Monday, June 17, 2013

5/7/2013 Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrpppppppp! Ramune and Melon flavored slurpees anyone!?


Things have been going well this week! I feel like I've been able to do some very effective work this last week, although I've only actually been in Fussa for two full days all week. >.< Gotta' love splits!

From Tuesday to Wednesday I went with Elder M. (my companion from Transfer 4) and working in Kunitachi area. It was great to get to work with him again, and to understand his Japanese now. :) We did several things, but what I felt like I learned the most with him was an effective way to invite many people to Church through English Class. It felt extremely natural for him to tell someone "konichiwa", then for me to tell the same person "hello", followed by a simple English question (do you speak English?/ How are you?) and then introduce them to our Eikaiwa classes. We'd mention that the class is held in a church building, or that we were missionaries for a near by church, and that we were looking for opportunities to serve the community so we decided to hold a free English class for people. This also made it really easy for us to ask if they'd been to church before, and then invite them to come, just one time, and see what it was like. We found several people interested in English class, and a few that might even be interested in coming to church sometime. I really felt like it was an effective split.

Friday to Saturday I went on splits with the District Leader's companion, Elder N. in Fuchu. We had a full white day so we spent most of the day walking. Luckily for us it was the first day of the official Golden Week holiday, and there was a big matsuri being held in between their main to train stations. Lots of happy people, that were very willing to talk with us. We tried out the same approach that Elder M. and I did on splits, just modified a little bit since we were both Americans. :P It definitely worked differently, but we had a lot of success. We spent a good chunk of the day walking around a very populated park and just chatting with people. While we were there we found an interesting couple that were interested in coming to church because they "love gospel!". After talking with them for a minute it seemed like they were talking about music more than anything else, but we taught them briefly what we believed the gospel to be, and invited them to come to church to learn more about Christ's gospel. They said they'd plan on coming next week to church in Fuchu. I also found another investigator while handing out flyers at a station, she at first was really interested in the English class, so she started asking questions about it. Of course I followed the above pattern and also invited her to come to church on Sunday to see what it was like. She was interested in coming to see what it was like and committed to coming. I'm uncertain if she came or not (I still need to follow up with Fuchu on everyone...) but I was excited to find 3 new investigators for someone. :D They were all very nice people, that I felt had some good potential.

Saturday afternoon I went on splits with Elder M. again and went back to Tama for a baptismal service. It was SO good to see everyone there again! I was kind of sad that some of the youth didn't come but that's OK, I had a blast anyways! He was, again, still a little nervous about being baptized, and thusly had been with the Tama Elders all day long. It looked like he'd be OK to receive baptism, but as the time drew closer he became more and more nervous. Elder M. and I had a really good lesson with him, in which we promised lots of blessings, taught him from the scriptures, and bore solid testimony. I think that was one of the best lesson's I've been a part of. He ended up deciding last minute that it wasn't time for him to receive baptism, and that he should wait a little bit longer. Everyone was kind of a little sad, but in the grand scheme of things this might have been better. Elder M. and I are still unsure if he's 100% changed, or if he's still kind of holding onto a few things.

It's hard to believe that it's already temple week, and that transfers is just around the corner again. @_@ Time has gone by so fast it's not even funny! I'm excited to get the news about transfers, I feel like Fussa could really benefit from a Spanish speaking Elder, with all the Spanish families/investigators we've got. I'm also excited to hear where I may possibly be for the mission split. @_@

Sister H. is doing pretty good. She's still a little worried about getting baptized on Saturday the 11th, but from talking with her today and yesterday she sounds like she's really willing to make a go for it this time. she passed her interview last Friday, so I've very excited for her! We've been going to sports night with her son the last several weeks as well, and that's really helped us to build up his friendship with us. I'm hoping that pretty soon we'll be able to commit him to start taking the lessons again, and follow his mother's example in being baptized.

We haven't heard from Sister T. in over a week, so it looks like maybe she's not quite as interested as she used to be. :\

(Another investigator) is doing OK, he still wants to meet with us when he can and it sounds like he really cares about baptism still, though we've heard that he may have some hard feelings for his brother-in-law who teaches the Spanish Sunday School class. We're worried that may be one of the reasons the he hasn't been coming to church. :\ We're meeting with him on Wednesday to teach a little lesson before he goes out of town for two weeks. After that he'll get back with just a little bit more than a week before his baptismal date. If he doesn't come to church that weekend after he gets back we're going to need to move his date back I'm afraid, since he's only come once. :\

As for N., we've not been able to meet with her this week either, due to conflicts in scheduling with Brother M., and our times, as well as what sounds like a lack of communication with her (she's not been answering often). Brother M. will also be going out of town in the coming weeks, and so we're in the middle of trying to find a new joint for N. that can bring her to church. Hopefully with the new Ward mission leader that just got called last Sunday we'll have a bit more luck with that. :)

I can't think of anything else to add, so I guess I'll wrap it up with this. We found a Slurpee machine in a 7-11... Melon and ramune flavored Slurpee's rock. :)

love,
Elder Mosdell

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