Iwaki

Every third week is an odd one.

First-

We have hyogikai, or Branch Council.

We aren't like normal wards that do Ward Council every week. Nope, we save it for one day...

It was two and a half hours.

Oop, a random man just walked up to us and started talking to us in English. He wasn't bad. He'd studied well, but he just needed more speaking practice. His grammar was perfect.

Well that's the English teacher in me. I love our English class.

Second-

The normal place that we email from, on every third Monday doesn't allow us to use their computers, so we're in a giant library/mall/business (?) place. Hense the English speak Japanese man.

Pffft...

This week.

Welp, I had splits with the Zone Leaders, which was excellent. Cox Choro pretty much blew my mind about missionary work.

Let me give you some of his insight:

A missionary is called to invite people come unto Christ by helping them apply the Gospel.

His branch mission leader a couple transfers ago said at their first correlation meeting,

"I don't want my missionaries to find, I want them to teach."

Member's image of missionary work is a little skewed. They picture missionaries walking down the road talking to everyone and knocking on doors all day. Nope... Many missionaries do that, but that's not how it's supposed to be. President Gorden B. Hinkley talked about what he called

"The Better Way"

The PMG says that the ideal situation is for members to do the finding and to be present for the teaching.

Members' Strength: They are good at finding.

Missionaries' Strength: They are good at teaching.

PMG "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach."

The hardest part (sometimes the most fun) is building a relationship with the strangers that we meet, to get them to trust us. The hardest part is getting people to trust us.

We're weird Christians who don't have a smart phone, dress is suits (always), weird dorky helmets, and are from a different country....

A PI or Potential Investigator is when you know someone who you could teach, and you have their contact information.

Missionaries often work all day just to find that...

Members have lists of hundreds of them on their phone. And have a relationship with all of them.....

Do you see now why the Gorden B. Hinkley Daikaicho said that we could double the number of baptisms if we solely worked together as missionaries and members?

... Yep. So, now we're working on building the relationships with the members, and strengthening the members spiritually until they are willing to invite their friends to hear what we have to say.

Laugh... I love the members.

In church this week I sat by a sweet little lady named Sister Kowaguchi. (around 70 or 80) She kept falling asleep in sacrament meeting and would kind of curl up and lean against me. The top of her head only reached halfway down my upper arm. She would wake up quick, perk up again, and then in another two or three minutes sink back down. She did that all throughout the meeting.

We taught a lesson to another member named Hanawa Kyodai, (in case you guys haven't caught on, Kyodai is brother, and Shimai is sister. It comes after their name.)

He's a detective.

In priesthood I spaced out for a second (which is not a good thing to do when you're trying to understand Japanese, for they say the subject once, and then never mention it again.) and then I was in the middle of a story of which Hanawa Kyodai was explaining how there was blood and guts everywhere and that there was intestines stretched for thirty feet or more on the ground.

He's kind of bent over, and his hair looks like Hitlers. He's got beady eyes, and a kind of hooked nose... He looks just like you would picture a detective to look like. I love him so much.

He gave us a bunch of food, and explained to us all the similarities between Judaism and Shinto(ism?)

Man... Members are good!!

I love stop light conversations

with a 40 year old woman

me: "Hey!"

"hi..."

"how are you doing?"

"I'm doing so GOOD!" without a smile or change in her expression.

I laughed.

"Why are you doing so good?"

"Oh, your Christ people huh?"

"Yep."

She laughs "Good luck, ne" (ne is impossible to translate. It's like huh... or eh, but not really. Everybody uses it.)

I suppose it's not that funny of a story, because I thought it was funny how American of a personality she had... But... you guys are already American so...

THAT'S ALL!!!!!!!!

Life as a missionary

How is your District?

It's pretty good. Everyone is willing to help.

How is the area?

It's pretty big...

How big is your area?

Big... In a car going Japanese car speeds... It'd take three and a half hours to go from the north end to the south. And it's about a circle, so the same from the east to the west.

We have an ocean, but it's like a couple hours bike ride away.... Not like Ishinomaki, where it's 5 minutes away.

Radiation detector