"Come Back in Six Years and You can Marry My Daughter"

So this week turned out a little bit different than planned. Okay, a LOT different, but in the end it was still a great week. So Miss Yamamoto passed her baptismal interview on Sunday and then the sister missionaries called her Monday night to schedule another lesson. To their surprise, the phone call went a little differently. She said that her family was highly opposed to her becoming a Christian, and especially her daughter was very angry at her. So, she asked twice, to be left alone, and then hung up.

The sisters of course visited her anyway the next day, and every day this week, but she didn’t answer the door. The poor sisters still struggle to hold back tears when they see a picture of her. It is sad - and there’s not much more to say other than recognize how strong of an enemy Satan is. The war is real.

I went on exchanges up to Ueda on Tuesday and had a great day there. We taught a blind man and his wife all about the Book of Mormon. I don’t think I’ve had as much fun teaching, or as captive an audience as these two wonderful people. The husband was constantly taking notes in Braille (Japanese Braille) of everything I said. We just went through the pages and Elder Peterson and I shared our love for the word of God with them. We left, all four of us wanting to read more and more. The Spirit was incredible.

Wednesday and Thursday were a special treat. Elder Pratt and I went down to Nagoya (again) for a two day conference with Kelly Mills. Brother Mills is a return mission president from Fukuoka Japan and is currently the director of all 16 international MTCs. I had the opportunity to see him last year actually, when I was in the Provo MTC. The conference was amazing in the fact that he didn’t teach us anything new! Nothing at all. Instead, he taught the exact, same stuff that we had heard a hundred times from "Preach My Gospel,” but he did it in such a way as to change our perspective of it. What hit me the very most, and reconfirmed over and over was this principal: The programs established by revelation will work - the problem is that we just aren't carrying them out fully. PMG is exactly what will move the work; we just need to follow it more closely. Home-teaching is what will strengthen wards; we just need to fulfill our assignments. More than anything, we focused a lot on planning. He taught over and over that "Planning is not Scheduling" but that "Planning is sacred time to receive revelation." I think that is very true and I have already seen the visible results of implementing more fully PMG guidelines.

Finally, we come to this weekend. There was a mini-youth conference in our area, so lots of good youth came to our area and we helped out with their activities a bit. We also had three young men that we met - just friends - come as well and had a great time. Particularly amazing was how much the youth members helped to fellowship these three young men we brought. The Branch President's daughter - now 15, was great in introducing herself and everyone else. On Sunday, when I informed the Branch President of how much his daughter helped, he replied, "Come back in six years and you can marry my daughter." Our Branch President is a very funny guy - but that is still an awkward statement no matter how much you try to laugh. Oh well.

Church was amazing. We had four investigators at sacrament meeting, and three more show up for Sunday school and a ward meal afterwards. The sisters also had an investigator come. We are seeing blessings - and even though we will have to wait a little more to see baptisms, I can assure you, I have seen miracles.

We have received revelation and have done our best to act upon it. That is when things get done. As Joseph Smith taught, "Salvation can not come without revelation. It is vain for anyone to minister without it." With that as our new focus in all we do, we have been blessed with such in our ministry. May we all receive such revelation from God, and have the faith to conquer Satan is my prayer,

Always,

Elder Alexander Todd Fuller
Japan Nagoya Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints