Trainee has been received. Her name is Wagstaff shimai. She's an inch taller than I am with red hair, majoring in music and theater at the U. Her Japanese is probably the level of a late-2nd, early-3rd transfer, although she claims to have never studied it before her mission. She's very diligent, and very outspoken with her opinions. I would say she's pretty much perfect missionary material. There's not too much I have to do with this one, but I'm trying to find ways to push her out of her comfort zone.
So, haha, I've been biking faster than I have in a long time. She's holding up pretty well--I've only lost her twice.
On the way back, we went to the bus station (MUCH cheaper than trains) and after circling between three bus lines for two and a half hours, we found out that the next open bus to Imabari was at 6 P.M. on Friday.
Forget that. We're going to Okayama.
So the sisters changed their number. They didn't know we were coming until we were at their step saying howdy. It was really crazy. Okayama has changed so much. I, of course, nosed in and interrogated them about the faces I knew and loved. There was plenty of sweet and plenty of bitter.
Well, Friday and Saturday were largely inside days, but for fun, I took my new trainee housing. It's hard to just let them go at it. I feel for Donnelly shimai--she must have trusted God a lot. We planted a few seeds and came up with a few good ideas for housing contacts.
Sunday, my trainee had a great time and got to know a lot of the members. :) We also got to visit a couple who is uninterested, but likes socializing and listens to our lessons so long as they don't know that they're lessons. (Don't get me wrong--we don't water down the doctrine or give them weak commitments, but...it's interesting.) Last time we saw her, we committed Y-shimai to pray every day for that week and she agreed. Today, we dropped by and she said, "Sorry, we're just leaving, but thank you for teaching me the prayer thing. I had a really bad headache the other day, and then I remembered what you said about prayer. So I prayed and it just went away!"
BOOM BABY. That was very exciting. I actually couldn't believe that she had 1.) followed up on herself, 2.) remembered the event and remembered to tell us and 3.) understood its direct correlation to prayer.
Maybe we'll work a little longer with this couple.
Well, that's it for today. Our lessons, thank heavens, haven't been down, but they have largely not been with our normal investigators. I think it's time to start cleaning up our investigator pool to make room for ones with whom my trainee can gain some solid experience with--that's really all she needs. She's got everything else down pretty well. Now we just got to get her talking and me trusting in the Lord.
But, if we learned anything this week, it's that prayer works.
Love you all and I'd like to challenge you to put a little special effort into your prayers this week. God hears them. He is the Creator of the universe and our beloved Father. He wants to speak to us. He wants to give us blessings. The bible dictionary says that "prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." (Italics added)
I love the Bible Dictionary and I love all of you. Prayer works. The Gospel is true. God loves his children.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
Sanzu shimai
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