Written by Elder Benjamin Stachowski
On March 31st, 2010, I began my service in Japan,
starting in a small branch just south of the mission office known as
Nonami. The area was being reopened
after several months of no missionaries.
It was there that this story takes place.
My first Saturday in the mission field was an interesting
one. Still not having my feet under me,
my trainer took me to Eikaiwa, which for the day was a trip to the neighboring
area of Toyota, because their class was holding a BBQ. Our class was made of an active member,
Brother John, a Filipino, two non-members who only had interest in English, and
finally Morimoto Kyodai. Morimoto Kyodai
had been baptized about a year or so before through the English class, but his
testimony wasn’t particularly strong and he had gone less active. However, he loved and respected the
missionaries.
Back then my Japanese was about as good as every other bean
choro, mainly due to a lack of self confidence and being worried about making
mistakes. Morimoto Kyodai took me and my
companion out to dinner several times, and I basically just sat and
listened. This continued through my next
two transfers as my second companion was Japanese, and the two of them would
talk a lot. However, slowly but surely
we were building a good relationship with him.
He continued to come to Eikaiwa every week without fail, but
we couldn’t get him to come to church more than once a month.
Then the unexpected happened. I was called to become senior
and trainer. Despite being a great
challenge, this opportunity was a marvelous blessing. Without a senior companion to rely on, my
language skills vastly improved, and I was able to better understand what members,
investigators and Morimoto Kyodai were talking about. We began visiting Morimoto Kyodai once every
one to two weeks, helping him with English and sharing gospel messages. He didn’t realize it, but slowly his faith
was building again. He started coming to
church more frequently, attending Sunday School and learning more of the
teachings of Jesus Christ.
My third companion transferred away and I began training a
new missionary. We started to meet with
Morimoto Kyodai once a week, often with the Elder’s Quorum President. As we met, he continued to open up, letting
us know the things which concerned him, and through the Spirit we resolved
these together. By this point Morimoto
Kyodai was coming to church each week again.
As the New Year approached we began teaching about the
Melchizedek Priesthood and the responsibilities and blessing that are with it
and teaching “the oath and covenant of the Priesthood.” Japanese was particularly fun.
I spent almost 10 months working in Nonami. Four companions, one amazing experience of a
lifetime. We finished helping Morimoto
Kyodai prepare for the Melchizedek Priesthood, and a few weeks after I
transferred to other fields of labor, he received the Melchizedek Priesthood. And he is still active today. The Gospel is true.
