"Ask to Receive"

Dear Family,

 

This week we met with Miura san. It was a pretty interesting lesson. He told us that he had been searching his whole life to find out who God is. We simply asked him, "Have you ever asked God himself who he is?", He just looked at us like we were dumb. We explained to him that it is super simple, and that is all Joseph Smith did. Joseph was confused and didn't know. He had been searching for most of his life for truth and he asked God himself to find out. 

 

So I think that once Miura san realizes that that is the smartest method, he will gain a testimony. He just needs to have his heart softened a little bit more.

This week I got hit on by a five year old girl missing her two front teeth. She asked me if I had a girlfriend, and I asked her how old she thought I was. She said 7. She was trying really hard to flatter me. But don't worry, I didn't take the bait.

Oh hey, this week we finally got new students to come to Eikaiwa! Yay! It started out with zero now we have about 4. I am hoping that it will go up a lot more. There is a branch in our zone that is a lot smaller and they have about 20 students and 4 of them have been baptized recently. So I think it would be cool to get Ichinoseki's numbers up too.

On Thursday we were able to meet with our Less Active Sister Makiko. She is doing awesome. She would come to church if she didn't have to work every Sunday. But she will probably retire in the next few years so then she can start coming back to church. She still keeps in contact with the missionaries who baptized her 30 years ago, so that is pretty awesome. We went to a glass warehouse with her and made and molded our own cups and stuff. That was pretty cool. When I get it back I will send a picture.

The next day we had Zone training Meeting where we talked about revelation and self conversion, It was really good. On the way home, a guy on the train came and talked to us.  He spoke perfect English and he figured out who we were really fast without us having to tell him.  He was really nice. He does tours through a temple that we are near, so we might go see him in the future. We noticed a kid sitting next to us was reading the Bible, which you never see - like never. So we talked to him and he was super nice. He is from Sapporo, so we won't be able to meet with him again. He is Protestant and took the Book of Mormon so fast he was actually really intrigued by it. 

The next day we had more meetings in Morioka. It was good.  We talked about all the branches in the zone and the struggles there. So it was good because it got my mind thinking on ways I can try to help and seek for that revelation. They also introduced a new program into the mission called the Monitor program where members invite there friends to assess the missionary lessons and give us a feed back. They listen to 3 lessons that are 20 minutes long, no longer.  At the end of the lessons they assess our skills and take a survey that asks if they want to continue to listen and receive baptism and when they would want to receive baptism. It is kind of weird to me, but we will see how it work out!

Oh also, we will get transfer calls this week on Saturday, but we won't transfer until the following Saturday because we are having a big conference where they will introduce Ipads into our mission. I think they will give us the option to buy one or rent one. Elder Thayne's companion is going home at the end of this transfer so me Elder Drenk and Elder Thayne will become a tripanionship for about a week. That will be pretty fun.

Well that was my week. Love you!

Elder Nebeker