An amazing week - and technology in Japan

28 January 2014

Last week was an amazing week. It was our first week actually succeeding in the power of ten that President Wada expects of us. And we ended up meeting a lot of good people. We met two people who asked us if they could come to church. One is this little old lady. She used to live in America and joined a Baptist church because she loved the Hymns. She really wants to come to a sacrament meeting so she can hear some hymns. We also met a younger man on a run. He lived in Canada and attended a Catholic mass that he really enjoyed. After seeing our name tags he asked if we held a mass, we told him we have sacrament meeting at 11:30. He seems really excited to come. We also set up a lot of lessons for this week. We have 7 lessons this week. That’s actually a really high number. I think I may have had 7 lessons total my last transfer. I’m fairly excited for this week we have a lot of good things going on. 

A couple of weeks ago we met a really nice guy. His name is Tomonori. Tomonori works as a chemist and when we first met him he said he didn’t have any knowledge or interest in religion. We invited him to a tour of the church and told him if he still had no interest we would let him go. He had a church tour, we scheduled an appointment for him to take the first lesson. He took the first lesson, we scheduled an appointment for him to take a second. The thing I love about Tomonori is that he takes Christ’s invitation of  “Come and see.” Each time we meet with him all we really do is give him the option to “Come and see” and each time after he wants to meet with us again. He has the mentality that he can’t say no till he’s tried it. We really love the guy just because he is so open to at least try.

Question:

1. How are you using technology to do your missionary work?

    I’m actually not going to answer this question. We have a really big change coming this week that I think will answer this question better. So you can read about it in my next email :D

2. What kinds of devices to Japanese people use most?

    Probably Cell Phones. Most people always have that in hand, and a lot of people wear them around their necks.

3. Have you seen anything that was different than what you've seen in the US?

    In terms of technology not really. You see a lot more grown men with Nintendo DSs but that is fairly normal. And a lot of then use them as Blackberries or Planners as well.

4. In comparison to Americans, do Japanese people seem more or less connected to their personal devices?

    Much more connected. Most people always have their phones in hand. Not using them 24/7, but always in hand. 

5. In terms of technology, have you seen anything that surprised you? 

    I’m not sure this is true. But apparently there is an app that they have here that they can use for their metro pass (the tap on and off thing) You see a lot of people taping their smart phones to get in and out of the metro. I thought they just put the pass inside of the case. But I have had a lot of Missionaries insist that there’s an app that allows it.