This last week seemed to go pretty well. Umetani San continues to do well, but we're still waiting for permission from her husband. We're working with her to help her gain the strength and courage to ask again for his permission to be baptized.
We're meeting with a new person (I think I mentioned him a little bit ago), a man from Bangaladesh. He follows the Islamic faith, and we had quite a good conversation yesterday. Yes, our religious views are a bit different, but I was surprised by the similarities that we shared. I didn't know too much about Muslims and Islam before, and I'm looking forward to maybe learning a little more. The meeting was great, he's a bit lonely, after being gone from his (wait a minute this sounds like me. . .) family for seven months. He had no problems with listening to our message, and didn't feel like we were trying to force it on him. And that's right, we're not trying to force this message. We're seeking those who will listen, and giving them the chance to choose for themselves whether it's true or not. We might have a bit of difficulty meeting with him though, because Ramadan starts tomorrow (the 18th of August) and goes until the 20th of September, where he'll be fasting until the sun has gone down every day. He said he'd probably be too weak to meet with us (and that was before we had started talking about religion), but he is very congenial, and I think we've made a pretty good friendship with him!
On Friday, we biked A LONG way, to Kakeya Cho (town?) in Unnan Shi (City). It was roughly 30 kilometers one way. . . I guess Kakeya cho isn't too far away from Izumo, but because of the mountains, you have to go ALLLLLL the way around. We went to try and track down a former, open-ended referral from the Area Book. We found his house, but he wasn't home.
On the way back, a had a little drop down on the back wheel of my bike from the ledge we were riding on (messing up the breaks. . .). I had to carry my bike a few hundred meters to a house where we asked for help. Maybe it was meant to be, because the Mother that helped us seemed very kind, and said "Itsuka asobi ni kite kudasai" (roughly please come back to have fun or something like that). She and her father (a grandpa) talked with us a bit, and she asked why we were in Japan, so we got to talk a little about Missionary stuff, but we'll have to see about inviting them to hear our message later.
Thankfully, one of the members in our branch lives in the same Town, and said that there's a considerable short cut that we can take through the mountains, so we won't have to travel so far. We'll see!
So they have Cheetos here in Japan. They're completely different from American Cheetos, but I came to a profundity last night . . . They're called Cheetos because the Mascot is a Cheetah!! I had no idea. . . Shows you how dull I can be at times.
Zone Meeting and President's Interviews are on Friday this week! I'm so excited!
Things are going well!
Elder Peterson
Changing to the Japan Fukuoka Mission
In February of 2010, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints published this statement to let its members know of changes happening in the Mission Field. Paul's mission, the Japan Hiroshima Mission, was one of the missions affected by this change. This is another article about the change to his mission. As of the first of July 2010, he is a part of the Japan Fukuoka Mission.
*As a side note, I stumbled upon Paul's new Mission President's blog where they have pictures of their missionaries. I don't know if there are any pictures of Paul, but I thought it was neat to see his mission from a different perspective!
*As a side note, I stumbled upon Paul's new Mission President's blog where they have pictures of their missionaries. I don't know if there are any pictures of Paul, but I thought it was neat to see his mission from a different perspective!
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"Lord of the Rings" Relates to Missionary Work
J.R.R. Tolkien, in The Fellowship of the Rings, wrote this:"The road must be trod, but it will be very
hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will
carry us far upon it. This quest may be
attempted by the weak with as much hope as
the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds
that move the wheels of the world: Small hands
do them because they must, while the eyes of
the great are elsewhere."
Alma 37:6 -- "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness
in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple
things are great things brought to pass; and small means
in many instances doth confound the wise."
By small and simple efforts, the young missionaries of the
church really can "confound the wise" and help the kingdom
roll forth!
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