Letter from Alex - 10/24/06

Genki?! Mochiron!!

So here in Hibarigaoka, Tokyo area, it`s starting to get a little bit cold outside. I am so thankful for sweaters, they feel so nice under my suit jackets. I still need to buy some thick socks, but I think I have found a place.

So I`m sure this letter is thouroughly entertaining so far. If anyone you know woul like to recieve Elder Fuller`s weekly email updates, let me know.

So anyway, Elder Miller, my companion, has been very sick since thursday which means I stayed inside everyday since then studying while he slept. On friday we went to a hospitol/clinic to see what was going on. He has a really bad cough and cold. An inactive member took us to the hospitol, waited with us for 2 hours, and filled out all the forms without being asked!! That`s how amazing people are here in Japan. His name is Yuichi Nakazawa, he owns the bike shop across the street from our house where I bought my new bike.

I got to talk to him for 2 hours while Elder Miller was zoned out. He joined the church when he was 18 and then went to Provo, Utah when he was 19 to go to BYU. He has a ton of funny stories from there, but unfortunately, he met some rotten people there and became inactive because of them. It`s so sad. The church is true, not the people. Anyway, he`s still a very amazingly nice man, and I have hope he`ll return someday, probably after he gives up smoking.

So anyway I have been studying like crazy these last few days, just dying to get out and preach the gospel. I did manage to memorize Doctrine and Covenats 4 in Japanese. Yeah, way hard, but now it`s fun. I also read the book of Job. I like it, but when combined with Alma 40, which has the answers to the questions Job asks, it`s is some of the most powerful and touching doctrine I know of. "If a man die, will he live again?" There is no more basic question than that I feel. All of us are bound to ask that sometime in our life. Hopefully sooner than later.

So my prayers and desires combined into a miracle on sunday. The Lord knows I want to serve and be out there working so hard, and that I was unable. So he blessed me and Elder Miller with a self-referral that showed up at church. How merciful the Lord is! It was amazing, he was very interested in everything and was an extremely interesting man. As I sat next to him in Sacrament meeting, I felt the Spirit very strongly. I know that he felt it as well. He heard the Lord`s voice, and it now is up to him to see if he will respond to it or not. If not, then I simply know that this miracle was to show me how much God is watching over me and knows the intents of my heart.

Yesterday we met with a less-active man who has a fiery testimony, but can`t come to church because his wife is completely bed-ridden due to a blood hemorage. Elder Miller was about to die/pass out so he didn`t say anything the entire time. I talked with this wonderful son of God, Brother Kohara, for an hour and half all in Japanese, with very few words needing to be looked up. He is now like a 60-year-old brother to me. We talked about faith and the Spirit was so strong there. No one can ever convince me otherwise that I have not been blessed with the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. To talk with him in Japanese for that long and have the Spirit so strongly present was yet another miracle I`ve witness on this amazing island.

Well, things are quite well here. I have some hopes for a few people, and I have been fasting and praying that the Lord`s elect will be able to be led to us or us to them.

When we are in the service of our fellow men, we are only in the service of our God.

The work is moving forward. I am living in joy. Thanks for all your support back home. I send you my love and assurance that I am serving God with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.

Yours,

Elder Alexander Todd Fuller
Tokyo South Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints