11 August 2014 Sanjo
This is our last full week of the transfer. Transfer calls are next week! Ah! It has flown by. On Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat. Again. We will see how long this one lasts...
Tuesday went to an old folks home for service. Its name translated is frog house. Haha. They are a bit surreal here. Everything is so clean and everyone is so smiley and a little robotic. And they lock everything! I was a little put off by that. I understand it's for the old peoples' safety..but still. We would walk through one door and it would lock behind us, go through a hall, unlock next door, walk brought then it’d be locked behind us. What if the people working there hadn't wanted to let us out????
We sat with a bunch of old ladies who were very sweet but a little senile. They just told us over and over how beautiful we were, how kind it was for us to come, and after a few questions about church the
conversation would loop again.
The climax of the visit was probably when I started coughing. I couldn't stop! I just kept coughing and coughing. My eyes were watering and everyone was staring. And I just couldn't stop coughing. I felt soooo bad! All the workers were probably wondering why the heck I was there. All the old people were gonna catch a cold from me!
Wednesday was a super day. During district meeting Sugawada choro and I both got to do trainings. I really liked Sugawada choro's. I felt like mine was a little scrambled. It's amazing what being sick does to
your ability to think. I talked about how God has a plan for each of us. We each came to earth to accomplish certain things. He gives us trials as a way to prepare us to accomplish those things.
We had another amazing lesson with Yosuko San. And guess what!? She is getting baptized in September!!! She is just so prepared. On Thursday we had taught her how to pray and then invited her to do so. She told us Wednesday that after she prayed she felt calm. And then she told us she had been thinking about church and decided this was the best church for her and she wanted to become a member. Ahhhh!
She wants to learn
everything from the beginning. And so that's what we did. We talked about how
God is our Heavenly Father, that he has made a plan so that each of us can
return back to Him one day. That Jesus Christ is essential to that plan, and
how when he was on earth he taught the gospel. We told her about the great
apostasy and the need for a restoration of the gospel. It made perfect sense to
her.
One of my favorite moments in the lesson was when we were talking about prophets and why we need them. As missionaries we use this object lesson to show the need. We hold our fist out and say it represents God. Then we have someone else hold their fist out. It represents them/ other people. You ask them to follow your fist with theirs. Usually they can do it. Then you tell them, "we can't see God. Close your eyes!" And they need to try and follow again. It's much harder to do it this time. Then we take a pen and say it represents a prophet. Then we stick the pen in each fist. They are connected! And It is easy to move and follow "God" even though your eyes are closed.
Well, we didn't make it that far with Yasuko San. We told her to close her eyes and asked her if she could still follow God. She answered with so much confidence "yes." She didn't get it. So we explained it to her again and then asked her the question again: can you follow God? Once again she answered with a confident "yes." By the third time (with a reminder that her eyes were closed) and another yes we had all
started giggling. It was pretty funny.
The whole lesson was pretty surreal. She wants to be baptized! And she is so excited and ready to learn. She even invited herself to church before we could. And told us she would read and pray every day. We
didn't need to invite her to do much!
One of the funny moments of the week: I had done something..I can't remember and Skabelund shimai looks at me and says "mischievous cow." I was sooooooooo surprised and taken aback that she had called me a cow! "Cow????" As I said it I realized it wasn't cow it was kau; which is Japanese for face. She was commenting on my mischievous face. We got a really good laugh out of that one.
Today we went to Yahiko mountain. At the base there is a shrine. It was a
beautiful place!! I adore Japanese culture. It's so rich and spiritual. And
beautiful. I'll send some pictures!
This week has been wonderful. I love Sanjo! I love the miracles we are seeing. And my companion is pretty great too.
Love you all!
Sister Molinari
