Well it was another pretty good week on the island. I am loving this area and am pretty glad I get to finish here.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had an exchange with some of the elders in our district. It ended up being pretty fun. I went over to an area called Miki and had a good time there but we didn't have too much luck finding or teaching anyone. At their english class there was a member(Ami)who had just gotten back from her mission in Sapporo and turns out she knew Brandon. Said he was a way good missionary and was her Zl/DL at some point that he was a ton of fun. Man I swear the church in Japan is tiny.
On Wednesday night we had a lesson with our Yakusokusha Hashimoto and taught him about the Restoration which went really well. He still wants to be baptized and is trying his best to get ready.

Thursday we had another lesson with Hashimoto and taught tithing which went alright but he has some major concerns. He said that he wants to talk to a church member that has a family so he can get some advice on how they are able to support their family and pay tithing at the same time. He has a good relationship with the branch pres. so we are going to set that up for him. He hasn't said he wouldn't follow it yet just that it would be really hard and wants to talk to someone else about it.

We also had a lesson with another Yakusokusha Jindai. He hadn't been keeping any of his commitments and we asked him if he wanted to get baptized. He said no and then asked if he could leave so he ended up being a drop which was kind of disappointing. Hopefully we can help him get that desire and strengthen his faith over the next few weeks.

Friday - So we had one of the most memorable lessons of my mission this day. They have been teaching this guy named Johnny for the last 3 transfers or so maybe a bit longer he is Japanese but really likes English a lot and they always taught him in English. After doing one lesson with him where he refused to come to church and would only read a little out of the BOM I didn't have too great of an impression of him as an investigator. Also his teaching record pretty much says that's what he is like in all the lessons. We planned and decided if he doesn't accept the commitment to be baptized we were going to drop him. Before the lesson we had him read 3 Ne 11 which talks about baptism and the correct way and stuff. We read over it together with him and started talking about priesthood authority and the correct manner of baptism and stuff. He was actually baptized into the Greek orthodox church and has a bit of background there. Anyways, he said that it doesn't matter how you get baptized or by the right authority just as long as we follow christ. I agreed that we need to follow Christ and that its really important that we follow him but that Christ himself said in 3 ne 11 to be baptized by the right authority in the manner he taught. I felt like I had to correct him and not agree with the false doctrine. Yeah, he didn't like it to much... we started into a thing about authority and he said he believes the BOM to be the word of god and that Nephi got the priesthood but wasn't sure about Joseph Smith. We tried to use the logic that if the BOM is true then JS is a prophet but it took forever for him to figure it out. He then said the only way he would get baptized is if he went to SLC and got baptized by the prophet because only he has the authority. We tried to explain that we have it but he wouldn't listen. During all of this he was trying to prove us wrong using the BOM against us but it didn't work out too well for him. After that we explained to him that we couldn't keep meeting because we are too busy but if he would like to learn more he is more than welcome to come on Sundays or Tuesday nights to practice his English. He pretty much exploded on me after that one. Started yelling at me about how rude and unchrist like I was. How he hated my attitude and how I was threatening him with baptism and stuff. He kept on quoting the BOM about how contention is of the devil but he yelled and told me how much he disliked me for about 10 min. We had another appointment so we had to go but he refused to leave the church. He also asked for our mission homes number so he could complain. So we gave him that and opened the door to let him out which he still refused to leave. Finally after getting him out he said that he would be coming back the next week for another lesson and let me know how bad of a person he thought I was. Pretty crazy lesson. I think he was just using us for English and got upset when he lost that chance to practice. Also turns out I get a call from the Mission home this morning and he actually called and complained today. I guess he complained that we stopped meeting him because he didn't want to be baptized and talked about how bad I was. He only would speak in English when he called so they figured he was just using us for our English but called us to see what was going on anyways. We both laughed about it and I guess he even pulled out the scripture on how contention is of the devil and shared it with them while he was complaining about me and saying bad stuff.
Definatley a lesson I won't forget.

Sat. We worked way hard and were able to find 2 new investigators.

Sun - We finished up our lessons with Hosoda. She is pretty much ready to go on the 18th for baptism. Its really going to be great and everyone is really excited for her.
Also found a new investigator and did a few member visits

This next week is going to be pretty busy. We also have Elder Cook of the 12 coming to visit our mission so everyone is pretty excited about it. Should be alot of fun.

Thanks for everything
Love you tons
Cam