Querida Familia y Amigos,
I wasn't transferred so I will be here in Federal Way for at least 6 more weeks. We had exchanges this week and I was able to be with Hermana Hoskins again. She goes home at the end of next transfer. I can't believe it! It was nice to teach with her again because it just reminded me of the beginning of my mission.
Elder Kikuchi came to speak to the mission yesterday it was amazing. This was the first time since I've been here that our whole mission has been together in one room and it was great to see missionaries that I had served with before and how we've all grown so much. I was able to sing while Sister Fillmore played I Know That My Redeemer Lives as the special musical number. First we heard from President Larkin and he talked to us about following the Spirit and about setting goals with the Spirit and about never giving up on our goals but having faith that we can complete them. He shared some personal experiences from his mission in Japan. It is kind of neat because when he was in the MTC learning Japanese Elder Kikuchi was called to be the first Japanese-native general authority and he came to the MTC to speak to all of the missionaries going to Japan. President Larkin said that after the meeting he talked with Elder Kickuchi who told him to "Go love and save my people." President Larkin said he took that to heart and went to work in Japan. Then one day he was contacting in a train station there and happened to run into Elder Kikuchi again. He asked how many baptisms he had last month. President Larkin was so proud to tell him that he had three. Elder Kikuchi grabbed his lapel and said, "Elder Larkin, if you only believed you could have ten baptisms a month!" So after fasting and prayer the next month President Larkin and his companion felt like they should set a goal to have ten baptisms that month. They had seven baptisms by the 25th of the month but they really felt like they could have ten so they kneeled down and prayed with faith that they would be able to find someone, in the words of his companion's prayer, "that was looking for the restoration of the ancient order." That day they approached a man on the street after contacting all day long. President Larkin felt like they should talk with him so they talked with him and started walking with him toward the church. The whole the man protested that the didn't want to listen but when they arrived and had the lesson the man was shocked. He said that he had been reading the bible since he was young and had been to 16 different Christian churches look for the restoration of the ancient order." He said that he had been to the Mormon church two times when he was younger and sat in the meetings but no one had ever talked to him. He met the required number of times to attend church and was baptized that day. Then the next day they taught an English class and President Larkin realized that one of the teenagers in the class had been attending church for years but was never baptized. He asked him why and he said that it was because his parents had never given him permision. President Larkin was going on exchanges because he had a meeting with the mission president and some stake presidents that night so his brand-new companion had to go to the house of the family to try to convince them to let their son be baptized. The new missionary tried to talk to them but they could understand them so finally he just said, "I love you." The teenager's parents eyes started to water and he gave permission for his son to be baptized. Then the next day they had been contacting all day again with no success when someone hit President Larkin on the back. It was one of his former investigators who had gone out of town for school break and said that because he was visiting family in the country he was so bored that he read the whole Book of Mormon and that he knew it was true and wanted to be baptized! Anyway it was an amazing story and I love our mission president and his faith. It really motivated me to have even more faith as a missionary. I know that with faith, all things are possible.
Then Elder Kikuchi talked to us about reading The Book of Mormon every day in our personal study because of the spiritual power that it gives us through its testimony of Jesus Christ. My favorite quote of the meeting was, "Truth can be repeated a thousand times and never wear out because it is true!" We were also able to talk about the new training system that they will have for missionaries that starts next summer. It will make us all better teachers and is centered on helping the investigators receive and recognize revelation through prayer, reading The Book of Mormon, and attending church. When we were in that reading I realized that there was no where else I would rather be in the whole world than right here in Seattle preaching the gospel. I love being a missionary!
I hope you have a fabulous week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Kinghorn
