Miracles

This was a long fast week. I promise that I was literally just writing to you yesterday telling you about the year mark.

Here is the run down of what I know in the blur, So, on Monday evening, we went to Ōizumi to kubari, and when we pulled up on our bikes, we can just hear at least 2 political rallies or something with a loud speaker. We look up at the balcony and there are just people gathered everywhere looking at the other side of the Eki, so we naturally want to look too, especially because people don't really do that for anything in Japan. And by the way, we saw Aoki Kyōdai on the way up the escalator as he was going down, it was pretty funny. So at the top, there was a tiny political rally, but that is not what people were watching. There were police and firefighters and paramedics everywhere. I mean everywhere. All of Ōizumi's staff must have been at the Eki on crowd control or working. They had just finished putting out an apartment fire that was literally 10, 20 feet from the Eki. We couldn't walk our normal way around, so we had to take a huge detour. As far as we can tell, the fire was contained and no one was hurt, but it helped the kubari Kai a lot. Everyone wanted to look at the flashing lights and the firefighters. By the way, in Japan, the firefighters uniform looks like samurai armor. It is really cool. But we had a good time and talked to some people about the gospel and the fire, but all was well.

Tuesday: we stormed a police station. Stormed, or visited. Which one sounds better, maybe visited. We went to kichijoji area to the main police station for Hibarigaoka to get the permission to kubari at the Eki. It was a good bike ride away and it was super interesting to see the difference between areas. We went 5 minutes out of our Area to this Eki called Tanashi and the atmosphere was just so different. Then we went tot the police station and got the permission form to fill out. Good adventure. But that is not all, we went to the far north of Ōizumi city and saw the north mission. There is a huge street that had a lot of people and shops on it that starts in our mission and ends in the north, but we will definitely be heading back. We had to get all of the way to the Eki from there though, so we didn't stay for long. On our way south, we ran into Endō Kyōdai, our favorite member with the nice shoes and dendō fire. He always brings lots of friends to talk to us at church or events. We talked to him about electricity physics because he is super smart, and studies that and English and German, and then we went to the final kubari time with our current permission. It was super sad because there were so many people, but it was good and effective until the end, but then we had to stop in the middle of rush hour, so it was an abrupt end.

Wednesday: a bit more relaxed day, we had district meeting and went to Higashikurume to street before Eikaiwa. We taught a man who was on the train platform while we were in the parking lot about how there are different churches. He was really surprised and had thought that they were all the same, but we testified about how the Church was Restored and that there is a living prophet and we can still receive guidance from God. After Eikaiwa, 3 new people stayed for the message about prayer and hope by the Sisters, so that was good!

Thursday: monthly planning, so yeah, it took a while, but it is worth it, we put our plan to action and lots of good has come from it. After dinner we went and found a hidden apartment building that looked tiny from the side street, but it was pretty big. Look for the hidden good in life because it might be like in Japan, where you can hide a 3 story apartment building among 2 story houses and fields right next to a huge center of travel. It is there, you just have to recognize it.

Friday: it rained in the morning, so we went and tried to do something the other Elders have been doing and housing in the morning, it didn't work that well, but the weather was nice. Then we went and tried to visit Uenoyama Kyōdai, but he wasn't home, which is a new thing. We were a little thrown off, and so we had to move our schedule up and we went to Hoya to street. We have found a good time to street in Hoya, at about 5ish and on certain days, there are a lot of people coming home early. That was good. Then we sent some stats for the month to the honbu. After dinner, we walked to the tracks and tried to find some Less Active members who hadn't been visited in a while, but lol and behold, they had moved. So we swung by the Eki to street.

Saturday: we started the day at the church. We cleaned and set up for TOEIC and Eiken, the. Ate some Life food for lunch, and then drumroll, we did Adam's baptismal interview and he passed! He will be baptized next Saturday! Yay! Afterwards, we did a quick companion study, and went and retried visiting Uenoyama Kyōdai. He was not home still and his window was open and we are kind of nervous. He is usually home and not with the upstairs windows open and the downstairs all closed up. We are hoping for the best. We then biked to Kiyose city hall to see about the permission to kubari in Kiyose. The city workers were very confused why we were there, two white guys asking to kubari at the Eki, but then we found out that Kiyose doesn't have its own police department, so we get to go to Tokorozawa area this week. We spent a lot of time up in Kiyose, it is very empty, but the people are super nice and it is pretty. You can see mountains there, so elder Gerritsen was super happy about that. Then we went and streeted in  Hibarigaoka and saw a politician advertising from his bike with a huge flag strapped to the back of it. He had his wife in a car with speakers talking about him. It was pretty funny. They stopped and talked to us from the road. It was pretty interesting.

Sunday: Fast Sunday. So this is where the miracles get crazy. It is the last day of the 40 day fast, and we have a practice lesson after church to teach the Plan of Salvation with a member and we are doing that and a random guy walks in and asks for where Elder Carrasco is. We say, well, he moved, but we are here, so he was like, ok, and sits down in the room that we were having a lesson. We get talking, and find out that he is a really old investigator. He wants to learn English and a little bit about the gospel, so we will be meeting with him soon! Yay, new investigator! And then next part, sad part, but, we went and visited Uenoyama Kyōdai again, and his daughter answers. One, she is never home, and two, he usually answers the door, not her. We find out that he is in the hospital and we are both just like, what, no way, is there anything we can do to help, here is our contact info, please let him know that we came by and want to help out. We were super sad, so went and sent and email to the bishop to let
him know, and then texted Masato. He came to the church 40 minutes later and we had a lesson, the Plan of Salvation lesson we had just practiced for. We talked for about 2 hours and Masato pretty much was fine with it all. He thinks it is kind of like a dream Plan, but he was pretty into it, life after death, heaven, and the purpose of life. Before, he just thought that when we died, that was it. Poof. But now he knows a bit more and has some more hope. I know that we can all be with our families forever and that God loves everyone so much that He sent His Son here to earth to be our perfect example. There is always hope, even when it is hiding, like I said earlier, you just have to find it.

Well, sorry, that went long, but this week was super busy! Here's to another great week for everyone, 愛していますね！
マーフィー長老、ひばりケ丘の宣教師です