Week 3 in Gifu!

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is doing better than I am!  I caught a cold and am blowing my nose off....yayyy.  But more on that later (:

Gifu warmed up a whole lot this week, and we walked around without a coat for most of the week.  I love spring weather (:  We went streeting on an exceptionally beautiful day, and although no one wanted to talk with us.....well, at least the weather was nice, haha.  And it gives us a reason to talk with people when we're stopped at traffic lights!

Well, last week the fridge repairman came to our delight, but to our great disappointment, he informed us that he couldn't fix the fridge.  Something about a gas leak in the fridge?  Well, the honbu bought us a new fridge, but we're not sure when it's coming and when they are taking away the old fridge.

Needless to say, food has been a pain, but hey, Japanese convenience store food is the best, so I guess I can't complain.  (If this were happening in America....this would be a different story :P)

I finally got to meet all of our investigators this week!  (They don't like scheduling too often.)  Their names are M and Y-

chan.  They are both doing the 30-30 program (30 minutes of English, 30 minutes of gospel discussion), which may be a good way to get investigators, but is certainly not my favorite teaching environment.  In both cases, I felt like the investigator was more interested in the English, and it's an awkward transition between English and gospel.  It's also kind of hard to prepare an English lesson....I wish I knew more English grammar!  haha.  I might be able to teach German more easily than English :P

I shouldn't complain, though, because both M-chan and Y-chan are really engaged in our gospel discussion!  M-chan is our only progressing investigator, and when we asked her about the reading assignments that we left with her, it really seemed like she was trying understand and put a lot of thought into the passage.  I think what M-chan needs right now, is to feel the Holy Ghost, and feel that the gospel relates to her life.  I got the impression that she didn't really know why the gospel is important, so I want to figure out how we can teach to her needs next time.

Y-chan is 10, is super energetic, and loves to learn!  She writes down everything we tell her in the English portion, and asks good questions during the gospel portion.  And she actually tells us when she doesn't understand, which is fantastic, haha.  I think most Japanese people might feel too awkward to tell us if they didn't understand, so I love Y-chan's feedback.  Last lesson, though, when I asked her a question,　she took off in a completely unexpected direction,  and talked for almost 20 minutes, so we didn't really get to talk about the gospel....haha, nothing ever goes as planned around here!

We have an appointment with the family tomorrow, and we really want the mom to listen this time (she is a FI (former investigator) of 15 or so years ago), so please pray that she won't be busy and will come and sit down!  We also left her with a ''Strength of Youth'' pamphlet, so I really hope that she will read it....

This week we also got three new investigators!  Yay!  It wasn't from streeting or housing, though.

A ward member called us and asked if we could help C, a Filipino FI, with translating her mother's visa renewal application.  So, we went there on Wednesday and I translated everything as best I could, and then we asked C if she would be interested in learning about the gospel and having the missionaries over again.  She said that she did, and she wanted her husband to listen too!

We went over again the next day and had a great lesson about prayer.  It turns out that C already prays everyday (and reads the Book of Mormon every once in a while), so the lesson was more focused on teaching her husband about prayer, why we do it, and the blessings.  We went over Enos 1:1-12, breaking down verse by verse, read 3 Nephi 18:21 (I think?), and committed them to pray as a family every day, and to read Alma 34:17-27.  We have a return appointment on Wednesday, so please pray for them to keep their commitments!

C's husband (M) has a lot of barriers, like gambling (I HATE pachinko!!), drinking, smoking, his job, but the greatest barrier is that he doesn't really believe in God.  I hope that, as we continue to visit him, he will feel the Holy Ghost and will pray to have faith in God....

The biggest blessing of this visit, though, was being able to meet Cs younger brother!  And we didn't even know that he existed!  haha.  He walked into the room, halfway through the lesson, sat down at a distance, and then came closer as the discussion proceeded.  He read the verses in Enos with us, and he really loved the message!  As he shared his comments with us, we realized that he has such great faith in and love for God already, and I think he had been thirsting for religious discussion since coming to Japan.  He kept on asking us when we would come back next (:

He has been to an LDS church in the Philippines, and I really really really want him to read the Book of Mormon and come to church.  The only problem I can see so far is his job, because he has to work on Sundays.  Please pray for him!  (His name is something like M******?  We're not really sure how to spell it, haha)

Ahhh, I'm running out of time!

Well, about getting sick....We went to an orphanage place on Saturday and taught English to the kids there, and ever since we got back, we haven't been the same.  I have an annoyingly runny nose, and Sister Vincent has been feeling nauseous all the time.  Both of us felt so tired and sick, and we stayed inside the rest of Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  Blah.  Being sick is so annoying.

Man, there were some more things that I wanted to write about, but I ran out of time.

I love you, and I hope you are doing well!!

Sister Papenfuss