That Guy Really Needs a Book of Mormon

So this week was pretty good but it has been slightly getting colder, and colder, and colder.  First 15 degrees, than 10 degrees, now we are hovering around four degrees Celsius of course.  The question before the week was sweater or no sweater and now the question is, should I put on my rain gear on top of my sweater, jacket, touche (Canadian word for beanie), gloves, and thermal underwear or is it not going to rain?  It hasn`t snowed quite just yet but the key word in that sentence is quite.

My companion sometimes says that the people are as cold as the weather, which is actually pretty accurate.  I want to start recording the temperature next to my daily stats in my planner to see if there is a direct correlation with the temperature and how many people we get to talk to in the street and have become new investigators.  People just are less inclined to talk about the gospel or quite frankly anything when it starts dropping into the single digits.

Once this week on a cold day we did have a good talk with someone!  Like usually, my e-mail consists of talking with a gaigen (someone not Japanese) that speaks English because that language I don`t have to read between the lines.  But, we do the usual if someone is in front of us... we start braking and saying `Konichiwa!` and get them to start.  So, we start the whole Japanese thing but the guy speaks English and is only slighty tan and from Australia.  We said we were missionaries and he was like "Well I actually moved to Japan to this small place so I could study out the truth."  (*Nice, nice, and we are here to give the truth!*) 

"`80 percent of what you have been told is propaganda and only 20 percent is truth." 

(*Wait, what?*)  "On my own I am trying to filter out the lies and get to the truth.  Basically I want to find the time before science and religion and find the truth from the beginning."  So I was kind of confused.  Should I go into the whole `We have no beginning...` and quote `If You Could Hie to Kolob` or just be like we have the truth!  Vaughn Choro handled it well and talked about the Book of Mormon and the full gospel.  We talked a bit, and then invited him to go on Mormon.org and read the BOM.  He said thanks and we rode away.

So then, after a couple minutes of biking in the opposite direction of him we got to a stoplight and Vaughn said "That guy really needs a Book of Mormon."  Then it clicked in my brain, I had brought a English Book of Mormon with me in my bag the night before to seminary (which is held every Wednesday night and the missionaries come to support the youth) and I still had it on me.  "Wait a minute", I muttered, as the light turned green ahead, "I have one I brought to seminary!"  So we raced back, hoping he hadn`t turned off the same street.  We catch up to him after a couple minutes of swerving in and out of the sidewalk and road and say, "`We forgot we had a English Book of Mormon."  We are panting and trying to catch our breath and still in the moment.  Then Vaughn very smoothly says, "If you read it, you will find your truth."  The guy got really happy when we stopped by and I think he felt loved.  The first time we stopped him, he probably thought, `Oh it is just their job to talk to people about their church`  but then when we chased him down a few minutes later, I think he felt really loved.  So, now we have the Australian Grant Laurie on our board with no contact information in the apartment and hope that he will find the truth for himself in the Book of Mormon and give us a call.

Also this week, our Filipino friend came to church!  We taught him lesson one with all the four of us missionaries and two 17 year old youth in the branch.  We finally found a Book of Mormon in Tagalog for him too so we hope that he can be progressing soon.

Also I have my first Baptism Date Set!  It is with an 11 year old in a less active family that has some mild form of Autism mixed with ADHD so the parents felt like they needed more time.  But, we started lessons with him and while he is easily distracted, Casey is really fun.  He is half Japanese so his Dad is an American who served in this mission twenty or so years ago and his wife and Casey speak some English.  And, the family invited us over for some gyoza next Sunday.  That makes my fourth dinner appointment in Japan!

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week and mark on their calendar BYU`s bowl game in Florida.  I would probably go, but, it might be a little ways out of the mission.  

Love you all and have a great week!