Dearest Family,
It is great to be talking to you again! Guess who has been in Japan for more than a month! Guess who is happier than ever to be serving the Lord!
I cannot express how much of a miracle it has been working with Matsuzaki kyoudai. He is getting baptized this weekend!!! Yay! We taught him the commandments last week and he said he does not really understand the reason for them all, but he will obey them so that he can obey God and be baptized. Golden. Yesterday after church we were doing a sort of testimony development review as he was filling out his baptismal record. We asked if he had any questions, and his question was why he has to wait a year to go to the temple. Do you know what that means? It means he has a desire to go to the temple! So we met Matsuzaki kyoudai three weeks ago, he is getting baptized next week, and he is already thinking about going to the temple. MIRACLE!
Monday night I had a really neat experience. We decided to go streeting next to our church building. The night before when we were planning, Dobson shimai had a specific place come to mind, which was just next to a seven eleven. As we were streeting, we were getting close to the seven eleven and we stopped somebody on her bike to talk to her and she talked back to us for a while. We invited her to come to the church with us so we could give her a tour and she said she would! However, she first wanted to stop in the seven eleven and buy herself some alcohol. So she did. As we walked over to the church and talked, I noticed how completely crazy this lady was. Ha honestly I just could not believe we were going to the church with her as she was talking away and drinking her alcohol and such. However, my mindset was changed quickly. Our church is five stories, so it is quite the hike to get to the top. The whole time, she was just talking away and oohing and aahing and asking *who is that?* *what is that?* and such. We finally got to the top floor of our church building and she got really excited to see a piano! She begged to play it and we let her. At first, she was just playing random keys, and I was worried. But then, these random keys started turning into actual chords and then music and before I knew it she was playing the most beautiful music ever! It was so incredible...I was almost brought to tears! Maybe because it was good music, but probably because it was somebody like this lady, (Fukushima san) who I thought was completely crazy, playing the piano so amazingly. I felt bad for thinking about how crazy Fukushima san was, because at that moment I just noticed how absolutely amazing she was. On our way down the church, she was asking away and talking just as crazily as before. We got down to the bottom floor and sat in the chapel. She was disappointed when she found out we would not be able to see God. Haha! But we began teaching her about her relationship with God, and I had pictures going through my mind of her being baptized, and of her going through the temple, and then all I was thinking about was how she is really a daughter of God! Fukushima san is a daughter of God! It was an amazing feeling.
Unfortunately, it has been a week of unfortunate events. We called Fukushima san on Friday to set up an appointment with her, and she said she was not interested and that we could not call her anymore. We visited her house on Saturday night, and she did not answer the door. To add to this unfortunate event, we dropped 8 other investigators this week! And now we only have 2 investigators!!! Once Matsuzaki san gets baptized, we will only have one investigator. Bah! This has definitely been a week of a lot of thinking and learning and trusting. At first, I was thinking the typical thoughts: *what am I doing wrong?* *why are we not seeing success?* Those are the thoughts that naturally come to my head. But I am so grateful for resources I have that helped me change my thoughts to more encouraging ones like *I will keep being faithful* *I know there are still 44 sheep in our area!* *This is Gods work and Gods timing and I am doing all I can to be Gods helpful instrument*. I have been studying a lot from PMG, the scriptures, and the talks from Zinke Kaicho, and I have received a lot of revelation. Something that really helped me this week was what I learned at the Trainer Trainee Training Meeting in Kobe on Tuesday. We talked about the sacrament and how important it is for us as missionaries. Because we can ONLY do missionary work with the Spirit, we need the Spirit. The only way to have that is by being worthy, and the only way to be worthy is through the atonement, and the best way for us to access the power of the atonement is through sacrament. We talked about how when we are worthy, we will be able to access the enabling power of the atonement. We will be able to do things that we as mortals can not do by ourselves, but that can only be accomplished with God:s help. Missionary work, the act of changing other humans hearts, is not possible without Gods help. It was an amazing discussion. Anyway, I have never been more excited for the sacrament as I was this week. Also, I have never given myself to the Lord more than I did this last week. Finally, I never had a stronger determination to go out and just work than I did last week. I have faith that as we continue to be obedient and plan with the Spirit and WORK, the Lords purposes will move forward.
So, adventure story of the week! On Saturday, we had a ward BBQ. This ward BBQ was about an hour bike ride away, but we were encouraged to go to it, so we did! It was a HOT HOT day, but we were riding our bikes so stinkin fast anyway. About 50 minutes into the bike ride, I sort of rode my bike into the rain drainage thing on the side of the road and my back tire popped! Ahh! We walked our bikes the rest of the way to the park...I felt super bad. A member took my bike to a bike shop and got it fixed during the BBQ. So nice! Anyway, this BBQ was unlike anything I have ever seen. In Japan, it is polite to prepare food when the guests arrive. So it is hard to do dinner appointments here because they should only last 1 hour, but the members do not like to begin preparing the food until the missionaries arrive. Anyway, we all gathered together in this park (which in Japan, they do not usually have grass, so it is just dirt. It kind of felt like camping.) They pull out a table, pull out a bowl, and put a bunch of ground meat in it, and people start mixing it up with their hands as other people are adding spices and then they roll the meat into balls and weigh them on a little scale thing and then flatten them and then stick them on the grill! All in a little patch of dirt between some trees. For the ward BBQ. Anyway, it was kind of gross to me, but the burger ended up tasting stinkin delicious! Oh by the park, there is a lake with turtles in it! So that was cool! We had to leave the BBQ early to get to Matsuzaki sans baptismal interview. However, we had to wait for my bike to be fixed, and by the time it was ready, we only had 35 minutes to get back to our church. So we rode fast and we got back in 35 minutes! I think it was harder than Ragnar. Haha we arrived just before Matsuzaki san did, and when he walked up to us and I stuck out my hand to shake his hand and I was sunburned and covered in mosquito bites and sweat, he looked scared. Haha. So, he passed his interview! Yay!! On the way back to our apartment, my front tire on my bike popped!! So instead of visiting people like we had planned, I had to go get my front tire fixed. Ha it was quite the day.
Anyway, that is it for my Japan adventures this week! I love you all! AND...the church is true!!!
Love,
Crofts shimai
Dad:
Mom:
Jason: Good luck this week with your MRI and your LSAT. I will be praying for you!! Sorry I did not answer your questions last week. There are just short of 200 missionaries in this mission. We do not have a yearly baptismal goal. We just know that there are about 1480 people in this mission who are ready to hear the gospel right now, and our goal is to become true disciples of Christ and find these people!
Becca: Thanks for the great email! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! You are so inspiring. And all the talk of pumpkin and stuff sounds just wonderful. Enjoy the fall season! And I will be praying super hard for Jason and for you and for your baby! Have you decided a name yet?
Peach: Thank you for the wonderful fabulous electronic dictionary. It is very very useful. Pretty much every missionary buys one, but they usually spend 200 or 300 dollars on it. So thank you! I do not know if my area is a bigger city than Salt Lake City, but I know there are a gazillion and one more buildings and a gazillion and two more people than in Salt Lake City. But I am kind of in a suburb area. So not big nice buildings...mainly just apartments. Sorry that you are sick...that is a huge downer. I want to be a smore for halloween. Not the whole smore, just the marshmallow. But that will have to wait for a couple years. Do not steal my idea.
Jana: Thanks for your email too! I love hearing about your life! The broadcast sounds great! I hope I can read the talks soon! Yum chicken enchilada soup is my favorite :)
Tyler: I always forget my quote book. BUT I know that God is real and I know that this is His work and I know that He is SOO ready to bless all the faithful missionaries.
Sarah: Hey you hey! Good luck with all your pageant stuff. It is fun huh? Go ahead and steal my on-stage question if you want. It got me some money! (all credit goes to mom...)
Dan: Whats up?? Do you like cold or hot better?
Joey: WHAT IS UP!!??
Grandpa V: Thanks again for the letter! You should be expecting one in the mail!
Cassi: Good luck entering the MTC!! I am super duper excited for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment