Hello there!
I guess you are all on a mini isolation of your own right? Well, I'll tell you a little bit about mine:
Tuesday, March 10: tried out a new thing with the Japanese sisters in our district. Basically, we teach them English for 30 minutes, then they help us role play and answer our questions about Japanese. It's funny, so many times I say stuff in Japanese and ask about it, people say, "Oh, that's great. It's correct Japanese. It just doesn't sound native," to which I respond "but that's where I want to get." So now the sisters know what I'm looking for.
Wednesday, March 11: had a mogi lesson early in the morning with a member who is Japanese, but speaks fluent English. Had a mission-wide zoom meeting later with Todd R Budge, who gave us good information about the situation and things we can do to keep working effectively and with focus. Later on, we did mogi stuff with "the District" with our district (I let you guys figure that one out, lol).
*On Wednesdays they can watch an episode of The District as part of their learning/training
After that did mogis (role play) and English with the sisters. They've been giving me some really helpful comments and suggestions and answers to my questions. We made a name for the program, the:
Muryou (japanese for free)
English
Mogi
Exchange
You know what that spells. The Japanese sisters also know, but have no clue what it means.
Their District. Top left (Phillipino & American). Top Right (Elder Ortiz & Elder Brown). Bottom Left (both native Japanese sisters). Bottom Right (American senior couple serving as military relations on the base). Video or phone meetings with the District are now built into their daily schedule. They do their meetings in both Japanese and English. The Japanese sisters don't speak English. And the senior couple does not speak Japanese.
Then, later that night we did a mogi with our zone leaders about the Restoration. Also, on Facebook let everyone in the ward know when we were available the rest of the week for FHE or Come Follow Me studies. Made a flyer for teaching English and talked with Sister Justinianos about it.
Thursday: DKK in the morning. Did another meeting with the sisters. Talked with a member over the phone. Later had FHE with the Justinianos family. Talked about the restoration. The Larsons came over later and brought us frozen pizzas and Mexican chips and stuff.
Friday: lol, today was interesting. I considered messaging Haru, the one person who hasn't responded in a week. Elder Ortiz was adamantly against it because he didn't want her image of missionaries to be desperate people. Finally, we talked to Elder Ortiz's old companion. His line account got deleted, so he had an excuse to message her. He did, and seconds after, she messaged both of us. Long story short, we're gonna teach her English. Also the Larsons brought us turkey and vegetables.
Saturday: had DCS with the Branch President, then watched the new Book of Mormon video during lunch. A nice sister from the ward gave us lots of instant soup which will be great for lunches. The McLaughlins gave us a Pizza Hut meat lovers pizza. We are so spoiled. We were able to share a message with them later about the Restoration.
Sunday: super busy day. And busy is great! Had a lesson with Chen in the morning. He seems to have such a great desire to learn about Jesus Christ and the gospel. He isn't sure if this is true, but we're helping him learn and find out. Later had a meeting with the sisters. Then after that was a mini sacrament meeting with the district. Had an after baptism lesson with a recent convert. Those are much more informal and so much easier than lessons to nonmembers because we can actually go a little more in depth and talk about interesting specifics. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and why we need it and his atonement.
Later, we had an awesome FHE with the Hatfields. They are a super nice family and we talked a lot about the blessings of the Restoration. After the FHE was a lesson with Caleb. He read the Book of Mormon passage we asked him to read last time. So, throughout the entire lesson, I was thinking, "how can we emphasize more how awesome it is that you are keeping commitments?" It really was a great lesson. Can't wait to keep meeting with him.
Hope you all have a great time in your mini isolation period! The trick is to always have food on hand.
愛しています！
Elder Brown
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