Hey everyone!!
This week has been such a rewarding week! Hard
work and sticking it out to the end REALLY pay off, that I know. :) And I love
seeing it happen time and time again on my mission. This week we've seen some
really cool things. The investigator that the sisters passed to us has been
doing REALLY well. He's on course for his baptismal date on the second of
august, and he's loving it. He hasn't missed church for 4 weeks, and he loves it every week. And just yesterday he stayed after church for almost another
hour hanging out with members while we were in ward council, so that's WAY
sick that he's making friends and relationships with the good people in
this ward. :) We're planning on meeting him tomorrow to teach the Law of
Chastity, so I'm hoping that that goes well!
So our biggest days this week were Saturday and
Sunday. On Saturday we had a family home evening at the church, and we ran the
show (us and the sisters). It was like a mini talent show, with a game and
then a message and refreshments. And it was a rousing success. :) We got to the
church at 3:30 to practice some of the songs we were planning on singing, and
then we got started at about fiveish. I ended up conducting it, which I didn't
want to do, but I had a BLAST doing! I got to go up in between acts and talk,
and introduce the next act, and all that jazz, and I had a blast being back up
in front of people again at an event like that. ;) Haha!! But we had two way
amazing miracles that happened because of that fhe. One of the members that
came, invited his parents, who aren't members, to come. And since that member's
kids were going to be playing piano and what not, the grandparents came. And at
one point during the program this member comes up to me, and told me that his
parents, in particular his dad, was WAY impressed with my conducting. I was
like, umm, ok, that's great! What does that mean? :P So I talked to them
afterwards, and the dad was telling me about how he never liked the church,
never liked missionaries, and that he had never approved of his son joining
this church. But that after seeing me tonight, and seeing me interact with
people, (and I think feel the spirit that was there ;)) really touched his
heart, and he said that if there are really good people like me in this church,
then it can't be a bad thing!! O.O HOW AMAZING IS THAT!! :D :D And the Mom said
that she'd like to start reading the Book of Mormon, since her grandkids had
testified to her about it, and that after this event she felt the desire to try
and read it. :D :D Who would've ever thought that a flipping simple thing like conducting a ward fhe combined with the spirit, can bring about a miracle like
that. :) Really and truly through small and VERY simple things, are great
things brought to pass. :) They live in my area, and they would love to see us
again sometime. :) Way excited!
And also during the fhe, a deaf man came in and
sat down. I talked to him, with the aid of a lady in our ward who knows sign
language, and he's from Nagoya, moved to Sapporo about two weeks ago, and wants
to resume taking the lessons. Turns out that he was taking the lessons, and was
on track for baptism, but couldn't because he had to move because of his work.
He owns a sushi chain. And so when he got here, he found out the church's info,
and came! And then he came again to church yesterday, and was the flipping
COOLEST GUY EVER! :) So we're planning on meeting with him this week, and are
INCREDIBLY excited to work with him.
And then yesterday after church, we had a
sweet experience finding. We met this lady in her twenties, that talked to us
lots, and we had an opportunity to bear testimony to her about the Book of
Mormon, and gave her one. After we had set up a return appointment, she told
us that the reason she stopped to talk to us, was because that when she was
about 12 years old, she got hit by a car, and two white guys, wearing white
shirts and ties, black pants, and name tags, ran to her, helped her, and played
a part in saving her life. And so because of that, she listened to us. :D
:D
And we also finally got to meet an old
investigator named M San, and we taught him a really strong lesson, and he
was really touched. So from here on out we're way excited to work with him. :)
Love you all, and thanks for all your prayers!
Love, Mike
P.S. So I'm crazy excited to be with my comp for one more
transfer. He's a WEIRD guy, but I've REALLY grown to love him, and we have so
much fun everyday. It's been a really special experience getting to work with
him. :) He'll definitely be leaving this transfer so, I'm going to be making the
best of the next 5 weeks or so that we have together.
And being DL has been, busy. :P I have endless
numbers and info about investigators to report to zls every night, and I have
workshops to plan and prepare and teach, and lots of things to talk to people
about, and splits to do to train missionaries...it's flipping crazy, but it's
been way fun so far. The best thing about it is that I have a lot of opportunities
to be an example now, and I think more than anything else I can do, is being an
example, so it's been great. :)
And the ward LOVES ME! :D :D I've been working really
hard there, and they all love talking to me and being around the elders, which
is really cool. Plus seeing our investigators at church lets them know that
we're working, and that always helps! :)
