Elder Landon Paskett's Journeys in Japan: November 21, 2017--I'm Dreamin' of a white Thanksgiving!

To the most beautiful, wonderful mother of all,

Well, it's snowing here! It was falling pretty hard on Sunday. I guess winter is official! Still feels like last winter just barely ended to me though.

I had a split with a new missionary, Elder Fisher who is working down in Yonezawa. We were knocking some doors in the morning, and we were just getting nowhere. Even just getting people to actually come to their door to talk was hard. Nothing too out of the ordinary as far as tracting goes, but I was starting to second guess our decision to come to that area. At this point we see a man walking quickly on the other side of the street, looking very busy. I thought about whether or not it was worth it to cross and try and stop him, and we decided it was. We go over and call out to him, he doesn't stop walking but asks if we are Mormons. We tell him yes, and he says he wants to talk to us but doesn't have time right now. He is still walking and getting farther and farther away, so I run to catch up to him and hand him our business card, then we let him go.

Fast forward to that afternoon, he actually called us! We set up a time to meet and found out that he used to be an investigator about 20 years ago, but didn't get baptized because he joined the army where religion is prohibited. We asked if he still wanted to be baptized and he said yes, so we set up a date for December 9th! He came to Stake Conference with us on Sunday and we met on Monday again for a lesson. He has accepted every single commitment so far with absolutely no hesitation or concerns! So easy to see how S san has been prepared by the hand of the Lord over the course of years and years.

That night we ran into a guy on the street, we asked if he had met missionaries like us before. He said yes, about 30 minutes ago! The other Elders talked to him but for one reason or another he decided he wasn't too interested. Then when he ran into us, maybe he started to realize God was reaching out to him, I don't know. But he accepted an invitation to meet at the church and at least hear us out and see what our message has to offer for his life. :)

Friday was Zone Training Meeting, basically a mini-Zone Conference but run by the ZLs instead of the Mission President. I think it went really well! We have a pretty solid zone. We gave a training about miracles and what we can do to see miracles and have the Lord's help in His work. I know the day of miracles has not ceased, we have seen so many miracles this week alone!

Last night, we were parking our bikes to go streeting by the Eki, and a guy was parking his bike right next to us. I noticed that he was wearing leopard-print glasses, so I complimented his glasses, he told me they were fake and had no lenses, but that he liked fashion so that's why he was wearing them, then one thing led to another and the next thing I knew we were eating dinner at ガスト's and discussing the Restoration of the gospel. I love my job haha. He is a history teacher and believes very strongly in God, and loves the bible. He believes Christ's teachings are the way to peace and happiness but doesn't know how he feels about the resurrection. He asked us all kinds of questions, and was so interested in the idea of modern revelation and the Book of Mormon. The only problem was that he kept asking if there was a way to know where Jesus would come if the 2nd coming is real. We said it doesn't matter so much where He comes to, but what is more important is what we can do to prepare. A lot of his questions weren't necessarily about things pertinent to Salvation, so we are a little worried he is missing the mark a little. But he is willing to talk and humble enough to learn, so I think he has a lot of potential.

There are so many prepared people here in Yamagata! We are loving life and having a grand old time. We have 2 DTMs and 1 split this week, then 2 DTMs, 2 splits, and MLC next week, then the week after a mission-wide Christmas conference and 1 more split. Then transfer calls come the next day--basically is transfer is going to fly by! It already is haha. I wish time would slow down!

I love you so much Mama!!

--
パスケット長老
Elder Paskett