Monday, November 11, 2013

It's cold - but that's also a good thing.

Konnichiwa!!!!
   Things are still looking sunny in Obihiro, we have great members, I have an awesome companion and great roommates, the only problem is that we don't see the sun much anymore..... Winter is finally here! We haven't got any snow yet, but everyone keeps telling us that there will probably only be a few more weeks until we start seeing snow. It is definitely cold though! I have gone to wearing tights and a sweater everyday to thermals, big jackets, hats, scarves and gloves. Usually the day starts out pretty chilly, but the sun starts to set around 2 in the afternoon. And by 4:30 it's dark. That's the time of the day when it gets most cold. But since we ride our bikes everywhere, it does help to keep me warm. :) And sometimes people feel bad for us being out in the cold so they let us into their house - which happened this week.
   When we were out housing (going door to door asking people if they are interesting in hearing about our message), we met a lady and she asked us if we were cold. So we said that it was a little chilly, but we would be alright. She insisted that we come inside and have some tea so that we could warm up, so we took her up on the offer. She made us some orange flavored tea of some sort and then she asked us why we would be out in the cold knocking on people's doors. We told her that we're missionaries and because we love the gospel so much we want to share it with everyone. We didn't know it before we went into her house, but I guess she is part of a religion called sokogakai (not sure about the spelling). This church is very well known in Japan, and from what I have heard they are very strict and a lot of people in Japan don't like it. And she is a very prominent member of the church. For the next 45 minutes she was telling us all about what her religion believes and how it is different from our religion. She also pointed out that Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are part of that religion. Maybe someone can fact check that for me?? Haha. :) Anyway it was a good conversation, but she was using a lot of religious words that were hard for us to understand. It was a bit of a struggle, but we were able to bear a simple testimony of the restoration of Christ's church again on the earth. She wasn't interested at all, but she said if we wanted to learn more about her religion she would be happy to tell us more. We meet the most interesting people here. :)
   This week we got to meet with the Hungarian family!! We only got to talk to the mom, but she is so interesting. When she was going to school in Hungary, she applied for a scholarship to go and study in Japan since her parents didn't have a lot of money to put her through school in Hungary. She came to Tokyo to study Japanese and law. While in Tokyo she met her first husband and they had a daughter together, her name is Shairy, but sadly they divorced and then she moved to Hokkaido. Here she met her second husband, who is Hungarian. And they had 2 kids together, Emma and Aaron. Sairy is 11, Emma is 1 1/2 and Aaron is 3 months old. They are seriously the cutest kids I have ever seen! They are such a nice family! The mom's name is Agnis and she is so smart. She can speak Hungarian, Japanese, English and German - all fluently! So we usually talk to her in English, which is a little strange, becuase it's not often that I get to speak English with people here. :) She grew up Catholic, but doesn't attend church or anything now. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and how we pray. She really liked that our prayers are more of a conversation with God instead of just something memorized. But when we told her about the Book of Mormon she said that she really wants to study the Bible more before considering reading any other scripture. So please keep her and her family in your prayers!
   That's what's up in Obihiro! Hope you are all doing well! Much love!!
 
Morrison Shimai

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