Ishigakimail week 2

Konnichiwa! I didnt get a chance to email everyone last week so for those of you who I couldnt get to, Im in Ishigaki which is a small island about an hours flight from Okinawa, its closer to Taiwan than to mainland Japan, with a population of 48,000 amazing people and you can get to pretty much any populated area within an hour or less bike ride. Its already pretty hot here already, but the food is amazing and the people are so polite. Everyone will talk to you and only rarely do people not listen to our message or allow us to introduce ourselves, every school kid ever tries to talk to us in English, and there isnt much of a city here, its more just like a big town without a central hub with lots of rural suburbia. My companion Elder Rogers is from Texas and he is the coolest and most patient person ever (he has to be if he is training me haha), and we have two other Elders in this area, and we have the whole island to ourselves! I was really hoping I would get called to an island some point in my mission and the fact that its my first area is so cool! I dont want to waste a single second here. Unless its p-day. 

 

We have already seen wonderful blessings since being here. Here are the highlights of the week

 

Tuesday we were let into a guys house and he asked us about evolution, fire worshipping and obama.. so we gave him a book of mormon. Friday we got our first bible bash! someone read to us interesting scriptures from the bible and took them out of context.. so we shared the message of the restoration with him, oh and got some candy from a random guy who smiled at us then walked off. Saturday we met a guy who first said he was Usain Bolt, then after we shared a little bit about the gospel with him, he said he was Jesus before walking off. But! We had three lessons that day (which is a lot here) and invited two investigators (also a lot) to be baptised, and continued to work with our third investigator who is absolutely loving church and loving what he learns from the scriptures and the gospel, and loves the peaceful feelings he has when he prays, reads the scriptures, and lives Gods commandments. His baptisimal date is later in March, and the baptisimal font here is the beach which is cool! Church yesterday was awesome, we had 19 people there, including 2 investigators! our numbers really are increasing, which is awesome. 

 

I love Ishigaki and I love serving this mission. Ive only been out for a week and a half but already my testimony on dilligence and hard work has increased. Last night when we were talking to people, sharing the gospel, we werent seeming to find anyone who was ready to hear it, until the last two people we visited who were happy to set up appointments and accept a book of mormon each, and we made two new investigators and I fully believe its because we kept pressing on with faith even though we werent finding success at the time. the blessing comes after the trial of faith.

 

Life is beautiful. Love you all,

Elder Wheeler

First week, first area

Well, Im in Ishigaki! Its one of the Okinawan islands, its closer to Taiwan to mainland Japan. If Okinawa is like Tasmania (which is saying a lot, right?) then Ishigaki is like Bridport. Its just this awesome beachtown full of japanese culture! every one here is so cool, like everyone talks to you! We have already seen the miracles of sacrifice and hard work, my driving force has been the words of our teacher, Brother Fowers, his MTC teacher from before his mission who said "the days you want to work the least are the days you need to work the hardest" so Im trying as hard as I can to do everything I can, to just constantly move forward, smash through any obstacles, and I have already seen the rewards of the sacrifice, through helping people come closer to Christ in whichever way they are ready to do. And sometimes all that is, is sharing our beliefs and inviting them to read the Book of Mormon, or to pray. Its beautiful and my testimony of missionary work has increased so much this week.

 

If you have my address I'd love to hear from you in a physical letter, because I dont really have much time to email here, but I appreciate everyones time!

 

Love from Elder Wheeler

 

Elder Wheeler and Elder Rogers

rooms in their flat

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Last week at the MTC

This week has gone so fast, it's crazy! This is my last e-mail from the MTC in Utah, because this weekend I'll be going to Japan! Monday 4:30am we need to check in to the front desk, and we're flying from Salt Lake City to LA, then to Narita, Japan and then to Fukuoka, Japan! I'm so excited but a little nervous. Flying here (on my own too) was a piece of cake, because I spent so much time preparing for it. But I totally forgot to prepare myself for leaving! I've made so many awesome friends, it's going to be sad to say goodbye to them, like Elder Moua and Lewis going to Tokyo South and Elder Barr going to Kobe. And all our Kohai and what we call our Dai Kohai, who will be here for a while after we leave. I've made sure our Kohai know what Jen looks like so when she gets here they can say hi and put a good word in for me.

Last week I went to Jen's mission, salt lake city temple square mission. She doesn't get there for another almost 2 months (after the MTC) but we met some really nice Sisters who showed us a few things and bore their testimonies and it was really great. We saw the conference center, didn't get to do a session at the temple because it was closed for renovations, but instead did a service project at the humanatarian center - we made blankets. 

 

Today we have been packing but we've all had a blast together just chilling out. I totally said a nek minute joke the other day and everyone just looked at me funny. I'm just about over all the attention I get from being Australian (okay no really I love it) so I'm excited to go to Japan and get attention for being blonde with blue eyes instead of just saying things *normally.* (see what I did there?)

 

It was our last week with our kyudosha (role played by our teachers) which was pretty sad but we left them both on a high note with a strong spirit. Even though they're role plays, anyone's relationship with God can be strengthened and it's great for that to happen with both myself and my companions, and our teacher. I'd love to work at the MTC.

 

So just a few more days until I'm in Japan (like I've been saying for the last few weeks haha) but next time I'll be able to email will probably be not this week but the week after, not too sure. But I'm excited and I'm thankful for all your emails this week! And, again, harass Slackson Corona for not emailing me ever. Thank you!

 

Aishite Imasu!

ウイーラー長老