The work is going well. Finding people to teach is still hard, but the work is moving forward. We still just have our 1 progressing investigator, but he is doing so well so I can't complain. And I think that we'll be able to find more people to teach through him once is he is baptized and is really converted. One interesting thing that Smith Kaicho said was that there are actually enough members in Sendai that they could build another temple--the problem is that so many are inactive. And when we meet some inactive members, like T Kyoudai, it's basically like teaching a new investigator because they don't really remember much from meeting with the missionaries previously. So I think a big part of the work in this mission will be finding and reactivating all the "バプテスマを受けた新しいきゅうどうしゃ。”
I'm glad the first part of conference was good! I was told that Uchtdorf Kaicho gave an amazing talk. We will probably be able to watch it all, I think they are showing it at the church (in Japanese) but two of the missionaries in our district are Nihonjin so we may be watching together in Japanese. Or we may get to watch it in English on
our iPads or something, I'm not really sure yet.
Glad the primary program went well, and that Jarom didn't have to exit his comfort zone. One family is moving out of our branch and their kids are like half the primary, so I'm sure our primary program won't go overtime either ;)
I have been reading a little bit of the モルモン書. Usually just a verse or two during language study. Sometimes I can pick out phrases that I understand, and usually I can kind of figure out the gist of the meaning. Sometimes I just can't understand it at all though. Haha but I look up all the words I don't know, and I'll look up the verses in
English after I try to read them in Japanese, so I'm undestanding more and more every day.
So I got my first haircut in Japan this week. I realized how trash my Japanese actually is haha, I've gotten used to teaching Gospel principles and some small talk on the streets, but I understood basically nothing the hair-cutters said. And it was one of those nice places where they wash your hair and shave your face and stuff, so they kept asking me different questions about how I wanted my hair and directing me into different chairs and I was just so lost. But I made it through, and my hair turned out fine. It was just kind of a funny realization for me that I taught someone the ins and outs of repentance and explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ to someone who had never heard it before, on the same day that I was not able to have a normal conversation with the guy cutting my hair.
On Monday R took us out to a steak dinner--oh my. How I missed steak. Which is weird because I really didn't eat a lot of steak in America. But it was delicious. After our dinner we had a lesson about repentance, and it went super well--I think it really helped him see the bigger purpose of all our meetings and even for joining the
church. He has had to work the last 2 Sundays so he hasn't been to church in a little while, but our next lesson is about the Sabbath Day and we are planning on inviting him to ask his boss for work off on Sundays--so if all goes well, we'll be able to go to church together every week until his baptism. We taught him another lesson on Saturday night--we reviewed the restoration and taught about prophets. Everything is just clicking so well for him, and his fellowshipper M Kyoudai has been super helpful, they're getting to be good friends. We're still on track for October 22nd please pray that he will continue to progress and be ready to be baptized on that day! :)
One interesting thing that came up during the repentance lesson was that he said he sometimes feels guilty when he smokes or drinks with everyone at work. And we haven't taught him a word of wisdom lesson yet--but I guess he remembered it from when he met with missionaries before? We were thinking we were starting totally from scratch, but I guess he remembers more than we thought. So we covered that commandment just very briefly, and it sounds like he doesn't really even like smoking or drinking but everyone does it as part of the social life at his work, so it's more of the social pressures that will be a problem. But I'm confident he'll be able to be strong when the time comes.
Things are going really well with N Shimai (the Eikaiwa student who came to church that one time)--she hasn't explicitly stated her interest in the church, but I can tell there is a little bit of interest there. Maybe mostly just curiously at this point, but definitely something she is thinking about a lot. After Eikaiwa on Wednesday we were talking about our families and our colleges, she was asking a lot about our lives in America. Then she asked why I decided to come on a mission, and why I'm a member of the church. So I had a cool opportunity to bear my testimony of how much God has helped me and blessed my life, and how excited I was to be able to share the
message of the gospel as a missionary. She thought about it for a second, then asked, "and are you happy?" So I smiled and I told her I was very happy. Then on Sunday, she came to church again! I think it's only a matter of time before she starts wanting to learn more.
We had a lesson with T Kyoudai again, he had to go on a business trip for the weekend so he couldn't come to church, but he is starting to gain his fiery passion again. He really trusts us, he tells us all of things he feels like he needs to change and we never have to probe or anything. He has gotten back into the habit of drinking coffee and tea but he says he wants to quit and he's glad to have our help. We kind of had to push to schedule this last lesson, but after he said he is really looking forward to meeting again. He really has so much potential, he just is so busy with work that sometimes he gets distracted. So we are helping him to realize where he wants his priorities to be--I think he just forgets how good it is to feel the spirit until he feels it again.
We had an Aomori district priesthood meeting (for all the branches around Aomori) so Smith Kaicho and his counselors came up to Aomori, it was fun too see them. And Seza Kaicho is always super happy to see me! He says I am a genki missionary just like Pasuketto Choro and Jole Shimai always were. :)
I guess the word got around that I have basic organ playing skills because I was asked to play the organ for the DIstrict Priesthood meeting and I was asked to accompany the ward choir (on the organ) on Sunday as well. Haha so I have been getting lots of organ practice this week.
So that's been my week! Thanks for being the best mother of all time!
いつもあふれる愛、
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
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| Tonkatsu! |
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| My original soft-serve-ice-cream-waffle taco |
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