Hey,
This week we got reactivated a returning member!!!! Woo!!! I'm glad we're being watched over by the Lord. He truly does show us results when we put our energy in 100%. We've been putting in the work! This past week we saw a huge miracle! We went to visit a Returning member since they came to church the previous Sunday but left right after taking the sacrament so we went to say that we loved seeing her at church and probably end there and go home. When we got to her house, we were surprised to find out that it was her Birthday... too bad we didn't have anything to give--BUT, she was struggling with a couple things and we asked her if she wanted a blessing and she accepted. So, Elder Pauperio and I tried our best to give a blessing of healing with the stuff we knew in English but the entire blessing was done in Japanese so I hope that even though we may had made errors that it counts in heaven... hehe... I bet it does.
We also had our Brazilian Cooking Night this past Wednesday and it was good that we saw 10 people--not including children running around. 3 of which hadn't had a previous encounter with church. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it was a great time. We made Coxinha and Brigadeiro, 2 Brazilian snacks, and they were delicious! The recipe for them is on our English class group page: Go Eigo ミッションスクール 名瀬教室.
Yesterday, boy, I had a busy church block! I gave a talk in church, the lesson, passed the sacrament, and gave another blessing. The talk went well. It was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Last week, our branch president talked to me and asked if I could speak in church and I asked what topic he wanted me to follow. He said "Whatever you would like, would be fine by me. What would you like to talk about?" I thought to myself "Well, let's see, If I orient my message on each individual point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I can maybe get the shinko fire back in their efforts to find as well. Maybe even if there are returning member's there, I could strenghten their testimony to come back. And If it were a non-member, I would be explaining each point so I think they would be able to catch on." So I told him "Gospel of Jesus Christ" and he was fine with that answer and wrote it down to give for the other speaker. Yesterday was really good. I think a strong point that got a lot of people to think was "I know all of you are repenting... do you know why? Because today, you decided to come to church and take the sacrament. That's wonderful on your part and the Lord sees that." I explained a lot more but I think I'll stick to that. The thing I think helped was that the Spirit was testifying through me the entire time.
I also said I gave the lesson in church, well, that went well as well. Everyone participated. Normally, we have 2 or 3 people speak and the rest are zoned out but today, I tried a different style... you see, we usually sit in a circle and read and discuss, but I was wondering: "If I did something active, would that get people to respond?", well, we had a good conversation when it came to how to handle a marriage in the eyes of the Lord but I tried the suggestion in the Come Follow Me to act out Matthew 20:1-16 and that was super fun, and we got into a good conversation on how we should think of the grand scheme of things when we think through the Lord's eyes verses if we think of things in a temporal stance. That was super good!
I also stated that we gave another blessing during church; well, that one, we did in English... which she said would be okay. The power and strength that comes to mind when you are performing a blessing is marvelous. I can just feel the spirit working through me to state what is needed to be said. This week was full of miracles. I can't wait for this next one. It's been a fun one. This transfer has just gone by too quick!
Oh, I almost forgot, last week, on P-day, we went to the closest beach and to get to this beach, was some adventure. We took a 6 minute bike ride until we hit this super steep mountain. It would've been okay but I didn't know how big the mountain was and forgot that Elder Pauperio was fasting. We climbed and climbed and climbed with our bikes and made it to the top. We were determined to get to this beach since we were already half way up the mountain and there was no giving up now. So we kept going up and up. Then, we made it to the top, and as you might as well know, my brakes don't work. I needed new brake pads for my disc brake-ed bike and it was a huge down hill. So, as I'm going down the hill, I'm gripping my breaks with full strength and my bike was just cruising down the hill. Luckily, my back break worked a bit more than my front (Which doesn't work at all--The wheel just runs smoothly even when braked) so that, at least, slowed me down a bit. The view of the beach was worth the trip. Super beautiful. Pictures below.
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