Wednesday, April 15, 2015

April 12th Letter

So this week was pretty great.  My companion and I were able to achieve the mission's Standard of Excellence which was pretty cool. ( The standard is as follows; 1 baptismal date, 3 investigators at sacrament meeting, 3 new investigators, 6 Less Active Lessons, 20 lessons). We have to accomplish just 2 of those goals to get the standard of Excellence. It may seem easy but it is actually really hard.

We were able to start teaching a family of 4. It was a referral from the branch President here in Ichinoseki. They are really cool but I think they will have to have a serious change of heart and feeling the spirit to change. They are very active in their current religion but are open to understanding more about Christianity. We are able to meet with them every Thursday

Another investigator M- is doing good.  We are working with him on praying. He will read the book of Mormon but that is about it. So we have planned to teach him a lesson on faith today and use the story of when Alma explains to the Zoramites what faith is and compares it to a seed. We are also going to share with him a talk that was given by President Uchtdorf called " Gods Harvest." It is a very good talk - very short and to the point. 

The lady that walked into the church the other day that we passed to the mowers is doing very well. During the second lesson with her she asked the Mowers how she can pray and if her sins can really be forgiven. So that was really cool. We are letting the Mowers teach her as of right now. But will join and help in the teaching process when needed. 

The lady you saw in the picture is a Less Active that we have been trying to reactivate. She took us to a place called chumonjin or something like that.  It is the World Heritage. It was a really old Golden temple that had been preserved for a very long time. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures of it. But it was way cool. It was a lot of Gold and a family was buried underneath it and they have their clothing and everything still. So that was really neat to go see and do. And yes I went and hit the gong. I couldn't pass the opportunity up :)

This week we met a less active family who have been less active for about 10 years now.  We met with the wife and she was really nice to us, and I started talking to her and about her family.  She told me she had a younger son and I heard someone playing the piano inside her house and I asked if that was her son playing and she said yes.  I don't know why, but I asked her if we could meet him and say hello. She said I will go and see if he will come down. So she came back down with him and he was way excited to talk to us. He had never talked to an American before so we had a good conversation. He just barely started High school and is having a hard time deciding how to fit in. After we left him with our Missionary business card. We got a text from his dad at like 11 pm that night saying that we probably shouldn't visit his home because his neighbor and father in law who live with them hate religion and get mad when missionaries come. So I was a little sad to get that message but then he called me the next morning and was super nice and was so happy that my companion and I came and visited. He told us that he is a returned missionary and that he wants to help us out and meet with us but his wife doesn't really want to go back to church and with his father inlaw hating religion, it is hard for them.  He told us that he talked with his son and he hasn't seen his son that happy in a while, and he really wants us to teach him the gospel but it would have to be done in secret.....  It was a really cool phone call but I am stuck because I don't want to cause any trouble in that family. But I think we are going to meet with the father to talk more about teaching his son... (His son is not a member)

So that is kind of what is going on to here in Ichinoseki! 

This week we were able to watch some of General Conference which was good I still have not seen it all because of timing issues but I have really enjoyed some of the talks I feel like they have been putting a huge focus and emphasis on families and focusing on things that matter most. 

Well I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Elder Nebeker

No comments:

Post a Comment