We walk to the next door on the fourth floor of the apartment complex we are at and the door is slightly held open with a door stop. "Sumimasen!", we say and nothing happens. So, I hit the door bell and out comes a mid-20s or so man with a young girl. "You want to see some magic?" I ask. They seemed busy but Elder Silva started with his magic trick anyways and wows them with a crazy trick dealing with changing an ace into a queen of hearts. He is pretty good by the way. Then he finishes and I pop my head in the conversation. "He is a really good magician but he is also a missionary. He came to Japan for two years to share the gospel which makes him happy. His magic made you happy but Christ will make you more happy". At least that is what I hope I said. Silly Japanese... They didn't become investigators but they said we could come back in a couple weeks. So that was definitely pretty cool. We also found a less active who didn't know they were a member but they seemed interested when we invited them to the ward's food party after church for next Sunday.
The weather here is so hot that we sweat whenever we enter the apartment. July is the worst month for weather here I believe and by the end of August it should be bearable. Maybe it is so hot because of the recent dendo fire that has been burning here from my bean. We had another half un-planned lesson after church with our favorite sandal wearing, sunglasses rocking, slightly handicapped from a car accident Mukasa San. This time it involved answering some questions on the three kingdoms of glory. "Because God loves us, he has made an awesome kingdom of glory for everybody! (Except for that outer darkness)". Then we showed how baptism was necessary to enter the Celestial Kingdom and live with your family forever! So, will you be baptized...? The response in English was 'No Sir'. He told us afterwards he thought that God was kind and that he saved everyone and that by Him asking for us to receive baptism was too much. We will keep working with him but the lesson went well as my bean talked a lot.
Oh, and happy birthday Mom! 6.... 29 right? Ha ha... (I am already regretting writing that). But yeah!
Another magical experience is that of the Holy Ghost! As a trainer, I lead but really sometimes I have no idea what is happening. We were invited to lunch today with a member and her recent convert nephew and it was P-day so we didn't really anticipate sharing anything but then she told us in English to share something that would help him commit to come to church instead of work. So, being without anything I turned to my bean and say go ahead. I didn't think he would do anything and I would take over but he was like, let's share 1 Nephi 3:7! We had practiced how to share a scripture in companionship study and I had used that one to practice introducing scriptures in Japanese. So I gave the background of the story, he told a personal story about when he worked on Sunday decided to go to church instead, and then I ended with the promise. (The Sandwich Testimony Method) The Lesson I learned today from that was that if we prepare and do our part, the Holy Ghost will tell you the rest. My bean had the answer on what to share on the spur of the moment but I didn't know what to share so I feel like I was nudged to half-jokingly ask him to take the lead and it worked out. Sometimes we don't know where we are going or what we are doing but if we try our best, God will do the rest. We might think it is magic but really, we just don't quite know how to perform the trick just quite yet and God performs the miracle through his own power. So study hard, cram it all in, and have God help you take the test that is called life!
I love you everybody and have a good, wait no, a GREAT week! Enjoy the pics!
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| Stonehenge or my lunch |
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| Elder Shawn Hall |
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