Spring is on the Rise!

Week 76 - March 13, 2017
I'm hoping it gets warms and stays like that soon 'cause then more people are outside to talk to!
This week's was pretty interesting at least I think it was, but I don't remember it 'cause it goes so fast.

Wednesday: We had a meeting in Shonandai to watch the broadcast that was supposed to be just for mission presidents, but it was announced that the missionaries should watch it as well. So we did that but there's a twist. Elder Murata and I were asked to translate the meeting.... so the things people were saying weren't too bad to translate but when we watched the broadcast and had to translate the general authorities, that was a bit rough. If it was Japanese to English that's a lot easier but I had to do English to Japanese which is way annoying. But it was a lot of fun and I feel like I did pretty alright with the Lord's help and also realized how much I have to keep studying Japanese. I'm convinced I still don't speak Japanese.

After the meeting we went back to our church where we met with a guy who was desiring to get baptized. He had some things to work out and fix before he could do that so we told him directly that he has to meet the standards and then he can get baptized. I felt just way uncomfortable the entire time meeting with him and could just tell he wasn't ready by the prompting from the spirit. He wanted to get baptized on the 12th even though he wasn't ready so we had to tell him straight up that it wasn't happening 'cause a lot of Japanese people are indirect and don't say things that need to be said. So that was interesting as well.




On Thursday we had zone meeting! It was super good being able to tell everyone the information from MLC. The zone seemed to accept it and want to apply it without problem. They are all super awesome and want to work hard which is way wonderful. We taught them about teaching repentance and baptizing converts which is what the broadcast focused on. We are trying to help people repent in every phase of missionary work. We made a plan as a zone and everyone seems way excited about carrying it out and we expect to see a lot of miracles and improvement.

Friday we had a pretty normal day except in the evening we had exchanges with the Kawasaki elders. We were able to find 2 potential investigators in a really short amount of time so that was way sick. They were both around 22,23 which is the best age group for us to teach. One of them is a girl we referred to the sisters but we are gonna go back and visit the other guy to see how he's doing later. The rest of the split continued into Saturday where we just did dendo all day. We went over towards the ocean to see what was over there but sadly it was a lot of factories and a U.S Army dock so we couldn't proselyte there. But regardless, we found some other places to knock on doors and say hi to people. I accidentally knocked on the back door of a bento box store so now I can say that I have tried to dendo a restaurant.

Sunday was great. Sacrament was great. Members are great. We had an awesome experience as well! We went to go visit a member but he wasn't home. His house is right next to a parking lot and while Elder Murata was writing a note to the member, I said "hi" to this random guy who was getting stuff out of his van. He said hi back and I did the whole missionary introduction and asked him how he was doing. He said he was doing great and that he was Christian. From there we proceeded to have a 45 min conversation about Christianity and what he believes and we taught him about the restoration and the BoM. He was super friendly and cool and accepted the BoM. He then said "wait here I'm gonna get you some drinks 'cause it's cold and you are volunteers," and Elder Murata quickly told him we don't drink like a specific tea and coffee and he's like "ok!" So we wait and he comes back with a different tea that we can't drink. And I'm like, Oh no this is terrible! So we tell him that we're sorry but we can't drink that and he's like "oh really, ok wait here." So he proceeds to go back to the little convenient store and comes back with 2 cups and I'm like, Oh no, what could it be this time. He shouts "it's hot chocolate!" So I'm thinking, Ok this is sweet, I found the nicest man ever. He told me to taste it and I said it was wonderful. He also said "there are good wonderful Christian people here in Japan even if it doesn't really seem like it sometimes." That really helped me out to see that people do still have a desire to follow Christ even here in Japan. People really are prepared and the gospel will keep going forth.

That's all for this week and today we are going to play some frisbee so I'll send the pictures from that if I can get any. Love you all. Here's a picture of me looking weird at the temple as well.


The gospel is the best