Week 50 - 07/29/18 - Group Email

It was a great week here in 厚木! One of the highlights was from a lesson we had with our investigator named Taiki. I have known him for awhile because he comes to english class and the other Elders used to teach him. Well since we dropped down to 2 Elders I get to teach him now! During the lesson he shared a lot of trials he is experiencing right now. For example his Mom is terminally ill and has dementia so he can't communicate well with her. On top of that he says his father doesn't love him and sometimes abuses his mother. When he was telling us those things I felt a super strong love for him and a desire for him to be happy. It was a really cool experience and the spirit was strong in that lesson. It really makes such a difference when I'm able to feel that love for those we teach. I was able to testify that the Book of Mormon and prayer really can help him feel happiness despite his circumstances! He's an awesome kid! 

One day this week we were supposed to get slammed by a big typhoon so we had to stay inside for the latter half of the day. Luckily the storm kinda missed us and it just rained a bit. I got to call a bunch of people from area book during that time though which I honestly kind of enjoy. You never know who you're gonna get on the other end when you call old investigators lol. It's a good time! To explain the subject line people in Japan say "moshimoshi" when they answer the phone. I absolutely love it haha

Yesterday we were housing and came across a gravel road that had a bunch of identical looking, tiny, beat up houses so we decided to knock some doors. We didn't get far until a rougher looking guy came out just super angry and yelling at us. He said he was gonna call the cops and that we couldn't be there. I'm just like calm down dude we didn't know haha. I pulled the "gaijin" card as well but he didn't like that. Well after awhile I got him to chill out and was able to explain what we were doing. He said that area was for people with bad behavior or if they have a dog, mental issues... and he had a dog lol. He said it's dangerous in that area and that we definitely shouldn't be there. I was a bit confused because it was literally in the middle of a neighborhood but wakaranai. In the end he was a chill dude and even let us pet his dog haha.That was the most adrenaline I've felt for the past year, I'm not used to it anymore! 

One last funny story. Everytime we pray we play jankenpon (rock paper scissors) to decide who prays. Well anyway we were leaving our apartent and I won so I started praying and instead of saying "Dear Heavenly Father" I said Saishogu... hahaha. We had a good laugh about that. 

We have some solid plans for this week so I'm looking forward to that! 

暑いから気をつけてね！

ディーン長老
Elder Dean