Monday, October 28, 2013

Hello Everyone!

 

How have you all been this week? I hope you're all having a great time!

For P-day last week we went with Bishop
Kawashima and two of his kids (Meimei and Rei)
to tour the Suntory beer factory. It was pretty
 interesting I guess. I was hoping to see more
of the machinery and how the factory works.
Instead I learned how the proper choice of ingredients
makes better beer, and how they produce the beer itself.
Oh, and I learned how to properly pour a
glass of beer. Haha!

   So, Wednesday we had a pretty cool experience. We had a pretty full schedule between the English class we teach every Wednesday, a practice lesson we had set up with a member, and trying to track down some names the Bishop gave us of people who are on the Ward list but nobody know who on earth the are. We had less than an hour to do any finding, but we set a goal to find somebody in that hour-ish window who would be willing to go with us back to the church and do a church tour. We hit the street, and we couldn't get anybody. Time was up, and we turned to head over to the church for English Class. From where we were, we had just enough time to make it to the church on time for set up if we didn't stop and talk with anyone. As we're walking, I see this guy, and I'm about to just pass him without saying anything so we can make it to the church on time. Then I had the thought that maybe I should try talking with him anyway, and before I had time to make a decision, I called out to him without thinking. It's a good thing I did, because he stopped and talked with us. He didn't go back with us to the church like we had set a goal for, but he traded numbers, we set a lesson, and he's really excited to meet and learn more. We even said a prayer with him right there in the street before we went our separate ways. We ended up being a little late to the church, but that's ok. I'd say it was a good trade off.

Ward Halloween party on Saturday.
One of the kids dressed up as Goku

   Sunday ended up being pretty cool too. I was already really impressed and very grateful for how kind and thoughtful everyone in the Fuchu Ward was for my birthday, but it turns out it wasn't over. There were a couple families who didn't find out it was my birthday until after the fact, so they threw together a "Birthday Party" for me after church yesterday. We had lunch, dessert, and everyone sang for me. How nice of them! But, that wasn't the best part of Sunday! There's a man who's been coming to English class for a couple of weeks by the name of "Paw". That's his nick-name. Not sure why. Anyways, we invited him to hear the missionary lessons, and he told us "maybe". Last week he said that he was thinking about coming to church on Sunday. We told him we would love to see him there. Saturday night we get an email from the missionaries in Kichijoji telling us about a baptism they're having the next day (Sunday). Elder Otsuka and I both thought it sure would be nice if we had somebody who could come to the Baptism. All of our investigators were busy and couldn't make it. We decided that if Paw came to church, we would invite him. Well, guess what? Paw came to church! That was already pretty exciting as it is. We invited him to the Baptism in Kichijoji that night at 7. He said he'd think about it and call us back. He did. And he went! The Lord is definitely mindful of us. Paw had a good time, and said it was a great experience. I'm excited to try inviting him to hear the lessons again now.

   That's about it for this week! Talk to you all later!

Elder Blake