We were actually out of our area from Tuesday until Saturday afternoon, then there was a baptismal service Saturday night! It feels like we never have time to work in our own area haha. Today we are headed up to Aomori Ken for a Christmas Conference! and we'll be back Friday morning.
I had splits with Elder Fujiki on Wednesday, we had a good time! We met a super solid high school student on the street--I called out to him in English while he was riding his bike, he responded and then actually stopped and turned around to talk with us. We got to know him and found out that he is working really hard to try and get into a way high-up-there university. I told him about my first year of college and how much the Book of Mormon helped me--we offered him a free copy and promised him that if he read when he studied, he would be able to focus more and study more effectively. He gladly took it! I'm so grateful for blessings like the Book of Mormon!
On Thursday was MLC, and for the first time President Sekiguchi had all of us discuss what would be good for a new "standard of excellence," rather than just deciding himself. That was pretty interesting, it really made me think harder about what our mission needs and how we can use "the standard" to help direct our efforts to better fulfill our purpose.
Yesterday I had splits with our DL, we picked up trash at park and had a lesson with a golden investigator Y san. It was his first lesson, we taught him the Restoration. He was smiling the entire time, and was so engaged and answered our questions just so perfectly. He looked me right in the eye as we shared the first vision, and gladly accepted the invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to find out for himself if these things are true. We asked if we could meet again, and he said "yeah of course! This was fun." It was basically the "ideal" preach my gospel lesson, we were able to teach everything win order and it was all just so simple! Why can't missionary work always be that easy haha :) He had been going to a different Christian church for a while, but recently moved and was too far away from the church so he stopped going. Then, with uncanny timing, he met the missionaries and we were able to share the restoration of the fullness of Christ's gospel!Heavenly Father really is working hard preparing people to receive this message
I got to work with Elder Holdaway again this week! He left me in Kitakami in August, and now he is the district leader of Sakata in Yamagata zone so we got to be companions again for a day :) We worked hard and talked to lots of people in the snow, but weren't really having any success. We came back to the apartment at the end of the day for dinner, it felt like we had worked hard, but hadn't really seen any miracles. We were coming into the apartment around 8:20, and the other Elders were starting to cook dinner. I remembered the countless nights in Kitakami where we decided to push dinner back just 10 minutes, then another 10, and another, and then ended eating at like 9:30. I just kept thinking, "we can't end his split on such a boring, non-miraculous note..." I looked him in the eye, and I think he was thinking it too. I said, "you know, we have 40 more minutes until 9:00..." and gave him a double eyebrow raise. We both thought, "it's a Friday. It's douryou koukan day. This might be our last chance to work as companions. Gotta do it one more time." Who needs dinner anyway? Without another word we put our wet shoes back on and ran out into the snow to find a miracle!
We ran from door to door, from kekko to kekko through the slushy snow, and watched the clock tick past 8:30, then 8:45, and 8:50, and we knew we'd have to start heading home real soon. Then at 8:55, we knocked on one last door--a surprised young mom said "come inside! It's so cold out there!" We quickly followed her instructions and started to talk with her in the genkan. She thought it was great that we were volunteer missionaries out sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ--a very nice contrast to most of the day haha. She asked us questions, and--what seems to be a common trait among people who will receive the gospel--she seemed to recognize that we were not just representatives of a church, but two individuals with lives and families. We were able to quickly build a relationship with her and her two young sons. One of them showed us all of his character erasers haha it was so cute. She told us that she actually went to go to a Christian school when she was younger, and read the bible and all that good stuff. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her and she scanned the pages with wonder. She began to hand it back, and we told it was hers. She lit up and said she really wanted to try reading it! We exchanged contact info and and she wants to come to church when she can! Her son has basketball games on Sundays so it's kind of hard right now, but once things clear up I think she will definitely come :) We left the house and forgot about how cold our soaking wet feet were as we dashed home and into the apartment right at 9:30. I have never had as delicious a dinner as that cold stew at 9:30 was!
It's been an awesome week! I realized all of my stories are from splits haha me and Watanabe Choro have had like no time together this last week, he is awesome though :) The Yamagata sisters' investigator got baptized on Saturday so that was great! She is actually the mom of a different Recent Convert.
I love being a missionary!
Love you so much! Thanks for all you do :)
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
1 - Tsuruoka chorotachi!
2 - Fujiki Choro
3 - the Adachi family! (Mom didn't want to be in the pic)
4 - Me and Elder Holdaway back together again!
5 - PI we met on splits
6 - second meeting with "leopard-print glasses" man
