Elder Evans in Kobe: It's a good time to be a missionary!

The Nara candle festival with Vui Choro

This week I would like to share another story with you all. This one,
of course, is also about two charming missionaries that are serving
missions in Japan.

Well, these two charming missionaries decided that they wanted to do
something nice for a recent convert who had just been in the hospital
due to her head. So they concocted a genius plan that no one had ever
thought of before. They brought out all the tools in their little
toolboxes and decided that what they do, would be to give the sweet
sister a picture of Christ (hand designed by one of the (Samoan)
charming elders), as well as 2 nicely written letters of
encouragement, and lastly some pretty flowers to put the cherry on
top! (Because flowers always do the trick for women...right?)

After designing a majestic picture of Christ, and writing 2 well
thought out letters, the two gentlemen went to the store, using all
their knowledge about flowers (cool colors) that they had, to pick out
a perfect flower for this lady. When they thought they had found the
"perfect" flower (it had cool colors), they purchased it and dashed
happily to her house, excited to present her these gifts! They were
going to be heroes.

The woman was super excited to receive of these gifts, and the two
charming missionaries thought they had done the trick! When the elders
were mounting their bikes, getting ready to set off into the sunset as
heroes, the sweet lady said.. "Oh.. Elders.. Just so you guys know,
this white flower you gave me in the bouquet is a chrysanthemum.. And
in Japan, people place them on graves for dead people. So please
remember not to give these to other people, but I am very happy for
your hearts, and that you thought to buy me flowers." Well... In a
flash, there went the 2 "so called" charming elder's pride.. right..
out.. the window. These elders had just given "death flowers" to a
woman who just got released from the hospital!! - Whoops.... Heavenly
Father sure knows how to humble you quickly!

As always, Vui Choro and I knew that there is a way to apply this
story to the gospel! So listen! (Or read)
-Just like these cool looking flowers, Satan always entices us to
things that look good. Things that look fun. Things that have bright
colors and flashy signs. Things everyone are doing! But those thing
are, lots of times, different than we expect. Different than they seem
to be at first sight. How can we know what flowers are good and bad?
How can we know what is good and what is evil? First would be
studying, and getting to know your flowers. Just like the flowers, we
can study the gospel and follow the prophets counsel. The prophet is
there to show us the "right" flowers to pick. This whole thing can be
summed up from a quick quote that I received from President Daniels
this week: "Give Satan an Inch, and he'll be a ruler." Think about
that this week!

As far as the rest of the week goes, we biked back up to Vipheak's
house again. From the edge of the city where the canyon starts, it
took us 48 minutes to get up to his house. To get back down from his
house.... It took 6 minutes. I hope that shows what kind of bike ride
I'm talkin about here! The ride up is hard, but the ride down is a
blast. - We also could connect that too the gospel, but since this
email is getting long, I'll let you do that yourselves :)
A miracle happened while meeting with Vipheak. Vipheak invited his
friend named Chomreug in to the lesson and Chomreug has interest. So
we are very excited for him and hope to see him in good places soon!
It's a good time to be in Japan right now.

Well, that about sums it up for this week! Thank you all for all you do!!

I love you all more than Vui Choro loves smoothies 🍈🍉🍎🍌😍

Elder Evans