mission stories || by elder young

Dear Friends and Family.

 

HeyEveryone.　its been six months ever since i left on my mission. Well I transfered out of Mito! and now I am in Saitama ken Kawagoe.

Onto the swamps of Saitama!

Well geez a lot happened this last week and i dont know what to start out with.

there was a baptism for one of my investigators the last day i was in Mito! so that was awesome. Her name is Gi san, she is 20, chinese, halarious. Im really happy that she accepted the gospel and was baptized into the church. her parents in china are against her joining the church so it was indeed a big step for her.

let me tell you a little story about how she got to know the missionaries and how she accepted the baptismal invitation and her baptism.

I first met her in a lunch gathering at sister chens house (at the time she was not yet baptized) and there I met gi san. her friends counted total in four (including her) and all of them coulndnt quite speak japanese! or english! so most of the time elder Abe and I were just purely confused in what they were talking about. But the first encounter in that lunch gathering was very fun.

She seldom participated in lessons that we were giving to sister chen and came to church with her every now and then. I could tell she was feeling something... she was attentive and even though she coulndt really understand japanese, she was always asking questions. Thank goodness for brother matsuyama who could speak chinese.

I did have hope for her because as i said she was very attentive and raising her hands for questions and clarification. As Elder richard G Scott taught, raising your hand is an indication to the holy ghost you are prepared to learn.

now time has moved on, sister chen was baptize and we dicided to focus teaching her other friends more. the discussions went well, she was doing all the commitments we were extending.Elder Abe and i felt that we should extend her a baptismal invitation. she accepted and we had a date on 12/19/2010.

we had more discussions and the date approached, however, she was still 19 and she needed to get permission from her parents in china. making a long story short, she couldnt get the permission from her parents and now was uncertain to be baptized even if she turned 20. who could blame her? she did express her support and love from family and friends are very important for her.

christmas came and newyears came. by then Elder Abe has already returned to his home country Finland and i was with my new companion Elder Lewis. for about 15 days we seldom had contacts with her. But we encouraged her, helped her, and taught her. 

Finally passing the christmas newyear after newyear party fever, we had an appointment to teach her. I was very excited for this meeting and have been thinking about what subject to teach her.

Back around christmas, I made a solem determination to make myself more a consecrated missionary in order to be more effective missionary to the lord. Because of that, I feel that i have been more sensitive to recongnizing promptings of the spirit.

The day of teaching gi san, in the morning and as i was taking a shower, I had the impression to teach her about Joseph Smith.

In our personal study time and our companion study time and our language study time we prepared the lesson for gi san and we were ready to teach her.

We had a joint, takeda shimai, and sister chen, and her other friend chuo san come to the discussion.

we began the discussion and taught her about joseph smith (we have taught her about joseph smith long ago, but she was not quite yet investigating the church yet, so we re-taught her)

the lesson went well, now it was out time to bare our testimony about Joseph Smith. My companion first bore his testimony, then sister takeda bore her testimony. After her testimony i was going to bare my testimony, the following experience was one of the most profound moments in my mission, or even my life.

The spirit was already there for the sincere testimonies that Elder Lewis and Sister Takeda made, and I gave the strongest spiritfilled testimony that i have never bore in my life. Once I said `I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet` I felt a burning within me, and i knew that the holy ghost was testifying to me that what just came out of my lips were true. And i knew the spirit was testifying to Gi san too. Then I extended a invitation to be baptized.

she looked at me for a little bit and then turned to sister chen and chuo san and started speaking in chinese for a sec. her friend chuo san actually encouraged her to accept it too haha.

after a little chat amongst them, gi san turned to me and said ` I want to` I said great. Then I added `will you be baptized next sunday?`(which was about 9 days later) she was suprised of how soon it was, but she accepted to be baptized the following week and how greatfully, she was baptized and confirmed the following week at church. The last day I was in Mito.

 

I think about this and Had i not put forth my self to be more consecrated and move forward with faith, I dont know if this would have happend. As I briefly said, this whole lesson was based off of promptings and impressions that we received.

 

what a profound experience it was for me to bare a testimony like the one I gave, and to know that I know joseph smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ!

 

I left Mito now, and i am in a new area now. I hope to be more obedient and continue to keep a humble heart, and qualify for the companionship of the holy ghost and be an effective servant of the lord.

 

well i got to go.

Love you all.