Almost Cried...

Lots of things have been happening here this week and the days seem to be getting shorter and shorter. We managed to make it down to the Tokyo Temple this week, Emily had a fun sushi making Relief Society activity, I finished the school year with half of the college students I teach, and I gave a talk at Church on Sunday. Where to begin...


On Friday's I have been team-teaching at Aizu Techno Academy. This past Friday was my last class with the students who will be graduating. In class, we took time to write messages for everyone as we passed around cards with each person's name on it. It was a lot of fun to read some of the comments. As I was leaving class, the students had prepared a separate card ahead of time with comments on it and it almost made me cry... When I looked over at Troy, the lady I teach with, she was covering her face so that no one would see her crying. Seeing her made me want to cry even more. I'm sure as the school year wraps up here in Japan, I'll be shedding some tears. Luckily, I just found out that I will be teaching at the same schools next year until Emily and I decide to go back to the States.

This was the card they surprised me with it. Sorry that it isn't the best quality.

This is my card that we passed around class. Sorry that it is upside down, couldn't figure out how to make it the other way. To highlight a few since it might be hard to read, we have, "Glasses very much!! Thank you!", "Thank you! hope and confidence", and my favorite "You are very wonderful men!! nice men :)". We didn't concentrate on writing at all... :P

Whenever I saw boots lined up at the schools I teach at, I always wanted to take a picture... I finally did. Even at schools people take off their outdoor shoes and put on their clean indoor shoes. 

Here are all the participants at the Relief Society activity. I came just in time to take the picture... and eat tons of food. :)

They made these rice balls with different stuff at the activity for a festival called Hina Matsuri which is pretty much Girl's Festival. This is one of the ones Emily made.

This is the guy Emily made.

This is the happy couple... So cute! The body is the rice ball, the head is a quail egg, the yellow stuff (egg I think) are the clothes, the orange stuff (carrot) for a hat?, the black stuff (seaweed) was for hair, and sesame seeds for the eyes.

The following are some of the ones that other people made. Some of them are really good. As I was looking at some of them, I was trying to figure out why some of them looked more Asian than others... 

This is some kind of somen noodle soup. It was super yummy! It may look like ramen noodles, but somen noodles are a lot thinner. Other things inside the soup were seaweed, boiled egg, corn, bamboo, some kind of mushrooms, rice cake, and crab. Some of those things might not sound that great together, but like I said, it was yummy!

I'm sure all of you wished you could have heard me speak on Sunday, but all I will write is a story that I shared. My talk was on the Holy Ghost. One of the stories that I shared, is very special to me. It is a story that demonstrates how the Holy Ghost prompts us to do things sometimes even if we don't understand why. I know that when we always follow the feelings we get from the Holy Ghost (even when we don't understand), we will always receive blessings that Heavenly Father has prepared for us. 


Back in November 2009, I started dating this girl named Emily. We had known each other for almost a year at this point and had worked together as resident advisers in the dormitories at BYU-Hawaii and also worked together in the BYUH Student Association. Anyways, I started liking her after our first date and starting thinking about what was going to happen if we started to date seriously. I was graduating a month later (December 2009) and already had plane tickets back to California. I prayed to Heavenly Father many times asking Him what I should do - Should I come back to Hawaii? Should I try to marry this girl? Should I give up? - All these questions where in my prayers. Just before I left Hawaii, I received my answer. I felt the Holy Ghost whisper to my heart that I should come back to Hawaii. I didn't get any impression that I was to marry Emily or not at that time, but I did know that Heavenly Father wanted me to come back to Hawaii. I was so confused! I had no job lined up, I had no place to live, and actually, I had no girlfriend. Logically, there was no reason to go back to Hawaii except for the nice beaches, sunny weather, and that there may be a chance that things could work out with Emily. I really wanted Emily to be the reason for going back to Hawaii... Since we all know the end of the story, we know that it was for Emily. Yay! This is a great story that illustrates a time when I was directed by the Holy Ghost even though I didn't understand why, and how I was blessed for obeying that prompting. I know that Heavenly Father has given us the Holy Ghost so that we can have extra help and direction in our lives and that when we follow that direction, we can become even more happy.


I hope that everyone has a great week and that the weather is warming up like it is here! Much love!