Greetings from The Land of the Rising Sun!
So this week was a roller coaster of a week if I've ever had one! (and it's only my second one here). Monday was nice, we met an investigator who learned English from living in England, so it blew me away when she started speaking and it was with an English accent. I was not expecting such from that face. The Lesson was way good, a bit rough around the edges, but nice. Then after that we worked on
organizing our area so that we can plan our days more effectively and not criss cross the city as much. In doing so we learned that our area is huge (about a hour and a half car ride from one side to the other if you're on the highway, 2.5 through the city) which means that the prospective for biking has exponentially increased....Whether that's good or not is yet to be seen. But this city is great; it's actually in the city of Shunan which is way organized and has many activities going around.
Tuesday we had our first District meeting (for organization's sake, a mission is broken up into areas, the structure goes as such: 2 missionaries work in an area, and 3 or 4 areas make up a district; 3 or 4 districts make up a zone and there are about 10 zones in this Mission [the Japan Fukuoka Mission] Each group has leaders in charge of each division, who help run their district/zone/mission all while
still doing work as a missionary as well). Koyama 長老 is our district's District Leader, so he runs the meetings. He just became the leader so it's a little rough around the edges, but the lesson was way good. Our district is actually 6 people, and Koyama is the only Native Japanese, so he tries his best to go about half and half Japanese/English while teaching. Bless his heart, there are just some things in English that just escape the Japanese, he's super good though. At the meeting I got to meet up with Bushman 長老 (he and I were at the MTC together in the same district) and De La Mare 長老 (He also just came out, he's the group behind mine though) and their companions. We've got an awesome district going here!
Wednesday we got a totally random call from a former investigator asking if he could be taught again. That day that was really all we accomplished, we spent the rest of the time searching but to no avail, a whole day of rejections is a little taxing.... but it was all made up for because that night was Eikaiwa. We've got a good group of 20 or so people there, and I learned that I really need to work on finding good activities to get everyone involved (if you have any good word game ideas or awesome idioms that I can share please let me know [sometimes we play pictionary, guestures, black magic, this thing called Tango Bang Bang golf (to be eplained next time) or telephone and other such games]). Also, I think I just used a triple imbedded parentheses.... but such is the nature of the Japanese language, so I think that it's just me becoming more Japanese! :D
Thursday we had a Ping Pong event for a potential Investigator. Right now she's in her second year of High School (In japan High School is only 3 years) and has participated in a couple of international competitions of Ping Pong! Needless to say, everyone got skunked, but it was quite a sight. I've never seen someone in person who's that exceptional at playing Ping Pong before. I didn't even know you could do half of the stuff she did. We've got a good relationship going now, and soon we might be doing a Bowling Activity (I wonder where they got that idea from? :D)
Friday and Saturday were both a little rough, every appointment fell through so we had to constantly change our plans. Friday was all good because we found a new investigator (18 years old in High School) but other than that it was full of people not being home and really, doing nothing productive. But such was to be expected; it was the last week of Summer break here (summer break is 40 days long and they still have morning school during it). Saturday though, when we went to leave we found that both Koyama 長老's and my bike had gotten flat tires throughout the night. Our plan was to have a 2 hour long bike ride to get to this place in our area, but that didn't happen. When we went to get it fixed (the closest bike shop is about a 40 minute walk, and the first one we went to was closed!) the guy was filling it up and blew out my tire! So now I have a new tire for my bike. And the rest of the day was doing what we could to find someone to teach. But to no avail.
Then came Sunday! So it started off with Church (we leave about 8:20 for meetings and church) and that was aweomse. I finally got to meet everyone in the ward, and afterward we had a potluck! (actually a shokujikai 食事会 but I couldn't quite find the right word to accurately describe it). About 3:00 we finally left, and went and had a lesson with this kid named Watanabe 渡辺. He's 13, and last week we had given him a Book of Mormon and gave his Mother one, as well. When we went to meet up with them again, just the son was there, and we talked to him. We asked him if he had read from the Book of Mormon at all (the pamphlet we had given him was placed about halfway in the book, usually a sure sign that they hadn't even picked it up after we gave it to them) and he was like, "Yeah, a little bit" (but in Japanese) and opened up the book to Alma 9 (more than halfway through the book) and pointed to where he had stopped reading. Blew me away ... in one week after being introduced to the Book of Mormon he had, on his own time during Summer Break, read half of the Book of Mormon! During the lesson that followed we asked him what he thought about baptism. He responded "お願いします" [onegaishimasu] or essentially, "Please do!" So now he's got a planned date for the 24 of next Month!
From taxing days full of rejection,but pushing through, to the awesome efforts of Watanabe, to the broken bikes, and the meeting old friends, this was really a wild week; and I really don't see it slowing down soon, either. This is going to be a wild two years!
I feel like I really hit on something in Eikaiwa the other day when for the spiritual message I shared "When Life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Life will be hard. You are going to have days where you get absolutely nothing done, where it all seems futile, but pushing through, going through all those days and all those 'lemons' - if you add a little bit of sugar, a little bit of pep and happiness in all you do, you get Lemonade. I know it's still Summer back in the States, and what is better after a rough day than a nice cold glass of fresh lemonade? So don't worry too much when life seems dark, dreary, and like it's going nowhere, because just around the bend, if you keep going, is that person, that time, that event that is waiting just for you. So go out and find it.
Go do cool things.
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
So this week was a roller coaster of a week if I've ever had one! (and it's only my second one here). Monday was nice, we met an investigator who learned English from living in England, so it blew me away when she started speaking and it was with an English accent. I was not expecting such from that face. The Lesson was way good, a bit rough around the edges, but nice. Then after that we worked on
organizing our area so that we can plan our days more effectively and not criss cross the city as much. In doing so we learned that our area is huge (about a hour and a half car ride from one side to the other if you're on the highway, 2.5 through the city) which means that the prospective for biking has exponentially increased....Whether that's good or not is yet to be seen. But this city is great; it's actually in the city of Shunan which is way organized and has many activities going around.
Tuesday we had our first District meeting (for organization's sake, a mission is broken up into areas, the structure goes as such: 2 missionaries work in an area, and 3 or 4 areas make up a district; 3 or 4 districts make up a zone and there are about 10 zones in this Mission [the Japan Fukuoka Mission] Each group has leaders in charge of each division, who help run their district/zone/mission all while
still doing work as a missionary as well). Koyama 長老 is our district's District Leader, so he runs the meetings. He just became the leader so it's a little rough around the edges, but the lesson was way good. Our district is actually 6 people, and Koyama is the only Native Japanese, so he tries his best to go about half and half Japanese/English while teaching. Bless his heart, there are just some things in English that just escape the Japanese, he's super good though. At the meeting I got to meet up with Bushman 長老 (he and I were at the MTC together in the same district) and De La Mare 長老 (He also just came out, he's the group behind mine though) and their companions. We've got an awesome district going here!
Wednesday we got a totally random call from a former investigator asking if he could be taught again. That day that was really all we accomplished, we spent the rest of the time searching but to no avail, a whole day of rejections is a little taxing.... but it was all made up for because that night was Eikaiwa. We've got a good group of 20 or so people there, and I learned that I really need to work on finding good activities to get everyone involved (if you have any good word game ideas or awesome idioms that I can share please let me know [sometimes we play pictionary, guestures, black magic, this thing called Tango Bang Bang golf (to be eplained next time) or telephone and other such games]). Also, I think I just used a triple imbedded parentheses.... but such is the nature of the Japanese language, so I think that it's just me becoming more Japanese! :D
Thursday we had a Ping Pong event for a potential Investigator. Right now she's in her second year of High School (In japan High School is only 3 years) and has participated in a couple of international competitions of Ping Pong! Needless to say, everyone got skunked, but it was quite a sight. I've never seen someone in person who's that exceptional at playing Ping Pong before. I didn't even know you could do half of the stuff she did. We've got a good relationship going now, and soon we might be doing a Bowling Activity (I wonder where they got that idea from? :D)
Friday and Saturday were both a little rough, every appointment fell through so we had to constantly change our plans. Friday was all good because we found a new investigator (18 years old in High School) but other than that it was full of people not being home and really, doing nothing productive. But such was to be expected; it was the last week of Summer break here (summer break is 40 days long and they still have morning school during it). Saturday though, when we went to leave we found that both Koyama 長老's and my bike had gotten flat tires throughout the night. Our plan was to have a 2 hour long bike ride to get to this place in our area, but that didn't happen. When we went to get it fixed (the closest bike shop is about a 40 minute walk, and the first one we went to was closed!) the guy was filling it up and blew out my tire! So now I have a new tire for my bike. And the rest of the day was doing what we could to find someone to teach. But to no avail.
Then came Sunday! So it started off with Church (we leave about 8:20 for meetings and church) and that was aweomse. I finally got to meet everyone in the ward, and afterward we had a potluck! (actually a shokujikai 食事会 but I couldn't quite find the right word to accurately describe it). About 3:00 we finally left, and went and had a lesson with this kid named Watanabe 渡辺. He's 13, and last week we had given him a Book of Mormon and gave his Mother one, as well. When we went to meet up with them again, just the son was there, and we talked to him. We asked him if he had read from the Book of Mormon at all (the pamphlet we had given him was placed about halfway in the book, usually a sure sign that they hadn't even picked it up after we gave it to them) and he was like, "Yeah, a little bit" (but in Japanese) and opened up the book to Alma 9 (more than halfway through the book) and pointed to where he had stopped reading. Blew me away ... in one week after being introduced to the Book of Mormon he had, on his own time during Summer Break, read half of the Book of Mormon! During the lesson that followed we asked him what he thought about baptism. He responded "お願いします" [onegaishimasu] or essentially, "Please do!" So now he's got a planned date for the 24 of next Month!
From taxing days full of rejection,but pushing through, to the awesome efforts of Watanabe, to the broken bikes, and the meeting old friends, this was really a wild week; and I really don't see it slowing down soon, either. This is going to be a wild two years!
I feel like I really hit on something in Eikaiwa the other day when for the spiritual message I shared "When Life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Life will be hard. You are going to have days where you get absolutely nothing done, where it all seems futile, but pushing through, going through all those days and all those 'lemons' - if you add a little bit of sugar, a little bit of pep and happiness in all you do, you get Lemonade. I know it's still Summer back in the States, and what is better after a rough day than a nice cold glass of fresh lemonade? So don't worry too much when life seems dark, dreary, and like it's going nowhere, because just around the bend, if you keep going, is that person, that time, that event that is waiting just for you. So go out and find it.
Go do cool things.
エベレット長老
Elder Everett
