I don`t even know where to start this week...
This week has changed my mission and my life. I`ll start out just by saying that this work is real. God is real. The atonement is real, but with that, so is the adversary.
If you were to ask me what the biggest thing I`ve learned my first three months of my mission it`s that Satan is real. He wants nothing more than to stop this work and he will do everything he can to do so. Satan has power only if we let him have power. Gods power is infinite compared to that of Satan and I`m so grateful for that.
I can say now that God was letting me get down this week to be humbled. I felt like I couldn`t do anything. We couldn`t find anyone to teach and I had a poor attitude. Satan was working on me hard. I pressed on though. Nothing will ever make me quit this work, that was never even a thought. One night I asked my companion for a blessing of comfort, which he gave to me so incredibly lovingly and I`ve felt nothing but peace since.
God was letting me become broken down so he could forge one of his finest warriors the way he wants me shaped, and I can see that now. The Lord has a purpose for all of us, and I know he has a purpose for me. I`m in Japan for a reason.
We had our first baptism of the transfer yesterday! What a powerful and humbling experience that was. I`m so grateful to have been able to participate in the baptism of our investigator, now member, Brother H. The water was draining out of the font ever so slightly so the water was really shallow. The first attempt his leg came up. Have any of you ever tried to explain how to be baptized in Japanese?? It was difficult. The second time I said, In the name of the father-son, and the holy ghost. oops. Third time was the charm and he was baptized. It was so amazing to feel of the purifying power that baptism brings to the souls of man.
He was confirmed an hour later in sacrement meeting by a recent convert of the ward and my companion and I got to stand in the circle to confirm him. What a great day it was.
So we have something unique here in the Kobe mission called the Sheep Number. The Sheep Number is a revelation of exactly how many of the lords elect, or sheep, are in our mission RIGHT NOW ready to receive the gospel and be baptized. Its truly amazing. Right now the total number of elect in the mission is 1443. Each zone also has their own number which make up the total number of the mission. In the zone each district has a number as well. When I got to Akashi I was informed that our number was 1. One more elect before we needed to seek a new revelation. That last elect was Brother H yesterday, so last night, we had to find a new number as a district. The anticipation, excitement, and fear were imminent throughout the day. Never in the Kobe mission has a whole district had to match the same number of elect. We got together as a district and had a little devotional before we split off between the Elders and Sisters. We Elders went into another room in the hopes of being revealed the new number together. We all prayed hard. It was exhausting, and the first try yielded no results, we all had a different number. We tried again. All of our praying harder and harder seeking out this revelation from God. It took three times before we matched numbers. Four people, one number. It was a miracle. The sisters didn`t have the same luck. In order to have an actual concrete number all of us have to agree on the same thing. After three hours the sisters were spent and had to go home. We`re getting together again this week in hopes of all of us receiving the same revelation. What an exhaustingly powerful experience it has been though.
My life has been changed. The spirit is real! Today we`re going to the largest suspension bridge in the world here in Akashi. I have some pictures of it but we are going up on top of it today! I`m way excited! Apparently it was a glass floor in one of the lookout points so I`m way pumped. I hope you all had an amazing week like I did. I love you! All the best!
Elder Giles
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