no fear

it's every missionary's dream to teach a whole family. whether it's because they can join the church and be sealed for eternity or the less-noble motive of getting more baptisms at once, it's pretty cool when you've got a family to teach. and so when we went through our english class one by one and to see if anyone had any interest in the church, it was a pleasant surprise when mrs. kasuga said that she had been looking for Christian church for her and her family.

and so we started teaching them. their dad was polite but distant, as was their son. but the mom liked us and their 14-year old daughter erika was one of my favorite people i ever knew in japan. after teaching so many crazy people (sometimes literally), it was thrilling to have a nice, normal family. i tried to be so careful and not say anything wrong, because i didn't want to mess this one up.

as we were riding our bikes home one night, i was worried about them. they weren't progressing and, like a lot of things, if you're not moving forward, you're going backward. and that was when i decided to throw caution into the wind. if trying to be safe and afraid to do anything wrong was losing them, then heck with it, i'd do it my way. i stopped being timid. i started asking them to commit.

boldness works.
erika and her mom joined the church a few weeks after i went home.