Hi Everyone!
All right, so... This week. It was challenging, to say the least. This past week we focused on revisiting with potential investigators and trying to find out who's really interested in the church. We had lessons with our progressing investigators so that is always motivating for us to keep going!
Even though Sister Fish and I don't see huge, amazing miracles. We see the tender mercies of the lord each day in our work. We try so hard to listen to the spirit and to be guided by him. We try so hard to teach simply and powerfully. We try so hard to help people see how the gospel applies to them. There are so many things we can do to improve. It almost feels as if our best work is not enough. Because it's not. But with the Lord's strength, with His help, we can do this work.
Last week, Sister Fish stopped at a light while we were going somewhere to tract. We had passed by a woman who had a violin case strapped to her back. Sister Fish continues to wait and I don't question her. I wait too. The woman finally walks past us and we say, "excuse me!" And we, or I guess I should say Fish Shimai, talk to her about the violin, how she's played the violin and we begin to find out more about this woman. Turns out she also plays piano but she wanted to learn how to play the violin as well. We asked if we could meet again and she just gave us her phone number. We ended up making an appointment for this Thursday. However, last Friday after our district meeting, we were out in the parking lot of the church, and this same woman walks up to us! She says that she needed to change the date of her appointment. I believe she tried to call us during district meeting, however Fish Shimai had the phone turned off during that time. So we were able to set up a new appointment. I have never seen a potential investigator actually come to church to ensure that a new appointment was set up. Impressive!
We tried to contact the family again that we gave the Book of Mormon to last week. However, it turns out the night we went tracting was a Bhuddist Holiday. So nobody was interested because everyone was busy.. which is totally understandable. I don't know what the holiday is called, but it's the time of the year where they believe the spirits of the dead return to earth and cohabitat with the living. We didn't see a lot of celebration around Kobe, so I'm not really sure what people did to celebrate? but who doesn't love a party with all your dead ancestors??
We tried to contact the family again that we gave the Book of Mormon to last week. However, it turns out the night we went tracting was a Bhuddist Holiday. So nobody was interested because everyone was busy.. which is totally understandable. I don't know what the holiday is called, but it's the time of the year where they believe the spirits of the dead return to earth and cohabitat with the living. We didn't see a lot of celebration around Kobe, so I'm not really sure what people did to celebrate? but who doesn't love a party with all your dead ancestors??
Today, Fish Shimai and I decided that it was time to do something fun! She had been wanting to do this waterfall hike for a while so we got up at 4:30 this morning and biked over to the trail head. We get there around 5:20ish (took a while to get moving and dressed :D). And it was beautiful! It was so amazing to watch the rising sun from the top of the hill! So cool! See the photos below!
Today we had an appointment with the referall we met several weeks ago. We brought her flowers as a thank you gift. We are so impressed with this woman's generosity and kindness. She took us out to lunch and brought her son along who is leaving for New York next week. He speaks English almost fluently. He went to a private high school in Maryland and is leaving to go to St.John's college in New York in a week. We talked with him a little bit about God and missionary work, but it was hard for his mother because she doesn't speak a lot of English. We had such a great time together, we really enjoyed each other's company. However, when we said that we needed to be back by 1, she was so heartbroken- she didn't want us to leave, and instead, she offered to drive us to all the places where we needed to do our errands. Awesome! I don't think we could express our thanks enough. She took us to a new grocery store where I could buy fruit! Pears were only 40 yen!!! Yes!!! And oranges were 30 yen!! yeah... such a great price. You know I bought some of those, and I bought an apple for 80 yen!! Yeah! I'm just happy for fruit.
And so now, I'm writing my email after a long day of hiking and errands. Oh, and we also visited this park we've been wanting to go to because we drive past every day.
Love you lots, Glad to hear you're doing well :D
Bevan 姉妹
