Okay!!! I have reached my year mark but that doesn't matter really. I have one more year to serve with my might and man did this week hit me hard. Both for the good and the bad.
SO on Monday night we went to talk to T. She thought stake taikai was awesome. She thought Joseph was someone sent from God but still felt some things about him were shaky. So we watched the restoration film with her and finished up the plan of salvation. We told her that if she kept praying and reading, she would get an answer. At this point in time she has read one third of the Book of Mormon. We didn't even know that. The member brought it up to us after the lesson.
On Tuesday we went to visit a PI who a few weeks ago said she thought about the 3 big life questions. When we went and met with her, she denied that she had said that. It was super surprising but we talked to her anyways. It started off first as a thing where she didn't want to listen and actually giggled at the doctrine we taught. By the end she wanted to read the plan of salvation pamphlet.
We visited U. We gave her a prayer rock and told her special experiences with prayer. She seemed to have her mind blown from hearing those things and it appeared she wanted to continue to try to pray. We had her pray at the end of the lesson. I love it when you hear people pray for the first time. it is really humble and simple. I love it because you can feel the Spirit so strong with those cases.
Wednesday we had a meal appointment with 2 ward members and T. It was super delicious! All you can eat meat! Anyways after that we taught her the gospel of Christ. We told her that if she showed God she was willing to be baptized, that she would receive an answer. She agreed to baptism but without a date.
We ran into an old man who said he went to church when he was young. He liked the hymns. Recently I memorized Tis' even tide in Japanese. So I sang that for him and he said he might go to church!
We ran over to E san right after that. She is doing great. She thinks if any religion is pretty correct (pretty because she doesn't like to commit to one religion) I feel like she would say it is our religion. She understands really well from an intellectual standpoint but that isn't the case for a spiritual standpoint. We are going to try to help her understand the feelings of the Spirit.
On Thursday we went and taught T again. We get there and the first thing she said is "thanks for yesterday." The second thing was "I got an answer." The member, Knighton and I were dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say. Yay? It was super fast and we didn't expect it to be that fast. Apparently she found Moroni 7:45 (And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.) which is close to her favorite scripture in the bible. That's all she needed. She has a baptismal date for the 26th of July.
Friday was filled with finding and B. K. Old people here in Iizuka are sooooo mean. They just walk away from the door in the middle of the contact. I fully understand how mom feels now when I would walk away from her when I was younger. (Insert mom signing the Hallelujah chorus here.....)
We accidentally met a less active on the street. She told us to come over next week. The people in the area we were finding all rejected us. (Actually up until this point, almost everyone has rejected us this week.) They have been living in such a state where they have their own will power to do things. In other words they don't need something to rely on. Because of that they don't see a need for God. But when that will power dies, they give up on life. They have strong wills that I admire, it's just they are too strong to take a moment and listen.
B. K. has a lot of trust issues with the church. In our conversation he tries to pit the scriptures against us to tear down the church. I have actually read the 4 gospels twice in the past 6 months so lucky for me I can actually explain and understand what he is talking about. He takes the scripture and changes it to a way that will only benefit himself. We may have to stop teaching him because it is going nowhere.
After him we met a guy housing who said that he has seen our church website. He isn't Christian but he says we aren't Christian since we started in America. It was a weird standpoint but we talked for a while and gave him a restoration pamphlet.
Saturday we had an appointment to cut a less active member's dog's hair. The poor thing. We went... he was "sick" from a non-existent rain the day before. So we had a huge gap in our time. We went finding a bit and we ran into a 19 year old girl living by herself. She is working here in Iizuka. We talked about building family and God relationships. We can come back soon!
Saturday was spent finding again. We ran into an eternal investigator. We can come back to her but other than that, people again were just rejecting us. Our investigator K called us and we sat down to talk to him. We went to the batting cages and talked. He is pretty good at baseball! It was a good time and we went home.
Sunday, T came! Great time. Not only that but an old friend F. came. I thought he seriously died. He is an old man wanting to get baptized but he came yesterday. He talked to us and said he wants to be baptized. We set him up to be baptized with T on July 26th.
After that, the church members told us about how a less active's daughter and son returned from America. The H's. The daughter wants to come to church. They were super excited because they thought we could get 3 baptisms on one day. The ward is starting to get pretty excited.
The rest of the day was spent trying to find and visit people. But all the day long we were rejected within 15 seconds. It was really rough. I want to help everyone I can. They just turn us away. But at the end of the day, we still have 2 people wanting to come closer to the Lord. That is all I can ask for.
This morning we received a call from Brother Nakamura. He is back from America. I'm really excited about this because we can get some more work done with him.
Elder Jameson
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