Jared's Mission

Hello! My ankles are not broken, I would like to apologize for my choice of words in my last email. Basically I didn't hit the kid, I hit the ground ... but anyways we are all good now!  There was a typoon that came to Ishigaki, it was pretty fun. We only had to stay inside for 1 day, but it rained a lot for a few days so we still managed to get abosolutly soaked a few times!  On Friday we were out visiting a member, Sister Karimata, she lives in the big apartment complex and its kinda confusing which way is the fastest to get out. This time when we were leaving it was lightly raining and Elder Johnson said "lets go this way" to a new direction we had never gone before. It ended up being longer than the way we normally go but I saw a very much normal apartment that for some reason stuck out to me. I kept thinking about it on the way home and when we got back to the church 10 or 15 minutes later I felt like we should go back. I'd never knocked doors before and I wasn...

  I've never felt emotions this strong. Everything is so happy and sometimes so sad, so exciting and sometimes so boring, all things are so much stronger than before and I am so grateful for both the good and the bad.  Elder Johnson only has one more Sunday and I am so sad that he is leaving. But it's also so happy, I'm listening to him talk to his family right now and it is so full of joy. If you are a girl who's single and is looking for someone to marry who will be worthy of you and your family I think Elder Johnson is a pretty great candidate. He'll be at BYU in the fall.  We had Zone Conference this past week and Elder Johnson bore his testimony since it was his last one. He spoke about the Joy that we feel from serving the gospel. This past week we had lots of struggles in our journey to fulfill our missionary purpose to invite others to come unto Christ. One of our friend who was going to be baptized we almost lost contact with because of her mom, our other f...

I hope everyone is ok in Houston! I've been praying for yall all week! In Ishigkai the past couple weeks have been pretty wet (very little rain but super humid)! Thanks for taking all the rain!  Before I came on my mission one of the topics that I specifically remember studying is dominion. We are commanded to excersize righteous dominion. I think that is such a collection thing, it applies to everything we do in life. As parents, siblings, missionaries, students, teachers, and as Earth's inhabitants. This week I studied Sister Hollands talk "Filling The Measure of Your Creation," from that talk I learned more about how we each are children of God and that He has a plan for each of us. In the church we can recieve a Patriarchal Blessing to give us guidance, if you've received yours please study it, and if you haven't you should pray about getting it! It has been a huge blessing to my life! Ok I'm kinda running out of time before pday ends but my point is t...

 This week has been pretty great!  From many places in the Book of Mormon and from General Conference talks this is what I learned and grew my testimony of this week:  We are commanded to be perfect. Yet we alone can never be perfect. The only reason this commandment can exist without violating God's power is because of Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life, but not just that, I've talked a lot about how He was our perfect example, but this week the reality of His perfect sacrifice has come into my soul with greater power than ever before. This commandment is not a "hammer to batter ourselves with" it is a gift, a promise that no matter how life ends up, no matter how long you live, how much money you make, how many kids you have, what family you were born in,  where you live, and no matter what mistakes you've made, the perfect sacrifice from our perfect Savior, Jesus Christ, will make you perfect if you seek Him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. The tr...

Please pray for: Rina- Came to chruch this week! Elder Johnson gave a fire talk about the Plan of Salvation and then 2nd hour we taught her the Plan of Salvation, gonna invite to be baptized this week! Kakeru- On baptismal date, we have a few important lessons!  Nanami- On baptismal date as well, please pray for her to have spiritual experiences! Shiori- Invited to be baptized but wanted some time to think about it, I think it should be good! Rara- Also invited to be baptized, talking to her parents (super busy high school student) Meirin- Said she wants to be baptized but needs to act first. Motoaki- Super great, already believes in something similar to the Plan of Salvation, seemed excited to read the Book of Mormon. Chibana Kaicho- Our Branch Presdient is just amazing, thank Heavenly Father for him! He beat me up twice at chruch because I accidentally said I wanted to eat his cats and because I was funny when I was being a computer tech. President and Sister Boss- Our new missio...