Week 56

 英会話 and building relationships!

This week has been interesting. And it was hard, but I learned a lot of good lessons.

We started 英会話! So 英会話(Eikaiwa) is English Conversation Class and in it we teach English through conversation and other activities. The people of Japan love English and a lot of them want to learn it, so it's a cool way to serve them and give them an opportunity to learn. Last Wednesday we had our older class and 5 people came, which is small from what I've heard, but hey, it was still good. Haha, it was a little rough as we don't have any examples of role models to follow except from what is in the book. 

And we had a class on Saturday, but no one came, it was our fault, but yeah, we have some flyers now, so we can get some people coming!

Cool experiences

1. So we had exchanges with our ZL's and I was with Elder Walker. He's a very funny and energetic guy and is a great missionary. We actually were able to talk to a less-active lady in the ward that was cleaning the church which was cool and then talked to a couple other members at the church.

2. The next day, we ended our exchanges, and we ended it with a small lunch. The ZL's had a meeting with the AP's, so they had to rush off. But it was cool as the whole circumstance worked out that we stayed at the restaurant rather than going somewhere else. When the ZL's left, a person at the other table was like, "Are you all Americans?". And we started talking and had a great conversation about civil engineering (both the person and Elder Jepsen are doing/have done it in college!) and we talked a little bit about what we do as missionaries. And then he was like, I think what you all do is great, I would like to learn about what you do. And wow, that was awesome! So we'll be eating lunch with him sometime this week!

3. I did my first baptismal interview. Since I'm the District Leader here in southern Kyoto, that is one of my responsibilities. It was a neat experience and was awesome to be part of that and afterwards I had my interview with my awesome mission president, President Halvorson. 

We had lots of other miracles, and great experiecnces. Talked to Yuto San again over dinner. We had a lesson with Aloysie, the person from African and has lived in Austrialia and South Korea, and her kids, Clemont and Jules. Their father is French, so they speak French and English (because of Aloysie) and now they are learning Japanese. Wow!

But this week was a little hard sometimes. And really it's in those hard times when it's hard to feel love from God and from others that we should focus on Christ. Those are the times our true character comes out. So always focus on Christ even when life is good or bad. Sometimes you even learn the greatest lessons in the hardest circumstances. Think of Christ--He gained a perfect understanding of the human family in the Atonement. Afterwards He received a fullness of joy. So always look towards the pattern that Christ set. We can strive through the hard times knowing that there will be more light at the end.

We also have a Typhoon and now they're evacuating the Elderly. I kind of feel bad as today in Japan is Respect the Elderly Day and they have to get out of their houses and such. But it's a lot better to be safe than to be in danger. Please pray for the people of Japan that they might have safety! 

Love you all, and remember the reason for doing things,don't just do things :).