7/14/14 email

Last week I said how the Lord gives us breaks before trials, right? Well this one came rolling up fast. Basically, it's the Japanese equivalent of dead week. The end of the school year hass come and every single student has ridiculously cruel tests, projects, reports, etc. So, not only do the investigators we have now not meet or come to church for the time being, but all the young people on the street will tell us they have ridiculously cruel tests, projects, reports, et al. Unfortunately, it'll be a slow month. And a hot one--it's getting up to 90 degrees every day.

Mom and Dad,

Last week we went to Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion. I was surprised that it's not actually silver; in fact, when Mineta Choro pointed at it and said 'there it is,' I didn't believe him. Apparently silver was way way way expensive at the time so they couldn't afford to put the silver on it like they did the gold on Kinkakuji. There is a cool little nature walk around it and all the shops lining the street up to it were cool to browse. Mineta Choro bought a katana for another missionary who'll be going home at the same time.

 

We had a lesson with two of the investigators we found last week--the Catholic guy and Hikari woman. I was amazed at how open they were to everything! We taught about Joseph Smith, the Restoration, and reviewed the Book of Mormon. We were kind of worried how they'd react seeing as they're pretty loyal to their religions. But, they thought it was great that God and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith! The whole lesson they listened attentively and asked questions when they didn't understand something.

We also ran into some members from America while we were out dendo'ing in the city. We were just walking and heard "Hey, Elders!" One, it was weird because it was in English"--it was weird because that never happens. Fukui Choro honestly thought it came from behind us and I wasn't sure who in front of us it could've been. I took a chance and waved to the only people who were smiling at us and called back. The smile is what tipped me off; we don't really don't get smiles from people other than members....or middle/high school girls.

On Saturday we had the Shogi class again and the English lesson afterwards. I beat two kids, and was going to beat a third when time ran out! Don't underestimate them because they're kids. Some of them have been learning shogi for most of their 10 years of life! This week the mom and son we teach English to actually showed some interest in the Gospel! Apparently she had gone on to the church home page to find out more, so she had a few questions. It was way great!

We also had a lesson with the college kid we found on the street. It was a fairly good lesson. We got distracted a bit by one cockroach that creeped into my bag as I was about to grab my scriptures. Needless to say I ended up just using the Japanese ones I already was holding. There was another creeping around the room. We killed the one in my bag after the lesson, then actually killed the other one the next day. At least, we hope it was the other one...

Saturday was actually kind of frustrating because we had appointments scheduled to the brim that day. Most of them with people who weren't investigators yet. Unfortunately, all of them didn't go through.

Sunday, was much like Saturday in that way. We had finding time but we also had appointments for PI's to come to church. None of them actually came, though. It was raining pretty bad in the morning. Nihonjins really hate rain. They actually walk around with umbrellas even if it's just overcast. They even walk with umbrellas out if it's sunny because they don't want skin damage!

Oh yeah, the typhoon. Apparently it was way yabai. It was supposed to come and hit Kyoto last Friday--which I was way excited for, but Mineta Choro was terrified about--but it kind of died down and changed course, so it never did. Zannen deshita.

Kind of a short(er) email this week. I hope everyone is doing well.

 

愛、

～ウィルソン長老