My most perfectly pretty and breath-takingly beautiful mother
who is mine,
Glad you guys had fun in Vegas!! Sounds like a great trip. That
is too bad about the smoking though. As far as smoking in Japan, we don't see a
ton of it. I think more people smoke here than in America, but it's not
noticeably different. It seems like everyone knows it's bad for you. R Kyoudai kind of explained how it's more of a social thing (people smoke when
they go to business lunches and stuff) than something that people actually like.
Speaking of R, we had a very alarming week. So we met him
last Friday (I think the 7th) and finished up the commandments, then he went
home over the weekend to get his parents' permission. He said he would be back
either Sunday or Monday. So we called him Sunday night, no answer. We weren't
too worried because he was probably traveling or still with family. Then we had
our p-day, and Monday night we called him again. No answer again. We were
assuming he would call us back the next day, but we called him twice on Tuesday
and he didn't answer either time. he
second call, it didn't even ring, just went straight to voicemail. So by Wednesday we hadn't had any contact, and we
were worried something went wrong with hantai from his parents and he didn't
want to talk to us anymore! We were so worried.
Wednesday night, right before we were going to try calling him
one more time, but then we got a call from the branch president. He said he
had been texting R and he had an
appointment with him set up for Friday. He said we should just ease off, then
after Friday he would let us know what
was going on. So grateful Murase Kaicho is such an awesome, personable guy. But
then on Friday, R had to cancel his meeting with Murase Kaicho! So it had
been over a week with no contact and we just had no idea what was going on from
his side. But we were assuming we would have to wait until he turned 20 so he
wouldn't have to get parent permission to be baptized. If he even still wanted
to be baptized! So that was kind of the state of mind we were in, then in
hyogikai on Sunday morning Murase Kaicho told us he invited R to the Elder
Bednar Fireside that night, and R couldn't
come but he could meet for a little bit before the fireside. Murase Kaicho
invited us to join them but said they might talk with just the two of them if
he seemed uncomfortable. So, 6:00 last night, we finally saw R again! Things were totally just normal, we said hi and just talked about how he's been
lately. Then, out of the blue, he was like, "oh yeah sorry I haven't been
able to contact you, I've been super busy with work lately." So we said it
was all good, and we asked about his parents' permission for baptism.
And he got it! He said they were a little surprised that he
wanted to be Christian, but they were fine with it. We were seriously freaking out.
For nothing! I guess it was just a total coincidence that he didn't contact us
for a week right after he was supposed to get parent permission for baptism. So
things are all good, but since we missed an entire week, we are a little bit
behind our lesson schedule. Normally, we are supposed to have the interview at least a week before the baptism.
So that would've been this last weekend, but we worked it out with the Branch President.
Our plan right now is to meet with him this week and teach the Plan of
Salvation and lesson 5 from PMG (laws and ordinances). Then we'll have the
interview on Saturday and do the baptism on Sunday. So instead of the 22nd, it
will be the 23rd. But we are so relieved it only had to be postponed for 1 day!
Around the same time we lost contact with R, we lost contact
with T Kyoudai. It was the weirdest thing! We had our shortest weekly planning
session yet because the two main people we are focused on weren't answering
calls or texts. We stopped by T Kyoudai's apartment 4 different times, gave
him a few calls and a couple texts throughout the week. His apartment was on
the way to a big group of danchis that we have been housing, so on Saturday we
stopped by his apartment both on the way there and the way back. He wasn't
home, or didn't answer, either time. I said a prayer that we would be able to talk
to him somehow. Later that day, we were stopping by a grocery store to ask if
they would hang up an Eikaiwa Poster for us. As we were leaving, I felt like we
needed to go left, even though it would take us farther away from the church,
which was our next stop. But we had time, so we went left and we came across
this lady walking. We stopped and talked to her for a while, and I had a
distinct feeling that we were supposed to give her a Book of Mormon. She seemed
only mildly interested in our message, but she wasn't trying to walk away from
us so we figured we would keep talking. We introduced the Book of Mormon, and
bore our testimony of it, but she said she just couldn't believe there was a God.
We invited her to read, pray, and find out for herself whether or not God
exists. We promised her that she would get an answer from God. She still just
said she couldn't believe. For some reason, we just kept trying and trying to
get her to try reading the Book of Mormon. But she kept saying that it made
sense in her mind, but she just couldn't believe that God actually exists. After
probably 20 minutes of talking, we left, somewhat discouraged. We talked about
it and we both had distinct impressions to keep talking to her, even though it
didn't seem like it was going anywhere. And then it didn't lead to anything.
But! From there, we found a little grocery store that we would
not have stopped by had we not been going in that direction. We went inside and
gave them an Eikaiwa poster, they said they would hang it up for us. We exited
the store, unlocked our bikes, put our helmets on, then right as we were about
to leave, T Kyoudai walked right in front of us!! We called out his name and
he came and talked to us for a little bit. He said he has been crazy busy with
work and hasn't been able to contact us (sound familiar?), but towards the end
of this week things should be dying down a little. So we'll probably be able to
meet this weekend!
Crazy right? I realized after that if we had left the store 10
seconds earlier, or 10 seconds later, we would've missed him. So by prompting us
to turn left, the Lord led us to the right place. And by prompting us to keep
talking to that lady who didn't take the Book of Mormon, he helped us be there
at the right time. The Lord really is guiding us. Sometimes it's hard to see
until after, but He's always there. It reminded me of at BYU, (on a couple
different occasions) when I needed to talk to someone but didn't have any
contact info, I would say a prayer and just start walking through campus. I
remember 3 times where I just happened to run into the person I needed to see.
And now 4 with T Kyoudai! Cool right? I wonder if that's one of the gifts of
the spirit. Really though, it was a cool miracle.
We got to see a broadcast of Elder Bednar's Devotional for
Japan, it was soooo good! Probably the most spiritual fireside I've ever seen. He talked mainly about joy, about how to have happiness in the Gospel. Joy is a
gift of the spirit, and like all gifts, it's not given just because someone
thinks it would be nice to have. It is given to people so that it can bless
others, through that person. I had never really thought about joy that way
before. We are given joy, not simply because it's nice to be happy, but because
Heavenly Father can bless other people through the joy he gives to us.
It's been another great week, thanks for being such a stellar
mom!
いつもあふれる愛してます！！
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
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| My average breakfast. So you know I'm eating good! |
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| Zone Taikai |
BONUS: Donut Story from last week!
I have a fun story for you guys! This family we saw reminded me of my wonderful little siblings, so I am sending it to you guys.
Once upon a time this week...
We went to Mr. Donut (a super good donut store) to see if one of our potential Investiagtors was working. As we were walking in, we noticed a family of 6 waiting outside and we said hi to them. We thought it would be a fun service idea if we bought them donuts! So, we entered the donut store and started picking out donuts that we thought each of them would like. We had selected a few donuts for each of them and then we got some more for the two of us. We were going towards the cash register when suddenly the family is ushered into the restaurant they were waiting by. We watch disappointed, but then we realize that we no longer want all those donuts since we can't give them to family.
So that is how I came to be standing in a Donut Shop in Aomori with about 2 dozen donuts that I didn't want piled on my little tray, surrounded by Japanese people who are amazed and disgusted by how much Americans eat. We decided that we must put the donuts back, and it was ok since we grabbed them with tongs and not our hands. But we didn't want anyone to see us putting them back--so we make our way to the back of the line. But then another customer comes in--followed by another, and another. So we have to tell each person--while holding a tiny tray stuffed with 24 donuts--that we are still deciding which donuts to choose (because the mountain we had alrerady chosen apparently wasn't enough), and they can go ahead of us in the line. We would take every 2-second window when no one was looking and really quickly put a donut or two back. Sometimes they would look back and we would still have the donut in the air, in our tongs, so we would bring it down slowly and pretend that we had just grabbed it off the shelf. After continuing this painstaking process for an eternity, we were left with only a couple donuts that we wanted for ourselves, and we checked out, victorious.
So moral of the story--be careful how you choose to serve others.
And it's the thought that counts, right?
Love you guys!!
