Week 45: New Companion!

Hello   Everyone!!!

I got to meet my new companion!!!!! HE IS AWESOME!!!! We have a lot in common. SO we have a lot of "fights". They go like this -

"No. I get to do the dishes. YOU got to do them last time!"

Or "Wait. You have to let me serve you, too. Isn't that part of the Gospel?"

Or "So... What should we do with our p-day?" "No no no - YOU get to choose!"

So you can say we get along pretty well. :)

This week has been fantastic. Just serving my companion, and working hard with him. He basically just wants to be an obedient, PMG missionary that does his best. So I learn from him. And It's great speaking Japanese all the time. :) I've had to translate a few times for different meetings and things as well... It was super fun! I even got one of those mics, and all the Japanese people had earpieces to hear what I was saying. Pretty legit, but pretty crazy. Realized that my Japanese still has some room for improvement.

Then, we had a CRAZY busy week! So many appointments! It was hard to even make time for dinner and such... But then all our appointments fell through. Like, literally all but one. And the investigator dropped us in the lesson. I'm laughing about it, but I'm a little worried for my companion. He's good though. And we'll see some miracles this week!

So... We unfortunately don't always get to pick our circumstances. But that isn't the point. Perhaps I don't get to pick if I am Alma or Abinidai (both served in the same city, one was burned at the stake, and saw 0 baptisms, and the other saw 450 baptisms shortly after), but we DO get to pick if we do the will of God or not! And when we do the will of God, we are happy. I can say that, because I've honestly never felt so rejected - but I've also never felt so happy!

So keep the commandments - in this there is safety and peace!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly

Arriving missionaries and trainers

Elder Okano, Elder O'Reilly, Pres. & Sis. Nagano

Elder Okano is from Sapporo, but he went to school in Okinawa, most north and
south points respectively. We get along GREAT! He just wants to be a
good, obedient, hard working missionary. We spend good chunks of our
time serving each other. I also feel like we have pretty similar
personalities. Haha.

Niigata Zone (with Elder O'Connor)

Niigata Yamashita Conference... lunch

Elder Abo (Thomas' trainer) is home!