Last Week's Entry

みなさんこんいちわ！

Editor's note: Sister Molinari emailed a day later last week. The editor was unable to post to her blog due to scheduling constraints. Sorry for the delay. Here is last week's entry and we already have another to add today.

8 April 2014 Chiba

Honestly, I don't remember much of what happened this week. I have been exhausted. Physically exhausted. I fall asleep and morning comes. And it feels like much less than 8 hours in between going to bed and waking up. But it was a good week!

Tuesday we got to go to the temple and I was reunited with my favorite sister missionary in the whole wide world: Dopp shimai! It was a joyful reunion. I'm so grateful she was my MTC companion. I don't know what I'd do without her! She is a blessing in my life for sure!

Because the Sakura are in bloom (I have some really amazing pictures..but my darn iPad won't send them!) we had an ohanami. Flower viewing party. There were a whole bunch of ward members, and one of our recently baptized members! We had all invited investigators and friends as well but no one could come/ no one showed up! It's ok, we had lots of fun. The flowers are gorgeous! Sadly they only last about
a week or two here and then they all fall off the trees.

After our hanami we had a lesson with Hirayama San. We invited a member too and they got a long really well! The member we invited is amazing! She served a mission in what used to be Tokyo south mission. Her Tokyo south mission was MUCH bigger than what is Tokyo south now. And even though she is now married and has two boys in middle school/high school she is still a super great missionary! She was more than willing to come with us and even made some brownies to give to Hirayama San as well! How great is she?  The lesson went well, we taught about Christ and his life. Then she told us she wanted to learn more about the restoration, so we gave her a reading assignment and will be teaching her about that next time! I'm excited for that!

After her lesson we RAN to our our next appointment. Here is the back story: Monday was a normal dendō day and we spent the whole day looking for our obachantachi to invite them to a hanami. We stopped at many houses, invited a few unplanned guests and even happened to find one very elusive obachan who we often walk with in the park. After handing out all these invitations, we realized the date on them was wrong. We realized this at an investigators house (who is now progressing!!!) and after saying good-bye to her, took off hoping we could find our elusive obachan friend again. We ran a couple of blocks and then up the equivalent of 2 or 3 flights of stairs and then tore down the street heading to where i thought her house may be (I ended up being right! She has this GIANT bukyo house and the gate in front has a hidden door to get in and out, so she appears to just be appearing in the street!) and we caught her! Told her the date was wrong and she ended up letting us in to see her beautiful front yard! Although she seemed very touched we ran to find her, she didn't seem to interested in the invitation. So we headed home, and laughed over what had just happened. We had found no one new all day. And just as we were about to turn down the path to our apartment we met someone! Hayashi San.

 
She was SO prepared. She told us that she was ready to have a clean heart and that our faces had light and she could tell we were different. I was so excited to teach her Wednesday!

So Wednesday we taught her. It was a great lesson. We taught her to pray and taught a little bit of the doctrine of Christ. We invited her to read a pamphlet and to pray. Saturday we had another lesson. I
could see the difference in her! Her eyes had light in them and she was so excited to see us! We get into her house and she tells us she only has a little time. So we asked if we could share a little message. She had read he pamphlet and prayed too! But then, she tells us that she can't really meet with us anymore and that she feels fickle switching religions so fast, and all this other stuff. I didn't know any of his was even being said until Orton shimai told me. As I listened it was all I could do not to cry there in her doorway. I just knew she was telling us she couldn't see us, not because she didn't want to see us but because someone in her house had told her she couldn't or shouldn't. I asked if we could pray one last time together and she said yes. Then after we left I burst into tears and cried on the way home. It was so sad. It was the first time I've ever been sad about someone telling us they weren't interested. Actually, she didn't even tell us she wasn't interested, just she couldn't meet with us. I don't even know how to express how sad this was for me. The worst part was that I had no idea what was going on the entire time. The conversation was so over my head I didn't understand a thing! And I wish I had. I wish there was something I could've said or a testimony I could've shared. But, I'm still praying for her. She is just so sad, and has such a heavy heart. I want her to experience the healing power of the atonement in her life! Because I know it would make her happy again.

So that was the highlight and low point of my week.

Transfers are coming up this next week! Monday I will know if we are staying or going!! Pretty exciting!!!

Love you all!

Sister molinari