A few fun stories...and not so fun stories this week. So remember how I said it's been really cold? Especially in the mornings? Well, we have little space heaters that we put by our feet to keep us somewhat heated. Well...i got a little too close apparently(it was so cold!) cause I smelled something burning. I looked down and my skirt had a huge burnt area on it!!!! Argggg!!! I was upset!....but shoganai. And it was my fault for sitting too close to the heater. But still I was way bummed!!! Ithought my skirts would stay in good shape for at least half the mission!(waaaaa....somebody call the waaambulance...)
Housing in Japan is very interesting. Alot of people here in Japan use those little intercom boxes, so most of the time the people won't even come to the door. But no worries, there are tons of apartments without those intercom boxes! You'd think at least then we'd be able to talk with the people face to face...but no. They talk to you from behind the door. I must say I feel really silly talking to a solid metal door. But, according to the Mission Pres. recently alot of the new converts have been found through 'housing'...So! The Lord has prepared people to hear the gospel! We just have to have faith, go out there and find them!!
Speaking of finding those that are prepared, we definately found one of them! I told you about her before. She came to Eikaiwa the very first day I got here to Kitakyushu/ Well we've been seeing alot of her lately and talked to her about baptism, but she wasn't sure because she didn't want to beleive in 2 gods. She knew there WAS a god...she just didn't know if it was the Buddhist god or the christian god? Anyways, we still continued to teach her about our church and she continued to come to Eikaiwa and church and other church activities.
Well we had a lesson last Friday about the word of wisdom which went really well. We taught her about prophets and how they recieve revelation and how one of those things was the word of wisdom. She took it in VERY well and accepted it right away!
Well, after the lesson we were talking about eikaiwa and whatnot when she said she had a question for us. She had gotten a ride home from a recent convert the night before after eikaiwa and during the drive home he had asked her if she'd been baptized yet. Of course she said no, so he talked to her about his own experience and even recommended to read a section of the BOM ( I don't know exactly where it was) Well, she said that got her thinking. She said she recognized that everyone who was a member of the church had kind of a glow to them...and that she wanted to be a part of it. Yeah, pretty much she, of her own free will, asked US if she could be baptized!!!! We didn't even have to challenge her to do it! AMAZING!!! My heart was literally racing! I thought I was going to explode with happiness!This girl is so amazing. She's had a really hard life up to now. Lots and lots of trials, but her heart is so pure!
I wish I could tell you more about her story, but for today I'm out of time. But in a nutshell, she's gotten permission from both her parents and we've set a date for the 19th of April. I know there will be alot of trials to face between now and that day, but I know if she'll stay faithful and trust in the Lord, she can do it!!!! The gospel is true! It's amazing! It changes people.
