Well, this week we have been jumping all over the place. Meetings all over. Which means lots of time to teach people on trains! It has been great! We have been teaching so much recently, it's been fantastic.
So like the title says, this week we had the opportunity to have a blitz as a district! Which means we all gathered together, and proselyted in the same area for a couple of hours! We were able to see some great success. In fact our recent convert Saito came! It was great experience! I even had the opportunity to go and teach Brother Saito how to do some missionary work! It was a fantastic experience.
We went out and knocked on a lot of doors! Then we came back, and I started to hand out some English flyers. While doing this, I saw a man come out of a shop near me, so a walked up to him and said, "Hello! Do you like English?" And then he also responded, still in English, "Yes! I do!"'. Well, after talking to him, I found out that he did an exchange program, and had had the opportunity to live in Ireland for a few months, and that's why he was able to speak so well! We got to talking, and I found out he was an English teacher for a nearby school, and I told him that we were missionaries, and we had a great conversation. He then took a flyer and said,"Let's meet again," and then left. After another 20 minutes of handing out flyers, my hands were frozen. It's hard to hand out flyers and wear gloves at the same time, so I usually do it without gloves, but when it is literally freezing outside, it can get kind of uncomfortable. But while I'm handing these out, I see the guy I had met 20 minutes earlier, and he runs up to me, and gives me a piping hot can of black coffee! It was in a can, and it was so warm I could refuse! Don't worry, I didn't drink it. Anyways, he asked me when I would get off work, and I said, well, technically I'm a full time missionary so I don't get off, and we both laughed, and he sad, "Well when do you finish? I want to take you drinking with me!" I was flattered, but I had to tell this great man that I don't drink because of my religion, and he understood, and said, "What about dinner?" By this time it was almost 8:30, so we didn't have time to do that, but I said that we didn't have time now, but that we would love to go out to dinner with him another night, and I would also like to explain our purpose as missionaries, and said he would love to, so we exchanged contact information, and said our goodbyes. It was a great experience.
This week's ponderize scripture is from 2 Nephi 33:4: And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.
I want you to know that I love each of you, and I'm so very thankful for all of the support you have shown me! I hope you have another great week! Love you!
Dad, about the Book of Mormon, I don't know if I have any noteworthy thoughts or anything that I wouldn't have already said, but concerning the tree of life, I think the thing that stuck out to me the most was Lehi's reaction immediately after partaking of the fruit. He ate this fruit, which we can assume was more delicious than we can comprehend, and the first thought was he wanted to share this. And I think this not only related to missionaries but to all members, we have this fruit, and all of the blessings thereof, and we all just want to share it, and we want other people to eat it, but sometimes we're scared, but they might not think the fruit is as delicious as we think it is, or they might take it less seriously than we think they should, and that can be a scary thought. But the reason we do share it is because of the sweetness we found from it. And it's true, some people might not be ready for this level of deliciousness, but if we share it even with those that aren't quite ready, they will know how to find it when they are. They will know how to get the fruit when they are ready, but it's up to us to show them how, so that they will be able to when the time comes! Those are a few of my thoughts on it. I hope that helps!
Love you all!
Elder Tolen
希望を持ち続けてください。旅を続けてください。
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| Elder Tolen and his first Zone Leader, Elder Etchu |
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