week 83

I don't know how hot it is here but... It is hot. The humidity is insane!

It is also cicada season right now and they are everywhere and they are loud. It's always the best when you are walking by a tree up to someone's house and ten of them come flying out at your companion and he runs faster than you've ever seen him run before! It happens quite a bit.

Anyway,

We had some interesting opportunities this week to talk to Americans. You can usually guess whether or not the house you are knocking is going to be American or not by the license plate they have on their car... With that being said, we had picked an area we wanted to house and every place in that area was off base military housing full of ripped marines from South Carolina. Since I've spent most of my time on the mission talking to sweet little Japanese grannies in Japanese, talking to huge American military in English about the gospel is quite the change. But I'm grateful for the experience. Testifying in English has a different impact than testifying in Japanese. English is the "language of my heart" and thus, words and phrases have more meaning in English than Japanese. Testifying in English has been challenging because I've had to think about how much I truly believe what I am saying and it has been a good "testimony check" for me. I'm proud to say that I can testify boldly, in the language of my heart, that I know that God exists and that he loves us. I know that Jesus is the Christ and he fulfills that responsibility to its fullness. I know that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith and that by reading it, we can know more fully what it is that God would have us do in this life in order to return to him. It is that simple. And everyone deserves a chance to hear it and except it whether they are American, Japanese, or anywhere in between. "Onward, ever onward."

- Elder Brower

week 82

It's hot... Almost 90 degrees everyday at 100% humidity. Can't get much better than that! At least the rainy season down here is over. I'm happy about that one even though it still rains every now and then. Other than that, working down here in Okinawa is an experience to say the least. Still trying to stay on top of things! Having to work with both a military branch and a Japanese Ward is a challenge especially because there are over 100 people in each. I'm sure that this is nothing compared to other missions but for me, this has been a huge chang and it's nothing like what I've done before. But, it is keeping things interesting.

This area does have a lot of military living off base as well and this week we were able to house into a really nice guy named Hansen. We've taught him two lessons so far and we are going to help him in his garden this coming Saturday morning. He made us some salsa so in exchange for that we're going to do some work for him. Pretty even trade! We've also been meeting with a Japanese 32 year old named Tsubaki. We met him the day that I got here and we have been able to teach him twice a week since then. He has come to church twice and is a lot of fun to teach because he has all of the hard questions. All of them. But I've learned a lot about how we trust in our Heavenly Father and how we know that he speaks to prophets who guide us and... That is enough. I don't need to know much more than that and sometimes, that is all that I can testify to people. And that testimony is just as strong as an "actual" answer that I could give.

Love you all. 

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