Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Week 79 - April 15, 2013

Aloha,
It's been a great week. I've worked extremely hard and felt more lost in the work than ever before. Elder Hill and I went on three companionship exchanges this past week. I was able to work with an Elder Beazer from Cedar City, UT, Elder Medeiros from Wahiawa, HI, as well as Elder Hoopes from Los Angeles, CA. Each exchange was composed mostly of finding time, and we saw great miracles with each. Elder Beazer and I spent time around a college and found three new investigators, all college students. We also had a lesson with a new English class student resulting in a very strong PI (potential investigator.) She just needs to wait for her work schedule to come out so she can set another lesson appointment. With Elder Medeiros we found two new investigators, both college students, as well as two other PI's. There's a Naval Base in Elder Hoopes' area, maybe you remember me writing about the George Washington aircraft carrier a
while ago. Anyway, that area's in Yokohama Zone. While on exchange there I tried to focus a lot more on the Japanese people over the American people, as they haven't had many Japanese investigators lately and their branch (They have an English ward and a Japanese branch) seems to be struggling. We were able to find two new Japanese investigators, as well as another PI. One of the investigators found in Yokosuka is a 15 year-old high school boy, very interested in and
prepared to hear the gospel. He was sitting on a bench when we walked up to him and started talking with him. Probably just about a minute after talking with him he asked, in Japanese, "If it's okay with you, will you meet with me?" We don't have too many people asking us if we
can meet with them, it's usually the other way around with us asking them to meet with us. Of course we were more than happy to set a time to show him the church and have a lesson. We gave him a pamphlet to read before they'll meet with him again. He talked with us about how
he really likes the teachings of Jesus Christ and wants to learn more. He is very prepared.

So overall through the exchanges this past week we were able to find eight new people willing to hear lessons - a good week of finding. More than fish for the missionaries, however, I'd like to teach them to fish, so we'll see how things go from here. Hopefully they each catch the vision and are able to see more miracles.

President Budge and one of the Assistants, Elder Hamada, came out here and trained the youth of the stake on the paradigm shift. Following that we had a meeting with President, the stake presidency, all of the bishops in the stake, and all of the ward mission leaders in the stake. We have so many good people to learn from. We were at the church yesterday from 9:30 am to about 8:00 pm, with General Conference and a bunch of meetings.

It's looking like the zone will see two baptisms this next Saturday, then we have a baptism coming up next week Saturday here in Kanagawa. We have good investigators. We'll also begin teaching a friend of one of the members this next Sunday. She emailed us yesterday saying that
she would be bringing a friend to church and that she'd like us to teach him a lesson. We're really excited for that.

Conference was really great. We were just able to see it broadcast here this past weekend. We have the laptops, so we could have watched it earlier if we had the time and wanted to, but everyone usually waits for the broadcast. I especially loved the Priesthood Session and the Sunday Morning Session. Elder L. Tom Perry and President Monson's talks on obedience really reinforced what we've been trying to help the zone with this transfer. Elder Nelson spoke a lot about the same things he talked with us about in our conference with him. During the beginning of the Sunday Afternoon Session, the languages got mixed up and the English came out in Korean and the Japanese changed to Chinese then Spanish. It was pretty interesting. We'll need to watch Elder Holland and Elder Oaks talks online because we didn't understand any of the Korean!

Tomorrow we have a three-zone conference where there will be probably about 70 missionaries. Elder Hill and I will be training on teaching simply, especially on how to prepare for lessons, how to begin lessons, and how to use visual aids. We've been on exchange pretty much every day this past week so we haven't had much time as companions. We'll need to take some time today to prepare for that.

Elder Hill said his father tried to call dad last night, so I'm sure you'll be able to get in contact with the Hill family sometime soon! It's a small world!

I'm glad Keanu was accepted to KSM! He'll have a great time.

Anyway, I love you all so much and am so grateful for you. I encourage you each to do as Elder Nelson said and catch the wave! There is no need to wait. There is no need to wait until you have more knowledge, a stronger testimony, or are more worthy. Catch the wave now! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher


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