Halverson Chourou: February 29, 2016 大館 Week 2

This week was one of the rougher ones thus far in the mission. After I finished emailing last week, Elder Taneda and I were out trying to find and visit old Q'S around close to where we live. Not a soul to be found... Either moved or not home! It's ok, it's the usual around here. Never very many people out on the streets during the day! When the sun goes down, it's like the whole city turns into a ghost town! No lights and hardly any people. It's like Bear Lake at night. Cold nothing around, really cool actually!

Tuesday we tried to have two lessons with investigators that are showing little to no progression. The first investigator was battling with us saying that he can't come to church because he doesn't own a suit. He tried to explain to the guy that it's ok if you don't have a suit. It's written in the pamphlet to make sure that when people show up to church they aren't wearing anything crazy like a feather hat. Weird because he loves talking with us and then he fights us on the message we share, then invites us back. Saying the same thing over again and answering a question and then he comes up with another dumb excuse. Same with the next investigator we visited. He loves talking and has a baptism date BUT.... The date is for this week and he completely forgot all about it. He can't be baptized because he has to come to church 3 straight weeks and that hasn’t happened and then there is the fact he smokes. I wasn't here when they set the baptismal date, so I think that will be postponed for a while. He also loves talking to us and the feeling he gets hearing a message. YEAH INVESTIGATORS RIGHT?? Fun but frustrating. Oh yeah it snowed all day too and for the 3rd day in a row!

Wednesday is FHE, investigator lesson, and a less active!

First of all the less active. He is like our investigator from the day before. He is really stubborn, he owns a little shop on the corner of a street and every time we meet he always comes up with some sorts of lame excuse of why he is busy. Today when we tried to visit he said that he was too busy to talk, when in reality I could see him watching TV in the back room. YAY LESS ACTIVES! I think by the end of this week as a companionship we have been really good at beating dead horses. I’m joking. Next we had FHE with a member, the other male member besides the branch president! It was really fun! Played cards shared a nice message! Good time! Finally a lesson with an investigator that shows serious promise to be baptized!!!! YAY INVESTIGATORS!! But there is a problem. He is moving to Tokyo for school at the end of the month...and he can't come to church because he has work on Sunday. But he said that he is wants to meet with missionaries in Tokyo!

Thursday was an all-day travel day to Morioka for a special conference .... 7 hours of train rides. Nobody on the train either!!!

Friday was a conference was given by Elder Choi who is a member of the area presidency (the Asia north area). He is from Korea! One of the best things I learned from him was just to open your mouth. When you do, the spirit can testify to the people. He gave an example of himself! English is his second language. He gave the entire training in English. He said that "my English is not perfect' I make mistakes right!?!" He made all of us agree with him. Ha Ha Then he goes on to say "but you can understand what I am telling you and the spirit is feeling you truths that I am teaching!" "so just open your mouth, it doesn't matter if you mess up, I am messing up right now!" "Don't waste your time being afraid of the mistakes, use your time the best you can! Use all your time serving the Lord! Last thing I want to share from him, he said he learned English on his mission for the kingdom of God! To benefit the kingdom he needed to learn English!!

And that punched me right in the face how true that was! I want to be fluent in Japanese, I want to be good! However, I did lose track of the fact that I am learning Japanese for the kingdom of God! After that it really lifted all my stress that I had been experiencing over the last few days! I can't explain it but it just gave me a boost to get going in the work and try that little bit harder! What a great day!

Saturday is weekly planning and eikaiwa. That really is all that was Saturday those two things!

Sunday was Progress! We had a member move into the branch from Sapporo and the attendance at church was up to 16! And we handed out 3 Books of Mormon to the 4 people we saw on the street!! Whooyo!!

That is all for now love you and have a good week!!

Elder Halverson

ハルバソン長老~日本仙台伝道部