Twerp!

So Randy is a Twerp! I sent a letter off to him asking what he might need, like new shirts, coat, sweaters, food...anything? And his reply was...."Love you Mom"...yep, that's all. not an answer of his needs just "Love you Mom".....How am I supposed to send him Christmas gifts if I don't know what he needs. Along with that his Birthday is coming on the 3rd of December....he is such a Twerp! Oh well, I love him anyway and I think I understand his reasoning....


Dear Mother, Father, Brothers, Sisters, Family, and Friends,

Well another week has just flown by in the blink of an eye, filled with interesting events ranging from sorrowful events to joyful events. But in all things we simply remember that the bad are mingled with the good. As Lehi said to his son "Without sorrow there could be no Joy. Without evil, there is no Good."

In all reallity, it was actually a great week, just filled with a couple hiccups here and there. But it did start off a little on the wrong foot. Tuesday we visited Nakanishi, who although still liked to have us over, was not so interested at all in our message. Simply he does not have faith, or even the will to try to obtain faith. He lacks the desire to do much else other than sleep. It does sadden me to see his condition, and I pray for him daily, and I do what I can to testify to him and teach him, but while I sat in the lesson on tuesday, flipping through my scriptures praying to find something to help him, I opened twice to very similar scriptures. One was Alma as he preached to the people of Ammonihah, Alma 8:10 "Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his spirit upon the people who were in the city, that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance. Nevertheless, they hardened their hearts." 8:15 "Blessed art thou Alma, Therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy message from him." and the other was to Nephi in Helaman 10:4 " Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments." After I opened up to the second scripture I caught the message that the Lord was trying to say to me. "You`ve done what you`ve can, you`ve testified, you`ve taught, you did what you could to share the spirit." Nevertheless It still saddens me to see what has happened to him and I don`t ever want to give up. We Won`t stop visiting him or helping him, he is simply less of a priority, for we have been called to "Find the Elect, and the Elect hear my voice, and harden not their hearts."

We also lost contact with another one of our progressing investigators for most of the week. When we finally got a hold of him on Thursday, he wasn`t really interested in our message anymore. He had liked church, but hadn`t really felt the spirit and he also didn`t really want to try to obtain faith, he felt that other things were more important, school, his part time job and play.

Other than that, throughout the week we did a lot of adventuring. We rode our bikes for about an hour and a half to the very southern point of our area. When we looked at the map we thought "Hey it looks like there might be something interesting down there." When we got down there, there was nobody, and nothing. No stores, no resturants, just a few houses. The only thing of interest was a Zoo/amusement park. Where they have a Dolphin show and a variety of other things, it looks interesting and we plan on going down there sometime, probably the first week in December for my birthday.

Then yesterday after church we decided to go check out the College that is in our area, it was about an hour ride out there, on top of a mountain. Then we got lost on the way up there and almost ended up in someone elses area, before we were like "Well... I don`t think this is the right way, because, that`s the way to Iwade."

Satdurday I spent the day sleeping because I was sick, some kind of 24 hour virus. Me and Camacho choro had the same thing. Basically that was my week. Not the most exciting week, but far from being the worst.

Elder Tateishi`s Gospel Message of the week

This message will be fairly quick, I don`t want to steal too much time, or ramble on for too long, but I`ll share a little message having to do with the experiences that we encountered this week.

As I said, we suffered a couple of tragedies, at least tragedies for missionaries. When people we loved, and cared for rejected what we taught. But what do we do after we experience setbacks like that? Sadly, it is a simple as moving on. People have their free agency, they can choose for themselves either evil or good, they can decide for themselves whether or not they want what we have.

I do not condemn them for their choices, in fact I believe that they did not fully understand what we had taught. I Christ has said "They seeing, see not, and hearing, they hear not." They did not truly open their hearts to our message and let the spirit into their souls. We taught, we testified, we sowed seeds and we pray that one day, those seeds will blossom, and that someone else might reap where we have sown.

Tragedy comes, it is life. But it is how we react to such tragedies that determines the true outcome. If we fold up, and give into the pressure of our trials only worse things follow. I know from experience. Niether can we simply ignore it and bury our heads in the sand. We must stand upright before God, with a firm determination that we will succeed. We must rely upon his arm, and follow his will. He knows the safe way through the storm, It`s not easy, he never said it would be, but it`s worth it. For when the storm clears, when you can look out across the now calm waters and see the beauty of what you have found, you will understand. Just a simple example using the weather here. From our Apartment we can look out over Osaka bay and see Kobe, Sumomoto, and the Kansai Airport almost as if it were floating on the water. Yet, when it does not rain for a week, smog and smoke begin to cover the bay, obscuring our view, so we can only see as far as the beach. But then when the storms come, with heavy winds and rains, it blows away the smog and cleans the air. After those storms, we look out and we can see all the way past Akashi Brigde. See in the very distance even more mountains, green and beauty.

Tragedy comes, it is life, but when we react rightly, and correctly, we will be made all the stronger.

Rely upon the Lord, follow him through the storm, He showed us the way and if we follow him all will be well. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give ye rest. Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and meek and burden is light." Matthew 11 (Paraphrased)

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

With much Love

Elder Randall KK Tateishi















Dear Mother,

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Son,

Elder Randall KK Tateishi