We haven't heard from Emily in a while. This latest assignment in Saitama has kept her very, very busy. Unfortunately, not hearing from Em means we're totally out of pictures for the blog. So sorry! Hopefully we'll hear from her soon!
25 Jan 2010
Again, I did not write in my journal this week. We didn't even get home until 9:50 last night and we are supposed to be in by 9 (or 9:30 if we have a lesson).
Well, last Tuesday we went to the Koshigaya church and met with Hagiwara Miki, a 20 or so year old who has done homestay in Australia. She is a recent convert. We were going to meet, as a last minute appointment, another sister afterwards. She was either excommunicated or had her name withdrawn from the church records though. Long story short, we forgot we locked the doors and my companion even saw her waiting as she went to use the restroom but thought she was busy texting on her phone. This lady called the mission office and was upset. In the evening we had dinner with the ward mission leader of the Fujimi-Kawagoe ward. His name is Brother Mizuno. We did a mogi lesson. He took it very seriously and gave me some advice about teaching about the Holy Ghost.
Wednesday we took Pday and in the evening had eikaiwa. No one came. Well, 6 people came but they were al church members, there mainly to support.
Thursday a woman said she thought I was from Russia. Never gotten that. They usually say I look European. We had a mogi (mock) lesson with Sister Domon. She is a return missionary, but now married with a young child and baby who is about to walk. He wanted to eat my Book of Mormon. In the evening we went over to a member's house, an older couple with their youngest son being 19. Koto-chan came with us. She is the 14 year old investigator who can'T get baptized because her mom is not ok with it yet. We taught about following the law of the land. My companion got some ideas out of the primary manual. She wrote "follow the law" or something one letter at the time on papers and numbered them. She put them with the numbers up on the table an said we were going to play a game. Then she was silent and tryign not to laugh. The point was that you needed to know the rules to learn the game, if that makes sense. Walking back to the station with oto chan aftewards the light was flashing green and about to turn red, signaling we should be about to teh other side. My companion started to run to get across the street but then I and then she realized we had just taught about obeying the law and here we were trying to run to make the light and cross the street.
Friday we had a mini zone conference at Urawa church. Then we had weekly planning while eating a burger at a nearby place and continued as we walked back to the church and planned there. It was weird t plan without the area book. Then we had Outreach. It is on Fridays and for single adults. We play games and have a spiritual message. We had called Mizuki-chan (the other 13 or 14 year old who is investigating but will be baptized) a few days earlier and told her her parents needed to sign a sort of release\okay for for he to be baptized. She said she would get back to us via a text message about if she would do it on Friday or sat or sun. Well, she took it that she could come for the baptism interview on Friday and have her parents sign it on Sunday. Well, it isn't usually quite done in that order, but we got the okay because... she texted us and said she would be there at the church at 6! We were stressing out a bit. The district leader would be coming though and could interview her. We reviewed the baptismal questiosn with her beforehand. Weh adn't taught her about the law of chastity so we explained that quickly. Well, she had the interview. I will tell about her parents, who I met on SUnday at church!
And, side note. My companion , when in america, said "I am going to go get a mail" to a friend when she meant to say "I am going to go get the mail" Funny, huh...
Anywho..Saturday we met with another young woman, Arisa chan. She is about 14 too and got baptised recently. We were going to go to the temple with her on friday but found out the temple was closed. So, we are gonna have to wrk that out. In the veign we met with Eba shimai and her daughter Mizuki-chan, an 8 year old, who is going to be baptised. I think I explained about then already I think.
Sunday was a big day. We did a split again. I went to Urawa ward and my companion went to another. My companion was a mom who had served a mission many years ago. Lemme tell ya, doing splits takes a lot out of you. We got there and looked around for the mission correlation meeting but couldn't find it and found a room with people but instead of DCS this particular day it was a special meeting to wich the missionaries came but we hadn'T known about it. Then was sacrament meeting. Elder Call's parents were there. They were actually there at teh end of Outreach too. He had gone to pick them up at the airport that day. Elder call is not at teh end of his msision but got specaial permission for his parents to come. I guess his brother or cousin is a pilot and coudl fly them over. Elder Call is a sound engineer or something, so they brought over his equipment. Sister Campos, a singer, is making a cd with (possibly) some other people and they are going to make hundreds of copies for members to give to their friends. Seems like a lot of work to me and I wish mosre missionaries could be involved, but I guess on the whole it will be a good way for members to be able to share what they belive about Christ with other people.
Anyways, back to sunday. We had sacrament meeting at towards the end a brother came to me and said a woman was waiting who had neverbeen to church. My comp for the day and I went to see her. We invited her in for the last 30 minutes but she did not feel comfortable and said she would go out and walk around and then come back in 30 minutes to go to sunday school. I switched phone numbers with her before she left. Apparently she had called the church last sunday and had gotten the bishop on the phone but had not actually come to the church.
We went to sunday school together. It was about agency and making choices here on Earth. The teacher asked us if we had a good choice we made and the blessings from it. When it got to the woman she said she was afraid she had done nothing good.
Next was Relief society but my companion said the thaught the woman had something she wanted to say to us. So, we went into the kitchen, an unused room at the time. I thought we would speak for 15 minutes and then go to the other meeting but it turned into 45 minutes. She spoke to us about her past. Then bishop came in towards the end. He is amazing man. He said that she was free to talk to him any time. My companion also exchanged numbers with the woman. We let her know how the missionaries were here to tell her about what church members belived but she can and should go to the bishop with heavier matters. The woman was 31 years old and loked like she could be a model, but she was very sad an troubled.
After church we had 3 things to do. Mogi lesson with Shiraishi Shimai, a return missionary and "retired" MTC teacher. I think she is about 30 years old. Then we had a lesson with Koto-chan and Mibuki-chan. Well, we did the mogi lesson and the sister brought us lunch. I also did a lesson with Koto-chan, but skipped the one with Mibuki-chan the reason being that her dad came to much of church (he is not a member but comes sometimes and is really good friends with the elders) and BOTH of her parents were at the church at 2:30 to sign the baptism papers. I handed that stuff over to the elders and they took the parents in another room while I taught Koto-chan. Thing is, these two girls are both learning about the church and you know how middle school is, how kids really pay attention to each other and there is unspoken competition? I was taking that into consideration when I interacted with both these girls on the same day. You know, cause one is getting baptized before the other.
Oh yeadh, there wasa young womens activity after church so both the girls went to that while I did the mogi and eating with Shiraishi-shimai.
I was really tired Sunday and Monday.
MOnday we met up with an 86 year old sister. She wanted us to meet her non church-going 78 or so year old friend. This sister, Nakaishi Shimai, was incredible. She was 86 but could pass for 50. So bright and she was really funny--- she took short cuts across the road and stuff. She even walked up the stairs in the house. I dunno, really funny and good lady.
We also met with Koto-chan yesterday and had a lesson with her mom. The mom learned about persona progress and I think was happy about that.
I am gonna finish up with an event that happened on SUnday. We were taking the train home and pulled into a station and people were lined up with cameras outside taking pictures of the train. We thought someone famous was on the train or something. When we had initially gotten otn the train to we had noticedvarious drunk buisiness men, like a party r something maybe.
Then we noticed a 20 or 30 year old man crying as we pulled in the station. Well, we got off the train d asked what all the stuff was about. The train had been working for 17 years and this was its last run. SO, it was a bunch of people who really, really liked trains.
I gotta go now. Thanks for all you do!
Sister McMahan
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