4-13-25 Jahs Listen, Jahs Trahs

Another great week as a missionary! Continuing to learn and grow every day. I do truly love being a missionary! This week the Lord blessed us with so many hands of the Lord moments. Times in which, in tears people decided to make covenants with God, sacred experiences that I am excited to share when I come home in 20 years. Hand of the Lord moments, whether it be being punted, opening the opportunity for learning to take place or a random thought of inspiration, or simply the thought of in the hard times and rejections, that the Lord is there by your side, and when they reject you, they reject him too. These thoughts and inspirations has brought me so much comfort, as well as confidence in becoming a missionary! However there is one experience in particular, that I'd like to share! Yesterday, while sitting in General Conference, I realized that I made a mistake. There at 8:30, telling all my friends it started at 9, I realized it started at 7:30 and we were late! What gave me comfort, is that the next session would play at 10! However as sitting through the first session, the strongest feeling came, to go outside and wait for investigators. The Church we had conference at this past week, was a little ways out of our area, and the door to enter is a little hard to find. Following the impression, we went outside, and were able to invite an inactive member we invited into the Church, and following her back in. Sitting down again, the impression came back, unsure why, knowing I just came from the outside, regarded it as "naught" and esteemed it my own urgency to wish and wait for friends to come outside. "I was just there" "The Lord would have told you to stay outside instead of going back and forth". There was a moment of that, trying to figure out if the thought was from myself, or an actual inspiration. I said a quick prayer in my heart, Lord, is this is prompting that you want me to follow? Immediately feeling the answer in my chest, got up again, and walked back out of the chapel. There we were, perfect timing, as one of our friends showed up with her daughter, to come into Church, and we led her in! I was thankful for this experience, and this priceless lesson I continue to learn, everyday on my mission. About following the promptings of the Spirit. Its the simplest experiences Theyre thoughts, subtle and almost caught sometimes as our own, and the reality is, if its our own, or if its from God, if it could have any possibility to be positive, IT DOESNT MATTER, DO IT! Whether it be a thought to stop at a house, smile to someone walking by, helping someone, giving someone a random call, these thoughts come. Its when we understand, that we truly understand nothing, that the Lord can truly make something of us. Just jahs, jahs listen. We were thankful for our friends who got baptized this past week, Ashley Guevarra & Liam Reñeses, this is the start of a lifetime of spiritual experiences. Aloha nō, ELDER ISHIBASHI