Today is Temple P-Day, so I'm emailing a day late! Last week too, I had to send my emails from
the apartment and they didn't actually send until we had wifi the next day,
that's why you didn't get them for so long! But I hope not to have issues
with that again in the future (;
Last transfer I went to the temple on the very first PDay, and
this transfer I'm going on my second to last, so I haven't been in several
months. Going again today was an amazing blessing. I was promised
once in a blessing that I would come to love the temple, and that day has
come. It is one of the biggest highlights of every month; visiting the
house of The Lord. I felt so much peace there, and believe me when I say
it was needed! Life in Shibuya can get stressful for someone who's
slow-paced like me ;)
Hahaha! Yeah, Nagano Shimai... so we're just sitting in
the apartment panting because Elder Li and I had just crashed in the door after
a late lesson, we were just starting to plan when suddenly the phone goes off:
"Elder Li, hello! This is Sister Nagano. I'm coming to your
apartment. Goodbye." His face dropped instantly from a smile to a
look of horror. The entire apartment of 8 Elders erupted when he repeated the
brief message: "There's NO WAY! It's too late, she's not coming
now! Maybe tomorrow, not NOW!" "But what if she DOES come
now?! Come here Elder ___, we're cleaning the kitchen!"
"Everyone CALM DOWN!" "YOU calm down and start vacuuming!!"
and then a knock at the door. In the video she took from outside on our
front step, there's an audible, "Oh SHOOT. That's not the door is
it?"
When Sister Nagano's voice echoed, "Hello!" down the
hallway, Elder Morris literally fell out of his chair with a loud 200 lb crash,
and him and Elder Li began shoving everything they could grab into a nearby
backpack to make the desks look cleaner.
Needless to say the visit was VERY needed, and the Shibuya
apartment is looking MUCH better. ;)
Some fun facts about this apartment: 1) It's in the busiest city
in the world 2) It's the only 8-man apartment in Tokyo mission (maybe any
mission for that matter,) 3) It's the most expensive missionary apartment in
the world. 4) We have a bath tub that we use nightly.
So, by way of investigators, it's been an interesting
transfer. We've found more people than I've ever found before, but many
of them just disappeared after the first lesson. Teaching has been so
much fun though. We have some of the most interesting/fun people in this
area. I've mentioned Daichi, he's the nicest guy on the entire planet and he's
SO cool. "Nice guy, cool guy." Recently, he's experienced a
little bit of opposition to the church by way of friends and such who are of a
different faith and don't want him to change. They are good people, but
please pray for their hearts to be softened, because he loves the teachings of
Jesus Christ.
Shingo is a very funny man! He wants to be a farmer in
Japan and is going to school and work almost 24/7, so we usually only teach him
over the phone except when he can make it to church. He truly doesn't
have time for a lot of lessons, but he's so prepared and has an amazing desire
to follow The Lord. Please pray that he'll be able to find time, or that
time will make itself available to him!
This week I met someone who I will never forget. Elder Li and I
were tracting hard. "The grind baby." ;) We'd been talking to
every person we saw with no apparent success for several hours when he said,
"We gotta go this way." gesturing to the left, a street we never walk
down. We follow the prompting and the FIRST person we talked to, a man
wearing 2 beanies to keep his ears warm:
"Hello! We're missionaries of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints! We're originally Americans, but because of
Jesus Christ and His teachings, our lives have been changed and we've become
happy. As missionaries we teach about Jesus Christ, would you like to
learn?"
"Yes!"
"O--oh! Maybe not now, but another time, we could
meet up and talk..."
"Now is fine!"
"Alright! Should we talk right here?"
"There's a park over there, follow me."
Tsukagoshi San walked us to a nearby park where we sat down and
talked about Heavenly Father and how we can communicate with him through
prayer. Our new friend loved the lesson and tried praying twice with us
right there. Afterward we gave him a Book of Mormon and he was delighted
to start reading. We asked for a phone number and then set an appointment
for the next day at the same time meeting at the eki (train station,) so that
we could go do a church tour. He smiled and waved us off as we road away.
The next day, we arrived at the Eki. My watch read
1:55. "No sign of him... Maybe he forgot."
1:58... 1:59.... 2:00, and there he was! A smiling face
under a head of long messy hair (he looked completely different without the
beanies on,) Exactly on time. This time, we toured the church. We
watched a video together and talked about who Jesus Christ really is and how
the gospel can bless our families. He was very quiet, but smiled and
contributed with really good answers when we asked. At the end of this
lesson, we invited him to join us at a baptism being held at the Hiroo English
ward that night. We showed him the spot and said, "Right there at
6:45?" and he nodded yes.
Wading through crowds of people that evening, the baptism
beginning in only a short time, we looked all over for him. "Do you
think he forgot?" I asked Elder Li, checking my watch-- 6:44. Then a
hand waving at us caught our eyes. There he was! Exactly on
time! The baptism, although all in English, was very touching for
him. He told us he strongly desired to be baptized too.
The next day at the park,
exactly on time, we met him again. This
time there had been some rain, but we found a big wooded Japanese bench
designed for stretching your back, with a long arching support, that was mostly
dry. So following Tsukagoshi san's
example we stepped up onto the seat of the bench and sat down on it's rounded
back. That lesson on the restoration was
a little hard for him to understand, but he did he best and promised to see us
at church the next day. In fact, he was
so eager that he arrived an hour early and instead of attending the ward
mission meeting (in Japan it's called DCS,) we taught him a lesson with one of
the temple missionaries. Tsukagoshi San
attended all 4 hours and the shokujikai (lunch,) afterword. We said we'd see him at the church the next
day at 1 o'clock, and he walked away beaming.
The next day, we were at the
church on time, but he wasn't there.
When my watch read 1:15, he still wans't there. We were worried, so we biked all the way down
to the park just in case, but he wasn't there.
He never arrived at the church, and we can't contact him through the
phone.
We don't know what happened
to Tsukagoshi San, but please pray that we will find him. I know he desires to follow God, and he's
already brightened my life so much. I
have hope that we'll see him at church, but please keep him in your prayers!
OH MY GOSH!!! TELL AUSTIN CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! I'm so excited for him!! It's going to change his life. He's going to be such an amazing missionary,
I know he's already a super hard worker.
If I could give him advice it would be this: Read Preach My Gospel all
the way through before you go, just a little each day. And then give yourself to The Lord. Don't hold anything back. I love you Austin!
I miss Narita SOOO
much!! Those ward members are my family
now, and I look forward to the day that I can see them again. But GUESS WHAT!? The other day I got a package in the mail
from one of my old ward members. It was
full of fresh fruits: grapes, apples, kiwis... that kinds of stuff is really
expensive here, but it was SO good. I
just love them so much. The ward members
here are amazing too, but there are a lot more, and they're all really busy, so
getting to know them is a bit tougher.
However, I'll let you know :)
Hey, I'm sorry for forgetting
so many people's birthdays!!! Rachel (I
know it was a while ago...) Mark (I didn't forget either of yours, I just
forgot to write,) ... I'm the worst. I
know it. If you or someone else could
send me a list of birthdays, I'll be better at that ;) BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
EVERYONE I ACCIDENTALLY FORGOT TO EMAIL!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!
Alright, that about wraps up
this email. I love all of you, whoever else is reading this email. I'm doing
well!! Hope you love the videos and the
photos, cuz they've been 2 weeks coming ;)
My favorite one's are the
Shuji Kyoudai ones. Shuji is the
funniest man on the planet. Enjoy.
スタウト長老! ^o^
Elder Stout! :D
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| Playing yakyu (baseball) |
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