Thursday, October 16, 2014

Sorry y'all (Arkansas has ruined me)!

Kelson's Dad here, this is his letter from 10-16-2014. Kelson only has two weeks from tomorow (Mon 10-20) till he flys to Japan. Keep praying for him (and writing him)! His best friend Jeff Crippen got his mission call this week to Japan too (see below). He also attached several photos of the missionaries in his district in various poses of sleeping!!



Sorry y'all (Arkansas has ruined me) get a short one this week.
I'm not even sure what to write really, It was a fairly bland week. Had a fairly rough week too. I got some food poisoning Sunday, so I was out of commision that night, the next morning, and monday night. That was fun, and yesterday I had an awful migraine. Story of my life. But that's ok. We just kind of had a normal week besides that. Study, Class, Study, Class. The big highlight was probably Tuesday night. We had a devotional from Elder Lawrence of the 70. It was kind of scary. The whole beginning of the talk was about all the ways that Satan get's at us, and all the ways he will attack us. It kind of made me feel weak. The worst part was that as he was talking about this, the camera was just slowly zooming in on him, so it was way intimidating. However, he proceeded afterwords to talk about all the ways that we can defend ourselves, and all the things we have against him.
Quoting i think Genesis, where God casts Satan out of the Garden of Eden "Thou Mayest have power to bruise his(her) heal, but he(she) shall have power to crush thy head." That is so awesome. Satan may be able to attack us and hurt us, but we can stop him and get him to stop so easily. One of the things that he brought to mind, was that unless we let him, Satan cannot hear our thoughts. He can force thoughts on us, but he can not read our minds. The other side of that though is that we can't just think the words "Depart Satan", but we need to Vocalize it. If you are ever being overly tempted, and just need him to back off, just tell him, Outloud, "Depart Satan", and then Quote scripture. If you feel weird saying that phrase, you can use Heber J. Grants favorite saying from when he was a kid, and say "Mr Devil.... Shut up" It works too. Remember that when Jesus was tempted, each time he vocally told Satan to leave, and then quoted scripture. I'm not sure where that is in the scriptures but he would say "Satan Depart, for it is written...." i'm paraphrasing, but obviously it works.
So yeah that was the highlight of my week. Oh also if you didn't hear, and you know who he is, JEFF FRACKEN CRIPPEN GOT HIS CALL TO NAGOYA JAPAN. NAGOYA FRACKEN JAPAN. So stoked for him. It's so awesome that he get's to go there. The Lord is truly hastening his work. I know this is true with every fiber of my being. I love you all. I miss you, but the Lord needs me in Japan so I got to go. I'll see you all in 22 and 1/2 months (man how the time flies)
みな愛しています。
エリオット長老
My companion, and Tsuru Choro playing with the guns that we've got.

Mac Johnson Sleeping durning Personal Study.

This is something I found in one of the classrooms :)  
me with a Japanese flag in my hands

This is my selfies with the nihonjin elders (from japan). This is Ikeda Choro.
Ishijima Choro. Ikeda Choro is the smart aleck that is photo-bombing us. 

 and district leader (below) asleep during personal study. 
This is my companion (the one in the suit)...


This is my teacher Kawamura Kyodai sleeping during our 5 minute break