Hi y’all! ( *´・ω)/(；д； )

Sorry it’s been a minute! I’ve had a wild few weeks. I think with my new assignment, I might have a little more time than when I was in Abeno! We’ll see about that, though. I cut myself on my left thumb with a razor, so I’ll have to keep it short since I can’t type with both hands. Having only one opposable thumb really sucks.

I’ll be honest, I really didn’t wanna leave Abeno. I felt like I was leaving a lot of the work I did behind, and I worried about the future of where it might go. At the same time, I worried if I had done enough. I cried on the train ride here.

I am happy with one thing though. I kept trying my hardest to the end. Right before I left, we luckily found a Chinese family who were interested in coming to Church and seem like they’re gonna keep coming every week. They connected with the members like the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle.

I’ll miss my friend Ayu a lot too. I think he’ll be baptized eventually, but he’s still praying and wondering about it. I wonder if I wasn’t ET’d if either the family or Ayu would’ve gone on date.

There are many people who are close to being baptized and recieving the Holy Ghost. Ayu, who is my best friend in Osaka, the Chinese families, who we taught at English, Ali, who moved to Tokyo, Minki, who temporarily moved to Korea, Yoshida, who is a former yakuza that wants to be baptized but struggles with health, etc. There were some members who needed our help too, like Dan. And Daichi. And others too. I know that it’s part of God’s larger plan and I’m humbled to be part of His work despite my imperfections.

It’s weird how much you want to do on a mission and then how much you realize you haven’t done. The ET in the middle of my transfer has shown me how much of it isn’t my work and how much of it is God’s.

I know Christ will make up the difference in whatever we do.

Tsuyama just feels like an area that is special. It’s how I imagined Japan would be. Especially when I prayed about the mission and where I would go.

I felt oddly comforted as I rode the train here. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me, “it’s going to be okay.” I felt that God needs me to love people here too in the same way I tried in Abeno. I know God can only offer us divine peace.

Elder Son

P.S. I saw a really cute train with the snowy variant of the Pokémon, Sandshrew, on the side. That gave me some comfort when I arrived.