Yuya-Kun

Well, today's story starts back on last p day when we got lost in
kyoto. (You always meet the best people when you get lost.) We didn't
know which train station we needed to go to to get where we wanted, so
we asked the girl that was sitting next to us. She helped us out and
then we gave her an English class flyer. That Wednesday she called me
(because our phone number is on the flyer) and asked about the class,
and then came. Her name is yuna. It was pretty cool.

On Saturday, I went through the phone and texted a kid named Yuya
kun(one of our investigators) and invited him to church. He was way
nice and said that he would be there. We were so excited to have him
come, so on Sunday we waited at the door of the church for him to get
there. While we were waiting for him, Yuna (the girl that came to
English class) walked into the church. We were all really surprised
that she came because none of us had invited her to church. It was a
cool miracle.

Soon after she got there, sacrament meeting started so we went in. But
yuya kun had yet to show up. We were a bit disappointed. The other
elders had a lesson with Yuna after sacrament meeting and they asked
her why she came. She said "well you guys texted me and invited me so
I decided, why not!" The other elders were really confused because
they hadn't texted her, and they didn't even have her number. After
further investigation we found out that when I texted who I thought
was YUYA, it was actually YUNA! When Yuna called about English class
last week, I saved her number in my phone, but I spelled it Yuya.
Whoops! But Yuna absolutely loved church and wants to come every week.
It's funny how miracles work sometimes.

Other than that, this week was good! We had zone conference in
Shimogamo, and interviews right after. We were able to find more
investigators this week, and we are excited to get working with them.
Otsu is great! I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Evans

Ola Pessoal!

Like I said last time I transferred, when I transfer, I transfer far.
I'm back on the other side of the mission again in an area called
Otsu. It's absolutely beautiful! My companion just got here from the
MTC and he is an absolute stud. His name is elder soares and he is
straight from Brazil! We live here in otsu with two other elders, one
of which is American and the other is also from Brazil. Our district
up here includes 8 elders, 5 of which are from Brazil, and 3 of us
Americans. I guess I better start learning some Portuguese!

This week has been a rollercoaster. Lots of goodbyes to friends in
Okayama, and lots of hellos to knew faces here in otsu. It was hard
saying goodbye to all the people that I grew so attached to in
Okayama, but I am also so excited for what's to come here in this new
area. My companion and I got into the area late Thursday evening. We
went straight to the church and had a game night. The next day, we
went and got my companion his bike and a couple things he needed to
stay warm because it was snowing like crazy. Then we got out to work
and my companion had his first experience with housing and streeting.
Since we both don't know the area, it's a perfect opportunity to get
lost everyday and meet lots of cool people. When we left to go to an
appointment after housing a for a while, my companion rode next to me
and said "Evans choro, I love being a missionary and I love my
mission." It was straight out of no where. After just getting hundreds
of doors slammed in our faces, I was feeling a little down because I
wanted to give him the perfect finding experience, but this was the
response of Elder Soares. - I didn't even know how to respond to him.
That experience taught me a very valuable lesson.

Another cool experience this week was when we were having
companionship study in a little cafe. With the new schedule, we do our
study whenever the time works best throughout the day. As we were
sitting there talking, a 23 year old guy that was sitting next to us
leaned over and said, in perfect English "hey are you guys
missionaries? I have been to church before and I want to know more." I
almost laughed because I was so surprised. We had a great talk with
him and Soares choro gave out his first Book of Mormon! The guys name
is Toshi and he is coming to church next week, so we are super excited
for that. That same day, us and the other otsu elders decided to work
together to house an 11 floor apartment building. As we knocked on the
first door, i asked (through their intercom) if we could share a
message with them in their doorway. The guy said "yeah I'll be right
there!" We ended up finding out that this man has met with
missionaries in the past and wants to keep learning. It was another
fun miracle.

I am so excited for this transfer and for the miracles that we will
see here. Soares choro is the man, and is already leading some of our
contacts. I'm so excited to work with him in this new area. I love you
all! Have a good week!

Elder Evans

Hiroyuki

The Baba Family

 Yesterday in church, Hiroyuki passed the sacrament for the first
time and it was one of the coolest experiences that I have had on my
mission. He also was able to go to the Fukuoka temple with the young
men for the first time on Friday. THE GOSPEL IS SO AWESOME!! Jessica
was super jealous that she couldn't go with him because she had work.
But they are both working together to be able to be sealed in the
temple. I love them so much.

  This last week we went up to Yonago again to do splits with the
zone leaders. I worked with elder Tanaka and had a great time. Tanaka
choro actually got hit by a car a month or so ago and broke his collar
bone, so for splits we were walking the whole time. It was kind of
hard to go to appointments without bikes, but it gave us a good
opportunity to find new investigators throughout the day.

    I've absolutely loved working here in Okayama. The members and the
investigators that I have been able to work with have changed my life.
It's been amazing to see all of us grow so much through using the
atonement and repentance. I know that repentance isn't just something
we do when we do something wrong, but we can use it daily to
strengthen ourselves and become more like Christ. It's been a blessing
to watch the atonement in action here in Okayama.


I love you all more than Wilkinson choro loves Pizza!

Elder Evans


Japan Understands!

Zone training meeting in Okayama

Mount Daisen up in Yonago.

A few pictures from last week (he only sent pictures, no letter last week)




We made friends with a track team.




This is our friend Tomo.

It's Cold!

  My companion got a little too excited while we were housing this
week and tried to jump over a little garbage can as we were moving to
the next door... As he jumped up, he cleared the garbage can with
emasculate technique. But he didn't take account of the pottery that
was next to the garbage bin as he initiated takeoff, so he ended up
absolutely wrecking the nice vase sending pottery all over the patio
area of the apartment... No one was home, so we took a nice little
trip to the police station. 20 dollars later, we were free and the
people got a nice brand new vase to stick outside their house. It was
a good day. I want to have the same kind of fire and excitement that
Wilkinson choro has for sharing the gospel. I'll just be sure to not
take out anyone's property while I do so. (Pictures are attached)

  We also took a nice trip up to a place hidden in the mountains
called Tsuyama for a companionship exchange with them. Snow was on the
ground, so for the beginning of the day, we had to walk our bikes. I
was able to work with Elder Bellows! He is a 5th transfer, stud of a
missionary from North Carolina. It was fun to work with him for the
day and learn so much from him. I was really impressed at how much he
wants to be the best missionary he can. He wasn't afraid to talk to
anyone. We were able to see some miracles together, and I had a great
time.

  We also went up to Yonago this week for zone training meeting. The
zone leaders gave us some good training on how we can better study to
be able to help our investigators the best we can. We were a bit all
over the place with traveling this week, but we were able to find some
great people in our area on the days that we were home. In other news,
Hiroyuki was ordained to the office of a deacon yesterday and received
the priesthood!  Him and his mom are doing great, and really
progressing in the gospel. I love them so much.

  I've learned so much these last couple weeks, and I don't even know
how to sum it all up. It's been a little bit more of a challenge
lately, but nothing worth having comes easy. I know that these times
are going to help me in the long run. It's been a great learning
opportunity! I'm grateful for the love that Heavenly Father has for
each one of us. I've felt his love often this week, and I'm grateful
to be able to share that love with his children everyday. Thank you
all for your love and support. I love being a missionary.

I love you all more than Wilkinson choro loves Disneyland. ✨

Elder Evans


It was a really cold night!








The broken vase!

SNOW!

Splits with Kamae Choro from the Okayama ward

Konnichiwa!!

I can't believe another week has already passed. It's been such a week
of small, unexpected miracles. I love being a missionary. I'm having
the time of my life!

MIRACLE NUMBER 1:
I got a call from Bishop Baba earlier this week to let me know that a
American less active member that Deschamps choro, the bishop and I had
been working with was going to church again in a Ward up in Tokyo.
This brother that we were working with was struggling with the church
a little bit, but through transferring his records quickly  when he
moved to Tokyo from Okayama, the Bishop there was able to get in
contact with him and he decided to come back to church. The other
miracle inside this is that the brother moved into the only Ward in
Tokyo with an American bishop. WOOHOO! MIRACLES!!

MIRACLE NUMBER 2: We had splits with the zone leaders up in Yonago and
we made it home without freezing to death. (It was snowing the whole
time we were up there, with blizzard warnings.)

MIRACLE 3: While sitting on a packed bus on the way from Yonago, my
companion started up a conversation with the guy sitting next to him.
(He was sitting in the row in front of me.) They started talking about
the gospel and Wilkinson choro was awesome and doing his best to teach
the man about what we believe! He got stuck a little bit when talking
about the atonement, so I leaned forward in my seat and simply
explained what the atonement is. When I sat back in my seat again as
they continued, the lady that was sitting next to me looked at me and
said "are you Jesus Christ's missionaries?" I laughed about it a sec
and said, "Yes we sure are!"  She explained to me that she heard what
we were talking about when I explained the Atonement to the man in
front of me, and that she thought it was amazing. She said "I have
lots of interest in learning, can you teach me?" I was about blown
away. For the next hour of the bus ride, we talked about the
restoration, Book of Mormon, prayer, and the plan of salvation. She
had so many good questions and just kept asking for more. The coolest
part about this is that she lives in Matsue! (One of my last areas) So
I was able to explain to her where the church was, and exchange
information with her so that she can meet with the missionaries up
there. MIRACLE!!

There are about 10 more miracles that I could talk about from this
week, including going out to the middle of no where on splits with
kamae choro and finding lots of new people to teach, as well as
finding a great new investigator here in Okayama nishi. But I don't
want to bore you all with that, and this email is getting super long
anyways!

Lastly, On Wednesday we had a big conference where president Whiting
from the area presidency came and spoke to all of us. We talked a lot
about the spirit and how we need to learn how to follow it. One thing
that he said that really hit me is that "Heavenly Father cannot steer
a parked car."  We can't just sit and wait for answers to come to us.
We need to be actively searching and taking steps into the dark! The
Lord won't let us take too many steps in the wrong direction without
redirecting our path. But we need to show our faith and act in order
to receive answers.

After the conference, I was able to get interviewed by President
Whiting. It was such a spiritual experience. I could really feel the
love that he has for the savior, and the love he has for missionary
work. It was a great time to receive some one on one council from one
of the lords servants. He helped me to see more of a vision of what
kind of missionary I want to be, and how I can better help the Okayama
nishi Ward.


I love being a missionary, if you can't tell. I love having the
opportunity to teach about our Savior everyday, and learning more
about him. And I love the Okayama nishi Ward. I'm excited for the
miracles to come.

Sorry this is so long today! I love you all more than Wilkinson choro
loves airplanes! Stay warm!

Eruda Ebanzu


The Okayama District