Mom and Dad,
So yeah, time is going by way too fast. It feels like I arrived in Japan just last week. I also re-read my mission call letter and can vividly remember it. That was almost a year ago!
Monday: Hiratsuka Choro was transferring so he had to spend preparation day packing. After 6:00pm we went to visit a PI family a little ways away. They weren't home so we went on to house in a neighboring area. We had just started heading back when I had the feeling to visit them again. We went back and the 15 year old son was home. I feel like we were guided back there.
Tuesday: So at kids' eikaiwa, there's this non-member that brings her 2-or-3 year old son. This little boy looks at us while we're teaching and it seems like he's thinking "oh my goodness, what on earth are these two gaijin doing?" It's really funny. We also had a lesson with one of our investigators. When we extended the baptismal invitation last week, he rejected it because he didn't feel like he was showing faith or repenting, so naturally he couldn't take the nest step and get baptized. This week we taught him nothing but faith and helped him realize that he's showing faith little by little as he meets with us, prays, reads the BoM, etc. He really seemed to cheer up by the end, so I'm hoping he'll be more receptive to the idea of being baptized and following the Savior. Also, at eikaiwa, the word this week was 'supercalifragilisticexpialodocious'. They were all disappointed to learn that it's not actually a word. We also got cupcakes and a roll cake from members because Hiratsuka Choro was transferring out. I'm starting to like transfers. ;)
Wednesday: What a great day (you'll see why soon). Last week we dropped off the bike that lost the pedal at the bike shop: we went to pick it up today. The problem was it's a 40 minutes bike ride but we didn't have bikes. So...we walked all the way there. It's all good because we streeted as much as we could on the way. After getting the bike, we went and housed the entire area of new houses and young families that I have mentioned in previous emails. That took quite a while! Afterwards, since it was Hiratsuka's last day, we went to lunch at TABEHODAI YAKINIKU. New favorite food: yakiniku. Beef Wellington comes in a close second. Following that, we rode back to the church and had a lesson with the GC investigator. We taught a lot more about how prayers are answered and revelations are received. We gave him the talk "Spirit of Revelation" by Bednar Choro. I think I mentioned it last week: it's an awesome talk and very helpful in teaching about the spirit of revelation.
Thursday: Transfers! We headed down to Kobe to go our separate ways and meet our new companions. I finally got to see a lot of people that I was in the MTC with at the transfer spot. It was sooo great. There's one guy, Steers Choro, who was originally my trainer's MTC companion, but due to health and other things left after a week and a half. He then came out again and we were in the MTC together. He's a way solid missionary, and he's now a zone leader in his 4th transfer! That's how awesome he is. Anyway, I got my new companion, Pace Choro. He's18 years old and fresh out of high school. He turned 18 a couple weeks before entering the MTC. He's got plenty of energy to make it over the hills in Kitarokko. After taking him back to Kitarokko, we went out and housed since there were no other previous plans.
Friday: There was a lot of bike riding and housing. That pretty much was the entire day.
Saturday: We met with one of our investigators. All I can say is he is awesome! He has incredible amounts of interest in the Plan of Salvation and, as he said, he wants to "come around" to the faith he originally had growing up. I have a great amount of hope for this guy! We're meeting with him next Saturday. We would like to meet with him more but, since he works at the school, he's pretty busy and tired on weekdays. Saturday was also the first day I really felt the responsibilities of being senior companion.
Sunday: So I felt the stress today. After church, we had a couple of surprise things that came up that kept us from our original plans. We also ended up re-planning the day because we originally thought we'd be attending a priesthood fireside in Kobe, but it turns out that it wasn't for missionaries. We also took a long time to plan a lesson we weren't even sure we'd get to teach that night. BUT, after the ward mission leader got back from Kobe, he took us to the investigator we wanted to visit and we were able to have a lesson with him. We chatted and then started into the lesson we had prepared. A short time into the lesson, I had the prompting that we needed to just talk and show Christ-like love--something he doesn't have from anyone else. We testified, at the end, that the Lord loves him and wants him to return to Him. We thought that would help him more than the planned lesson--and it really did! He even gave us each bro-hugs after the lesson. Unfortunately, we went a little long and I got several calls from the district leader and zone leaders--they were beginning to think something happened to us because I hadn't yet reported in. It all worked out in the end.
That's all for this week. Next week is the start of December! I expect in 30 days or so I'll be calling home! Seeing how time has gone quickly, those 30 days will be over tomorrow.
愛、
～ウィルソン長老
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