Bing, Water Mouth, and Some Filipino Loving

So this week I left my area in the hands of two elders who just came to Japan a little bit over two months ago. As a missionary that doesn't sound long but I am sure for normal people it sounds even more insanely short. On Thursday I went to Fuji (the city at the base of Mt. Fuji) with Elder Smith who is currently training my bean's MTC companion. Even though it rained on us it was pretty fun. We talked to a lot of people on the street, visited a part member family where the non-member Dad and I discussed some history, and then a lesson with one of their investigators where we talked about Christ's healing power in overcoming his addiction to tobacco. We taught English class after that too and a high school kid we talked to on the street actually came! He had a fun time because Elder Smith is fun teaching Eikaiwa and wants to come again!

When I got back to my area the next day, not only was my area still alive and the apartment still standing but our investigator Mizuguchi San (whose name means water mouth or opening) agreed to get baptized! Elder Silva and I invited him last week but the bean magic did the hard part for me. His date is the 20th of September and while it isn't a lot of time and we have to help him quit tobacco, we should be able to do it. The main concern is meeting with him every other day so we can teach all the lessons and do the interview but we are meeting with him tonight after P-day and will teach again the Word of Wisdom and commit him to meet with us more often. He doesn't have a job or a wife yet (although he is looking for both at the young age of 58) so he can totally do it.; It is weird being the senpai now though because it is my responsibility to make sure all the paper work gets done. Yikes. It should be a couple of crazy weeks with that.

In other news, we had a lesson with my favorite Filipino family who just came back from vacation. We went in and starting chatting and then all of a sudden a young Filipino couple came over. So, we got to know the other unexpected guests and asked if they wanted to join the lesson and they accepted! Our plan was to teach the Sabbath Day but the plans flew out the window as we plunged into an unplanned, English lesson 1 to the whole group. We learned a lot more about our investigators and the couple learned more about us as we testified of the Savior. They live in the Philippines actually so we gave the two of them a Mormon.org card and told them to look us up in the Phillipines. The Bagochays will still be here though so we can keep teaching them. Just a little cool out of the blue miracle!

On Sunday we had three nonmembers come to church. Our goal was seven but our musical number went okay. We asked the bishop the week before if we could sing before the testimony part of sacrament meeting and he said yes but he forgot to announce it so we had to go up after a few people already bore their testimonies so it was kind of awkward but Elder Silva and my rendition of Lead, Kindly Light in three languages went well. Our Vietnamese friend Bing couldn't come but I downloaded all the pamphlets in Vietnamese on my IPad so we are ready to go next Sunday!
Lesson 1 in Vietnamese here I come!

A thought I had this week was about miracles. I think we often think of miracles as things that happen that we can't explain. I can't tell you how Jesus turned water into wine and neither can my magician companion. I've been thinking though, why do miracles have to be defined like that? I just look in my everyday dendo and there are plenty of miracles I can see how they happened. Mizuguchi San wants to be baptized to help him reach his goals of getting married and quitting smoking. Just because I understand it well doesn't change it into something less of value. So everything is a miracle! This IPad I'm writing on, BYU football's last second comeback win over Nebraska, an inner change inside after repenting, or even childbearing! Our life is driven by a God whose ways we don't quite understand completely just quite yet. Life itself is a miracle and every second of existence is too! So be grateful of the miracle of this upcoming week! Keep it chill and be the miracle you are!

I love you all and best of lucking dendoing wherever you are in the world!

 Me and my bean on the train...

Elder Silva and Elder Hall