29 September 2014, Sanjo
This week was awesome! There were sooo many
miracles this week. Wow!
We were just on a real miracle high for three days. And I feel like I learned so much personally this week too. We had a cake party that was a success. We had an eikaiwa student come to church today who not only stayed for all three hours but came early for the pancake party and stuck around for about an hour afterwards. She fits right in!
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| Pancake party |
Kobayashi
Mieko, who we hadn't heard from or been able to get into contact with
ALL transfer, called because she was feeling depressed. Nothing was
making her feel better and so she called us! Our less active
members are changing. I can feel it. Ogura shimai is progressing and
wants to meet her family. Oono shimai reads the Book of Mormon every day.
Ito shimai, who last time we visited told us she was reading a different
religion's book and wasn't too keen on praying or reading the Book of
Mormon, answered yes quickly and with some conviction when we asked her
to read and pray.
planned for next month and members are getting excited for them. And they are planning on bringing family members who aren't members. We made contact with two other less actives who, who knows when they were contacted last. Yasuko San, who has been sick/ is still sick, called us to tell us she will be at church next week (hopefully we will see her before then..). I'm so glad she is getting better! But, Ah! So much goodness. I am most certainly feeling the joy.
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| Cake Party |
We had
23 people come to the cake party! More people helped and were present.
Sugawara choro made eight or so cakes. We had made two that morning,
banana bread with mama's frosting recipe and apple cake. The apple cake
was suppose to have mummy's icing on it but I accidentally turned that
into a sugar wax. But anyways, the party was fun. We made a paper chain
which really turned the room from a room to a party room. It was great.
And Yuka (she is our down the street neighbor) came!!! That was very
exciting!
This week I had my first "other missionaries trying to share their church with us" experience! After the cake party we ate a quick lunch and got ready for a lesson we had at 3:30. Well, the lesson ended up being a sort of flop. It was a lady we had met a few weeks ago and she came with a friend with the intent to dendÅ US. Nitta shimai had had her suspicions and when the lady walked into the church with a friend they were confirmed. Apparently, they always do that here in Japan.
This week I had my first "other missionaries trying to share their church with us" experience! After the cake party we ate a quick lunch and got ready for a lesson we had at 3:30. Well, the lesson ended up being a sort of flop. It was a lady we had met a few weeks ago and she came with a friend with the intent to dendÅ US. Nitta shimai had had her suspicions and when the lady walked into the church with a friend they were confirmed. Apparently, they always do that here in Japan.
They went straight into asking us questions
to try and stump us. They didn't even pretend to be interested. I could
understand a lot of the words and what they were talking about but they
were trying to ask tricky questions so I couldn't get what they were
asking. It was really interesting. as they asked all these tricky
questions Nitta shimai would answer "it's faith" over and
over. One time I answered we don't know everything, but God created a
plan and he has perfect knowledge so it will all work out. None of our
answers gave them anything to argue with. And the women were getting
more and more exasperated and maybe a little agitated. They said some
pretty crazy things. I finally got tired of it and after a little over
an hour I told them, "if you have a real desire we would love to
learn together later, but right now we have other appointments."
Finally they left. It was funny, I left feeling
the spirit stronger than when they came. In their attempt to belittle us
and our religion, and cause us to question our beliefs, what they ended
up doing was reaffirm what I believe. I respect that they have a religion
and that they really believe something. But there was no light in their
eyes. There was no passion. They answered in anger and frustration and
tried to use tact to trick us. They didn't have real faith; they needed
to see everything with their eyes to believe it. But, faith is what it
is all about. And faith, believing without seeing, can be a very
powerful thing. When you have faith, there are miracles.
My week was full of critter “run ins”! At night the bats come out and they swoop down pretty low. Nitta shimai and I had been talking about them and then, a few days later, one runs into me! It dive bombed and hit me! It must have been in a lot of shock. I sure was!
My week was full of critter “run ins”! At night the bats come out and they swoop down pretty low. Nitta shimai and I had been talking about them and then, a few days later, one runs into me! It dive bombed and hit me! It must have been in a lot of shock. I sure was!
We also found a giant cockroach and a giant month! It's so funny how everything is small here...except for things like cockroaches and bugs and wasps.
Ok... As for transfers..you'll just have to wait till next week to see where I write from...Sanjo or someplace else....
Love,
Sister Molinari
