Elder Tschirki in Japan: Finally Rode a Shink

Thanks for the talks Dad! I will definitely read them. I just saved them to my Adobe PDF thing that the iPad has and I don't know what it is or does but I have a lot of stuff on there so I will definitely read it today. I've been thinking a lot about that topic too. I'm sure quite a few of the people in Jerusalem had a testimony of Jesus Christ and his power, but when they saw him on the cross, for most of them did, they didn't do anything. That's what happens when you get a testimony based off of miracles and not your own experiences with the gospel. It just doesn't work out. The only way to stay in the church is to continue in the gospel and strengthening yourself. In the MTC a general authority shared with us a statistic. He said, looking at the room, that a third of you will be inactive within a year after your mission. How could someone who goes and serves faithfully for two years and helps other people come unto Christ fall away that quickly? It's simple really, they don't have the gospel written on their hearts. You'd think that after all of their amazing experiences that they
would stay strong, but they don't! It truly amazes me, but yet the principle is the same throughout all of the scriptures. It's cool that in the Book of of Mormon, I forgot where, it said that "all who were truly converted unto the Lord never did fall away." Christ always healed and performed miracles because of their faith. He says that every single time. But yet, when he died, there was nobody. At least two of his closest friends, Peter and Judas betrayed him verbally, and I'm sure others did too. Thomas said that he wouldn't believe that he was resurrected unless he saw him. Jesus was surrounded by people that had very little faith and weren't converted! But that's where the Holy Ghost comes in. The Holy Ghost converts you. Before Jesus officially left the last time, he gave unto them the Holy Ghost, which helped them to never fall away. I'm sure they felt the presence of the spirit in their lives, but they didn't have it always. It just shows that the only way to become converted is to do what God has asked us to do and live worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, yet not enough people do that in this life and that's the difference between a testimony and a conversion to me. Conversion allows the Holy Ghost to work through you and change you while a testimony is simply just a belief or knowledge that may or may not be acted upon.

Anyways this week I saw Elder Palmer and we talked for a long time! We saw each other when Yamashita Choro from the quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us. As soon as he and his wife walked into the room in Fukuoka, I felt the spirit so strong, as in one of the strongest times in my life. We all got to shake their hands and you can tell just by looking at them that they are loving, charitable people that follow the example of Jesus Christ in everything that the do. But moreover than that, I got too ride my first SHINKANSEN down to Fukuoka! It left from Kitakyushu and we got to Fukuoka in like 15 minutes. No joke. They go about 150mph I think. Just look at a map and see how far that trip is. Anyways this week we didn't have a lot of dendo time. We went way up north to find a referral and they weren't home and that took all of the day but we both had felt like we needed to go there. We taught a fun kids English class with members and their friends and then that night we taught regular English class, and we went down to Fukuoka for a whole day so that's three days gone. We had p day and then a weekly planing too so this week was very, very busy. BUT we still managed to teach lessons, even though the people ended up not being interested really, but we taught them and gave them the choice to listen to us. Overall, this week was pretty fun because I got to see my best friend and because little five year old kids tackled me all the time. Maybe one day I will have a little Japanese baby. We'll see! Oh and I almost forgot, Colton and Mismash Choro's investigator Muraishi got baptized on Sunday before church! Awesome!

I love you all!

Elder Tschirki

Me and Palmer Chan