English Class

The elders and sisters offer free English classes to the community once a week, and we attended our first one on Wednesday evening. We were so impressed, it was great. Elder Loi-on, the district leader, welcomed everyone -- there were probably 25 or so people there, plus about ten missionaries, so it was a good group. He opened with prayer ("Because this is a church") and then divided the group into beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes. Bruce and I stayed in the beginning class because it was by far the largest group. The sisters reviewed a list of words on the whiteboard, practicing pronunciation and definitions. They then went over the vocabulary words for the week, which all had to do with work -- that is, employment. Then the class was divided into three groups and given the assignment to prepare skits. Our group was told: you are co-workers in a part time job, make up a skit about that. And they did! They decided they were English teachers and we three gajins (outsiders or foreigners) were the students -- Bruce, me, and Sister Toshida. They taught us how to count to 10 in English, then asked for $10 in payment! I was impressed with how well they did, how attentive they were and diligent in practicing, taking notes, etc. After the formal class they had a choice to play a game or go to conversation groups, and most stayed for one or the other of those activities.

Elder Loi-on was such an example in sharing the gospel, even in that setting. He invited all the students to come see the General Conference sessions this weekend, and frequently interjected gospel topics into the conversations. Some of these folks are investigators, most are not. The flyer inviting them to English class has information about the church on the flip side, so if people read it, they know they're being invited to learn more about a Christian church, there's no bait and switch here. :-) But if they're not interested in the Church, the missionaries are still so happy to have them come to English class.

We listened to Elder Loi-on diligently try to encourage one man to come to General Conference and bring his family. As the man politely declined to come to one session after another, Elder Loi-on finally took out his iPad and said, "My friend, if you're too busy to come this Saturday or Sunday, it's here on Gospel Library and we can watch it together later," to which the man agreed. Elder Loi-on strikes me as a missionary who remembers why he's here in every setting. It's really a testimony to watch these young elders and sisters do this work.