Hello Family!
Well, we are still moving along here in Katsura! This week was much the same as last, given the fact that we only taught one lesson again. We are enduring the cold well, and except for the signs of frostbite on a few of my toes, we are healthily marching on! Work is a lot different here in Katsura as we are working to build up an investigator pool, and even though I do not have nearly as many different experiences as I was having in Mikunigaoka, I still feel like every week of my mission is the new best week of my mission! Because we spend a lot of time outside just walking or knocking on doors, I have had more time to think about the calling of being a missionary and the relationship I have with the Lord and the millions of people here who are waiting to hear the gospel. I felt some really powerful things last week that helped me realize even more how marvelous this work is! Now I just hope to be able to share this message with more people!
Last week on the bus on our way to district meeting, I was talking to the lady sitting next to me, and she was so nice. She came to Kyoto at about the same time I did, so we were both fairly new. We had a good conversation about her job and family and hobbies and my family and what I am doing here in Japan. She said she was happy she got to talk to me and then she got up and left. Well, this week after interviews with President Zinke, we were waiting for the elders so we could catch the bus back with them, but then sister Zinke started talking to us, so after a while the elders just left. We ended up staying at the church a lot longer than we had planned. We finally got on the bus and began heading back to Kyoto and a few but stops into the ride, that same lady walked on! So I went up and began to talk to her again, and it was so good! We talked about church and she said she actually goes to church and she loves it and she loves singing hymns and she said she felt something different talking with me. It was so AWESOME! Unfortunately, the end of that contact turned into what most of the other ones do...she said she was busy and if she had the opportunity she would come to church or meet with us, but we were not able to exchange contact information. That was sad, but I was still so happy that the Lord led us right to this lady again and I am praying for an opportunity to meet again!
We were finally able to meet with Misato chan again on Saturday. It was a fabulous lesson! She is a funny girl...we have had a hard time knowing if she is actually meeting with us to learn about God or if she is a gaijin bandit. (likes foreigners.) It may still be a little bit on the gaijin bandit side of things. Sometimes we feel like she might be answering our questions with what she thinks we would want to hear just so the lesson can move on and keeping commitments just to please us. However, during this lesson on Saturday I noticed things that convinced me otherwise. We taught her the GOSH chart, and I love this lesson because it is where we introduce eternal life. After some simple explanations and powerful testimonies, she really REALLY wanted eternal life. We then explained about the obstacles that keep us from it but how God gave us Jesus Christ to help us return and in order to receive that help you must be baptized and so we invited her to be baptized and she accepted without hesitation!! Again this could have been an acceptance just to please us, But as we were reviewing the lesson at the end, we had her go through and explain what she had learned, and when she got to the Jesus Christ part, she actually got emotional. She got choked up as she talked about her gratitude toward Jesus Christ for helping her to be able to return to God. It was a touching moment for me because even though I have worked with many different investigators, I have never seen an investigator have that much love for Jesus Christ before. And three weeks ago, Misato chan had never even heard about Jesus Christ! What a wonderful experience!
I am still waiting to visit the Buddhist temple. Last week we had to take an emergency run to the store and buy me some boots and Hunt shimai a coat because the deathly cold hit! And this week we had something set up with a PI...she was going to take us around Kyoto city to different shrines and things, but we have to go to the hospital now because Hunt shimai has a rash, so hopefully NEXT week I will have experienced some of the Buddhist/Japanese culture!
Thanks for the updates on your lives. If you have any questions about what is going on here, shoot them my way! God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and He loves each one of you so very much! Have a fantastic week! The church is true!
愛してます！
Kris
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