Nagoya Higashi, Kariya | Week 5 T.8 :: "Keep the Faith"
[fancy, clever, capturing beginning of an email] guess who doesnt have much time and can't be bothered? yosh.
Monday! great Pday. Went out to yakinuki for distrit activity (all you can eat, Japanese style korean bbq for like $14 10/10 reccomend) :D Then a fun little park in Okazaki with little (missionary approved) rides. We were able to meet with our friend we've been trying to reach out too, and were so happy to help her feel loved and welcome. One of the reasons why I love the Gospel so much! Now for transfers; I'm staying and my next companion is Duarte Shimai! I went on exchanges with her back in Fujieda. Shes from Brazil! She speaks not very much English so we might be only able to talk to eachother in Japanese haha. Nah nah, im probably gonna learn some Portuguese this transfer and teach her some English! I'm pretty excited, but also a little nervous becasue I'm her first non-Brazilian companion. Wish me luck! Tuesday was interviews, we discovered that I san might actually not be able to be baptized in Japan for certain reasons. I was pretty sad. It was a rough day but a turned out to be a cool experience. After this huge miracle of seeing him progress, we discover it cant be as soon as we all had hoped. I was slightly heart broken and cried when we got back to Kariya. I wasn't sad for myself, but more for him. He has had a long journey of trying to find God. He finaly got his answer and decided to take that leap of faith...to find out that he can't. I was worried that he would feel that God abandonded him. (I felt slightly dramatic while doing so) but decided to say a prayer at the train station, just to tell Heavenly Father my concern and to bless him to be ok. Sure enoguh, he answered my prayer. We met with him later that night for a lesson and it was great! We told him of the potential postponement, and he took it very well. He said he saw it as an opportunity to "keep the faith". We were very suprised, and also proud of him! We still are going to prepare him as if hes going to be baptized, so we decided to go through the baptismal interview questions with him and lets just say I'd give him and A+ :) Wednesday we had a lesson with the sweet young family that we jsut started teaching. She kept her committment to readd from the Book of Mormon! We taught Y san the plan of salvation and she felt like it was a lot, but she liked the part about Jesus Chrsit. We showed her the video (my personal favorite) "becasue of Him", and she loved that we can have "second chances because of Him". I too love and cherish this truth of forgiveness and self improvemnt through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Later that night we met with I san again, this was probably the last time we can see him because he moved the next day to another area in my mission. SO, I called my mission president to see if theres anything we can do, he said there might be some hope! I'm waiting to hear back from him still...Anyways this lesson was also amazing. I sans interest, gratitude and care for the Savior Jesus Christ has increased so much. He has been reading the Book of Mormon to learn of the Savior Jesus Christ and he is intrigued with Christmas haha. Once again my testimony of the Power of conversion of learning of Christ through reading the Book of Mormon has been strengthened so much by helping him along his journey. But also the power of God working through people as well. I san was looking for an answer to his prayer, it took some time but he finally realized that he feels good when he goes to church, he feels happy, welcomed and cared about. It taught me the importance of being kind to strangers, and going after "the one". I san has taught me so much and I am so thankful to have been abe to work with him. Cool little miracle from Thursday: so I decided to show Jolley Shimai my favorite Brazilian shop (I thought I was gonna transfer and wanted her to have this knowledge lol) on the way home we met a 12 yesr old girl, now we dont usually dendou kids that young because they are either scared of us and also we techinically cant teach children...but I wasnt sure if shes older or not because everyone here looks super young. Anyways, she told us that she straight up has interest. She even asked us if she can share our message with her friends at school. And awas also giving us suggestions for where to go dendou more people lol. She basically set up anothera ppointment with us for this week haha, we probs cant teach her though, but were gonna try to see if we can get permission from her parents! I hope her parents heart will be open to letting us teach her! Fun little mircale. Friday was a fun service project! We put together a Christmas dinner for mothers and Children in the area that are in need. We weren't allowed to share our message with them, but it felt nice to help some people feel some happiness since we dont usually get many opportunites to serve people here in Japan. Sunday was the baptism of Shirota san! Hes taught by the Elders, but were really close with his wife and familly! Our two friends J and C san came and they felt and overwheling feeling. Later that night we had a lesson with them and they now have a baptismal date! Were very excited for them :) Today is my last day with sweet Jolley Shimai. I've learned a lot from being with her and I am so thankful. Shes an angel<3 She going just right next door to Seto :) Anyways im out of time. I feel like I'm learning so much and have been able to feel growth and progress in myself. I'm still far from perfect. I feel like my faith has been just going up from when I first started my mission and Its exciting to see how it has grown. :) Also shout out to the big bro getting married this week! Love you, and I'm so excited to welcome a new sister into the Horito family <3 Party it up for me over there ;) 愛してます 堀人姉妹
