Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: 10 Doughnuts for 1 Dollar

10 for a dollar...

When you read that you might think that you can buy 10 doughnuts for the total price of 1 dollar together. Sounds like a good deal right? That's what me and Elder Nilsson thought on our kokan. Turned out it actually meant that there was a selection of 10 doughnuts that were 1 dollar EACH. We didn't realize this until the cashier at Mister Donut rang it up and gave us the donuts. We'd bought 20 of them. 10 dollars from each of us, and our favorite doughnuts weren't even amongst the 10. Burn.

Me on the Mt

This week we had iPad training by Elder David F. Evans of the 70, head of the missionary department and incidentally a former Mission President of our mission who also served here on his mission. He speaks Japanese very well and knows a ton about our mission, and he's a great speaker. I've heard him speak at the MTC and on a couple of broadcasts on my mission and he has become one of my favorite General Authority speakers.

While we did learn a few things about iPad dendo, the conference was mostly a voice of warning and a call to repentance. Elder Evens himself said "You've probably never heard a general authority speak like this to you." He was very direct and rather strong as he told us not only about obedience with iPads, but for everything, even after our missions. You can imagine there was a long portion about the evils of pornography, but he also spoke of other temptations that are put into our way throughout life. He told many stories and experiences from his life and about Yamashita Kaicho and other General authorities. We really enjoyed it! It was exciting and kept us engaged and made us realize what we need to do now on our missions to make our eternal lives the best.

It's Morphin time!

One very important thing Elder Evans talked about was how we have the ability to choose to be free from sin. The word "addicted" implies that you are trapped and can't choose to stop. That can happen, but only if you let it. He said that many of us have probably already seen some form of pornography, but if we were addicted, we would not be able to function as missionaries. We can still choose to stay away from sin and to repent before we get trapped.

On another note, this week I feel like we did our best, but it didn't show in our numbers, and we didn't actually see many of the folks we set out to see. I feel like I am becoming a better missionary, but nothing is happening for our area. I was confused, I know I can still do better, but why doesn't it seem to be working? I looked in the 2 Nephi 4 this morning and found that Nephi went through the same type of thing. I guess I need to trust in the Lord more, I don't have a whole lot of self confidence, but if I trust in Him, He can get us through.

Me on the Mt

And we had a fun weekend, we even got to go to a primary activity and jump on trampolines! I'm not sure that's in the rules or not, but it was only for 10 minutes haha. Well this week is transfer calls 1 week early. I don't know why, but perhaps President Yamashita is going to General Conference next week. Anyway please as always pray for something good to happen!

I love you all a whole bunch! Hit me up sometime. Maybe in the near future I can use facebook... but we will see haha.

Love,
Wat chan