Sept 7, 2009
Last Tuesday night we went, unannounced, to visit Shimizu-san. An elder from last transfer gav e her some scripture references posted on paper and she had these up on her fridge. We shared one of these scriptures. Her 21-year-old friend came to visit while we were there. Her name was Erina. She listened to our message and had interest. So, we made a next appointment at the church to which she came and became an investigator. She has had a tough past and is turning to Christ
for guidance and comfort. When she came to her appointment at the church, we sang one of the songs out of the "Song of the Heart" songbook. It is the one that goes "Whom shall I serve, what inner strength have I to give..." We also sang some hymns out of the hymnbook, which she enjoyed. She likes to sing.
After visiting with Shimizu we dendoed around the eki, or train station. We met a lady from America. I couldn't quite place her ancestry but she had dark skin and long hair. She and her husband had an english school in Japan for 8 years but had closed it down and she was in Kofu looking for work as a teacher. She was real jolly and nice. She said a cuss word while talking to us but then covered her mouth and said sorry. We was from La Mesa, California.
We had a lesson with a potential investigator last week, but she didn't show. We did have some luck while we were housing though. We ran into a man named Wayne. He teaches Wayne's Fun Time English out of an apartment. He plays Santa at Christmas. He served here in 1991 and married a Japanese woman, but she is not a church member. He is now innactive. He has a big personality. He said we could come back, or the elders, at any time. We told him to come to church and that w
e were having a pot luck afterwards for Sister Perkins. He said, "Boy, you sure know how to get a fat boy to come to church" or something like that. He didn't end up coming, but the elders went and visited and they are going to go back and see him later.
Before Eikaiwa we had a lesson with Mei. She will neds to talk to her parents about being baptised. We think she is afraid that they will say no. We taught her the Word of Wisdom at this lesson. She said she drank tea but would stop.
We had a lesson with Takano-san and San
o-san, our new investigators. We taught abou prophets. Takano-san pulled out her planner at the
end and asked when we could meet again. We were really impressed by that.
That same day at Takano's lesson we went to Agren Shimai's. She has had a rough life and during the lesson I remembered the 'Consider the Lillies' song. My companion had her english scripture with her, so I looked it up and shared the scripture with her. We are going to go back and help her take down her flower shop next week. She had to close it down on account of hard times.
Guess what! We were dendoing in the covered walkway shopping area and we ran into Chiaki! She said she was too busy but got our phone message. I am kinda worried about her because we are not able to meet. I was way way surprised we ran into her. I didn't recognize her at first. She was on her way home from work.
We had a lesson with Tsunoda Shimai, a recent convert at the church. She said she didn't ask God for things on Sunday because she thought He needed a rest. I hadn't heard of that before and thought it was really cute. She is out of work right now but bought us two things of cookies and some yogurt stuff. I feel so guilty for that and am really touched by how much the members sacrifice.
We met a cool lady while we were out and about before Erina's appointment (on Friday). It was a rainy day and was turning into a lighthing storm. This lady was bone skiny and out walking with a hat on and towel around her neck for sweat. Turns out she took her kids to primary a long time ago. She had a problem with Tithing so could not keep going to church. We don't know if she was baptized. She had gotten sick and while was in the hospital said she saw someone with their hands out to their side like a T. SHe said she thought it might have been Christ. I think maybe she had a near death experience and saw an angel. Her hair was short under hat, like maybe she had cancer. I told her that Christ sacrificed by his atonement. I was hoping to get a connection between that and how we pay tithing.
We visited on Saturday, Yuko Kihara, a recent convert. She is 24 about. She is about 1 1/2 hours away by train. On the way back out train was delayed 45 minutes and ended up coming in on a different platform. We were bummed about that cause we already swipped our cards and were in the station so we couldn't really go back out and talk to people.
The late train was a blessing though. I sat next to a lady who was maybe 45. She went to a Christian college back in the day, here in Kofu. She lives in Kofu now. She also went to Illinois to school. SHe is now an english teacher. SHe is Japanese. I told her about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity when she asked about our eathing and our life habits. SHe had heard of Mormons before. She said she would refer her students to our EIkaiwa. We exchanged phone numbers. We did all our talking in Japanese. She has 2 kids, one in College and one in high school. I think they were both girls. Anyways, I thought that maybe the train was delayed so I could talk to this woman. We talked for probably 30 minutes, I would guess. I showed her a picture of the temple and said how white stood for purity.
Mei and ShImizu came to church on Sunday. Mei went to YW and Shimizu came to gospel doctrine except they talked about Joseph Smith and we hadn't taught her about that. I think she was kinda weirded out.
My time is up. MY plan is to xerox my journal for this week and mail it home. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE you!
Sister McMahan
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