How Sweet the Sentence Is,

 Early morning Provo Temple walk​

こんにちは！

Unfortunately, I don't have the greatest news below this right here, but I promise I have great news later on:

I have come home from the MTC. I've been struggling with anxiety and my leaders, counselors, and I agree that I need to rest. I'm going to see a counselor to help me feel better about the stresses I have going on. Once I'm feeling better, I'll be in a better place to make a decision about my future.  The good news is that my options are still open. It's possible that I could still serve a full time mission. It's possible that I could do a service mission. It's possible I'll move on and go to college. But what matters now is that I am getting the help I need and I can start healing and feeling better. I appreciate all the love, prayers, and support on my behalf and on my family's behalf. I would never be near as close to where I am without your love and support and I wish I could say more than, "I love you, and thank you."

Now here's the good news, that sweet sentence as titled above: 

He Lives!

My goodness, if I could bear a testimony to hopefully guide you, to invite and help you on the right track it's this simple phrase: He Lives!

Brothers, Elders, Sisters, Friends, Family, I testify of His love for each and every one of us. God loves you. Christ walks with you. The Holy Ghost comforts you. They are aware of you and love you more than you can imagine.

I know that this is His church and I would never doubt it for a moment. I testify that the Book of Mormon is indeed a true testament of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And through Him, we can do all things. All we need is a particle of faith. And if that's too much, than we just need to hope in that. If you haven't tried it out for yourself, then I urge you will all my heart and being: Try it. And God will bless you forever for it. Read the Book. And as soon as you finish, read it again. And the sooner you finish it, the sooner you can finish it again.

I say this, and bear testimony of it in His Holy Name, Jesus Christ, 

Amen.

To lighten the mood a bit more, I have a list of fun random things to include I did not include in previous Emails -- these are in no particular order, and more than likely, better explained in person:

- My shoulder bag is haunted,

- I only lost one chess game because Blake 

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Chōrō wouldn't accept defeat and melted my brain

- There's no such thing as too many cookies

- God makes things work out for everyone

- Missionary work doesn't stop here, it goes on and on

- Reach out and help a friend in need -- there are so many, just help them

- Learn the Language of the Spirit, it's more important than any other

- Ask me more!

I love you all so very much, and I thank our Heavenly Father each and every day for it. Thank you. 'Til we meet again!

~ Elder North

思い出：

Our (messy) Classroom​

Provo Temple​

Class in Session​

 Provo Utah Girls would marry a tree if it served a mission (confirmed!)​

Testimonial Gardening Tips from Elder North

Phew! Crazy day! It's a bit later than usual when I would send this. I've been thinking about major things that has newly happened at the MTC. And honestly, I'm finding it pretty difficult coming up with new stuff to say. And as I ponder over my journal and translate it over to an Email, I've got some things to say here:

Take a look at this scripture reference with the Vision of the Tree of Life in mind and with this thought -- the word is Christ and His Authorized Servants:

(Alma 32: 27-28)

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

(Emphasis added)

Did you catch that? The seed of the Tree of Life can not only be a destination for a person or group of people, but also the person in their core as well. The Tree of Life can also be interpreted as missionary work at its center. How marvelous it is to give the fruit to others -- and here's another fun part! What's inside of fruit, other than deliciousness? Seeds! More seeds!

I'm no farmer, but can you imagine a whole world full of orchards of the Lord? Testimonies and others helping glorious forests? 

But here's where it begins. The seed. The seed, or the word of the Lord, in our hearts. And that seed has to break and take root before it grows onwards and upwards.

Man, this church is true!

As for some other minor things to explain:

Yes, I'm feeling better. I have a teensy tiny cough now. The Shimai-tachi in my District made sure I was doing fine -- they're an awesome mix between mothers and sisters.

We have new District Leaders! Elder Rupp and Elder Juchau are now the new top guys. I like them a lot. (Though, I really enjoyed Elder Andersen and Elder Mckinzie as our leaders)

We hosted some new missionaries today. It was kinda confusing since they were dropping them off in an underground parking lot under one of the new buildings. But I helped a young Elder who is going to Slovakia! Neato!

I'll never stop thanking you for your love and support. And if I don't mention it directly (because I'm sure I may forget a week or two of doing so) in my Email, I still think about each of you daily. My family and friends are so important to me. So again, thank you, and I love you.

~ Elder North

Pictures!

Not too many this week, I need to get better at shooting people. :3

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This is an older Throwback, but ContadiniChōrō trapped our district leaders for half an hour because he opened the elevator doors, making it override and stop for half an hour.​

Not too shabby for a guy without Photoshop. I enjoyed taking and editing this picture.​

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Juchau Chōrō wanted some practice before leaving to Japan.​

In Sickness and in Health

Getting sick isn't all that bad.​

ALT. TITLE: A Hot Summer ​Cold

This week has been another adventure! The weeks are beginning to blur and I find myself having a difficult time finding new things to talk about.

Unfortunately, I had caught a cold. A cold in the summer?! I'm shocked too. I had talked with my Branch President about this and he says it's not uncommon. In fact, he had a three-week long cold two weeks ago! Which he admitted that it could have been possible that I caught it from him. No hard feelings, President Murdock!

But isn't that one of the coolest things about the Atonement? Christ didn't just suffer for everyone's sins, but he also suffered pains and afflictions. Basically, he suffered all sorts of cancers, broken bones, sniffles, and pinches of pain. What a blessing it is to have Him as a comfort.

On Monday I was officially diagnosed by the MTC doctor with a cold and asked that I took it easy. So all day Tuesday was nothing but sleeping and drinking water. Various 

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Chōrōs took "shifts" in taking care of me. Which really meant that they got to take a nap with me.

Now today was especially cool. The Provo Temple needs some help repairing some things and they asked our district to help set up some wallpaper! The prior wallpaper had to be removed, but the walls were severely damaged because of it. We didn't remove it, but new plaster had to be smothered on the wall to strengthen it. Our job was to sand down the details in the corners to make sure that when the wallpaper would lay flat, no bumps would be found. Thinking about plastering walls made me think about the film, From Up on Poppy Hill with Umi's little sister. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, but it was quite strange being in Temple Work Clothes and sanding down the walls with a sponge and dust mask. Brother Jensen, the main contractor, had said we had done a fantastic job for three hours that would have taken his team ten hours to finish. It was wonderful to even slightly help rebuild His kingdom here on earth.

Welp, that's all the highlights for this week! 

I love each and every one of you!

-- 

​~ノース長老

Rupp Chōrō's smirk as I beat him in chess.​

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Blake Chōrō had a hard time admitting defeat.​

 

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Mckinzie Chōrō is friends with the guy from the Meet the Mormons, "Bless4" video! Apparently, the 

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Chōrō who went to L.A. helped convert Mckinzie's friend!​

The Shimai-tachi are super cool.​

日本語のネームタグ！(I'll get shot with it on later)​

I love this book! I couldn't help taking a picture of it.​

Notice Me, Senpai!

I've been gone for how long now? Man, the days go by really slow, but the weeks are flying by! I can hardly keep track of the different things we've done over this last week, but here's the adventures I've got:

The Stadium of Fire!

Last Saturday, July 1st, we watched the "Stadium of Fire".  The BYU sports stadium has a fun firework show as we celebrated our independence.

I loved talking about our religious freedoms that we have in this amazing country. I really do love this country.  I don't think I can properly explain my love for it other than God really does Bless America. Of course, this includes the rest of the world, but you know.

Sunday was the last time we saw our Dai-Senpai, but I left a small sticky note for them telling them that we loved them and we were grateful for their Christ-like example. They left around 2:30am on Monday.

Me, Blake 

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Chōrō, Juchau 

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Chōrō, and Rupp 

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Chōrō

And the latest adventure I had was today. I am no longer a Kohai, but a mighty Senpai! All the new missionaries coming in were just about as nervous as I was, but I'm glad I was spared from the torture the Dai-Senpai inflicted. Contadini Chōrō, one of the (former*) Dai-Senpai, pretended he was one of the Kohai and only spoke Portuguese (even though he's pretty good at English). As I type, I'm sure he's still doing it now.

I'll make sure to politely shoot them and get to know them better, but there's 34 more total! That more than doubles our Japanese Zone compared to yesterday! I have no idea how the rest of the MTC is going to hold everyone.

* Portugal isn't very lenient on visas, so he has to wait up to ten days before he's shipped off to Japan. So now he's our Dai-Dai-Senpai.

 Class Mogi (Roleplay)​

Batman Kanji (the smaller letters, furigana, tell you how to pronounce it: 

"NaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNa -- BATMAN!")

 This is probably the same stone that hid the brass plates.​
(Rock at the MTC)

The Sacrament Prayers in Japanese​

Rupp 長老 has a small chess set! I'm happy he brought that.  Even though Chess can sometimes be stressful, it's good to know I've still got some tricks up my sleeve, and not to brag, but I think I'm the best in my Zone. Blake 長老 thinks otherwise.

My mission scripture. Can you guess why I like it?

Overall, is the MTC hard? Absolutely. But I'm learning this:

- One Day at a Time

- Let the MTC Change You

- Don't Forget that You're Not Alone

- Keep Tending to That Tree That is Your Testimony

- A Testimony is Knowing

- Conversion is Acting

- Christ Walks by Our Side Every Step of the Way

- Japanese is Not the Primary Thing I Need to Work On

Thank you for all of your amazing love and support!

~ Elder North

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ノース長老

My amazing district

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P.S. We have Zone Pictures! The ones I'll mainly share in my Emails will be from our district, but I'll send a link to those who'd like to see the other crazy Chōrō-tachi, just send me an Email and next week I'll reply with the Drive File! Oh! And the best time to send me Emails is pretty much any day except Wednesday, because I'm only given an "hour" to send this, but I can read Emails any time during the week, when appropriate of course.

Also, sorry if these Emails don't make too much sense, since many times they have to be a little rushed. They'll get better when I don't have quite as much to say.

-- 

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​~ノース長老