Dear Family and Friends,
I am really sorry that I have been struggling to send good emails!
Unfortunately when things are the best here, it seems e hardest to
email well, which is really when I should email the best! Haha so
today I will try and help you understand what life is like here in
eniwa-chitose, Hokkaido, Japan.
Today we went to the temple, and so our Pday is today. I have learned
so many things lately, and so many wonderful miracles, it's always
overwhelming to try and get it all in, and so I'll try and include the
biggest highlights.
Last week on Monday we had a really cool experience with a couple in
our ward. They are in there low 60's; toyoshima couple. The husband
barely comes to church, and the wife is really strong. They fed us
dinner, that was really good, and then we started teaching them lesson
3, the gospel of Jesus Christ, telling them that we want to practice
teaching and also that members might benefit from hearing lessons
again, because we all really need to continue to hear the lessons in
order to strengthen our conversion. I have learned to have great faith
in e power of the lessons. The lessons work, the Book of Mormon works,
and prayers really are answered. If some one hears the lessons, really
learns them, reads the Book of Mormon, and asks if it's true then they
will gain faith, they will receive an answer to their sincere prayers,
and they will gain a testimony. When someone's faith grows weak, and
their testimony doesn't feel strong, they just need to go back to the
basics, and "regain their testimony" just the way that they did the
first time, they just of course have to have a desire to have a
testimony. So we teach them and I ask him a question and he kind of
starts to open up(also get a little fired up) about missionaries, and
how we are just overblessed in life, and rich, and then come here,
think that they can help everybody, but then not actually accomplish
what the members want them to accomplish; and that the way that we
were teaching can't go into the hearts of investigators, etc....
So I would normally probably be a little offended and defensive, but
the spirit helped me to recognize the situation and know that exactly
what he wanted was for me to get mad, because then all of the things
that he wants to believe about missionaries would be true. I was able
to stay calm, and started validating everything that he was saying,
and helping him feel understood. Then we were able to become really
good friends, and I started asking about his faith, and he said that
he believes that God is there and that he can receive help from God
when he needs help. He is confident about that. I asked him about the
Book of Mormon, and the church, and he said that he's not really sure
about all of that. I told him that those who stop reading the Book of
Mormon, lose their testimony. (This conversation was all in really
difficult Japanese, and he was speaking super fast, and using very
difficult words, so it was a little bit challenging for my companion
to know what was going on, and I couldn't keep up with everything
either, so just imagine us trying to help this brother, who is going
off in super hard, fast Japanese..lol (happens all the time though.;))
I challenged him to open the Book of Mormon each day, and to wherever
he opened read both pages, and when we could meet, he was pleased and
was eager to meet again, and so we set up a meeting for Sunday, which
he ended up cancelling because of work, but we should be able to meet
sometime soon hopefully!
Another experience that I would like to share is about About yokoishi
family! So met yokoishi papa on Saturday, and taught him about the law
of tithing. He had asked about it the week before and had explained it
then, and he had seemed pretty concerned about it, because his family
might be frustrated that if he didn't give them money, because of
tithing. We invited him to pray each day to understand and to gain a
testimony of the law of tithing, and I told him that I would do it
with him too. So we prayed the whole week and then this last Saturday,
met him and taught him the law of tithing, and asked about if he had
received an answer. I received an answer to my prayer one morning as I
really asked to know if Tithing was from God, and I felt inspired to
look back at an old study journal, and so I was looking back at stuff
from that, and I found something I had written from the mtc. "Tithing
is a blessing, not a trial." The spirit hit me really strong, and I
was able to receive another witness that Tithing is from God and that
it is truly a blessing to us. We asked yokoishi papa what he thought,
and he said, "well, it's written in the Book of Mormon, and so that
must mean that it's from God, and that we'd better follow it!" It was
such a cool moment, with such a strong spirit! He has such strong
faith in the Book of Mormon, it is so amazing because he is actually
converted, and I've never seen the gospel work on anybody the way that
it has one him. He has a completely new and different light and joy to
him! Then we taught The word of Wisdom and he committed to follow the
word of wisdom, and not drink alcohol! It was so awesome!
So then the next day he comes to church, and Elder Otahara, an area
seventy is here! I was so pumped, I have talked with him before, in
Toyohira and was so pleased that he was there. He gave an awesome
talk, that really helped yokoishi papa. Then we had gospel principles
class, which Elder Otahara and we talked about the gospel of Jesus
Christ. We did the same activity that I did in Toyohira 9 months ago.
I represented Jesus Christ in helping yokoishi papa be able to make it
back to God despite the sins that he committed in the process of
trying to return to God, in this example every time she blinks Jesus
Christ or me in the situation has to do 10 push-ups. He did a really
good job at not blinking, and only blinked 4 times, during 30 seconds
and so I had to do 40 push-ups. I struggled to get to 40 but knew that
I could do more and so I said, "but you messed up again and Christ
suffered for all of your sins and so I then did 10 more push-ups. Not
as hard as the time I did it last year, but still hard enough for it
to be really emotionally impactful. He understood, and I got up and
told him how much I love him, that I gladly suffered doing 59 push-ups
in a row so that he could understand Christ's atonement a little bit
better. If I was willing to do that from my love, and Christ was
willing to do it all, then how great must his love have been? It was
really spiritual and we connected really deeply.
Then after church we went in a room and I showed him the video that my
wonderful Father had sent me! (I had asked my dad for a video of his
testimony to yokoishi papa) This was a very special video to be able
to share with him. I had told him about it and so he was excited, and
then we sat down and I translated it, and then bore my testimony, and
his testimony seemed to be strengthened greatly! Thank you so much
Dad!! That video really meant a lot to me, and to him!
Then later that day we went with the sisters to The yokoishi family's
house and did a family scripture study with them. We reenacted
scripture study as if we were in my home and I pretended that I was my
dad. It was really funny and ended up being a really great way of
explaining the way that family scripture study would go. Sisters made
a scripture study schedule for them so they will read about a page a
day together as a family. After we did that we confirmed the baptismal
date for August 12 and made baptismal calendars for yokoishi papa and
fuyu chan. We wrote in all of the dates until the baptism and planned
all of the events including their baptismal interview and making the
programs and also planned the baptism to be at 11 AM. So it seems like
they will be able to be baptized and we are very excited for them.
There are many other experiences this week. We had two investigators
pray for the first time which is a very special experience as a
missionary. I have found it through focusing on prayer and on studying
the book of Mormon investigators will gain actual faith and will not
have to be pushed towards baptism but will have a desire to move
towards baptism because of their faith.
We also had interviews with President McClure yesterday which was a
very cool experience. He is an incredible man and truly a man of God.
I know that he was called of God to be our mission president. I feel
an incredible amount of love for him. I am so excited to learn and
become a better person through following him.
Thank you all for your love. I know that this church is true. I know
that God lives. I know that through prayer you can find out for
yourself if this is true; if the book of Mormon is true. In the name
of Jesus Christ amen.
Love,
コノバー長老
Elder Conover
No comments:
Post a Comment