Week 4: There can be miracles, when you believe!

Hey Everyone!!

When you read the subject, you started singing it, right? 'Cause I did. (Prince of Egypt)

Well... this week was INSANE!! I don't think I can even count the miracles I've seen, but I'll try to tell you about a few of them.

First miracle: towards the beginning of this week, we set a baptismal date with an investigator! He's moved around a lot in his life, so while he is Japanese, he also speaks English with an Australian accent. It's been super fun teaching him. He likes to tell us cool stories about his past, and sometimes we have a hard time focusing, but he really is excited to learn the Gospel! He says that he had trouble sleeping last night because he was excited to meet with the missionaries! haha. Super sweet man!

Second miracle: we were talking with people on the train on the way back from a zone conference, and one of them lived really close to us! That is surprising, because we were still pretty far from where we lived. As we talked with him more, we discovered that he knew what Mormons were, because his boss is Mormon. He seemed to know a lot about the Mormons, so we asked him how he knew so much. He said that it's because he was interested. He had to get off the train, but we should be meeting with him this week.

Third miracle: this miracle was a direct result of trying to be exactly obedient. We were at a huge firework show with some members, and due to some miscommunications, we ended up about an hour away from the nearest train station, and on splits with different members. To make a long story short, we ended up sprinting for about 40 minutes through the crowds and the heat to get back to the train station on time. A few times, we almost stopped, but continued so that we could be on time. When we got back to the church to pick up our bikes, it was just in time to bike back to the apartment and get back on time. However, a car drove in to the parking lot, and the people stopped to talk to us. They said that they were looking for a Christian Church Service. We told them that it would be held tomorrow starting at 10. And they came!! We are hoping to meet with them this week as well. Obedience brings miracles!

There were many more, but those are some of the highlights.

Well... the work is going super well here in Urawa! The members are super awesome! We do a lot of "Dorf Drivebys" (the stake president's name is President Dorf, and they were his idea). We basically stop by a member's home, share a message and a treat, and sometimes the member will give a referral, which is always awesome. As we make friends with ward members, it becomes easier to ask them to help out by fellowshipping investigators and coming to activities, both of which are very important.

We are also working with some less actives. There are a lot of those in our area. :P Some of them are hard to contact, but those that we have been able to contact seem to be happy to talk with us. We're hoping to see a few of them at church soon!

We went on splits a few times, so I had the opportunity to try teaching some lessons on my own (with a member listening) in Japanese, which was interesting, but I think they went all right. I also got to give a short intro and testimony in church. It was exciting and nerve racking, but overall, I think it went all right. I can kind of say
what I want to say in Japanese, it's when they start talking back that I really have a problem... haha.

Well... that's all for this week.

Hurrah for Israel!!!

Elder O'Reilly

These things are EVERYWHERE! And they are way bigger than the bugs at home.
They really scare my companion, which is really funny. :-)

Zone Blitz - Guess I didn't remember to talk about this... we got together as a zone, went on splits with
different missionaries, and talked to people on the street. We found one guy that was interested in religion,
one that had met missionaries before, but had English class time (we helped him figure it out, and he said he would go!),
and handed out a Book of Mormon. It was super fun!! Oh, and this is my district leader, and the Elder I went on splits
with -- super cool guy! In the background is a rice field and scarecrow. Yep, pretty exciting stuff.

Some of the fireworks at the show. Probably the coolest fireworks I've seen.
Sorry this isn't a very good picture. I was too busy eating good food, talking with members,
and enjoying the show.

Me and some of the members. They brought a WAY good picnic. I'm on splits with the one on the far right. The member who took this photo is a super cool dude. Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it in the shot. His hair is featured in the bottom left.

This is a family that fed us and an investigator a meal. The person on the far right of the couch is our new investigator - she's been coming to church for a long time and is excited to start the missionary lessons!