This week was another eventful one!
I'm just gonna start out by talking about our investigator named Okamune
San. My previous companion and I ran into her just randomly on the street
probably about 2 months ago and she agreed to meet with us at the church. Fast
forward to now, and she is seriously one of the most prepared people I think
I've met here in Japan. We met with her before English class this past week and
had a really good lesson about the plan of salvation and asked her about her
Book of Mormon reading. She then told us that she made herself a goal to read
the entire Book of Mormon before Christmas so that she can get an answer about
baptism. Wait, who's the missionary again? That's supposed to be our job! Haha
she's totally giving herself commitments! And yesterday at the end of church we
did another lesson with her and talked about receiving answers from the holy
ghost, and I shared my experience of deciding whether or not to come on a
mission. I basically just talked about how I had had a lot of different small
answers from God telling me that I could go on a mission, but I kind of wanted a
big answer because it's a big decision. Eventually I realized that I had
received my answer probably multiple times and just hadn't recognized it. She
then said that she had probably already recieved her answer as well about
baptism and perhaps just hasn't recognized it yet! Haha she's going to think
about it a little more this week and look for those small answers and I'm hoping
we can choose a day with her soon! Keep her in your prayers! Satan works the
hardest on the strongest people!
This past Friday we had an odd experience when we went to have dinner with
one of the YSA marines named Catherine and our ward mission leader and another
YSA named Patrick who recently got to the island. She lives on base at the
barracks. For those of you who don't know, the barracks is where pretty much all
of the single marines live, and we happened to go there on a Friday night. There
is a community lounge where people can cook and eat and Catherine told us she
reserved it so that it would just be us there.
About 5 minutes after we arrived however, Catherine was still cooking the
meal, and two other marines, a boy and a girl, show up with 2 6-packs of beer
and a bunch of cups to start playing beer pong. Apparently there was a little
bit of confusion as to who had reserved the lounge, and the atmosphere started
getting a little odd as Catherine said to them that we would leave once the food
was finished, but in the mean time, they can't put on any music with words or
intense beats, they can't turn on the tv, and they have to watch their language
in front of us. The marines rolled their eyes a little bit, but went about their
business apologizing each time they accidentally let out a curse word. Safe to
say my companion and I felt quite uncomfortable at this point haha. However, we
were already there, and we both just decided we could turn this into a positive
experience somehow.
We started making small talk, and discover that the young girl that was
there actually grew up in a really strict church that her father was the pastor
of, and I think after a few minutes they realized that we're actually pretty
normal people despite the long skirts and strict rules. Once the food was
finished, the marines were actually kind enough to leave for a little while so
that we could eat in peace. A few minutes after we start eating, Catherine's
Catholic friend shows up for a bite to eat. I didn't really think too much about
it, but he was very nice, and eventually started asking us questions about what
we do as missionaries. Long story short, we ended up basically teaching a lesson
to him, and he let us know about some of the struggles in his life and
frustrations he'd been having with religion and I think after hearing a little
bit of our message, he really did benefit. I am convinced that the whole reason
we were there that night was to meet him and possibly influence his life into a
direction it needs to go. He didn't have much interest in actually meeting with
us, or taking lessons, but we did have the opportunity to give him a book of
mormon and turn an awkward night into a spiritual discussion :) God sure does
work in mysterious ways! And if you stick to what you know, and never lower your
standards for anyone or anything, then it doesn't matter what type of
environment is all around you, you can still have the influence of the Holy
Ghost with you.
This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to go volunteer on base for the
special olympics that the military puts on every year for the locals. It was SO
FUN! My companion and I got assigned to a young girl named Ayako and she was the
sweetest little 7 year old with down syndrome who would shake her head back and
forth as she was running her 50 meter dash. The coolest thing for me to witness
that day was that despite the language barrier of pretty much everyone there,
because hardly any of the military members speak any japanese, people were able
to create wonderful friendships as they communicated in the language of love and
compassion with these adorable special needs kids and adults. It just goes to
show that we don't have to have perfect Japanese to communicate with the people
here. Their hearts will be touched much more if we simply show them our love and
how much we want them to succeed.
Well, this email is started to get quite long, but I definitely learned a
lot of lessons this past week. It had it's ups and downs as every week does, but
I feel like as I get close to ending my mission, I've started taking in
everything I can, while I still can. What a privlege it is to be a missionary
for a year and a half. I'm just so glad I still have a little more time to enjoy
it.
Thanks again for all the prayers love and support! See you next
month!
Sister Wells
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