Elder Landon Paskett's Journeys in Japan: February 13, 2017--A great mission story

Well, it's honestly been a pretty rough week. But there have been good things along the way!

On Monday, an Obaasan named O who attends church but is not a member came to our Eikaiwa. Afterwards, she invited us to go to the Kamakura festival with her this week. She asked if we had any appointments after Eikaiwa, and we said yes, because we had a lesson with R and then T (an LA) that night. She wanted to just show us where her house is really quick, so she told us to follow her. We were getting a little nervous because it was making us late to our lesson, but we figured we'd just follow her to her house then run over to our lesson. Then, all of a sudden, she walks into this super nice restaurant, and asks for a table for 3. We were just so stunned and confused, we politely told her we couldn't stay because we needed to leave for our appointment, but she was just like "oh it's ok just have him come over here, I'll buy his dinner too." R agreed to come join us but he had just eaten dinner so he wasn't hungry. So basically we ended up eating steak at the nicest restaurant in Yokote in front of our investigator instead of having a lesson, it was a mess. It was pretty good steak though.

Right after that we had our appointment with T, we were already planning on going to dinner with him so we went and got some Yokote yakisoba for a 2nd dinner. He was able to come to church on Sunday so that was good! He even took out his gauges and piercings for church, it was nice.

On Tuesday, we were able to do a lot of good finding, and then I got hit by a car. That definitely put a damper on things. You already know the story, but for those who don't, here is what happened:

We were walking along the road, there was no sidewalk and the sides of the road are covered in huge piles of snow, so we were just on the edge of the road. I was walking along, when suddenly a huge semi truck behind us took a corner too fast and lost traction. As it began sliding out of control, I noticed a Mom with 2 little kids at her feet, holding an infant child and pushing an old lady in a wheelchair. The wheelchair was stuck in the ice on the road, and they were directly in the path of the semi truck careening out of control. I only had a few seconds to act, so I dove and managed to stack the little family onto the wheelchair and send them rolling away to the other side of the road, but it was too late for me. I flexed my pecs as hard as I could and braced myself for the oncoming truck. I was knocked off my feet, but I managed to stop the truck from destroying the nearby orphanage and old folk's home that were just meters away from the site.

We took a short trip to the hospital to do some X-rays and scans, and I came out with just a swollen hand, a sore chest, and a nice goose egg on my head from build-up of hot air. I'll make sure and send some pics! Everything is better now expect for a little but of chest pain still, but all things considered I guess I am pretty lucky.

[Mom's note: in case you didn't notice, there was a bit of artistic license used in that retelling--the less melodramatic (though no less impressive) version is more along the lines of this: Elder Paskett was walking along the side of the road and was hit from behind with no warning; flipping up and over the car, he managed to break the windshield, and flip and twist over the still-forward-moving car to land on his back in the road, 20 feet ahead of where he started. The hospital part was more accurate and the x-rays and CT scan all indicated no broken bones, etc. Check out the pictures below of x-rays, the swollen hand, and the happy-go-luckiest hospital patient ever.]

On the way to the hospital, I had a lot of good life pondering time. It is still kind of weird to me that I honestly could have died there. Being not only alive, but with basically no lasting injuries, helped me realize that the Lord needs me here. It had made me want to really give my life to the Lord and do all that He would have me do. That night, I kneeled down and, for the first time in my life, just thanked the Lord that I am alive! How great it is to be alive. I would encourage each of you reading this to pray to God, today, and thank him for your wonderful life!

We have a sweet new investigator named K. We met him tracting, in the same apartment as S (the one-eyed crazy man whom I love very much). When we first met him, we offered him a Book of Mormon, but he said he wanted to try coming to church and see how it is before he accepts a book. But he expressed some interest, so we were thinking he would for sure come to church. He didn't show up the week we met him, so we decided to stop by again this week and just see how he's doing, and if he really has any interest or not.

We stopped by and he was glad to see us! We had a really good conversation and he was telling us about his favorite restaurant nearby, so we decided to go out to eat together this week. This was Saturday night, so we asked if he was still interested in coming to church, and he said he would probably be able to come the next day. Right then, S came home to his apartment and saw us in the hall! So he came up and introduced himself to K; S was like "I didn't really have any friends until the missionaries came to my door, and now I have another 3 friends!" He was very excited that he knows one of his neighbors now! So excited that he asked K if he was coming to church on Sunday, and when K said yes probably, he offered him a ride in his car. He was pretty persistent too. We weren't 100% sure if he would come or not before, but S was like "ok I'll be waiting at 9:45, just come knock on my door! I won't leave without you!" So basically we had one of our investigators being a great missionary and getting another investigator to church, it was so awesome!

We were a little bit worried that K would be weirded out by S, but they actually are really good friends now! Apparently they decided to hang out yesterday to drink Sake and watch movies hahaha.

K had a great time at church! I got to give a talk, and I spoke about Christ's Intercessory prayer and what it teaches about the Doctrine of Christ. I catered it mostly to K, but tried to make it edifying for the long-time members as well. Right after me, this one old lady spoke, and she is actually crazy--like diagnosably crazy. We all love her, but I was worried that her talk would confuse/weird out K. She just spoke about how the snow in Yokote has been pretty sukunai this year, she talked for like 25 minutes haha but after her the branch president gave a talk (also on Christ's Intercessory Prayer) and it was super solid. Then in Sunday School we talked about the Holy Ghost and how it speaks to us, it was great!

After church, I asked K how it was and if he had any questions. He said "hontou ni benkyou ni narimashita! Yokatta desu." And he asked me if he could have a Book of Mormon!! So good. Then we had a branch lunch after church this week (perfect timing!!) so he got to know the members really well, they all love him!

That is so cool about I san--we visited her yesterday, she loves missionaries. She has been texting us every day pretending to be Baymax from Big Hero 6 and asks me how i would rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10, she is the best! She's like "I know how much your moms must worry about you so I have to take good care of you for them."

That is so cool about the temple music gig! I can't think of anyone better to coordinate all the choirs, that will be so fun to get to be a part of! Let me know how it goes :)

The drunk driver didn't end up coming to church, but he and his boss did come and apologize and gave me a box of sweets, so that was really nice. But we know where he lives now so we can keep pestering him to come to church as much as we want ;)

I broke out the voice recorder to record my talk in church! I still don't know how to send the files through the ipad though. But at the very least, be prepared for some fun sound files in 2018 haha :)

Love you!! Thanks for all you do!!!

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