December 28th, 2015

December 28^th, 2015

This week has been crazy, but not as crazy as last week. (THANK GOODNESS)

I GOT MY FIRST BAPTISM DATE! Ahh, I was so excited! Her name is Mariko

Nagumo, and she is amazing. Her date that SHE picked is January 15th!

It is crazy soon, eh?! We first met her at our ward Christmas party

where she told us that she wanted to learn more about God and that she

felt like He had led her to us. How crazy is that? Crazy thing is, she

used to be Islamic! Or Islam. I don't really know which is which. The

religious one, not the race... Hahaha, whatever. But yeah, we were

stoked! On Tuesday, we had our first lesson with her and I got the

opportunity to invite her to be baptized. It was hecka scary. I had

been rehearsing my line for the entire lesson, and then I asked her

and she immediately said yes. I was shocked! I thought she would think

about it for a second or something, but she responded super quickly. I

was so happy! But, it is not over for her. We still have to teach her

all of the lessons, as well as prepare her enough to pass the

baptismal interview questions! Also, here in Japan, it is a rule that

the investigators have to go to three sacrament meetings in a row

before they can be baptized. It was sketchy because this Sunday,

Nagumo San walked in a couple of minutes late! We thought for sure she

wasn't going to make it, and we would have to push back her baptismal

date. But luckily enough, she slid in. I am so proud and excited for

her.

On Wednesday, we met with Okada (岡田) kyōdai again. I love him. He is a

recent convert, and an absolute stud. We are still reading the Book of

Mormon with him almost every single day. It has been the biggest

blessing for me because one of the hardest things for me has been

reading the Book of Mormon in Japanese. When we first met with 岡田, I

had just gotten to Japan, and had never previously read the Book of

Mormon in Japanese! It was SO hard! I hated every second of it. I

never wanted to be in that situation again. So, I have been reading

from the Book of Mormon every single day since then, and I am doing so

well now! It has become one of my favorite things to do! I am still

not the best, but I am light years ahead of where I was two weeks ago.

It has been a great witness to me that God will help us with whatever

is expedient unto Him. A scripture that I found this week has been my

motto for the past couple of days. It is Luke 1:37. It says,

For with God, nothing shall be impossible.

How cool is that? You can do anything with the help of God. After

that, we went to an eternal investigator's house for dinner. It was

way good and super fancy! Her name is Hanyuu, and she is so nice! She

loves the missionaries, but has been an investigator for over 15

years! We talked about religion after, and she had some unique views.

We shared our testimonies, and then left. It was about all we could

do.

Thursday was a very odd day! I GOT TO BE SANTA AGAIN! Apparently I am

pretty good at it! Hahaha, but we were volunteered by a lady in our

ward to go to a preschool and dress up as Santa and a reindeer. It was

hilarious. I was Santa, and they had a prime costume for me, but for

Baldwin, he got to wear a brown trash bag, a fake red nose, and some

antlers! I was dying. He is also 6'4 so all of the kids were freaking

out! We went and sat in front of all of them, and they asked us

questions. We had answers that we had to give, but it was still fun.

They told me to talk in English because I would seem more authentic...

So that was fun! Hahaha, oh and the funniest thing happened.

Apparently here in Japan there is a comedian that all of the kids

love. His catchphrase is, "WHY, JAPANESE PEOPLE?!" And he yells it out

at the top of his lungs. My trainer had told me this earlier in the

week, so I knew what it was. We were meeting with all the kids and

taking pictures and one of the 5 year olds yelled it out! I laughed

and yelled it back at the top of my lungs. All of the little kids

instantly stopped and were dead quiet as they're little minds were

processing whether or not Santa Claus had actually yelled it out.

Then, like a tidal wave, they all swarmed me yelling, "WHY, JAPANESE

PEOPLE?!" Hahahahahaha I died laughing! My trainer was just shaking

his head as I was getting mauled by a million Japanese children... It

was great. :) the rest of the day was kind of a bust as we didn't have

a lot of luck with OYM in Nagano city. We got a potential named

Kobayashi, and she might be coming to eikaiwa, and if she does, we

will take her on as an investigator.

Christmas in Japan is not Christmas. Hahaha, it is just another day

for us. But it is a lot harder. People do not want to talk to you at

all when you are out on the streets because everyone is hurrying. So,

we went and bought some things that we needed, and then headed back to

the apartment. I had been expecting a Christmas package from my family

for a while, and it hadn't come yet so I was super bummed. When we got

back, I checked our mail slot and saw that the mailman had my package

and had tried to deliver it to us, but no one was home! We had missed

him by like ten minutes! I was devastated. He never came back. Hahaha,

I had to go and pick it up the next day. The day AFTER Christmas. Am I

still bitter about it? No, why would you ask?! ;) haha after we met

with the Masuda (増田) family. Well, just the father and his 12 year old

son. It was a great lesson, and I basically just got to know them. I

feel like I really connected with them. Japanese people are flipping

hilarious. I love them so much. We all really connected, and then we

shared a simple Christmas message. I actually shared Luke 1:37 with

them, and they seemed to really enjoy that message of hope. When we

were leaving, I asked the son if he would say the prayer and in it he

thanked God that I was such a good person. How adorable is that?! My

heart melted, and I just wanted to take him with me wherever I went.

Hahaha but only through love can this gospel be taught. A commandment

that I never fully understood until I came on my mission was to Love

Thy Neighbor. We need to love everyone, even if it is hard. There are

people that get on my nerves sometimes here, and I have had to learn

that I need to love them like God loves them. Haha, I am pretty sure

that there is a quote that says,

The best way to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend.

If not, then I copyright that. ;) hahaha, but it is so true. Love

everyone. Especially at this time of the year. That is what God wants.

Saturday I got to Skype home and talk to my family! It was so great!

It was fun to see how everyone was doing. I wish I could Skype every

single one of you! The rest of the day we went out and OYM'd! We

didn't have a ton of luck, but we are working on our persistence. I

have realized that I have to talk to everyone! Everyone I possibly

can. And when I do that, I am doing my part in the finding process.

The finding process is like a triangle. There are three separate

parts. Mine, as a missionary, God's, and then the person. I am denying

someone the opportunity to complete the triangle when I don't speak

out and just pass them on the street. It is a weird way to look at it,

yeah. But for me, it is what drives me every day.

Sunday was crazy fun! I got to say the prayer in sacrament meeting,

and that was fun. Haha, I sit behind this one family during sacrament

meeting, and I have made friends with one of the daughters. Her name

is Kaori! I was sitting behind her and she was turned around looking

at me (this was my first Sunday) and I gave her a weird face and she

laughed. Then, I ripped out a little piece of paper and wrote

konnichiwa (こんいちわ) on it and gave it to her. She giggled, and wrote

the same thing back. I laughed so hard. It was adorable. So this week

I wrote her another note and we passed notes back and forth for a

little while. Hahaha, she is 6 and her hobby is singing and/or

songs... I don't know if I translated that correctly... We also got to

go sit in on primary on Sunday! It was insane! Japanese kids have so

much energy! I was sitting in a big pile of kids, and the little girl

sitting next to me started poking my hand and saying how big it was.

She was probably 2 or 3. We compared had sizes, and then she latched

onto my hand. It was pretty adorable. We had a very fun time! After

church, we decided to go out on an adventure and find a less active

man named Ida (井田) who lived crazy far away! So we set off. We rode

way far away, then got really confused because the map told us that we

had to climb up a mountain on our bikes. I did t enjoy it, but we did

it. We climbed all the way to the top, and then went down the other

side! We eventually found his house, and boldly marched up to the

door. We rang the doorbell, and waited. A few seconds later a woman

looked through the door, saw us, opened the door then yelled at us to

go away because they were eating dinner. She then proceeded to slam

the door in our faces. I was heartbroken. We thought that 井田 was going

to be a prime person ready to come back to church but we got rejected.

It was rough. So we decided that we would ride around and then try

again later. As we were riding, we met a woman named Rina! She is 27

and from Tokyo! I saw her while we were riding and she had a snowboard

so I stopped and started talking to her. She was way cool and way nice

to us! She actually told us that her and her boyfriend had gotten into

a fight earlier that day and the sky cried for her (rained) and it was

super beautiful! We became friends, and then I shared who we were and

why we were there. I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ and how our

lives can become easier and more simple through the gospel. She didn't

seem super interested, but I tried anyway. Hopefully it helped her in

some way. After we said goodbye to Rina, we headed back to 井田's house

only to find that they had shut and locked their gate. So, we rode

home. And we had to ride up the same huge mountain! Ugh. I REALLY

hated it. Hahaha I am very out of shape I realized.

So yeah, that was my week! Sorry this is so long, but I had a lot to

say! I love it here, and I love all of you guys! Stay amazing!

I'll attach pictures in a second...

Love,

Luke/パシー長老