Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: I... Have a Son?

Transfer calls!

Elder Gifford and I are both staying in Toyohashi. But we are not
companions anymore! Elder Gifford's new companion is my old companion,
Elder Miranda! Woo! I'm way excited for that.

My new companion is currently in the MTC, I will be training a brand
new missionary. Bean chan!!! I've waited so long for this!

There are a lot of beans coming in this time, over 20 in fact! That's
the most I've seen my whole mission! So a ton of people are training,
even some of the Zone Leaders are training! And a lot of places are
becoming 4nin again, like us in Toyohashi.

Also my trainer, Elder TuAkoi is going back to our bean area, Nagano,
for his last transfer! Jealous haha, but I'm glad he got what he
wished for.

A ton of stuff happened this week. I went on two Kokans two days in a
row. I didn't even go back to Toyohashi in between. I went to Okazaki
on Wednesday with our Zone Leader, Elder Larson. We were in the mtc
together but have never worked together our whole mission. It was
great to share experiences we've had out here. There are a lot of
hills in Okazaki, and it was rainy, but we taught some cool lessons to
less actives and investigators. We also had Eikaiwa. There are six
missionaries in Okazaki, 4 elders and 2 sisters. That's a lot, it was
a fun English class. One of the elders, Elder Foy, reminds me of
Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory TV comedy. He's so funny!

On Thursday I kokaned with Elder Lenning, our district leader in
Kariya. That was way fun, and also way rainy. The first person we saw
was one of their old investigators, we talked to him and he agreed to
come to church this Sunday. It was awesome. We also surprise visited a
member family, the Mizutas, and they invited us in for dinner and
family home evening! It was way fun, and they helped me make my name
in Kanji. Such a nice family, the dad is in the bishopric, and the mom
is in primary, just like my parents!

Friday we met one of our investigators and invited him to the ward
family history activity the next day. On Saturday he came and brought
a chart of his genealogy with him. He also had expressed his desire to
give up smoking and we challenged him to live the word of wisdom. He
indicated that it was hard and a member who had in the past struggled
with the word of wisdom talked to him about what could help. It was
good!

We also visited the Bishop and his wife this past week. They are both
young and full of dendo fire. We talked a lot about how we could help
the Ward and had some good food.

Well this next week will be very busy with the bean chan. I'm going to
stay the night in Toyota tomorrow and we will meet our beans on
Wednesday. It's very exciting, but I'm also nervous because I don't
know who he is or what he's like and I'm worried about messing up. So
I'm praying that we will be good friends. And with this being his
first two transfers, and my last two transfers, we are gonna go hard
in the paint and see miracles and baptisms. Give us the waters of
Mormon! Im thankful for this opportunity to train, for the trust of
the Lord, and for blessing of His work.

Please pray for all four of us!

Love you a ton!
Elder Cullen Watkins

"When I Met you I was but a learner, now I am the master!"