How is everyone doing? We`ve had an awesome week! A little slow still, but we`re doing all we can and doing our best to rely on the Lord. That`s all that he asks. I know its going to pick up soon we`ve found a lot of really good potentials that will hopefully become new investigators this week so I`m way pumped! Our Mission President will also be leaving us this week and our new President will be arriving as well. I`m really excited to see what will change and what will stay the same. We definitely have a unique mission with all the tools we have that have been given to us by President Zinke and I`m curious to see how it will all shake out. We wrote our last weekly emails to President Zinke this week and I could do nothing but express my thanks for him and his wife and the examples that they`ve had on my life.
Yesterday was Stake Conference and we had the awesome opportunity to watch a live video conference from Salt Lake City from Elder Christofferson to the people of Japan. Long time, no see right? It was so awesome! He expressed his love for all of the people in the church in Japan and even went on to say that the full time missionaries currently serving in Japan are some of the best in the world right now. I`m sure you can imagine what that does for all of our confidence over here in the far east. He really stressed how important it is to balance the three pillars of life, work/school, family, and church. Japanese people have a problem with working waaayyyyy to much and he shared a great example of a three legged stool. If the stool has one leg that is too long or too short it will be that much more difficult to balance. I feel that that example alone will bless the people here so much.
I had a really cool experience yesterday with prayer. After Stake Conference we went back to our apartment to study and prepare for the rest of the Sabbath. While we were doing our hour of language study my companion got up to get something from the other room. I found it really hard to focus on what I was doing and just started to stare out the window. I just kept thinking to myself, `where are they, where are these people that need this gospel so much?` I bowed my head in prayer and simply asked Heavenly Father where it was that we should go when our study was over and what we should do. I stayed like that for a little bit when all of the sudden I could see one of the intersections up in the city and I had the impression to just go there and wait. After our study we headed out find and went to the destination I had been shown to go. We got there and I shared with my companion what we were going to do. I`m sure he wasn`t too thrilled with the proposition to just wait, but I`m in charge now ;). We waited at the corner of that intersection and I stopped just about every single living thing that walked by. We were there for about twenty five minutes or so when a guy that didn`t look Japanese rode toward us. I stopped him and asked him where he was from. He said he was from the Philippines and his name was Conan! We talked for a little bit and he told us he`s working here right now on a three year contract with a company and he`s here with eight other Filipino guys and they all live in the same apartment building. We asked if we could come by and share a message and he told us to come by next Sunday night! We were really excited and are now hoping to have a few Filipino converts this transfer!
It was all really interesting because I was really trying to study and seek out specific revelation all week. I took this experience to be an answer to my prayers and study. I was surprised how simple it ended up being to receive revelation. It was all of the sudden a picture in my head of where to go. I loved it!
It's so weird to think that it`s almost been a year. It has gone by so fast but at the same time I feel like I`ve been here forever because I truly have changed so much. I can`t even hardly remember my life before my mission. Its the craziest thing! Having to go home one day is absolutely terrifying to me because I feel as if this is all I know. I hate when missionaries say `back to real life` because this is as real and as raw as it gets. Out in the mission field spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a great foundation to build the rest of my life on this mission has been. What an honor and blessing it is to serve the Lord. I just hope I never take that for granted. I love you all! I hope you all have a great week!
Elder Giles
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