Monday, April 14, 2014

Elder Young and I at conference with Sister Uchida,
a deaf member who is working on coming
back to church and going to the temple!

Hey everyone!

It's been another good week here in Yamate. We had a zone conference on Tuesday, and that went really well. There were some really good trainings, and President Wada seemed to be pleased with how things went.

On Friday we went on exchanges with the Elders down in Yokosuka. That ended up turning out really well. They have an investigator who they've been working with for a long time but isn't really going anywhere, and they weren't sure what direction to take things. I asked them a few questions about why he wants to meet with us missionaries, what he hopes to get out of it, and things like that. They didn't know, so I decided that instead of teaching a lesson we needed to figure out those out. The meeting with him went really, really well. We just sat back, took a more relaxed approach, and just talked with him, asking questions and listening. There was quite a bit we were able to find out, and once we knew where he was coming from, it made it more clear how we could help him. He actually expressed a good amount of interest in baptism by the end of the lesson too. It really
is amazing how important it is to just ask those simple questions and really listen. I'm kinda sad I don't get to meet with him again. He's a really cool guy. I'm glad that the Yokosuka Elders now have a more clear direction on where to take things now though.

Later that same night I got back to Yamate, and Elder Young and I met up with someone we had met a week or two ago. When we first met him on the street he was hesitant to trade phone numbers, but he friend-ed us
on Facebook, and we were able to keep in contact that way. We went out and grabbed some dinner with him, and had a great discussion, getting to know him better, and becoming friends. After a little bit he started to really warm up. We'll be meeting up with him again this week.

General conference was really good. Every time they brought up the Gilbert Temple everyone turned and looked at me. I thought that was kinda funny. There were some great talks though. I'm really glad that we were able to have so many non-member friends in attendance. It was a great spiritual experience for all of them.

That's about it for this week! Thanks again for your emails! Talk to you all next week!

Elder Blake