Miracle Week!

Hello everyone! This week flew by and we saw a miracle with our main
investigator! Her name is Hiromi Yano, I believed I have talked a
little about her before but she is in her 50s and a really nice lady
who loves to talk. This past week we showed up at her house with ice
cream and taught her a lesson focused on baptism. As we explained it
and invited her she said she would be baptized! During the lesson we
actually had some pretty weird things go down though. Right after the
lesson started there was a knock at the door and it was some
missionary for some "Utopia" church. The missionary started talking to
us in the middle of our lesson and then Hiromi San told her to come
inside because she was letting bugs inside. So now there is all of us
in her front room and this missionary is giving her intro to her
church when after 5 minutes goes by another knock on he door. Guess
who it is? Jehovahs witnesses.. They open up the door and my companion
and I start to laugh a little bit because of how weird this situation
is. Hiromi San tells them to leave because there's to many people in
her home and then shortly thereafter told the other missionary lady to
leave as well. We finished out our lesson and thankfully it all turned
out well.

Then later in the week we invited her to have a lesson at the church
with a couple members jointing the lesson. That lesson went really
well and the joints helped out a ton. We extended the baptismal invite
again but this time with a date attached and she accepted! So now we
have a baptismal date set with her and it is for July 9th! Elder
Ratzlaff and I couldn't stop smiling after the lesson. We were so
happy because we felt like we had been working so hard and not seeing
many results but we finally had been able to get somewhere with our
investigator. After the lesson the joints invited her to church and
she came and had a great time with everyone! It was truly a miracle in
my eyes and we have 2 lessons set with her this week and she said she
wants to come to church again.

During the week we also were able to meet with a member, her name is
Sister Harada. I think I sent a picture we took with her last week.
Anyways we met with her and talked with her about the Book of Mormon
and all took turns bearing testimony of it. It was a really great
spiritual experience. Afterwards when she opened the Book of Mormon we
saw something was written on the front cover, it looked like dates or
something like that. We asked what it was and she said it was the
start date and end date of all the times she had read the Book of
Mormon. She has read it 73 times and is currently on her 74th time
through! Her testimony and knowledge of the scriptures is so powerful
and we could tell that just from speaking with her. One thing I have
really come to realize is how strong the testimonies are of the Saints
here in Japan. Many of them are in small groups at church, the only
members of their family, or facing other of life's numerous
difficulties but continue to be faithful. Continue to come to church,
to pray, and diligently study the scriptures. They are all such great
examples to me!

To end I'd like to share a pretty terrifying (at first) experience I
had yesterday. So my companion and I were getting ready for church as
usual in the morning and we get a call from one of the branch
presidency counsellors. He asks to talk to me and then onegais (ask a
favor of) me to give a 10 minute talk in sacrament meeting that day
because someone fell through. A ten minute talk at the last second
doesn't seem to difficult and as a missionary really isn't all that
bad. But a ten minute talk in Japanese when you haven't prepared
anything at the last minute is terrifying. I instantly went to my
knees and asked Heavenly Father to help me find enough time to prepare
something that would help others feel the spirit as I spoke to them. I
felt an overwhelming sense of comfort and peace and was able to find a
few minutes to prepare before church started. I gave my talk and even
exceeded the time limit that was given me and everything went
completely fine. It may have been something small but it really just
showed me yet again how much my Father in Heaven cares about me
individually and wants to help me. I love this Gospel and all the
peace and comfort it gives. I'm so thankful for it! I love you all and
hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Sherrill

シェリル長老より
日本福音伝道部