Week 36 - June 11, 2012
- Transfers 3-5...
Dear Family,
My new companion, Elder Orton, is a great missionary and very hardworking. He and I are actually the youngest companionship of Elders in the mission right now, and it's been a really exciting week.
We were able to help, over two days, a less-active member translate a business document from English to Japanese and share a mogi (practice) lesson on the Restoration. He's actually been doing really well and has been coming to church fairly consistently lately. After the first day of his lesson on Tuesday we went out to Costco to get some groceries for the transfer.
We had two really great eikaiwa shokai lessons. One was with a Chinese university student named Chin. We met him at the Japanese class that we go to and were able to get him to come to eikaiwa. We taught him a little about the church and he's really excited to learn more about the Plan of Salvation and purpose of life. The other was with a lady named Naomi. She found our eikaiwa through the Internet and came three weeks ago. She was actually converted to Christianity a year ago and attends a church each Sunday. We shared a little about the church and she wants to hear more about the Restoration. She also wants to invite another eikaiwa student named Kawai to her next lesson. We shokai'd Kawai a few weeks ago but she was a little apprehensive about learning more. he's been coming to eikaiwa and our weekly outreach activities though. She and Naomi made friends at eikaiwa, and after hearing about the message that we're sharing, she said that she really wants to 'share God's love with Kawai too.' At the end of the lesson, Naomi said one of the best prayers I've heard from an investigator. She prayed for Kawai as well as for us, the missionaries, to be able to guide people unto Christ. So we are excited to teach these three great people. It's wonderful to see people wanting to learn more about the truth, through our eikaiwa.
We had a great zone meeting on Friday. The zone leaders introduced a 'standard of excellence' for the zone, which I really like. It's a great way for the zone to work on specific things in order to see miracles in all we do. The standards for our zone are: Love everyone, Find new friends everyday, Ask for referrals 100, Evan's challenge 100, and Invite members to become friends with investigators. Asking for referrals 100 means literally to always ask for people to teach from everyone, including members, investigators, people we meet on the street, the cashiers at the stores, people who call... everyone. The Evan's challenge comes from Elder Evans when he visited the mission about a year and a half ago. He challenged the mission to commit to baptism in the first lesson, and to set a date in the second. He promised that through this more of the Japanese people would come unto Christ in this life than through any other way. Inviting members to become friends with investigators has to do with members not only being joints for lessons or fellowshipping at church, but actually becoming friends with investigators. That is so important. There was a lot of testimony of miracles through faith at the zone meeting, and it was great. We will really see an amazing transfer and I'm so excited.
My new companion, Elder Orton, is a great missionary and very hardworking. He and I are actually the youngest companionship of Elders in the mission right now, and it's been a really exciting week.
We were able to help, over two days, a less-active member translate a business document from English to Japanese and share a mogi (practice) lesson on the Restoration. He's actually been doing really well and has been coming to church fairly consistently lately. After the first day of his lesson on Tuesday we went out to Costco to get some groceries for the transfer.
We had two really great eikaiwa shokai lessons. One was with a Chinese university student named Chin. We met him at the Japanese class that we go to and were able to get him to come to eikaiwa. We taught him a little about the church and he's really excited to learn more about the Plan of Salvation and purpose of life. The other was with a lady named Naomi. She found our eikaiwa through the Internet and came three weeks ago. She was actually converted to Christianity a year ago and attends a church each Sunday. We shared a little about the church and she wants to hear more about the Restoration. She also wants to invite another eikaiwa student named Kawai to her next lesson. We shokai'd Kawai a few weeks ago but she was a little apprehensive about learning more. he's been coming to eikaiwa and our weekly outreach activities though. She and Naomi made friends at eikaiwa, and after hearing about the message that we're sharing, she said that she really wants to 'share God's love with Kawai too.' At the end of the lesson, Naomi said one of the best prayers I've heard from an investigator. She prayed for Kawai as well as for us, the missionaries, to be able to guide people unto Christ. So we are excited to teach these three great people. It's wonderful to see people wanting to learn more about the truth, through our eikaiwa.
We had a great zone meeting on Friday. The zone leaders introduced a 'standard of excellence' for the zone, which I really like. It's a great way for the zone to work on specific things in order to see miracles in all we do. The standards for our zone are: Love everyone, Find new friends everyday, Ask for referrals 100, Evan's challenge 100, and Invite members to become friends with investigators. Asking for referrals 100 means literally to always ask for people to teach from everyone, including members, investigators, people we meet on the street, the cashiers at the stores, people who call... everyone. The Evan's challenge comes from Elder Evans when he visited the mission about a year and a half ago. He challenged the mission to commit to baptism in the first lesson, and to set a date in the second. He promised that through this more of the Japanese people would come unto Christ in this life than through any other way. Inviting members to become friends with investigators has to do with members not only being joints for lessons or fellowshipping at church, but actually becoming friends with investigators. That is so important. There was a lot of testimony of miracles through faith at the zone meeting, and it was great. We will really see an amazing transfer and I'm so excited.
We taught Silvia, the Brazilian lady that came to eikaiwa, on Friday after the zone meeting. We taught her the Gospel of Christ: Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. She committed to being baptized on the 7th of next month as we were standing in front of the font. She will need to really strive to increase her faith as much as possible, in order to really be converted.
We taught/reviewed the Gospel of Christ with Shimizu on Saturday and he committed to being baptized on the 14th of next month. He will also need to increase his faith, and find the strength to follow the Word of Wisdom, in order to experience the blessings that God has in store for him.
We had a really fun dinner with the Nishimura family last night. They're a wonderful family consisting of 12 and 16 year year old sons, a 17 year old daughter, and 20 year old twins. Their daughter, Maiko, is a really great person, but has moved away from the church. It was one of the hardest things for Elder Orton and I to watch as their dad called everyone over for prayer and she quietly got up and left the room. It just broke our hearts. She really knows what's right and she feels guilt for not doing the right things. It's hard to know how to help her, but the most important thing is to just show unconditional love. Elder Orton and I felt probably only a small portion of the pain that parents feel around the world as their children make wrong choices. Cameron kyodai (American member that lives on the U.S. Army Base) came over to the Nishimura's to share a home teaching lesson, and we were able to fit our bikes into the back of his van and he took us home.
Tomorrow I have district leader training at the mission office. I'm really excited, and grateful that I'll be able to see the mission home one more time before the presidents change. This transfer is really starting off great. I have an awesome companion in an amazing area, and through consistent hard work, will see miracles.
If you'd like to read a good talk, try to find 'Flaxen Threads' on the BYU speeches page. It's really good if you want to build better habits.
I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your love and support. It's great to hear about how everyone is doing. Good luck and work hard, Kauluwehi! I love you! Take care!
Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher
No comments:
Post a Comment