Goodbye Japan

    Elder Earl (2014 picture)

Well, I can't believe it's already here, but I am writing my last email as a missionary of the Japan Sendai Mission. The last two years have honestly flown by. I don't really know what to put in this last
email, as I'll be able to talk to all of you in person soon enough.

I'll explain more of my week in person, but I'll just say how yesterday went:

To celebrate the Suzukis heading off on their mission and the return home of Greenburg Choro and I, the ward held a shokujikai in the evening, requesting that we invite Eikaiwa students and friends. I
could honestly hardly believe the turnout as nearly the entire Ward came bearing delicious food as well as a fair amount of other people. The less active family that we've been working with came, a few
investigators of the others came, and a few Eikaiwa students showed up
as well. It's probably at that moment that my return home finally started to sink in. Seeing so many people that I care about really showed me the blessing that the mission has had on my life. You head
out expecting to be the one blessing others with maybe a strengthened
testimony as a reward, but I can personally promise that the mission
changes you and your life completely. I'm leaving Yamagata with no regrets other than the fact that my time here was so short. I feel like there is so much more left to do here, which the certainly is,

but I won't be an active participant in it.

Thank you for all the support you've given me throughout the mission.
I'm so grateful that I was called to the best mission in the world, the one I needed the most. I talked with Greenburg Choro last night and we agreed that we wouldn't trade the personal growth we've
experienced here for the hundreds of baptisms we could have seen in
Africa or elsewhere. I can see clearly now, after two years have passed, why I came to this place. Even though I felt overwhelmed when I first got here, I have been able to learn enough Japanese to have few problems with conversation and even sit Japanese-style for nearly
half an hour without collapsing.

I'll talk more soon! Save the deep questions for then!

愛しているヨ！

アール長老