October 15, 2010

General conference was really great. I definitely got a lot more out of Sat's sessions than Sunday's but it was all wonderful. I really liked Elder Holland's talk and President Uchtdorf's talk about slowing down during turbulance.
We also had zone conference this week and Elder Aoyagi of the second quorum of the Seventy and Asia North Area Presidency came. He also came to tour the mission in Hiroshima last November. He told the Isas about the consolidation at that time. I still didn't understand Japanese well enough to get everything out of his message but this time I did. In the morning session he gave us some more background on the story he shared in his conference talk last April like why he picked that topic, what scripture Sister Aoyagi shared in the letter she sent him, etc. I was cool to get a deeper understanding of the event that changed the whole course of Elder Aoyagi's life. I also got to translate some of his and his wife's remarks from Japanese to English and that was pretty fun at first but it gets a little tyring. He gave us all hugs after the conference. If it wasn't amazing enough to get a hug from a general authority, what made it even more special is the fact that Japanese people, especially men, are not very outwardly affectionate. It is amazing how having the gospel in your life completely changes you whether it be gaining direction in your life or increasing your ability to love others or any of the other wonderful blessing the gospel brings into our lives.
Sorry to end on kind of a less spiritual note but in concert with (that phrase doesn't sound right but I'm forgetting English I guess) zone conference, we published the Kobe mission newsletter for the whole mission. On Sunday night they let me edit it and from a yearbook standpoint it was a mess. There were all of these random font, random font sizes, formatting inconsistancies, bad punctuation among other things. It was fun to use my yearbook skills to improve it as best as I could in the limited time I had. Who would have thought I would use those kinds of "gifts of the Spirit" on my mission? I have copies of the before and after that I will show you when I get home.
I love all of you and thank you so much for all of the help from looking up school stuff and checking on other random things, to your constant prayers and supporting emails. I hope all is well and you keep up the good work!