Saying goodbye to Barton Choro was so sad! I miss that guy. At the honbu, I slept in (until 6:30) but he left at 6:00 so I didn't get to give him a goodbye hug! Sad day.
On our last day, we had a nice lesson with R, then Smith Kaicho and Shimai picked us up from Yokote and drove us back up to Sendai, where we had our interviews. That was the best interview I've had yet--I can't really explain it, but the mood was just different. We talked like father and son, I really felt his love for me and for this work. I left feeling so much more energized and motivated!
The next morning, I met up with Haskins Choro in downtown Sendai and we took a bus back to Yokote. We have only had like 3 days together so far but things have been going so great!
We picked up an old investigator named T. He is in high school and is good friends with R because they're in the English club together. We met with him, and he is looking for more direction in his life as well as to develop more self-control. He is such a great kid, he warmed up to us really fast. I can already tell that he is the kind of person who will be sensitive to the spirit.
Su and Sh have come leaps and bounds the past few days! Saturday and Sunday were saturated with miracles, mostly involving the 2 of them. I read in PMG in chapter 11 about helping investigators keep commitments--it says that we should be making daily contact with our investigators, and stop by for short visits in between our scheduled lessons. I realized that we had a lot of room for improvement there, so we have been trying to make more frequent contact with our Qs and it has worked wonders! Yet another confirmation that the Lord's way is always the best way.
We stopped by Sh's house on Saturday, and he invited us right in and was his normal friendly self. About 5 minutes into the conversation, he told us he didn't want to go to church the next day. We said "ok," but kept teaching about God and the restoration. Then, suddenly, he told us "I will go to church tomorrow." We told him that was great! Eventually we got on the topic of prayer, he told us he would come to church but he didn't want to pray. We said "ok," but talked about God and His love for us. Then, again, in the middle of the conversation, he suddenly said "ok I will pray. But I don't want to get baptized," and motioned sprinkling water on his head. We hadn't mentioned anything about baptism before. We said "ok," and he finished our lesson with a beautiful prayer. The spirit was seriously whispering in his ear that entire lesson, it was amazing! We stopped by his house after church on Sunday, and he said he definitely wants to come again next week.
We had a lesson with Su on Friday, he is really starting to understand who God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and prophets are. Truly comprehending those fundamentals has made everything else just come together so well in his mind. He came to church on Sunday, and we asked if we could stop by later that day, but he said he had some errands and stuff so he probably didn't have time. After visiting Sh's house, we were riding past Su's apartment, and Haskins Choro said he really had to pee. So, we had the idea to ask Su if we could use his restroom. Su was surprised to see us, but of course happy to let Haskins Choro use his restroom. While he was peeing, we talked and he told us he was cooking some dinner, I commented on how delicious it looked, and he offered to share it with us. He said the おでん would take about 45 minutes until it was done, and asked us if we had time to stay. We said ok, then sat down and talked for 2 hours. Toilet dendo for the win. The spirit was so strong! He had such good questions, and as we were talking about faith and Ether 12:6, he asked us, "but, how can I show my faith to Jesus?" I could've cried. We told him, "by obeying the commandments." He got out a piece of paper to write down what the commandments are so he could keep them. We reviewed the few we had already covered, and he just kept asking if there were any other commandments. We ended up teaching almost all of them right there, it was amazing. His perspective about commandments really humbled me--God's commandments are not restrictive or bothersome, but an amazing opportunity to show our love and faith to God and Christ. At the end, we somehow got talking about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and we showed him the website to listen to their songs. We left, and before we had even exited the apartment building, we heard him blasting Motab loud enough to hear in the hallway. We are just waiting for his neighbors to refer themselves now.
Sunday night, it was 8:45, and we had planned to visit the F's. We were about 15 minutes away from the apartment. The F's were about 15 minutes away, but in opposite direction. I told Elder Haskins, "well, if we go to the F's, we will probably get there right around 9:00. We don't have an appointment, and if they are not home, we will end up being fujuujun and get home around 9:20. And, we still have to report numbers to the DL at some point before 9:00." We both just thought about it for about 10 seconds, and we both just knew we were supposed to go the F's. We took off on our bikes, and the DL called while I was riding, so I managed to do all of houkoku while en route to the F's, then we arrived at 8:58. R chan answered the door, so we talked with her and shared a scripture. She is 10 years old and was baptized about a year and a half ago, she was so happy to see us. After we said good night, she came back and opened the door to wave good bye again, twice. She waved us all the way to our bikes, then we took off and made it home at 9:30 on the dot.
I miss Barton Choro, but Haskins Choro and I are working very well together, so that is good. I was inspired by Elder Clark in Chile and we have started setting some crazy high goals! I am loving the work and things are just wonderful here in Yokote!
Thanks for all you do! Love you so much!!!
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
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| Teaching Eikaiwa with Elder Barton |
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| Haircut from I san |
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| With Elder Haskins |
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