Dear Friends and Family,
Well, today is a good day. We got all our shopping down, and made it home before the rain. I have been sitting here for about fifteen minutes wondering what on earth to write. I will figure it out as I go I suppose. There are so many miracles this last week! Starting with the day I last wrote, on Tuesday last week! It was a good day. We got to talk to so many people, and invite so many people to church. We were out of our area, because of temple P-day, but it was good, because many of them showed interest in going. On Wednesday, I was able to attend English class here for the first time. That was fun. There are a few students for each class, and here in Shonan we give homework. ^.^ it's simple, but it is fun. The missionaries in Shonan Ward are as follows: Elder Bowerbank(came to Japan at the same time as me!), Elder Nicholsen, Elder Hernandez (he was in my first district in Takao. Speaks Spanish), Elder Davies, and then Sister Johansson(she is my Senpai. First missionary I met at the MTC), and me. We are all about the hard work. We have been booking it all around Shonan. Yesterday, we were invited over to a member's house, all six missionaries. That was amazing. The house that this member lives in is about an hour bike ride away. By car, it's about twenty maybe, but there are no bus routes hat go up there, and no trains either. :) that's why we have bikes, I guess. It really felt like I had returned to Kofu. Haha! The scenery, the fields, the lack of houses, etc. I still have yet to see the ocean itself, although it's just a ten/fifteen minute bikeride away. We see it whenever we ride the train to Chigasaki, which we did do a couple times is last week, but it's a little far away. Maybe on a Pday, we'll check it out. Today, however, is raining. Well, let's begin with some miracles! This last week, it's been a whirlwind of visiting people, trying to keep track of all our people. There were a couple lessons we couldn't do. Hay-fever has been bad for people in Japan lately. Especially one of our friends. So, we didn't get to meet her. Zannen. (That's too bad!) But! We decided to work on the list of less active members! Well, on Friday, we actually had decided to visit an active member, because we had a four hour block, and we weren't sure what else to do. Well, so that was that, and even though it didn't feel very right, to me, or to my companion, we continued with our plan. And then, during companionship study, too, we decided not to change it, but! When all study was done, and so was lunch, I brought it up. "It just doesn't feel right." So we thought about it. Instead of visiting the active sister, we decided to take brownies to the Bishops wife(it had been her birthday!) and then to visit a less active member from the list we were given. Well, that's when the miracles began. We got to talk to so many people that day, the weather was great, and so many were willing to listen. We taught people lessons on the street that day, and invited them to hear, but no one agreed. :) and then, we reached the Less Active's house. It was an apartment complex, actually. We saw the mailbox that should have been hers.. And there was duct tape over the hole where you would put mail in. Well, we thought... Maybe she moved? But we wouldn't give up. We climbed to the fourth floor, and then we knew, she had to have moved because there was clearly no one living there. We asked her neighbors. She moved. Two or three weeks ago. Then, we decided that we would house the whole complex. We began on the third floor (we already had tried the fourth floor, in asking about the Less Active), and the door we came to, we rang the doorbell. And waited. No one answered. We rang again, and a woman came over the ping pong box. We explained who we are, and she turned us down. We found out in the brief conversation over the ping pong box, we found out that she believed in Christ! But she wouldn't give us anymore time to talk, so we quickly asked if we could leave a simple pamphlet in her post box. She said we could! We wrote our names and our phone number on the pamphlet. I felt that I wanted to put a Book of Mormon in her post box too, but we hadn't asked if that was ok or not. >.< we took a little bit, writing our names, and number on the back. And while we were writing, she opened the door! She jumped a little, surprised that we were still there, but from that point on, she welcomed us in, and we talked and talked. And she allowed us to share the message of the Restoration! She said that she would read the Book of Mormon! We exchanged phone numbers, and we'll be going again! It was so awesome to see God's had in our day. If we had gone to visit the Active Sister, we would never had found this person who had been unknowingly waiting for us. And what was more, is her side of the story. She said that she normally doesn't ever talk to missionaries from any church. But she looked through the camera on her ping pong box, and saw us smiling. That's why she answered. Then, she was moved by our kindness, and then decided to see if we were still at her door, and to her surprise we were! Wow! Well, there are so many miracles. Sometimes, with the rain, and the hills, and the hours of bike riding, it's hard to see, but it is there. So, keep your chin up! Love you! Sister Blake Btw- I am adding this as an addition to my email, this week, seeing how it goes. Well, these are notes from Relief Society, and I don't want the notes all piling up in my notes on my iPad. Do you mind if I just attach it here. For those of you who can read it, awesome! If you can't, well, don't worry about it. You probably learned the same thing in your home ward. ⭐️ 扶助協会メモ 創立記念祭そうりつきねんさい Kuiaratame 悔い改め悔 = 心+毎くやしく思うあやまちに気づき、残念に思う 悔い改める今までの自分の行動が悪かった(まちがっていた)ことに気付き、それを直す(ことを心に誓う) 第二ニーファイ28.7-9 How do we overcome the temptations of the devil in order to repent?希望信仰前向き気がつく絵を描く預言者の言葉を読む奉仕する家族で聖典を読む When you work to improve your relationship with your 相手(in my case, companion)Work on speaking their strong points.Instead of sayingそれをやるとだめじゃん。Instead, say, こうしたら、どうですか?Give a suggestion, instead of just saying that what they are doing is wrong. Comments are closed.
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January 2019
Sister Blake
"You are hereby called to serve in the Japan Tokyo South Mission." Categories |