Konnichiwa minasan!
This week has actually been insane. I'm just gonna break it down a bit
Monday: met with our investigator Ai-chan (she's not progressing super much because of how busy she is) and then stopped by Hayato's shop to say hi and follow up. Then Hayato referred this super fluent-in-english guy to us who's actually been to a Christian camp in America! We have yet to see any real fruits from that contact but maybe when his life settles down a bit he'll be willing to do a 30/30.
Tuesday: We had a lesson with Suzuki San. I swear it was like we were literally battling Satan in that lesson. We all had waves of exhaustion hit us out of nowhere and there was a distinct presence of other beings in the room fighting with and for us. Suzuki San realized that the Spirit was telling him to get baptized soon because Bagoyo Shimai was way bold and told him that the things he was perceiving wasn't us but the spirit telling him what to do, but he wasn't super happy about it. But then I came in and just testified about how much God loves him and the spirit was so strong and we all cried and basically we're 100% sure that we cast out Satan that day and that Suzuki san's ancestors were helping us through the veil. We also met with Hikaru Kyoudai to try and help him prepare for a mission and see where he's at in the whole testimony area of life. He's way smart and he said that when he goes on a mission he wants to work with and strengthen members. The only problem is that he feels ostracized from the other members and his testimony of the Plan of Salvation is weak. But we're working to help him.
Wednesday: koukan with the Marugame shimai! Bagoyo Shimai and I worked with Eyring Shimai (yes she's President Eyring's granddaughter) and Loving Shimai worked with Bartholomew Shimai. We visited Mary and found out she's moving a few blocks away soon. Hopefully she'll let us help her with that. Then we went to visit Hayato again to give him a conference talk (Am I A Child of God?) and introduce the book of Mormon challenge. (ask us any question and we'll answer it with the book of mormon) He wasn't really feeling the whole "kamisama no kodomo desu" thing at first, but then his friend Kotaro (a kinjin we love him) showed up. We did the challenge with him and his question was actually "how can I grow 20cm?" and we found an answer! Two! Alma 7:23 and 3 Nephi 13:33-34. He was like "oh so I should just pray for the things I really need! " and he was way happy to receive a book of Mormon when we gave it to him. And then Hayato told him that he's a child of God and it was awesome. (We're starting to think that Hayato gains a testimony by bearing it.)
Thursday: we met with Murakami San and it was way interesting. He's also considering becoming a monk so we're trying to help him not want to do that. His only problem is he doesn't understand why God would command Nephi to kill Laban. (we're pretty sure he doesn't understand who Laban was) but when he gets over that he'll be absolute kinjin. Then we had a lesson with Matsuda shimai and it was such an awesome experience! She had really fukai questions like "what is happiness?" but as we talked and she shared experiences she answered her own questions! It was awesome! We love her.
Friday: Had a lesson with Suzuki San. He's progressed so much! I think he's finally ready to tell his wife that he wants to get baptized! We did a mock interview with him and his answers were so good. Even when he wasn't super sure, his default was to go back to Jesus Christ. It was beautiful. I'm so so excited for him. Then we visited Wright Shimai and learned a lot about the ward from her. She feels like she doesn't have support and it's sad. But she asked us to help her clean her house in a couple weeks! We're so excited. And then right after that we were able to have a LINE call lesson with Kotaro! And he introduced the book of mormon challenge to his friend Mizuki! And she was also really excited about it! We were able to set up a second appointment with him and it was such an awesome miracle.
Saturday: we visited a lot of members and biked literally 25 miles to visit Nakajima shimai, Shiraishi Shimai, and the Sumidas. We talked about ministering and also did the book of mormon challenge. They loved it so much. I will legit testify about the power of the challenge every waking minute of my life. It works in everything. We were able to build some way good relationships with the members because of it.
Sunday: oh boy. A day of whiplash. We were on the literal front lines of the war in heaven today. We went and had a nerunerunerune party with Itsuki Shimai, Miyazaki Kyoudai, and their friend Yuma-chan. It was so fun and we got to do the challenge with them! Yuma was so happy to receive the book of mormon it was so cute. And Itsuki shimai was so so so ureshii about the whole thing. It was way great. Then we stopped by Hayato's to follow up about a commitment and we met Dylan. Now Dylan is an American with family in Payson, Utah. He's not kaiin though. He straight up grilled us on gospel stuff (and also lectured me on being too bold with Hayato which was chigau but whatever) and we were shaking the whole time but it was also legit like the scriptures when Jacob confounds Sherem. It was awesome and terrifying. We tried so so hard to be humble yet bold but it was way scary and also way silly at the same time. Like man it must be so confusing being a non-member. I don't know how everyone does it. Legit all the questions can be answered by God. Here's some highlights of the conversation:
Dylan: "do you believe God is a man? Cos I believe God is a woman." *insert smug face here*
Me: "we believe he has a wife...who he loves and respects..."
Dylan: ?????
Dylan: "do you believe in science?"
Loving Shimai: "yes? Of course???"
Me: "God is the best scientist???"
Bagoyo shimai: "God knows everything so?????"
Dylan: "oh. Well."
Dylan: "You believe the book of Mormon was written by a man right?"
Bagoyo Shimai: "Several."
Dylan: "well you never knew them"
Me: "I never knew Einstein."
Dylan: *critical hit: Spirit - 1, Satan - 0*
Dylan: "how well do you know the book of Mormon? if I flipped to any page could you recite a verse?"
Me: "why? I have it."
Dylan: *wait logic what* "Well...I'm just saying other people have the Bible memorized"
Me: *looks into the camera like I'm on the Office*
Dylan: "if God told you the book of Mormon wasn't true would you stop reading it?"
All of us in unison: "Yes"
Dylan: "well have you asked?"
Us: "yes"
Dylan: "And he said it's true?"
Us: "yes"
Dylan: *error 404: response not found* "... Religion sure is cool huh."
But yeah so that's basically all of it. It was way crazy. But now we have such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon's ability to answer literally every single question. And it's so awesome because in our lesson today with Kotaro, every time he asked a question he said "okay morumon sho challenge." and then asked the question and wanted us to find the answer in the book of mormon! He like directed himself through the restoration because of it! It was crazy! He already knows he can just go to the scriptures for answers! It's so awesome. He's such a kinjin ππππ. He's interested in lessons three and four. We're so excited.
ζγγ¦γγΎγ！ (*^^*) π
Sherwood ε§ε¦Ή
19ζ³ 20ζ³
1-5: Nerunerunerune party
6-7: jammin on an apato by the ocean
8: incredibly attractive senkyoushi helmets
9: crepes with Eyring shimai and Hayato
10: Taniguchi shimai's garden!
11: zone conference!
12: a bronze statue by Matsuyama Castle
13: I made an Apostasy diagram
14: crepes with Hikaru! (he looks like Sherlock Holmes but Japanese)
15-18: making sakura mochi! (with a bonus Takaki Kyoudai head chilling in the corner)
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