The Eternal Wingman!!

Let me teach you a couple Japanese vocab words to start today`s e-mail:

Senpai- Senior Companion.  His/her job is to make sure everything goes smooth, that the companionship is working together and that something meaningful is always scheduled.  They also take the lead in most teaching and finding situations.

Kohai- Junior Companion.  His/her job is to support the senior companion in his/her line of duty.  They pick up the slack when the their senior is having a hard time, needs help, or just wants to give the kohai some more experience.

Now, I am a kohai.  I think the best way to describe it would be a wingman.  When talking to people on the street or in lessons, I feel like my job is to build up my senpai just like a wingman is building up his friend when he is talking to girls.  The main objective of both the wingman and the main man is for the main man to get the girl, or in the missionary case, for the senpai to get the number of the person we are talking to on the street. I pick up the slack when he has a loss of words and I testify after he concludes.  Elder Jones takes the lead, and I help to build off of what he says.

This week however, I was given the opportunity to take the lead in a lesson.  Hira-gata San is an eternal investigator who, well, has been at it for awhile.  She likes studying with the missionaries but... commitments other than reading scriptures isn`t her strong point.  So, Elder Jones in planning asks me for some fresh input on the situation since I am new.  `Well, how about talking about the Spirit?`  `Sounds good to me.`  So, thus the assignment was born, `Elder Hall, take the lead.`

So, I find a good reading assignment in Moroni 7 about the Spirit and good and evil and come up with a couple questions to ask for a `homework` assignment.  It takes me a few tries to get the kanji written out right with the help of a dictionary but after a few thrown away post-it notes, I got a readable one.  After I got the commitment planned out, now it is on to the lesson.  I got it planned out and then it is showtime!  

We sing `Let the Holy Spirit Guide` for the opening hymn, someone says a prayer, and then it is all me.  I get through asking her to read a couple verses about the Spirit and once it ends, I ask a question.  What is was, I can`t remember but something about the if she had felt the Spirit before.  She answers she has felt good, I say something else about the Spirit, I lose control of what is happening and then Elder Jones peeps in and I am back in the passenger seat.  So for my first time taking the lead in a lesson it went pretty good.  It was pretty nice to have the Spirit on my side.  We`ll see how the homework turns out this week.

I hope everyone has a great week and I love you all!