Mom and Dad,
This week ended on such a more astonishing note than previous weeks!
I'm transferring and have to pack so I'll try to keep this one short.
Last week we met up with the two Hikari investigators and they drove us around to different cool things around Kyoto. They also to us to a sushi bar and fed us sushi.
The next night we were out housing in a neighborhood we felt we got revelation to dendo in. We knocked on one door and this way old dude opens up, looks at us, then says 「ああ、めずらしいな～！」 (Aa, mezurashiinaa!), meaning something along the lines of 'Well! Isn't this peculiar!' I was almost speechless at the amusing-ness and confusing-ness of it! Turns out he had met the missionaries a few years back and went to church. He told us he'd go to church in two Sundays. Sounded pretty good to us! A couple doors later there was this 80-something-year-old man that talked to us for about 30-40 minutes without moving anything but his head and mouth. I don't know how old people in this country have so much stamina!
On Thursday we met with the Hikari people. We reviewed the Restoration and Book of Mormon with them. I don't know why, but they're literally amazed by what we teach and how we teach it every time we meet. They even made a comment how impressive it was that we'd teach something, assign homework anticipating what we'll teach next, and continue that the next week. Maybe it's just because I've been doing it day-in-day-out for almost 16 months now that I don't find it all that impressive. Anyways, they randomly said they'd come to church without us even inviting them to do so! The Spirit has a way of directing people to act on the good feelings they have!
Later that day we met with a person that actually became an investigator in the next area over, but lives in this area, which is closer to church. He's 23 or so and is way good at English. We had pizza together and gave him a tour of the church. He was amazed because the church building in the other area isn't much to look at; it actually used to be a sushi bar. This building, being the Stake Center, is pretty impressive. He also said he'd come to church.
Saturday was way fun! We had the private English lesson with the mom and son, and we got to share a message with them. The kid was surprisingly responsive to the message.
That night we had a Stake activity where all the missionaries and all the youth got together and did mogi dendo (role-playing dendo). The activity was to contact volunteer members pretending to be someone on the street or in their house. Right as me and my youth companion finished study we and another companionship asked if we could actually go outside for real dendo. They said we could go anytime. So, we looked at each other, cheered, and ran outside to contact people! We later asked if we could grab our bikes and dendo, to which they said yes. My companion became a super star among all the youth for getting on a bike and riding out to dendo with a real missionary! The youth in this Stake are so great!
Sunday was probably one of the most crazy days of my mission! First, all the people that said they'd come to church called and said something came up... BUT, the old guy from earlier this week came! Completely unexpected! He had a good time, too! It looks like he'll start investigating, even! Then, during church, by phone I managed to schedule two lessons for time after church. Both were with women, so I had to work with the dendo shunin (WML) to find some doseki's (members to come to the lesson). We found some and later went on with the lessons!
One lesson was with the lady in the lock-out apartment. During the lesson one of her friends came over to join in the discussion! Then, right as we were getting ready to leave, another one of her friends showed up! I don't know how it all happened, but they all want to meet again and talk more.
The second lesson was with a woman that randomly texted a couple weeks ago saying she still wanted to meet. She was apparently contacted by a couple missionaries earlier. We agreed on 5:00, but what she actually was saying was she'd leave her apartment at 5:00. Well, she lives quite a ways away from the church and doesn't have any means of transportation. She walked the whole way to the church. She was way nice! She has tons of interest in Christ, wants to learn more, and is even going to introduce us to her soccer club! They're all Brazilian and African and American and are Christians! She said they'd all probably want to learn about the church, too!
So that was my week! Sunday especially was so ridiculously astonishing! Really, I have no idea how or why it happened the way it did! All I can say is that this really is the Lord's work! It was finally time according to His will to bless us abundantly, and He did. No doubt He is the one in charge of it all!
Okay, I guess that's all I have for this week! I'll be emailing from Akou next week, so we'll see what changes. All I really know for now is it's kind of inaka (rural) and is a fairly strong branch. I'm way excited! This could possibly be my last area (I only have 6 transfers left)!
愛、
～ウィルソン長老
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