Sunday, May 29, 2016

Get ready for a novel



 I want to apologize in advance because this weeks email is going to
be super long. I'll try and make it very easy to scan over, because
long emails are rough to read sometimes!

  Once again I am absolutely exhausted from a week full of buses,
trains, meetings, and missionary work. In the last week and a half, I
have had the opportunity to work in 5 different areas in the Kobe
mission including Matsue, Okayama, Kobe, Yonago, and Izumo and I have
been blessed to see miracles!

  Straight from Kobe on Monday, we headed across the mission to the
area next to Matsue called Izumo. It is the top left corner of the
mission. There we did splits with the zone leaders and it was a very
humbling experience. Izumo is an area that is full of brazilians, so
most of the zone leaders teaching pool are brazilians. I was
companions for the day with Madruga Choro who is from Brazil. Me and
him were in charge of teaching and talking to all of the Brazilian
investigators and members. My Portuguese is obviously really good, so
I understood everything that was said! (Not) -I didn't understand a
word the entire day which made me feel like a green bean again! It was
so much fun, and a really humbling experience. Madruga Choro is an
amazing zone leader, and we had a great time together and I learned a
lot from him. It was a great experience to go to Brazil for a day :)

    One cool miracle that I want to share from when I was in Izumo is
a couple named Omar and Paloma. They came to English class for the
first time and saw a picture of the Tokyo temple. They are from Sao
Paulo Brazil and they speak Portuguese and a Omar speaks a little bit
of English. They were so excited when they saw the Tokyo temple, so
they said "we lived across the street from one of these churches in
Brazil and we loved going over there and looking inside because it is
so pretty! We have a picture of that church on our fridge at home, we
really want to go inside!" My companion was so excited, and now they
have an appointment to talk about the gospel this week,  I am so
excited to hear what happens with Omar and Paloma!

  On Wednesday we finally got back to Matsue for the first time since
the week before. We got straight to work because we hadn't been here
for about 5 days. On Thursday, we worked again, and then at 8pm we
caught a train to Yonago, which is the area on the other side of us,
because we had splits with our district leader, and a district meeting
on Friday. So Friday I was companions with my good friend and district
leader, Miller Choro who was my zone leader in my last area. We had a
good time together and got to play with a member family with a bunch
of cute kids!

    On Saturday I was companions with Miller Choro's companion, Inaba
Choro who is a first transfer (just got to the mission) missionary
from Tokyo. Me and him stayed in Yonago for a while to do a service
project while Vui Choro and Miller Choro got on a train and went over
to Matsue to get ready for the culture party that me and Vui Choro had
been planning. After Inaba Choro and I were done in Yonago, we got on
a train and headed over to Matsue to help prepare for the party and
visit a couple investigators. Inaba Choro and I talked to Anzai San
and had a really good meeting with him. Anzai has picked June 18th for
his baptismal day, and it's looking like he will be ready! So we are
super excited for him!

  Saturday night we had all the missionaries in the district, and some
of their members come into matuse to do a big culture party with us.
We did Samoa (Vui Choro), America (the rest of the missionaries),
Brazil (Members from Izumo), and Japan (members) for the activity and
had all sorts of food and dances and performances going on. There were
lots of people there, including a couple investigators, and non
members! It was an awesome way to get everyone together, and inside
the church!

  Last week, we all went to Kobe for a meeting with Elder Gary E
Stevenson from the quorum of the twelve apostles. As soon as he walked
into the chapel, you could feel how much of the spirit he carried with
him. I want to share a little bit of what he talked to us about. He
assured each one of us that we were called to this mission for a
reason through revaluation. He talked about different experiences he
has had from assigning missionaries to missions, and that we are all
here to find our "corianton". He said that there are people out there
waiting for me to specifically help them. It really gave me the
motivation to want to get out on the street everyday and talk to
everyone so that I don't miss out on finding the person that I am
supposed to help. As I thought about this, I thought about how each
and every single one of us have different talents and abilities. We
need to use those talents and abilities to help Gods children. There
are people out there that need you, and they need your talents. Use
those talents to bring them, closer too God. I know that there are
people out there for each and every single one of us. So here is the
challenge! While you're at the store, or out doing different things
during the week, don't miss the opportunity to find the person that
God needs you to find, and invite them to come closer to Christ! You
never know how big of a difference that can make!

Thank you all for all you do for me! I love Japan and I love this
opportunity to serve these amazing people! Tomorrow is transfer
announcements, so I'll let you know what happens with that! I love you
all so much! Have a safe week!

From Matsue Japan,
Elder Evans








  On the train in Kobe


  Pday in Kobe


Alex with Elder Inaba


  The District

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