Area: Kitakami
Companion: Kurihara Choro
Hey everybody! How goes it? Sounds like a pretty rainy week back home in Utah. That is so sad about the flooding down in southern Utah. Some of that stuff happened south of me with the typhoon.
Well, this week was pretty good. It had its good parts and some not so good.
We finally got to teach Chiba San on Tuesday. She's the one who works for Nuskin, so she's been to Utah a few times. We taught her some English in a park and then were able to teach a lesson. We taught her about God and prayer. I felt it was a pretty good lesson and she was willing to talk to us and stuff, so I thought it went well. But, when I tried to set up another appointment, she said she wasn't all that religious and kind of brushed me off when I asked if we could meet again, so I was kind of bummed about that. We kind of felt like we were led to her a few weeks ago, so we were kind of sad that it didn't work out. I'll try to call and follow up, but I don't really know what's going to happen with her.
Then we tried to visit a few less actives that we have been working with recently. One of them told me she doesn't think she will ever come back to church. She said she feels members in the church have an attitude that no matter what they do, it's okay type thing. I don't really know. I tried telling her that the church was true, but sometimes the members can make mistakes, and that doesn't mean that we reject the doctrine and separate ourselves from the church,. She didn't really accept that unfortunately. It just bothers me when I see people who have some wrong ideas put in their heads and they leave the church, thinking that it will solve their problems or something like that. It bothers me to watch them make that huge mistake. Hopefully someday, these less actives will realize that the gospel is the way to happiness, not separating yourself from it.
Wednesday, we had interviews with President Smith in Ichinoseki. It was way fun to wait for the interview and talk to Sister Smith and the Mower couple. It's really nice being around English speaking adults. For some reason, I've really missed that so I really enjoyed being there. My interview was pretty uneventful. President told me when he comes up to our "Meet the Mormons" activity in two weeks, he wants to go visit people with me afterwards, so he told me to make some appointments! This will be the second time I've gone out and worked with him so I'm pretty excited. He is such a spiritual giant, so it's way insightful being able to work with President Smith. He mainly wants to visit a recent convert who was baptized a little less than a year ago, but is also less active. I haven't been able to get ahold of her in around a month, so hopefully, I can set an appointment with her!
Friday was pretty awesome. We had district meeting in Kitakami with the Ichinoseki missionaries. We had a good training on effective planning and finding. After that, we were all planning on going out to eat somewhere in Kitakami, but we got out to Elder Mower's car and his battery was dead! So, Elder Hanson and I went up and down the street trying to find someone who could jump his car. We finally found a really nice woman who had what we needed to jump the car. It was kind of an adventure. Then, we went to a delicious Chinese ramen shop and then headed our separate ways.
Wednesday, we had interviews with President Smith in Ichinoseki. It was way fun to wait for the interview and talk to Sister Smith and the Mower couple. It's really nice being around English speaking adults. For some reason, I've really missed that so I really enjoyed being there. My interview was pretty uneventful. President told me when he comes up to our "Meet the Mormons" activity in two weeks, he wants to go visit people with me afterwards, so he told me to make some appointments! This will be the second time I've gone out and worked with him so I'm pretty excited. He is such a spiritual giant, so it's way insightful being able to work with President Smith. He mainly wants to visit a recent convert who was baptized a little less than a year ago, but is also less active. I haven't been able to get ahold of her in around a month, so hopefully, I can set an appointment with her!
Friday was pretty awesome. We had district meeting in Kitakami with the Ichinoseki missionaries. We had a good training on effective planning and finding. After that, we were all planning on going out to eat somewhere in Kitakami, but we got out to Elder Mower's car and his battery was dead! So, Elder Hanson and I went up and down the street trying to find someone who could jump his car. We finally found a really nice woman who had what we needed to jump the car. It was kind of an adventure. Then, we went to a delicious Chinese ramen shop and then headed our separate ways.
We had a split so I went with Elder Hanson's companion, Elder Hawkley, and we stayed in Kitakami. He was actually in the Air Force Academy for a year before coming out here, so he went through flight school and also jump school as a skydiver. We went out to visit an investigator named Gando. We got there and the whole family came out. The husband told me that last week, they all tried to find the church to come to Ekaiwa, but they couldn't find it, so I gave them our address and they said they are all coming next week!! The husband was still asking us why on earth we would leave our lives and come to Japan to teach a Buddhist people. He especially was baffled at why Elder Hawkley would leave the academy to come to Japan. I told him that if he listened to our message, he would understand why, so he said we could teach them after Ekaiwa!! I hope it works out because I've never taught a family before. That would be way exciting if it all works out.
After that, Elder Hawkley and I decided to go streeting by the station to give out some Books of Mormon. The first guy we talked to was way nice. He is a college student and was just fine talking to us. I introduced the Book of Mormon and he said he wanted to read it and that he was pretty interested, so I got his number and email and we will hopefully get to meet with him again! We were pretty stoked about that. The rest of the people rejected us pretty fast, but we were still happy about that one guy so it was all good.
This weekend was a little stressful and unexpected. So basically, for reasons that I'm not aware of, my companion is going home on Tuesday and I'm getting a new companion tonight. His name is Elder Trane. I don't really know a whole lot about him though. He is also a brand new missionary, came three weeks ago, so I will still be a trainer, but that is about all I know. I was pretty surprised with what all went down, but it is what God wants and I have no choice but to roll with it. I already have pretty high expectations though, especially with our potential for nicknames "Diddy and the Trane" or something like that. It should be fun.
Well that's about it. Nothing hilarious or weird happened this week so sorry it's not as interesting as usual. Sorry about that. Things are going good in Japan. I've been kind of stressed and have been a little disappointed in some of the things that have happened lately unfortunately, but if I look around, I can see that God is still blessing us in ways that we don't always realize. I've been reading a lot about what a successful missionary is and I've read that it isn't based on whether they accept you; it's based on if you do your best and just do what God asks us to do. I'm learning a lot about how God works with us and a lot about myself and how I can improve. It's a great experience. It's hard at times, but there are also very rewarding moments as well. Hopefully, Elder Trane and I can get started and try to build up Kitakami.
I hope you all have a great week! I love you guys! You're all in my prayers! Till next week!
Love,
Elder Nathan Didericksen
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| We made some pretty solid taco rice last night! |
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