Saturday, November 23, 2013

17 November 2013 - More Miracles Every Week

Letter to Mission President from Travis for the week:

It seems every week when I begin my letters I just assume, this week I had more miracles than I will have in any other week in my entire mission, yet time and time again we are proven wrong here in Saijo.  The Lord`s hand is truly in the work we are doing here and I am ever grateful for it.  One miracle, our investigator Sho is getting close to baptism but feels that commandments take away his agency, specifically tea.  He refuses to accept this commandment because to him it has no purpose because he believes tea is healthy.  He says he will get baptized once he finds that `reason` which he doesn't have in his life right now, but that when he does get baptized, even though he will have to give up tea and his other things in life, he will have that new thing instead. Gods help and other things such as eternal salvation were discussed but not precisely his exact need at this point in his life, he is truly an interesting man.  So we decided to fast on Sunday for him to find his own reason and I am not sure if he found his reason or not but told us after a very difficult lesson that he doesn't need tea anymore and wants to be baptized.  We had a lesson for about an hour and a half (way lame my apologies, too long of a lesson) about the blessings we receive when we are obedient to all commandments but at that time he wouldn't accept any of it, so we committed him to pray about it.  Then after the lesson Son kyodai, another Chinese member spoke to him for about half an hour about the worries he expressed in our lesson, and despite his complaints about how Son kyodai talked to him too long, he randomly told us while walking back to the eki that he doesn't think tea would be a problem anymore and that he wants to get baptized and once again fully committed to his baptism in the first week of December!   I was completely shocked and didn't understand his sudden change of heart but I'm thankful for the power of church attendance and the love of members in the ward. 

That same member, has a close enough relationship with our other investigator Gary, that when Gary unfortunately got in a car accident this week, Son kyodai was the first person he called, despite only meeting him once which was actually about 2 months ago.  Gary wants to get baptized as well, but his wife still will not allow him to come to church, so we are hoping to plan an activity soon with Gary and his wife and the Son kazoku.  

Other miracles that happened this week was the news of our building here in Saijo.   Thank you for your work you put forth to make this happen.  I know this will help Saijo to literally explode when we are able to start meeting here.  While praying this week on the vision of Saijo the thought came to me to do much of the same thing George McGlaughlin did in the power of everyday missionaries with watching the intro dvd every week except in Saijo we will have 1 member and 1 companionship to have the responsibility of bringing someone each week to this event and from this we will be able to help Saijo to explode.   I have faith this will work and can't wait to implement it once we are able to start using the building.   Thank you for your leadership.   I love Saijo and know exciting things are to come.   Thank you for the opportunity to work here.

Much of what I was gonna write today I also wrote to President so I just decided to copy that letter for you.   Ha ha   Sho`s experience was truly a miracle and slightly funny as well.  During Gospel Doctrine class he was like `I think I'm getting closer to baptism, the only thing is church just seems to be a lil boring` so we talked to him about that for a bit, then after church we showed him the baptismal font and Son kyodai talked to him for a few minutes and before we taught him our lesson he told us `I think I want to get baptized.   I've made my decision` so we were pretty excited about that.   But then things got wild.   We were teaching him about how when we are baptized we show commitment to God by obeying allllll of his commandments and he did not like that one bit. Ha ha   He was like WHAT!?   You mean I have to stop drinking tea now??   I can't wait till after I'm baptized and see how I feel then?   This lesson makes me so sad he said,  I feel like my happiness in life is getting taken away from me.  It was a pretty rough lesson, I'm not gonna lie.   So we promised him blessings, told experiences and committed him to pray about it that night.   We went downstairs and then Son kyodai talked to him for like half an hour about the same things we sorta told him but basically just talked to him for half an hour straight without letting Sho get a word in.   So after that when we were walking to the eki (train station) I asked Sho what Son kyodai said and if he talked about our commitments to do our best with commandments?   Ha ha Sho was like `well I think that would have been a good idea but instead he told me about his entire life! ... but the funny thing is I don't think I need tea anymore.  He said, "yeah it's not a problem, from today on I won't drink it anymore.   I wanna get baptized!`   Ha ha I was pretty dang shocked at this considering his previous 2 hours of disgust towards this idea.   So all in all, another miracle viewed because of fasting.  

This week we went apartment shopping and we will be moving into an apartment this next week.  So that will be fun.  I love that whole packing and cleaning thing.  One of my main hobbies!!   I guess our cute lil TINY apartment just ain't making the cut anymore so we must move.   Zannen ne (too bad!!

Umm what things do I want for Christmas... pretty much just my pull up bar and possibly a 2014 calender that has multiple random pictures of the family on each month . One of those neat lil things would be cool.  

Also what do we cook with katsudon?  I don't remember. 

The weather is pretty dang cold, I'm not gonna lie.   The leaves are changed and it is real pretty. but it got cold real fast.   Saijo is pretty dang green like the rest of Japan.

We have no Thanksgiving plans yet.  I don't know if any of the American families are doing anything for us. Prolly not to be honest but that would be a fun time if they did. 

Yes, callings are very fun.  That life of service lets you learn a lot.  Guess God just knows how to teach us well.. through service.

Well I love you all and hope all is well! 

Elder Bloomfield

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1 comment:

  1. Thank for sharing his letters. So proud of that kid! I'm so glad that he sees lessons in his experiences ; )

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