Well this last week was a
doozy! It's more towards the end of temple pday today, as I'm sure you figured
out by no email yesterday, but it's been a good pday so far. We stopped off in
Shibuya to eat at the first Taco Bell in Japan (outside of the bases) on the
way home from the temple, and boy, it was a different place than I expected.
Their menu was small but still the same food, but they didn't have baja blast
Mountain Dew for me to try... I was sad about that for sure. But it was good,
and the temple was even better. I didn't get Moms email until after the temple
but I had already put their names in. Thanks for the update.
This last week we had a
lot of appointments but basically every single one was a no show or a
cancelation. Hence this week being a doozy. There were some cool miracles for
the week though! Unfortunately Azuma was busy all week, so we didn't teach him,
but we did have a blitz on Wednesday. So we went out to Tokorozawa station and
met as a zone and went out for 3 hours for an hour of streeting, then housing,
then kubari. Every time was a different companion. So the first time I was on
housing duty, and we gave out 3 book of Mormons to people who we woke up by
ringing the doorbell, so that was way funny. Then I streeted, and while talking
to an old guy he said "ahhh my legs are bad, goodbye!" In Japanese,
then proceeded to hobble off and start to fall but luckily I was able to mostly
catch him so he didn't get hurt and just kept walking. Then we were supposed to
kubari but housed instead and met a man named Ahamed, who is Muslim but his
wife is Christian and they teach each other about their religions, so we asked
him if he would like to learn a little bit about ours with his wife and he
agreed! He didn't show up to the appointment, but it was a miracle none the
less! So the blitz was really good.
So the only lessons we
were able to teach this week that weren't no shows, were Matsumoto San and
Yamamoto San. We had a member come to the lesson with Matsumoto and it helped a
lot. Basically Matsumoto wants a new body and healing and that's all, but
brother Ochiai dropped the smack down on him and in his Japanese way taught him
about the importance of doing things, and he listened to him a lot more than
us, so we talked about faith and needing to hear everything to understand the
healing power of the gospel and priesthood, and that type, of thing. As
expected he immediately asked us to heal him when he found out we hold the
priesthood, but by the end he understood and again accepted the invitation to
pray. Yamamoto was an even better lesson though, unfortunately a member wasn't
able to come, but it was a shorter lesson, just on Moroni 7, although his
questions weren't on the doctrines in the chapter yet, he is making progress.
He said that since he started looking for what the writer wants us to
understand from it his interest in reading has jumped up significantly. So he
read the chapter 5 or 6 times, and this week he is reading it again one more
time to see if he can answer some of his own questions before his next lesson
where we will discuss them. After that lesson we watched meet the Mormons for
our game night activity. And that was really good, Yamamoto really enjoyed it,
other than the fact that the Japanese subtitles were horrible and the English
was too hard for him to understand.
Something fun for the week
was going to play softball with the ward! We did that on Saturday in the
morning, at the insanely early time of 6:00. So we had to get up way early. But
we played and turns out my first baseman skills aren't too bad but my batting
skills, those are a completely other concept. So baseball was fun even though
my only hit was caught by the 70 ish year old Ward member who was pitching...
It was quite the laugh for everyone for sure. At any rate it was a pretty
alright week. I'm still struggling with getting my companion to work and talk
to people, overall he still just sits silently and even when we get nice formal
lessons where it's easy to teach, he won't participate and tells me to teach
because he doesn't want to. In gospel principles class on Sunday I taught the
lesson which was supposed to be our companionship lesson because Elder Brummett
told me he didn't want to teach people. It's hard to help him because as we've
been talking through the transfer I've found out more and more and he really
doesn't want to baptize anyone from what it sounds like and how he says he
doesn't plan to have any baptisms, so I guess there's not much I can do there
other than be an example by going out every day and getting as much done as
best as I can. So that's what I've been doing every day, with no backup all
transfer, and I'm exhausted. But maybe some of it will help at least. We'll see
who I'm with next transfer. I dunno.
Anyways I'm glad to get
everyone's emails this week, and yes as you have seen on the weather it is
horrendously hot. I feel like my body is boiling on the inside most days and it
is hard because of all the dropped lessons and stuff we have had to be outside
ALL the time. And that doesn't help my companion because he just wants to be
inside. But it sounds like home is hot too! I've been wondering what it's like
there, at least here everyone has air conditioning, even if it is 80s style
non-centralized air. It's all good though. I love you all! Always remember that
through all life's trials, if we look for it, we can find gods hand lifting us
up and keeping us from falling all the way down. There were countless prophets
in the gal of bitterness and endless woe, which sounds pretty not fun to me,
but they were always helped, Enos for example was forgiven of his sins and had
light shone into his life again. Even when it's tough, the light is always
there. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gailey
P.S. Keep me posted on
grandpa, I'm trying not to worry about it too much right now and just focus so
it won't throw me off too bad, but I would like to know as soon as you do. If I
could only have one favor, please let him know or have grandma let him know
that I love him. I don't like the thought of him not being there for things
like me being home or camping or golfing or getting married in the future, but
if he could know one thing it's that I love him. Thanks everyone. Keep holding
strong Dad, Mom, everyone. You're the best.
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