We invited our buddy Tsukagoshi to come to church this
week. He's expressed a strong desire to
be baptized and recommitted himself to coming to church every week in order to
do so, but said it's too hard to go if someone doesn't help him because of the
distance from his home and some back problems he's experiencing. We had lined things up with a ward member
named Brother Fukunaga, he's one of my heroes in this ward. He was going to pick our friend up Sunday
morning, but during first hour of church (our ward does sacrament meeting
last,) we realized he wasn't there and asked brother Fukunaga about it. His eyes got wide and he began apologizing
profusely saying he thought our text was spam and hadn't read it all the way
through (we'd called his wife's phone the last few times so he didn't have our
number.) However, immediately we took off and got into his car to make the 6
minute drive (which is somehow nearly a 40 minute walk.) We got to Tsukagoshi's
house, but because of the narrowness of the road Fukunaga Kyoudai had to
leave. Elder Taylor and I knocked on the
door and rang the bell twice and even opened the door and yelled inside,
"Gomen kudasaaaaai! Tsukagoshi San
imaaaasu kaaaa?" We waited five minutes and received no response. Nobody was home.
Elder Taylor began walking away discouraged. He was half-way to the road when I bowed my
head and said a prayer. I said,
"Heavenly Father, I'm just here to do what you want me to do. And I know you want him to come to
church. Please help us. I'm not asking for a miracle, I just want him
to come to church because he wants to come to church. He needs our help right now, and we need
yours right now." and closed my prayer in Christ's name. When I had said the word "Amen"
Elder Taylor pointed and yelped in disbelief, "There he is! It's Tsukagoshi!!" His front door is in
this little ally-way overshadowed by a freeway above a 30 or so foot concrete
wall where there's a side-walk that Elder Taylor pointed to. I looked, but saw no one. I turned around thinking he was playing a
joke, but Elder Taylor didn't laugh.
We sprinted around the street and ran up the stairs meeting
our friend at the top of them. He
laughed and smiled in his favorite blue shirt all ready to go, and gestured at
our suits saying, "Nice!"
Because we hadn't been there when he expected, he took a
walk around the block to see if we'd gotten lost and ended up just going for a
nice morning walk. Nobody was home at
all when we arrived.
He loved being at church and our members loved him and were
so friendly and nice. He was beaming
from ear to ear for the full day and during our luncheon.
It was a huge testimony builder that we need to rely on The
Lord in all we do, and have faith, and follow promptings. If we hadn't have prayed, the timing would
have been thrown by just a moment, and we would't have ever seen him. He'd given up on waiting for us by that time.
At church we were talking with our friend Hasegawa San who
we met last week. Sacrament meeting was
extremely powerful, all about the pioneers who crossed the plains and how the
people of japan are pioneers as well. He
asked, "When can I enter the temple?" we explained that you must be a
worthy member in order to enter, and so he proceeded to ask, "How do I
become a member?" we explained baptism and it's importance, then he asked,
"How long will it take before I can get baptized?" and we set up
times to talk about meeting and doing all of the lessons as promptly as
possible.
We're seeing miracles according to our faith and
obedience. I love Elder Taylor and I
love working with him so much. The
"bean chan (greeny) fire" is so real, and he's filled with enough
faith to change countless lives. Faith is
a principle of action and then power, and Elder Taylor is an exemplary example
of just diving in and doing as much as he can.
He's going to be the best of the best missionaries in this world soon
because he's not afraid to make mistakes.
I want to be more like him in that regard! I love him so much. We were talking about how sad we are that
there's only two weeks left before we split up and I go who knows where.
(Probably.) It's gonna be a really emotional time, but we have a REALLY busy
few days lined up. Helping three members
move, going to a concert, meeting 8 new referrals, and teaching every person
who will meet with us! God's hand is in
this work and he knows what he's doing.
I watched The District
1's first 2 videos with my trainee yesterday and felt loads of revelation
flowing into me on what I'm doing wrong and how I need to focus on the basics
of Preach My Gospel more. So I'm working on that! It was way good. If anyone reading this just wants to
understand the gospel better, strengthen their testimony, and learn how to
manage their lives, they should read Preach
My Gospel. I don't know why it isn't
required for all members to read ;)
This church is true.
I've had the spirit testify the truth of it to me powerfully, and I've
felt the spirit testify powerfully through me to others that everything we
teach every day is true. Be bold and
filled with love and testify and stand up for what you believe!
I'm
so excited for Elder Whitmer!! (Elder Stout’s good friend who is serving in Sapporo, and is
having the opportunity to help out at the Sapporo Temple open house) That's so awesome. I read one of his emails and got
so excited for him. Also, apparently one of the sisters in his district
is really good friends with my District leader Elder Murakami. And it was
so cool to meet that man the other week!! He and his wife were so kind
and were so excited to meet you for us :) We got a call from a
kind brother who had visited Tokyo and met Elder Stout and Elder Taylor at Shibuya Ward. He said they are doing great, and he sent us
this picture:
Today
at Zone P-Day I met a man with a didgeridoo and his friend who was a
rapper. I whipped out a super simple beat and sustained it long enough
for a missionary to start beat boxing, then the man who originally had the didgeridoo
got into it and started playing on his banjo, and then the rapper started to do
his thing and was rapping about missionaries in Spanish and it was a magical
moment.
 |
| Zone p-day at Odaiba Beach |
Mama and Dada, I love you so much! Thanks for your emails every week :) I miss you terribly, but if time keeps moving
this fast I'll be missing Japan too soon, so I'll do my best to focus on now!
;)
スタウト長老! ^o^
Elder Stout! :D
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