It's been a great week! It really is like drinking out of a fire hydrant .I was the first one to get to our first class (which occurred half an hour after arriving) and had the opportunity to carry on a conversation with our teacher. I learned very quickly that in that he was only going to speak Japanese to me, so it was a pretty rough conversation. A lot of the Japanese that I had halfway learned in high school came back to me though so that, at least, was helpful.
On Friday, two days after we got here, we got to teach our first "investigator." His name was Hotta-san, and his story was that he had been given a book of Mormon ten years ago in japan, but lost it, and had recently had a dream about the word Mormon, so he sought out the missionaries. Our first two lessons were terrible. We couldn't understand anything he was telling us, and so we couldn't answer the questions he had about the church, so we just kind of had to read off a prepared script. It was frustrating, because we knew that he had questions we could answer, we just didn't know what they were. So that weekend we spent most of our study time in the computer lab just practicing listening to nihonjin and figuring out what they were saying. That helped so much.
On monday we came in wanting to talk about the book of Mormon, but we realized that he was asking us about getting answers to prayers, so we just talked about that (as best we could) for the lesson. We walked out feeling really good about what we taught, and that we had finally the felt the spirit a little bit in our lesson. It's crazy though how one day you can feel really good about where you are, but the next day feel the opposite.
Our next lesson was rough. We had assigned him to read Moroni 10 (which is a marvelous chapter, by the way) and pray to feel the spirit, but we didn't think to follow up on that, so we came in planning to talk about the Restoration. Instead, he asked us what the gift of the spirit was, and how you get it, like he had read in Moroni 10. Well we weren't prepared for that (i.e. we didn't know any Japanese pertaining to baptism) and so we walked out feeling like we didn't help him learn anything.
Yesterday in class we talked about how you need to teach the principles of the gospel, but you need to teach them to the needs of the investigator. It really clicked to us then that we had never just asked him what he wanted to know, and tried to teach that. So we prepared a lesson plan on the atonement and the doctrine of Christ, but our goal was to just ask him what he wanted to know and then teach that. So we came in and sat down, prayed, and just asked that.
He told us that he had hoped the missionaries would be able to help him figure out what he should do with his life, whether he should keep working at his book store or go to college or find a different job, or what, but we had just come and started talking about god and Christ and the spirit. Now, those are all REALLY good things, but they weren't framed in a way where he saw that they helped him. So we told him that we couldn't help him figure out what he should do with his life, but God could, and asked him to pray about it, and just pray about the things he wanted to know and wanted to have. SO he prayed and it was really sincere and you could tell it was different than they ways he had prayed before. Then he said he thought prayer was good but felt like he needed more in his life than just prayer, so we started to teach the doctrine of Christ.
Unfortunately we ran out of time because the companionship before us had turned their 20 minute lesson into a 60 minute one, so he had to leave, and it was SO frustrating. We had finally gotten through to him and framed the gospel in a way applicable to him, and we didn't have any more time. You could ask my companion, I was really upset. I felt like our first 4 lessons were wasted, and we were just beginning. It was rough. However, I knew that we were on the right path with our teaching, and my companion assured me that we would start out right next time, and I believe that.
Speaking of my companion, his name is Elder Eadie (Eadie Choro in japanese). He was a power lifter at the Air Force Academy before coming here, and could take me out as soon as he wanted to. He a really good guy though. We're both kind of "Type B" personalities, so there have been lots of times when we just don't say anything to each other. We're working on communicating more with each other though, and we're becoming better and better friends each day which is good. Also, our district is becoming really really close. We spend just about all day every day together, with 9 or so of those hours in a small classroom. They're all really cool and we all come from really different backgrounds, so it's a great mix of personalities.
There's one elder, Farias Choro, who's from Brazil. His companion taught him how to challenge people to fights in Japanese, so he keeps on telling all of us to "come at him" in nihongo whenever we tease him about Brasil losing to Germany 7-1 in the world cup (which is a lot). He thinks it's his fault because he reported to the MTC 8 hours late so he could watch the game, and God was saying "oh, you're going to keep watching instead of being where you're supposed to? Here's another goal!) It's really funny.
Along with that, we have some really spiritual times where we all share scriptures with each other and just talk about them, and I think those times are when I feel the spirit strongest here. One of the Elders in our district wasn't active until a year or so before his mission, and whenever he tells us stories the spirit you feel is amazing. Also, we're engaged in a residence building-wide war right now. See, there are only two irons in the entire building when there should be sixteen. So we've been seeing who can keep the irons on their floor the longest without them being stolen. Currently we're winning because Eadie Choro and I have them locked in our lock-boxes in our bedrooms.
Also, I inadvertently invented a new game when I first got here. Whenever I saw elder miller (Eli) at meal times, I would steal food off his plate. After a few days of this, Eadie Choro suggested that I start giving him food to throw him off. I gave him a banana, and so we started trying to give the banana back in more and more creative ways. This turned into a Japanese -missionary wide game where we try to sneak bananas into each others pockets and other personal belongings. It's fun but the paranoia is building. We also have a soccer rivalry going with the Korean elders. They keep beating us though.
Angie's dad spoke at our Sunday fireside, and gave a really great talk about charity and loving who you teach. I knew that you had to before, but it helped shift my focus and clarify some things that I was doing wrong, and I think it contributed to our success in our lesson the next day. That went really well with our Tuesday fireside where a former general authority spoke about taking Christ's name in vain. He pointed out that it's not just saying His name, but we as members, and especially missionaries in a literal sense with our name tags, have taken on Christ's name and are His representatives, so we should be working to represent Him in all that we do. As missionaries, that means teaching those we meet with charity. And Wednesday I learned that that means teaching what they need, not what you think they need.
I can really feel my testimony growing. I'm trying every day to be more like Christ both for myself and so I can represent Him better as a missionary, and it's helping me learn and believe more and more about the gospel. The gift of tongues is a real thing, I've learned crazy amounts of Japanese in a week, more than I ever thought was possible. Also, it's just wonderful being with a group of people (my district) that loves the gospel so much and who talk about it all the time.
In one of our scripture sharing sessions, we read a scripture in Alma that's stuck with me all week. Alma 7:11-13. I know it was a scripture mastery but it's just really taken on a new meaning for me as I've thought a lot about the atonement and how I need to use it to help me and those I teach. Have a good week, y'all.
Love, Elder Callahan.
