Japan is amazing!!!!! I love it so much!!! Coolest mission on earth! The people are amazing, the culture is incredible. But I still hit my head walking around the house!!!! Being 6ft 2" is great until you get called to japan... Haha
So this week we taught quite a few lessons but our miracle lesson was with the kurihara fufu (couple). They are amazing, god truly has been working with them! The husband was the one that originally stopped us and talked to us and immediately invited us over. Last lesson we got a lot of insight as to why! He said when he was talking to us on the
street. He felt a purity a sawayaka which doesn't translate into normal English well at All he said it's like he felt a purity or a
good feeling or a good Ora. Luckily we have a word in the gospel that describes it... Holy Ghost. I know that is what he felt :) he also told us a story about how his dad died and how through that he started praying to his ancestors which is something Buddhists do. But he felt nothing when he done it. So he felt like he needed religion so he started looking for it and liked the aspect of forgiveness in Christian churches. God has truly been working with this amazing guy. When we met with them they again went all out with getting heaps of food for us even though when we called them we told them we couldn't stay for dinner and we had already eaten. So I struggled but I managed to eat all of the food they gave us. They are amazing!!!!
Miki is a person who has become very good friends with the missionaries over the last few transfers. She is so nice she gave us 5 kilos of rice and is always willing to help anyone she can in anyway she can. She is such an amazing lovely person, she speaks fluent English and Japanese. She is so Christ like and she is not even a member she doesn't believe all of the same things that we believe. But she has a genuine desire to be the best person she can be :)
While tracting on the train this Tuesday I had an awesome experience which has lead to me better understanding always having a prayer in your heart. While on the train we were having no luck and so I said a quick prayer in my heart and a guy from Italy who speaks fluent English gets on the train. We end up teaching him a lesson and giving him a Book of Mormon and now he is an online investigator! He is reading the Book of Mormon and is way cool!!!
After he left we tried finding more people on the train. After no luck for like 15 minutes I decided hey I'll pray again and instantly the next person we talked to was interested. We taught him a short lesson he took a photo with us then he got off the train. Then he ran into the other elders in our area got taught another lesson and is now an investigator for the other elders! That was amazing!
On the train home we were having no luck and we needed one more lesson to reach our goals so I said another prayer and then looked around and just had this feeling to move up the train so we went to the front carriage and there was only one guy in there so I sat down next to him and we started talking. Then taught him the first lesson. #lovethespirit
On Saturday we hadn't taught a lesson all day so on the way home from a family home evening activity I said a prayer again in my heart and at the first lights we stop at we meet this guy start talking teach him about god and a few other gospel principles and he is now a new online investigator!
From these experiences I have really learnt that prayer works and I now understand what it means to always have a prayer in your heart at all times. I have had more experiences just like this over the last week! There is not even the slightest chance that these are all coincidental!
Takashi is doing well he is thinking about quitting basketball which means he will be able to come to church. So if that happens that will be awesome :)
Believe it or not I still haven't eaten out since I have been in japan except for the one meal last week when I was on splits with Elder Smith, and that was authentic Chinese not even Japanese! Everyone thinks I am the first missionary ever to go this long without eating out!
All of the white guys in japan have incredible life stories. I met one guy who is originally from Australia has traveled the world, backpacking. He eventually got to japan after traveling to countless countries and married a Japanese girl. He has hundreds of stories and is interested in church history. He loves the life story of Brigham young. He watched an old VCR of it years ago. He basically told me Brigham Young's life story.
We don't get to leave the apartment until 1:00 for the first 2 transfers of my mission cause I have an extra hour of study. So we don't get as much time as I would like to dendo (missionary work). After next transfer I'll be able to leave the apartment at 12:00 or 11:00 if I have lunch out.
Our branch presidents daughter got her mission call just the other day and she announced it in sacrament meeting and shared her favorite scripture. And her testimony!!! She is going to serve in the japan Kobe mission and leave in less than a month from the day she received the mission call!
On Sundays now for some of our recent converts and investigators me and my companion teach a separate class instead of having them go to gospel doctrines cause that can be really confusing. So that should be really good for the investigators and new converts!
This week I went on splits with one of the zone leaders. Elder Kieth, he is a really good missionary. He came to my area so i had to try and organise the day and what we should do who we should visit which would be fine but my iPad wasn't working so we could only visit people that I remembered where they lived. So that made it for an interesting day, to make it more fun it rained alllllllll day! So we went tracting in the pouring rain. Which according to missionary conspiracies means my future wife just got slightly better looking (every time your name tag gets wet your future wife gets prettier and every time you drop your scriptures she gets uglier... Lucky thing it rains a lot in japan haha)
The sisters in our area saw a miricale on Saturday! They had been teaching this lady and her husband was in hospital for a long time the lady wasn't progressing much because of all the added stress of her husband being in hospital. Then last night they saw them on the way home. She was walking with her husband who was finally out of hospital. This was the first time they had met him and he said while he was in the hospital he read the Book of Mormon twice! That was awesome! He said he loved it and loves some of the teachings and says they are very similar to his beliefs. He then goes on to say I don't
know to much about the origins of this book but I know it is from god and it must have been written by a prophet of god!!!! It was incredible!!!!! Can't wait to see where that goes!!!
It's getting colder and colder everyday... It's raining soooo much!!! It's raining more than Perth in the middle of winter and it's not even rainy season!
We went to a members house to give her a priesthood blessing, in Japanese. Her house is a Danchi apartment which is a type of apartment where they try and cram as many people in as possible. It was like climbing through a tiny cave, the entire house is smaller than 2 average bedrooms put together. She also made us sing an opening and closing song, she is so cute!!!
I love all of you and miss you a lot, I hope you are all doing well and get something out of reading about some of my experiences :)
愛してるよ!!
Lots of love Elder King
キング長老からとたくさん愛 です
So this week we taught quite a few lessons but our miracle lesson was with the kurihara fufu (couple). They are amazing, god truly has been working with them! The husband was the one that originally stopped us and talked to us and immediately invited us over. Last lesson we got a lot of insight as to why! He said when he was talking to us on the
street. He felt a purity a sawayaka which doesn't translate into normal English well at All he said it's like he felt a purity or a
good feeling or a good Ora. Luckily we have a word in the gospel that describes it... Holy Ghost. I know that is what he felt :) he also told us a story about how his dad died and how through that he started praying to his ancestors which is something Buddhists do. But he felt nothing when he done it. So he felt like he needed religion so he started looking for it and liked the aspect of forgiveness in Christian churches. God has truly been working with this amazing guy. When we met with them they again went all out with getting heaps of food for us even though when we called them we told them we couldn't stay for dinner and we had already eaten. So I struggled but I managed to eat all of the food they gave us. They are amazing!!!!
Miki is a person who has become very good friends with the missionaries over the last few transfers. She is so nice she gave us 5 kilos of rice and is always willing to help anyone she can in anyway she can. She is such an amazing lovely person, she speaks fluent English and Japanese. She is so Christ like and she is not even a member she doesn't believe all of the same things that we believe. But she has a genuine desire to be the best person she can be :)
While tracting on the train this Tuesday I had an awesome experience which has lead to me better understanding always having a prayer in your heart. While on the train we were having no luck and so I said a quick prayer in my heart and a guy from Italy who speaks fluent English gets on the train. We end up teaching him a lesson and giving him a Book of Mormon and now he is an online investigator! He is reading the Book of Mormon and is way cool!!!
After he left we tried finding more people on the train. After no luck for like 15 minutes I decided hey I'll pray again and instantly the next person we talked to was interested. We taught him a short lesson he took a photo with us then he got off the train. Then he ran into the other elders in our area got taught another lesson and is now an investigator for the other elders! That was amazing!
On the train home we were having no luck and we needed one more lesson to reach our goals so I said another prayer and then looked around and just had this feeling to move up the train so we went to the front carriage and there was only one guy in there so I sat down next to him and we started talking. Then taught him the first lesson. #lovethespirit
On Saturday we hadn't taught a lesson all day so on the way home from a family home evening activity I said a prayer again in my heart and at the first lights we stop at we meet this guy start talking teach him about god and a few other gospel principles and he is now a new online investigator!
From these experiences I have really learnt that prayer works and I now understand what it means to always have a prayer in your heart at all times. I have had more experiences just like this over the last week! There is not even the slightest chance that these are all coincidental!
Takashi is doing well he is thinking about quitting basketball which means he will be able to come to church. So if that happens that will be awesome :)
Believe it or not I still haven't eaten out since I have been in japan except for the one meal last week when I was on splits with Elder Smith, and that was authentic Chinese not even Japanese! Everyone thinks I am the first missionary ever to go this long without eating out!
All of the white guys in japan have incredible life stories. I met one guy who is originally from Australia has traveled the world, backpacking. He eventually got to japan after traveling to countless countries and married a Japanese girl. He has hundreds of stories and is interested in church history. He loves the life story of Brigham young. He watched an old VCR of it years ago. He basically told me Brigham Young's life story.
We don't get to leave the apartment until 1:00 for the first 2 transfers of my mission cause I have an extra hour of study. So we don't get as much time as I would like to dendo (missionary work). After next transfer I'll be able to leave the apartment at 12:00 or 11:00 if I have lunch out.
Our branch presidents daughter got her mission call just the other day and she announced it in sacrament meeting and shared her favorite scripture. And her testimony!!! She is going to serve in the japan Kobe mission and leave in less than a month from the day she received the mission call!
On Sundays now for some of our recent converts and investigators me and my companion teach a separate class instead of having them go to gospel doctrines cause that can be really confusing. So that should be really good for the investigators and new converts!
This week I went on splits with one of the zone leaders. Elder Kieth, he is a really good missionary. He came to my area so i had to try and organise the day and what we should do who we should visit which would be fine but my iPad wasn't working so we could only visit people that I remembered where they lived. So that made it for an interesting day, to make it more fun it rained alllllllll day! So we went tracting in the pouring rain. Which according to missionary conspiracies means my future wife just got slightly better looking (every time your name tag gets wet your future wife gets prettier and every time you drop your scriptures she gets uglier... Lucky thing it rains a lot in japan haha)
The sisters in our area saw a miricale on Saturday! They had been teaching this lady and her husband was in hospital for a long time the lady wasn't progressing much because of all the added stress of her husband being in hospital. Then last night they saw them on the way home. She was walking with her husband who was finally out of hospital. This was the first time they had met him and he said while he was in the hospital he read the Book of Mormon twice! That was awesome! He said he loved it and loves some of the teachings and says they are very similar to his beliefs. He then goes on to say I don't
know to much about the origins of this book but I know it is from god and it must have been written by a prophet of god!!!! It was incredible!!!!! Can't wait to see where that goes!!!
It's getting colder and colder everyday... It's raining soooo much!!! It's raining more than Perth in the middle of winter and it's not even rainy season!
We went to a members house to give her a priesthood blessing, in Japanese. Her house is a Danchi apartment which is a type of apartment where they try and cram as many people in as possible. It was like climbing through a tiny cave, the entire house is smaller than 2 average bedrooms put together. She also made us sing an opening and closing song, she is so cute!!!
I love all of you and miss you a lot, I hope you are all doing well and get something out of reading about some of my experiences :)
愛してるよ!!
Lots of love Elder King
キング長老からとたくさん愛 です