Miracle Week!

Family and Friends!!


Today was transfer day and I`m proud to say that there were no changes in Tagajo!!!! :) I wasn`t really expecting anything to happen anyways but you never know what can happen on the mish haha. There were a few changes that took place within my District though. 2 Sisters are leaving and 2 more will be coming in. One of them is a new missionary, and the other is Sister Beaven, an Australian, who was with me in the MTC! So I now have somebody else to speak English too! Haha.
It`s been an awesome week on the mission here in Japan. So good that it earned the name `Miracle Week`!:) Haha. We were so blessed and we saw so many miracles this past week. I remember working with an older missionary in Iwaki and asking him what his favorite part of the mish was. He said, `All the miracles.` I never really understood what he meant, and for that matter didn`t really think I had seen any miracles up to that point. As time has gone on though, I have definitely come to understand what He meant by `all the miracles`. I have seen the Lord`s hand more time than one and am so grateful for all the miracles He has blessed me with.
This past week we achieved the Standard of Excellence!! We worked really hard and were able to see the fruits of our labors. We found 5 new investigators, 4 of who we will continue to work with!! One of the investigators is Ayako-San. She is a 30 year old woman who came to English Class and we picked her up from there. We met with her the first time, taught about the message of the Restoration, and committed her to baptism right then! She accepted and we made a date for Jan. 15th. She seems golden and we are so excited to be working with her.
Well things with Arata-San are kind of all over the place right now. After about fifteen phone calls and ten minutes of knocking on his door, we were finally able to get him out of bed and we got his butt to church! Haha. He really seemed to enjoy it too :) We have been working really hard to get his parents` permission for the baptism. We sent them a package on Monday including the permission form, a DVD about our message, a `For the Strength of Youth` pamphlet, and letters from Juchau Choro and I. Last night we called him to see if He had talked with his parents about things and He said he had. Then He said it was bad. He pretty much said it is impossible. It was so discouraging. We never asked if they got our package or anything but we will figure out more of the details from here. As of now, all we can really do is pray.
The mish is still amazing though. I`m so grateful for the opportunity I have to be bearing testimony of our Savior, especially during this Christmas time of year. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. I love you all!!
Elder O