Well a lot of things happened since last Saturday so I've got a lot of
explaining to do. Last Saturday we met with both of our investigators
椿 (Tsubaki) and David and both of those lessons didn't end quite as
planned. First we taught 椿 with three members at the church during
which we taught about two commandments, the Word of Wisdom (a
commandment of health where we don't intake coffee, tea, alcohol, etc)
and tithing (a commandment where we donate 10% of our income to
support the church and it's activities such as building new churches,
temples, helping those in need, etc). We had already taught a little
bit about the word of wisdom before, but this day we taught it
properly and she committed to it with no problem. Then we started
teaching tithing in which we used a teaching example using chocolate
like what I did for my last investigator with a baptismal date in
Toyota. The lesson went really well and the members who were present
bore really strong testimonies of the blessings of tithing. The was
such a good feeling in the room I thought nothing could go wrong and
then when we asked her if she would follow this commandment she said
she couldn't. Apparently when she started lessons with us she promised
her 16 year old son that if the church would ever ask her to pay money
she would quit. She told us that because of that promise she wouldn't
be able to follow follow this commandment. The really sad thing was
that she told us that she asked us in the beginning if coming to
church would cost her money and we said no and now she doesn't feel
like we were telling the truth. The truth is it doesn't cost money to
come to church and the commandment of tithing isn't about monetary
gain, it's to help those in need. At the end of the lesson she really
didn't want to meet again and we haven't been able to meet her since.
We going to keep trying.
David's lesson was also kind of a wreck where he literally talked for
a solid two hours about why he can't believe in an organized religion
and didn't give us too much time to talk. The good thing was we
learned a lot more about his beliefs and he said he would keep
learning from us. It was really a weird day and the results of it were
rather disappointing.
This week all of the couple missionaries went on a three day
conference (*cough* vacation *cough*) with President Ishii up in 長野県
(Nagano-ken) so we didn't have our van and couldn't exchange with our
bikes. Therefore we arranged for the 松本 ZLs to come to our area, 名東,
and exchange with us on Wednesday. This was the first time ZLs have
ever come to our area to work. It was fun and was my first time
spending the whole day working outside in the 本部's area. I worked with
Elder Mitchell and we went looking for less active members that the
ward wanted us to try to visit. I also went on an exchange with Elder
阿部 (Abe) in 春日井 (Kasugai) because our District Leader wanted to
exchange with us. It was fun to go on a normal exchange with only two
people in the area. I worked with 阿部 in the 本部 for three transfers so
it was fun to actually get to go work with him in the field and help
him with some worries he has. It was really good to spend some time
away from 名東.
Our last thing for the week was yesterday we went to a member a family
called the Gathright's last night and it was incredible. They live up
in a national forest with special permission and live in what is
essentially a giant tree house. It was by far one of the coolest homes
I've ever seen. They live in a beautiful area next to a 1300 year old
warrior shrine that was fought over and protected during what is known
as the Edo Era. Brother Gathright is actually Canadian and his wife is
Japanese and they have a son on a mission and one who will be leaving
soon for one. We had an awesome BBQ with them and an American family
called the Coltrins who are here building F-35s for the Japanese
Defense Force. It was a way good time being with two really good
families partaking of meat and having a good time.
In closing I guess I forgot to tell everyone that Jones passed his
driving test last week! He can now drive and his virgin voyage was up
to 高岡 (Takaoka) this week on Tuesday when we dropped off a dryer up
there.
This Sunday is Fathers Day and just a quick shout out to my dad who
has been especially helping me out these past two years with solid
advice, guidance, and helped take care of most of my paperwork to get
back into USAFA. I love my dad to death. I can't imagine growing up
without him. Thanks Dad! I love you a ton.
スピードと天使
堅城長老
Overlooking 名古屋 (Nagoya)
This is a Japanese raccoon.
They're called tanuki
Grillin'
阿部 and I
The Canadian Family Gathright
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