Elder Tolen's Adventures in the Japan, Tokyo South Mission: Week 10: Climbing Up Mountains and Falling Off Bikes

This week was good! Well, yesterday was a little bit hard, but the rest of the week was amazing!

A lot happened! I'll get the hard part out of the way first. So yesterday was such a hard day. We had an investigator come and watch a baptism, and he loved it! He said he loved how the Spirit felt, so I invited him to be baptized, and he said no. So I asked why, and he said it was a secret. I told him that we wanted to help him, but we can't help him unless he tells us what's going on, and after that he just said, "I'm going to go home now," which really bummed us out. And then, you remember that story I told in an email a few weeks ago about an investigator we had, and we had a great lesson, but we had to give him to the other elders? Well, we've been trying to get in contact with him recently, and he hasn't answered. We finally got a call from him, and he told us that he'll call us when he wants to meet, and if we call him again, he's going to call the cops. That was nice. It was a fun day.

But Saturday was amazing! I got to hike a mountain called Mount Takao! And I brought an investigator that I met on splits, and he brought his friend! It was great. I really feel like he is someone that I'm going to be close to for the rest of my life. And every time I meet him I feel it more and more.

Mount Takao was great, but there was a lot of ice and mud. So that made things kind of difficult, but oh well! It was all worth it once we got to the top and got to see the true Majesty of God's work. It really is amazing. It brought to mind that story that Cook Kyoudai told me in the MTC about how God created all of those mountains, so I could never have a problem that He couldn't fix. It was really nice.

We also had our president's interviews this week, which was awesome. President Wada is awesome. Some mission presidents get you to work hard, and some get you to work smart, but President Wada helps you work inspired. I learn so much from him; he is an amazing man. President and Sister Wada are like my Japanese parents; they are both so amazing. Sister Wada is like the entire mission's mom, always worrying about every missionary's health. It's funny--President Wada always says,"If you're sick, don't tell me. I don't care!" (He's kidding, kind of..hahahahahaha!) "Tell my wife. She will take care of you." It's great.

I also got into my first bike crash this week! It was pretty cool. I came around a corner and there was some black ice, so my bike decided that the best course of action was to go horizontal, so yeah! My front wheel is kinda weird now, but I'm good! I didn't even rip my suit! That was a miracle in and of itself. I just have a little bruise on my hip, but other than that, nothing! The Lord was looking out for me.