Weekly Running Dendo Mail

Just a quick update today. This week we flew to Fukuoka for Mission Leader Council (MLC) with The President, APs, Sister Training Leaders and other Zone Leaders, got a lot out of it. Later in the week we had Zone Training Meeting and aside from that we've just been out finding - hard. 

My companion is killing me, well maybe killing isn't the right word, but he is certainly pushing me - we are running everywhere, walking has been limited to a p-day activity, we're on the move all the time and I've never been as tired during my mission as I was this week.

We have been trying what we call 'totsuzen other lessons' where we meet someone, ask to share a 5-10 minute message with them, pray to open & to close, and set a return appointment. They have been working really well and it's really interesting to see how much more people open up to us through these totsuzen other lessons in contrast to just talking to people and eventually leading into a Gospel discussion (both are great though!).

I had an experience where after running from house to house we got back on our bikes to the next area we planned on, and I felt so exhausted and kinda crabby, but I remembered what our Mission President said at MLC this week, "I loved just going out and dendo-ing for 10 hours a day, all day, every day, just get out there and work hard," so I kind of told myself to shut up and just work hard, and I remembered the words of the previous Mission President which he told us about 6-7 months ago (before they switched), "You really have no idea how much you are doing." I felt that even though I couldn't see that immediate success as soon as I got on my bike after running everywhere completely exhausted, that it was all worth something and that Heavenly Father was happy with what we were doing. And we didn't get any return appointments or have any particular special experiences that day but I came home feeling tired and fulfilled.

Photos: MTC companion Elder Inagaki & I at Mission Leader Council, group photo from Zone Training Meeting and another Typhoon photo (explanation can't do).