Hello hello! From a bone chilling, freezing cold, Osaka, Japan

Hello hello! From a bone chilling, freezing cold, Osaka, Japan!

This week was very interesting! We were in Kobe at the mission home
for 2 days! But we were still able to teach 23 lessons in our area! On
Tuesday we had something called TTT which means "Trainer Trainee
Training". We went to the humbu (mission home) and had a big meeting
with everyone that I was in the MTC with! There, we received
instruction from Welch Kaicho and Welch Shimai, as well as from the
AP's. It was a really fun day, and a really spiritual time for all of
us. It was also awesome to see all of my pals from the MTC, including
our kouhai! (Missionaries that are 1 transfer behind us) One of the
things that was taught by one of our AP's is that we as young
missionaries, don't have to wait for our senior companions to do
something, and then follow them. We have been called to the same area
as them, so we need to make things happen as well. We shouldn't just
be following our senior companion around everywhere.

After TTT, my comp and we're heading home on the train, and I decided
to take what I had learned from our AP, and apply it. There was a 16
year old boy standing behind me, and I decided I was going to talk to
him. So I turned around and started having a conversation with him. My
companion was talking to some other people at the time, and he was
very happy and surprised when he turned around to see me having a
conversation with someone by myself. I talked to the kid for about 15
minutes, by myself and was able to teach him about what we do, and
what we believe. He was Catholic (which is rare to see another
Christian in Japan) so it was pretty easy to teach him about God and
about our church. I was very proud that I was able to open my mouth
and have a conversation with someone by myself, and trust in the
spirit.

Later that night, I had another good experience with opening my mouth.
We were at a less active ladies house. Her name is kazumi Shimai
(sister kazumi) and we were taking with her and I was understanding
just a little bit of what was going on. I got a major feeling that I
needed to ask her about when she got baptized. So I did, and she told
us how amazing it was when she got baptized, and it brought back some
really good memories of why she joined the church in the first place.
From that question, it changed our whole lesson plan. My companion was
so proud of me, and he knew that that was a prompting of the spirit,
which helped us teach to her needs. That lesson was one of the most
spiritual experiences I have had on my mission. The spirit was there
so strong and we were really able to help her out.

We had a pretty crazy experience on Saturday morning. My companion and
I found some kid who is part of another church, and on Thursday we
taught him, and he asked if we could check out his church because he
checked ours out. We decided to be nice and we said yes. So on
Saturday we went to his church, but we brought the other 2 Nihongen
(Japanese) elders in our apartment with us, just for safety 😉 We went into this
kids church, and it was immediately sketchy. The spirit was not there
at all. It was a beautiful building, but I could immediately feel that
we shouldn't be there. They had us take off our shoes and coats, and
do a little washing thing, which is Japanese culture. Then they wanted
to take us upstairs to show us their chapel. When we got up to the
3rd, and highest floor, my chest tightened up, and Hashimoto Choro
looked and me and said that he felt the same thing. They showed us the
3rd floor and then took us down to the second floor where they were
doing some extremely weird ordinance called jourei. 2 people would sit
across from each other, one would bow their head and close their eyes
while the other put their hand up, kind of In front of the persons
face. They said they were "transferring Gods light into each other."
Then they told us we had to do it, and we told them all we wanted to
do was to hear what their church was about. The lady started telling
us that we didn't have a choice, and that we had to do it. My
companion stepped up, after a lot of talk back and forth with the
people, and he said we were absolutely not going to do it, but that we
would love to sit down and talk about their religion.

They finally took us into another room, where it was 4 on 4. 4 of
them, and us 4 elders. We asked about what they believe in, and they
explained a little bit about it. Then we asked why they converted and
their story. Each one of them told us, and then they asked us why we
were Mormon. Each of us took a turn to testify, and we testified super
hard. When it was my turn, I had no idea what I was going to say, but
I opened my mouth and testified super hard. The spirit was so strong,
and the 4 people from the other church really liked the talk about
Christ when we testified. When we were done meeting with them, and
leaving a lady from before tried to make us get joureid again, but we
said no thanks.

When we finally were able to leave, we were all so pumped up and happy
that we testified so hard. The spirit was definitely not in that
building when we walked in, but through testifying, the spirit came in
abundance. The other elders were so proud of me and how well I
testified. It was definitely the gift of tongues given to me, when we
needed it the most. THE SPIRIT IS SO REAL!!

On Thursday in Kobe, we had Elder Choi from the quorum of the 70 come
and speak to us. He is in the area presidency and did a mission tour
most of the week. He gave us some really good instruction and we are
working to see a baptism every single week. They know we can do it, we
just need to change our mind set. It was a really good day on
Thursday, receiving Instruction from a general authority.

Anyways, sorry that this email was so long, there were so many crazy
stories to share from this week. I feel like I have grown so much in
the gospel and in the language this week. After that crazy experience
in that  other church, I was super grateful that I have the true
gospel in my life.

We also just found out that my companion and one of the elders in our
apartment will be transferring to Kyoto to be zone leaders. Welch
Kaicho just called them to let them know. I won't know if I'm
transferring, or staying, or who my new companion is until tomorrow or
the next day! But I will be getting a new companion sadly. I'm gunna
miss big Barton Choro. After Thursday, I will no longer be in
training. I will be a normal missionary! Yay!

My love and prayers to you all!! Have a great, and safe week!

Evans Choro