Week 16: The Unexpected Answer

Hey Everyone!

First, thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! I loved all the notes and emails - I'm sorry I can't respond to them all today. Sorry. :P

Anyways... This week was crazy. Flat out insane.

It started out with the mission website totally breaking - all the sudden, none of the pages were connecting as they should. Basically, we couldn't navigate the page at all. And then we tried to fix it - and the page went down entirely.

We spent pretty much every free moment working on that from Monday until Thursday, when we were finally able to find and fix the problem. So we were basically stuck around the office 24/7 for those days.

However, we still set our goals high, and prayed (and fasted a bit, too) for miracles. When we did this, I was honestly thinking that that would mean that the web page would be fixed quickly, and we would be able to resume normal work. However, I find more and more that prayers are answered in unexpected and incredible ways, that are beyond my own wisdom or even imagination. Looking back on it, the broken web page was, in itself, a large part of the miracle, even if I didn't see it in the moment.

The first miracle came on Wednesday. A less active member, Brother T. came to the church, which just so happens to be right next to the office, with a friend in the middle of the day. We were there at a time when no other missionary would have been available, but we took a break to go say hi.

It turned out that he brought a friend to play badminton, so we played them, and then "taught"  a message. And by taught, I mean we watched the less active teach and testify about the Plan of Salvation to his non-member friend. The Spirit was SO present, and we set a baptismal date with his friend! We are hoping that this will be the beginning of a great opportunity for both Brother T. and Brother M., his friend.

Then, Thursday, right as we were fixing up the last bits of the problem, we got a call on the office phone. No one else was in the office, and it would have gone unanswered.

When we picked up the phone, we "met," in a way, Brother S. He is as golden as investigators get.

He had met with missionaries 4 or 5 years back, and therefore had a really old flier. Most of the numbers no longer worked, but one had stayed the same - the office number. For some unknown reason, the missionaries stopped visiting him, but to explain how much of a golden investigator he is, I'll give a brief summary of the conversation
(translated):

"Hello! Tokyo Mission mission home!"

"Hello this is Brother S! Is this the missionaries?"

"Yes!"

"I haven't seen the missionaries in a while, and I'm starting to be a little worried - but I'm still keeping all the commandments!"

"Oh really! Do you want to be baptized?"

"Yes!"

And then we went on from there to see where he lived to send the missionaries, only to find out he lives in our area! We met with him, and we challenged him to read from the Book of Mormon and Pray, he informed us that he was already doing so everyday! When we taught him, he showed that he still remembered a good portion of the lessons, and said that he believed it. When we set a baptismal date, he readily accepted.

Now, this flier that he had had several numbers on it - he had tried the others several times, with no luck. For some reason, he decided to try our number one more time, and we were there fixing the website.

So this was the unexpected answer. It was not the answer I wanted, or expected. I wanted Him to just come in and fix everything. But it didn't work that way. It came in the answer of hold on a little longer, keep going, and things will work out the way they are meant to. Understanding of the answer did not come immediately, and at first, things were a little frustrating. But in hindsight, God's way was by far superior to mine. Not only did we find the greatest golden investigators in the world, but I think I learned some, too. Sometimes it is hard to see things the way God does, and be patient enough to receive His answers, but it is always the best way in the end.

So God really does answer prayers, even if it is not in the way we want or expect!

So trust Him this week!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly

Elder O'Reilly lives on the 2nd floor of the white building in the background.
 (I think... I found it on google maps)

Me, messing around with the jack-o-lantern I got in my package. :)

District Lunch!