This week was CrAzY!!! And instead of sitting here and wondering what to write, I'll just tell you everything. haha
Monday: An insane amount of reporting. :P Also taught brother S, who is a Less active who just started coming back to church! We are excited to start strengthening him. He came back to church and wanted to start meeting with us! He's come the last two weeks now.
Tuesday: Half day splits in Senzokuike (newer thing. Now when missionaries do splits, both come to the leaders' area, so we go to their area for just 5 or so hours). Including travel, we were gone from 7am - 6pm. Talked with tons of people, and found some new investigators (though none are in our area.)!
Wednesday: Checking missionaries area books, iPads, and having interviews. Then, we taught an Eikaiwa student, Brother A, a lesson about how we are children of God. He didn't take it very well... I think he is willing to meet, but not very willing to take even the simplest principles. Then we taught Eikaiwa (English Conversation Class).
Thursday: Piloted a revision to a digital pamphlet entitled "who is God?" to a nonmember kid they found for us to teach. He was a friend of the church leaders running the pilot. His motives were not because he wanted to know who God was, so that was an interesting lesson... ;) But hey, either way, he knows now! Haha. Visited a man who struggles to come to church due to his health. He is also a pretty new member, so he needs to understand the church doctrines a little better. He was breaking the word of wisdom without realizing it! Haha. We'll be working with Brother W more this week as well.
Friday: Splits with Elder Boris! Such a GREAT missionary!! We followed the Spirit together, and ended up being everywhere at just the right times! Got to the church with our bentos, and thought we had lost our dinner time (we had talked to many people on the way). However, the man we were supposed to teach, called us and told us he would be late, and we found that Bro T (a recent convert) was there just about to eat dinner, so we ate with him, and built a great relationship with him, before an investigator came of his own accord and we had an unplanned
member present lesson. Brother K (The other Elder's investigator, not to be confused with our Brother K) came in and started asking about our lives, when we study, what we do, etc. Then, he suddenly brought up baptism, and it gave Brother T a great opportunity to testify about it. Brought in a great Spirit. Brother T had to leave, but, then, our actual appointment came, and we read the Book of Mormon with Brother I (recent convert) and Brother K. Great day!!
Then, on Saturday, we were able to prepare for our Christmas party on Sunday, and teach Bro O and his mother (non members) at an event called Strive. We actually have it every Saturday night, but I don't think I have written about it. Basically FHE for non-members and some recent converts (of course, we would love for some other members to come, though!) We talked about the Restoration. Had two recent converts come as well, and their testimonies were powerful for that family as well as for Bro Y, a less active who came. Their family has done a lot of research on the church and seems to have a lot of potential! We had time to just call a few people, so I called one of our former investigators, and he came to church for the first two hours! We will hopefully meet with him again this week (we will call him tonight to check with his schedule).
Sunday: Spoke in primary about the symbols of Christmas! They all focused for the three seconds when I pulled up a new picture of a symbol of Christmas, and then missed when I talked about all the Spiritual parts. Oh well. I think at least 2 or 3 of them focused. Then had a great Christmas party! Many of the Eikaiwa students came, and one of them even brought me a gift for being their first Eikaiwa teacher. Great opportunity to talk to them about Christmas's true meaning! Had a sudden call from Brother K, telling us he will come to church next week and wanted to meet with us. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and trying to decide which Christian church to join, but hasn't been willing to meet with us. So this was GREAT progress!!! We meet him tomorrow, and I am SOOO excited!
Then today, we had zone p-day. It was pretty fun. Played jeopardy (I read the questions we prepared) and had a gift exchange. And now we are going to see a castle built without nails with a Recently activated member. Should be fun! We are actually running late, but I would love to tell just one story this week before I go.
On Friday, while we were finding on the way to dinner at the church, we had a prompting to go down a street. We did so, prayed, and followed another prompting. We continued this pattern and felt the Spirit strongly. I was as certain as ever that God was there and was guiding us. We had some great contacts, and we came up with a new
approach, talking to people about the symbols behind their Christmas decorations.
However, we found nothing.
As I discussed this with Elder Boris, we were wondering why we felt the Spirit then.
We came to the conclusion that perhaps we don't have to see a miracle to know that this is God's work. We don't have to be wildly successful to know that God is with us. In fact, we can simply do our best, and know that that is sufficient. In doing so, we get the gift of the Spirit and joy. Regardless of whether there are miracles or not, we will experience the joy of the Spirit and know God. I learned for myself that Faith is earned not by miracles or mighty works, but simply by righteous works.
So let us seek the Spirit through righteous actions this week! As we seek it in all we do, we will feel the joy of the Gospel regardless of the result!
Hurrah for Israel!
Elder O'Reilly
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| Bro. O at the Christmas party |
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| Cleaning up from the Christmas Party! |
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| Zone P-day |
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