An exhausting week.....

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

This week has been a very exhausting week for me. I Haven`t been
sleeping well the past few nights, and so I was wiped all this
weekend.

Well, I`m not sure exactly what to explain for what happened this
week. Tuesday we taught a homeless man, who then disappeared before we
could start trying to find a way to help him out in his situation.

Wednesday was regular English Class night so nothing really exciting
happened there. Thursday we had District Meeting, and Friday we taught
a Chinese man who mistook the appointment and came 4 hours early to
the appointment. Luckily a member was there and called us to let us
know he was there. We also went down to Hashimoto again to teach our
investigator down there. That Lesson went pretty good.

Saturday was a day of dendo, we ate lunch at a Less-actives house and
then just went all over the place, visiting another member and then
another Less-active, Nishiguchi Kyoudai. He`s doing really good
actually, he came to church again and he even bore his testimony
during fast and testimony meeting.

Sunday was awesome. Even though I was utterly wasted and exhausted it
was a spiritually full day. It was fast Sunday and I had a good fast,
and also heard many and was able to bear a good testimony during Fast
and Testimony meeting. I was also able to get out of teaching Gospel
Principles class because no one showed up.

After church we had our usual study time, but it was interupted by
the local "Danjiri" which is basically this elaborately made wagon
that has drums on it and everyone pulls it around town making lots of
noise. I`ll include some pictures and you`ll understand what I mean. I
took a video as well. You might remember it from last year, but to say
the least it past right in front of our apartment twice and stopped
our study. For a moment. We then made Hamburgers for Dinner, which was
delicious.

After that we went back to the church for a Mission Fireside, in
which the ward mission leader had everyone think about what it would
be like if the missionaries were taken out of Kawachinagano for a
little bit. It was really cool to listen to them talk and discuss what
they could do to overcome that difficulty and then hear the Ward
mission Leader Testify about how they can act right now and can do all
of that stuff right now. I felt the Spirit so strongly at that point
that I just stood up in front of everyone and bore sincere Testimony
to them all about how they can do missionary work and should be doing
missionary work. I couldn`t stop myself to be honest.

All in all, the week ended really good. I`m excited about this
upcoming week and this month. It`ll be, way fun. I get an interview
with President Zinke, get to meet with a general authority and have
lots of exchanges, lots of meetings, General Conference and lots of
fun. Even have a Halloween party that I need to figure out what I`ll
be.

Elder Tateishi`s Gospel Message of the Week

I`d like to testify about the Gift of Tongues this week. As lately I
have been really feeling that power. My current companion, Elder
Wilkes, has only been out in Japan for about 2 months, and on his
mission for maybe a total of 4 and a half months. Yet his Japanese is
amazing and it is growing day by day. He can get along in basic
conversations he can testify he can talk and he can understand. It
never ceases to amaze me to see the extremely fast pace at which he is
learning Japanese.

As for me personally, I have found lately that I can testify and
express myself better in Japanese than in English sometimes. Last
night when I stood up in front of the ward, and at many District
Meetings as I`ve stood and testified to everyone I have spoken in very
powerful ways that I do not really even know how to express in
English. I have found my ability to express my emotions, my feelings,
in English has actually gotten worse! I bet my spelling is horrible
to!

I know that all of this does not come from me. That it is a gift from
God. It was only that simple commitment I made at the very beginning
of my mission. "God, I`ll learn the Gospel, you just give me Japanse."
I never really focused on learning Japanese that much. I just KNEW
that it would come. I KNEW that God would give me that gift. I am
grateful for that, and I can testify that the Gift of Tongues is a
true and living Gift. That God will grant it unto those who need it
and those who seek after it. He will give it to us according our
faith, and our circumstances. I testify of this in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen.

With Love,

Elder Randall KK Tateishi