100% Turn Around

Sunday January 31, 2016

This week was the hardest week of my mission.

Monday: went to family home evening at the mission home. Once a month the mission president has FHE and all missionaries in Sapporo, who bring investigators or less actives can go. It was a first for me and was way fun. Got to hear a message from our beloved mission president, and play a game and see some old friends from different areas.

Tuesday: still teaching Eikaiwa alone. It is legit no fun when no one is listening and chatting all class. I don't want to be a teacher, especially to a class of students who can't speak English. Sorry that sounded way bad.

Wednesday: hardest day by far. Elder Owada and I spent probably 4 hours straight looking for old investigators from old records. We literally didn't talk to anyone for 4 hours because no one was home. Plus, my companion and I weren't really talking at all, still not sure why, but it was a silent, getting lost feeling for 4 hours straight. Then we visited an investigator who called us for help with his computer. We helped for over an hour simply explaining how to put pictures onto a USB. We started sharing a message, but after 3-5 minutes he got uncomfortable and said "nope that's enough for today" it was literally:

Us: have you been praying or reading the Book of Mormon?

Him: nope not all lately

Us: short testimony....cut off

Him: yep that's enough for right now, I have other things I want to do today

After, we just did finding for 3 hours and got rejected by everyone. Mentally tough day

Thursday: fun day with my man Okamoto San. Teaching him all the lessons again, so he knows pretty thoroughly before baptism. He's way smart. I think legit genius smart. He understands everything after you tell him. After reading the chapter about the tree of life for the first time, he understood 100%. Things are going great with him. Just needs to quit his job and come to church. Keep praying for him

Friday: did some more housing and no success. Everyone just cuts you off after you say the word "Jesus Christ" It's always: I'm Buddhist, or I'm busy, no thank you. It's really hard to find a way through that stuff, and to show people we are simply introducing what our church believes in. We aren't asking you to be a LDS member after 30 seconds haha. I'm working on new techniques. For example: instead of "we are from the church of......" Sometimes they won't even talk to you if you say that. I'm trying to just Simply have a conversation so I'll say: "Hey I'm from America. I want to talk to Japanese people. You ever seen an American who can speak Japanese?"

Saturday: here's the 100% turn around. Up until Saturday I was mentally and physically wasted. We had about 4 hours before a board game, ping pong game night at the church. We spent some time weekly planning, and then door to door. Up to this point on my mission, I have yet to find a new person willingly to listen to our message. We knocked a house, and the nicest lady ever answered. We introduced Eikaiwa, got to know her, even gave her a Book of Mormon. It was awesome! She let us into her genkan (little room behind the door, for shoes and talking). I've only been invited into a genkan once or twice. It was seriously a miracle. She said come back anytime.

Sunday: the mission president came to church and we had a big potluck called a 食事会 (Food Council) and a devotional by the mission president himself. He was pumping the ward up. He talked a lot about working together with missionaries especially because right now 1/3 of the foreigner missionaries in this mission are transfer 3 and below. That means 1/3 of the missionaries here have only been in Japan for 3-3 1/2 months. Good luck with Japanese

God truly does answer prayers. I was having a rough time with my companion because he's super quiet and it makes 4 hours straight really boring. But, we worked things out and are doing our best to make this transfer really fun. I also have been struggling with motivation because let's be honest, after 7 months of being a missionary, not finding a new investigator is really sad. I was struggling a lot, but God truly was watching over me. Awesome experience

Sorry this week is way long, but a lot happened and I didn't ever write that thoroughly haha.

Thanks for everything. Have a good week! Ask me questions!

敬具 (sincerely yours)
ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)