Turning to the Lord

It’s one thing to tell someone to turn to the Lord; it’s another thing to read about someone turning to the Lord or to experience it yourself. We just finished reading 2 Nephi chapter 4 in the Book of Mormon. We have been reading a chapter together every day from the Book of Mormon and asking each other two questions after each chapter:  1) What does this have to do with missionary work, and 2) How can this help us be a better missionary today? In today’s reading, we felt like 2 Nephi chapter 4 is a really good scripture to share with other people because it tells the story of how Nephi turned to the Lord. We have had many experiences in these past months when we have had to turn to the Lord for help and comfort. Read it when you have time.

This week we were able to take a trip down to Tokyo and visit the Tokyo Temple. The day started out at five in the morning in the cold with us taking a 6:30 a.m. bus to Tokyo. After our five-hour bus ride, we headed to the train station to attempt to buy the tickets we needed to get us to the station close to the temple. After looking at some diagrams, I couldn’t really figure out how to get to where we needed to, so I asked some people that worked there. Eventually, we bought our tickets and made our way to the temple. We ate some curry with rice in the cafeteria before our session. We were grateful when we found out that the temple had head sets so that we could listen to everything in English. We had a really nice time there. We also had McDonald’s for the first time since coming to Japan. Emily, who wouldn’t usually go there for a meal, was craving it. She said that her Big Mac, fries, and sundae were heavenly!

Unfortunately, I started getting sick Monday night. It hit me really hard on our bus trip back to Aizu. I won’t go into any heavy details, but I think I blew my nose at least 100 times. We have been praying for health as the weather has been getting colder. We still get warm mornings and afternoons on occasion, but the temperature has dropped significantly. Emily asked me earlier today if we should pull out the heaters. Well, it has been a challenge to teach English with this cold. I have been saying that it is almost gone now since Thursday. It’s still not gone…

Anyway, on a different note, our branch had a ping pong tournament this week. There were 14 people that participated including Emily and I. I lost my first match, but Emily went all the way to the championship where she barely lost, 7-11. (Emily’s note: My sweet hubby didn’t mention that, up until the championship round, my only opponents were elderly women). The member that set up the activity, Brother Takegawa, also brought some treats for everyone. They were Disney lollipops! It got us so excited because this week we are taking another trip down to Tokyo and spending one of the days at Disney Sea. We have been looking forward to this trip ever since we decided that we were coming to Japan. We will also be lucky enough to see the Halloween decorations up. So exciting! That being said, stay tuned for next week when we share our adventures from Disney Sea!