, the book is blue, and God loves you!!! Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Justesen
Sent from my iPad (haha)
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