From Elder Allred:
P.S. I'm so sorry I am on an exchange so I can't send pictures this
week or send my weekly email, but I promise good pics next week! And
you can put some of this one on the blog since I couldn't get a group
one going.
Part of our Family Letter:
私の家族、こんにちは！
This week was awesome! Our hard work and efforts are beginning
to manifest itself as an amazing blessing! The subject line of this
email is kinjin kinyobi. Kinjin is a word that means golden
investigator and kinyobi means Friday or the day of gold. And this
last Friday we were street contacting and we started talking to this
guy and started talking about our beliefs. It turns out that he had
spoken to missionaries before, but they never really taught him more
than the basics of what we believe and they never set up a return
appointment. So we taught him an overview of our church and invited
him to come to church that Sunday. He said that he would try but that
he had a lot going on Sunday and wasn't sure if he could make it. We
gave him our number and wrote down his. And we prayed for him to feel
the spirit. The next day he called us early in the morning and said
that he had been thinking about the things that we said and he wanted
to meet with us at the church in 30 minutes to learn more! We
immediately went over there and met him. It turns out that he had
Mormon friends that lived in America and he had called them the night
we met him. They told him to meet with us and learn more. So we taught
him the first lesson and he said that he felt happy as we taught. We
told him about the Spirit and he said if he receives an answer to his
prayers and knows that this church is true then he will want to be
baptized! It was so awesome! We are going to meet with him some more
in these next weeks and I'm praying that he gets a really powerful
answer to the question whether this church is true!
Also on Friday we met this woman housing who intently listened to our
message. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith
experience and how we believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and
that the Lord's Church was restored through Joseph Smith. She was very
interested and and kept saying "Really? I didn't know" it turns out
that she is Christian and was attending a Christian school somewhere
nearby. We asked her if we could meet with her again and she said of
course! So we are going to go back to her house this week to
teach her more. We promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon
that we gave her that she would feel the power of the spirit as she
read. I really do hope that she finds time to read it, because I know
that she would know that it is true.
We also met a man not on Friday but on Saturday.
This was a funny contact. We were housing and I wanted to talk to the
people in this car that had just pulled up, but I didn't want to be
weird about it so we were fussing with our bikes for a while until a
woman got out with her child. "Surprised" I looked up and said hello
how are you? Then I introduced us as missionaries for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She looked like she was in a hurry
and just shook her head as she ran into her house. I felt a little
sheepish as me and my companion started to ride away, but then a guy
got out of the car. He seemed pretty young with really long spiky
hair, a leather jacket, earrings, smoking a cigarette, and a crazy
look in his eye, but I forced myself to say hello and how are you. He
looked at us and kind of waved us off saying he was good, then I said
that we were missionaries and he came over to us. He started to
question us about what we believe. We told him that we believe in
Christ and it turns out that he is a Christian too! He looked around
and then ushered us behind his car and told us to please sit down. So
a little confused but down for whatever we sat on the asphalt behind
his car. And there we taught him the first lesson, invited him to
church and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was very interested in the
Book of Mormon, so hopefully he reads it.
So this week was pretty great! We have a new investigator and a couple
of high hopes. I got to meet the branch and bear my testimony in
sacrament meeting. The members are so awesome. We even taught a
lesson to a member on Saturday and he took us to this place that was a lot like
Tucanos and had us eat the weirdest things! I ate cow tongue, liver
and stomach! Delicious right?...
Our daily schedule is pretty much just a lot of studying in the
morning after exercising and eating breakfast. We have an hour of
personal study, then an hour of companion study, then an hour of first
12 weeks study, then we eat lunch, and then we have an hour of
language study. So studies end at 1:00 pretty much everyday unless
there is a meeting or Sunday or P-day. Then we normally go try to
contact some less actives and we street along the way. There is a ton
of bike riding and my butt hurt so bad after the first week and my
hands were all blistered, but now my hands and bottom are in great
condition. Then as we reach the end of the day after having taught as
many lessons as we could we go eat dinner. And after dinner we go to
any appointments we have if we have any and then we house for the rest
of the night. Then we are back in the apartment by 9:00 where we plan
then next day until 9:30 then it's get ready for bed/personal time
until lights out which is at 10:30. Then we repeat. The days are long
but the week fly by, it is strange how that works, but everyone
always says, "days like weeks, weeks like days." It's so true.
Well it's been a week of blessings and miracles and tender mercies
from the Lord. His love is so powerful, and I know that he cares for
us. He weeps with us in our sorrows and rejoices with us in our
successes. He is definitely going before our face and his angels are
bearing us up. I can't wait to see lives change because of His love.
Elder Bednar gave a devotional in Japan the other night and he said,
"The Atonement gives us strength beyond our own, if we think that we
must press on in the gospel pathway by ourselves, it would be hard to
find Joy. But with the Atonement of Christ we can do all things." How
true that is. He died so that we might live a life more powerful and
Joyful than would have ever been possible without Him. And the people
of Japan need that Joy.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
アルレッド長老 (Elder Allred)
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