Well, this week, I had the best stats that I've had so far on my mission, with a whopping number of 5 new investigators! (: Ok, ok, don't laugh. We're getting closer to the mission goal of one new investigator per day!
Needless to say, we've taught and planned a lot of first lessons.....and can I just say, I really dislike first lessons. I feel like everything depends on that first lesson--it affects whether they want us over again, their view of the Church and Christianity, their feelings towards missionaries in the future....
Blahhh, I hate the pressure. I just wish we could skip to our second meeting with them, haha.
We have another first lesson tonight, so wish us luck!
We haven't been able to meet with Markgil or Shoya-kun in forever, which is super depressing.... I just want them to progress!
We met with Cathy twice this week, though, which was great. We've just been going through the Restoration pamphlet really slowly, discussing all of the points and asking her questions. It's hard with the language barrier (I wish I could speak Tagalog! There are so many people from the Philippines here!), but I feel like she is really growing since Sister Vincent and I met her in February. She's visibly less stressed and more optimistic, and even the kids have started asking us about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ (: They're great!
One of our new investigators this week is named Murakami-san--don't look at the name, though, because he's Bolivian!
Oh man, these foreigners who actually have a Christian background are so easy to teach! Possibly because they live in Japan, I just feel like so many non-Japanese people that I've met are starving to talk about religion. Just like Markgil when we first met him, Murakami-san seemed so excited to talk about God together, and to have us over every week (he actually invited us to come over often!)
This week, we will be visiting him with a Peruvian member, so hopefully they can have fun speaking Spanish together, haha (:
On Saturday, I had my first FHE at the Tsutsumi family's home!
They were great, and I got to play the piano, so that was even better (; During the lesson, though, I just thought about when the missionaries came over to our home to do a lesson, and how awkward/weird that can be--I mean, two people you don't really know just walk into your house to teach a lesson? What? Haha, it actually wasn't awkward at all (or at least, I don't think), but it was just a weird moment, almost being able to see myself from the family's perspective.
Yesterday, we had a lesson about Easter with Kawai-san (really talkative grandma, if you remember) and the Yaguchi family (Kawai-san's daughter's family)!! It was really great, and we kind of informally invited Kawai-san to baptism, haha. She was all for it, and laughed and said, "Oh great, I just have to get into the water then?" Hahaha, I love her.
This whole conversation was all just really funny, because she's super Buddhist, but I had a thought that we should just keep on inviting her to be baptized, and maybe she will take it seriously someday. You never know....
After the lesson with Kawai-san, we had a really good discussion about Easter and 2 Nephi 25:28? (the reference may be wrong....) with the Yaguchi family, and we were able to bear our testimonies of the Savior and the Atonement. Sooooo many people in Japan don't even know about Christ, and I just want to tell them all!!
Jesus Christ is not just relevant to Americans and Europeans. He is important to everyone-- Whether they know it or not, whether they want to know or not.
If Christ himself was rejected, as Elder Holland said in his talk, then as a missionary, I need to work that much harder to bear testimony of Him. I was super grateful for the chance to do that with the Yaguchi family! (They just need to get baptized....!!)
I think that's it for the week. Thank you to everyone! I love you!
Sister Papenfuss
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