Tuesday, January 17, 2017

SPREADING THAT DENDŌ FIRE

皆さんこんにちは!
Its been an amazing first week in Kawasaki! We went to the temple today with the Machida Zone so there was a lot of missionaries there! I didn't use the translation while I was there; I actually understood about 60%! For being on my 2nd transfer, that's not bad! I hope my Japanese continues to improve! I also got to see a lot of missionaries that were in the same zone with me in the MTC!

We had zone meeting last week and I got to meet everyone. 3 of my 同期 (douki-means they came to Japan the same time as I did) are in the Yokohama zone with me! Davis長老, Jones 長老, and Miyagawa(宮川)姉妹。Its like a reunion! After the meeting, we did some amazing housing! We talked to a bunch of people! Even though the majority of them declined to hear a message, I haven't talked to that many people in so long! New Year made dendō kind of slow; I'm glad it's starting to pick up again.

On Friday, we had a lesson with one of our progressing investigators, Okamoto-san. Ricard 兄弟, a recent convert, came to 同席(douseki-Used to describe a lesson with a member present). Ricard兄弟 was baptized in August; he has such a strong testimony and loves the missionaries! Okamoto-san has been taught all the lessons. However, she doesn't come to church consistently and doesn't have many church friends yet so the bishop advised us to wait. Other than that, she is great! She loves reading the モルモン書 and has a strong desire to learn more!

Another miracle! We tried to visit a less active member, Katsuya; he is the only member in his family. When we got to the apartment complex, a bunch of kids ranging from 4-14 years old were outside playing. They approached us and began asking us a bunch of questions. They were pretty excited to see two 外人(gaijin-foreigner); we thought it was pretty funny. They asked us if we had time to play soccer with them for a bit...so we did! One of the kids was super good! It was a blast!

After about 10-15 minutes, we said bye and proceeded to visit Katsuya. He wasn't home when we knocked. But his parents answered! They told him to try coming back on Sunday. His mom, Carlotta, said it would be okay if we shared a message with them when we came back and he wasn't there. Sunday came and we went back; he wasn't there but Carlotta kept her promise. They let us in and we got to know them better. Then we shared a short video about Jesus Christ and taught a few principles from the Restoration. It was a great lesson!

So that was pretty much my week. There were many more miracles but I never have enough time to describe them to you :( Oh and on Sunday, Davis 長老 and I gave a talk, in JAPANESE!! It was scary! I talked about Christ, how the gospel has changed my life, and testified. It wasn't the greatest talk and I don't know how much they understood but that doesn't matter. The spirit was still there :) And by the way, the Kawasaki church building is huge! It has 4 floors! Although the first is mainly for parking lol Anyway, thank you again for the support! Just a reminder to always include Christ and the gospel in your life! I know it will bless you! Have a great week!

-Elder Chab
チャブ長老 or 茶武長老
愛しています^_^



Yokohama North zone!