Week 80

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Going on an adventure to an island.

 Love you all

The gospel is true, Jesus is the Christ, and God is pouring out his rich blessings upon this land of Shikoku.

Elder O`Reilly

(Trevor's Mom says: I wasn't going to post this week, but then I got these pictures from the Mission blog.)

Mission Leader Training

Shikoku Island Conference

Trainer/Trainee Training

Week 79: The Salvation of God 神の救い

Do all in our power, then stand still to watch the Salvation of God.

... or something like that. I can`t remember it word for word.

It was a good week. We had interviews with president, and made some discoveries that are going to give me a much more intense drive for the last few months of my mission. I`m going to do as much mayhem in Satan`s kingdom as possible before I`m done. hahaha.

We visited tons of family potential investigators. none of them had interest.

Then, we as a companionship decided to pray for revelation. We prayed that we were ready and willing to do anything the Spirit asked us to do, and then asked what it is that we could do that day, (yesterday) to find a new investigator. (We hadn`t been able to get any new investigators for quite a while, and all our potential investigators had been gone through already)  We were directed to an apartment building half an hour away. We knocked on the first door. `no thanks, go away`.  second door. A young guy comes out. after a short discussion, he says he is not interested. I talked to him for a couple seconds as the spirit directed. He let us in and we taught him the Gospel. It was that awesome. He is only 14, part of a family of 7. Only met him so far, but we got our foot in the door! way excited.

the Stake project here on Shikoku is going great! the zone is hitting numbers we`ve never seen before. We have placed all our focus on relying on the Lord, and the Lord is pouring down his blessing upon us. The zone Smashed the all time record for new investigators this week... 17!!

The Lord has great things in store for this people. It is such an incredible opportunity to participate.

I love you all and I love the Lord. The Gospel is the path to Eternal Life! Tell your friends. haha. ^^

Elder O`Reilly

I am so lucky to serve in an awesome place. Who else has a bamboo forest?

This was from the same place as the pictures from last week. didn`t take any new pics this week.

That was probably the best 4 seconds of your life.

Week 78: Faith brings Boldness 信仰が大胆さを齎す

So it was a good week. We have a new mission focus! all about relying on the Lord. Only had it a few days, but its been pretty great. I`ve been more bold in the last couple lessons than any lesson I`ve ever taught, and its getting things done! ^^ I even cut people off while they were talking and my voice got louder a couple times. Which is not normal of me, but when the spirit makes you confident with what you have to say, it can happen.

I was talking with a recent convert, who didn`t maybe feel like he needed to come to church. I was very clear. Our goal in this life is to return to God. To do that we need the Atonement in our lives. For that the Sacrament is necessary.  Anything that gets in the way of us taking the sacrament is from Satan. (read with him from Moroni 7). The spirit was strong and I`m not worried about him coming to church from now on.

We got a family referral! we should teach a family of some sort this week! looking forward to that!

Also an investigator that had moved up to Sapporo came back! he wasn`t supposed to be back until March, but he is here. He left in February, so its been a while since he came to Matsuyama, but he gets along great with the members. Might be able to be baptized soon!

Today we made more mochi! this time with a hammer. Way fun. haha. It is so delicious you would not believe. Like the deliciousness nearly killed me.

Love you all!
me

Oh how lovely was the morning...... in a bamboo forest. Actually it was last preparation day afternoon, like a 10 minute walk away from the church.

Pretty cool, right? I have a video of running down this path. Its pretty cool, but its also larger than 15 MB.

Yeah. An ancient battle ground right by the church. how cool is that.

This is how they made the rice for the Mochi today. Cool, right? they took off the wood thing on top, and stacked up 2 pots there. Then we smashed the rice. ^^

Smashing materials.

I smashed it too hard and rice flew everywhere. haha. Wasn`t too bad actually but hey.

Week 77: NEW YEARS 正月

Happy new years! 明けましておめでとうございます！

New years was pretty fun this week.

We made Mochi one day! and on New Year's Day we woke up early and saw the sun rise during exercise time. It was pretty great. Seeing as we are allllllll the way in the east, we were probably in the first percentage of people to see the sun in 2014. Pretty great.

Since the sisters are now `stake missionaries`, they focus all there efforts on building the stake. (visiting less actives, etc). So, we got all their investigators this week. new investigators! wooo!

So even though we are not the `stake missionaries`, they are supposed to visit 52 members a week in order to visit them all by March. so....... we have to help out. haha. This week we had to finish writing all 660 records, so that took up 2 entire days. Each has name, address, birthday, baptism day, family details, etc. all in Japanese. I think my Japanese handwriting improved 60%. haha.

So now that the records are done, hopefully we'll have some cooler experiences this coming week. ^^ With the craziness of new years over, people will be more willing to meet as well, which is good.

I am excited for what the Lord has in store for us this week. Love the work!

Elder O`Reilly

Making mochi!

Soooooooo good. Has sweet bean paste inside.

We had to wear ridiculous aprons (which is why I`m not pictured) but it was wayyyyy fun! haha ^^

Also.... we got Mcdonalds to eat while watching the sunset. Some of the first burgers bought in 2014.

All the people that were up there waiting for the sun. There were more but they gave up. haha.

Almost there.

Victory.

The main city area was like messed up from new years eve. Its like never this dirty....... but it still wasn`t too dirty. haha.

Made deviled eggs for breakfast one day. sooooo good. ^^