I love airplanes and my Beanchan!

Woot woot! I've flown 4 times since my last email, it's crazy (expensive) !  

I went to Fukuoka to pick up my new trainee, Elder Yamanaka! He is from Aomori Prefecture and is so sweet! He is learning English right now so we pretty much only talk in Japanese but we are working on that! Right now we do an hour per day only speaking English! We are going to add another hour every week until the end of his training (12 weeks) so by the end he will be able to do the whole missionary work day in English! (That's crazy, I was just doing that to help me learn Japanese!) Yesterday we did our first hour of only English and it was so hard for me to remember not to speak Japanese, while we were cooking Curry for dinner I kept slipping up and talking in Japanese! It took a few minutes to get back into english mode and then afterwards it was hard to get back into Japanese mode lol, missionaries trying to learn a new language, SYL really does help!

Elder Johnson went home this week! So sad but so happy too! Have fun at college and send me a wedding invite please! (I'll probably still be in Ishigaki so you can send it here lol)

I also became the District Leader for my district. I just had my first report with the other Elders and the Zone Leaders tonight! It was so much fun, I'm so excited to keep doing it! We have our first District Council Meeting tomorrow (DCM) and I'm kinda not sure what to do, but hopefully I can figure that out in the next 30 minutes. (Since my new companion is Japanese, his family is busy in the morning when we usually call, we changed our Pday time so that he can call at night!)

Today I did the whole Ishigaki tour with Elder Yamanaka, that's my third time doing it since he's my third companion here! The ocean is so beautiful, as always, we have some amazing pics on the album!

This week I've been studying from the teachings of President Kimball, and today during Pday time I read chapter 9: "Forgiving Others with All Our Hearts." Wow, it was so powerful! Forgiving others is so important! It talked about how forgiving others is more than words or actions, it is a real change of heart, an active decision to forgive and forget. We are commanded to forgive everyone. God wants us to bless us and forgive us when we make mistakes, but in order for him to be able to do that we have to first forgive those around us!

Training has been so weird the last few days, but it also has given me more confidence (not pride). I realized that I can do all the things that happened with my last companions, and I am able to teach someone how to do it in Japanese. Speaking only in Japanese has helped so much (another SYL shout out).

I studied Alma 37 with Come Follow Me last week, it was so crazy, many different places hit me in ways they never had before. It says to "teach them an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity." (verse 32) I had never really thought about it that strongly before, I was like "yea sin is bad we shouldn't do it" but this is really how we need to view it. BUT, we need to hate sins, not people. If a person sins, that does not mean we hate them, that means we need to love them even more. We work with a lot of people who are trying to change their lives, and, inevitably, they will trip, fall, and fail. But that is when we need to love them even more, love them for trying, love them for choosing to try to overcome something that I've never had to overcome (ie addictions), love them because even when they make mistakes, even when they sin, God still loves them. God loves you too. When we show love to our friends we can feel God's love for them, and God's love for us too!

Also something else I studied today, a talk my mom sent me! "Walk With Me" from President Eyring. In this talk he spoke about viewing people how God does. When we do that, nothing is too much, no sin is too deep, no addiction is too strong to overcome. Through God's power they can truly overcome anything. Help them feel and apply that power! And use that power in your own life to help you become a better person!

Ok! Our new Pday time ends at 9:30pm (7:30am your time) but we need to get back to the apartment before that! I love yall!

Also I miss my mom so if you can hug your's please give her a hug! ❤️❤️

Bye bye!
Elder Rasmussen!

potatoes (I started writing photos and thats what it ended up being, no potato pics this week, maybe next week!): 🥔🥔

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