Good week!

Dear Everyone,

How is everyone doing? First off, thanks for all the birthday wishes! I really appreciated them and it helped me to have a good birthday. For my birthday, we had District Meeting where we talked about how to better use "Preach My Gospel" and also about the importance of extending strong commitments. It turned out being really good. I love doing district meetings because when I study for it, I learn so much and then when we have the district together, all of them putting something into it, I learn even more. I've said it before, but the Spirit is so cool. Whatever happens during the meeting, everything connects. Sometimes in my preparations, I have a few ideas, but don't know how to connect them. And then, somehow, during the meeting, it all flows well. It's awesome. Since being district leader, I've gotten much more confident with speaking in front of people and testifying about the gospel. After the meeting, we went to the all you can eat Yakiniku place (a place with raw meat and a grill in the middle of the table where you cook the meat yourself.) The district made a fun birthday card for me. It was a fun birthday. That night, we taught a Less-Active couple about prayer and I felt it went really well. I think their hearts are starting to change a little bit. The guy likes Football! And his favorite team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.... (Of all teams???) It was a nice birthday. It is so weird to say I'm 20, but it is what it is. I feel so old now..... (I can imagine what you feel parents ;))

This week, we had interviews with President Welch where we talked about what we have been learning in our "4 Gospels" challenge. I love being in the Japan Kobe Mission, definitely one of the best missions out there. This mission is led by the Lord through President Welch. We had a good discussion about how Jesus Christ is the perfect missionary. One thing that I've noticed about Jesus Christ is that he did not ever care about his Physical desires or the desires of the natural man. I really want to be like that because I feel like I fall so easily to temptations and natural desires. Another thing that I learned from President Welch is that learning never stops. He is doing the challenge along with us and he said to me that 30 years after being a missionary, he still learns how he can be better. I look at his example and have hope that it's okay if I'm not perfect right now. Accept it and learn every day. Interviews and this challenge were great opportunities for me.

The coolest thing that happened last week was Sunday. An eight year old girl from a part member family that the sisters were working with got baptized! And for some reason, the little girl wanted me to baptize her! So, I performed my first baptism in Japan yesterday. It was so cool and such a special opportunity. I felt really grateful (and still pretty shocked) that she wanted me to perform the baptism for her special day. (BTW, this is the same part-member family whose dog room we helped clean.) It was a special day!

Things are going well here. I have been working hard at being more bold. I've found that sometimes things do not happen unless you are bold. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of being lovingly bold. I am trying to find ways to apply that into my daily missionary work. It's hard, it's out of my comfort zone, but it is already helping. Kind of makes me feel like a real missionary haha.

Well, I love you all. I hope you have an amazing week and that you are all gaining a stronger testimony every day. 愛 ています！

Love,

Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老

Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部

 

 District P-Day in Kyoto!  A member took us and we went all throughout Kyoto last Monday.  It was a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of Japanese culture.  We went to various places like Kinkakau Ji (the Golden Pavilion) and Heian Jingu and other places that I can't remember right now.

That is squid on a skewer.  So good!

A bunch of missionaries with President Welch and a member from our ward at interviews.

We went to a member's house and they fed us this.  It is raw Octopus, tuna, squid, and other fish that I can't remember over sushi rice.  It was so good!! I could probably only eat this in Japan.  Y'all might think this is gross (like my companion) but holy cow I'm gonna miss this stuff when I go home.

Today, we went to the Pokemon center!  It wasn;t as cool as I thought it would be.  Basically just a big Pokemon store, but it was cool nonetheless.