Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: #NewApostles!

Toyohashi dendo team!

Wow that was a great General Conference! I learned a lot of things. I
liked what President Uchtdorf said about keeping it simple. Often
times what I've noticed in the places were I serve, both Japan and
America, is that members of the church get too caught up in
organization and formalities that they miss the true purpose of things
and the beautiful simplicity of the gospel. I also enjoyed Elder
Bednar's look back at past Apostles final words.

Watching conference has taken on a new perspective for me since now
I've met so many general authorities. My beloved previous mission
president, Yamashita kaicho gave a closing prayer as well as Elder
Whiting who came to speak to us just last month. I've also met Elder
Aoyagi a time or two and was really impressed with his English in his
talk since I've only heard him speak Japanese with a translator
person. He even mentioned the Nagoya mission in his talk! Woot! It
feels like I'm watching old friends and since I've heard them talk
more directly and personal, because they talk to missionaries, just as fellow servants in the church having essentially the same calling to preach the gospel. As Elder Whiting put it to us last month;"the same missionary blood that runs through your veins, runs through our veins." He also mentioned that when the 70 are set apart, they are
also set apart as missionaries. Pretty cool huh?

One other thing was President Monson's talk on Sunday. I was
really impressed because even though he was having trouble staying up,
he was so determined to share his witness that the Lord is the light
that he didn't sit back down until he said amen. What an inspiration
to keep going even when it's hard. I hope he gets better for next
time.

Well we had some crazy adventures this week. On Tuesday we went to
Toyokawa inari temple and dendoed the nearby town. It was cool! Then
Wednesday we went hard in the paint and dendoed a ton all over the
place! On Thursday we did more service at Moizes kyoudai's shop. The
bugs were crazy there. Ew! Haha! Yesterday we found a new investigator
who's also a Jehovah's Witness. He loves the Bible and was interested
to see what we think. Should be interesting!

Well still trying to get those baptisms! Please pray for our
investigators that they will feel the spirit and have a desire to
follow Jesus Christ. Please be careful with the flooding I heard there
was down there in SC. Love y'all a lot! I know the church is true and
that it is guided by Apostles and Prophets called of the Lord just as
in the days of old.

Y'all have a good one!

Love,
Watkins cho to the other ro