Remember how hard last week was? Well we had another lovely surprise this week too. It started off with the awesome bang of a case of lice on my head. Where it came from we still have zero idea. Literally there are no small children in Matsuyama. Weird.... My hair has never seen so much olive oil before in its life. But hey it turns out that meticulously combing through your comapanion's hair for two hours is a great bonding experience. #compunity 5/10 recommend π. It also turns out that Japan's lice care leaves much to be desired, so I'm really grateful for all of Sister Smoot's help in getting this sorted out. She's an angel.
Tanaka-san is doing really well. I've never seen so much childlike faith before in my life. He said that before he read the Book of Mormon he didn't believe in God, but now because he read it he believes. He even said he wants to obey Jesus Christ! Like in those exact words! He also asked us if he should buy a car so he can come to church every week. We told him to ask God and also his wife before making a decision like that. We expect him to be baptized next month. We also have plans to try and start teaching his wife, depending on what he says about her next time we meet with him.
Also we made the Survey to End All Surveys this week with Joe Kyoudai's help on the Japanese. We've lost quite a few investigators these past couple weeks so we put out heads together to create this beast of an survey that leads to the first four lessons or family history depending on what they answer. More to come about that as we start using it. Interestingly, we found that Japanese does not have a good translation for heritage at all. The only word they have means the same as inheritance, but that's not really the same. It's weird though because one would think that because Japan has so. Much. Pride in their culture that they'd have a good word for family and cultural heritage. But nope. That took forever to try and figure out how to say.
We've also gathered together the combined might of Takeuchi Kyoudai, Yuudai Kyoudai, and Katsu Kyoudai to create the Matsuyama Gonin (5 people) this week. Basically we discussed why Matsuyama hasn't been seeing much success recently in dendo and we accidentally on purpose slapped the kyoudaitachi in the face with the Spirit Alma-style by making them realize that the problem is that no one is showing love. Even in ministering it's still just a box to check off. We asked them three questions:
How often in a day do you think about the people you minister to?
How often do you pray for them?
How often do you study the scriptures for them?
In so doing, they realized that the love was missing and now they're on fire, especially Yuudai and Katsu. We put it into their heads that because there's no elders in Matsuyama right now, they can be our unofficial member missionary elders. They loved it. Mostly because they never went on missions but really wish they had. It's been way good.
Along those same lines, we have finally lit the dendo kindling in Matsuyama at FHE yesterday. Turns out there's a concerning amount of members in Matsuyama who don't have their patriarchal blessings, so we've been trying to encourage them to go get them for a couple weeks now with mixed success. But at FHE, I don't remember how, but we got on the topic and it turned into a giant testimony meeting about the blessings and power of patriarchal blessings and now finally Katsu is excited to get his! We also had a deep discussion on the true meaning of faith, that is, action on a held belief, and therefore if you don't act, it means you have no faith. It was awesome. But the real kicker was right after we all said the 8:00 Dendo Prayer together. I was prompted to suggest doing that really American FHE thing where you go in a circle and tell the people next to you why you love them. So we did it and the Spirit was so insanely strong. Sumida Kaichou said he wants to do it at every FHE now, and the kaiin who were there all expressed how good they felt because of it. Yuudai and Katsu said that they could feel that we talk and think and discuss how to help and support them all day every day. I wanted to cry. It was so good. It felt so much like we were all a really close family.
And thus we see that telling people how and why you love them is one of the most important things you can do for unity. We had just come from a Relief Society where they talked about how you just can't tell people "I love you" because that's only for couples, to a beautiful FHE where the love was so palpable and everyone felt so much joy together all because they had said "I love you and this is why." The difference is real. I want to stay so badly. They're so close. The fire is lit.
ζγγ¦γγΎγ！ (*^^*)
Sherwood ε§ε¦Ή
1.) zone conference (we've been photoshopped in bc we had to leave early lol)
2 - 5.)The best FHE in the world. Look at that beautiful smile on Daisuke's face. It's the first time I've ever seen it in a photo ever. I'm so happy
6 - 9.) The best district in the world. We've been through so much together lol
10.) Joe Kyoudai took us out to eat at a fancy place woo
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