Glad to hear the sub for Santa lives on! Sounds like it's getting way big too :)
We got to stay a night in Misawa last week, on the American base! The wonderful Beavor family let us stay in their house and they fed us an amazing breakfast! It was so weird to be in a house with a bed and carpet and central heating! And a yard. Walking on base was like being in America, it was some serious culture shock.
The Christmas Conference was good! President Sekiguchi announced everyone's transfer calls right there, Watanabe Choro and I will be staying together for another transfer in Yamagata! It will be his last transfer before he heads back to Tokyo, so we're trying to work extra hard and see lots of miracles right up to the end!
We had splits with the APs this week and we were able to meet with K san again (the leopard print glasses guy). He had just finished meeting with someone from a different church and he said that he was just mentally exhausted because the guy was so stubborn and narrow-minded, and wouldn't listen to his point of view. He said he was tired now and just wanted to relax and talk for a bit.
So with that at the beginning, we were really trying to keep the mood friendly and light while still teaching the truths of the gospel. It went really well though! We talked to him as a friend and the conversation naturally led into the gospel, and we were able to teach him without making him feel like we were dumping information onto him. I really felt the spirit testify to him through us, specifically when we were talking about the resurrection--he had some concerns/doubts about whether Jesus was actually resurrected or just came back as a spirit, but we were able to share a simple scripture from Luke 24 where the resurrected Jesus eats food in front of his disciples to show that he has a body. We read it with him, and I bore a simple testimony of why I believe in Christ and the resurrection. It wasn't a "this is true, and it's true whether you believe it or not," it wasmore like "this is what I believe, and why I believe it." The spirit was there, and I could tell he felt it. The spirit really does open people's minds if they open their hearts to receive it!
We were finally able to meet with an investigator T san, a 20 year old college student who was found in September. He hadn't been able to meet recently, so Watanabe Choro and I had both never met him before and we had no idea what to expect. We just texted him and he seemed open to meeting with us, so we figured that was a good start! He came to the church Sunday evening and we had a great lesson! He remembers really well everything he had been taught before, and he wants to be baptized! He just has 2 concerns, and he explained them to us very clearly. (I wish investigators always made it this easy for us haha). The first was that he thought that he wouldn't be allowed to go to Buddhist temples on New Years' and stuff, but that was just a misunderstanding so we resolved that right away. The second was with drinking sake--he told us he doesn't even like alcohol but he feels like he has to drink it when all his friends are drinking. So he really wants to be baptized, but doesn't want his friends to think differently of him. It's a really good concern to have though because it means that he is really intending on keeping
the commandments if he gets baptized! We thought that he probably just needs more friends who are a good
influence on him...we kept the lesson really short, then the YSA in the ward just happened to be having a little Nabe party at the church! It was perfect timing. We went in and introduced him to the 4 college students in the ward, and ate some soup together. That was a huge boost to our morale to be able to meet with and teach someone with such great potential! T is such an awesome guy.
We went to the Fukushima Ward on Sunday, there are no young missionaries there because of the nuclear power plant that was broken in the tsunami in 2011 and leaked radiation everywhere. They send missionaries there just for church on Sunday to support the ward. But, Sekiguchi Kaicho finally got permission to put a missionary couple
there, so Elder and Sister Tsuda are living there now! They are such a genki Ward it was so fun to be there! They had me bare my testimony in sacrament meeting, and Elder Tsuda told the bishopric member that I sang really well at the mission Christmas Conference and that I should sing in sacrament meeting. I thought it was a joke but then the bishopric member actually had me sing! Haha I sang A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, I think it went well, a lot of
people told me they really felt the spirit :)
Anyway that's about it for this week, we are working hard and loving the snow! It actually melted over the weekend so we were on bikes yesterday out in the sun! But today is a blizzard again. We love it though!
Love you so much Mama!!!
--
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
Just one today, this was the bus up to Mission Christmas Conference!
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