This past couple of days have been CRAZY! On Friday and Saturday, we
had an open house (which was out on by the ward and the senior
missionaries here) where everyone could come and get a tour of the
chapel here. We had big pictures that told about Christ's life and
mission, a room about Joseph Smith and a room talking about families.
It was open to everyone from 11:00 to 8:00 so not even the Japanese
could give the excuse that they had no time! On Friday we had a zone
meeting in Shizuoka where we talked about how to better help our
investigators experience the Atonement for themselves and how we can
better help people open up their hearts when we stop them on the
street. We also got some training on how to put all the records from
the area book into the IPad planner app. (By the way, from now on, no
more paper records for me, just IPads). Because of the zone meeting,
we only got to the open house at 4:00. No one was there and nothing
was happening so Elder Silva gets the idea that we should go outside
and get someone to come. We go out and walk around the church at
around five and our goal is to find someone to come to watch the movie
"Meet the Mormons" with us. So, after about thirty minutes, we have a
high schooler come! Endo San! He said he would stay for five minutes
but stayed for two hours. He wouldn't give us any contact information
so we had to settle with having him promise he would come back the
next day.
Saturday came and he didn't come and neither did anyone else. So, we
try for a repeat and go talk to people on the streets. After some
failure, we said a prayer to find someone to invite. I could really
feel the Spirit during it, but, even after that no one close by even
gave us the time to go past the fact that we are missionaries. So a
little bit tired and dejected, we go back to the church and continue
to transfer records into the IPad from the area book. Our mission
president drops in because he is giving a talk that night at the open
house for us and then our investigator Mizuguchi San comes in. He had
the tour the other day when we were in Shizuoka so we just chill with
him for a little bit, eating refreshments and Elder Silva showing
magic. We randomly decide to follow-up with him about reading the
Book of Mormon and one thing leads to another and we get talking about
his smoking problem and how he wants to quit. Elder Silva pulls out
Mizuguchi San's cigarette carton and writes on it for him in big words
"BOOK OF MORMON AND PRAYER!" (in kanji). Whenever he looks for a
cigarette he'll want to read and pray now! We had no plan to do a
lesson but no lesson plan helped us just see what we could to help and
it was all about loving him to death so it was really cool!
Mizuguchi stayed then a couple hours for President Ishii's talk on the
family but left right when we all had a potluck. So, after a cool
thing with him, we go about eating and then we talk and become friends
with the Bishop's co-worker whom the Bishop had brought. He was kind
of shy but I think we helped him fit in because he really liked to try
practicing his English with us. After talking with him for 15 or 20
minutes, we get a text from Shige San, a guy we met on the street two
months ago who ALWAYS works, saying he could come. So, he comes
towards the end and we show him the rooms with Jesus Christ and Joseph
Smith as we teach principles from the first lesson. At the end, he
opened up a bit and asked us about what we believed in with Spirits.
BAM! Of course we believe in us having spirits and in the Holy Spirit
too! He had some knowledge about Christianity because she wife is
Catholic from the Philipines. We explain a little bit and I ask him
what he feels now. He caught me off guard and said in the Jesus
Christ room he felt good but in the Joseph Smith room he felt a bad
feeling. YOU CANT HAVE A BAD FEELING IN THE JOESPH SMITH ROOM! I
think this so I blame Satan and then retell the First Vision account
again except I use Joseph Smith's personal story with the part of him
feeling the devil overtake him before God and Chirst appeared. 'Shige
San, you have found the truth but Satan doesn't want you to have it
just like he didn't want Joseph Smith to pray.' We asked again how he
felt and he was feeling good again! 'That's the Spirit Shige San!'
It was so legit! He is still busy but he told us flat out he has a
lot of interest in this! So many miracles! All at our church on the
corner of Higashimakado!
It has made me think though. Did God answer our prayer on Saturday?
You might say no because we didn't find anyone off of the street to
come inside. But really, He answered it but in a much different but
better way. Instead of blessing us with a new person, we gave us old
ones who we could help even more. If we found a new person to come to
the open house, we wouldn't have been able to help Mizuguchi and Shige
San. At the moment when we didn't find anyone, it felt like a
failure. But only after the trial of the faith did God bless us. So
I think we are prone to get frustrated when God doesn't give us what
we want, even though we ask in faith and with the Spirit after
studying it out in our minds first. But really, he is giving us
something better. Sometimes if you ask for a certain blessing you
might be given a trial. But that trial will make you grow and you
will be even more blessed because of it than you would have if you got
the blessing you were asking for. We don't see the whole picture but
God does and he will give us what is best for us, all we have to do is
be willing to receive what He has worked so hard to give us. I hope
you all have a great week and can have the Spirit with you always!
Elder Hall signing out for the week!
Love you all!
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