August 15, 2016: Over the hump.

GOOD MORNING,  MIYAKO JAPAN!  It's a nice 26 degrees Celsius with 100% humidity.  It's 12:36pm and it's time to start Elder Halverson's weekly email.

If I could recap this week in one word I would be "finding"!  工藤長老

Elder Kudo and I hit the streets and the rice fields of Miyako this week to find Heavenly Fathers prepared people.  So it all starts on Tuesday, we planned appointments and got flipped around and wound up that Elder Kudo and I had to sprint to catch 3 different buses.  But towards the end of the day we decided to expand the area.  That takes us over in this place surrounded with rice paddies and farm type homes getting nothing but rejection.  Miracles definitely come from enduring and going till we nearly had no time left.   We were housing for 3.5 straight hours and with 19 minutes before eikaiwa, we decided to knock on one last apartment complex.  We knock nobody nobody nobody and the last door opens up and it was a pi that we have been trying to meet with for 12 some odd weeks.  He invites us in and we share a quick message about the Book of Mormon with his family.  If only we had more time, he would have become an investigator but we will go back.  It definitely was a miracle indeed, and it was the one that we needed.  I know that if we use our time wisely the Lord will bless us and we will see miracles.  If anybody has seen the Mormon missionary "Hello" by Adele video it is exactly what happened to me and my comp on Tuesday.

This week has been a lot of lessons learned and not to many lessons taught. 

 Right now it is the Obon Festival and it's basically Japan's Christmas.  My comp (who is Japanese) said it like this.  It's basically the holiday where everyone is actually acting Buddhist and then when it's over it's back to normal life.  Also relating it to Sunday Christians.  Haha he is a funny guy.  But because of that holiday nobody was home and not a lot of people could meet and have lessons.  So we were walking around most of the night talking to as many people as we could.  From that I learned the holiday is for their ancestors.  During this holiday people gather together, go to the gravesites of their ancestors and clean it up, hang out and honor them.  Also after that they go home and give burnt offering to hotokesama (BUDHA). The similarities in the religions is becoming more and more interesting and the realization of the truthfulness is overwhelming.  I know this is the true church and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. 

 Love you and thanks for making this year great and see ya in 1!

 

Elder Halverson

ハルバソン長老~日本仙台伝道部