Wednesday, September 27, 2017
September 25, 2017--Pics that say it all!
District P-day adventures; I think the pictures tell the story:
Saturday, September 23, 2017
September 18, 2017--Mensetsu (interview) Dendou
Journal time; waiting outside the church, parts 1, 2, 3:
Mensetsu dendou 1 and 2:
September 18, 2017--Things have been so good here!
Things have been so good here! Our investigator K was taught the word of Wisdom and he had some concerns about it. His faith and desire to be baptized aren't quite strong enough yet to be able to accept the Word of Wisdom, but we are working with. And now that we have a brand new recent convert we are going to try and have her help us teach and share her experiences with giving up her favorite drink, green tea.
F san is doing so much better! He is out of his rut of discouragement. He gave us his alcohol and is starting to really buckle down and work on smoking. I wrote him a "prescription" to pray and read daily, go to church weekly, and serve others daily. We promised him that by following the prescription he would be able to quit smoking!
Thanks for your thoughts about the talks, and for the update in the family! Glad to hear everyone is doing well!
Always praying for you!
Love,
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
PS please like and share my Facebook stuff!
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Splits in Miyako! Pictures courtesy of Fatoma Shimai (an
Indonesian member) |
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| Yokote senkyoushi |
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| M chan's baptism |
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| F's whiskey |
Adventures in Basketball:
Tofu-natto-raw egg...stew?!?
September 11, 2017--It's been a fantastic week!
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| Ramen in Morioka |
We finally made contact with F san again--after feeling guilty about some various personal problems, he decided he wasn't worthy to associate with the good people of our church and sent us a text saying that he gave up. We replied and tried to reassure and encourage him, but he stopped responding to texts, answering his phone, and even stopped coming to the door.
Of course, that's not enough to keep the missionaries away--the next p-day we coincidentally ran into him at the grocery store! Through just that little God-sent miracle, we were able to talk and ease some of his concerns while spending way too much money on natto and tofu. This week we were able to visit him again and teach him a lesson--we just sat and talked with him like normal people for a while, and just shared a simple message of God's love. He wasn't able to come to church this week but agreed to come again next week! We have had so many road-blocks and speed bumps with F san, I am amazed by his faith and perseverance!
I san also didn't make it to church this week--he slept in, again. Haha. But he asked if we could meet up Monday night instead, and of course we agreed. That was one of the best lessons I have ever been a part of--he has such a sincere desire to learn and find answers. He told us he didn't really know if God exists or not, but he is willing to study and work to find out. We taught him about prayer and the Holy Ghost, and he even took notes during the lesson! I was able to share with him an experience of how I know God exists--I had the same question he had, so I prayed to know for myself, and I felt the spirit so strongly that I can never deny the fact that God is real. I know it! And I was honored to be able to share that testimony with I, and he was surprised to find out that even missionaries have doubts and questions, that even church members need to seek out answers from God. The spirit was there the entire time guiding our conversation, 100% due to I's sincerity and desire to learn. He agreed to pray every day, and ask God if He is really there. We were able to use what we have been learning from Sekiguchi Kaicho about promising specific blessings and giving people a real reason to keep commitments. We promised him that he would be able to know for certain, for himself. And he is way excited about it!
I love being a missionary and I love being here in Kitakami!
愛してるよ！いつもありがとう！
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
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| Cool kids read the Morumon Sho! (Book of Mormon) |
Coming home from b-ball with I san
Video Journal:
September 4, 2017--Videos: journal & Mexican tofu steak
Video Journal pt 1:
Mexican Tofu Steak:
Video Journal pt 2:
Mexican Tofu Steak:
Video Journal pt 2:
Monday, September 18, 2017
August 28, 2017--reply to Kara Indonesia, Mouichido
Glad you are having a good time in Indonesia!! Sounds so fun! That is crazy you were able to have a conversation with some Indonesians in Japanese. So funny!
The ZL gig is going well, nothing too exciting. I just feel a little pressure because every time I go on splits I'm self-conscious about being a really good example and trying to make sure it is a good experience. We also found out we only have to give one short training at zone conference, we have 15 minutes and the conference is 7 hours
long, so our job is way easy. I thought we would be running it a lot more but it sounds like it is mostly the APs and mission president that run it.
We had an interesting experience on Friday with a guy named S--he likes talking, and really likes to ask us weird questions that are pretty irrational but he kind of just wants to prove us wrong. Which isn't bad necessarily, the problem is that he doesn't really like to listen to our answers to his questions. He asked us some questions about why God would let big fish eat little fish--if he cares about all His creations, why wouldn't he protect the little
fish? And if we claim to love and accept all people, why would we defend ourselves from someone attacking us? Stuff like that that is really just silly. But, he had a couple questions that were actually really good--like, why is there so much suffering in this life? If God's desire is for us to be happy, why would he let us suffer? I pulled out a Book of Mormon to answer his question, and right away he said, "no, no, I don't need your book. I'm good." I continued to
pull it out but he insisted that he had no interest in the Book. Elder Strate just said simply, "we can't answer your question without using this book." So he agreed to let us read to him from it. We read about the Fall of Adam and men having joy, and opposition in all things. After we finished reading, the conversation was just quiet, a stark
contrast to the previous 10 minutes of debating and arguing. The spirit was there, and touched his heart. Unfortunately, he still didn't want a copy of the Book of Mormon. But, that lesson made me realize that sometimes, the only reasons we don't get answers to our questions are because we don't really want to hear
them. Sometimes we are prone to think that God isn't answering our prayers, but in reality it may be just that we are not listening. For S san, his answer was in the Book of Mormon. But at first, he was reluctant to even let us open it. It wasn't until after he listened that he realized it was the answer he was looking for. I hope I always have the patience to listen for my answers!
I know God answers prayers! I love God and I love these people here in Kitakami. Livin' the dream :)
Thanks for all you do! Love you so so so so so much!!!
XoxoxXoXoxoxoXoxOxoxoxOXoxoxOx
--
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
Pics:
The ZL gig is going well, nothing too exciting. I just feel a little pressure because every time I go on splits I'm self-conscious about being a really good example and trying to make sure it is a good experience. We also found out we only have to give one short training at zone conference, we have 15 minutes and the conference is 7 hours
long, so our job is way easy. I thought we would be running it a lot more but it sounds like it is mostly the APs and mission president that run it.
We had an interesting experience on Friday with a guy named S--he likes talking, and really likes to ask us weird questions that are pretty irrational but he kind of just wants to prove us wrong. Which isn't bad necessarily, the problem is that he doesn't really like to listen to our answers to his questions. He asked us some questions about why God would let big fish eat little fish--if he cares about all His creations, why wouldn't he protect the little
fish? And if we claim to love and accept all people, why would we defend ourselves from someone attacking us? Stuff like that that is really just silly. But, he had a couple questions that were actually really good--like, why is there so much suffering in this life? If God's desire is for us to be happy, why would he let us suffer? I pulled out a Book of Mormon to answer his question, and right away he said, "no, no, I don't need your book. I'm good." I continued to
pull it out but he insisted that he had no interest in the Book. Elder Strate just said simply, "we can't answer your question without using this book." So he agreed to let us read to him from it. We read about the Fall of Adam and men having joy, and opposition in all things. After we finished reading, the conversation was just quiet, a stark
contrast to the previous 10 minutes of debating and arguing. The spirit was there, and touched his heart. Unfortunately, he still didn't want a copy of the Book of Mormon. But, that lesson made me realize that sometimes, the only reasons we don't get answers to our questions are because we don't really want to hear
them. Sometimes we are prone to think that God isn't answering our prayers, but in reality it may be just that we are not listening. For S san, his answer was in the Book of Mormon. But at first, he was reluctant to even let us open it. It wasn't until after he listened that he realized it was the answer he was looking for. I hope I always have the patience to listen for my answers!
I know God answers prayers! I love God and I love these people here in Kitakami. Livin' the dream :)
Thanks for all you do! Love you so so so so so much!!!
XoxoxXoXoxoxoXoxOxoxoxOXoxoxOx
--
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
Pics:
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| My personal glamor team ft. Elders Satou, Paskett, Mimaki, Dance, and Miyagi |
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| halfway through my eyebrow makeover |
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| Birthday breakfast for Garaycochea Choro |
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| splits with Elder Strate |
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| a random costume parade... |
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