Many apologies but I have zero energy so the flavor of this email will probably be much like that of a pretzel stick. This week we managed to schedule a couple of solid appointments with investigators, most of whom, I am noticing, are very tired and sad individuals. Good thing the Balm of Gilead is quite the salve. Now if we could only get them to realize that they want it, our work would be much smoother.
We got to go hiking on Tuesday with this one eikaiwa student, Suenaga-san, and that was way fun. There were many many 🎶secret tunnels through the mountains🎶 (not actually secret. they were old railroad tunnels that became obsolete) and no hills so I was very happy. It was still really hot though and my hand still hurt from last week's wasp sting so I was a little out of it. But a member came with us too and it was some pretty jamming kankei building time and I got to omoidasu (suddenly remember) a funny song from the best TV show so that was good.
Taniguchi-san became a real honest-to-goodness investigator this week. We taught her about the Restoration and even got to use the cool time-line thing. A lot of things about the history of truth throughout the years seemed to click in her head, so that was way good. We zoned in way hard on prayer and understanding answers from God through the spirit, and I'm at 103% sure she felt the spirit in high voltage for a second there (mostly because we invited Him, He came, and I told her He was there. A fail-proof formula indeed). She, at the very least seems to be willing to try things out, but she seems to be lacking the confidence in her own ability to forge a relationship with Heavenly Father. Baby steps.
Also we found out this week that Nakamura-san watches that TV show, Family History, and he was very surprised when we told him that Christians care about their ancestors. It's a good thing too, because he likes to pull the whole "I'm an ojiichan it's impossible for me to learn new things" act (300% untrue) and this way we can help him realize the gospel is in fact going to make his life better.
Imanaka-san is our other almost-investigator who needs a very strong dose of happiness in his life. Poor guy has a hard time with people so he turns to videogames. (incidentally, gamer Japanese is ridiculously hard) I visited him with Ishikawa Shimai on our koukan and turns out he's actually way nice and kinda like a blank slate, down to listen and absorb stuff. Whether or not he actually acts on the stuff we give him is a whole other story that we haven't read yet but we'll see how that goes.
Speaking of Ishikawa Shimai, we visited this friend she had when she was in elementary school in Japan, and not only was she home, she remembered Ishikawa Shimai, invited us in, told us she'd talked to missionaries in the past, and gave us way cool hair pins. It was away good time. She told us to come back another time, so now that's in the works for next transfer.
The week's crowning miracle, however was probably that Maho-chan came to church this week. Now you see, I have never met Maho-chan before. Hattanda Shimai has only. Met her twice. Yet when we texted her and said "hey wanna come to church?" she was just like "sure" and then actually came! And then the members were the Best, made good friends with her, invited her to come with us to lunch, and then at said lunch, we talked a whole lot about Jesus Christ and faith in God and the Book of Mormon, and how by exercising faith and learning, she can learn for herself whether or not all this stuff is true. She seemed a little overwhelmed, but she responded well, and said she'd think about it when we taught her about baptism. Honestly, it was the testimony of the members that really made the difference. They were so good at relating to her and making her feel loved. Also they used a bunch of way good easy to understand tatoes. Hopefully the seeds planted on Sunday will take root and start growing.
愛しています! 💕
Sherwood 姉妹
19歳 20歳
1-3.) Maho-chan + her Japanese camera filters
4.) an ancient Australian relic from the time Wilkin Kyoudai was a missionary (aka like three years ago) found when helping Ito 長老 and Courter 長老 clean out the 長老 apartment.
5.) the training we gave on teaching to meet needs and helping people resolve their concerns at district meeting. Olive trees are tricky little buggers man
6.) 🎶Secret Tunnellllll secret Tunnellllll through the mountainssssss secret secret secret secret tunnellllllllllllllll yeah🎶
7.) Jones Shimai plus yours truly as our companions were busy doing something that I don't remember
8-9.) the cool river that flows alongside the secret tunnels
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