Questions about Towada
It’s good to be back up north! So cold though haha. It is way Inaka!! Probably as Inaka as Yokote. But the buildings are a lot older so it feels more like real Japan. Yeah I guess Towada lake is the deepest one in Japan! It’s actually pretty far from Towada city though.
So we do sacrament meeting in the morning at a member’s house who is part of the Misawa branch. There are a few members who live here in Towada but they are part of the Misawa branch so they normally drive to Misawa to go to church. We have a sacrament meeting here that is focused mainly on less active members and investigators. We also do an evening sacrament meeting at a little cultural center that is also just focused on investigators.
We are part of the Aomori Zone and the Hachinohe District! The Misawa missionaries are also in our district which means we have access to all kinds of goodies from the American military base! We are having them bring us toothpaste and peanut butter to our district meeting haha.
My comp is Elder Mateaki who is a half-Japanese, half-Polynesian guy from Hawaii! He is pretty new but he is way solid. We are the 3rd and 4th missionaries in this area, respectively. The area opened up 3 transfers ago. We have seen lots of miracles already and we really working hard to try and get a branch started here! Ten members is generally the minimum to start a branch and qualify to be able to rent a real building to meet in, so that is our long term goal. So far we have pretty much been working from ground zero, but I think things will really start picking up quickly :)
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パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
Dendo Fire
It has been freezing this week! Literally—the high yesterday was -3. But our dendo fire and burning testimonies keep us warm!!
We had a finding slump this week from Wednesday to Friday...It was so strange. We have found new investigators every single day I’ve been here but this last week it was like the people were just so cold and unreceptive, all day. We kept trying to seek revelation on where to go to find those who would receive us, but even in the spots we ended up choosing to go it was just slammed doors. During weekly planning we tried to analyze how we are doing and figure what we need to change, and we didn’t really come up with anything specific. But then suddenly, Saturday morning, we found a really receptive father, which was a huge blessing. He has 3 young kids. Usually the Dads are the ones who are the least receptive to the gospel, so to have the first contact with the dad and to have it go well was a huge miracle!
Thinking back on the slow days, I think that 1) God just tests our patience sometimes, and 2) Instead of changing any specific actions, we just needed to check our attitude. We needed to make sure we were looking for ways to repent and improve. I think just having the change of heart was what brought us back on track.
We had a wonderful but heart-breaking lesson with Sato Shimai on Friday. She is an 82 year old investigator to whom we have been teaching English, and the gospel. She tells us that she reads the Book of Mormon every time she feels down, and she always feel peaceful. Then whenever we come over, she feels happy and peaceful again. We told her that that is the spirit ! That it is how God talks to us. As we testified of the spirit, the spirt came into the room so strong. She felt it, and recognized that she felt it. She said “it would be just wonderful if this feeling could just keep going on forever.” It was a perfect transition into baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost—we explained it to her, and she said “that would be nice, but it’s impossible for me. My son is against it.” We encouraged her to talk to her son about her feelings, but she was just determined that her son will never change his mind and the only way she can preserve their good relationship is if she just does what he says and doesn’t get baptized. The spirit was there, we felt like we did all we could possibly do! But in the end it was her choice, and she chose not to act on that spirit. Which was heart-breaking. I understand a little more know how Heavenly Father feels when we use our agency to distance ourselves farther from what will make us happy and bring us peace. She called us later and told us she would like to stop taking lessons since she does not intend to join the church. That was hard, but we are praying that her time will come later!
On Sunday we were invited to attend sacrament meeting in Misawa (the nearest branch, 30 minutes away) so we ended up having Triple sacrament meetings that day. We got to know all the members in the Misawa branch though so that was great! I gave 2 talks (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) and taught priesthood quorum, on the spot, haha but I just prayed simply and fervently that God would help me to bring the spirit, and I think it went well. It was a class of 4 missionaries, 1 priest, and 1 Investigator, and we talked about the importance of following the example of Jesus Christ, of serving and loving others, and honoring our covenants as priesthood holders.
On Monday we had a “Blitz,” where all the missionaries in the eastern half of the zone came to Towada and dendoed for the afternoon!! We saw lots of miracles and a total of 7 new investigators were found. One was a young man whose door we knocked on. At first he was a little shy and closed off, but we tried to be as friendly as we could and really show interest in him without being deceptive about who we are and what our purpose is. We learned that he his parents are Christian so he has studied the Bible before! He recently graduated high school and is living on his own for the first time, with a job cutting lumber. Once he found out that we were both 19 years old too, the whole mood changed. He was glad to have new friends and we had a fun time conversing. In the end he was actually a little curious about our message, so we left him with a pamphlet and arranged a time to come visit again!
There area so many wonderful people we are working with here! There is a member in Hachinohe (a city about 45 minutes away) who is deaf, and wants us to teach her boyfriend! Who is also deaf. So we have been studying Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language) really hard in the evenings and mornings haha. Luckily she has a hearing aid so she can hear well enough to translate into sign language for her boyfriend, but we are still trying to learn as much as we can. We haven’t met him yet but will probably start teaching him in March.
Love you!!
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パスケット長老
Elder Paskett
Photos from the "Zone Blitz"
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