Aug 25, 2008

Dear Mom,
Well, first thing first I did transfer. I am in an area called Otsu. It is right by the biggest lake in Japan. And when I say big I mean huge. Well, I am in japan anything big looks huge. I am here with elder Shinozaki. Another Japanese companion. Oh and he speaks English too. But, I am trying to get the Japanese practice in as well. We are doing awesome. He is way cool. He is actually really new. This is only his 2nd transfer. But things are going awesome. The second day here we found two new investigators. That was way cool. Both are way cool guys. The ward here is way sweet, they just have, what we call dendo fire, which means they really want to work hard with the missionaries. I am really excited to work here right now. I feel like things are going to be really awesome here. Right now I am doing the District leader thing. It has been really fun, but I feel so old. The district is a bunch of young guys. I feel so old. Man this is really weird how time is just moving so fast. It is a scary thought sometimes.What I really like about chapter 6 (preach my gospel), and if I am correct, sorry I am not carrying my PMG with me, but if I am correct that is the Christlike Attributes section. And what I like about it is at the end there is that test you can take to kind of rate yourself and see areas that you need to improve and then you can focus on those areas. Really study those things you need work on. It has really helped me a lot. I am really grateful I have been raised in the church too. Yet, I am not perfect. I have made some mistakes, some really stupid mistakes. Like I...we strive to become perfect, but what Elder Stevenson said when he was here, "you are not perfect." We will make mistakes throughout our lives, but from those mistakes we learn, and become better. I have had "I wish I had..." moments, but that is in the past. What we should do is look learn and look to the future. Make things better for our future, cause the past is already done. I am truly grateful for this gospel. For the things it teaches me, and how from all I learn in the scriptures from living prophet`s words today, I can learn how to be a better person. That through Christ i can be clean from my sins, from my mistakes. This is really a truly amazing gospel. And I get to share it with the Japanese people. In Japanese. I still think that is weird sometimes, that I am speaking Japanese. So things are going great right now and will get even greater. I love you mom, and miss you so much. Talk to you later. Love Your son,
Elder Lane Ashmore