Konnichiwa minasan!
This week was very wet, but that's okay because we got to pet several dogs while out and about and that makes everything better.
As for investigators, we met with Maho this week actually and it turned out to be way good, surprisingly, because she had told us she didn't really have any interest in joining any churches. But she ended up ranting to us about her relationship problems and it just so happened that recent keiji received by Jones Shimai was perfectly suited for helping her to see how God can answer prayers when we have questions or need guidance about what to do. I think she finally realized that religion isn't just some ethereal, intangible thing used to make people feel good about themselves, but is, in fact, a connection with deity. Hopefully she'll actually take our invitation and pray for guidance.
We've been ganbaruing and going through the massive list of former investigators with minimal success, but the cool thing is on Sunday we had lunch with the Asadas and we got to talking about dendo (as you do) and it was a really solid discussion. Asada Kyoudai said that the best dendo he ever had was when they had no investigators and he was right about to give up and told Heavenly Father that he was going to dendo super hard that day, but he was sick and tired of trying to finagle his way into people's houses so he decided that he was just going to use the "We're missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" approach and if that didn't work and they didn't find any investigators that day, he would quit and go home the next. So he did and the very last door they knocked on fifteen minutes before they had to be home, the lady said "I've been waiting for you to come." and she became a new investigator.
This week was very wet, but that's okay because we got to pet several dogs while out and about and that makes everything better.
As you may have gathered from this week's subject line, we did an awful lot of walking this week. On Wednesday we walked 11 miles, on Friday we walked 7.7 miles, and on Saturday we walked 8 miles, for a solid total of 26.7 miles. Not quite 1000 but it sure did take a long time. We do this because trains here are more expensive than me.
Also there was yet another typhoon on Tuesday so that was fun. We went outside not at all due to wind which we feared would break our windows. But it was fine.
Also I gave a talk on Sunday about dendo and ministering! The members were very impressed and told me they hadn't heard such a well-prepared talk from a missionary in a very long time. I'm not sure whether to believe them or not because I used a lot of Google translate but that's neither here nor there. I'll include it for y'all to read if you want!
As for investigators, we met with Maho this week actually and it turned out to be way good, surprisingly, because she had told us she didn't really have any interest in joining any churches. But she ended up ranting to us about her relationship problems and it just so happened that recent keiji received by Jones Shimai was perfectly suited for helping her to see how God can answer prayers when we have questions or need guidance about what to do. I think she finally realized that religion isn't just some ethereal, intangible thing used to make people feel good about themselves, but is, in fact, a connection with deity. Hopefully she'll actually take our invitation and pray for guidance.
We've been ganbaruing and going through the massive list of former investigators with minimal success, but the cool thing is on Sunday we had lunch with the Asadas and we got to talking about dendo (as you do) and it was a really solid discussion. Asada Kyoudai said that the best dendo he ever had was when they had no investigators and he was right about to give up and told Heavenly Father that he was going to dendo super hard that day, but he was sick and tired of trying to finagle his way into people's houses so he decided that he was just going to use the "We're missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" approach and if that didn't work and they didn't find any investigators that day, he would quit and go home the next. So he did and the very last door they knocked on fifteen minutes before they had to be home, the lady said "I've been waiting for you to come." and she became a new investigator.
So yeah that was awesome and really validating because I too am very sick and tired of trying to convince people into the font and have exactly zero desire to focus on the tares when I'm supposed to be harvesting the wheat. And then Asada Kyoudai told us about this one former investigator and we went and visited her and we used the straight up approach and she was like "right now it's kind of late but sure you can come back another day in the evening." So long story short, my soul is at rest, all is right with the world, I'm done working myself up about the intricacies of Japanese social skills, and now I'm just down to go out and swing. If they're ready, they're ready. If they're not, they're not. My job is to state my purpose and fulfill it to those who are prepared. No sense in exhausting myself trying to do the Lord's part of the work.
愛しています！ (*^^*)💕
Sherwood 姉妹
Sherwood 姉妹
1-3) chilling with Maho
5) Miki Elders and Nishinomiya Elders being nerds
6) aesthetic photos of me
7-8) we found a huge worm it was gross
9) a waterfall
19歳 20歳
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