It was just Amazing

This whole week was just full of the most wonderful things.  I can't believe how great it was.  I don't have enough time to tell you about all the stuff that happened, but I'd like to talk a little about the important stuff.

This week we had zone conference, which was just awesome.  I love all the missionaries I work with.  They are some of the best people in the world.  And President and Sister Rasmussen and the Assistants always make me smile when I see them.  Zone conferences are just one of those times where we can get together as a zone and get training from our leaders.  But saying it that way makes it sound pretty boring.  But it's totally the opposite.  We all have fun because we are there with the same purpose in mind.  To be better missionaries.  And it is fun to become better with other people.

Our mission has a goal to see 25 more baptisms by the end of the year.  There was a baptism in another area and there was one here in Nagaoka last Saturday.  Nakamura shimai (sister) was baptized!!!  Saturday was one of the best days of my mission.  It didn't have its problems, but it was super wonderful.  I know for a fact that Heavenly Father wanted her to be baptized, because all of the problems that came up were all fixed before the service started.  When we first got to the church the font was filling up with water, but the hot water heater was not working.  We knew the water needed to be hot because she would not like cold water.  At all.  Her body probably wouldn't have been able to handle being baptized in cold water.  So to warm it up, we were boiling water upstairs on the stove and then pouring it into the font as it was filling up.  It wasn't really working, but that's all we could do.  But then the Branch President came and fixed the water heater, so the water was nice and warm for her to be baptized in.  She was baptized and it was super awesome.

On Sunday she got the Holy Ghost as a constant companion.  The blessing that Nakagawa Kaicho (President)  gave her was so nice.  I can't wait to see her continue to progress in the gospel and to get all the blessings that are in store for her.  I am super thankful that I had the chance to help her progress to the point where she is now.

That's what happened this week mostly.  I can't wait to see what happens this week.  Bye!

Love, Elder Wixom

When Things Just go Right

This week was really great.  So many good things happened that I just loved it.  May I share some of it with you?  Yes?  Thanks.

So this week some of the fun things that happened was just when we were housing or walking down the street and met nice people and talked to them a bit.  We were able to find a few potential investigators that seem to have a lot of interest.  Although a few of them we haven't been able to meet again because they weren't home when we visited again.  But that's okay because we will keep trying.  One of the PIs we've had for a while we visited and were able to have a lesson.  And since we set up another appointment so she is now an investigator.  Yay for having investigators!

Something else fun that happened was that we had district meeting with the other Elders in our district and the zone leaders were there too.  It was a ton of fun.  The other missionaries that are in our zone are super fun.  Sometimes a little crazy, but that is because we are serving in rice field covered areas.  On Friday I got to do splits with another Elder from Joetsu.  Okada choro is a super fun guy.  We were able to have a ton of fun together streeting and talking to people about Eikaiwa.  It was a ton of fun.

And one of the best things that happened this week was that we met with N san a few times and taught her all the last stuff she needed to know before her interview.  On Saturday she had her interview after we reviewed one more time and she passed!  So next Saturday she is going to be baptized.  We planned most of the program yesterday after church.  It is going to be so awesome.  I can't wait to see her get all the blessings that are coming to her.  It just makes me get a good feeling every time I think about her coming out of the water and then getting the Holy Ghost.  It's going to be so awesome.

That was some of the good things that happened this week.  I wrote the rest of the good things in my journal so I won't forget.  But you can't read my journal.  Its a secret.  Shhh...
I think that's it for this week.  I hope you all are doing splendidly.  Can't wait to e-mail again next week.

Love, Elder Wixom

Should Start to Cool Down Anytime Now...

That may or may not be true actually.  It may not start to cool down until October.  But either way, it's still hot, but I have a hope for a cooler future.  Before I know it, I'm going to wish it was summer again from all the snow.  But right now I'd love to have snow.  But besides the weather being hot still we had a nice little week.  Not too many things happened but it was still nice.

We had a couple of good lessons with N san.  She has being working hard to keep the Word of Wisdom even though she wants to drink coffee and sake super bad.  She's not and we are super happy about that.  She is still getting closer to baptism.  This Saturday she has her interview.  There is just a few things we need to teach her and then it is just reviewing before.  We really think that she can get baptized, and she told us that she wants too.  Thank you for your prayers for her.  I would ask you to keep it up just a little longer to help her get to baptism.

The members here are super helpful in doing missionary work.  It makes me super happy.  Even though they are really busy a lot of the time, they still find time to help us.  It makes everything better when they help.  They help a ton with teaching lessons because most of them are converts so they have really great conversion testimonies and they can speak Japanese a whole ton better than I can.  They are just super helpful.

Well I know that this is a short one, but the week was a short week.  I don't know why, but some weeks are just shorter than others.  I can't help it.  I guess I'll write more next week.  Hopefully I'll have more to say.  Love you lots.

Love, Elder Wixom

If You Can't Take the Heat

It surprises me that more people don't just collapse and die on the sidewalk with how hot it has been lately.  I mean, the temperature is high, but it is the humidity that really does it.  Not the most fun part of my life right now.  It should be cooling down towards the end of this month hopefully.  But when it is hot, that's when we see good things happen.  Like this week for instance.  

     We had good lessons with most of our investigators this week.  We met with one investigator and taught him about the purpose of life.  Now he is going to pray about baptism and hopefully get an answer.  We should be able to meet with him more this month because his work schedule will be clearing up or something.  I hope that we will be able to meet more because he is really easy to teach and just a really great guy.
     We were able to meet with another a couple times this week.  We talked about baptism and were able to set a date with her to be baptized.  So now she will be baptized on the 22nd of September hopefully.  She has a couple things that we still need to teach her and she has a problem with the Word of Wisdom.  We had a lesson with a sister in the branch to help her with her coffee problem which I think really helped.  We just need to pray for her that she will have the determination to quit.  We feel like she can get baptized on the day we set, but we are worried that she won't think she is ready for it.  If those who read these e-mails could pray for her to help her get baptized that would be great.  She is a wonderful lady and Kano choro and I just want her to be blessed and happy.
     We also met with another a couple times this week.  He is moving to London this week so we had our last lesson with him last night.  A sister in the branch invited us over for dinner and then we had a nice time.  This morning we saw him off to Tokyo from the bus stop.  He is super awesome and his English is great.  That is why the sister liked him so much.  Because she is American and doesn't speak much Japanese.  We are going to refer him to the London missionaries after he gets there and settled, and until then we are going to write and e-mail.  He's super cool and its a bummer that we couldn't have met earlier.  But someday we'll all bump into each other again.

That was my week.  As far as the interesting stuff.  The rest is just normal missionary life.  And sweating.  A lot of sweating.

I can't think of anything else to say except thank you all for everything you do.  I love hearing about you and hearing from you.  I hope that you are all having fun everyday!

Love, Elder Wixom