Hey what's up fam. And friends? This week was super fast and I hit my 8 month mark which is freaking crazy. That's when I realized I've been on the mission longer than I was in college! Holy, where does the time go?
One exciting thing from this week is that we made another baptismal date. It's a guy in his 40's named Tawaraya san. He's heard most of the lessons from other missionaries, but kind of just likes the missionaries and doesn't want to commit anything. It was the first time I met him and before we went over my comp told me that he's a video game nerd, anime nerd, movie nerd. I thought about my sister Nicole, but Japanese haha. Plus, he's a guy.
At first the vibe was really bad. I was trying to talk to him, but he was just staring at his computer playing league of legends and only giving me one word answers or "uh uh uh" when I asked about his life. This vibe went on for about an hour. Plus, my companion is a super quiet guy so he wasn't saying anything and really didn't say more than 2 sentences in that whole 2ish hour visit. Tbh, I was getting way frustrated and it really felt like we were wasting time because it was clear this guy didn't want to talk to us. I was wondering how the past missionaries taught him, how he clearly didn't have interest, and was just kind of uneasy about everything. I thought about leaving 4 or 5 times and was pretty dang close to making up an excuse and bouncing out of there. I had a prompting to just starting talking about gospel principles and what he's heard from other missionaries. When he heard me start he looked up and said: "oh if you want to talk about church stuff just let me know first" he then turned of the Tv that was playing in the back, shut down his computer screen, put away his phone and pulled out his Book of Mormon (still don't know where he pulled it from haha). He then proceeded to listen to our message about baptism and participated really well. It'll probably still be hard to get to know him, but I'm glad we stayed.
We talked a lot about how he's listening and meeting with missionaries about once a week, but I asked him what he was working towards. He didn't know, so we testified about baptism and told him all the blessings he can receive from it. He seemed a bit on edge, but we emphasized it as a GOAL and something he can achieve little by little. Looking back, that was totally guidance by the spirit. After thinking about it twice, if we went any other route I think he would've been pretty shady and turned the invitation down. That and the fact that if I made up an excuse and we left, he wouldn't have a date. The spirit is real my friends. Just show faith and be willing to listen when it comes and you will feel it. Crazy experience for me and even crazier when I think about it again.
We had our zone training meeting last Tuesday, and of course since one of the zone leaders is my companion from two transfers ago, he called on me to bear my testimony in front of the whole zone. I got up there and told everyone I was expecting it anyways so looks like I'm the real winner haha. Spirit was strong, awesome opportunity.
We housed a lot this week and just did normal missionary work. Talked to some really nice people and praying that we get some new investigators out of them.
I'm think my desire is really starting to increase the further along I get in my mission. At first it was "shoot 3 hours of housing, how do I find a way to make that go quicker?" Obviously ringing doorbells and getting rejected 50 times in an hour is not the most fun activity, but now it's more of a "I really hope this person listens to us and opens their heart to our message" kind of feeling. It truly is awesome. I love being a missionary, and although it is dang freaking hard sometimes and I have that I want to lay on the couch feeling, I know I am called of God and this truly is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Thankful for all my blessings.
Hope my mom cries after this email after she sees my spiritual growth haha.
Kk have a good week!
敬具 (sincerely yours)
ー シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)
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