Week 48

Blur, travels, and fishing 

Another week, that has just flown by, wow!

So our friend that we've been talking about is really progressing! We've had 4 lessons this past week and he's been really progressing. We put him on a baptism date for the 31st, but it'll probably move as he wants to take it a tad slower. So we'll probably move it to August or September or October. Depending on the speed (which is still fast) and how he takes the commandments. But we'll be teaching the commandments this week and we have some awesome members helping us with that lesson!

On Wednesday we rode our bikes for 50 min to another part of our area and went streeting for a bit. It was a bit rough, some spiritual stupor. A lady was referred to us from a member in Tokyo, but we can't do "housing", as in we can't knock on any new door, but it's a little more strict here in Kobe and from what I gathered we need to know them, before we knock. So we just wrote a letter and our phone number, but we are going to go back and see what happens and ask our president if we can knock. Afterwards we went streeting, usually I feel that I have a pretty clear idea of who to talk to and where to go, but on that day, nothing. But after a couple minutes of thinking Elder Matsumoto felt a certain way so we walked and met a guy that talked with us for about 20min and we gave him a Book of Mormon! He studies a lot and said that he would read it. Miracles!

Then on Thursday we had Zone Taikai (Zone Conference). We left at 7:50 and got to Kobe at 10:02. We talked with Elder Jones (New AP, was in our District, great guy!) and a couple others and then it started! We had lots of great training and had a bento box for lunch, it was a hamburger, but with no bun... Anyways :), probably the biggest thing I took away from it was something that President Halvorson said, "Don't let Japanese be a barrier, you weren't called to Japan because of your language ability, but rather your power in speaking the higher language of the Spirit." Something like that :). 

A scripture he shared 2 Nephi 3:19, "20 And they shall cry from the dust; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even after many generations have gone by them. And it shall come to pass that their cry shall go, even according to the simpleness of their words."

Afterwards President Halvorson and I talked and he pointed something interesting out. All the bad people and Anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon spoke the language well and spoke many flattering words. But the Lord's servants often had issues speaking with confidence or had trouble speaking. President Halvorson said "You're in good company Elder Robertson". And Christ suffered for all of our sins, so if you're ever feeling down or going through a trial remember that Christ experienced the same thing, your "thing", you're in good company. Do that, and you will feel peace, pray for His Grace in your life!

So the Bishop of our other ward, Otsu ward, invited us to their youth activity! We went an hour by train up to Lake Biwa or in Japanese, Biwako. It was super fun and we fished with the youth and talked with them and the YSA. We also met more members which is nice as it's hard to meet with Otsu members. 

Today, we're going to The Kyoto Railway Museum which should be interesting and Toji! Toji is a famous 5 storied pagoda.  

And as always, feel free to shoot me an email, I would love to hear from you! Love you guys and have a safe and a fun week!

Pictures!

Japan has these really good jelly drinks. They're jello inside! I saw a super cool old European car, a Supra, and a Skyline. And we went to a Honda motorcycle shop and saw some Kei cars!