Cool things happening in Yasufuruichi lately!
Ok, so let me start off with a bit of a shocker … in 3 days I will be 6 months into my mission! That’s half a year man, how in the world did that happen?! It’s now this weird place where I see that the past has been ridiculously fast, but at the same time I have a ton of time ahead of me. I've found it's best to try and not think about it at all, but 6 months is just too cool to not mention!
Ok, so Monday we spent most of the day with a less active member who's been coming to church recently! He's American but he's lived in Japan since about 1993. We had a great time together and his sons' basketball team won by like 20 points! It was way cool to see a Basketball game again, but it totally made me want to go out and play again, there just aren't any basketball courts in Japan (at least not any that aren't in a School or you have to pay for). We taught him a bit from Conference for Home Teaching and he looks in a very good position to come back to church for a good long while, even get himself in a position to help his family come back in the future, just at what time, we don't really know at this point.
The other big thing from Monday is that I finally had my first bike accident in Japan. Took me all the way to 3rd transfer, but I felt it would happen when I saw the roads here (I can barely fit my bike on some of the pathways we take). So now I have a big ol' hole in my hand that, even now a week later, is still turning strange colors (I stained like 3 shirts ‘cause it oozed while I was asleep........) I think it looks pretty cool right now, it's in the shape of a wolf (I kid you not, everybody agrees when I tell them) and I think I mainly say that so as to not gross people out too much. It does look kind of grody right now.
Tuesday we had a special training session with the Assistants to the President and President Margetts himself! It was way fun and helped a lot. We had all of the junior companions come together and talk about what is hard about being a Junior Companion and how to fix it, and the Seniors did the same in their meeting. I also got to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen since the MTC! Kwon and Tanaka 長老 (both roomed with Sonntag and me in the MTC for 2 days before they moved out) and Munro is now in my old Zone and I saw a bunch of people, it was way good! (Again I don't have a connection cord for pictures so I can't really send a picture this week... sorry)
Oh yeah, Tuesday we also met this family who used to be investigators. Both of their sons (they’re grown up now) were National BMX champions in Japan several times over and one almost went pro (He tore out half the muscles in his leg during one race which ended his career) and the family has a bunch of old American antiques. Cool place, and lot of neat stuff there.
Wednesday we looked at a local sports center for a Sports activity that we are planning. We saw basketball stuff there, tennis stuff, ping pong, badminton, and (this made me super excited) an Archery range! We're totally going there on the 5th and inviting everyone that we can, I want to teach archery again, AWWWWWWW man it was so good, I want to go so bad now. That's what P-day is for. Also recently I've been learning how to play ping pong (we have ping pong every night before Eikaiwa and we've had a couple of other ping pong activities) so watch out mister Gibson, (you know who you are) we'll see how much longer you can lord ping pong over me!
This week our planning session ended up going a lot longer than previously planned, but we got out most all of little wrinkles in our companionship and had a very good planning session. We talked about goals and becoming who you want to become, always keeping a vision of yourself in your head and doing all you can to become that. Really, goals are just a foretelling of what you will become. The greatest thing about Goals and Becoming, is that there is not an age restriction or limit, anyone can plan and change. Really, that is the reason for life right there; you cannot stay still, you cannot just stay and be content, because there is no staying, you are always changing and becoming. So, our choice is this: will you be in charge of what you become or will you just be a product of your surroundings? Personally I'd like to become what I want to become, to be, as the Army puts is, all that you can be. To do that, you must rely on the Lord and give Him everything. There seems to be a paradox when the Lord teaches, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." It sounds a bit weird at first, save your life and you lose it; lose your life and you'll save it. It can be a hard concept to swallow. It takes guts, it takes gumption, it takes faith, the faith that as you forgo your wants, desires, and own ideas, and replace them with service, study, and the Lord's teachings you will see that you have become something far beyond what you could have ever become on your own. When left to our own devices, it is rare for man to stretch and grow and improve, but with the push/pressure from the Lord to always improve and become, we will be stretched and pushed (those words don't sound very comfortable do they?) and molded into something better, something stronger, someone that can do....anything.
Saturday was super special. We went to the Temple with the ward and saw one of our members receive her Endowments and a couple get sealed for time and all eternity. Everyone came together and participated. The Temple is an amazing place, not to mention that the Fukuoka temple is the exact same layout as the Raleigh one, and it was just awesome to see everyone at the temple together. We even ran into several other elders (including De Jong 長老 who took care of me when I broke my thumb at the MTC) which was awesome. Sadly, we were a week late to see the Tokuyama Elders who decided to visit the Temple with Hiro-kun and the Fujii family and the Kumamoto Elders who happened to visit on that same day (It was weird, both of my previous companions happened to meet up at the temple on the same day with 2 of my former investigators; I'm still not sure how in the world it happened.)
Well, that's about it here in Japan for now. I've been hearing that some crazy things are happening back in the States recently: two recent marriage announcements, (holy cow, congrats Richard and Kayla; Matthew and Leah!), more people heading out on their mission! Bike trips, new babies in the ward, cool things happening back home. It's a bit sad that I'll miss a bunch of it, but it's for a good cause, I think. Hey, if anything else awesome is happening over that direction, send it my way … I'd love to hear from you!
"Give them your love, give them your time"
Go do cool things!
ェべレット長老
Elder Everett
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