Just Kick, and Push, and Coast

The subject line is a song by Lupe Fiasco about skateboarding. You will see why this is relevant if you actually read this. 

Akira is doing good. He says he is stopping a little bit more every week. We hope he can stop. Well we know he can. If he becomes converted to the Lord and the gospel he can stop anything. If he reads the Book of Mormon, he will have the power from God with him. We also taught Itou San who says that all religion is made by man, but that God is real. Well, long story short, he's a really great man and loves us, and he remembers my trainer Elder Flippo perfectly. Anyways, he can say whatever he wants, but when we bore testimony of what he needed in his life and what the truth of the gospel is, he couldn't say anything. He felt the spirit tell him it is true, and I know that because we did. But whether or not he is humble enough to to accept it is the hard thing.


So this week a couple of cool things happened. Let me tell you about them. Our random German friend on this lovely island of Amami, Rainer, who has a wood shop so he can make surfboards (he is married to a Japanese lady and they're one year old is half Japanese with red hair ha. Signs of the future??) is moving soon! They will be going back to Germany I
think next year and they are temporarily moving now I think. But anyways we were going out that way and he saw us and waved us down and told us to come to his shop. Well, I talk to him a lot whenever I see him and we are pretty good friends. SO he gave me his handmade longboard (without the wheels, he wanted those) and he said that it still has a lot of worth but because he's closing shop he can't sell it and that if he wants another one he will just make one ha. So then the cooler thing happened is he gave my companion one too! For free. He sells these boards for about $100 or so and we got them for free and he was so happy to give them to us. I love that guy so much. Now the next thing is to try and figure out how to get it home, haha. Elder Gass, who was here before me, bought one and he is really into long boarding and says that it's the best quality board he has. Or at least it's really high quality. So I'm excited!


Then the next cool thing happened. President Egan and his wife came down to my lovely Amami this week on Saturday so they could come to church here on Sunday! How cool is that? So we went to dinner on Saturday night at our friend Miwa's cafe (which is where I'm bringing mom and dad and the Palmers when we come to Amami after my mission) and had dinner with the Egans and the Sano's too. It was a great night. Then church went well and we had a shokuji, or a meal with all of the members and it was so much food so I probably ate as much as an entire branch of 5 Japanese women together and more. We had a lot of
pasta and okonomiyaki and salad and it was just a heaven on earth. BUT besides all of the food, which I love, was President Egans testimony. He told us multiple times that if somebody truly has a knowledge and testimony of the divinity and truth of the Book of Mormon, they will follow commandments. Most problems that arise in people's lives happen
because they don't read the Book of Mormon, or just the word of God in general, daily. If we study the scriptures daily, we will have peace. We will have happiness. We will have joy. We will have knowledge. We will have light. We will have guidance. We will have growth. We will have the love of God always with us, and I know that that is true!

餡土龍 K. 赦輝長老
日本福岡伝道部

愛してるわ～

Me and my boy Rainer at his shop as we were on our way to teach Itou San.

 I shunned my companion because he wouldn't let me go to go go curry. 

 I guess my comp took a picture of me as I'm tucking in my shirt. 

Sano Choro with a pineapple thing as we were visiting less actives that live an hour away by car. 

 

Amami. We saw a ton of surfers. Same day as pineapple picture.

And the Sano's. Love those people!