Being wamp

Helllooooooo my family and friends!!! This week was super interesting and a good experience to have.

We had 2 companion exchanges this week. Unfortunately I missed all the great lessons that happened with "my" area.

When Elder Jensen was with our district leader, they went and visited J. The Fiji guy that I talked about a few weeks ago. He is an extremely hard worker so we have not really been able to meet him. But they stopped by his shop at a time we usually don't go and he invited them in. Elder Jensen taught the plan of salvation and the guy kept saying it all makes sense and that he likes it. At the end Elder Jensen invited him to baptism. The guy said he will pray about it and when he receives an answer in his heart he will accept. His back story is that he has been in so many different churches growing up, baptized in 2 other Christian churches. He reads and prays all the time. He has some crazy experiences that make him fear and trust God. One time he was spear diving with his friend in the ocean and this great white shark swam up, barely missed him, and bit part of his friends arm off. Another time is when he was young he drank a lot then took his car for a drive. He wrecked about 10 cars. But because of that experience he stopped drinking and took responsibility. He is looking great!

The other day we had junkai, Elder Jensen had 2 MP lessons and a less active visit. One with with A. Last week we talked about how she wanted to be baptized. Well the lesson went extremely well and she is going to come to our church on Wednesday to watch the restoration film.

Another is with Y. She is the really difficult one but that's because her church answers every little detail. It doesn't let church members really find out for themselves. But she said she has a lot of interest which is a complete turn around from last time. That is amazing and she loves to talk about our message, but she believes her conversion will take over 3 years. So we will ganbaru until then.

E.J. visited a less active who shared a dream he had the night before. In the dream he was in a spirit world. He angered a spirit which he believed to be God. That angry spirit scared the living daylights out of him. He said after that dream he fears God.

I had a lot of finding success on those junkais. I found a lot of Potential Investigators and new investigators, one of which we talked about angels with. She believes in heaven and in angels and she believes that her children are kinda like angels. We talked to her and set up a return appointment.

Another guy is actually the post man who brings the packages to our house. He saw us and basically said that he remembers taking a lot of stuff to our house. We talked about eternal families and he said he wanted one.

But that isn't what the best part of the week is. 3 people came to church that usually don't come!. 2 non members and a less active. One non member is an investigator of the other chorotachi. But one of which no one knew who she was. I went up to her and by accident I started to speak English to her. That never happens. I'm either all Japanese or all English. It turns out she was fluent in English. Why? She lived in america as she dated some guy. The guy was Mormon. He was less active but she went with the family every week to church. She just moved to Miyako in December and goes to whatever church there is but she knows a lot about the church. I asked her if we could meet again to talk more.... haha she asked if I facebooked. I had to tell her that I can't use it but we exchanged numbers and hopefully this week we will talk to her.

Last night was weird. We went to visit a member who recently broke her wrist so she hasn't been to church in a while (she is 88). But she said she was hungry and wanted curry. We said we could make is for her. But as the conversation was going I realized she didn't have the stuff to make it. I wanted to ask if we could go buy it a different day and bring back that stuff later, but Elder Jensen said yeah we will do it. I thought to myself, if he is okay with it... i guess it is for a good cause to buy something on Sunday. We exit the house to go to a nearby family mart. I said "man this is so wamp (wanpaku-rebellious)." He said how so? I'm like "it's Sunday." We both just stand there and we already committed to it so we had to go and get it. So we bought it. Felt terrible about it. Came back and made the lady curry.

But as to deal with baptisms. (Editors note: I asked Jarom if he felt the purpose of a mission was to baptize or to bring others unto Christ.) That is just a number honestly. As it says in Corinthians, I am called to preach. Baptism is just a benefit of seeing salvation. Every mission is a baptizing mission. Every mission is different. I'm sad I'm seeing this area progress so much because I'll probably leave soon. But I'd rather work so extremely hard and have others say "man thanks to these elders, we are seeing so many blessings." And we have to remember the blessing of compensation. Our work here with be rewarded how many fold in heaven? Sure I feel Godly sorrow. But that is because I know how strong these people will be. Everyone says family is number one. Everyone is super hard core with their faith. My question of my heart is how can we find that connection to bring all that towards Christ? How can we bring them closer to Heavenly Father? These people are so amazing. I just hurt when I see that I can't help them. But One day I know it will just all click. I know Japan will become a strong people with faith in Christ. Everything points towards that. We just need to find what piece is missing.

Jameson 長老