皆さんこんにちは!! (Lots of pictures this week so keep scrolling!)
This week was absolutely insane! It was full of ups and downs!
We had zone conference in Yamato on Wednesday. We talked about planning, using time wisely, and setting goals. I learned so much from it and I am ready to apply it! My district had the special musical number too! We did a special version of "Nearer My God to Thee". I played piano and they sung; it went great!
Thursday was rough. We met with Suzukiさん at the usual park, which I actually managed to get a picture of this time! After the English portion, we tried to set up next lesson's English topic. Then he told us that this lesson would be the last lesson. He said he has tests every month from now on and he has to get into hardcore mode studying. So he won't be able to meet :( He said if he has time, he'd love to take another gospel lesson though. Although he won't be using his phone anymore at some point so he can focus more. Contacting him will be pretty hard; the only contact we would have is through Takemura姉妹 because she knows his mom well. We did teach him the Word of Wisdom. Despite him drinking coffee, he said he will do his best to live the Word of Wisdom. I have faith that the Lord will take care of him!
On Friday afternoon, we stopped by the Naoi家族's house. They aren't members but they've been having missionaries over for the last 6 years. Anyways, Naoi姉妹 took us to a care center. She played the mandolin and we got to sing some Japanese folk songs for the people there. My companion and I also sung a couple hymns. It was a great service opportunity! We then had a YSA barbecue at night. We had 焼肉(yakiniku); it was so good! We got to know the YSA better; some of them I met for the first time! Towards the end, our investigator Uesugiさん, showed up! He immediately became friends with all of them and had a great time! We were super glad he came because that would be the last time we see him; he left to America the next day. Hopefully he runs into some missionaries there!
After district meeting on Saturday, we went to the Atsugi Naval base for a zone blitz. They were having a summer festival there so the base was open to everyone. Right off the train, we were able to talk to a bunch of people! A lot of them were Americans; it was weird 伝道'ing in English! I split off with Harrison長老 and we began walking to the base. I talked to this guy name Ryan. It turns out he is from Anaheim, California; only 15分 away from me! What a small world! His brother is serving in the Japan Sendai mission but he isn't a member. He said he would check out the church though!
We proceeded to the base, talking to a TON of people. I walked down some streets that reminded me of good ol' Los Angeles. There was a group of African Americans barbecuing some Caribbean chicken and blasting some rap music. It was crazy haha. We walked past them and then we got to the base entrance. We handed out some fliers for a bit then we went in. There was a long line to enter, but luckily for us, there was a separate line for us foreigners :p As soon as I got in, it was like a whole different world! I felt like a walked into a theme park disguised as America haha! We went to Taco Bell for dinner! I got a nice Crunchwrap Supreme...Man I missed it so much!! I even got American coins for change!
After we finished eating, we left the base grounds and continued to 伝道. At this point, there were some suuuuper black clouds in the distance. The lighting and thunder was picking up. Within 20 minutes, we got a call from another companionship. They said the rain had just him them hard and it was coming for us! I still kept trying to hand out fliers and then BAM! The rain came! It felt like little rocks! We got another call, telling us to go to the barbecue people for shelter; that's exactly what we did. It was pouring like crazy so we just ran as fast as we could to them. At this point, all 5 of us were completely soaked. The rain was incredibly heavy; I've never experienced anything like that before. It was getting late and we thought we might not make it home for the night. We didn't let that stop us! We kept talking to them; they were all GOLDEN!! This guy, Larry, just out of the blue asks me "So what's the church like tomorrow?" and I got to tell him! We talked about God and he said he definitely believes there is a God! I was able to tell him all about the Restoration and gave him the pamphlet (I wish I had another English Book of Mormon). He lives in a different area but he said he would go to church the next morning!! The other elders got to talk to the other guys there and they all were interested!! It was a testimony to me that if we open our mouths to everyone, no matter what our situation, God will lead us to those that are ready to receive us!
When the rain lightened up, our good ol' brothers gave us some plastic bags for our 伝道 bags and we booked it to the station. Eventually it stopped raining and we made it home safely! I've never experienced so much in one day; I loved it! I look forward to more crazy experiences like this! I love you all!! また来週ね！
-Elder Chab
チャブ長老
愛しています(^-^)
The park we have our lessons with Suzukiさん at!
Singing at the care home!
Naoi姉妹 and her teacher plus us!