Letter from Matlock – 5 October 2010

Dear (Family in Japanese characters),
Wow, what a week.  Ok, so…
We had a lesson planned with an investigator so we were trying to figure out what to teach him.  Last time we taught all of lesson 2, the plan of salvation so naturally we figured we would move on to lesson 3, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and ask him if he would like to get baptized.  Well – while we were planning for that we were having the hardest time figuring out how to teach this.  And lesson 3 is not complicated – it’s already planned out!  Yet we could not for the life of us figure out how to do it even with the lesson plan opened right in front of us.  It was in every sense of the word a stupor of thought.  I’ve never felt at such a loss before.  At this point we decided that we need to completely rethink this.  So we do some thinking, pondering, discussing, confirmed our conclusions through prayer and ended up re-teaching some of lesson 1.  Mainly Joseph Smith and the power of the Book of Mormon in peoples lives.  We realized that you probably need a strong grounding on the Book of Moron before being baptized. Ok, definitely need it.  Boy, what would we do without the spirit?  I’m telling you, I’d already have come back home if it wasn’t for the spirit.
The next day we go straight from the apartment to eat sushi with a member from my companion’s old ward.  He gave us each a Ute’s (University of Utah) hat from his trip to America.  I thought it was fantastic and absolutely cannot wait to wear it around BYU campus!
After that we tried to find some people who expressed interest in the gospel earlier, but the apartment we thought it was, was someone else but he agreed to let us come back.  Then afterwards we went to knock a few doors and the only person we talked to agreed to meet again!
In Sakado, I feel like we had to go finding for hours and hours every week to just get a slim chance of getting two return appointments!  Just incredible!
Then we visited a member who is struggling with a few things and tried to help her, then went out to eat again with a pervious investigator, after that we had some time left so we passed out English class fliers at the train station.  There was a man just standing there and I asked him, well tried to ask him, how you say “vest” in Japanese since he was wearing one.  He shut me down somewhere along the lines of “I’m find I don’t need your religion crap” so I tried to explain  that it was a simple Japanese question.  He answered somewhere along the line he used before.  Extremely rude!  Then, the next wave of people to get off at the stop, were not much nicer!  I was starting to glare back at some people.  I was about ready to pop someone in the jaw!  That was the angriest I’ve been in quite a while.  Then luckily two people saved me.  Two foreigners from Canada and America walked by and we started talking a little bit. Turns out they both have LDS friends and were very supportive and had some good words of encouragement.  Then they hopped on a train and we were about to head back to the apartment but I wanted to get out a few more.  Then I met this high schooler and we talked a little and I ended up giving him a Book of Mormon.  I was exhausted after all of that!  Talk about an emotional roller coaster…
So yesterday we were going to visit a few people before FHE at the church but none of them were home so we had a lot of time to kill.  Neither of us had any idea what to do so we decided to go back to the church to try to figure something out. Hanging on the gate to the church was big plastic bag.  We both thought that was a little odd, so I go over to check it out.  I peek in and there was a kitten inside!  In the rain none the less!  We were completely perplexed!  So we spend most of the rest of the evening taking care of this wet hungry kitten. Then halfway through FHE the woman who left it comes back!  Apparently she found it and then left it on the church gate.  The she grabs the kitten and runs off with it again!  We had no idea what to think!  And I’m still confused….
Well, that’s all for now
(Elder Wyman in Japanese characters)
P.S. I’m really excited for conference but I just found out that it already happened!  Apparently it shows in foreign countries a week late!  I watched a talk by Pres. Monson and thought it was fantastic!  Can’t wait to see the whole thing.