Greetings from 日本 Week 14

Hello folks, 

This week was by far one of the best weeks of my entire mission. So many good things happened and has been felt and guided by the spirit. Wow what a week!

This week, I’ve been beginning to realize the blessings and importance of prayer.

Monday was a dandy ole Preparation Day. I decided to begin that day with a special prayer and favor from our Father in Heaven. I said, Heavenly Father, let’s have a good day today and i want something great to happen! My companion and I began our normal preparation day, did what we needed to do. We were out proselyting by 6 PM as usual. We headed over to the next Eki (Train Station) to hand out our English class flyers to people. Keeping what I asked Heavenly Father for in mind, i was determined to find and work hard! Time rolled on, and nothing was happening. Right before we left, we saw this high school kid whom we met a few weeks earlier, We stopped him and started up a good convo! He LOVES American History, with that being said, we bore witness and testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave him one, since you know, its American history ;) I knew heavenly father saw my faith and we were able to meet that kid again. We plan on seeing him again and discussing it! When we have righteous desires, the lord will grant them as long as we show faith and do our part.

Tuesday was good, hit up our friend Panchhi and taught him a good lesson; we are slowly progressing more and more with him. We must be patient! After we stayed and ate at his Indian restaurant and he challenged me to beat his na`an record again. If i did I said he had to put a picture of us missionaries on his wall in the restaurant for holding the record! So I did! I beat it again and now will be seeing a beautiful missionary man on his wall very soon ;) hahaha jk

Wednesday we didn’t really know what to do, we got mixed up on one of our appointment times and it fell through. So as we were wondering what to do, I decided to offer up a prayer considering that the Lord provided for us before, why not try again! We had a sudden prompting to fly on over to Suda Eki (which is pretty far) we weren’t` sure but we went with it. We showed up, and nothing/no one was there, we were pretty upset, we looked around there, tried contacting houses, nothing, We came back and found a small little whole in the wall Udon shop. Tried it out and it was pretty good! The shop owner was very friendly and we talked for about an hour or so? Maybe more. We talked about the gospel with him and about his family and asked if we could visit him sometime, He says aww, man no you would never find my house, we asked where it was, and he said right next to Suda Eki! We told him we were JUST there and knew EXACTLY where it was. We were pretty stoked!

Sometimes when we pray, and follow certain feelings, you may not realize the purpose, or reason at first, but this experience comforted us, may not seem like a huge thing, but it doesn’t need to be, I knew the Lord was guiding us that day because of our faith in him and in prayer.

Thursday had our best lesson with our Nigerian friend. We met him at the Eki and taught him all of lesson 1. I knew he felt it! I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. After the lesson he said, Can I like go to church sometime? This sounds amazing. We looked at each other and went, uhhh yeah bro! You can go whenever! So hopefully he went yesterday in Osaka which is where he lives! It was also special because i finished the Book of Mormon for the second time :)

Friday was on a comp. exchange w/ Elder Brown. Best comp. exchange yet. talked all about football! Man I miss those days of playing. SHOUT OUT TO MY HUSKIES AT CENTENNIAL FOR GOING TO STATE, GRIND ON!!!

Nothing else too special went on the rest of the week. Just been working hard and having an amazing time here in Japan.

In regards to my experiences and the things I learned this week, I have some things to share with you concerning prayer.

Prayer is a VERY special thing! It’s a way we can communicate with our Father in Heaven, our Master, and our Creator of the Universe. With that being said, prayer is more than just blessing the food at dinner, its more than saying the same things every time, it’s more than just throwing it up to the heavens and expecting a miracle to happen. You are LITERALLY talking to God personally. A very important part of prayer is listening too. If we ask God for help or an answer, and we don’t listen closely through the spirit, then we can expect NOT to get anything in return! When we pray we should pray strongly and openly, giving the desires of our hearts, AND having the faith KNOWING that you WILL receive an answer. Having the faith in knowing is one of the most important parts. Then it’s up to US to be patient and ready to receive what the Lord is trying to tell us. 

Sometimes we may not understand the things we receive. We may think, what? huh? what does this mean? why this? why that? Many instances have occurred for me here in the mission field. But it’s always important to constantly inquire of the Lord when such things occur. Alma 34: 17-27 (Please Read!) Talks about always praying unto the Lord! Lets take a look at Nephi. When he made it through the wilderness and made it to the sea, He went and asked God what to do. The Lord commanded him to build a ship! So Nephi being the beast he is, having the” I will go and do” Attitude, went and built the ship. Nephi had NO clue how to build a boat. But he knew it’s what he had to do so he was gonna do it no matter what. It says Nephi went back and forth; up and down the mountain constantly inquiring of the Lord what he should do next. Eventually because he showed his faith, his diligence, and listened to the spirit, he was guided correctly and was able to construct the ship needed to sail to the Americas. 

Remember these things the next time you pray, remember that EVERY prayer is a conversation to our heavenly father. Remember the importance of it and pray always! I KNOW and testify that it will bless you and you will see the Lords hand helping you in your own lives.

I love you all very much and hope you all have a good holiday season. Remember HE is the GIFT!!


プレシア度長老

Elder Preciado

a funny bike we saw

our Christmas Tree!

and dinner at a Sukiyas restaraunt. big bowl of gyudon! YUM!