McKenna in Japan!

Andrew, Justien, Sister Coles and I.

I have realized this week, especially, that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. It never ever goes according to our plans, but it always works out. I love the quote from Elder Bednar (one of the 12 Apostles) which says something to the effect of just get up and get to work, just be a good boy or a good girl and the rest will fall in to place. When you're working hard, good things happen and even a miracle or two. We had two back to back popped tires in the middle of nowhere this week. Luckily our angels, the Williams, were able to track us down and help us. In the meanwhile, we were a little bummed because we had appointments we wouldn't be able to keep. We just decided that we were going to make the most of it. So we started to knock on doors and we came across an incredible woman. When we knocked on her door and explained who we were she lit up. She had some questions about the bible and wanted help in finding answers. She ran in to the back room and came back with a bible that was marked and highlighted everywhere. In my four months in Japan I have never seen that. There are very few Christians here. It was such a neat experience to help her find answers in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I can't wait to go back! Sometimes all we need in life are a couple of popped tires to slow us down so we can see great things happen.

Flat bike tires! Twice in one week!

Also, our investigator, Josh, is getting baptized this upcoming week. Josh is married to a member who we have been working with a lot over the past couple of months. It has been a privilege watching both of them grow in the gospel and grow closer together. We even talked about their future temple marriage! It is moments like these that make everything hard about a mission worth it. I really can feel Heavenly Father's love for the people of Japan and I am so grateful for the small role that I have the opportunity to play a small part to help my brothers and sisters come unto Christ. I love being a missionary!

This week we had a wonderful lesson with our investigator, Takizawa San. It reinforced to me, the importance of having a member present at every lesson we teach. Takizawa San has a baptismal date for January 4th and loves to read the Book of Mormon, but she has never been to church. Every time we mention it she gets nervous and says she is busy. For our lesson we decided to talk about how we can receive guidance. Specifically, through church attendance. We had a church member, Sister Higa, come to the lesson with us. It was incredible! It was wonderful for Takizawa to have someone present at the lesson that spoke her language fluently, could relate to her and that had similar problems and experiences. After talking about church with Takizawa San we invited her during our next lesson to walk to the church with us for a church tour (when no one would be there, to help her become more acquainted with the building and the activities we do there). However, Sister Higa mentioned that we should just go right now! Takizawa San agreed, so we all jumped in Sister Higa's car and I had one of the most spiritual experiences on my mission. Takizawa San loved the church building. She had never been inside one. She loved learning about primary (church program for the 3 to 12 year olds), young women's (for the teenage girls ages 12 to 18 years), the chapel and seeing the baptismal font. I am so grateful for the spirit that is inside of our church buildings. It was such a neat experience!

I am learning, growing, laughing (too much), eating weird foods, learning how to change a bike tire, learning to work well with others, getting creative when things don't go according to plan and most of all loving the people of Japan and the message of joy and peace we share.