Wow what a week! Life is way good right now. I just Skyped with my family and I am just めちゃ元気now. A couple awesome stories from this week.
Wednesday was a day that started off pretty slow. We didn't have any appointments so we had all day. We decided to bike pretty far and see what happens. Well, this day was insanely windy, probably the windiest that I've seen. It was pretty hard to bike around because the wind was so strong. Every time we would park our bikes, we come back and see that it fell over because of the wind. So, one time, we stopped and decided to knock on some doors. We did a whole apartment complex, but only one person answered. She was Chinese and didn't know any Japanese or English so we kind of awkwardly gave her a flyer and went our way. Went back to our bikes and they were both fallen. We picked them up and tried going, but mine wouldn't go. My chain had gotten super tangled in my gear and pedal. We had to get our hands super dirty to fix it. We said a prayer to help fix it and after about 15 minutes, we were able to fix it, but our hands were filth. We were in the middle of no where with not even a 7/11 near us. We decided to go back to the only apartment that answered us and tried to see if she would let us wash our hands. It was so awkward because she didn't understand a thing we were saying. We showed her our hands and waved them around in washing hands motions and she understood and let us in to wash our hands. It took a long time to get our hands clean, and the whole time we were trying to teach her about our church. Bless her heart, she thought we were crazy and had no idea what we were saying. After it all, we gave her a Book of Mormon in Japanese and asked if it would be okay to come back sometime with a Chinese version and she agreed. Definitely one of the most interesting ways I've ever given a Book of Mormon out. I also learned a lot about repentance from this experience. The bike grease was so bad that no matter how much we tried to wash it off with just water, it would spread. We tried scraping it with our hands, but it just kept getting worse. Everything that we touched turned black as well. It wasn't until this lady gave us dish soap that the blackness started to come off of our hands. The blackness of the grease is our sins and guilt and bad feelings. By ourselves, there is no way that we can be cleansed and freed. It might help a little, but you will spend a lot of time and it is really hard, almost impossible. But, if we apply the soap called the Atonement and help from Priesthood leaders, we will be cleansed and freed from all of the blackness. Repentance and the Atonement allow us to be clean. I really felt that after this experience.
At the end of that same day, we decided to go visit our Vietnamese friends. They let us in and we were able to talk to 3 of the 4 Vietnamese guys that live there. One of them has been to church before but the other two have yet to come. They expressed their desire to come to church and they apologized for not coming last week. We taught them about prayer and they said that they would come to church this Sunday. After that lesson, my companion and I were talking and kind of jokingly we said "ha, what if we got all four of them baptized on the same day as Moose? How crazy would that be?" We laughed and imagined a bit and then we stopped. We were like "hey, why not? That could totally happen!" We thought about it and prayed about it and we decided to make that our goal. 5 baptisms in one day. Absolutely insane, but it is possible. Imagine having 5 guys getting baptized on the same day!?!? We have Moose on date for May 28th and he looks pretty solid for that date. We are now working on getting the others committed for baptism.
Since that day, we have been working with them. Unfortunately, yesterday, only 1 of the 4 came to church, which kind of hurt their chances for getting baptized on the 28th (because of the qualification of being to church 3 times before baptism). But, they had legit reasons for not coming. We went to their house after church and had a great lesson with 3 of them. We gave them a Book of Mormon in Vietnamese and taught them about baptism. We were able to commit two of them (the two who haven't been to church yet) to be baptized when they know that these things are true. The other one said he would think about it. So, in regards to this goal of 5 being baptized, I can honestly see 3 getting baptized that day. Moose has also become friends with them and because he is committed to it, he will help to encourage the others to get baptized with him. So, I have faith that on May 28th, 3 of our friends will start their journey to the celestial kingdom. How amazing is that! Please pray for this to happen!
Things are exploding here in Okayama! I really love it here. Thanks for all of your love and support! I have the best family and friends in the world. Have a great week, and always remember that the best way is the Gospel. It might not be the easiest way, but it is the way that we can receive "never ending happiness." Mosiah 2:41.
Love you!
Elder Lamoreaux ラムロー長老
Japan Kobe Mission 日本神戸伝道部
Tuesday, the ward had a Day Camp activity! They do one every year. We had a BBQ and did some games and also went to see tomb of a former king. This is probably a little more than 1/2 of the ward. We also had 3 investigators come. Tons of fun.
Also, miracle with this one. The weather report said that it would rain on this day. The ward told everyone to pray that it wouldn't rain so that we could have a good time here. Everyone prayed and it ended up not raining. As soon as we started heading home, it started pouring. Prayer is real and it works everyone. If you have faith, anything can happen.
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| Okayama Zone Training Meeting |
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| Love my family!!! |
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