Konnichiwa!I'm glad everyone had a good Labor day weekend. Sounds like it was full of fantastic fun-ness...boats breaking down, spilling water on art...filling rooms with red balloons...etc. etc.
So this week went by WAY too fast. I'm slowly getting used to the new "system". Everything we do is "the same" but yet so different in each area. It's a little frustrating because I feel like I'm starting at zero again...but who knows, maybe that's what Fukuoka ward needs. Unfortunately we haven't been able to make any appointments with our investigators...at ALL. They're all super busy with school/work and whatnot...frustrating. But we've taken the extra time to do ALOT of contacting. Remember how our mission has set a goal for 250 contacts and 15 lessons? Well, we totally rocked it and contacted 350 with 10 lessons!!!!!! (Although only one of those was a lesson with a current investigator...but still)
I still haven't figured out "my way" of doing things as a senior companion, but little by little I'm getting the hang of things. There's so much I want to do and so much room for improvement...the only problem is that time goes by too fast!!!ahhhhhh!
So funny story of the week. This week while we were streeting I walked up to some lady who said she was a member of some light of God religion. She put her hand up and held it above my arm and said "Thank you for letting me put God's light on you." ...uh, yeah. So my reaction was like "huh?" and she goes " I am filled with the light of God, and right now I am letting God's light come out through my hand onto you. Thank you for letting me do this! Hontou ni ureshii desu (I am so happy)" So, doing all I could to keep myself from laughing I invited her to hear our message and went on my way. Yeah...missionaries have quite the strange experiences.
On the other hand we ran into a REALLY great couple as we were biking home the other day. We weren't able to get their number or set up a next appointment, but they were super interested in the Book of Mormon and in the missionaries and our lifestyle. This is SO rare! Especially since it was a COUPLE that was interested. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and to call us to let us know how it was. I don't think we'll be the missionaries that get to share the gospel with them, but I know someday they'll meet the missionaries again.
We still have a baptismal date for the Chinese girl. O-san. She's got such pure faith! Now the question is how willing is she to commit to living the gospel? In our lessons she says she wants to try her best. The biggest obstacle for her is to keep the sabbath day holy...something that seems impossible to do especially for a Chinese student in Japan. We promised her that if she had the desire to keep this commandment that God would provide a way, cause he wouldn't ask us to come to church every week if it wasn't possible. She said she'll do everything she can and I guess that's all we can ask for. O-san is ready for baptism, but I have a feeling we're going to have to keep working with her closely long after baptism as well.
Computer lady just told me my time's up, so I gotta run.
Love you tons! Write me fun stories!
Sister Osterloh
