Monday, May 12, 2014

E-mail 5/11/2014

My dear wonderful family,

Happy Mother's Day! It was WONDERFUL to talk to you over Skype! Absolutely the highlight of my week. I love you so much! It sounds like the Bellows family is doing incredible. Thank you thank you!

You asked about our current investigators so I made a list. :)

  1. Ishihara-san is in her 70's. She lives alone in a very nice apartment and has had such an interesting life! She was baptized into a Christian church when she was 16 and loves Jesus Christ and our message and traveling (she's traveled the world but has health problems now so can't go anywhere now) but feels torn about baptism because she wants to stay loyal to her Christian church. She is super cute and small and genki [energetic?]. :) She's been an investigator for about 2 years, off and on. We have a lesson with her about once a month.
  2. Ota-san is in his 70's. We have had 2 lessons with him and he has read the Book of Mormon twice and knows it's true. He wants to see what church is like but it super busy (he travels around Japan a lot for work). He is super funny and thinks children bring hope into the world and wonders why there are so many churches. So far getting lessons with him has been tricky because of his work but hopefully we'll be able to start teaching him weekly.
  3. Wako-san is in her 70's. She is very genki and has a HUGE farm and showed us the cracks in her house from the [2011] earthquake. We did service with her 3 times and then she said we could teach her a lesson, so we've taught her once. She calls us her granddaughters. She loves talking to us and is curious what we believe and wants to know.
  4. Namura-san is in her 70's. She LOVES classical music and golf and gardening. We have taught her twice. Her Mom went to a Christian church when she was little and she said she feels something during our lessons that she felt then. She has no background in religion but wants to learn, but to respect her husband (who is Buddhist) we can't teach her if her husband is home. She loves the Plan of Salvation.
  5. Sato-san is a new investigator this week! He is in his 20's and his friends were LDS when he was growing up so he's been to a lot of LDS activities before--including church. He loves English and knows a little about the Book of Mormon, prophets and prayer. We are teaching him again today and want him to come to church and read the Book of Mormon!
  6. Hasegawa-san was our second new investigator this week! She is in her 60's and loves English and sign language. She has taken the lessons before and was happy to let us share a message and let us come back. She LOVES missionaries. She's really busy, but we're hoping she will be able to come to church.

Tuesday we had a lesson with Ishihara-san and Yanase shimai [Sister Yanase] (from the ward) came too. We'd planned to teach about Jesus Christ and the Atonement (based on Ishihara-san's reading assignment) but she was sick and couldn't do the reading so we ju[s]t talked about God's love for her. She said she love[s] Jesus and will do anything he tells her to and that she loves hearing our messages because she feels so good afterward. After the lesson Yanase shimai said to us, this is such a good thing you are doing. Even if she can't get baptized this should be a service. We told her yes! That's the foundation of everything Christ did--love, service, and planting seeds. And that's what we're doing with Ishihara-san. :) Then we visited some people--including an LA [less-active] that we've been visiting for several months but hasn't been home once--and she was hope [home]! And let us share a message! She was so cute. It was a testimony builder for me to never give up on people--to just keep trying and loving them. 

Wednesday at seminary we talked about how out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses shall everything be established and how in [the books of] Nephi there are 3 witnesses of Jesus Christ; Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah. (No wonder they were so precise about quoting Isaiah--he was their 3rd witness!) We also talked about things the things Nephi said he took joy in and then went around the room and each said something we take joy in. The answers were so interesting! I said dendo [proselyting]. :) One said prayer. They're such good kids. After that we visited some less actives with a ward member and then did service at Lodging home and then had Eikaiwa [English class].

Thursday, we had Zone Training Meeting! It was great! I actually listened to it all in Japanese because there was no translation (for the first half) and then someone took my earphones (so I couldn't listen to the translation anyway). So I didn't get everything. I probably missed some important stuff. But it was still awesome! Lots of good training. Then we went and taught a less active--and she gave us jello! Yummy! 

Friday, we had lunch with a member and her non-member friend and taught the Plan of Salvation. And then we did service at Orange Net.

Saturday, we taught Sato-san for the first time (on his doorstep)! And took Wako-san a happy birthday gift--she said it made her day--that we were the first to say anything about her birthday! Then we had a ward FHE [family home evening] party with a spiritual message on communication--super fun!

Yesterday, after church, we taught Hasegawa-san for the first time!

Today, we Skyped you guys!! (The best part of the week. :D) 

In other words, it's been a WONDERFUL week!! I love you!!! It was absolutely wonderful to talk to you! I am so excited about all you are doing! Thank you thank you! You are wonderful wonderful wonderful! I love love love you!!!!!!!

Love,

Your missionary,

Bellows shimai :)


[No pictures this week again. Sorry!]

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