We are staying!
On Tuesday after we got our transfer calls, we went to visit U. I honestly thought I was going to be gone so we set up an appointment to say goodbye. Well... since I didn't transfer it was really funny. Recently she has been feeling really tired and beat up. I thought for a second and said, "have you been praying recently?" She said no. I asked, "when was the last time you prayed?" She said that it was right before she started feeling tired. I think she connected that the reason she was tired was because of not praying. But Just to make sure, we told her that was the reason. She said that it's so hard to pray right before bed. After a couple of stories we told her we would make a prayer rock for her like the ones in primary. She loved the idea.
We did some housing afterwards and met some really cool college students. We were super happy on Tuesday. Everyone saw it and it made them happy.
Wednesday, we tried to visit a couple of people that were not home so we went around housing in areas we think were not housed for a little while. but we had a feeling they have been housed quite a bit in the past. The first house was a Jehovah Witness. The funny thing is they always start off saying "I'm studying the bible." Haha. Okay. That's cool, we are too. Can we talk about the bible? NO! They are funny people. We always see them dendoing around. They always run away when they see us. One time we ran into them and they ran to the other side of the street. Well the street wasn't that big anyways so I rode over to them and said "good luck today!" and kept riding. I know I would want someone to say that to me.
We met this mom whose house was a wreck. She opened the door and I looked in the genkan and saw that there were only one big pair of shoes and 3 small ones. She looked to be a single mother. We talked about how Christ knows all of our situations and he wants to help us. She is really busy with work but we will stop by again. We visited another lady who was straight crazy. she is from Osaka so it was nearly impossible to understand her Japanese. But she said we could come back. She was really funny!
We later visited our investigator E. She is great but this lesson seemed bad. We didn't teach her what we should have but from that, she told us some concerns she has about religion and faith. It's such a big step for her and she thinks she will fail. We told her that we aren't pushing her but rather leading her by the hand so if she were to fall, we would help her back up. She really loves coffee so she thinks the church teaching of the word of wisdom is strict. She thinks religion is binding.
Thursday we went to catch up on some pis but they were busy. On the way back both Elder Knighton and I had a feeling to stop at a convenience store. So we did and walked around for 5 minutes thinking "why are we here?" But we then went to visit N to say we were missing her after she said she would go to church but hasn't showed up. She wasn't there but her 11 year old daughter was. It was really awkward and we quickly left. As we were standing by our bikes, I said "we need to say something to her but I don't know what it is. I only can think of 'God loves you'." So we went back and told her that and left.
We were really struggling with all kinds of feelings from the Spirit. I was being pulled everywhere and I didn't know what to do. I actually just said in my head, "Heavenly Father, honestly this isn't cool. please, if I need to do something, please help me understand what it is." Over the next 15 minutes we were lead to one random room on a 3rd floor of an apartment randomly tucked away on a back street. As we were talking to the college student living there, I turned to Elder Knighton and asked him, "should we give him a copy of the Book of Mormon?" He said we should. After he accepted it and said he would read it, Knighton told me he had thought 3 seconds before I asked him, that we should give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We don't know why we were led there. We don't know why he said yes. But he now has something that can bring him closer to God.
Friday was sooooo painfully hard. We worked a bit and everyone was just rejecting us. Not only that but with terrible excuses. That kills me when they don't have something worth while to explain why they aren't listening. One man said it didn't have relation to him. I asked him why he thinks that. His answer was "it's just because it doesn't." Over all these things we did meet some lady who was super interested in English. She actually was in Pisa 6 months ago where Codi was! Her son lives in Milan. Crazy huh?
We had another lesson with E. We explained how God is our Heavenly Father. We asked her from reading the bible so much, does she know why God gives us things? She said, "I have no idea." We explained he wants to help us. That's why he gives us things. As children we may think it is restrictive but if we see it from the eyes of a parent, it's protective. This hit home because her daughter is gone off the deep end a little. She smokes, drinks, and dresses weird. E doesn't do that. Her husband actually gets hives when he smells those things. It connected with her and she seems to connect things really well. She actually brought up how she thinks God and Jesus are different people. She said "in the bible there are no verses that say they are the same person. Only that they are one. But there are many more verses that say that they are the son and the father. I think your church's teaching of them being different is correct" Man this woman is great!
Saturday we had little to no time because of a stake conference. But we did meet one lady who said her husband died. Her eyes welled up as she said it. She closed the door and I felt awful. So I knocked again and said you can live with him again. She started to cry and closed the door. We put a plan of salvation book in her post.
Sunday, T came to Stake taikai!!!! We met her a little on Thursday to say hello and prep her for Sunday. We told her we had been thinking of her and how she can receive answers through big taikais like this. So we told her to pray to know if Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon are true. During the meeting one of the people bore powerful testimony of both. It was amazing and we will meet her again tonight to follow up! When we went to her on Thursday on of her friends stopped by. She said that church sounded fun (she had heard from T) and she wanted to go only for that. She didn't listen to us at all she just wanted to go because it sounded fun.
Later we came home and the first person we met on the street was a Japanese person who was fluent in English. It was crazy. We talked for a bit and talked about Christ. He thinks Christ is great and that he is the best person ever but doesn't believe in him. It was weird but hey it was awesome. We had a hard time talking to people after that but we kept going. We went to an area that we haven't visited in over 6 weeks. We visited a pi who was stand offish at first but then warmed up. I know that it is a good contact when I share a lot of my life stories and for some reason stories came off my tongue really easy. All about the happiness I feel with my beliefs. I bore testimony of how we can live with families forever. Knighton told him the plan of salvation helps his fears for the future. I then had the chance to testify that I didn't know that my grandpa was going to die while I was on my mission. But I told him the last time I saw him in america, I thought to myself "this is the last time I will see him." Then 3-4 months later he died. We told him that families can be together past this life. The amazing thing is that you could see the Spirit working on him. He changed as the contact went on. He eventually said, "when and where do you meet?" We gave him a chirashi and he said "I'll come next week." It is amazing to see the Spirit of the Lord work on people and see it change not only their hearts, but their lives.
Elder Jameson
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