Family! This week has been good! We finally had more than just one lesson! I like hearing from other missionaries and all, but sometimes hearing from people whose mission experience is so drastically different from mine (especially regarding success) can be quite frustrating and bothersome when I feel like I am working just as hard if not harder here and seeing much, much less success. I mean in America or places where people have a Christian background it`s extremely different. I can`t walk into someone`s house and talk to them about God and Prophets and the Bible, They don`t know what those things are! The frustrating thing is maintaining the eternal perspective that God has a way, and a place, and a time, for each of his children to hear the gospel. People in Mexico or Europe or America (both North and South) already have a HUGE advantage on many of my investigators because they have a God-fearing Christian background. It`s hard to see the drastic difference in success and not think that God must love Latinos or Americans more than Nihonjin, but it`s not true! God loves us all the same and he wants ALL his children to receive the gospel.
Sorry for the rant on that but yeah, it is frustrating to not have the success that every missionary wants. I`m glad you got my letter with the passport and what not. I had a dream that night that I had to return to America because sending a passport via mail was a felony and I couldn`t get a job anywhere and my life was ruined because Eliza left her passport in my bag... Funny Dream.
I`m really enjoying being here and I feel like I`m progressing as a Japanese Speaker as well as a Missionary and just as a person in general. iPads aren`t needed for missionary work, we were the highest baptizing mission in the Asia North area without any of that. (Hahaha Tokyo who`s top dog now! haha just kidding)
So this week we had a really cool experience teaching EJ. We had talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how it connects everything in this gospel and it is god`s promise to us that through reading and praying about the book of mormon, that god will manifest the truth to us through the holy ghost. He had committed to read it before and hadn`t really read, he was busy with New Year`s and forgot... but this week at our lesson he talked to us about how he prayed to god to let him know if this was all true, and then the first verse he turned to was just like God was speaking directly to him. (mormon 9:27) and he is now scheduled to get baptized on February 16th. It was just a cool reminder to me that this is REAL. It`s not just something we tell people, it is the work of God. Heavenly Father knows us all perfectly, and I know that with all my heart.
We also had a dinner with Miyawaki this week where he talked to us and had questions about keeping the sabbath day holy, and the word of wisdom (as most people here do after they offer us a drink) and he tried to explain to us that he couldn`t believe that there was just one all powerful, all knowing god, and he shared his view that there is a mountain god, and a river god, and a tree god and a fire god (I`d heard all these before) and a KITCHEN GOD?!?!? I don`t think I will ever understand these people. The Japanese for the most part believe in the existence of A god, or gods, but they look for God in his creations, and struggle to understand the concept of a omniscient, omnipotent being with a body. If they only got that, then teaching would be a breeze, and baptisms would skyrocket. But for now we just are doing our best working hard day in and day out. And things seem to work out for our good.
I love and miss you all! Write soon!
Love,
Jonathan, Elder Pace
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