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| A giant Anpanman blow-up bouncy house! |
Dear Everyone,
First off, I want to talk about how happy I am to be in Maizuru, in the same District (equivalent of a stake) as my first area, Nishiwaki. Yesterday, all of the District's Priesthood holders and Elders went to Fukuchiyama for District Priesthood Meeting. I have been looking forward to this day for the past month because I knew I would be seeing a lot of the members from my bean area. Boy did it live up to my expectations.
As soon as I got inside the building, I saw familiar face after familiar face. Nishiwaki is the biggest branch in the district, so about half of the people that were there were from Nishiwaki. The best part about this was that they all remembered me and they remembered my name! That made me so, so happy. They all also commented on how good my Japanese has become. (Even though it still sucks). It was so nice to be able to talk to all of them. Actually talk to them! When I was in Nishiwaki, I couldn't understand what they were saying and I couldn't speak back to them very well, but now I can basically say anything that I want to say, and it was really refreshing to see the difference that has been made in my Japanese in the past 6 months or so. Man, I love those members so much. I am so grateful that I have spent 9 of my 11 months in Japan in this same zone. I love the members here so much. I can't even describe it. Nishiwaki and Maizuru have been so good to me and it is all because of the members here. Genuine children of our Heavenly Father. Anyway, I went on for a while about this experience, but it was one of the best times I've had in my mission. お久しぶ 西脇！ Long time no see Nishiwaki. It was great.
Also, in this meeting, our mission president, President Welch was there and gave an incredible, powerful talk about member missionary work. Now, as a District, we are focussing on teaching the members and less active members so that the missionaries can gain a lot of teaching experience and also to encourage members to introduce their friends to the missionaries. His talk really pumped me up and now I really want to teach a lot of lessons! Also, for the whole meeting, I translated the talks for my companion Elder McArthur and I was able to translate pretty well. I felt way good after that. Recently I have realized how my Japanese has improved as of late, and it is now to the point that speaking in Japanese is fun for me now! I never would have thought it would be like this a couple transfers ago. Crazy how God works sometimes.
That brings me to my new companion. His name is Elder McArthur. He is from New York City! (Just like Elder Scowcroft, my second companion in the field. I am pretty sure they are the only ones that are from New York City and I somehow become companions with both of them...) we have a lot in common and it will be a great transfer together. He is 2nd transfer, but he is already an incredible missionary. I mean, I could totally see him as AP sometime down the road. Honestly, I should not be training him. He should be the one training me! Like, this guy is incredible. I can learn a lot from him and I can tell we are going to do a lot of work here in Maizuru this transfer.
The first thing that we will accomplish is helping our investigator to be baptized on Sunday!! She has her baptismal interview on Wednesday, and if she passes that, we will have the Baptismal Service on Sunday, October 4th! Super excited for her! Her husband and daughter are even more excited! We taught them on Saturday and when we said that the baptism is next week, their 8 year old daughter got her scriptures, and right away found the baptismal prayer and started reading it in the voice of her father. 1) how did she know where to find that scripture??? I don't even know where that is... (Well maybe I do, but that's not the point, she is 8 years old!) it was so funny and I am so excited for them.
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| Elder Van Cleave's last time with these people! |
Love you all so much! Thanks for the continued support, prayers and encouragement. It is much appreciated! Have a good time watching General Conference this week. Learn a lot! Japan gets to watch it a week later than all, so please, no big spoiler alerts haha! That reminds me that this week, we lost another one of our beloved apostles, Elder Richard G. Scott. I was a little shocked at the news, but after the initial reaction, I felt peace because now, he is with his wife again. One of the reasons I loved Elder Scott was because of how much he truly loved his wife and he wasn't afraid to let others know about it. Because of him and his example, I know that my wife deserves to be treated like that. I want to use that as a model for how I treat my wife. I know that if I can do that, we will be able to have an eternal relationship. Thank you Elder Scott. We will have 3 new apostles that are going to be called. It is pretty exciting stuff. Well, The church is true, the book is blue and all that jazz. Love you
Love,
Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老
Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部
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| Us and the Branch President and his wife for Elder Van Cleave's last day in Maizuru. |
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| Hip |
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| This is a view of the city of Maizuru. We were on top of a tower which overlooks everything. We went with the Branch President and his wife today. |
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