Elder Maxwell Steven Pohlman

Last Pday I took a ferry to a small Island. We biked to the top of a mountain to a massive statue of Buddha. There were a lot of monkeys 🐒 🙈.  We had zone conference. It was stressful. The food was insane. They dont mess around here.  We found an all you can eat meat/sushi/ice cream place for 2,000 yen. Its like 12 dollars.  SAKURA IS HERE! We are going to find some today.  I love Easter. This time of year has always been my favorite time of year. There is always a new sense of hope that comes in the spring.  I met a guy and he brought his daughter to english class. Not crazy, but it made me happy. すてきなぼうし The sacrament is awesome. -Elder Pohlman 

  Every week when I write an email, I think to myself how the words I write on this, will never express the feelings of the things I want to share.  I am currently a ZL of a Zone over Shikoku, which is a big Island in Japan. It is notoriously known for missionary work being hard. Missionaries will knock houses for days and not even get to talk to people. Yesterday we had the opportunity to do reports, and to hear about the missionaries in the zone. Every single companionship was overwhelmed with how many miracles they saw.  I would like to share one of mine. Yesterday we walked into church after a good week of hard work. We greated the members, and before we knew it, friend after friend started walking into the doors. There are 3 sets of missionaries in our area. A good week of missionary work in Japan is 1 friend to church. This week during our sacrament meeting there were 12 friends that came.  I have been reading about the Loaves and the fishes.  I sat in the...

  It was a good week.  I taught a lesson to a Buddhist monk in his temple. We talked about the restoration. His wife was loving it. One of the coolest things ever. The spirit can touch the hearts of everyone.  Elder Stevens got transferred. It was a good run. We did some good work together. Ill miss him. New Pokémon pack dropped....

  For a solid part of this week I was feeling super discouraged. Day in and day out for 5 weeks this transfer I have grinded. I have pushed myself, in the hopes of finding, teaching, and helping someone else come to the joy of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. But very little success has been seen. I have spent a lot of time in the scriptures. I have pondered, and prayed a lot regarding the people I am serving, and my missionary work. I have had hope and faith that the lord would magnify my efforts. Recently I had an experience after reading about the story of Joseph Smith. When God the father, and Jesus Christ appeared to him.  I thought, "How am I , or how are we any different than he was? " I knelt down on my kitchen floor of a small little room in Takamatsu Japan. I prayed with all my heart to have the mysterys of God unfolded unto me... During the past 6 months I have sought after a lot of things. I have sacrificed a lot of things in order to hopefully become a more devot...

  I went on a 4 day vacation this week around the mission.....  We had to go go meetings, exchanges, and our zone is massive so traveling takes forever.  We had a lot of cool conversations this week on the street. Everyday we go to an outdoor mall thing and talk to people for 3-4 hours. Its so much fun! There is a public piano that I cook on!  We met a professional photographer! He took this cool picture! I pulled an SAR Pokémon card! Is it good? Pls let me know! Its shiny and looks cool!  A friend that we have been teaching for a while finally came go church!  I went to the beach on P-Day.  Our friend told us that she lives in a temple, and her husband is a monk.....full orange fit and bald.... She gave us a tour of her temple. Pretty sick!  The work here is so much fun!  My highlight of the week was sacrament meeting. I love Jesus Christ. I love being able go hear the testimonies of members here.  aefeinauer@icloud.com -ポールマン長老より❤️