January 23, 2012

Dear Family-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! I sure do love you. I wish I could tell you all the ways thinking about your mission has helped me on mine. When January began it hit me that my mission ends this year. I've re-commited this past week to work as hard as I can until the very last day.

We had a huge bowl of sushi and rice last night at a member's house and before serving it they asked if there was any food I don't like to eat. Kai Shimai spoke up before I could and said that I love ALL Japanese food. That made me pretty happy. I'm glad she can say that. I laughed when I read Dad's Dear Elder this week that said he would rather eat cow stomach than sushi... there's absolutely no competition in my mind. I wish I could eat sushi every day. Actually, the nastiest thing I've eaten so far on my mission was some meat and beans that a member from Bolivia made for us. When I was choking that down I thought about Dad and Cam, and was sure glad to have been called to Japan.

Today I rescued a lady. She had tears in her eyes when she thanked me. I felt like a hero...Kai Shimai and I had just headed into a store to buy some things but first Kai Shimai had to go to the restroom. She darted in and I followed behind and paused in the large entry-way of the bathroom. Across from me was a large restroom adapted for wheelchairs. It had a sliding door that was shut, but had an opaque window in it about chest-level. There was a person on the other side that seemed to be trying to open the door, and I could faintly hear them saying: "excuse me!" (Except it was in Japanese of course). I tried to open the door but it was shut very tight. As I pushed harder, I thought to myself: "If I didn't hear correctly, this could be disastrous..." But I didn't dwell on that for too long. I pushed a little harder and the door slid open. Thankfully the grandma who had been inside really had been stuck and had gone into somewhat of a minor panic. She thanked me profusely and bowed to me several times before heading out. It was a bonding experience. Next time we meet I'll give her a Book of Mormon and open another door in her life... (Bad humor... Sorry.)

Well, yesterday after church one of our investigators named Fukuda came to the church building and we had a lesson. He works on Sundays but comes to the church building right after work and then we meet. This week, Sister Kai had called him before and asked him to read 2 Nephi 27, because it has a lot of prophesies in it about the Book of Mormon and he seems to like that sort of thing. Anyway, before the lesson we had to wait for a little bit for a member who was going to teach with us, so Fukuda and a different ward member started talking. When the ward member came, we went into the room and Fukuda and the other ward member had already started going over 2Ne 27 and Fukuda had already opened to the chapter in Isaiah that has the same prophecies. He is like that. He's a pretty deep thinker, and he's likes reading the Bible (and now the Book of Mormon) like they are history novels. He doesn't pay as much attention to the spiritual aspect of them, but has begun to do so more since we have been meeting.

Yesterday during our lesson, we had planned to just teach prayer and scripture study as commandments. We did and it went well. We hadn't planned much and as a result focused a lot more on Fukuda than on 'our lesson', which is how it should be anyway. I was a lot more open to his comments and to the guidance of the Holy Ghost because of that. It was wonderful to be there and just feel the testimonies of us and of the ward members being accompanied by the Spirit. I'm going to do a lot less specific planning from now on.

After we asked him to read and pray every day I thought, "we should ask him to be baptized again." We have asked him to be baptized every lesson, and he never commits. I whispered the word baptism to Kai Shimai, just to see what she would think, and she turned right to him and asked him (later she said she had been thinking the same thing). This time he said that if the time was right he would think about it. I looked at my calendar for the second Sunday in March because I heard him say before that he works every Sunday until then; and then I asked him how March 11th sounded as a baptismal goal. He seemed taken off-guard and then said something about "the earthquake?" Wow. How could I have forgotten that THAT day is the anniversary of the earthquake? I felt terrible. I've had so many conversations with people on the street when they mention "3/11" and how scary that day was and still is to them. I didn't know what to say to Fukuda, but before I could think of anything he said that Yes, that date could be the goal. In afterthought, Kai Shimai and I think it's actually a good thing for him because it's such a big day and he'll probably like being baptized on such a day. Anyway, it was an interesting experience and I'm glad the Spirit was there to smooth things out.

Well, I love you all. It was fun to read your talks! Thanks for making me sound like something great! I hope someday I can be half the missionary you all think I am.

Love,

ウェイト姉妹