December 19, 2017--T minus one week!

Another solid week! I think the highlight was last night, we were knocking doors in the rain (the snow stopped, it's been raining the past few days) and it was just door after door of nothing. We were rarely able to converse for more than a few seconds before the door was shut on us. We had come to kind of a far away place so we were starting to question why we came to this area, when a young mom answered the last door of the apartment building we were at. She was open and friendly, and seemed sincerely interested in why we were out knocking on doors in the rain. As we were talking, her 6-year old son came to the door to see what was going on, and he was so adorable! While my companion and the mom were talking, I started making funny faces at him and trying to make him laugh. At first he wasn't too impressed, but I tried harder and harder and eventually got a few giggles out of him, then a full-blown, full-body fit of laughter. I was thinking the best way to get in with the Mom would be to get in with her son, and it totally worked! Once her son liked us her mom liked us even more. We found out that she went to a Christian school when she was younger, so she has a good impression of Christianity, but doesn't remember too much about what she learned. We gave her a Christmas Bible (just the Book of Luke with a #LightTheWorld cover) and invited her to our Christmas party on Saturday and Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Her and her son didn't have any plans for Christmas yet, so she said she would love to come! And welcomed us back to her house anytime. The Lord really does prepare people! The more miracles I see, the more I realize how little I'm actually doing in the Lord's work. We just need to be in the right place at the right time. He is pulling all of the weight here, I'm just glad to be allowed to participate!

We celebrated with a CostCo pizza and muffins and a cheesecake (we had a lesson with a recent convert who told us that he was going to CostCo right after the lesson, and invited us along! We told him we couldn't go since it wasn't p-day, so he did us a solid and delivered various goods to our apartment without charging any extra delivery fees. What a guy). I love these members! And I forgot what real pizza tastes like. Oh man it was so good.

We were able to visit a less active family because one member family (the Takahashis) offered to drive us anywhere we wanted to go and do some caroling dendo with us for a little bit! We decided to go to the Satou Kazoku. Sister Satou Frederika is actually from Europe, and her husband is Japanese. They have 3 kids and one, a 14 year old, was baptized just last year. We hadn't been able to meet him yet (because their house is about an hour train ride away and we can't use bikes in the rain/snow). So the Takahashis' offer was the perfect opportunity! We went and they gladly invited us in, we sang some Christmas songs and shared the #LightTheWorld video with them.

If anyone reading this has not yet seen the LightTheWorld video on Mormon.org, please look it up right now! I am so grateful to be a missionary around Christmas time--it makes it so easy to stay focused on the real means of Christmas--our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives, and is the light and life of the world. He is the light of my life and I am honored to be able to share that light with the people here in Yamagata!


Love you more than you can imagine!
XOxoxoxooxXoxoXOXOXOxoxoxooxXoxoXOXOXOXOOXOX
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett