June 5, 2016

First weeks of transfer are always the most crazy and most stressful so this week was a blast. Haha! For real, even though it was hard I enjoyed it a lot. 

To start off, Tuesday was transfers so my companion Elder Walker took a train to his new area and I took a train to Nagoya and then went to the mission home with all the other new trainers so I could be trained on how to train a new missionary. Well after that they told me my trainee would not be arriving on Wednesday with everyone else because he had some visa problems. So they assigned me to serve in a near bye area until my new companion arrives. So I was assigned to stay in Kariya city with another companionship who's trainee also was able to come. 

Wednesday and Thursday I stayed in Kariya and served there and it was really fun. There were three of us there so that was interesting. It was my first time in a trio so it was for sure an experience. Haha! We were able to get a lot of work done and visit with several people. We also played some baseball with some young kids which was a big highlight of the week. They thought that the missionaries were so cool, it was lots of fun. 

Friday I went back to the mission home cause my trainee had finally arrived. I got there we met and then me and him took the nice long train back to Fujieda. 

My new companions name is Elder Hilamatu. He is from São Paulo Brazil but he lived in Japan when he was younger so he speaks not only Portuguese but pretty good Japanese too. He doesn't really speak English though, but that's okay cause we just speak all Portuguese so my Portuguese is really improving. Might forget english soon! Haha!  He is a really cool guy. He did karate and Kung fu before his mission so I'm gonna ask him to teach me some stuff so I can fight the next person who tries to steal my bike. Hahaha! I love Elder Hilamatu, he is an awesome guy and we are doing awesome together. 

To finish off the week we had a ward activity on Saturday. We had a music night and it was a lot of fun and we got a less active to come so that made my week. Also lots of members invited their friends so we got to meet them too. Hopefully something can come from that, some people seemed pretty promising. 

On a slightly spiritual note, Sunday I taught the foreigners Sunday school class that the missionaries always teach and the topic was about the conversion story of Alma the younger.

We focused a lot on what the true meaning of conversion is and we all decided that true conversion is a true change of heart. Alma the younger begged for forgiveness, received a remission of his sins, and then he went and became a different person. He truly changed his heart. Through the Atonement we can receive forgiveness of our sins and change ourselves, our lives, and our hearts. Aren't we so lucky to have a loving Heavenly Father who would give us His Son so that we could have this wonderful blessing. 

I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Giant Cat Thingy

Elder Hilamatu

Throwback to the MTC