Thursday, January 17, 2013

There`s always light waiting at the end of the tunnel and that knowledge that the gospel brings allows for a lot of hope :

Dear Family,

Hello!!! It sounds like you`ve been pretty busy dad. that`s great that you got to visit with the area 70 all day! How cool! There is a definite Spirit around those who work so hard all day everyday to build the kingdom of God. I had an experience at the last Zone Conference that was pretty special to me. We met in Obihiro and the AP`s and ZL`s gave a workshop and at the end we sang I Believe in Christ. I looked around the room while we were singing and saw a bunch of tired, joking, beaten down, tsukareta Elders and our zone`s 2 sisters and had a very special feeling in my heart. I had a very strong feeling that these truly are the Lord`s servants. Amongst all the little trials that they have they keep working hard no matter what. It is something that I don`t think I`ll every forget. What a special opportunity this is to serve the Lord with all my heart might mind and strength for 2 whole years! I can`t believe a year of it is almost gone. It`s crazy how fast it all goes.

Thank you so much for your spiritual insights. It`s amazing how the Lord gives to us as we ask, seek and knock.
We met with a less active member yesterday and she has strong faith in Christ but goes to a differnet church now. We were going to share the Joseph Smith story with her but we got to talking about how a favorite scripture of hers gave her a lot of faith in Christ but she couldn`t remember where to find it. So we suggested that we pray and God would help us. She accepted and prayed and then we all searched for about 3-4 minutes and she ended up finding it :) it was 1 Corinthians 10:13. We then testified that it was by the power of God that she found it and she agreed. It was a really great experience. I`ve had the power of prayer proved to me over and over and over again as a missionary. The Lord truly listens to our desires and answers our prayers. What a wonderful blessing :)
いつも日本の文化についてのことありがとうございます!

It`s everyone`s birthday!!! Ahh!!! Tell them happy Birthday for me! Tanjoubi Omedetou gozaimasu!!! I hope everyone has a great day. Tell Grandma and Grandpa Perry and Grandpa Sotto thank you for all the memories and fun times and love! Let them know how much I love them as well. Without their influence and aid I would not be where I am today with the blessings that I have. Thank you so much!!!

I love your goals mother! I actually read about becoming like a little child today in Jesus the Christ. It`S really interesting why Christ said it. The apostles were having a discussion (arguement) about what positions they would hold in the Kingdom of God and Christ overhearing told them that a child is the greatest of all in the kingdom. Really interesting. I think your goals will bring you a lot of joy as you strive to fulfill them. I`ve found that working towards a worthy goal makes things a lot more fun. and I know you can accomplish them!
It`s really fun being out at teh same time iwth all my friends on a mission. I know that they must be growing and thriving as well. I`m excited to talka bout the different experiences we all had and the blessings of the Lord in building up his kingdom.

Lastly, it`s really interesting learning to work with different companions. This last week has been really tough on me and my companion in learning how to work together well and it ended up in a discussion about the difference in mindset between Americans and Japanese people. There are a lot of differences and its quite the adventure learning how to work with both haha. There`s been a lot of discussions and some tears here and there but things are going well. There`s always light waiting at the end of the tunnel and that knowledge that the gospel brings allows for a lot of hope :)
I really respect how unified you and dad were on everything while we were growing up. Even when things must`ve been hard. Thank you for the example you set :)

Oh! One more thing. I met an american from New Jersey on the train to Engaru (where the bishop lives) and we had a really great conversation and became good friends and talked about life and God and teh scriptures, and I didn`t have an english Book of Mormon to give him, but I felt a very strong prompting to give him the little Gappon (Bible and Book of Mormon set) that dad gave to me for when I travel, so i wanted to let you know that I gave it away to him dad. I hope you`re not mad! It has my name written in it so maybe He`ll look me up on facebook or something, but I felt like I should let you know :)

alright, well I better be going. Thank you so much for everything! I love you all so dearly!
Tell everyone I love them!
See you! Bye Bye!!!

Elder Sotto

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