I was in my first earthquake this week! While we were at the Honbu being trained on how to train, the table suddenly started shaking. Then the pictures on the walls and the hanging light fixtures started shaking as well. It stopped pretty quickly though, I think they said it was a 5.6 earthquake with no real damage to anything.
Shortly after that, we went and picked up the new missionaries from the airport! They have a Doki of 6 people. This was the first time being back to that airport since August, it was way なつかしい。 It feels like I have only been here a short time, but waiting on the other side of the glass made me realize that I'm not really new anymore. This week was officially 7 months in the field!
We had a little bit of time to dendo in Sendai, which I always like because the streets are packed with people, so if 1 person doesn't want to talk, it's easy to find someone else. In Yokote the streets are still pretty bare, so we end up knocking on doors a lot. On our bus ride back, we talked the whole way, I was actually expecting him to sleep but he didn't. I know on the bus ride to Aomori on my first day I was so exhausted, I slept for probably 3 or 4 hours. But it was good! We got back barely in time for Eikaiwa, and we had like 7 people come which was a lot more than normal. We had to split into 2 classes, Barton Choro did a great job of ad-libbing a medium-level class while I taught a kids class. And I-san was the only "advanced" speaker there, so she actually helped me teach the kids class which was way fun for both of us! She would translate my English for the kids, there is one who is in elementary school and one in middle school, they both don't speak any English but they are loving Eikaiwa so far.
We had a miracle lesson with R this week--we had been teaching about sincere prayer, and he said he feels like he doesn't know how to pray sincerely. He says he has a hard time believing a lot of the things we teach him, but he wants to believe. We shared Alma 32, about how even just a desire to believe is enough, then explained the analogy of the seed. I asked him what kind of things he thinks he could do to nourish his seed, and he told us that he already had that answer memorized--pray, read the scriptures, and go to church. We told him those were all great things, but talked a little more about why they are important and about what it means to exercise faith. Barton Choro did a great job of inviting him to show his faith by being baptized, and R told us that he would get baptized in April if he gets an answer about the Book of Mormon! Please pray that he will get an answer and be able to recognize it!
On Friday, we met with S san. Comprehension has been bimyo with him, but he really understood prayer this week! First we were talking about prophets and apostles, and he said we are his prophets. We told him we are not prophets, just missionaries, but he said we are prophets to him. Haha I think we'll still have to spend some time clarifying that, but the bulk of the lesson was about prayer, and he said he has been praying often. We asked him how his prayers usually go, and basically he had just been thinking/wishing thoughts in his mind and directing them towards God. But we were able to explain how we can pray just as if we are conversing with another person, and it really clicked in his mind. I think that's the first time I've been able to really see that he understood a principle, it was great! He gave a wonderful little prayer at the end of the lesson, and he looked up at us like a cat who had just caught a juicy mouse for its owners (Dad told me about that one) and asked us if he did it right. He told him it was perfect and he got so excited! He even wanted to pray again, right away. Then he prayed and told God that he really wanted to drink coffee with us, but we had said no to his coffee offer the first time, so he prayed that God would please bless that we would all drink coffee together. It was so cute haha but we told him that we would teach him about something called the Chie no Kotoba [Word of Wisdom] next time.
We did a lot of fruitless housing the last couple days, which I guess is good because it will help Elder Barton appreciate the times when we are so busy teaching that we don't have to do a lot of knocking on doors. There was one older lady who answered the door, but as soon as she heard the word Kirisuto, she yelled "kyoumi nai" and slammed the door. I just moved on and didn't really think anything of it, but Barton Choro was just like "shoot! Holy cow that was crazy!" He actually shared that experience with the ward mission leader when we went to visit him, but shared it like it was a crazy unusual experience, and I still don't have the heart to tell him that it's not really that rare. But we were able to find a new investigator on Sunday! We housed into this lady who lives in Sendai, but was in Yokote visiting her daughter for just a few days. She told us her daughter would definitely not be interested, but that she would be willing to listen to the missionaries. But, she said that she couldn't since she was leaving to return to Sendai the next day. She was so surprised when we told her that there are missionaries just like us in Sendai, that would love to meet with her. She gave us her address and phone number and we set up appointment for the missionaries to meet with her on Saturday! That experience reminded me how much God really does guide us, even if we aren't always aware of it. She was only in Yokote for a few days, but God placed her in our path. Especially at a house that would not normally be interested, but it just happened to be when that lady was at her daughter's house and her daughter wasn't home. We really were right where we needed to be, right when we needed to be there.
We also broke out the bikes on Sunday!! I forgot how nice it is to be able to ride bikes. While we were riding to the church, we stopped to talk to this older man, and he said, in English, "you are the Mormons!" Apparently he used to go to Eikaiwa a long time ago and he really likes missionaries. He said he knows a little bit of our beliefs, but he would like to learn more. We gave him a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment to meet with him on Tuesday! He also said he might start coming to Eikaiwa again, he was really excited when he found out Eikaiwa is still being taught in Yokote.
To answer your questions...yes we are in Akita district, there were previously 6 elders and 2 sisters in the district, now there are just 4 elders and 2 sisters. The other 4 are in Akita city, then Yokote area covers pretty much the rest of Akita ken. We are pretty isolated in Yokote, I think it's more fun to be in an apartment of 4, but it's all good. We go up to Akita once a week for District meeting, and this week we went out to lunch with the other 2 elders right after, which was fun.
Good luck with Cantus tour, and good job being such an amazing RS president and teacher! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and thanks for the update!!
I love you!!
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
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| Us w/ R and R's friend at the City Hall |
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| We found where Mr T lives |
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| A couple of me and Elder Barton |
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