Inspirational Stories...

"This week has been amazingly spiritual. Which is saying something, because everyday in the MTC is spiritual. But this week we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Kikutchi of the Seventy. It was amazing. I know he told his story in conference, but he gave more background that I would love to share with you: Elder Kikutchi's father was a successful fisherman in Japan before WWII. He owned a small buisness with over 50 employees. At the beginning of WWII, he was called to fight and he left his family for several years. During the war he was injured and returned home. Upon returning home he found his family and the families of his employees in desperate conditions. In order to feed the families, Elder Kikutchi's father took Elder Kikutchi and his employees out to fish. While they were fishing, they were attacked by an American submarine and everyone was killed but Elder Kikutchi, including his father. With his father gone, Elder Kikutchi's family became very poor and could not afford for him to go to school, so he was forced to move away to find work. He worked awful hours in poor conditions. He eventually became very sick and was taken to the hospital. The doctors could not help him and told him that he would soon die. That night in the hospital, although being raised a Buddhist, he prayed to Heavenly Father and asked that if there really was a God, that his life would be spared. Elder Kikutchi slowly recovered and was able to move to his grandmother's house near by the hospital. It was there that two American missionaries, on their P-day, knocked on his door. He was immediately angry because these men were Americans and America had killed his father. He told them to go away, but one of the missionaries told him that they had a story of a boy his age. Elder Kikutchi gave them 10 minutes, and the elders immeadiatly testified of the boy prophet Jospeh Smith and Elder Kikutchi's heart was touched. His whole talk was just amazing. It was amazing to see how even in a langauge you can barely speak, the Spirit testifies and teaches the truth. It was amazing to see how powerful the testimony of the First Vision was. And it was amazing to realize that those two missionaries found this great man on their P-day. They didn't have to knock doors that day. But they were going the extra mile and now millions of lives have been touched. It was just so amazing. We all walked away so touched.

**Note: From Robin: Madeleine attended my institute class with me one day before she left on her mission. The teacher told the above story of Elder Kikutchi. When she finished, an older gentleman on the front row raised his hand. When the teacher called on him, he said, "I was Elder Porter, one of those missionaries who knocked on Elder Kitkuchi's door that day." He told us the story from his point of view. It was amazing."