normal week??? (March 20, 2011)

So I want to thank everyone for their prayers and all the love that I have been caused to feel because of this disaster. I am ok and everyone is safe but due to radiation problems 2 missions have been completely shut down. There are no missionaries in either the Tokyo or Sendai missions. Now from what I hear the news is exaggerating everything and it is really not even that dangerous for any missionaries in Tokyo but for safety reasons they have been evacuated which means we have received 43 new missionaries in to the Nagoya Japan mission. We were down to 80 missionaries now we are up to like 110 so it is really cool. We were able to open areas that haven't been opened for a long time. Unfortunately I lost my companion...he got transfered after only being my comp for 2 weeks. It was really fun having a Japanese companion and learning about their culture and language but unfortuantely he has been sent by the Lord to a new area. I was really disappointed to see him leave but I am still really excited for my new companion...he is from Utah and he has been here in Ogaki for about 3 days. We are having fun working together and it looks like the last half of this transfer will be fun. It has been a little stressful taking over an area that I have only been in for 2 and a half weeks but the Lord has blessed us tremendously.

Apparently people keep asking how my area is doing and what has changed. The biggest thing that I have noticed is that the nuclear power plant is on everyone's mind...it seems to be brought up by everyone so it is interesting how my Japanese vocab has changed becuase of this like I never thought I would need to know the word for radiation but now I have it memorized. Also a lot of stores don't use extra lights...people are trying really hard to save energy so the need for nuclear energy is cut down. But Ogaki is like the safest place in japan...
I am convinced. There is this huge underground spring that everyone gets water from so we should always have water and we are way far away from an ocean so we are good. People's schedules have changed but it hasn't been like a huge dramatic change...but I think slowly it will start to change....especially the hearts of the people. For example last week at english class we committed everyone to fast and use the money that they would usually spend on food and donate it to the people in Sendai. Everyone was for it...so that was cool.

This week though we really saw a ton of blessings from God because we wanted to give up. We wanted to quit but we kept on going and we pushed ourselves and 4 investigators came to sacrament meeting. Us and the members had our hands full. With only 30 members it keeps us entertained but 1 of the investigators came to church for the first time and she loved it and wants to come back next week. She was a referral from another investigator which came to church with her. The members really helped us fellowship her so it was way good. She plans to go to America and asked if she could go to church in America too. She speaks perfect english which is always a blessing...lol. but seriously it helps a lot. The best part though is that she volunteered to pray at the end of sunday school.

Another miracle is that I had Mexican food...If that is not a miracle I don't know what one is,,,lol. well there is this American family in our ward. What I mean by American is that the father is American and the wife is Japanese. He is way cool but he says we can go to dinner at his house any time we want as long as we bring an investigator. So we brought an investigator and had a really good time. The food was so good. It was better than I ever remember probably because I haven't had tacos in such a long time. Man it was like heaven in a tortilla shell. Our investigator that came was Brazilian so he enjoyed it too. Our investigator that came is way nice...too nice. he feeds us once or twice a week which is way more than the ward here has ever fed us but thats ok...they are all trying.

We have a new investigator and she is pretty good. We met her and she testified to us about prayer for like 1 hour. It was pretty cool. She has a lot of stories in her life that have led her to believe in God so now we just need her to pray about the Book of Mormon and she will be baptized. The only problem is that she works and takes care of her sick mom so she doesn't have a lot of time to meet or read but she is still really good. She said she loves meeting with us so I am really excited to continue to meet her. Unfortunately she was not able to come to church but I think she might come next week.

I am glad we are safe and I can see the hand of the Lord in our work now more than ever! It is very exciting but sad at the same time

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Elder Nelson