What is true happiness?

 Thank you all for the birthday wishes this week! I was overwhelmed
with the amount of love and support that I received from you all. I am
truly so blessed to have such amazing family and friends. I had an
awesome birthday full of serving the Lord in the Matsue area!
  This week was a fun one to say the least! We knocked on lots and
lots of doors this week! We are really in need of investigators here
in Matsue! In 3 weeks, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, from the quorum of the
12 apostles is coming to our mission for a mission wide conference. We
have all committed to see a baptism in our areas before he comes. So
me and Vui Choro committed to that and we are working super hard to
find those people who are ready to hear the gospel. We taught 27
lessons and found a couple new people to teach, so that is really
exciting! But I must say, I am exhausted!!
    One of the highlights of the week was the other night when we were
at the lake talking to people who were all watching the beautiful
sunset. We ran into a group of 13 year old skater boys. We started
talking to them and then we started kicking a soccer ball around with
them. I got so attached to those boys. They all have interest in God
so we exchanged phone numbers with them and they want to meet up again
and come to the church! So that could be pretty cool. It was awesome
to play soccer with a bunch of boys and create a relationship with
them! I love them all already!
  Another cool part of the week was when we stopped a guy who was
riding his bike by the lake. We started teaching him and had a really
good conversation with him. - In the water, about 5 feet away from us,
was a swan just hanging out in the water. It was something I will
always remember. - Teaching a guy about his Heavenly Father next to
Gods creations! A beautiful city, next to a swan hanging out in the
lake with all the city lights. It was like a dream!
  Today I would like to talk about one of our investigators, Hisako
Tako. I talked about her last week, but I learned so much from her
this past week. She works two jobs. She owns her own smoothy shop and
she runs that from early in the morning, until 6 o'clock at night.
When she is done there, she goes to her next job until 3 or 4 o'clock
in the morning. She gets about 3 hours of sleep every night. She does
this all, to pay for her daughter who has been in the hospital the
last 6 months with a mental illness. We told her that that is so hard
and we feel so bad. We asked her, how is she always so happy, when
life is so hard for her. (Because she is always so happy and has
sooooo much energy) She turned to us and said something that touched
my heart. She said, "I have so no reason to be upset! I live life
happily. There is no reason to not be happy every day." It brought
tears to my eyes, seeing how even through the adversity, she pushes
through with a smile on her face, and tries to bring others to
happiness. I am so grateful for her example to me. I have learned so
much from her and her example. She wants to get baptized, but because
of her work schedule, she can't do it right now. So please keep her in
your prayers that work can open up some time for her.
    I wish everyone could meet Hisako Tako, and watch her amazing
example. It is so important to always keep a smile on our faces and to
find the happiness and the blessing in every single day. We are so
blessed to have what we have. So here is the question. How do you live
your life? Do you live it looking for the good in everyday? Or do you
focus on the bad? I promise you that if you look for the good in all
things, you'll find the same happiness as Hisako Tako! I love you all!
Thank you for all that you do for me! I'm so blessed!!

With love from Japan,
エバンズ長老

 BBQ after a district meeting

 The Matsue area

The kids he taught at the sunset