The man in the blue house

January 1st, 2018 

Happy New Years everyone!

The beginning of the year seems to be a popular time for changes. Pursuing new goals, becoming a new person, having a new start...

As for me and Ishikawa Shimai - adopting new finding methods.

Ever since coming to Hachinohe, we haven't had much luck with finding new people to teach. On average for every 100 people that we've talked to, only one would listen to our message. Normally that one would not be interested. It's been discouraging, but I've committed myself to not lose hope.

We knew we had to do something different. In a sense, we've become robotic in our finding methods, seeking contact numbers more than actual investigators. We would spend hours housing entire neighborhoods, not really pondering on whether this was where God wanted us to search. We decided we needed to involve Him more in our finding.

With our revised finding method, we didn't knock on every door as usual. Instead we prayed and only went to the places we felt prompted to. We would knock on a couple doors, stop and pray, then move onto another area as the spirit directed. Our contact numbers decreased significantly as we followed this process, but we were able to get past the our introductions and have an actual conversation with more people.

During one experience, Ishikawa Shimai felt prompted to go down a certain street. As we made the turn, an image of a blue house popped into my mind. It wasn't a clear image, but I started scanning the landscape for a blue house. A few minutes after, I looked to my left and saw a cluster of blue roofs. I immediately started heading toward them, my companion following close behind.

The third door we knocked on, an old man answered. We started a conversation with him which eventually led to a discussion on the plan of salvation. He was open with us and talked about how he wanted to see his deceased parents again. When we told him about eternal families, his eyes lit up and he agreed to have the missionaries over again.

As the new year begins let's all make a resolution to place the Lord at the center of our lives. Only then can he direct us in our decisions and help us become who he wants us to be.

Here's to the best year yet!

Church is true.

Love,

Matsuura Shimai

Isaiah 55: 8-9

Everytime we pass by one of these things Ishikawa Shimai makes me take a photo

Celebrating a traditional Japanese New Year at a Ginjya!    

Special shoutout to everyone born in the year of the dog!

Candied strawberries