Week 89!

At a Kendo class

     Hello!  How are you all doing? This is Grandpa Aiken here. 

     It was a good week! However, we got sad news when one of our investigators told us he's moving to New Zealand for about a month which might push past the end of this transfer.  But I hope he gets back before that so we can keep teaching him. He is going back because his older sister, who is a member, just had a baby so he is going to visit her. We are praying so hard that his sister can have an influence on him and he can have a desire to join this church!

     Our other investigtor is still battling and fighting to overcome her addiction and still has such a desire to be baptized but she will not hit her Date on the 29th which is sad but not discouraging. Discouragement lowers faith!:) She can do it - I know it. 

     Another hit we took this week was our third investigator who told us that honestly finding his answer about the church was not a priority and he said he did not have the time right now because he needs to focus on his entrance exam to get into college coming up in February, and then if he passes, he needs to prep everything to find a place and move down to Tokyo or Kyoto, whichever college he gets into. So he asked if he could meet again in April. That was way sad. It was Elder Barrett's last lesson here before he left and he had been teaching him the whole time he was here so that was hard for him to leave on that note.  So many ups and downs in the mission right!?:) It has definitely been a journey. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Barrett

     I hit double-double digits this past week. 20 months. My heart truly sorrows when I think of the speed of this mission, holy cow! I have grown so so much and yet I find I am still have so much to learn. There is never enough time to reach the growth we want to. 

     But one thing I have been able to successfully do is gain a firm testimony. A testimony gained in the bearing of it. "The skeptic will say that to bear testimony when you may not know you possess one is to condition yourself; that the response is manufactured. Well, one thing for sure, the skeptic will never know, for he will not meet the requirement of faith, humility, and obedience to qualify him for the visitation of the Spirit. Can you not see that that is where testimony is hidden, protected perfectly from the insincere, from the intellectual, from the mere experimenter, the arrogant, the faithless, the proud? It will not come to them. Bear testimony of the things that you hope are true, as an act of faith." 

     During my mission, any principle that I did not have a spiritual witness of its truth, I testified of. I testified with a firm desire that the spirit can confirm my words so that those I was testifying to could know as well. And I would say that every time my heart was sincere and I was humble enough to listen that witness came to me. "Testimonies coming in the bearing of them so much more so than down on our knees begging for them." Now of course there are things that I do not know and probably never will. But "Man's going are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" Proverbs 20:24.    

     I don't know everything. I am not perfect and I have much to improve. But I know this church is true and that will never change. My challenge to you this week is if there is anything that unsettles you or you are struggling with, or maybe you just do not have a set testimony of its truthfulness, testify of it. Full of humility, faith, and obedience and try it. It can be to a friend, family member, or at church. But I know the spirit will confirm in your heart that it is true. 

     A very simple message but I hope you have the best week ever. I am so happy. I have never loved a people so much. This mission has allowed me to do that. I am so grateful to be here. 

"Gratitude opens hearts. Especially if it is your own." 

     Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Trevor Aiken