Atypical week with Halloween Party etc. (Week 40)

Shizuoka, a beautiful place

This week......was pretty atypical in several ways, mostly for the good (:  We had a successful Halloween party, visited a crazy PI (potential investigator), met with the Stake President, had two cool led-by-the-Spirit experiences, and had about half of our appointments cancel!  haha

Ok, here's more about my week in depth.

Daidogei大道芸Festival

On Tuesday, we had the whole day open until 8:00 pm, so we decided to bike out an hour to Shimizu and visit two of our investigators.  As we walked out the door and started to bike towards our investigator, though, I kept on feeling like something wasn't right.  I tried to think about our area map on the wall and tried to figure out who else to visit, but the only idea I could come up with was that we should visit Watanabe shimai, one of our recent converts.  She's getting ready to move to a retirement home with her daughter, though, and I knew that their apartment is really small and it would stress her out if we came, so I decided to call her to make sure there wasn't anything we could help her with.  I called her (on the side of the road--I'm sure Sister Urling was wondering why I had suddenly stopped in the middle of the road) but she told me there wasn't anything much to do because so many people had been helping her.  I was super confused as to what I should do, but I noticed that the feeling I had had early was gone, so I decided that we should just keep going to the investigator's house.

About 45 minutes later we arrived at Shibata-san's house (our investigator).  We had tried emailing her before she left, to see if she would be home, but hadn't emailed us back, and lo and behold, she wasn't home.  A little discouraged, I opened the GPS to figure out the way to a less active's place that lives nearby, when to our surprise, Shibata-san pulls up in her car, just returning from lunch with her family!  She invited us in and we had a really good lesson about prayer and scripture study and religion, and she told us so many questions that we didn't know that she had!

By the time I had arrived at Shibata-san's place, I had totally forgotten about the phone call, but as I was saying my prayers that evening, it suddenly hit me that we would not have been able to see Shibata-san if I hadn't called Watanabe shimai!!

It was such a cool miracle for me, because this experience has helped me understand a little better how the Spirit works.  Shibata-san also only likes to schedule an appointment with the missionaries once a month, so it was so great that we were able to meet with her!

On Wednesday, Tsukika-chan (investigator) caught a cold and had to cancel--it was such a big disappointment because we had scheduled the couple missionaries to come help us teach her lesson that evening ):  But I hope it just means that Tsukika-chan wasn't ready to meet them, or we just had the wrong lesson planned for her.....

That same day, though, we had a Halloween Party Preparation-Party with two of the YSA and two of the youth, and that went really well (:  We had fun, and effectively decorated for the Halloween party and prepared the maze!  I was so glad that we could have a good excuse to get together with the YSA and youth!

Thursday was when we contacted the crazy PI, Harumi!  haha

The Elders had found her on Monday through housing, and thought that she was pretty cool and interested in the gospel, so I was pretty excited, albeit nervous to contact her.  Well, it turned out that she may have thought that we could talk to deceased spirits? and give her counsel about other religions? and give her advice about her divorce that she's going through?

She seemed very flustered and not in the right mind, and she wasn't talking straight at all, but her story was actually really scary and I didn't know what to do at all.  She started telling us about her two daughters that were basically bullied to death within a certain Japanese religion, how that effected her, and how her husband was cheating on her and how that had something to do with the murder of her two daughters.  It made me so stressed out and sad just listening to her! ):

In the end, though, Harumi just talked at us and tried to send us away with a box of tissues, sponges, raisins, and tea...... As she tried to terminate the conversation, though, I took that as my opportunity to invite her to listen to our message, because even if we don't know how to respond to her problems, I knew that Christ did and that this gospel could give her so much happiness.  I don't think I've ever invited anyone that boldly to listen to the gospel, nor have I born my testimony that directly to someone who isn't even an investigator.  I felt like everything was the right thing to say, though.

Sadly, Harumi did not accept our invitation and she didn't become an investigator, but I really felt like I had fulfilled my purpose as a missionary with Harumi, as I invited her to listen.

We succeed when we invite!

On Friday we had Zone Meeting all morning and then we just prepared for the Halloween party for the rest of the day.  That included--finishing the maze (setting up chairs and putting cardboard walls on them), preparing the food (frosting a cake, cutting some cake that we bought, making mugicha, frying the potatoes, etc.), preparing the balloon game and touching game, figuring out the music, etc.  It was really stressful, but somehow we got it all done in time, and a lot of people came to the Halloween party and had a fun time!  Our maze was so good, too, and everyone that went through loved it!!  The only sad thing was that it wasn't as good when I went through it because I already knew where all of the dead ends and trick entrances were, haha.

Kiki's Delivery Service.  I'm Kiki and Urling Shimai is Jiji.  Haha...

At the end of the Halloween party, one of the members introduced the missionaries and our real purpose (not Eikaiwa, haha), and invited all of the non-members to come to the Christmas party and to church (:  A lot of people brought their friends, including all of the young women and one of our investigators, Reika-chan, brought 3 friends!!

And, you know you put on a good party when people talk about it in testimony meeting.....because they did (;  Yay for party missionary work!

Taking down the maze.  It was so much fun!

Saturday evening, I had the same kind of experience as Tuesday, except this time, I was prompted to stop by a convenience store on our way to Watanabe shimai's place.  Nothing happened at the store, but it turns out that Watanabe shimai wouldn't have been home if we hadn't stopped, because she came home just as we were about to leave!  It was also the best timing to go visit her, because her daughter wasn't home, and it seems like having her daughter with her is causing her a lot of stress....):

On Sunday we met with the Stake President (he's in our ward) and it was just awesome.  The strong members in Japan......are just so strong and amazing.  I can't even describe it.  Him and his wife are just so good.

I could write more, but that is all since I'm basically out of time.  I'll try to add some more when I send the pictures (:

Love you all!!  I'll be back next week (;

Sister Michelle Papenfuss