Your Ishigaki are continually before me. (Week 22)

Ishigaki is in the Book of Mormon! Read 1 Nephi 21:16. Ishigaki means stone wall. Don't ask why the Japanese one says stone in it.

So this week we went to Naha for zone conference. I got to meet new missionaries and make new friends and go on junkai with Elder Kusakabe! I love that man. And Junkai means companion exchanges. Basically. Anyways. I love Kusakabe Choro. He is my zone leader again but in a different zone. He is so cool. Anyways. I also got to see president again and meet with him. That wonderful blessed man. He goes home at the end of June. And I'm really going to miss him. I got a Japanese Book of Mormon that is really nice and pretty and small like my english ones. And a Japanese bible to match. Reading the Book of Mormon is fun because there is a lot I understand now and that I can figure out because I already know the stories and stuff. Its hard but fun. And slow. I've read like 4 chapters in a few days. And this last trip to Naha and back to Ishigaki were my 8th and 9th airplanes! On my mission. I love flying. It's so much fun. except that on flight to Tokyo. I still haven't recovered from that one. That was way too long.

So yeah. I gave a talk yesterday about family. That was way hard. It was like 4 minutes long and most of the time was filled with me stumbling over my words until I found the right ones. It was quite the experience. But it went kind of ok and I was able to say that I love my family very much and that I left them so I can help other families be together forever too.

I'm glad to hear school is about out. That's fun. I just thought about that yesterday. It hit me that you are all celebrating school being out and I just barely realized it was May. But now May is gone and its about June. And today marks the 5 months on my mission! I can't believe how much time is flying. Its crazy.

I saw Elder Buckingham for the last time last week at zone conference. He goes home after this transfer. This transfer ends on June 7. That's sad to me. But I'm happy for him. He's a good man.

Elder Munro and I are getting along great. We are going to call President Margetts and tell him that we have a plan for Ishigaki but that it takes six months to accomplish so neither of us can transfer until then. And the I will have to transfer back for the last six months of my mission to make sure nothing in ishigaki falls apart or anything. So I like Elder Munro enough to be ok being his companion for six months. He's pretty cool.
We are trying to get [our investigator] to progress but she wants to write to a leader of the catholic church in Nagoya first. Before she agrees to be baptized. So we'll see how that goes. If he says yes to converting then she will convert. If he says no then she will study and pray more. So pray that she will get the answer she needs from God. She is really close though. We are pretty excited.

We found a new guy to teach kind of. He wants us to go to his house to teach him English. And then we said at the end we like to share a spiritual message and stuff. And he said yes please do. So we met him for the first time yesterday. He is such a nice wonderful man. And we had a great time teaching him English and then we shared a good message about the restoration. He has a friend in our branch. So he already knew about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and so that was cool. And he seemed to think everything was pretty good with what we taught. And he prayed at the end of our appointment. So he could really go places. I hope things work for him. We can't consider him an investigator yet. But soon.

We are also making a little bit of progress with a family that speaks perfect english. The kids are progressing really slowly but I think they are progressing. And I don't think the mom is progressing. But we are going to change that. I think we have a good chance at getting at least the kids to church this next week. We will see. That wonderful blessed family. I love them.

Well I'm going to head out. I love you. My saiwai de aru kazoku. Good luck translating that. I had to learn it from a Japanese missionary. And the Book of Mormon. De aru is plain form desu. See if you can figure the rest out. I love you very much. And I love this tiny little island. Pray that they don't transfer me next week. Or Elder Munro either. Peace out.

Love, リドル長老