On Monday night we saw a big miracle! It starts way back last transfer! We were riding our bikes to an appointment and just trying to talk to everyone we could along the way without making ourselves late for the appointment. We stopped at these lights and there was this Nepalese person so spoke perfect English who I started talking to. We start talking about church stuff as we ride in the same direction towards our appointment, he tells me how he believes in God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost and that they are separate beings and tells us he would like to meet up again, then he goes to turn and we were going to go straight so I quickly stop him to exchange numbers, we exchange and then he randomly says yes that apartment with the Orange wall about 500 meters down that road is my apartment. I was like okay cool, we know which apartment he lives in and got his phone number this will be great, we try calling for a few weeks and there is nothing, he never answers he never returns calls or messages, absolutely nothing, so I decided we need to try harder, we decide go to his apartment that he pointed out and house it. We really felt like this was the right thing to do and were so pumped about it.
So we rode around then I recognized the curb where we stopped and talked and was 100% sure this was the street, so we ride down it and sure enough right where it was supposed to be a big apartment building, With a big orange wall! We start knocking doors and this is where it gets really interesting.
We knock on this one door and a Philippino lady answers the door, we say hello and before we can even finish saying our names or where were from she with a big shock on her face says"I'm a member!" She stutters"Mormon, right, your the Mormon church." Both me and my companion have this sort of *here we go she's crazy* sort of look on our face. Because there are not a lot of members in Japan and housing into them is unheard of. We ask her name and she says"Sister N*******" I was like wow she knows we use titles sister and brother, maybe she used to be an investigator? Maybe this is legit? She quickly runs inside saying "let me get my Book of Mormon" she comes back to the door with this beaten up well read well marked Book of Mormon with the testimony of a sister missionary in it and some other missionaries signatures. I was like wow! This is legit! This is crazy! We start talking and she was baptized in 1996, I wasn't even 1 year old!!! She moved to Japan 12 years ago and never found the church, she didn't really look for it because church was in Japanese and she didn't speak much Japanese anyway. She got married 10 years ago to a nonmember Japanese guy and has several kids only one of who is baptized. We were talking for a while, she says she reads the Book of Mormon still sometimes. She wanted to come to church and says it's been too long she needs to go back, she was so amazed at the miracle that we knocked on her door! And that she was actually home! And she answered the door not her husband. Her husband shouts out really angrily, hey who you talking to?! She shutters with fear and is like yeah I got to go! And we quickly leave, we hear a bit of an argument happen as we leave, then he comes out looking super angry at us, starts telling us about how she is a liar and a thief and crazy and violent and how she will kill people for money because she is Philippino and all Philippinos are the same apparently! We were like wow, this guys is crazy! He hates Philippinos but he married one! It was sort of a walking on swords sort of conversation, he goes on telling us how she has a bad heart and it can't change no matter what we do, he thanks us for our hard work goes back inside gets coke gives it yo us and says that everyone in this appartment is foreigners, we say thanks and get away. We then knock the rest of the apartment that's it for the night.
It was Saturday night and we were tossing up wether or not to go and re invite Nsan to church or just hope she remembers and comes, we get to her apartment and were still unsure if we were going to knock or not, we didn't want to make the relationship worse or do anything that could cause problems with their relationship seeing it was already so bad. we prayed about it and just sat there for a minute or two and pondered our thoughts and our feelings, we felt at peace and felt like we had the courage to knock the door. Then just as we were about to knock the door I felt not right, I felt like we needed a plan if he answered the door, so we planned to thank him for the advice about the foreigners living up stairs, and the coke and tell him his jacket looks cool, and just try sweet talk him as much as possible, we knock the door and as expected he answers, we sweet talk him and he was just so happy to talk with us cause we kept talking him up, he then says just a sec goes into the house and gets us two more cokes, we continue talking and he says oh wait goes inside and gives us more stuff, we end up going home with our pockets and bags full! Every time we tried to say no but he wouldn't take no for an answer, he said he would tell her we came by and that we want her to come to church tomorrow even though apparently they don't talk at all, so yeah that was some big miracles for the week.
So one of our investigators Ssan called the cops on us.... He has been an investigator for a few months and and is a really good friend as well, we hadn't been able to see him this week because he has been working nonstop, so we decided it would be a nice idea to heart attack his door so during our lunch time, I cut out a tonne of hearts and we wrote really nice small messages on them and encouraged him and stuff then stuck them on his front door and then when he got home he called the cops on us and so we had to deal with that.... The police told us not to do it again and stuff but yeah that just made my day!
We got back in contact with one of our investigators!!!! Yay!!! We had a lesson with him and he came to the お花見 (flower looking party) the flower party was great, it was raining as it always is in Japan especially seeing were coming towards the rainy season. But luckily there are some keen as members in our branch especially bishop so me and bishop built a shelter, which I didn't even end up using cause I just played soccer and played with all the kids. We had an Easter egg hunt but because this is Japan and they take their western holidays from America we didn't have a chocolate Easter egg hunt it was a boiled egg Easter egg hunt..... Hahahah, I'm sure you can understand my disappointment, although I got to hide the eggs and so I put some up in the trees and no one could reach without climbing or lifting a kid up because Japanese people are so short, then put some in the shallow parts of the river hahaha. It was lots of fun :).
One of my favorite investigators from my last area will be getting baptized soon, he is doing amazing :) that is so incredibly amazing ugh!!!! Yay!!!! Love that kid!
So the reason we had the お花見 (flower party) is because every year there are these incredibly beautiful flowers called cherry blossoms that only last a week and only bloom once a year, it's absolutely incredible to see and amazingly pretty! Japan just comes alive during this week, people seem happier families are at the park together and it's just great!!! The flowers are so delicate though so they fall so quickly and disappear over night!
We found a few new investigators and it was a really good week, if I remember I'll attach some photos of the flowers and stuff.
General conference this week!!!! So excited!!!!! I can't wait!!!!! I love general conference I listen to talks almost everyday during lunch or dinner or breakfast and sometimes for a bit of study!!!!
Get excited!!!! Wooooo!!!!
Love elder King
キング長老から
So we rode around then I recognized the curb where we stopped and talked and was 100% sure this was the street, so we ride down it and sure enough right where it was supposed to be a big apartment building, With a big orange wall! We start knocking doors and this is where it gets really interesting.
We knock on this one door and a Philippino lady answers the door, we say hello and before we can even finish saying our names or where were from she with a big shock on her face says"I'm a member!" She stutters"Mormon, right, your the Mormon church." Both me and my companion have this sort of *here we go she's crazy* sort of look on our face. Because there are not a lot of members in Japan and housing into them is unheard of. We ask her name and she says"Sister N*******" I was like wow she knows we use titles sister and brother, maybe she used to be an investigator? Maybe this is legit? She quickly runs inside saying "let me get my Book of Mormon" she comes back to the door with this beaten up well read well marked Book of Mormon with the testimony of a sister missionary in it and some other missionaries signatures. I was like wow! This is legit! This is crazy! We start talking and she was baptized in 1996, I wasn't even 1 year old!!! She moved to Japan 12 years ago and never found the church, she didn't really look for it because church was in Japanese and she didn't speak much Japanese anyway. She got married 10 years ago to a nonmember Japanese guy and has several kids only one of who is baptized. We were talking for a while, she says she reads the Book of Mormon still sometimes. She wanted to come to church and says it's been too long she needs to go back, she was so amazed at the miracle that we knocked on her door! And that she was actually home! And she answered the door not her husband. Her husband shouts out really angrily, hey who you talking to?! She shutters with fear and is like yeah I got to go! And we quickly leave, we hear a bit of an argument happen as we leave, then he comes out looking super angry at us, starts telling us about how she is a liar and a thief and crazy and violent and how she will kill people for money because she is Philippino and all Philippinos are the same apparently! We were like wow, this guys is crazy! He hates Philippinos but he married one! It was sort of a walking on swords sort of conversation, he goes on telling us how she has a bad heart and it can't change no matter what we do, he thanks us for our hard work goes back inside gets coke gives it yo us and says that everyone in this appartment is foreigners, we say thanks and get away. We then knock the rest of the apartment that's it for the night.
It was Saturday night and we were tossing up wether or not to go and re invite Nsan to church or just hope she remembers and comes, we get to her apartment and were still unsure if we were going to knock or not, we didn't want to make the relationship worse or do anything that could cause problems with their relationship seeing it was already so bad. we prayed about it and just sat there for a minute or two and pondered our thoughts and our feelings, we felt at peace and felt like we had the courage to knock the door. Then just as we were about to knock the door I felt not right, I felt like we needed a plan if he answered the door, so we planned to thank him for the advice about the foreigners living up stairs, and the coke and tell him his jacket looks cool, and just try sweet talk him as much as possible, we knock the door and as expected he answers, we sweet talk him and he was just so happy to talk with us cause we kept talking him up, he then says just a sec goes into the house and gets us two more cokes, we continue talking and he says oh wait goes inside and gives us more stuff, we end up going home with our pockets and bags full! Every time we tried to say no but he wouldn't take no for an answer, he said he would tell her we came by and that we want her to come to church tomorrow even though apparently they don't talk at all, so yeah that was some big miracles for the week.
So one of our investigators Ssan called the cops on us.... He has been an investigator for a few months and and is a really good friend as well, we hadn't been able to see him this week because he has been working nonstop, so we decided it would be a nice idea to heart attack his door so during our lunch time, I cut out a tonne of hearts and we wrote really nice small messages on them and encouraged him and stuff then stuck them on his front door and then when he got home he called the cops on us and so we had to deal with that.... The police told us not to do it again and stuff but yeah that just made my day!
We got back in contact with one of our investigators!!!! Yay!!! We had a lesson with him and he came to the お花見 (flower looking party) the flower party was great, it was raining as it always is in Japan especially seeing were coming towards the rainy season. But luckily there are some keen as members in our branch especially bishop so me and bishop built a shelter, which I didn't even end up using cause I just played soccer and played with all the kids. We had an Easter egg hunt but because this is Japan and they take their western holidays from America we didn't have a chocolate Easter egg hunt it was a boiled egg Easter egg hunt..... Hahahah, I'm sure you can understand my disappointment, although I got to hide the eggs and so I put some up in the trees and no one could reach without climbing or lifting a kid up because Japanese people are so short, then put some in the shallow parts of the river hahaha. It was lots of fun :).
One of my favorite investigators from my last area will be getting baptized soon, he is doing amazing :) that is so incredibly amazing ugh!!!! Yay!!!! Love that kid!
So the reason we had the お花見 (flower party) is because every year there are these incredibly beautiful flowers called cherry blossoms that only last a week and only bloom once a year, it's absolutely incredible to see and amazingly pretty! Japan just comes alive during this week, people seem happier families are at the park together and it's just great!!! The flowers are so delicate though so they fall so quickly and disappear over night!
We found a few new investigators and it was a really good week, if I remember I'll attach some photos of the flowers and stuff.
General conference this week!!!! So excited!!!!! I can't wait!!!!! I love general conference I listen to talks almost everyday during lunch or dinner or breakfast and sometimes for a bit of study!!!!
Get excited!!!! Wooooo!!!!
Love elder King
キング長老から