First of all, remember Matsuzaki san? We met him last week when the Lord directed us right to his apartment at right the exact time and he said he wanted to be taught. We taught him about God on Sunday, then we talked about God and prayer on Monday. We felt like we should extend the baptismal invitation, which is weird because usually in Japan that does not come until the fourth or fifth or sixth lesson. Anyway, we asked if he would be baptized, and he said YES! YAY!!!! That is exciting news! For us and for his girlfriend and for everybody in heaven I am sure! We were SO HAPPY! So we taught him again on Saturday and again on Sunday and we have another lesson with him tonight! He is a fantastic investigator. We can definitely tell he has been SO prepared by the Lord. We will teach him a simple concept, then he will think through it and explain it back to us, and then ask just the right kind of question. It is always the kind of question that lets us know that he has really been thinking through it, and it almost always leads right into what we had planned on teaching next. He has such a strong desire to know for himself the truth. It is an honor and a privilege to work with somebody so prepared by the Lord!
Griffin shimai and I were alone again for a couple days this week. Of course, the thought of being alone for two days scared me to death. My Japanese skills are slowly improving...but SLOWLY. So I was worried because I knew that we probably would not have much success, because we cannot do much. However, on Wednesday during companionship study, we read *Finding People* from PMG as part of the 12 week training program. That section talks a lot about how we have the power of God with us, and as we testify with the Spirit, it will reach the hearts of the people and they will be able to recognize us as servants of God. After reading and discussing this section, I was beyond excited to go out and testify of the great message of the Restoration. I was praying so hard and completely relying on the Lord*s power (because I still do not speak Japanese. Haha reallly...). We were streeting by the Mikunigaoka eki. As usual, we would go up to people and after saying we are missionaries for Christs church (because nobody here understands what latter day saints is. In fact a most have never even heard of Christ.), they would all say something like *I am busy* or *kekko* or whatever. After about ten minutes, we finally went up to somebody who was willing to listen past our simple introduction. So immediately I bore my testimony that I know God loves everyone, and I asked her if she wanted to learn more, and she said YES! The power of testimony is so real! We set up a time to meet with her and got her phone number. Unfortunately, because I was so excited and I am still inexperienced, I forgot to set up a place to meet, and she has not been answering her phone. However, it was such a testimony to me that God really is working through me and as I bear testimony of this powerful message, I will be able to find people who are ready to hear the gospel. The rest of the day as we were streeting and housing, even though we continued to get *kekko*ed, I was just so proud to be putting forth all my efforts to bear such a powerful message.
On Thursday we always do weekly planning, which takes hours. So we usually do not have much time to go out and find more people. However, we decided to take just half an hour in between weekly planning and a lesson to go out streeting. We were by the eki, but we just got kekkoed a bunch, so at the end of that half hour, we were going back to our bikes and we saw an old lady walking down another road. We decided to go talk to her. Good decision! Dobson shimai went up to her and said the liked her hat, and this lady just started talking like crazy! I did not understand a word she said, but she was just talking on and on and on and she looked so happy and excited to see us! Before i knew it, we were walking to our church with her, and then we sat in our chapel and she talked some more. Dobson shimai let me know what was going on. This lady is 89 years old. She lives next to our church. She had been going to another Christian church, but about a year ago she moved away and so she has not gone to church yet and she said she has been really sad because she can not go to church. She asked us if there was any way we would allow her to come to our church. YES! We invited her to church and she was so excited to come!
Haha so there is a typhoon here right now. That basically means that it is raining hard and it is windy, but everybody has been making a big deal about it. A lot of people do not come to church when there is a typhoon. We had quite a few people tell us they would come to church if it was not raining. This old lady we met did not come to church, probably because of the weather. Anyway, it is raining and I love it. But that is all haha.
On Saturday we had about 15 minutes in between two things, so we decided to go stop by one of our old investigators houses. She is a young teenager, and she had to stop taking lessons with us because she has to spend all of her time studying for a college entrance exam that is in April. The teenagers here study like crazy!! It is hard because they are the people who are most interested in our religion, but they can never meet because they always have to study. Anyway, we stopped by her house to give her a little bag with little sweettarts from Dobson shimais dad (I do not know if I ever mentioned that he visited her last week. He spoke in church and ate at the members home with us.) So we gave her this little bag, and she went in her house and came out with a big bag full of big fruits! THey are these apple/pear fruit things that are more than 2 dollars each and they are huge and delicious! She gave us 5 of them, which is a lot. Then she asked if she could meet us at the church this week for a lesson! How does missionary work get any easier? So we are meeting with her this week. I am excited because she is so happy and nice!!
Yesterday at church I understood a lot more of the Japanese! yAY! (OOPS THIS KEYBOARD IS CRAZY AND i JUST SWITCHED INTO CAPS LOCK AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO CHANGE IT.) THE PEOPLE IN THIS AREA OF JAPAN SPEAK REALLY BAD JAPANESE. THE JAPANESE SISTER WHO IS IN MY APARTMENT SAID SHE HAS A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING THEM, AND OUR INVESTIGATOR MATSUZAKI SAN SAID HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND AT ALL ONE OF THE MEMBERS WE BROUGHT TO A LESSON. ANW\YWAY, WE GOT A NEW BISHOPRIC YESTERDAY, SO OUR STAKE PRESIDENT, WHO LIVES IN A DIFFERENT AREA, CAME TO SPEAK AND I ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD PROBABLY 60 PERCENT OF HIS TALK!
OKAY SORRY ABOUT THE ALL CAPS. I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW THAT I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!! AND I LOVE LOVE LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
LOVE,
KRIS
O P.S. IT IS A HOLIDAY HERE IN JAPAN. *RESPECT THE ELDERS DAY*. SO GRANDPARENTS, I LOVE YOU.
Dad: My bike riding is super pro now. I have 6 gears on my bike, but even after all of the many many lessons you gave me on gears, I still do not really understand them. So I stay on gear 4. But it is flat here so I would not change it much anyway. We went to a different area for district meeting this week, and there were so many hills! I was dying trying to walk up the hill to the church it was SOO steep! So I hope if I go to that area ever I can figure out gears. Also I hear there are monkeys in that area. Cool!
Mom: I found more tennis courts right next to my apartment. If you ever feel like google earthing Mikunigaoka, you could find our church building, and our apartment is near by, and then you could see all the tennis courts. And you could look up Kanaoka park and see all the tennis courts there too. It is a fun city!
Jason and Becca: Thanks for the emails. And thanks for warning me about dads letter Jason. Unfortunately, my mind had already been dirtied by it. Becca, I still can not get over how cute your belly is. Hahaha. There are lots of cute decorating things and such that remind me of you here.
Peach and Jana: How is life?
Saud: Congrats on turning 17!!!! Ahh my dear little sister HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! O TANJOBI OMEDETO GOZAIMASU!!! I LOVE YOU!!!! Oh and congrats on being asked to homecoming! How is life?
Dan: school sounds like fun! I used to walk through the field where your school is now every day on my way home from the bus stop.
Joe: the church is true. How is karate?
I LOVE YOU ALL! BYE BYE!
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