Sunday, February 21, 2016

Week 18 of My Grand Adventures in the Far-Away Land of Japan

2016.2.21

最�奂易�,

You know you love the title of my email this week! XD Also gotta love the power of kanji! I tried to say "beloved family".

On Monday, we had a lunch appointment and we were late getting to the church to email so our time was short. We had lunch at the mall with a wonderful less-active member. After our lunch we grocery shopped, electronics store shopped, and then relaxed for a bit in our apartment. At 6:00 we went out to visit a less-active member. This took up the remainder of our day.

On Tuesday we had lunch with three members. It was a good meal and we taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. After that appointment we met up with a member to doseki. We taught him about the Holy Ghost. We then met with the investigator who the member was dosekiing for. This investigator loves meeting with us. He is very receptive and enjoys learning from our lessons. We asked him if he would be baptized if he came to believe in what we taught and he said he would. We think he will, he just needs time. After that lesson we met with a less-active member. To be honest I can't remember what we taught him. But I'm sure it was a good lesson XD Afterwards we had Eikaiwa! We still only have two people who show up so that's fun XD Vui Chōrō and I switch off teaching sections of he lessons. We have different teaching styles but we definitely compliment one another.

Wednesday was a busy day. We started visiting people at 10:00 so we could get to all of our people. We had lunch and dinner with members which was fun. We went to a really good ramen shop for lunch and a good sushi place for dinner. After lunch we taught a lesson to the member about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He kind of opened up to us a little. He shared some of his interests with us in a way that was new for us. We really liked it though. We were able to meet with an investigator who has been sick recently. We feel really good about this investigator so we have been really anxious to meet her again. She will try to be at church though so that is awesome! Then we were able to meet with a recent convert who is really awesome. I don't know why he is less-active, but I really like the guy. And he really likes us so that is great! We talked about the Atonement of Christ with him. We then met with an investigator who is struggling with desire. He is a good guy, but we think that his priorities are making it hard for him to have desire to progress. He likes meeting with us, and he has been keeping commitments, but, yeah.

We were greeted on Thursday morning with a completely clear sky. It wasn't very warm, but the sunshine was super nice. We tried to visit a friend for a service opportunity around lunch-time. But we weren't able to get a hold of him and he wasn't at the meeting place so we ended up not doing service that day. We decided to visit a less-active member over by the west lake. It was sooooooooooo pretty! Vui Chōrō was loving it. We ran into a young man who we had a nice conversation with. We talked with him about God and he said we could visit on normal weekdays. At around 3:00 we practiced a song we performed in sacrament meeting. We sang Bring the World His Truth. We met with a member of the ward who played the organ for us. We sang in Japanese and English so that was fun! After practice we taught a member a lesson who took us out to dinner. We taught him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

On Friday we had district meeting. And we decided to have a pot luck lunch afterwards in honor of Tsuchia Chōrō. There was so much food! There was homemade macaroni and cheese, soy sauce spaghetti with meat sauce, Brazilian cheese bread, chocolate fur dayz, popcorn, and omelet rice. There were so many leftovers! After that we had kokans with the Zone Leaders in Yonago. Since it was a threesome going with a normal companionship we had to switch around people throughout the kokan. I went with one for the first few hours. Then Vui Chōrō joined my group for the rest of the night. The next day I was with the other group (threesome) for the rest of the day. It was a shortened kokan because we had to get back to Matsue in time for our appointments the next day. It was Tsuchia Chōrō's last kokan.

We headed back to Matsue around 12:30 and planned for the remainder of the day. We had an appointment with one of our ward missionaries. We talked with him about e Atonement of Jesus Christ. Something my companions did on Friday was let me lead most of the lessons. And they went well, nothing blew up XD He asked us about blessing the sick. I didn't understand all of it so Tsuchia Chōrō was the one who talked most of that time XD After that lesson we met with an investigator to talk about the Book of Mormon. We talked with him about how he is feeling and his thoughts on what we have been teaching. After that we met with a less-active member and talked about how we study the Book of Mormon. We each talked about how we each study and apply the Book of Mormon. We feel like he really knows how to Apple the scriptures to his life. We didn't have much time for that lesson before we had to meet a member for dinner. We met with the member at 6:00 and headed out. The place we originally wanted to go was packed so we decided to go to Burger King instead XD There was no one at Burger King so it was really fast. Our group order was so big! It was fun to have some American fast food XD We are at the church because we had game night as well. We played ping pong and card games. It was really fun! We taught him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Again, I led the lesson. I started by talking about how grace saves us after all we can do. It was a really good lesson because there were lots of things I had no idea how to say but that I really wanted to say. Now I have a lot of stuff to work on (like I didn't before XD). After that we retired the day.

On Sunday we performed our song. It went very well and the members loved it. We sang each verse as a solo then we sang together for each chorus. Tsuchia Chōrō was first, in Japanese. I was second, in English. Vui Chōrō was third, in Japanese. Then we all sang together in Japanese. It was very fun. We got compliments from many of the members. We had one of our investigators come and she was very touched by the Holy Ghost. We think she is very strong and soon we will invite her to be baptized. We had a lesson with a less-active member after church today which went very well. He is an awesome member that is super humble. Honestly, I don't know why he is inactive but, yeah.  We then had 12 Weeks study and planning. We had to finish Weekly Planning yesterday because we were not able to on Thursday. By he time we were done we only had an hour to dendo. So we met with a member who has been wanting to visit with us. It was a good talk and the member really needed it. After that we ended our day.

This week is busy and it starts today. We cleaned earlier and after emailing we are going to eat a giant parfait XD Don't worry, you guys will definitely get some pictures XD Then we have to grocery shop, get money, and leave for Yonago. Tsuchia Chōrō has a district leader meeting in Kobe on Tuesday. We don't have to travel with him but we are having another elder come in to be with us. Then we have another Trainer Trainee Training meeting on Thursday that we will travel for on Wednesday. Then Tsuchia Chōrō goes home on Friday after district meeting. He is in Matsue very little this week XD

But I know I can improve through the he Atonement of Jesus Christ. I still don't know very much about it because my scope and ability to comprehend is so small. But I am striving to trust Christ. I know I will get their. One day will be my day. And I will never give up until I get there. As I rely on Jesus Christ He will help me. I know this to be true.

Fight the good fight and never give up!

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