日本の冒険！Week 15: Victorious Patience! 勝利がある忍耐！ (not sure on the Japanese for this one.....)

So yesterday we did not hold a baptismal service. He is not quite ready yet. He E-mailed us Saturday and told us he is not sure he can keep the word of Wisdom and his Job, and so we have to post-pone the service. It is really a good thing though, because he is deciding now which is more important, God or Work? I am confident he will pick the right one. ^^ He should be baptized sometime next month. The members were all very nice and supportive of his decision to post-pone.

I went on an exchange this week! and get this.... it was with House 長老、 from American Fork, Next door neighbor of Garrett Howard! Crazy, right? It was pretty fun! We once worked on a school project together. He was very supportive of my missionary tactics, which my companion isn`t always, so it was fun. We did things like Soap Box 伝道、 `no thank you` 伝道、 and a couple others. haha. ^^ Soap box 伝道 is just what it sounds like, we stood up on a platform and called out to groups of people! haha. Largely ineffective, apparently, but it definitely brightens peoples day to see 2 weird 外人 calling out for them all to gather! Got some good laughs and 2 people stopped to talk with us. haha. ` No thank you` 伝道 is where you wait for someone to say `no thanks` and than you act like they are crazy to say `no thanks to you. ` EEEEHHHHH?!?!?! ` No thanks?!?!` What?!?! Really?!?!`. Also not very effective, but keeps the day from getting horribly boring when knocking doors. Haha. I tell my companion all the time, `hey, I have a new 伝道 Idea! ` `Oh no.......` haha.

Went out to dinner with the ward mission leader again. Ate Chinese food. No, not Panda express..... haha. It is pretty legit food I think. They served Sushi too, so I got some of that as well. Our ward mission leader is awesome!

Taught a 2nd lesson and a first lesson.

2nd lesson went well. His name is Kosuke. He lived in the US until he was 11, so we teach in English, which is what he prefers. He is a golden investigator, but really really busy. It really was his first formal in the church lesson, so we didn`t actually teach too much, but by the end of the lesson, he had, without any prompting on our part, expressed interest in all 3 lessons we teach. (restoration, Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Jesus Christ). So looking forward to his next lesson. Not sure when it will be yet, though.

The other new investigator was a first visit. A 17 year old girl, referred by the same girl who referred the last similar contact. ^^ that is our 3rd referral from her, 可奈子姉妹(kanako), she is awesome. ^^ So we met at the members home, and she (kurumi, the new investigator) said she had interest in our message and wanted to learn. So it was an awesome lesson. Some parts were kind of interesting.... haha.... She told us that she wants to marry an American. Then, after we taught a little bit and asked her if she had any questions, she inquired about the color of my eyes..... haha. ^^ But really, she has real interest in the church. We were able to teach about God and had the member offer a prayer. The Spirit came in really strong and they both felt it way deep. We are planning to meet her again at church hopefully this coming Sunday. ( Apparently my eyes are a color most Japanese haven`t seen before.... that was not the first inquiry I have received ... haha. I don`t really know what to tell people. ummm.... they are this color because my Mom`s eyes are....... haha)

So really quickly, here is the miracle of the week, as described in my letter to president:

"Miracle of the week! So me and House 長老 were talking with people by the 大学, and we had just finished talking to someone when we heard someone else call out 「長老達！」(Elders!)  We were pretty shocked, obviously, and we turned to find a member, not of our ward, in fact, not someone I had ever seen before. But she told us that she had found someone who wants to learn English from us! she brought us over about 5 steps to a girl who wants to learn English! If she comes this Wednesday, that will be the first new English student I have seen so far. I think she may be interested in more than just English, too. It doesn`t seem likely that we would just randomly run into a member like that."

So other than those things, we had interviews! haha. Kind of a boring slow day actually. Got to go to Kyoto for it though, which is always fun. My interview was like 10 minutes, and everyone else took upwards of that.... so I mostly just sat around all day until late..... haha. My companion was practicing for a musical number he was doing with some other missionaries, so I just talked to the other missionaries there for the day. Felt like I kind of wasted a day, but I suppose it was good to relax a while......

Saturday was a Life-time in a Day. Met with 5 people and prepared and co-hosted a halloween party. It was way fun, a member actually made me a costume.^^ lots of good food and games and such. Japan doesn`t really celebrate Halloween, but the church usually does a party and the stores all decorate for the halloween season. But honestsly, there`s almost as many Christmas decorations up as Halloween!! haha. ^^ KFC is already all ready for Christmas.

Sunday was the Primary Program!! called Primary Anouncement in Japanese! It was pretty fun! there were 5 participants. Not like any program I`ve seen before. haha. But it was really good. Some of them were way young, and they all had tons of parts because the whole program was split between the 5 of them! They had to sing pretty loud too! It was really fun and bro. futakuchi actually learned a couple things! ^^

Well, it was a pretty intense week. And it should be another good week coming up.


またねぇ！
オーライリ長老

A group of people we met while we were going to dinner
with an English conversation student. They were very.... friendly. haha.
My companion had to run away from a hug from one of the girls..... haha.
 I was smart and stuck out my hand for a hand shake.

We saw them tow a car one morning! Did they drag it up? no....
they lifted it straight off the ground with the little tow truck!
almost tipped the small truck over! haha.

Halloween party! That is the member who made my costume!
 She is a character from one of those movies from Studio Ghibli. 

 Heaven as seen from our Apartment.

Weekly Planning session!

 The rising sun in the Land of the Rising Sun.
It comes right after 6:30 now, so I can see it! haha.
It sets around 5:20 ish...... dark way early. It sets as early as 4:30 I`ve been told.

Kind of a blurry shot, but somehow awesome.

^^

Light show at Kyoto Station, after Interview day.

After a little bit of bad luck with watches ( breaking/losing all 3 watches I brought, and losing a $1 watch that I bought) I received this watch from 二口兄弟. Pretty nice! He is a nice guy.