Hello!! Happy October! I can't believe it's already October! Time is flying by! Sunday was my dendo (missionary) birthday, I've been a missionary for 4 whole months now! Amazing! This week was full of ups and downs, but we still saw so many miracles. It's part of missionary life I think, you have to take the good with the bad. Okay, I will just tell you about the exciting parts...
Wednesday Sept 24... We had a lesson with Kiyomi-san, we watched the Restoration DVD with her, she seriously loved it. She is always so interested in everything we teach her! Shes so cute. Anyways, last week we kinda talked to her about prayer and how she can recieve an answer and know for herself that what shes learning is true. And when we taught her this week we asked her how her prayers were going and she told us that she was praying but she didn't feel like she was getting any answers back. But before we could even say anything she was like, "but I know it's because I am not praying sincerly and with faith. I know I need to do a better job at praying." Kinjin desho?! We ended up talking about baptism with her too and she said that she doesn't know yet and she wants to learn more about baptsim, so that's what we are teaching her today! Oh, and Kiyomi's sister is a member but lives in Tokyo, but she is coming down to visit her next week so she's gonna help us teach Kiyomi! We are so excited, because apparently, her sister is AMAZING!
Sunday Sept 28... So I think I told you about Zaitsu-san, her and her son had a baptismal date for October 11 which was way exciting... well on Sunday we dropped the date. She is not ready, and she told us that she doesn't think she will ever get baptized. But she likes the church and she knows it's good for her kids. And she said they are still going to come to church every week. It was way disappointing that they dropped and that she told us that she didn't want to ever get baptized probably, but it wasnt actually anything that surprising. And we are going to keep working with her and visitng her and her family. Well after church we had ward council, and the ward is SO excited for this baptism... well we had to tell them that we dropped the date which was hard enough, but before that, Furuta Kyodai, one of the ward missionaries, started telling the whole ward council how ready Zaitsusan is to get baptized and how shes so excited for the 11th. And me and Iwasa shimai were like what the heck?! because in our meeting that very morning we just told him that it wasnt looking very good! Well after that we had to explain that we dropped the date. And it was just a really awkward and disappointing situation. Anyways, it was just a really hard day.
Monday Sept 29... P-day! Well there is a free Kumamon show everyday at this little Kumamon gift shop, and we decided to go, but Kiyomi told us that when she tried to go there were so many people and she didnt even get into the show... So Iwasa shimai and I decided to go an hour early to the place to just kinda check it out... there were already a ton of people waiting! And all of them were old... we sat there for an hour before the show started and for 30 minutes we were by far the youngest people in the room! haha it was ridiculous... but then some families with kids came so it got a little less embarassing and awkward. Okay the show was so cute! I have videos... but you will probably have to wait a year to see them haha. Anyways this dude in a Kumamon suit came out and did these dances and it was just the cutest thing I ever saw! But the songs are stuck in our heads so Iwasa shimai and sing them while we ride our bikes haha.
Tuesday Sept 30... Such a great day!! Okay, so we had this appointment set at 2. We never taught this lady before, we just knocked on her door one night and she told us we could come back. She also told us that she had been meeting with the Jehovah witness missionaries. Anyways we knocked on her door and rang her doorbell a million times but she didnt answer. And we were all disappointed. But we sat down like across the way and started writing her a note... well as we were sitting there, the JWs come and ring her doorbell once and she answered! and they talked to her for like 20 mins and we just sat there and watched haha. Anyways, we decided that it was probably a good thing things happened that way, because what if we had been talking to her and the JWs came and started like debating with us or something. I dont know, anything could have happened. Anyways, we went back a few hours later and she talked to us for a whole hour just like at her door, because in Japan, thats normal, like people dont let you in their house.... anyways, and the first thing she asked us was how are you different from Jehovah witness or any other christian church? So we had an amazing lesson and told her about the Book of Mormon and temples and family history work, and the plan of salvation, and something else that I cant remember right now. And she seriously loved it! Like she is way interested and she wants us to come back next week! Okay and the way exciting part is that I followed the lesson! Like I understood almost everything which was amazing because we didnt really have a plan and the lesson went a million different directions! Okay, and then I talked to this one girl last night all by myself. Like I had a converstation with some random nihonjin in Japanese all by myself and it wasnt so bad haha. Like seriously, I think I know a lot more Japanese than I thought I did. Iwasa shimai and Heaton shimai keep telling me that Ive gotten way better, but I didnt believe them until yesterday.
Well this coming Friday, me and Clemements shimai get to be companions because Iwasa shimai and Heaton shimai are sister training leaders and have to go on splits... so I get to be the senpai on Friday because clements shimai is only transfer 1! So it will be interesting for sure. Pray for us haha. I hope you all are doing well! Ai shite imasu yo!
Wednesday Sept 24... We had a lesson with Kiyomi-san, we watched the Restoration DVD with her, she seriously loved it. She is always so interested in everything we teach her! Shes so cute. Anyways, last week we kinda talked to her about prayer and how she can recieve an answer and know for herself that what shes learning is true. And when we taught her this week we asked her how her prayers were going and she told us that she was praying but she didn't feel like she was getting any answers back. But before we could even say anything she was like, "but I know it's because I am not praying sincerly and with faith. I know I need to do a better job at praying." Kinjin desho?! We ended up talking about baptism with her too and she said that she doesn't know yet and she wants to learn more about baptsim, so that's what we are teaching her today! Oh, and Kiyomi's sister is a member but lives in Tokyo, but she is coming down to visit her next week so she's gonna help us teach Kiyomi! We are so excited, because apparently, her sister is AMAZING!
Sunday Sept 28... So I think I told you about Zaitsu-san, her and her son had a baptismal date for October 11 which was way exciting... well on Sunday we dropped the date. She is not ready, and she told us that she doesn't think she will ever get baptized. But she likes the church and she knows it's good for her kids. And she said they are still going to come to church every week. It was way disappointing that they dropped and that she told us that she didn't want to ever get baptized probably, but it wasnt actually anything that surprising. And we are going to keep working with her and visitng her and her family. Well after church we had ward council, and the ward is SO excited for this baptism... well we had to tell them that we dropped the date which was hard enough, but before that, Furuta Kyodai, one of the ward missionaries, started telling the whole ward council how ready Zaitsusan is to get baptized and how shes so excited for the 11th. And me and Iwasa shimai were like what the heck?! because in our meeting that very morning we just told him that it wasnt looking very good! Well after that we had to explain that we dropped the date. And it was just a really awkward and disappointing situation. Anyways, it was just a really hard day.
Monday Sept 29... P-day! Well there is a free Kumamon show everyday at this little Kumamon gift shop, and we decided to go, but Kiyomi told us that when she tried to go there were so many people and she didnt even get into the show... So Iwasa shimai and I decided to go an hour early to the place to just kinda check it out... there were already a ton of people waiting! And all of them were old... we sat there for an hour before the show started and for 30 minutes we were by far the youngest people in the room! haha it was ridiculous... but then some families with kids came so it got a little less embarassing and awkward. Okay the show was so cute! I have videos... but you will probably have to wait a year to see them haha. Anyways this dude in a Kumamon suit came out and did these dances and it was just the cutest thing I ever saw! But the songs are stuck in our heads so Iwasa shimai and sing them while we ride our bikes haha.
Tuesday Sept 30... Such a great day!! Okay, so we had this appointment set at 2. We never taught this lady before, we just knocked on her door one night and she told us we could come back. She also told us that she had been meeting with the Jehovah witness missionaries. Anyways we knocked on her door and rang her doorbell a million times but she didnt answer. And we were all disappointed. But we sat down like across the way and started writing her a note... well as we were sitting there, the JWs come and ring her doorbell once and she answered! and they talked to her for like 20 mins and we just sat there and watched haha. Anyways, we decided that it was probably a good thing things happened that way, because what if we had been talking to her and the JWs came and started like debating with us or something. I dont know, anything could have happened. Anyways, we went back a few hours later and she talked to us for a whole hour just like at her door, because in Japan, thats normal, like people dont let you in their house.... anyways, and the first thing she asked us was how are you different from Jehovah witness or any other christian church? So we had an amazing lesson and told her about the Book of Mormon and temples and family history work, and the plan of salvation, and something else that I cant remember right now. And she seriously loved it! Like she is way interested and she wants us to come back next week! Okay and the way exciting part is that I followed the lesson! Like I understood almost everything which was amazing because we didnt really have a plan and the lesson went a million different directions! Okay, and then I talked to this one girl last night all by myself. Like I had a converstation with some random nihonjin in Japanese all by myself and it wasnt so bad haha. Like seriously, I think I know a lot more Japanese than I thought I did. Iwasa shimai and Heaton shimai keep telling me that Ive gotten way better, but I didnt believe them until yesterday.
Well this coming Friday, me and Clemements shimai get to be companions because Iwasa shimai and Heaton shimai are sister training leaders and have to go on splits... so I get to be the senpai on Friday because clements shimai is only transfer 1! So it will be interesting for sure. Pray for us haha. I hope you all are doing well! Ai shite imasu yo!