The highlight of this week was having Smith Kaicho come down for the weekend--he taught 3 lessons with us on Saturday night. Two of the 3 investigators left with baptismal dates! Su san was a little resistant, but Smith Kaicho was awesome--he said, "if God, who created all things in the universe, including us, and has all wisdom and power, commands everyone to be baptized, don't you think we had better get baptized?"
"Well, yes, of course..."
"So, when you know for yourself that these things are true, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith is God's prophet, and that God has commanded all of us to be baptized, will you be baptized?"
"Sure, sure."
"We believe you can know for yourself by May 30th--if you get your answer and you know these things are true by May 30th, will you be baptized on that date?"
And he accepted! It still seems like he has a lot of concerns, but we finally have a goal to work towards.
K also committed to be baptized! We taught a solid lesson about the Gift of the Holy Ghost with Smith Kaicho, then talked about how we need to be baptized to receive the Holy Ghost. My companion was like, "we will have a baptismal service next Saturday. Will you be baptized on Saturday?" K got that mental-dilemma look and his face and thought really hard for a minute, then said, "I have some plans on Saturday, so it depends on what time. But if it's in the afternoon then it would be fine."
He still hasn't been to church and we haven't taught him a lot of the commandments, so he may need a little bit more time, but I think he will for sure get baptized here in the next couple weeks! I think one thing that has been huge with him is that we have been open in talking about baptism since the first lesson. We've always just plainly stated it for what it is, so it didn't come as a surprise when we asked him to be baptized. Also, we are totally bros--even though he's like 29, it feels like we are the same age. This week we tried the 3-ritz-crackers-in-30-seconds challenge, and he also gave us a ride home in his sweet customized car. He custom-added all these neon light strips inside his shiny black Nissan, and he suped up the engine a little bit too. Plus there is a disco ball on the inside haha. He is so awesome. He knows a tiny bit of English, and he thought that "dai suki" translated to "very like," so Haskins Choro and I have adopted an over-enunciated "VERY LIKE" into our regular vocabulary.
Smith Kaicho came to church on Sunday, which meant that we started on time for the first time since I've been in Yokote! Five minutes before 10:00, Smith Kaicho was like, "well, we're starting at 10:00, even if the branch president isn't here yet." Luckily he came a couple minutes before 10! Everyone was there on time, it was so nice. Su and R both came to church, and President Smith gave such a great talk that was low-key aimed at them. Also, our homie less-active K kyoudai came to church! His gages and piercings were out, and he even wore a purple shirt! It may have been the first time I've seen him in one that's not black. He was engaged in the Sunday School lesson and stayed for the shokujikai after church, it was great!
There is that family of 4 who love skiing (still don't actually know their names...they are in our area book as "Skier Family") who are PIs, we stopped by this week and the mom was sick. So, we assembled a little care package with some soup and herbal tea and mints and gave it to her! She was so grateful. We asked if she had been able to read from the Book of Mormon at all, she said not really, but her husband had picked it up and she said he seems like he is interested! The husband told us a few days earlier (through the intercom box) that they didn't have time to talk to us, so we were thinking that we would end up teaching the Mom without the Dad. But, it looks like we may be able to teach their whole family! They are the cutest little family, we are hoping and praying so hard that things work out.
In other news, the Sakura are starting!! They are all over the place. Yokote is so beautiful right now. Everyone keeps telling us that they will all start dying in like a week but we will enjoy it while it lasts! We also got new bikes this week! The Young Fufu [couple missionaries] came to inspect our apartment and our bikes and ours were really old so they brought us new ones!
Speaking of bikes, Haskins Choro totally biffed it on his bike the other day--an ojiisan [older man] stopped his bike all of sudden and turned sideways so he cut Haskins Choro off, and he had to brake really fast and crashed, it was so funny. The guy just like stood there and watched him pick himself up, he didn't say or do anything at all haha. Also, I kind of cut off a car and almost got hit! (Technically I had the right of way though...) Abunakatta.(Dangerous) Would've been a pity to hurt such a nice new bike.
The church is true! His work is hastening. Being a missionary is the best!!
Love you so much!!
XOOXOxoxoxooxOXOXOXOxooxoxOXOX
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
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