Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: Translating Pizza into Miracles since 1994

Funny one!

This week went by so fast!

Let me tell you about the Suzukis. They are Fufu or senior couple
missionaries serving with us in Toyohashi. They are from Yamagata Ken.
Suzuki Shimai is a fireball, she just throws down when teaching a
lesson with us or when something needs to get done. She's also super
cool. She even fixed three pairs of my pants that I ripped or tore,
including the one from last weeks crash. Suzuki Choro is a straight up
boss. He was a fireman, so he tells stories of the many times he's
gone into a burning building or any of the other things the fire dept
does. He too is a great teacher.

Them young-in's

The Suzukis help us a lot. They drove us to ZTM in Okazaki and came to
our apartment to help with a bug problem. They also tachiai for some
lessons. When their not helping us, they are helping somebody in the
church, or anybody really. It's like dendoing with your grandparents
or something. It's cool.

Speaking of ZTM, I realized I was the second oldest missionary I the
entire zone. Everyone else is super young! I didn't even know who half
of them were! Cray. But the APs, Elder Tanner and Strauss were there
too, so I wasn't the only Ji San there. I was asked to translate for
the Japanese missionaries including the Suzukis. That was pretty fun,
I just never dreamed I would even be considerable as a translator at a
missionary meeting. I remember seeing Sister Nielson translate at ZTM
in Matsumoto, I thought I'd never reach that level of being able to
interpret things so quick. Now here I was, and it was fun. I totally
messed up a few times, but the other missionaries were so nice and
said my interpretation was easy to understand. I felt good about that.

We also had dinner with the Shimoda family. Their daughter Ayumi
recently returned from a foreign exchange in America. Her English is
way good. She made us some American style home made pizza. IT WAS SO
GOOD! Just like back home, probably the best pizza I've had in Japan.
For desert she made American style chocolate pecan cake. That was also
SO GOOD. It reminded me of something I ate at Grandma's or Gram's
before. I was way happy with that menu. Afterwards we had a spiritual
message and took funny pictures together. I love member work!

Okazaki Zone

At ZTM we talked a little bit about prayer and faith. One of the young
elders said that all they do is pray that they'll find a new
investigator then they go out and find a new investigator. Straight
up. This got my dear young companion, Elder Gifford, thinking "let's
do it". My thought was "but we do that everyday and nothing happens."

Well the next day we went out to see some less actives and members. We
rode all around town and talked to everybody in sight. My companion,
with his determination, found a new investigator. When that happened
we were both like, "hey it works" so we decided to keep it up. Well
finding a new investigator is cool, but that's not too miraculous.
Turns out most of the people we wanted to see weren't home, but by the
end of the day we'd found 5 new investigators through OYM and given
out 3 Books of Mormon. We were beat, but we'd seen miracles. That is
my all time record, so far, for investigators found in one day. And
then the next day, we found one more! That was pretty awesome. I
learned from my companion's faith and determination, how if we just go
out and fight, and fight to win, the Lord will provide us with the
miracles. Whether it's 6 investigators or just a Book of Mormon given.

Well folks, stay positive and determined. We had some spiritual
lessons this week and there were still things that could've been
better, but the Lords on our side.

Love you guys,
Watkins Choro