60 Mile Bike Ride

So as the subject says, me and Elder Beer, our Zone Leader who came down on Thursday, decided to ride down to the bottom tip of our wonderful island of Amami which is about thirty miles away. It took two and a half hours and I don't recommend riding in Japanese heat and humidity in church clothes. Needless to say we were tired. We then get to where we wanted to go, Setouchi, and we had about an hour and a half and we met some wonderful people. We tried visiting a less active but they moved, but as we were walking to our bikes a lady came up to us and talked to us and said she met missionaries a long time ago and she wants to meet again so we exchanged contact info. We then met a lady that took the Book of Mormon and gave us her number so that we can call and set up a time to come back and teach her. We also met a man that would love to be taught but he's going to Tokyo for a couple of months. So after a lengthy ride, we talked with who we were supposed to talk to. We had a really quick dinner and left right at 6:00 PM and made it home right at 9:00 PM. The ride home was probably the most physically hard thing I had done because it was all mountain and uphill tunnels that are 4000 meters long and it was really just grueling. Uphill for three straight hours at high speeds is not fun and I thought I was going to die. But then this happened.

I was praying as I was riding and my legs were starting to cramp up a little and we were still a little over an hour out. I didn't want to have to stop, I just wanted to make it home on time. We were both struggling, and I just kept praying and kept praying for help and strength and it never seemed to come. That's a little frustrating. With every pedal it hurt more and got tighter while going up hill, but as soon as the slope ended, simultaneously so did he pain and the tight cramps. They were gone. The rest of the forty minutes or so were easy, and it was still a good long ways out, but it was easy. As I was going down about twenty minutes out, I was thinking about what happened and the words came to my head "My shepherd will supply my need, Jehovah is His name." That was such a powerful experience!

If we try our hardest, and keeping working, and keep praying, we will be strengthened. We won't necessarily be delivered. BUT, Jesus Christ will strengthen you and enable you to be able to do things that you may not have been able to do in the first place. For me it was
thinking I was going to physically not be able to ride up these mountains, but as I kept going, I received the strength. The pain didn't subside during the hill, but as soon as I got up, it was gone. I had strength again. I know that Christ will help you in every and any circumstance you are in if you ask in faith. As President Uchtdorf said in his last conference talk, if you don't have faith, have hope. Believe. He can't force you to do better and work harder, that's your choice. But he can help you. That was my lesson learned this week, and
it left a big impact on me.

Anyways, Amami is great. It's getting really hot and it's 100% humid and way fun. I love it here.

Morals of this last week: follow the spirit and go where you feel like you should go, ride 60 miles and have fun doing it. I doubt y'all American serving missionaries have done that :)

Love you all!
Elder Tschirki

#getbuckets

Elder Beer is in the blue tie

 Missionary work up in the shacks in mountains