9/19/2016
Alma 26:27
Now I don't normally do this, but at the request of my dear Mother I
have been asked to write a brief summary of what I have done each day
of the week, so I am going to try to do so. Sometimes you work so hard
and lose track of time and days, so I am sure I will miss a few
things, but I will try my best.
Monday - We went to Kiyomizudera, one of the most famous places in all
of Kyoto and I think Japan. We woke up early in the morning (around
5:00) and rode over to go see the temples/kiyomizu (pure water). On
the way up to Kiyomizudera you go up a very large hill with a ton of
shops on both sides. It is a pretty narrow street with shops that are
full of Japanese souvenirs and different things. We bought a couple of
things and then we went up to see the Kiyomizu and some of the temples
at the top of the hill. There is always a lot of foreigners there. We
then came back and did our regular preparation. Wash clothes, go
shopping for food, email home, and do everything else that we need to
in order to get ready for the upcoming week. We taught a less active
named Yamaguchi shimai, did some housing (tracting), and taught an
investigator named Ootsuki who we had to drop.
Tuesday - A day full of finding. We didn't have too many lessons set
up and we are really struggling to find investigators at the moment,
so we did a lot of finding today. We visited sister Katou who is
always kind and gives us drinks before we leave. We taught a few new
people while housing today, but we weren't able to see much success.
We met a few teenagers and a younger mother who seemed willing to
listen. She at least said that she would be okay with us coming back.
Wednesday - We did all tracting today with hardly any other options of
finding. We tried our best and worked hard, but we still have not seen
the greatest of results. We are trying to do God's will and maybe he
just really wants to teach us to have more patience right now. So we
are going to work as hard as we can. We made a pact to get up at 5:00
a.m. every morning to study Japanese so that we can become the best
missionaries that we are able to. We also taught Eikaiwa today. It was
a fun class today. We had a bunch of new people come. About 12 people
showed up; whereas, 6-8 usually show up. We played pictionary and
split up into teams. I think that everyone really had a good time.
Thursday - Usually on Thursdays we go to visit a less active named
Nishiyama kyoudai. He lived in America for a while, so he can speak
English pretty well. He is a little bit odd, but he is a very nice
Brother. We sometimes play ping pong and a few weeks ago my companion
gave him a haircut. We gave him a bunch of coins from America and he
freaked out a little bit. He really likes collecting coins and he was
super happy. He felt bad that he didn't have anything to give us, so he
just grabbed a bunch of things from his counter and started putting them
in a bag to give us when we went home. It was a little odd, but I am glad
that he was able to find some of the coins that he wanted to collect. We also do
our Weekly Planning sessions on Thursday, so we did that for quite a few hours today.
Friday - Zone Training Meeting. This week we did something a little
bit different. We did something called workshops. There were 4 stations
where we could learn from and each of the companionships could choose
which station that they wanted to go to, to learn from. We had 90
minutes and could switch at anytime. It was fun because we did a lot
of role playing for our investigators and learned a lot. We also had a
companionship exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder
Wharton and we had a blast. We worked hard, saw some miracles, and
really learned how to improve our teaching. We also went out to eat
sushi at the end of the day, so that was a lot of fun.
Saturday - We rode back to Katsura in the morning and taught one of
our investigators named Komori kyoudai. We taught him about baptism
and how he is so close to reaching baptism. He is currently keeping
almost all of the commandments, going to church every week, praying
every day, and he reads the scriptures every day. We helped him set up
a baptismal date for November 12. We also taught Ryu kun, a recent
convert who is 9 years old. Because he is so young, and his 7 year old
sister came, it was a little bit difficult to teach, but we played a
game and gave them some treats to help them focus. The rest of the day
was not all that successful, but we did meet a guy from Germany named
Moritz. He was way willing to talk with us about religion and even
said that he had some interest. He is only in Kyoto for a few more
days, but he said he could meet up with us again and we will try to
refer him to the missionaries when he goes.
Sunday - A fairly normal Sunday. We went to DCS in the morning. I am
not sure how to explain it in English, but basically it is a meeting
with the ward mission leader. During sacrament meeting a few returned
missionaries came to speak and they gave really good talks. They
helped me get motivated to dendou (I don't know how to say this in
English other than "do missionary work"). We also had Komori kyoudai
and Hayata kyoudai show up for sacrament meeting. (2 of our
investigators) We got a lot of appointments cancelled on us today, but
we were able to reach most of our goals this week and we tried to
work our hardest.
Overall a great week this week. I know I have written a lot, but I
would like to share one quick experience that I had a couple of weeks
ago that is related to the scripture that I have titled this email
with. It was on Tuesday the 6th. We had a pretty long day of looking
for less actives and finding some, but sadly none of them wanting to
talk with us. We set some pretty high goals to help us stretch that
day and we were going to do anything that it took to achieve them.
Coming toward the end of the day we had taught a few people, but we
had a goal to teach at least 2 more lessons by the end of the day. We
were extremely tired and it was already dinner time, but we decided to
keep moving forward to reach our goals. So we went housing.
We housed down a couple of streets with only rejections. We were
started to feel like maybe we could not reach our goals and that maybe
Heavenly Father didn't intend for us to continue what we were doing.
By the time that it hit about 8:30. We had gotten turned down a lot of
times and quite a few people were actually really rude to us, which
doesn't happen that often in Japan, but we decided we were going to
try one more house. I had felt pretty good about doing 1 more. So we
rang the doorbell and a sweet older lady came out. She asked us what
we were there for and we told her that we were missionaries sharing a
very important message to the world. While we were in the middle of
introducing ourselves her husband, who was about half naked from the
bottom down, ran out to the front door, screamed at us "Kairrrre!"
(Meaning "Go Home!"), and slammed the door in our faces. My companion
and I stood there with not much to say.
So we decided that we were going to go back home. We were sick of being
turned down so much. At that time I remembered a scripture that my
companion and I had read this morning which was Alma 26:27. "Now when
our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the
Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites,
and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you
success."
On the way back, we thought to ourselves that we couldn't just let God
down on the goals that we had set out. So we thought about what we
could do to teach 1 more person that we had on our goals for the day.
We slowed down to think about it for a minute and at that time, God
placed in our path 2 high school kids who were on their way home. We
stopped to talk with them and they were willing to hear us out. They
did not have much interest in the message, but we were at least able
to help them come to a knowledge of their Heavenly Father.
God is truly a God of miracles. He never breaks his promises. He
comforted my companion and I, just like he did the sons of Mosiah. We
tried our best to be patient and in the end he was able to help us see
success. I am so grateful that God hears and answers our prayers. He
truly does love each and every one of us. I know these things and
testify of them in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Questions:
6. I do feel pretty good with the language, but I have a loooooong
ways to go. I feel like I made a huge jump when I got a Japanese
companion and then when I became a trainer, but after that I feel like
I kind of plateaued. I am working with my companion to learn a lot
more words daily and to be able to get the language down to the best
of my ability.
Friday - Zone Training Meeting. This week we did something a little
bit different. We did something called workshops. There were 4 stations
where we could learn from and each of the companionships could choose
which station that they wanted to go to, to learn from. We had 90
minutes and could switch at anytime. It was fun because we did a lot
of role playing for our investigators and learned a lot. We also had a
companionship exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder
Wharton and we had a blast. We worked hard, saw some miracles, and
really learned how to improve our teaching. We also went out to eat
sushi at the end of the day, so that was a lot of fun.
Saturday - We rode back to Katsura in the morning and taught one of
our investigators named Komori kyoudai. We taught him about baptism
and how he is so close to reaching baptism. He is currently keeping
almost all of the commandments, going to church every week, praying
every day, and he reads the scriptures every day. We helped him set up
a baptismal date for November 12. We also taught Ryu kun, a recent
convert who is 9 years old. Because he is so young, and his 7 year old
sister came, it was a little bit difficult to teach, but we played a
game and gave them some treats to help them focus. The rest of the day
was not all that successful, but we did meet a guy from Germany named
Moritz. He was way willing to talk with us about religion and even
said that he had some interest. He is only in Kyoto for a few more
days, but he said he could meet up with us again and we will try to
refer him to the missionaries when he goes.
Sunday - A fairly normal Sunday. We went to DCS in the morning. I am
not sure how to explain it in English, but basically it is a meeting
with the ward mission leader. During sacrament meeting a few returned
missionaries came to speak and they gave really good talks. They
helped me get motivated to dendou (I don't know how to say this in
English other than "do missionary work"). We also had Komori kyoudai
and Hayata kyoudai show up for sacrament meeting. (2 of our
investigators) We got a lot of appointments cancelled on us today, but
we were able to reach most of our goals this week and we tried to
work our hardest.
Overall a great week this week. I know I have written a lot, but I
would like to share one quick experience that I had a couple of weeks
ago that is related to the scripture that I have titled this email
with. It was on Tuesday the 6th. We had a pretty long day of looking
for less actives and finding some, but sadly none of them wanting to
talk with us. We set some pretty high goals to help us stretch that
day and we were going to do anything that it took to achieve them.
Coming toward the end of the day we had taught a few people, but we
had a goal to teach at least 2 more lessons by the end of the day. We
were extremely tired and it was already dinner time, but we decided to
keep moving forward to reach our goals. So we went housing.
We housed down a couple of streets with only rejections. We were
started to feel like maybe we could not reach our goals and that maybe
Heavenly Father didn't intend for us to continue what we were doing.
By the time that it hit about 8:30. We had gotten turned down a lot of
times and quite a few people were actually really rude to us, which
doesn't happen that often in Japan, but we decided we were going to
try one more house. I had felt pretty good about doing 1 more. So we
rang the doorbell and a sweet older lady came out. She asked us what
we were there for and we told her that we were missionaries sharing a
very important message to the world. While we were in the middle of
introducing ourselves her husband, who was about half naked from the
bottom down, ran out to the front door, screamed at us "Kairrrre!"
(Meaning "Go Home!"), and slammed the door in our faces. My companion
and I stood there with not much to say.
So we decided that we were going to go back home. We were sick of being
turned down so much. At that time I remembered a scripture that my
companion and I had read this morning which was Alma 26:27. "Now when
our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the
Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites,
and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you
success."
On the way back, we thought to ourselves that we couldn't just let God
down on the goals that we had set out. So we thought about what we
could do to teach 1 more person that we had on our goals for the day.
We slowed down to think about it for a minute and at that time, God
placed in our path 2 high school kids who were on their way home. We
stopped to talk with them and they were willing to hear us out. They
did not have much interest in the message, but we were at least able
to help them come to a knowledge of their Heavenly Father.
God is truly a God of miracles. He never breaks his promises. He
comforted my companion and I, just like he did the sons of Mosiah. We
tried our best to be patient and in the end he was able to help us see
success. I am so grateful that God hears and answers our prayers. He
truly does love each and every one of us. I know these things and
testify of them in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Questions:
Does your companion like to cook? What are some things you guys like to cook?
1. Yes he does like cooking. We like cooking curry, yakisoba, pasta,
soup, chouhan (a Chinese rice dish), and different things. We pretty myuch
each smoothies every night to be more healthy. We also gave up
chocolate, soda, and oily foods.
1. Yes he does like cooking. We like cooking curry, yakisoba, pasta,
soup, chouhan (a Chinese rice dish), and different things. We pretty myuch
each smoothies every night to be more healthy. We also gave up
chocolate, soda, and oily foods.
Do the Japanese people do anything different for birthdays than we do?
2. I don't think that it is much different for their birthdays. I have heard that when you
turn 20 they do something special because you become an adult at the
age of 20 in Japan.
2. I don't think that it is much different for their birthdays. I have heard that when you
turn 20 they do something special because you become an adult at the
age of 20 in Japan.
Does your ward have a choir or people that do musical numbers in church sometimes?
3. No we do not. There are quite a few people that can play the piano
here though.
3. No we do not. There are quite a few people that can play the piano
here though.
Do you still listen to the church music we sent? Would you like us to send more?
4. Yes, sometimes. I am okay. You don't need to send me more. Thank you though.
4. Yes, sometimes. I am okay. You don't need to send me more. Thank you though.
What are some of the investigators like in your area? What do they do for work?
5. Right now we don't have that many investigators. A few of the ones
that we do have are struggling with the word of wisdom. One is from
China. We also have a few who are currently in college, but they
haven't been able to meet lately because they are so busy. 1 of our
investigators is a car salesman. 1 is a nurse. 1 of them is too old to
work. 1 is currently doing an internship to become a therapist I
think.
Do you feel comfortable with the language now and about when did you start to feel like it was getting easier?
5. Right now we don't have that many investigators. A few of the ones
that we do have are struggling with the word of wisdom. One is from
China. We also have a few who are currently in college, but they
haven't been able to meet lately because they are so busy. 1 of our
investigators is a car salesman. 1 is a nurse. 1 of them is too old to
work. 1 is currently doing an internship to become a therapist I
think.
Do you feel comfortable with the language now and about when did you start to feel like it was getting easier?
6. I do feel pretty good with the language, but I have a loooooong
ways to go. I feel like I made a huge jump when I got a Japanese
companion and then when I became a trainer, but after that I feel like
I kind of plateaued. I am working with my companion to learn a lot
more words daily and to be able to get the language down to the best
of my ability.
Do you know if they have any holidays or festivals in the fall?
7. I don't know much about any festivals in the fall, but we will have
one at the church on the 22nd. We are going to do games and a
missionary booth. It should be fairly similar to what we did in our
ward in America.
Thanks everyone for all of your love, prayers, and support. I truly
appreciate it. I love you all. Have a great week!
Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老
7. I don't know much about any festivals in the fall, but we will have
one at the church on the 22nd. We are going to do games and a
missionary booth. It should be fairly similar to what we did in our
ward in America.
Thanks everyone for all of your love, prayers, and support. I truly
appreciate it. I love you all. Have a great week!
Elder Hirschi
ハーシ長老
No comments:
Post a Comment