SHIBUYA!! It's crazy! We live in the "fast lane" that's for sure (; We have a lot of people we're working with, the work is really picking up and we've been finding people like crazy. Elder Li is a little fireball and we're trying to give it 100% (something Carson reminded me about in a video a few weeks back that I've been focusing on,) But it's definitely The Lord's work, and he has His own timing.
We've been doing 3 skype lessons with Daichi every week and he
is progressing so well. Even the hardest commandments he says without
question, "If that's what God says, then I'll do it." He just gets
it. He's always happy and smiling and I can tell that even when we aren't
there, the gospel is starting to change him as he applies its teachings and
our commitments. It's amazing to see these changes in people's
lives. Please pray for him to be able to meet with us though, and to be
able to come to church! Skype is an amazing resource, but... well, it's
not ideal.
Shingo knows God guided him to this church, he's just
struggles with over-thinking every part of the doctrine. Please pray that
he will be able to receive a spiritual confirmation and accept the simplicity
of the gospel. I love him to death, and we're trying to meet more than
once a week!
This week we were biking to the church and stopped at a
red-light at a busy intersection. I turned to the guy next to me and just
said, "Cool bike!" He said, "You too!" I said,
"Thanks! I'm a missionary. I teach about Jesus Christ and how His
teachings make us happy. Would you like to learn?" And he said,
"Yeah totally!" and we exchanged phone numbers as the light turned
green. For future missionaries, keep it simple. For some reason
people think that in Japan you can't just be a missionary; you have to sneak
the gospel into a lengthy conversation, but it's not true. Japan,
Germany, Poland; the core of the work is that God has prepared people and we
need to find them! Even if 20 say, "I have no interest," the
person God has prepared is still out there!
Ah, I love this city. I'm so blessed that The Lord would
send a country kid like me to such a busy city! It's so beautiful in such
a different way. I love Japan. I LOVE JAPAN!!!
Me and Elder Li have had a few more storming conversations, but
bless both of our hearts, we're becoming really unified. I hope we get
another transfer together, because we're becoming a pretty killer team!!
After our missions we'll have to play some b-ball together to catch up (he was
on his high school team and is absurdly good. That's one of our
activities here in Shibuya and I'm getting a little bit better each week!)
So our area is actually two
areas: Shibuya and Tokyo 1st. Shibuya is a Japanese Ward and we teach all
of the people in this area who speak Japanese. Tokyo 1st is the Hiroo
ward (on the same lot as Tokyo Temple) and they go to the English Ward/teach
English speakers. There are two companionships in each Ward, but all
eight of us live in the same apartment. Every p-day is like a district p-day!!!
(today we played Squash which is a super posh sport like polo! One of the
Elders in our apartment has a membership at an American country club and
president gave us permission to come! I feel really out of place there as a
missionary, but it's been quite the adventure! I'd like to check out the city the rest of my time here instead of spending p-day in one place. :)
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| Real American Food! |
We met a member at the busiest crossing in the world where we were advertising The Book of Mormon!
LOVE YOU!!
スタウト長老! ^o^
Elder Stout! :D
Ps,
I have a request for you and everyone that writes me letters! I'm
really sorry if this is inconvenient, but could you maybe get emails to me
a little bit sooner than your Sunday/my Monday? I only have a set amount
of time to email on P-Day. The rest of the week I can look at emails, but
if I get them on Monday then sometimes I have to use some of my writing time
for reading, and that can take like 20 minutes out of an hour. (Sometimes
I have more time, but about half the time it's pretty short.) Reading them
Sunday or Saturday night, or even earlier in the week if I have time, is
preferable. I'm really sorry if that's tough..!! (And I know that I told
you otherwise a few emails ago, so don't feel bad! Things have just
changed a little bit in Shibuya.)
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| Making Sister Nagano's new recipes. I'm gonna be a chef! |
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