I'm totally okay with whatever you send for Christmas, really. I just want to receive some letters. I haven't really gotten anything the past 3 transfers. Last week was awesome because I got 3 on one day and daddy's letter a few weeks ago. I just want to hear how people's lives are doing. And eat some peanut butter m&ms.
So this week wasn't as awe inspiring as last week due to reasons we don't really know or understand. We have guessed the reason of why it wasn't as good, but we are just going to try to push through it. A lot of the appointments that were set up fell through to sudden events. We worked super hard but I'm guessing it was for purposes we can't immediately see. We will have to be patient.
Monday we were supposed to have our lesson with M. She didn't come! So we were sitting at the church with 2 members and it is super awkward to tell the members that the person probably won't come. We decided to dendo instead. There was this slightly drunk man that let us into his house. He was super nice and funny. He said that we could come over and eat at his house whenever we want so we might take him up on that. Maybe teach a lesson as well :)
Tuesday we came back after district meeting and tried to get as much work done before our other lessons. We tried to hit up houses that would have people home in the afternoon..... but that usually means that those people are either really old or house wives. Well we hit all the old people with their Okinawa bend. Super hilarious. We finally had our lesson with E. She is going great. We need to find a way to get members more involved with her lessons. She is about half way done with the ab lessons now. I think she will stay active.
After wards we had our usual service with W and lesson. Really, doing lessons in the chapel is the way to go. It has such a great spirit. We talked about the plan of salvation up until the atonement. We talked quite a bit about agency because of wars. A lot of people are really concerned with wars especially with all the American bases near by. Apparently they are planning on building another one about 5-10 miles east of the city. A lot of people have been asking our opinion about it. We just say that that is their choice and we have a different purpose. It gives us a great chance to talk about agency and the gospel though. So we talked about that a lot and had a great lesson with that.
Wednesday. We had the chance to have 6 lessons. 3 member present and 3 others. But sadly, for reasons not known to us, or based off of ineffectiveness, they fell through. On a brighter note 2 lessons came through! That's 2 more than completely not having any at all!
The first one that fell through was the mom that last week said she wanted God to exist. We came to the house and the husband came to the door. I really don't like men here in japan. Granted, I love the Japanese people, But the men sometimes get on my nerves. Especially in this case. We introduced ourselves and briefly stated what we talked about last time. We asked if we could talk to both him and his wife because a lot of the time when we talk to both, they both say yes. But if we just talk to the husband after talking to the wife, for some reason, 9 times out of 10 they never let us talk to the wife and just reject us! It's really sad. He told us no about talking to his wife but we taught him instead. He wasn't interested so we just moved on.
After that we had a pretty cool miracle to make up for that. We met this lady who was super into Christianity. She named her son Joshua. She wanted a bible but it was too expensive. So when we told her we are giving out the Book of Mormon for free, she gladly accepted. She invited us back without us asking. She said "you guys need to come back and teach me." Well, my friend, we would love to do so. Her name is K. Super nice woman. She said she would try to come to church on the 23rd to hear me give a talk.
After some other appointments dropping we finally met this man named G. He is older but he took the challenge to pray. He has such a kind heart but he is a little slow. That isn't all that much of a problem. As long as he is willing, that's good enough for me.
We had another lesson with W. When planning for it, I had this bad feeling. Every time I have this feeling, its telling me that what we are planning for isn't going to come about or that isn't what is going to happen. So when we got there the lesson started. She had a question from the last lesson of "why are there wars and how through the Book of Mormon can we avoid them," perfect question. But we got there and the lesson never touched on that. We had a double check on prayer and strengthen that. It was a super good lesson. The joints did an amazing job. I think she may continue to pray!
Thursday we were doing just weekly planning and eiwaikai. There was a member who I haven't met who called us and asked for a blessing. I'm a little concerned with how much the ward asks us for blessings instead of their priesthood leaders. This is now my 4th one in about a month or so. I'm honored that they trust the missionaries, and all the other priesthood are busy. I'm not sure if they should always be asking us.
Friday we just went to work and hit it hard. Nothing really big came up. We were off balance. I was saying weird things, So was Olsen. That day was just really hard. We did find a man to give a Book of Mormon to. He had some decent interest. We will visit him soon.
We called a member who recently came home from Fukuoka. He was less active up there but came back after feeling he needed to change. Well, when we called him we were talking about the basketball activity we had planned for Saturday. He said "oh I have my wife. Can she come" When he said that we were so confused. He got married within a month of coming home. It turns out it was a girl he was dating before he came here. I'll talk more about that in a second.
So Saturday we tried to dendo more. We didn't have any appointments so we hit the pavement hard. We handed out 3 copies of the book of Mormon in one day! That's pretty good for us. Super blessed. We visited a less active in the area of where we were working. It turns out he died last week or something like that. There have been so many members that haven't been in contact with the church in such a long time. I feel bad but the Branch Priesthood is so busy all the time they don't really have time for Home Teaching. Not much less active work is getting done unless it is by the women or us. We are working with the branch to set up a plan on contacting or working more with less actives.
We met this really nice man named T. We asked him, "if you can ask God one question, what would it be?" He said, "how can I be more happy in this life?" Well it turns out that we are just sharing exactly that. So we set up a return appointment for Wednesday!
We had that basketball activity. S., that came to church last week, came. He had a lot of fun. He had plans for Sunday so he couldn't come but we had a great chance to build more kankei with him.
Sunday, we went to pick up S. We knocked on his door and he told us to come in. He was completely blasted out of his mind. But he was soooooo funny. We tried to help pick him up and man it is so hard to try to pick someone up who can't control their body. we called one of the branch members to come pick him up but seeing how it was 20 til the start of the meeting, they couldn't do it. But he said he has lots of interest and wanted to come. Next week we will visit him on Saturday so he won't be drunk in the morning.
So that guy who got married brought his wife to church! She was so kind and all dressed up for church. I was super impressed. I think she had a good time and the man is really wanting to get married in the temple. So I think he is trying to teach her the gospel. Things might be really good with that.
Some of the members told us that a less active was trying to eat with us. We didn't quite understand what that was supposed to mean. As we were talking to a member right before the third block, the less active just appears out of no where and gives us some kind of pizza. He has an addiction to tobacco. We sat him down and asked him if he likes smoking. He said "No. Tobacco is not good tasting." Recently I was emailing my friend Andrew and he said that he used Helaman 5:12 to explain how we need to rely on Christ and not tobacco. We did that and he gave us all of his tobacco. It was super cool! I felt super sinful with them in my pocket. It felt really weird. But he wants to change. That's always the first step.
We worked hard and pushed all day. We met this lady who met the missionaries about 20-30 years ago. She straight up told us she listened to the missionaries because she liked them. I think in a romantic way. Now I don't think that is a problem. She is like 60 years old now with a grandchild. We had a great talk and she took the Book of Mormon and said yes to learning more. She said "I WILL NOT ENTER INTO YOUR CHURCH, but I do want to listen to what you have to say." Well, that's good enough for me. As long as there is some kind of desire, that can change.
Till next week!
Jameson Choro
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