Anthony Choro got to practice his chinese, Shu Kyodai (recent convert), Wong (new investigator), Jay (progressing investigator) They are all from China. They are all here in Okayama for school.
Hello Hello from rainy Okayama, Japan!
This week was crazy crazy busy! Korth Choro and I set a goal to have 10 member present lessons this past week. It gave us a crazy busy week of coordinating lessons with members and investigators. Some days everything went well with the members and the investigators showing up. Some days, it was harder and the member would show up and our investigator wouldn't. Other days, the investigator would show up and the member wouldn't. And we even got one day where both the member and the investigator didn't show up! It definitely showed me what I need to do better on my part of working with the members. We ended up having 6 total (investigator) member present lessons. And 5 other (less active) member present lessons. It was a great learning experience for us, and we hope to keep improving on our member present lessons.
Our teaching pool in Okayama is very diverse. We have 4 Japanese investigators, and the rest are all from either, the Philippines, China, or Africa! We love being able to meet so many people with so many different backgrounds and also have been able to teach the gospel in English! The interesting thing is, that out of the 3 Japanese investigators that we do have, 2 of them are absolutely fluent in English and the other one is deaf. So we rarely have the opportunity to speak in Japanese unless we are finding. So we also made it a point to find some new, Japanese investigators. So we did a couple days of really good finding! And guess what!? We found 2 new solid investigators!! But... they both are absolutely fluent in English! OF COURSE!! Haha! One of them lived in California for 4 years, and the other loved in England for 3 years. So we have decided that as the Okayama Elders, we will never be able to speak Japanese again!
Last night, we went to visit a less active that hadn't been contacted in a couple years. After searching and searching, we could not find his house. So we decided to do some housing. On one door, a lady answered and I asked her if she could help us find this less actives house. She looked it up, and gave us better directions. We thanked her for her help and started telling her what we do as missionaries. She broke out into perfect English and told us that she got baptized into the Mormon church in Fukuyama (an area in our zone) 22 years ago, but because of some of the commandments that she couldn't keep, she didn't feel worthy to be at church so she stopped going. She told us that she reads the Book of Mormon everyday and loves it. We talked to her for a bit and invited her to church next week and told her that God doesn't expect us to be perfect, he just expects us to do our best. She said that she thinks we got lost last night just so that we could knock on her door because she needed to hear what we had to say. It was a miracle. And of course she is fluent at English, everyone seems to be, here in Okayama!
The highlight of the week was being able to be companions for a day with my beloved MTC companion, Anthony Choro. He is pretty much fluent at Japanese now, and just wants to be the best missionary that he can be. Talking to him throughout the day really gave me motivation to not just be on a mission, but to truly serve a mission and to just have fun! Anthony Choro and I were able to teach Takeo-san who is our deaf investigator. We were supposed to have a member come with us, but the member forgot so Anthony Choro and I were left we a pen and a piece of paper to teach a lesson to Takeo. It was so much fun!! We did a bunch of Streeting, and housing and talking to everyone. And at the end of the night, we had an appointment with one of our Chinese investigators, Jay. - With Shu, one of our Chinese members as the member present. Jay also brought one of his friends, Wong and Anthony Choro was able to practice his Chinese as we went out to dinner and played ping pong with them. Anthony Choro has grown to be one of my best friends on my mission. He is such an obedient, hard working missionary and I'm so grateful to be able to look up to him. I also sure hope to be as buff as him one day. The man is absolutely ripped people!
Last night as we were housing, I was talking to this old man through his cluttered window. He told me "go home!" Haha! I didn't know how to respond to that. But it made me think about that a little bit. Sometimes, us missionaries would rather be anywhere than knocking on some random persons door. It's hard mentally and physically to stay out all day on your feet talking to people in a completely different language... or even your native language. There are so many other things that cross your mind that you would rather be doing. It made me think a little bit about why I stay out all day and talk to different people. One of the things that makes me want to get out and talk to people is that I know there are people out there waiting for me. There are people waiting for Korth Choro. So we need to get out and talk to as many people as we can so that we can find those people! We can't miss an opportunity to open our mouths. So here is the challenge this week: Talk to the missionaries when you see them out on the street. Tell them they are doing a good job and to keep going! You never know who you could help out.
Love you all so much! Have a safe week!
Evans Choro
Also, If anyone wants a good laugh at home. Go check this out
Also, If anyone wants a good laugh at home. Go check this out
Yes the mustache and sideburns are permanent marker
Okayama district
Teaching our deaf investigator - Takeo-san
No comments:
Post a Comment