Jared's Mission

How's everyone doing?! We had mission conference this week in Fukuoka but we are back on Ishigaki now! Feeling a bit more homesick now! I can't believe it's already been 4 months but I am really starting to miss American things like brownies and cookies (we have most of the stuff to make them but no ovens). Japanese is chugging along, my language study plan is going strong now and I'm learning lots!  Mission Conference! Super fantastic! I actually got to see missionaries! I saw my amazing dokie and former douryou Elder Phillips <3. Elder Soares talked about joy and how we need to try to find joy in everything! We often have to change our perspectives to do that because it's easy to focus on our present situation and how we feel now rather than what we can learn from our experiences. True joy comes only through Christ. That joy lasts forever. Joy is a principle of power. Joy is ours, it comes from Christ and is taken away through Satan but neither ca...

I hope all of my friends and family at home are safe, I heard there was a big storm! Woop Woop! Another week in the books! My new companion was a monkey! We went to a place that has little squirrel monkeys and one sat on my shoulder for like 5 minutes! Please come back to finish but here are pictures:  https://photos.app. goo.gl/LKr5qY3i11DHJsTs6   We found 5 new people this week and 1 of them is on date to receive Baptism! Nin is amazing! She is working in Japan! Our first time meeting her we cooked Myanmar soup and then later she gave us some Myanmar food she cooked, it's super good and spicy! She came to our Wednesday activity this week and had lots of good interactions with members! We taught at both of those interactions, but on our first appointment to teach her more we felt the spirit and invited her to be baptized and she accepted! We are going to meet everynight in front of her apartment to teach her after she gets off work for the next 3 weeks (we will...

This week was really cool! We went on a drive with one of our old friends. He drove a little jerky and it was kinda scary at some parts. He took us to this beautiful part of the island where there were some cool looking rocks and you could see a little bit of the reef! There are some huge manta rays that live there but we can't swim/dive to see them! I really want to come back to Ishigaki some day! We had a game night at the church! 11 non-member friends come! Only 2 members came (one of them inactive) and it was so much fun! Right after that we joined the Shimadas and Elder and Sister Domo (Quorum of the 70) at dinner! They came to our branch for some reason that I didn't catch in Japanese. They were super nice and they spoke in church yesterday! We were only to be at dinner for 15 or 20 minutes before we had to bike back to our apartment for bed! Sadly that was enough time for me to be convinced to eat a whole fish head. The inside of the eyes are hard, don't bite down on...

How's everyone doing?! We had mission conference this week in Fukuoka but we are back on Ishigaki now! Feeling a bit more homesick now! I can't believe it's already been 4 months but I am really starting to miss American things like brownies and cookies (we have most of the stuff to make them but no ovens). Japanese is chugging along, my language study plan is going strong now and I'm learning lots!  Mission Conference! Super fantastic! I actually got to see missionaries! I saw my amazing dokie and former douryou Elder Phillips <3. Elder Soares talked about joy and how we need to try to find joy in everything! We often have to change our perspectives to do that because it's easy to focus on our present situation and how we feel now rather than what we can learn from our experiences. True joy comes only through Christ. That joy lasts forever. Joy is a principle of power. Joy is ours, it comes from Christ and is taken away through Satan but neither ca...

 " The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calmy may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldy, nobly, and independant until it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept and country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great JEHOVAH shall say, 'the work is done.'" Hello friends and family! This week has been crazy amazing! Me and Elder Nagao are trying our best to serve God with everything we have and He is trusting us with His children! This week 9 new people who want to learn more! 9 new green dots! There is so much potential with these divine children!  We are working our butts off all day so when we finally get back to our apartment at 9:30 pm (our mission does 7am-11pm so 9:30 is when we are supposed to get back) we eat dinner quick and then shower and go to bed early. One ni...