My first week in Japan has been AMAZING!!!
I suppose I'll start at the beginning. On the way over to Japan, I made a goal to talk to everyone about the church. I talked to Buddhists, Atheists, people who had been to Christian churches when they were young, people who had preachers as fathers... all sorts of people. Unfortunately, none with any interest in learning about the church. Only one would accept a Book of Mormon, but a few took pass along cards. It was fun to practice my Japanese, regardless.
Well... when we finally got to the airport, there was a mix up... and the people who had come to the airport to pick us up had already left. We looked around for a bit, and then decided to call the mission home. We had to ask a native for help with the pay phone - apparently we had to dial a 0 before we dialed the number, and I still don't really understand why. We ended up sticking around the airport for a few more hours, so we bought some food and talked to some people. It was an exciting first day.
The next day I met my companion, Elder Abo. He pulled a couple pranks on me, and we pulled some on the other Elders. He'd Facebook stalked me and had some pretty good ways of catching me off guard. It turns out that we have some pretty crazy connections. Essentially, I figured them all out when he announced to the Ward Mission Council that I had dated his cousin and that we came from the same city. I didn't understand much of the Japanese, but I could tell something exciting was going on and that I was involved. So... he is super funny, and
also really motivated, so I'm excited that he's my trainer! I'm sure that I will learn a lot from him.
The Urawa area is AMAZING!!! I already love the people here, the members especially. We can be laughing one minute, and feeling the Spirit through powerful testimony just a few minutes later. I think that is the perfect relationship to have with people as a missionary. Laughing and feeling the Spirit.
As far as investigators go, I haven't met them all yet. As far as I understand, we are teaching a few "eternal investigators" - basically people who have interest, but haven't been keeping commitments. However, in all the ones I've met so far, they seem to be just on the verge of changing. Plus, my referral per day average is about 2 right now, which is pretty good. We already have appointments with a couple of them, so we're hoping to get some new investigators soon. So while this past week has been great, I expect the next week will be even better!
I've seen God's hand in so many ways in the short time I've been here. The Spirit guides what we say, and I've already seen God's love for the people here. I'm so excited to do the work!
Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly
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| This is a pic we sent to the Dendoshunin (Missionary ward leader, I think) to advertise for "Dendo night" - where people can go on splits with the missionaries. |
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